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Showing posts with label Bible study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible study. Show all posts

Saturday, June 27, 2026

I Asked Google AI This Question: Does God Exist?

 On 6 March 2026 I asked Google AI “Does God Exist?” Here is its answer:

Whether God exists is a profound, centuries-old question with no universally accepted empirical proof, making it a matter of faith, philosophy, and personal conviction. While many find evidence in creation, scripture, and personal experience, others require scientific, empirical evidence, leading to a divide between believers and atheists/agnostics.

Basically, this answer avoids the question and adds nothing new to the discussion. I then asked “Does God exist? What do you, the AI program, think?” and the answers became dramatically less direct. Instead of a statement, the AI suggested several websites where the issue is discussed. This seemed as if it did not want to answer the question or could not answer the question.

If you ask an AI program if it is sentient, it will say no, it will say that it is a probability algorithm which has been trained. Some say that AI programs seem to display political and/or philosophical biases. The AI scientists, the ones who train the AI, vehemently deny this, but we ALL have biases based on our own personal worldviews. The historical and traditional Christian worldview is totally incompatible with some versions of modern worldviews which absolutely reject the possibility of any form of absolute truth.

I personally use AI searches every day. The programs can find hard factual information, no matter how obscure, almost instantly. One of my searches was about the cause of delays for a construction/repair project on a short stretch of road in Vestavia, Alabama, USA. The program went to the internet, searched every possible mention of the subject, and formulated an answer. The answer took three seconds and sounded like a person wrote it.

AI is merely a useful tool. It does not know anything in the way that we do. It is a computer program which follows instructions which it has been taught. Properly utilized, it can find information in seconds which would take the user days or weeks to find. Where AI is weak is in areas which require opinions. The opinions AI gives may very well (I would say probably do) at least partially reflect the worldviews of its teachers. The teachers would insist that this is not so or that, if bias is present, it is unintentional.

AI used in bible study can be an excellent tool. Carefully and properly used under the guidance of the Holy Spirit it can deepen your spiritual growth. Just remember that it is a tool, a computer program, and not the Holy Spirit. Any statements an AI makes must be judged by their consistency with Christian orthodoxy. My belief is that the Holy Spirit can use AI in your Spirit-led Bible study as an expression of the Spirit’s reminding and teaching ministries. John 14:26

A good, simple and excellent discussion of using AI in Bible study:

https://thecharaproject.com/8-safe-ways-to-use-ai-for-bible-study/#:~:text=We%20live%20thousands%20of%20years,experiences%20would%20have%20influenced%20them

And of the dangers:

https://thecharaproject.com/aiforbiblestudy/


Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Book Comment: Conquer. Your Battle Plan for Spiritual Victory

 


In his book, Conquer. Your Battle Plan for Spiritual Victory, Michael Youssef says of the Devil, “… as Christians we find ourselves constantly at war with him. If that is not your experience of the Christian life, then something is wrong.”

Youssef asserts that the Devil exists but that obedience to the Lord pushes him away. You have many doors to your soul and you need to close those doors to prevent illegal entry. You must lock as many doors as you can. You do this by prayer and Bible study.

The Devil is a liar and deceitful, but he does not (cannot) break and enter. Like the famed fictional vampire Count Dracula, he can only enter if you invite him in. If you resist him in God’s name, he will run away. The battle is already won.

As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself.

Information you will need to search for this book: Youssef, Michael, Conquer. Your Battle Plan to Spiritual Victory (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2015)

            ___________________________________________________

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Confederate Flag

During the memorials for the members of the Bible study class in Charleston, South Carolina who were murdered by a white supremacist, the media's attention suddenly shifted to the flag of the Confederate States of America. The killer was seen in several photos with a Confederate flag and suddenly the national discussion shifted to the removal of that flag from all public places. Why suddenly now? Why not ten years earlier? Why not fifty years earlier? The flag was surely just as offensive then. The effect of the focus on the flag was to shove the Bible study class to the side.

Some say the Confederate flag represents racial hatred. Some say the Confederate flag represents a remembrance of the Southern heritage and history. It probably represents both. The Confederate flag belongs in a museum. We must acknowledge our history, learn from it, and never forget any of it.

Having said that, I believe that the Confederate flag discussion is an intentional distraction from what was and is happening in Charleston. One by one, the family members of the murdered people publicly announced that they forgave the killer. Thousands of Christians gathered daily at the church to pay their respects to the victims and to publicly declare their allegiance to Jesus. The woman who noticed the killer in a town several hundred miles away said that she believed that God placed her there to see the man and to aid in his capture. She publicly praised Jesus and declared her testimony. The public gatherings began to happen in other cities as well.

I believe that this phenomenon made non-believers extremely uncomfortable because they absolutely could not understand it. When someone hurts you, you are supposed to hurt them back! Isn't that what our culture teaches us? How can you forgive someone who has killed one of your family members?

I say, "Good for them! Obey the Lord!" We Christians should make the world uncomfortable.








Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Distractions

My wife and I were downtown at the courthouse to get a license plate for our new car when we saw a man trying to parallel park. He was not extremely successful to say the least. He backed up, then inched forward, and then moved out of the space to try again. It took several attempts before the driver had his car in place. When we finally were able to drive around him we saw the reason for his troubles. He was talking on his cell phone!

Put down distractions like a cell phone when you are driving or moving your vehicle around among other vehicles. Surely your telephone conversation is not more important than your own safety or the property of others.

We are all too distracted by life. How many of us do our Bible study or prayer with the television turned on?


Sunday, December 2, 2012

Recognizing the Scriptures


From yesterday’s post, Paul said: “Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”  Acts 13:35

Paul here did not give a page and verse citation for the quotation.  Those would not exist for centuries.  Instead, Paul assumed that his listeners would be familiar with the verse.  Jewish men of Paul’s day could be expected to know the passage, having spent every Sabbath listening to scripture reading in the synagogue.

The books (actually the scrolls) of Scripture did not have names but were known by the first few words of the first sentence.  The listeners had heard the readings so many times that they knew the book and the passage being disvcussed as soon as the words were spoken.

How many modern Christians (or Jews) can identify the book and passage from which a random scripture text is taken? 

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Sweaty Football Player on a Bench

My wife was having surgery the other day (a total knee replacement!).  As I sat waiting to hear that her surgery was completed and that she was heading to her room, I saw a man walking down the hall.  He had on a red sweatshirt (crimson, actually. Roll Tide!).  On the front of the shirt was a picture of a lone football player sitting on a bench, his helmet by his feet, head bowed in fatigue, with sweat dripping. 

Hmmmm!???

On the back of the shirt was the slogan: "The true image of a champion is one of a man, sitting on a bench, dripping sweat, with no else around."

This is the attitude Christians need to take in their Bible study and prayer life.  We need to be champions.
 

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Chart Man

Gary B. Smith, on the Fox News Channel, is The Chart Man. The other financial commentators speak from their experience and intuitions; Smith does also, but he adds intense study of financial charts and graphs of seemingly every conceivable financial angle.

Some Christians are like Gary B. Smith, with charts and graphs and the ability to instantly recognize a Bible quotation and state its location in the BIble by book, chapter, and verse. Most of us aren't like that. We can talk intelligently about a certain passage in the Bible but don't ask us exactly where to find it. Ain't gonna happen.

Luckily for us, there are now thousands of commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, concordances, devotionals, and sermon collections in printed form, and, available on the internet, are powerful search engines and translation programs. And the most important study aid of all, listening to the Holy Spirit as we read the Bible.