All right, if you have a Bible, 1 Chronicles chapter 12 is where we're gonna be beginning. It is the first Sunday of 2025. And for most churches, either last Sunday or this Sunday, all the typical New Year's sermons will be occurring. I've already heard some of them. Of course, many of them went to Isaiah 43 and God's going to do a new thing type thing, which drives me absolutely crazy. I was listening to one late last night and I was like, this never ends. which makes sense. That's why we've been in Isaiah 40 through 55. Other churches will do a little, maybe not use that passage of scripture, but it's going to be a lot of the, you know, let's make some goals and what are we going to do in the new year and that type of thing. And there's probably positives in it. There's probably negatives in it. You can, everyone has their opinion on those sermons. The main thing I think we can all agree is no matter how great the sermon is put together, no matter how motivational the sermon may be, no matter how passionate the sermon may be, we all know by, you know, middle of January, the end of January, nobody even remembers the sermon that was preached. I think we can all acknowledge that, even if the church outlines some really important steps for people to take in the new year. The reality is it all gets forgotten and in some ways it feels like vanity of vanities. So I was trying to decide, well, what do we do today? What do we do? It's the beginning of a new year. We definitely, we know we have Isaiah 40 through 55 to continue to work on. But I'm like, well, if there's a time to do anything like this, it's probably this Sunday. So a lot of this may ultimately move over to the podcast. I may turn this into kind of like a mini series or maybe an ongoing series that I just continue to add any relevant content throughout all of 2025. But I want to spend all of this hour and the next hour talking about artificial intelligence and what it means for the future of Christianity and for the future of the Church. Because I don't think anyone is even coming close to understanding what is occurring, so I want to talk about it, so that's what we're gonna do for two hours, and then it'll go way further on in the podcast. I've probably got 30, 40 hours of notes, and that's probably not even, that's probably an underestimate. So we will see what we can accomplish, but I wanna begin by looking at a text that is often misused. I'm gonna do my best not to misuse it, but 1 Chronicles chapter 12, verse 32. 1 Chronicles 12, verse 32. You've probably heard this read a million times and used in a lot of different contexts. It's almost used always in a topical sense, and you can see why. But what do we see here? 1 Chronicles 12, 32, of the sons of Issachar, right? Who had understanding of the times. to know what Israel ought to do. When it talks about the sons of Issachar, it speaks of two things about them. What are those two things? Number one, they understood the times. Number two, they knew what Israel ought to do, right? There was two things they did. They were able to look at the times and say, this is what Israel ought to do in relation to these times. Now it has a very specific context, so let's do this before we even begin to do anything else. Let's look at at least the historical context of 1 Chronicles 12.32. I'm gonna look at the broader narrative, and then I'm gonna look at some other, well, we'll just look at more of the broader narrative for the context, all right? The broader narrative for 1 Chronicles 12.32, this verse is part of a list. If you go back to, If you look at 1 Chronicles 12, go back to verse 23. 1 Chronicles 12, 23. And it says, and these are the numbers of the bands that were already armed to the war and came to David a Hebron. See that? And then what does it do starting from the next verse following? Yeah, it begins to list and detail the tribes of Israel who gathered to support David as king after the death of King Saul. Everybody got kind of the context? So it's just listing all these tribes and all these tribes are coming to support whom? David. Everybody got that? All right. The nation was in a period of transition. A transition was occurring. Everybody got that? All right. And uncertainty. Whenever there is transition, there is uncertainty. Can we all agree with that? We can go back through. Let's be fair. If we go back through church history, have there been great periods of transition? We can talk about the apostolic time, moving into the early church, the rise of Roman Catholicism. We can talk about the Protestant Reformation. With transition always comes uncertainty. Saul's reign had ended in disaster. I think we can all agree that it did. and Israel needed a new united leader. I think we can all agree that that's true historically. This chapter celebrates how various tribes came together, each bringing their strengths to support David's rule. We all know the success of a leader is in many cases determined by what? Those who follow, right? Those who follow. They bring their strengths, their ability, what they have to offer, that'll allow. We even know that within a church context, right? The pastor, it's gonna be how the people in the church support it, are doing things, that's going to really determine us so very much. So we see the narratives. Anybody, any question about that context? I think we can understand it. Now when we come to the role of the tribe of Issachar, the sons of Issachar were noted for their wisdom, discernment, and understanding. That's how most people would say, that the sons of Issachar were noted for their wisdom, discernment, and understanding. You want to write those three things down, what were they? Wisdom, discernment, and understanding. Wisdom, discernment, and understanding. But for the most part, that wisdom, discernment, and understanding most likely applied to the political and cultural landscape of that time. That this tribe, that these men of Issachar could look and go, hey, politically, they could discern, they had wisdom, they had understanding of the political and cultural situation at the time. I think that's fair to say, all right? Understanding the times, that phrase, many sermons have been, I think there's an entire ministry called Understanding the Times that is built off this verse. It most likely refers to their ability to interpret the historical moment that was occurring at that time and recognizing that this was the right time for David to become king. They could perceive, hey, look, if we look at this situation, if David is going to become king, it has to be right now. And they could see that, they could discern that. Does that make sense? Their knowledge of what Israel should do highlights their strategic insight and how to navigate this pivotal moment in Israel's history. So they could see politically, culturally, they could see that it was time for David, and they could look at the landscape and go, okay, this is what Israel needs to do right now. So this would be a good group of people to have on your side, especially in that historical context. Everyone okay with that? Alright, so we looked at the broader narrative, we looked at some of the specific role of the tribe of Issachar. I'm going through this quick, I just want to put this all together. So then, we would ask why would Issachar's role have been so important? Well, other tribes contributed military strength. Issachar contributed leadership and discernment. Their wisdom would have helped guide Israel through a time of uncertainty and ensured their alignment with God's plan for David's kingship. So other tribes may have had military strength, the sons of Issachar could in a sense offer Insight. Wisdom. Discernment. Helping and making the right decision. Strategy. And you always need both, especially in this historical context. Can we agree there? Now what did understanding the times mean for Issachar? Most likely it meant political awareness. They recognized the fall of Saul's dynasty and saw that God was establishing David as king. Possibly spiritual discernment. They understood that David's kingship was part of God's covenantal plan for Israel. And possible strategic action. Their wisdom led them to align with David at a crucial moment, preventing further division in Israel. So most likely, they had political awareness, spiritual discernment, and strategic action. Okay, so what can be taken from these men of Israel? Let's read the verse again. 1 Chronicles 12, 32. And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Everybody see that? Yes? So what are some takeaways? Well, Discernment, like the sons of Issachar, the church must be spiritually discerning, understanding the cultural moment and how it aligns or is in conflict with God's purpose. So just like the children of Issachar, just like the men of Issachar, we, the church, needs that kind of discernment. All right? The church and Christians must be spiritually discerning to understand the times in which we live and how it either aligns or is in conflict with God's purpose. We've got to be able to see that. We have to have wisdom and action. Knowledge should lead to action. Understanding the times means knowing how to live faithfully amid change. It's not just we understand the times, we've got to be able to come up with what should we do Next, we have to be able to figure that out. Does that make sense? All right. So, can we then... apply this situation with the children of Issachar, the sons of Issachar, the tribe of Issachar, how can we take what they did and apply it to what we're going to be talking about today, all right? So for the next two hours, we're going to be talking about AI and the future of Christianity and the church. And my thesis is this, Christianity and the church is never going to be the same again. And if you want to leave it to me, and I'll be even more dogmatic, the church is no longer needed. The church is no longer relevant. You should burn all the buildings down. We no longer need it. That's where I'll go so far and say, I know nobody else is going to agree with that, but if you don't see what AI can do, then you're blind. You don't understand the time. What AI can do, there's no point in even having a pulpit. There's no point in me even standing here. There's no point in having a podcast. There's no point in preaching sermons. It's irrelevant. It's finished. It's done. Just go ahead. It's ended. It's over. And if you don't understand that, you've completely not realized what's going on in the world in which you currently live. There's no point anymore. There's no point. Me standing here right now is a waste of everyone's time. And that's the reality, and I'm gonna try to demonstrate that. So how can we apply this? Well, I think 1 Chronicles 12.32 provides at least a principle about discernment and action. And I think we can see that they had discernment and they knew what to do. Can we agree with that? I think this can be applied to the church's approach to AI and other profound societal shifts. Now, I'm not going to be trying to bring in all the other societal shifts because there's a lot going on. I want to just talk about AI because I feel like I can speak about AI far more authoritatively than I could maybe other societal shifts. Now, let's make sure we remember this. The original context was about the sons of Issachar recognizing a pivotal moment in Israel's leadership and how it aligned with God's plan. Can we agree to that? All right? This principle of wise discernment in times of change is relevant to AI. They had discernment during a time of great transition. Can everyone agree with that? We live at the very forefront of a great change. And I don't think anyone in the church is catching on to what is happening. So, I'm going to apply this in a number of different ways, all right? So, number one, if you want to write these down. I went through all of that relatively quick. We need to talk about discernment in the face of technological change. discernment in the face of great change from a technological standpoint, because technology is changing rapidly and dramatically. The sons of Issachar understood the times by recognizing how God's purpose intersected with their current reality. Now, for them, it was a little easier, right? All you really needed to know for the David situation was what? If you were trying to understand the times about David, what did you need to understand? Davidic covenant. If you understood God made a covenant with David, then you're on your way to figuring it out, right? I mean, so many issues back then, if you knew the covenant, you could figure it out. I believe so. Yeah, I mean, because Saul is already dead, and yeah, so. Yeah, right, so I think then we can say that would be a little easier to understand. So how does that apply to artificial intelligence? I want you to hear this. The rise of artificial intelligence represents a major, I'm gonna say cataclysmic societal shift. Everybody got that? The rise of AI represents a major, I'm gonna use cataclysmic just since how shaking it is, societal shift. Some will say it's possible. Some may say potential. I'm just gonna say it's gonna be completely transformative, probably more so than maybe even the printing press or the internet. And both of those had profound impacts on everything. So this is what the church must discern. Is AI a tool that can be used to enhance ministry, or a force that could distract, distort biblical teaching, I'm gonna add another one. Or is AI a tool that's going to make the church completely irrelevant? I believe it makes it completely irrelevant. Well, I mean, everyone's talking about it, but I'm kind of trying to be in front of it is what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to be in front of it. So I believe what we have to consider is AI going to make the church irrelevant. Now, I know how it's going to play out. The older generation is going to be like, no. Oh, we need the church, the church, the church, right? And they're gonna all fight for it, and they're gonna view AI in a suspicious way. They're gonna push back. They're gonna be resistant. But the older generation's gonna be gone, and it's not gonna matter, right? So the older generation is gonna push back and fight it. Who cares? The younger generation's gonna be like, well, they're gone now. And then, well, the future. So what I'm looking to may not be, I don't even think we're gonna make it 10 years. I think 10 years is pushing it as fast as AI is developing, but 10 years from now. Yeah, 10 years from now, I don't, man, give me a break. There's, yeah, that's gonna be a major thing. So we need discernment in the face of technological change, all right? So we could ask some of these questions. How does AI align or conflict with the church's mission to teach and disciple believers? Now, this is where it comes down to. I'm gonna pose a different question. In your minds, what is the purpose of church? What is the church for? Now, remember, we are not Catholics, right? We're not Lutherans, right? We're not Episcopalians, right? In other words, we are what? Just to make sure we classify ourselves, non-sacramental. That's important, right? Because if the church has sacraments, sacraments are visible means of grace. You need those sacraments. And the sacraments belong to whom? The church. You have to come to the church in order to receive the sacrament. You need the sacrament because the sacraments are means of grace. Even if you don't believe them to be salvific, right? They're absolutely essential to forgiveness of sin, spiritual strength, comfort, and all the things they're supposed to supposedly do for you. The minute you're no longer sacramental, that changes the role of the church, right? Because if I'm here to distribute the sacraments, then you're here to receive the Lord's Supper. You're here for that. But if it's not sacramental, Then what, from our non-sacramental perspective coming out of the Reformation, what is the church supposed to be about? Typically, how do we understand it? Okay, well, if you go that direction, that sounds to me something far different than what came out of the Reformation. Well, just, if we're non-sacramental, and we're coming out of the Reformation, what's the purpose of the church? Now, if you go with fellowship and all of that, then you're right, the church is gonna survive. You don't need AI for any of that. You just need to hang out with people and talk about the weather. Okay, now, now that's where the issue is. If the church is about the equipping of saints and the preaching of the word, now that's where the church becomes irrelevant. Now if you want the church where you can hang out with people, talk to people, become friends, hold hands, sing kumbaya, all of that wonderful stuff, the church will live on for infinity. It'll never die! Because people like having friends and meeting people. They like the social aspects. The social aspects will work. But the preaching and teaching, if that's the purpose of the church, burn it down, you don't need the church. AI can do it better. Without fail, it can do it better. There's no question about it. So it really comes down to, we're gonna have to discern, what is the purpose of the church? If you like the fellowship aspect of it, then church is gonna be great for people. And I think that's where church is going to move to. It's already been moving that way. Okay. Okay, now we'll get there. We're gonna get into all of those weeds later. But for now, we're looking at the big picture. So everyone see, if the church is going to be about community, which, oh man, that buzzword. And you can see the church was already moving in this direction, right? If you think about it, way before we got here. I mean, this is so weird for me to watch. In the 80s, what did I hear? The church is biblically illiterate. The church is theologically illiterate. We've got to do something. We've got to do something. Nobody's reading. Nobody's studying. And then it was like, small groups are going to fix it. Small groups are going to fix it. And we have small groups from California to New York and everywhere in between. Did it fix it? No. The church is still biblically illiterate. The church is still theologically illiterate. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We've got to preach. We've got to preach. We've got to preach. After all of that, where are we still today? Church still biblically and theologically illiterate. So nothing we've tried to do to fix it is fixing it. So, but guess what the churches have caused? And you can start seeing it. The churches became more about what? Well, you named all the things right from the beginning. Fellowship, community, meeting people, friendship. So I don't know what all the stuff people, that's what it became. And so then I was like, okay, well, And that's what people want. See, I thought I was under the impression that everyone was upset because Christians were so biblically and theologically illiterate. See, this is where I was stupid. I was like, oh, you're worried about a church, people being biblically and theologically illiterate? Well, just get out of my way. I can fix that. I will have a church where everyone will know Bible, will know theology better than anywhere. I will give them assignments, I'll give them homework, I will work, I will do, I will give them tests, will teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, teach. And here we are. So, I don't even think the people in the church really want what they claim they want. I mean, that's been my experience. Everyone talks a big game until they're in a place where you really do theology. They don't really want it. They want the communal part. So let me make it very clear. If you want community, if you want to hold hands, sing kumbaya, become good friends, do all of that wonderful stuff, the church will never die. You just need to remove the word church and just call it a community center, because that's what it becomes. And if that's what people want, they're gonna be happy. But if you want something else, I think the church becomes irrelevant. So I think it really comes down to what is it going to do? Now, one could argue, can AI be utilized to accomplish the preaching, teaching part, and then everyone else can come sit over here and do all of the community part? I don't know. I don't know if the two can work together. I think the one makes the other irrelevant, but we're gonna have to see. So those are some questions that we should ask. So we talked about number one, discernment in the face of technological changes. We asked some questions. Second, we have to recognize the new reality. that AI creates. We have to recognize the new reality that AI is creating right now as you're sitting here. A new reality exists. And most Christians don't even know the reality exists. They're still living in the 1800s or somewhere. The men tribe of Issachar recognized that Saul's reign had ended and that it was time to support David as king. They didn't cling to the past, but embraced the future under God's leadership. AI isn't, this is very important, I cannot say, I've got to just like pound the pulpit on this. AI is not a temporary trend. It's a technological shift that will reshape how people learn, how people communicate, and how people engage with information. This is going to change everything. I'll just give you some simple ways on how it has changed, right? Okay, so I was in a situation, there was a plumbing problem, and the toilet was doing something people didn't know what to do. I simply went. Took a picture of what it was doing, sent it to AI. AI said, here's the problem. Someone came over. I said, that's the problem. They looked, and they said, that's the problem. The dryer was doing some weird thing. I simply told AI what the dryer was doing, said, it's this the problem. The dryer repairman came in, said, that's the problem. My television was doing something. I took a picture of the message on the screen. AI told me exactly what the problem was. Three separate situations, AI was able to diagnose the problem. it within five to 10 seconds. Didn't need anybody else. Now, I needed someone else maybe to fix it, but it identified the problem. Those are three very real situations that have all occurred within, I don't know, the last six months. Three situations. That's insane. So it's already there, all right? So I want you to hear that again. It's not a trend, it's a shift, and it's gonna reshape how people learn, how people communicate, and how people engage with information. The church, are you ready? Must avoid reacting with fear, which is what many will do. Or nostalgia. Oh, I want the good old days where all we had was a pencil and a piece of paper and we had to drive to the library to get a book. Okay, those days are over. Okay, it's gone. Okay, it's done. And we must instead embrace the reality. We've got to embrace the reality because the reality is the reality. And at the same time, for the church, we have to somehow do this, but we have to anchor ourself to biblical truth. And those may appear to be in conflict at times, especially when it comes to the church, right? Because many are going to say, well, God ordained the church. God ordained the church. God ordained the church, right? That's what you're going to hear. Well, how does that work when you don't no longer need the church? Look, forget me preaching. When I'm sitting there doing the podcast, especially through a good portion of 2024, there's times I'd be in the middle of a broadcast like, why am I even doing this? People can get this information in five seconds. They don't need this stupid podcast. When I'll be preaching in Isaiah 40, I'm like, why am I even preaching? They can have all this information in five seconds. I mean, it's just ridiculous. And not only that, I can take now, especially on Sermon Audio, because they have the transcript, I can download the transcript, upload the transcript to AI, say, please point out all the historical, textual, exegetical, and factual errors in the message. It'll give me a list of everything the pastor got wrong. Within like 10 seconds. And I'll be like, well, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true, that's not true. And almost every sermon there's like multiple errors. Like the Hebrew word didn't mean that, the Greek word didn't mean that, this didn't mean that, that, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Well, if AI has to correct all the errors being preached from pulpits, what's the point of the pulpit? And if you can simply do that while you're sitting in the pew, hey, I'm gonna be today, I'm gonna be preaching on Isaiah 40. Before I get through my introduction, you can already have AI on your device, give you an entire breakdown of Isaiah 40. The historical context, the textual context, the cultural context, all before I can even get done with my introduction. You don't need me, I'm wasting my time. That's the reality. How do we embrace that reality, yet hold on to biblical truth? I don't have the answer, because I think it's going to appear that they're going to be what? And conflict, is it not going to appear that way? It's going to appear that way. And I don't have a good answer, but we're gonna have to recognize the reality. So, discernment in the face of technological change. Second, recognizing the new reality. Now here's some key questions. Will the church adapt its discipleship methods? Will it adapt those methods to account for AI's influence or is it going to resist? What is the church going to do? Resist or say, well, how do we adapt all of our teaching and preaching and discipleship with AI? I think it's going to depend. The older churches are going to resist it and just go, whatever. Okay. And then the younger are going to just be like, I don't need you. I don't need you for anything. and younger have already kind of adopted that. Well, what have we definitely seen? Church attendance all across the United States is doing what? COVID definitely didn't help, right? Okay, but so we already are seeing this, all right? Now, wisdom that leads to action, third concept. The sons of Issachar didn't just understand what was happening, they knew what Israel should do and act decisively, so. Who's going to be one of the sons of Issachar in our current reality and know what we're supposed to do? I don't know. I want to try to figure it out. And there's going to be lots of voices trying to figure out what it's going to do. I've got a news article here in a minute showing you what some are doing, and it's absolutely crazy. But all right, we'll look at that in a minute. But we've got to figure out what to do. Okay, let me state it this way. It's not enough for Christians simply to be aware of AI's potential. The church must respond wisely by equipping believers to use AI responsibly. Now that's a big thing. Is the church's job now going to be, hey guys, I'm gonna show you how to use AI. Is the pastor's job now simply going to be to train people how to use AI? Now my thing is, the minute I train you how to use it, I just as well go home. There's no point in me doing anything. But that's kind of where the church is gonna turn into. It's gonna just be training people on it. And I'm telling you, the church is becoming completely irrelevant here. So that's gonna be a big, That's going to be a big issue. Do we just simply train? What do we do? And then we must respond by wisely equipping believers to use AI responsibly for spiritual growth rather than just a passive consumption or misinformation. So in other words, the argument is we don't, because of this new reality, the church is gonna have to train people how to actually use AI instead of just passively embrace information. Now once we start actively, once we start actively trying to show people how to use it and they're no longer passive Again, I don't know when, at that point, the church becomes completely irrelevant, all right? So, some practical applications. Again, some people say educate church members on how to use AI for sound biblical study. I guess, I don't know. Some would argue, create accountability structures for using AI in sermon prep, ensuring pastors don't rely on AI to replace prayerful engagement with scripture. How are you gonna, what does that even mean? Are you going to monitor? Hey, pastor, how much time have you spent using AI? You've got to spend prayerful engagement with Scripture to prepare your sermons. To me, whenever I hear someone say that, that shows me that person's 170 years old, because they don't understand Christianity. Well, no, because if you think pastors have been prayerfully studying scripture to prepare their sermons, I'm sorry, I don't know what world you're living in, because you lived a lie. Pastors went to their studies, pulled out commentaries, and built their sermons off their favorite commentary. That's what they did. Or they purchased them through, I mean, I did an entire podcast where I purchased a sermon and then I preached the sermon on the podcast and then I went and looked up other sermons and guess what we found? Those other pastors were preaching the sermon word for word as I purchased it. And then famous pastors even came out that they're using subscription services where they tell those services what they want. And you know what those people were doing, who they were paying to put their sermons together? Those people were using AI. And then they were simply using AI to build the sermon. And then they were getting paid like $100 a month to produce sermon. And famous pastors were busted for using those. So, now we're worried about AI? Pastors have been taking other sermons? Give me a break! Because, especially, now if you hold to our theological standard, what do we believe? I can pray all day. Do we believe God is gonna give me a sermon? No! No, it's gonna come from study. And guess how study is done in most every pastor. You learn it. You get commentaries. You look it up and you structure it off. In many cases, you'll take your outline from the commentary. I've said it so many times, I can listen to a sermon going, oh give me a break, that's page 56 of MacArthur. I know that, give me, and I even, way back, I told the story one day when we were getting ready to come here, Becca was small, and we had the television on, it was a church in Sweetwater, Texas, and I was sitting in the other part of the house, and I'm like, What in the world? I'm like, I know this sermon I went, and I looked at the stage presentation. I told Becca, go to the computer, look it up. She looked up the sermon. And I said, now watch. Word for word, the man was preaching the sermon that he'd taken from some other site. And it was word for word. And I was like, that's what preaching is. But guess what? That was in Sweetwater. And guess what? That church was 10 times bigger than we are. And everybody's like, hey man, such a good sermon. He's reading you someone else's sermon. So why are we going to worry about pastors using AI? Give me a break. They've been using everything. Unless you believe God is giving you a message, then yeah. So I don't even understand that. Now, it says we need to facilitate discussions about ethical and theological concerns surrounding AI to foster thoughtful reflection. Now, I do believe we need discussions about AI, and that's why we're doing this now. It's the beginning of a new year. 2025 is gonna be the year of AI. I mean, you just won't be prepared for it. AI's exploding, so. I mean, it's already been there. So, and we'll talk about all the ways you already use AI all the time, whether you know it or not. All right. So, we have to facilitate it and that's what we're doing now. That's why we're having this discussion today. All right. So, I've got a number of other things here. I'll end this with this, okay, or at least this section here. All right. When we come to 1 Chronicles 12.32, let's read it again. 1 Chronicles 12, 32, and the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, right? They understood the times, they knew what Israel's ought to do. The story of these sons of Issachar reminds us that profound cultural changes require spiritual discernment, wisdom, and decisive action. Everybody wanna write that down? The sons of Issachar, they teach us, they remind us that profound cultural change, profound cultural change. Are we not experiencing that right now with AI? Yes, they require, that moment requires spiritual discernment, it requires wisdom, and it requires action. Just as Issachar recognized their historical moment and aligned with God's plan, the church must understand the significance of AI and respond in ways that align with God's purposes. This means using AI as a tool to serve the mission of the church while guarding against its potential to distort the truth or depersonalize spiritual leadership. The church's challenge is not simply to understand the times, but to know what to do to embrace technological advancements in a way that upholds the centrality of biblical truth, quote unquote, Authentic community, some would say. I don't know what that exactly means. And spiritual transformation. So there is where, why we are talking about it, and that's why we are referring to the sons of Issachar, because it fits perfectly, all right? That raises a lot of issues, does it not? So here's what we're going to do. We're just gonna go ahead and press on, and we'll get ready for the next hour when we get there, okay? So any questions about any of that? So what is my thesis? AI is not only gonna potentially change Christianity and the church, I believe, and I'm gonna be, that AI makes the church completely irrelevant. We don't need the church anymore. You can just burn it to the ground, all right? I'm not saying that aligns with biblical truth. I'm saying that that's just the reality. We gotta figure out how to work that reality. Unless your church is sacramental, AI can't fix that, right? Unless you believe the church is here primarily for what? more of social features, community, friendship, holding hands, singing kumbaya, doing all that stuff, right? Then the church functions. If you don't focus on those two things, if you just say the church is the place where you come to learn and hear the word of God, you don't need me, ladies and gentlemen. I cannot compete with AI. AI, all of my years of school, well, put it this way. Well, let's just be honest. From a practical standpoint, all of my schooling, all of my theological training means what to people sitting in the pew? Means absolutely zero, right? So let's just go ahead and get, we can pretend all day. You say, oh no, it's important. It's important until what? Until you disagree. Then it doesn't matter. Now you're smarter than me, right? The minute you disagree with me, you're smarter than me. So, if already the pastor's knowledge is irrelevant, well again, guess what? AI can do better than I can. So, that's where we are. So, but here's what I want to do. I wanna go backwards before we move forward, right? So let's take a journey to kind of some important things, all right? I wanna talk about how God provided illumination and discernment in the past. Then we'll move to the present and then we'll try to figure out the future, all right? Before the completion of scripture, God's guidance was given directly through prophets, apostles, visions, miracles, and direct revelation. Can we agree with that? These were unique circumstances and they were distinct and different from what we have today. I will argue that what they had then, we do not have now. That's a major point of our theology, right? I know other people will disagree with that, but I can prove that their way is wrong, right? Because if God is giving us insight, illuminating us, giving us truth, leading us into truth, then we wouldn't have thousands and thousands of denominations and nobody, we would have complete agreement, right? So God is not doing that. I can prove that God is not doing that. So here's some biblical examples. You ready? All right? If you look at Exodus 3-4, if you want to just flip through it, we're not going to read anything specific. I'm just going to be showing you where I'm making my reference. Moses receives direct revelation from God at the burning bush in this section. He speaks from the burning bush. That's direct revelation. Can everybody agree with that? That's direct revelation. Specific, special revelation. God speaks directly to Moses. Yes? That's Exodus 3-4. If you look at Isaiah 6, we know this. Isaiah's calling involved a direct vision of God's glory. Everybody remember that? Everybody can say amen? And Acts 2, the apostles received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost with signs and wonders. In Acts 10, Peter received a vision to take the gospel to the Gentiles. In Galatians chapter 1 verse 12, Paul stated that the gospel that he preached was received by revelation of Jesus Christ. This shows that in the biblical times, God was speaking directly to people, direct revelation, special revelation, visions, dreams. It was very specific. Once the Bible is complete, we don't have any of that. Don't you, in some ways, I wish we had that. Because if God is speaking directly to Stephen, and speaking directly to Robert, and to Mr. Goodlett, and speaking directly to me, then what would be the outcome? We would all agree. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be the most awesome thing for every church, that God is speaking directly to everyone? Then, well, one, you would be like, you don't really need a pastor, do you? That'd be AI. Can you imagine? That would be the best AI. If God was speaking directly to you, giving you direct revelation, leading you into all truth, helping you understand the scriptures, you would need a pastor. But God obviously then assigned what? Pastors. Why did he assign pastors? Because obviously people are not getting... direct revelation. You would think that would make sense. And then the way it's supposed to be designed is the people were supposed to be submissive to the pastor because the pastor was supposed to have some authority. And what blew that all up? the Protestant Reformation. And then now, well, then everyone knows more than everyone. So at that point, the whole system started falling apart anyway, all right? But those are examples of illumination and discernment that were directly tied to God's supernatural action in history. These moments were necessary because the full revelation of scripture was unfolding. But, so number one, we have how God provided illumination and discernment in the past. Can we agree that it was different? I'd say, I hope we can. I know charismatics would say it's not, but what cracks me up is charismatics say, oh no, God is speaking to me, and then they can't even agree with one another. So, or they make false prophecies and all the rest. All right, so, what happens with a complete revelation once scripture is complete? Once scripture is complete, what do we say? What's the cry of the Reformation? Starts with an S. Sola Scriptura. And what does that mean? Scripture alone. This becomes the thing. So now the church becomes really about what? Helping you understand this, because this is the final authority. That's the way it's supposed to be, right? Can we agree? We got scriptures like 2 Timothy 3. 16 through 17, I'm just gonna read from the translation I have in front of me. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The completion of the Bible marks the transition from direct revelation to reliance on the written word. The scriptures now serve as the sole authority for teaching, rebuking and discerning. The scriptures are supposed to be the sole authority for what? Number one, teaching, rebuking and discerning. The scriptures are supposed to be that, right? And the church is supposed to be the place where you come to be equipped to do that. That's what is supposed to happen. And what can we say? Well, almost everyone says the church has failed to do that. I'll just go from my lifetime, from the 1980s to 2024. Because over and over and over, every study says Christians are biblically illiterate, theologically illiterate, and they can't do it. So then it's like, how come the church can't get the people to do it? I don't know. I've never been able to figure that out. On one hand, it makes a little bit of sense. Like when I was younger, I didn't understand this because I was doing it and I wasn't a pastor. Now after I became a pastor, then it was like, okay, well, these people don't want to be a pastor. They just want to live their life. So they don't really care to do all of that. But that's what makes the Protestant system so hypocritical, right? Because they're like, I don't want to be a pastor. I don't want to be a theologian. I just want to be a Christian. But in our system, You're supposed to be the one discerning whether I'm preaching is true or false, meaning you have to be as knowledgeable or greater in knowledge than I am. See, nobody, Protestants don't want that responsibility, but when will they exercise that? When they disagree, then they'll say, I'm the one that's supposed to be determining what is true or false. Well, how come you haven't been doing all the work that's necessary to be able to do that? You see, the contradictory part is what always drives me crazy about Protestants. They don't want to go home and spend hour after hour reading and studying. They don't want to be reading hermeneutical textbooks. They don't want to be reading systematic theology. They don't want to be doing any of the work. They don't want to be doing the Bible study methods. They don't want to do anything. Because I don't want to be a pastor. Why do I have to do all of this work? Because you're the one who's supposed to be determining with what is preached is true or false. How can you determine with what's preached is true or false when you've got someone preaching to you who's got seven degrees in theology, biblical studies, and... But guess what? You won't do the work, but what will you do? Tell me I'm wrong the second you think I'm wrong. You see how contradictory that is? The whole Protestant system is so broken and is there a way to fix it? There's no going back. There's no going back. But obviously something dramatically changed because now this is supposed to be the authority that everyone is using. Everyone got that? So we have a historical shift. Hey, after the apostolic age, follow the history. After the apostolic age, the church became fully dependent on this. This is what was supposed to happen, right? Before the completion of this, what did you rely on? Direct revelation or apostolic authority? Right? Because the apostles had an authority, right? Now, this is where it gets confusing in church history, right? Because some felt the apostolic authority, what happened to it? Apostolic succession, which led to what? magisterial authority, Pope, and the church now having the authority. So it almost went to, the way it kind of worked is you had kind of this direct revelation, but even in the Bible, God wasn't speaking to everyone, right? Okay, so even in the Bible, you don't have God speaking to every individual. He spoke to certain individuals who then took on a role of Authority. So if we follow the way it went, this stream said, okay, well then that's the way it works. God is going to continue to guide and direct and speak to whom? The church. Now the church maintained the authority. And what were the people supposed to do? Submit to the church. And who then had the authority to interpret the scripture? The church. And the people were to agree with the church, and they couldn't disagree with the church, because if they disagreed with the church, what would the church then do to them? Anathematize. That was that system. The other stream, and the other stream didn't really have a lot of weight for a very long time, ultimately becomes what? God gave us the Bible, he gives us the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit will help me interpret the Bible, and so I now can judge the church. And I can tell whether the church is right or wrong. So you had a fight between the church and the individual. Who won out? The individual. Now, people will say, no, the scriptures went out. The scriptures did not win. The individual won. This is a major, if you want to know a shift in history, you've got to understand that and what led to that shift. A lot of people think it was because of the Bible. No, what was happening within culture at that time. What was the word known for it? I'm waiting for Sarah to answer it. The renaissance? The renaissance gave the rise to humanism, right? And what were some of the basic concepts here? The individual, the mind, reason over the supernatural or over the church, which was perfect time for Luther to do what? Say no to the church. And once he said no to the church, everyone was like, what? We can say no to the church, right? And that's where we got. So we see the cult. I want you to see that shift, right? You have God speaking in all these, as Hebrew says, diverse ways, right? Okay, we see how that all plays out in the Bible. Then we ultimately end up with two streams, the church or the individual. Now everybody said, well, it's the church versus the scriptures. No, it became the church versus the individual. The scriptures kind of get lost in between both, right? Because some felt that the church began to do what? corrupt the scriptures, add to the scriptures, add theology and practices that weren't found in the scriptures, right? That's what some would argue. Purgatory, indulgences, right? Okay, that was some of the issue. Okay, and then others would say, we're going to get back to the scriptures, but then the individual started doing the exact same thing the church did. So then everything kind of becomes lost. That's what happened in history. That was the historical shift. Now, when the church was in power, what did they do? They called for councils, put forth creeds, and did what? Offered anathemas. Remember, we looked at all the councils? You looked at those seven ecumenical councils. What are they filled with? Anathema, anathema, anathema, anathema, anathema, anathema, anathema. Because they felt that they were operating under the idea of apostolic succession, and they had the authority to do so, right? Does that make sense? Now, so what, but when we get further and further, not only, we were already having disagreements during the time of the councils, that's why they were having the councils and offering the anathemas. But then by the time we get to the Protestant Reformation, the dam just blows up, and now you've not only got a fight between the church and the individual, you've got a fight amongst the individuals. So what becomes the historical reality? Contradictions and divisions arose, and it demonstrated what? Human fallibility and interpreting scripture. Humans couldn't obviously figure it out because no one could agree. And what did this demonstrate? Well, if nobody could agree, then God obviously wasn't speaking to all the individuals, or there would be agreement. So now we are left with a Bible where all kinds of problems. Everybody see the historical shift? So we have the church, we have the individual. The Bible's supposed to be somewhere here in the middle of all of this, right? I believe we're about to, the whole reason we're doing this today is we have entered into a new shift. The church, the individual, now what's the third stream? artificial intelligence. We're living through that third shift right now as we speak, and we're out of time. So do we have to see that? So we have some of these, we have differences in human reasoning and tradition. We can agree with, that's true. History has shown us, right? We don't agree in our human reasoning. We don't agree in our traditions, right? We have cultural and linguistic biases. As human beings, do we not have that? We can agree and we have our own biases based off our culture, our language, our own traditions. Oh, and what else do we have as human beings? A sinful nature which affects our judgment and discernment. We're fallible, we're sinful, and we're biased. What are the three things about us? Fallible, sinful, and biased. And we wanna know why we can't come to any agreement on anything in the Bible? That's the reason we can't. Those are three things. That's massively profound. All right, we'll have to stop right there. We'll have to stop right there, and then we'll pick this up in the next hour. So in the first hour, we did a lot. We covered a lot, did we not? We covered a whole lot in one hour. I could have broken it down into smaller segments. What did we do? We went to 1 Chronicles 12.32. For those who just came in, 1 Chronicles 12.32, we looked at the sons of Issachar. Right? And they were able to understand the times and know what Israel should do. We looked at the historical context of everything about them. And what I am making, my thesis that I am making, is we are undergoing right now a profound cultural technological change that's going to have a profound impact on the future of Christianity. And that change is the rise of AI. And I believe that, and I know no one else is going to agree, so you don't need to argue with me, that I believe AI, based on our type of Christianity, we're not sacramental. Right? We're not sacramental. We do not believe in an apostolic succession. Right? So I believe if the church is about the preaching and teaching of God's word, and that's what it's about, it's not about a social club, then I believe AI now makes the church absolutely and totally irrelevant, and there's no point in even having it. Now that's a bold statement. Right? And we'll go on. Now I'm not saying that that's a biblical statement. I'm saying that that's a practical statement. All right? Now, we're gonna have to figure a lot of this out. So we went through a lot of concepts, a lot of the issues, and we started breaking it down. So what I wanted to do is we went back and we looked at how things were before the Bible was completed. how things were after the Bible's completed, the historical breakdown, and now we've added in AI. We're gonna see where this all goes and we'll try to break it down. We'll do that quickly in the next hour. All right, let's pray. Lord God, we come before you this morning. Lord, we are living in a very interesting time. How we understand this change, how we either embrace it, fight it, talk about it, condemn it. We have to make some very important decisions and we need that understanding. Lord, I pray that we will think carefully and logically through this concept and that we as a group of people will have some insight on where things are headed and what it means for all of this. And we ask this in Jesus' name. In God's people said, amen.