You Do Not Redeem Technology, Christ Does.

You will hear the pastor say, My tech indeed is strong. So I use it for my work, and the church will tag along.

Hypothetically now.

If technology was or is sinful, then it’s redemption to good works becomes an important ontological debate to have. When it’s effectively neutral, though, waiting to be used for evil or good, then this redemption doesn’t matter, though its need certainly does not disappear. The sinfulness of any given tech behaves like sin even when we call it something else. But when it’s ignored in place of a functional neutrality, then we become the agent of redemption in the world. We redeem tech from what it could be used for by using it for what it can be used for. And that is why church YouTube pages effectively counter the pornographic videos also found online. Or do they? They are ostensibly the same kind of thing. One an online video of sin and the other an online video of righteousness. Why does the righteousness not counter the sin. Why is good not winning against evil. There’s not less porn online now than years prior. But there is more Christian content online now than there was before. Why are these two forms of content, on the same technological platform, not affecting one another. Well they are. The porn is winning, if we’re being honest about what kinds of content are effective online. Both forms of content are behaving how the technology allows. It’s just that one type on content doesn't think it’s sinful and the other knows it is to the point of reveling. Porn does not need to worry that it will accidently lapse into righteousness by showing too little of it’s actor’s bodies. But righteous content does. The second pastors clothing is to tight, it becomes porn to those who would use it as porn, funny how that doesn't work the other way. Salt may loose its saltiness, but pepper is always hot. The medium of the internet is its message. And that message is sinful. You can see this by how many pastors have or had used online porn.

Find me a pastor or church leader who hasn’t tangoed with the stuff. Porn that is. You’ll be hard pressed. And you’ll be harder pressed as time marches on, as the Boomer’s and Boomer adjacent, who aren’t as technologically captured as you, retire. Porn for them was a magazine or VHS tape that they could avoid buying. The techno-savvy clergy of the now, can’t not use the internet. It’s how they do virtually all their ministry that they view as important. From the groups pastor using it for right now media, to the micro celebrity senior pastor using it for branding and content proliferation. The youth pastor needs it for registration forms and video game evangelism. The list goes on and on. And with it, a tacit acknowledgement that even though there is also x-rated content on the internet, it doesn’t matter because there’s Christian content on there as well.

And that’s because they’ve convinced themselves that the technology they use is a neutral thing. And not something, that like ourselves, is sinful. It behaves like the sinful thing. The same way a sinful person would behave. Which has no bearing on the evangelical mind who believes everyone is equal and good, and gets there by means of a neutral way. We do not consider ourselves sinners naturally. Even though it is our nature. That takes conviction. And if there’s one thing evangelicals can all agree on it’s that conviction doesn't exist on the internet. That’s why arguing in the comment section is a fruitless endeavour, right? No one ever got saved because of someone trying to prove them wrong online. We all know that.

So, why do the arguments of sin work so well online then? Why are Christian men, who know that they can’t be convinced of something they don’t believe in or ascribe to, still found behind an incognito browser looking at porn. Porn argues that men should be able to have a sexual experience with every person they see, if that’s the way the swing. Just enter your sexual search terms and you get what gets you off. And Christians, particularly men, have been persuaded by that argument since dialup was a thing. I thought that didn’t work and I thought this place was neutral. Why is it behaving as if it’s not?

Because it’s not.

The sinfulness of the internet allows for righteous use of it the same way righteous people can still get married and have godly sex. Porn needs people to have healthy sex drives in order for it to pervert them. The same way harlots need husbands and thieves need hard earned wages. There is not sin without something to corrupt. And the internet. is just as corrupt as the guns that don’t kill people. You can repeat the NRA mantra all the right wing, live long day. That gun’s don’t kill people, and yet. You will never find a gun that can’t kill a person. A gun that won’t.

Find me an internet you couldn’t use for porn and you will have found the neutral internet. The same way if you found a gun that wouldn’t kill a person. You would have found a gun that is only a tool for shooting. not killing. But these things do no exist. You know this. So what does exist?

The absence of these kinds of things points to a very specific thing in and of itself. Something that despite a desire for good, does evil as if it were reading Romans 7 all the same.

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:19-25 KJV

So what does good technology look like? How do we find it? How does it work?

It works by nailing it to the cross the same way our sins were nailed. and forsaking it because of the love that was demonstrated on that very same cross. It looks like a bible app that knows that if it makes a way to host images on its servers alongside the scriptures it shares online, that sinful images will make their ways onto those servers. So it sacrifices the ability to host those images, the way a righteous man enters heaven without a hand that caused him to sin. (Matt 5:30) The app becomes less popular and less comparatively useable to Pinterest and Instagram. But also becomes Holy.

Once its seen as sinful, technology and it’s users have to contend with what an Almighty God does to sin. And the effects if adopted would radically reimagine what technology use would look like for a modern church. We readily do online church and social media ministry, not because we have any power to redeem the place where envy and apathy have roosted in the modern age, but because like the sin of the technology we use, we are sinners also.

Which is why the most prolifically online ministries, have never been seen by their members where they actually spend the most time on the internet. Where is the salt and light, at or in Pornhub and OnlyFans. Are these not places where gospel of forgiveness from sin is needed most, if not more? And yet these are places where the church has not and likely will never send it’s digital missionaries.

If you do not believe in a Saviour that could one day change the domain name of those sites, because His church brought his gospel to their users, so effectively, that sexual immorality could not even be named among them anymore. Then you don’t actually want to do online ministry, or to use Technology righteously.

You simply want to call something sinful, good. Or for the time being, treat it as neutral.

Word Of Mouth And Other Shades Of Evangelism

The concern is, that if the world begins to consume A.I. generated content, that churches can’t generate their own content on the kind of scale that without A.I. Sora’s pulpit will be much more powerful than the Church of TikTok it reformed from. Because Sora’s pulpit will not have influencers that have to film and edit and upload. Those things cost time and money. Money the church would have to gather to spend. And right now the A.I. pulpit can print the money is uses and we can only tithe it. All that production is done in aggregate. The very second a video is requested, or algorithm’d, all of it is done for us and consummation is all that is left. And I mean that word as dirty as you read it. Because just as Jesus said that lust was where adultery started. So too is the idea of content as mission field that seeds idolatry in your heart.

And it would be ignorant to say this isn’t something the church should be considering, but there is a better way to play a game you’re gonna lose because it’s in the rules that your team loses. AND THAT WAY IS TO NOT PLAY THAT GAME!

In the Movie ‘Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” we’re introduced to what might be the coolest band that never existed. The entire movie is about songs we never hear. One of it’s main characters are a group of faces we never see. There are hints to them all throughout the movie. But we never get to them. That’s because them not being mainstream and available to anyone is the whole damn point. The movie is a bit of a romp, but the message leaks out the medium like light in a basket. Everyone wants to hear “Where’s Fluffy” The fictional indy rock band of your electric sheep's dreams.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;”

1 Peter 2:9 KJV

That word “holy” is an important one because holy things are never common. They are never the mean or median of culture. Holy things are different. So to a holy person, place, or thing, means being different. Drastically so. Where’s Fluffy was a holy band. Not in action or deed, but in separation from that which perverts action and deed in the music industry. In their case, advertisement. They had no billboards, no posters, no suits to taint their sound. Just sound and comradery and the powerful means of reputation. They bet on doing what no one else was doing and being the only band in the music scene that didn’t rely on agents, advertisers, and much of the music industry. And in doing so, could leave little more than hints and rumors as to their next show and pack its seats. No radio commercials, though they did end up there in mention. No social media strategy to speak of at all. In their absence of the music worlds deeds was a presence inside the world of music. They were never trying to be winsome, they were trying to be good. They wanted to be the band that everyone has never heard of because everyone was too busy searching for them. One whose CD’s can’t be bought at stores but have to be bought at their shows. I know they’re fictional, but I've never seen a better example of being in a world and not of it. Or an better description of what cool is. And I was a youth pastor for a while there.

For entirely too long, the wages of winsome third way evangelism has made sure we’re as set apart as split peas in so much soup. And now as the world ramps up it’s neon gods of data and algorithm, the church has a unique chance to be different. We are doing the same song and dance that secularism is doing and insisting that our results are as valid as theirs. But we could be doing what would make us set apart. We could be doing what’s actually cool but instead are gonna do what all the cool kids are doing.

What happens when you have to be at a church to hear anointed preaching? When all the preaching you could search for online becomes invalidated by the kind you can’t. When you have to be at a church to hear amazing worship songs? Or have to attend that church to learn them, because K-Love doesn't have any version to play or have Steven Furtick rework for Elevation.

What happens when you have to do more than rest in the modern trend of “we get to” that has captured the minds and skill sets of the everyman? You hear that phrase among the weakest of actual witnesses. “we get to.” We get to go to church. We get to worship freely, Get to read our bibles. Get to exercise agency.

Will all due respect, the optional flavour of that sentiment has always made my face scowl a bit. You get to worship the all mighty creator of the universe, and the work His very own son did for you on a cross for your salvation. But only if you want. You should be happy you have such options. Rejoice in the agency you’ve pulled from the ether. What happened to every knee bowing (Phil 2:10). Nothing, that’s what. And we can rest in that omnipotence just as as much as the sentiment behind the “we get to” crowd. But unlike them, we might just discover something better than everything else.

For years the comparison between the sermon and the TED talk has been cliche to talk about, however valid. But what if the sermon couldn’t be a TED talk, on account of it never been recorded for online distribution. What if Worship music couldn’t be an industry. What if your bible was something so special it was printed in house and you didn’t have to search Amazon for the perfect customizable printing of it to start your faithful reading of it.

And what if they world can have it’s A.I. generated content in spades, at the cost of losing the church playing that game. What does it look like when the church is apart of that world, and not in it. Ask yourself what any part of a media saturated world looks like when the church sets itself apart from it.

What happens when every single Christian stops using porn? The same thing that would happen if every single Christian stopped using A.I. . The industry would notice the demographic shift and simple but effective marketing techniques would be used to convince that market that what it was abstaining from was good for it. You would be told that so long as the porn is ethically sourced, or made by the couple themselves, it’s kosher, The same way you’ll be told that as long as the A.I. is christian it’s fine. And that as long as we use this A.I. for ministry it is redeemed as much as the smut.

The reason I can draw the conclusions and comparisons I do is because the marketing doesn’t work on everyone. It never does. Some people don’t fall for hype and end up at shows with bands you’ll never hear on Sora, K-love, or any variation there of. They don’t think porn is sexy, because it’s obscene, and hold similar opinions about Music and  A.I. for similar reasons. Correlation is important when it comes to discerning what is holy and what is not. Because if something acts like the bad thing and pursues its markets like the bad thing. It may in fact be bad. Regardless of how popular it is. Which means it is not and can not be holy. Seven A.I. clones of a K-pop band will never make K-pop good music. And at this particular moment in time the church has an opportunity to repent of chasing the next big thing, and return to worship of the best thing. To set itself apart from the culture it can do nothing but war with.

And the easiest way it can do this is to be the kind of thing that can be found in the world but never of it. Nothing would convince a world so enamoured by technology of a transcendent God above it, than a departure from technology as if it were sinful in the first place. But that does require an acknowledgement that all of our technology, as a work of our hands, is never as righteous as we want it to be.

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Isaiah 64:6 KJV

Cellphone Tower VBS Jesus,

 

This picture is a cell phone tower. Cleverly disguised as part of a church. I know. You’ve likely seen them everywhere and ignored them al the same. Even when they bear the cross of your saviour.

And it is exactly because of that subtle but pervasive ignorance, that I bring up to you, you’ve never seen one with a star of David or a Muslim Crescent moon and star, have you? But you have seen these. Seen these enough to know that you didn’t notice crosses were the only thing ever put on these, if not left blank.

Go on. Touch grass as they say. Venture out into the world offline and look for the towers that facilitate the online world. Of any and all accumulation of G’s. 3G, 4G, 5G, who cares? It will not matter. You likely won't find one of these towers near anything but a protestant church, or if near another house of worship, clad in their religious symbols. But every time they are posted on the corner of a Baptist parking lot, they will have a cross on it. For some unknown reason, no one else observes this religious construction practice.

And all I want you to do is ask why?

Why are cellphone towers and large protestant churches seen together like this? Why isn’t the biggest mosque in your town on a similar date with this technology? Why are the ever increasing number of Hindu temples, found with no cell phone tower near by? Even the Catholic’s seem to keep their distance.

Again. Can you bring yourself to ask why? Or maybe a How will suffice.

Do you know how these towers work?

I do.

Part of my testimony involves being in charge of facilities at a large church that had one of these in our building. Not even just on our property. That inside scoop was just business as usually to me when I worked there, until I didn’t, and began to notice what you’re recognizing now. That these don’t exist as religiously clad radio towers, anywhere, but decently sized protestant churches. Our church would bag several thousand dollars a year for utility usages and rental for the tower. Which came came in handy when there was a budget to pad.

And that’s where the rubber hits the radio signal. It does pay to follow the money. A heuristic worth every penny, as it were.

Knowing that these things pay well is one kind of discernment. Extrapolating that a church that seeks that payment is another. These towers go up everywhere they can. Because the function of them demands it. We need wider, faster, more pervasive coverage for our phones. Because we have all but abandoned life in the real world to life of the real world through them. And as such their facilitation is necessary. We’re not going to call it evil, because tech isn’t evil. Postman taught us well. It’s also not good and not neutral, but it can be sinful. Which is why it showed up at protestant churches.

They’re the only ones that deal with actual sins.

Temptation does not need to be present where sinners call evil good. Where a false gods are worshiped or the true God lumped in with other letters in the coexist bumper sticker. Or other lesser idols. But where the cross of Christ means something, there, compromise will mean just as much. You’ll see these towers outside rainbow clad “Churches” that have the same declarations about the role and authority of the Bible as your reformed church does. But for some reason never preach Leviticus 18. The same way you’ve likely never seen many 12 step programs from a mosque.

You won’t find these towers where the temptation to acquiesce for secular tech money would mean anything. Who cares, biblically, if the mosque compromises its message to have better 5G coverage? Anyone not reading 1 Corinthians 1:20 seriously, that’s who. But a church that can know that a Hindu temple and a unitarian church might be seats of worship for something other than Jesus, would need something to cast a long shadow over their orthodoxy, something to cause temptation.

It’s the same temptation you see routinely every, summer, when VBS becomes the solitary vehicle for church growth. And the call for volunteers goes out into the darkness of the seeker sensitive sanctuary. The call will be simple. One for bodies. “We need 100 volunteers to make this year’s VBS program a success.” And it’s an earnest and honest plea for people to get involved, do good work, and serve their church.

But have you ever asked why we don’t run the size of VBS that our church could manage? Why every weekend we only need a handful for people teaching kids about Jesus, and one week a year in the summer we need an army. Well it’s the same reason you want a cell phone tower on your property. Budget. But you have to be willing to follow money and exercise a bit of judgement to see that.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:28-30 KJV

Now this verse is about building the damned tower, not getting paid for it. So bear with me as I point you further back in scripture for financial management in a ministry setting.

“This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.” Exodus 30:13-16 KJV

There is a noticeable difference between extending yourself in faith and extending yourself in ambition. One see’s the ask that ministry provides and sacrificially gives more than they’re able. Knowing that at the end of all days. God covers the tab. The other assumes that spending more than we have is always something God will provide for. That we can ask what ever we want and act like it’s always gonna be ours. That if we want 100 different ministries at our church that money will be there simply because we’re asking for the right kinds of things.

And that would seem good and godly were it not for the rest of the bible we need to hold in tension.

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10 KJV

The reason the children of God had a flat tax of a tithe that everyone could afford but some could afford less, was because we need to be faithful with little before we are tasked with being faithful with much. That leading with asks and demands of much before we are faithful with littles is not the way to a successful kids ministry and VBS program.

But don’t worry, when you need that extra funding for projects you’re over extended by, in the church, there's a cellphone tower that will make up for the lack of tithe in your church. Want to fund a youth group that needs a a couple grand a year in pizza funds and concert fees? No problem. Give us 50 square feet in the corner and we’ll erect a 5G tower that will cover the spread between your faithless congregation. And your desires for a big and influential ministry to the youths. All to the glory of God, too. That’s why there’s a cross on it. Duh.

What you see when you notice one of these cellphone towers with a cross on it is not faith and tech coexisting in harmony. But rather evidence that the church its on or near doesn't do its ministry by faith alone. They do it with tech adjacently also. Because there will be thousands of dollars placed in the coffers for fair use and rentals, that has nothing to do with Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. What you see is a church that does not need to be faithful in little because it has options for much.

It’s not always that. But it’s never not at least that. When a church tithes and invests said tithe money, it’s being faithful with little before it receives much. But every time you see one of these cross clad towers, the church it’s associated with is being paid something that is not a tithe by the tower's owners, for their tower to wear the cross of a Christ they do not serve. And don’t get me wrong. I am all for plundering the Egyptians before worshiping the Lord, but I also know that if not properly discerned, it will only be a replacement of obedience and faithfulness in the pew.

Money is not just a means to exercise spending and value. It is a principle means of worship for the modern Christian. And a church should be warry and jealous of who gets to fund their ministries. Because when the only reason a youth group or VBS or any given ministry exists, is because an entirely secular company funds it, what happens at the ministry is not faithfulness and service, but transaction. It’s not the first time savvy money makers have done this song and dance. But you have to be willing to treat the tech wizards who make the magic of the internet work, like the sorcerers they sometimes are.

“But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.” Acts 8:20-22

Every Verse In The New Testament About Technology

Some of you might know that for the last couple of years I have been working on and off on a survey and commentary of the New Testament. Specifically one with regards to the use of technology as mentioned in the scriptures. Recently my new job has allowed me more free time to work on it. I finished the survey part a few months back and have been cleaning up the comments I've made a bit each day since. As of late October, I copied out the final list of scriptures. Which is what you'll find below. 

I plan on doing the whole Bible eventually and at this point have got through Genesis and the first third of Exodus. In the mean time, as I work out formatting issues and cover designs, Here is the list of verses for you to do your own study with. 

Once I have the entire Bible surveyed and commented on, I plan on getting into the nitty gritty of the Greek and Hebrew along with pairing the total list down to verse that don't just speak about technology, but also speak about it's use, or imply it, or use it to imply or teach about other things. There are plenty of verses noted below that merely let the reader know that technology was mentioned in the scriptures. Such as Matthew 9:1-8 where Jesus uses a boat for what boats are used for, travel. But then others where Jesus uses a boat for what boats aren't for. Namely preaching. Such as in Matthew 13:2, where he uses the boat to preach to a crowd where standing on the shore would have impeded his ability to preach. 

It's these golden nuggets that I'm after. And eventually, I've have enough to really make something special. A biblical theology of technology. But until then, you get a big list of bible verses to sift though with your old pal Mikey. 

Matthew

2:1-6, 3:1-4, 3:5-12, 4:18-20, 4:21-22, 5:13, 5:14-16, 5:17-19, 5:27-28, 5:29-39, 5:40, 6:17-18, 6:19-21, 6:23-25, 6:26-33, 7:1-6, 7:7-8, 7:13-14, 7:15, 7:21-23, 7:24-27, 8:23-27, 9:1-8, 9:9-13, 9:14-17, 9:18-22, 9:23-30, 10:1-10, 10:27, 10:28-31, 10:42, 11:7-11, 7:12-17, 11:18-21, 11:28-30, 12:29, 13:1-9, 13:39-42, 13:45-46, 13:47-50, 13:51-52, 14:13-21, 14:22-33, 14:34-36, 15:10-20, 15:21-28, 15:29-39, 16:5-12, 16:13-19, 17:1-8, 17:24-27, 18:1-6, 7:7-9, 17:18-20, 19:16-22, 16:23-26, 20:17-19, 20:20-28, 21:1-7, 21:8-11, 21:12-13, 21:33-41, 21:42-44, 22:1-14, 22:15-22, 22:41-46, 23:5-7, 23:25-26, 24:18, 24:31, 25:1-13, 25:33, 25:38, 25:43, 25:44, 26:6-13, 26:14-16, 26:23, 26:27, 26:51-52, 27:1-10, 27:26, 27:27-31, 27:37, 28:3,

Mark

1:6-7, 1:16-20, 2:1-12, 2:21-22, 3:9, 3:22-29, 4:1, 4:21-22, 4:24-25, 4:36-41, 5:1-5, 5:15, 5:18, 5:22-34, 5:35-43, 6:7-11, 6:28, 6:42-44, 6:45-46, 6:47-52, 6:53-56, 7:1-23, 8:7-9, 8:10, 8:13, 8:19-20, 9:5-6, 9:38-41, 9:42, 10:37:40, 11:8-9, 11:15-18, 13:14-16, 14:3-9, 14:13, 14:18-20, 14:23-25, 14:43, 14:47, 14:48-50, 14:51-52, 15:15, 15:16-18, 15:19, 15:20, 15:24, 15:25-26, 15:36, 15:37-38, 15:46-47, 16:5,

Luke

1:1-4, 1:63-64, 2:7, 2:12, 3:4-6, 3:9, 3:16-17, 4:17-21, 5:1-3, 5:4-11, 5:17-25, 5:36-39, 6:27-29, 6:41-42, 6:47-49, 7:1-10, 7:25, 7:37-38, 8:16-18, 8:22, 8:27-30, 8:37, 8:43-48, 9:1-5, 9:16-17, 9:61-62, 10:4, 10:13, 10:20, 10:25-28, 11:9-10, 11:33-36, 11:37-39, 12:15, 12:27-28, 13:4-5, 13:23-27, 14:28-30, 15:8-10, 15:22, 17:1-2, 17:7, 17:27-28, 17:31-37, 18:18-27, 18:28-29, 19:33-34, 19:39-40, 20:17-18, 20:19-26, 20:42-44, 20:45-47, 21:1-4, 21:5-6, 22:8-13, 22:17-20, 22:35-38, 22:41-42, 22:49-53, 22:64, 23:34, 23:35-37, 23:38, 23:50-56, 24:1-2, 24:3-4, 24:9, 24:12, 24:22, 24:24,

John

1:1-5, 2:1-11, 2:14-17, 4:6, 5:1-2, 5:8-9, 5:35-36, 5:39, 5:46-47, 6:13, 6:17-23, 7:2, 8:1-11, 9:6-7, 10:1-2, 10:7-9, 11:39-41, 11:44, 12:3-8, 13:4-5, 14:1-2, 18:3, 18:10-11, 18:16-17, 19:1-2, 19:5, 19:13, 19:17, 19:19-22, 19:23-24, 19:28-29, 19:34, 19:39-40, 19:41-42, 20:1-11, 20:26, 21:3, 21:6-8, 21:18, 21:24-25,

Acts

1:20, 2:7-11, 3:2, 3:6, 3:10, 5:1-11, 5:17-20, 7:33, 7:41-43, 7:44-50, 8:18-20, 8:29, 8:30-31, 9:5, 9:15-16, 10:11-15, 11:4-5, 12:1-2, 12:6-7, 12:8, 12:13-16, 12:21-23, 13:14-16, 13:33, 15:20, 15:23, 15:30-31, 16:24, 18:6, 21:2-3, 21:10-11, 21:30, 21:33, 21:40, 26:29-32, 27:1-44, 28:11-12, 28:13, 28:20,

Romans

1:11-15, 3:4, 6:12-13, 9:19-23, 11:9, 15:1-4, 16:22,

1 Corinthians

2:9-10, 3:10-13, 5:3, 5:9, 5:11, 10:16, 10:21-22, 10:23, 11:3-15, 11:25-28, 13:1, 15:52, 16:3, 16:24,

2 Corinthians

1:13-15, 2:3-4, 2:9, 3:1-3, 3:7-8, 3:12-14, 3:18, 5:1-4, 7:8, 7:12, 10:3-4, 10:9-11, 11:25, 11:32-33, 13:1-2, 13:10,

Galatians

6:11,

Ephesians

2:19-22, 5:18-19, 6:10-17,

Philippians

1:27, 3:1, 4:9,

Colossians

2:1-3, 2:4-5, 2:13-14, 4:3, 4:16, 4:17-18,

1 Thessalonians

2:5, 5:1-2, 5:8-9, 

2 Thessalonians

2:15, 3:17,

1 Timothy

6:6-8, 

2 Timothy

2:1-25, 4:13,

Philemon

1:1-25,

Hebrews

1:11-12, 11:13-14, 3:3-4, 4:12, 6:19, 9:1-5, 9:11-12, 10:25, 11:7, 11:21, 11:37-38,

James

1:1, 1:22-25, 2:1-4, 2:14-17, 3:1-6, 5:1-3, 

1 Peter

1:16, 1:18-19, 2:13-16, 3:1-6, 3:7, 5:1-4,

2 Peter

1:14, 2:17, 3:1, 3:15-16,

1 John

1:1-4, 2:1, 2:7-8, 2:13-14, 2:21, 2:26, 5:21,

2 John

1:12-13,

3 John

1:13-14,

Jude

1:6, 1:21-23,

Revelation

1:1-3, 1:4, 1:16, 1:17-18, 1:19-20, 2:1, 2:12, 2:16, 2:27, 3:4-5, 3:6-8, 3:18, 3:20, 3:21, 4:1-11, 5:1-5, 5:6, 5:7-9, 5:11, 5:13, 6:1-2, 6:3-4, 6:5-6, 6:7-8, 6:9-11, 6:12-17, 7:2-8, 7:9, 7:10-11, 7:14, 7:15-17, 8:1, 8:2, 8:3-5, 8:6, 9:1, 9:2, 9:7-10, 9:14, 9:17, 10: 1-2, 10:8-11, 11:1, 11:3-4, 12:1, 12:3-4, 12:5, 13:1-2, 13:6, 13:7-9, 13:10-13, 13:14, 13:15, 13:16-18, 14:1, 14:2, 14:3, 14:10, 14:11, 14:13, 14:14-20, 15:2, 15:5, 15:6, 15:7-8, 16:1-2, 16:3-4, 16:8-11, 16:12, 16:15, 16:17, 17:1, 17:4-5, 17:8, 18:12, 18:17, 18:21-22, 18:23, 19:8-10, 19:11-14, 19:15, 19:16, 19:21, 20:1, 20:4, 20:11, 20:12, 20:15, 21:3, 21:5, 21:12-21, 22:1-4, 22:5, 22:7, 22:9-10, 22:14, 22:18-21, 

If you think I missed one, let me know. I don't bite and would love to make you into a footnote. 

Dad Tax, And The Ghost

It can feel like speaking to a brick wall, which I've been assured by the internet is better for the average man than letting a woman know about my feelings, but here I am, all the same. Blogging into the void.

How many times can a guy let the church on Twitter (Still not calling it X) or Substack, or YouTube, or even Bluesky, (I know right?), that this A.I. stuff shouldn’t be used the way they are using it. It’s like they aren’t listening! But then it comes to me. How would they listen to spiritual things with robot ears.

One of the quiet issues that shows up when you even consider the issue of A.I. replacing in the church what the Holy Ghost does for the church is that upon His replacement, He might be absent from the assembly from that point on. If the latest A.I. tech is used to translate the worship service into 6 different languages, for engagement and stewardship, of course, then He might take His gift of tongues and their interpretation and find another church.

This is only, really a problem for the charismatics in the crowd. But discernment as outsourced to Grok and ChatGPT can find every denominational hamstring there is. You think You’re gonna be the exception to the rule because you’re using the robot the right way alongside your smoke machine and projectors? If the theologian strays too close to the wrong kind of fire and ends up thinking he can disciple the A.I. alongside the flock he’s responsible for, The Holy Spirit might stop giving him things to teach. Though I am certain the theologian in question’s content will still get generated like clockwork.

“And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God.”

1 Chronicles 13:9-10 KJV

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.”

Leviticus 10:1-2 KJV

What these two sections of God’s book tell us is that if you do things the right kind of wrong, you don’t get a second chance on this side of eternity. Worship matters. And the kinds of things we let into our sanctuaries to be called worship will matter also.

You see you don’t get a chance to bring your gift to the altar if you put your hand on the ark before it gets there. And way too many pastors have their hands on the A.I. cart to notice that their headed to exactly this kind of situation. They will shove A.I. into anything they can to get an intellectual edge on “Doing church right” and in doing so, burn what chance they had at stopping before the point of no return. The evangelical mind doesn’t want to square the idea of a God hardening the hearts of a rebellious or disobedient people. Because that might mean they could be that kind of people. A kind that does things wrong.

Remember that the same Pharoah that had his heart hardened had wise men just as capable as Moses in the beginning of all his trouble. And instead of listening to the peers of snake sticks and bloodied water, he waited until there were no more firstborns before letting Gods people go. His magicians did the same things God’s messenger was doing through the power of God. And how did that end up for them? Did they rightly distinguish between the snakes and the sticks or did their hearts harden like their master’s until they were too entrenched in beliefs about their techniques and technologies (Read as secret arts in the NIV). You want to balk at the nomenclature there but exactly how A.I.'s work is as magic would be to the layman for most of you.

If you don’t notice that your technology has replaced what the Holy Spirit did. You may not get the checkpoint and save spot your video game theology has so reliably assured you that you will. You may find your self hardened and wicked as you preach Jesus' name off the back of pagan works. Rebranded as tech savvy and modern by the craftiest of all salesmen of sticks there ever was. And the gifts and fruits which would have been found in you in abundance, discernment, teaching, wisdom, and every form of tongues Google could translate for you, will be missing. And in their stead, snakes that can only serve as food for greater miracles and evidence of works worthy of destruction and curse.

There is a reason the Bible talks about people having ears to hear and the converse. People who have ears to hear but can’t / don’t. If you convince yourself that God’s will is in the black box of A.I., and this is just what modern Christianity looks like. That using tech is a non negotiable, maybe it won’t be negotiated for.

Maybe there are sins that don’t get mediated for.

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Matthew 12:31-32 KVJ

You might wonder what speaking against the Holy Spirit would look like in a context of livestreamed, online, techno-savvy church. But if you didn’t notice it when the dopamine reaction from soft music in a dark room, was all but farmed for engagement and tithe’s, you will not notice it when your air pods start interpreting tongues in His place.

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”

Exodus 34:14 KJV

The Present Need For Theology Punks

I've been vocal about my loss of faith in theological academia. But I wanted to straighten out a misconception before it happens. What I'm not advocating for is anti theological academia. But rather unauthoritative theological academia. Which is a big set of words for a post about punk rock, but stick with me, this mosh pit is fun, I swear.

The new superman flic, which I likely won’t see because I don’t want to be in the target market of that kind of thing, wants you to believe that being kind to people is punk rock. And a chorus of hot-topic posers made Iggy Pop relevant again for his last ditch for 15 minutes via every and any social media content available.

Here’s the thing though, kindness isn’t punk. Opposition to authority is. If you want to get as specific as a named 4th Nirvana song, it’s opposition to invalidated or corrupt authority. The kind that would shut down a skateboarder, not because he’s damaging the stairs he’s jumping down, but because he might hurt himself. We’ll yeah. That’s the point. Phil 1:21. You think we skateboard to be safe? Punks don’t hate cops because they arrest criminals. They hate cops when they don’t arrest criminals. They hate authority when it give a technical hall pass for certain wrongs at the expense of other wrongs. So, it usually adopts those wrongs in protest. And just like that movie and that staircase, the world is need for a smattering of actual theological punks. Not posers in the fashion or capes actively marketing to them. But real, opposition theology for a world turned lame.

When almost every pastor started doing the Eucharist online a few years back. It was ecclesiologically punk rock to give the theological middle finger to “The Man” and get arrested for your faith. It never had anything to do with what virus you might catch. The newly minted online church clutched their pearls like so many Fox news watchers as a handful of pastors got arrested, and at least in my home town/province, got acquitted too. Turns out you can ride your skateboard here. And bastards like acting as if all cops are like that.

Before that, a smattering of churches sought to bring gender equality to the theological skate park. And would have got away with it, if they didn’t actually want gender to stop existing. Under the bland guise of egalitarian betterment, they let women try the pulpit out only to then take every part of what made them women in the first place away from them. Because it’s cool and arguably punk rock when a girl drops into the half pipe, dressed like a girl, makeup’d like a girl and for all intents and purposes acting like a girl. But when when Phoebe, Pricilla, and Junia began showing up in baggy men's clothes, low taper fades and faux hawks, to “skateboard” because their latest fashion accessory had two trucks and four wheels. This didn’t make them Punk, though they looked the part. Because looking punk is easy. Anyone can order band patches and vintage denim online. And nothing is a greater tell of a theological poser than the collection of similar letters, sewn onto the vest of an M.Div. You think you’re books and certificates impress us, or give you the belonging you demand. Do something challenging with your board. A kickflip maybe. Turn things upside down and backwards. Look cool doing it. Preach about the sins a woman could commit. The guys who have low taper fades, baggy clothes and a commentary set or two, would. Right after they point out the sinful posering of their peers. Do you want to actually do ministry or is walking around with the church board enough for your appetites?

And long before all of this, A guy named Marty was willing to take the flack for posting harsh words on a wall. He did it with hammer and nails but I'm guessing spray paint was hard to find in Wittenberg. He didn’t care if he would get in trouble for the words. He cared that they were true. Not just like the E-celeb pastors in his heritage that would end up wearing sneakers for the sneaker heads, and not how they gripped a board during an ollie. No. He tagged the catholic church with red letters that made their dogmatic jaws drop and Bansky’d a reformation out of a church that was indulging itself a bit too much.

In all these things something is happening under the radar of the culture that is trying to get to truth at the cost of the almost true. Calling out those trying to claim authority they don’t or can’t have and those who stole it and should have it removed from their possession and public ascent. Something that recognizes that people can make laws that make no sense, but someone can make laws that can’t be argued with. A no skateboarding sign over perfectly architecture’d concrete, is damn near criminal. But gravity and the laws around it was penned by someone who had real authority. You can vote on one, and only play with the other.

“Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.”

Psalm 104:5 KJV

Somewhere, somehow, the world of theology stopped dealing with gravity and started dealing with the myriad of signs posted to stop punks from enjoying its limits. It saw that people enjoyed the facts that a desire to fly could be snuffed out mid 360 and still land in a place that makes the skater look cool. Anyone with a healthy marriage and a few kids can show you this kind of trick, what it looks like when you land it, and how comparatively lame egalitarian theory can be. It sure holds that board and wears those clothes as if it were meant to. But like all posers it’s missing the requisite landing. One that respects the gravity that restricts but enjoys it all the same.

The need for a theological punk, exists because of how soft the poser can get while stealing punk’s clout. That’s why no one has more effects pedals and nicer guitars then the modern worship pastor. One who has about as much edge as the circular plexiglass cage around his brush wielding drummer. Or a preacher with more books than reasonable time to read them, or be educated by them. Having Sproul and Spurgeon on your shelf only feeds your sheep if you read them. Or better yet, stay calm when your congregation reads them more than you. It’s expensive wallpaper other wise. A credibility bookcase as valid as a second hand patch vest or perfectly clean skateboard. You can tell a skater, skates, by the damage his board shows. And a preacher by the cracks in his library’s spines.

There’s no skin in this game anymore. And as such, no ability to do what skin does. Touch and feel. Modern theology is out of touch with the realities of a sinful world and convinced that what it feels, by itself, is as valid and real as what concrete could make them feel if they drop into the bowl for once. And the punk, knows what the bottom of the bowl feels like. In falling and in the momentum of coming back out of it. What the push and pull of a mosh pit is, and why blocking people you disagree with Christian twitter (Still not calling it X), but will be heavenly roommates with is foolishness. And generally ruins the fun of it.

In all of this, we have tried the theological mainstream.

We have seen the theological poser.

But the desperate and satisfying need of this generations will be the return of the theological punk. To stick it to the man, and his sin, so he might be reconciled to God like a reunion tour of his favourite band. Not the same as it was before, but bettered by the memory of it. It will look like danger and risk to anyone not willing to risk danger. But it will also look like orthodoxy. Moreso than popular culture is capable of mirroring. 

Green Light Districts And The Law And Prophets Of The Internet.

Earlier in the week OpenAI let the congregation know that it’s going to put all the force of it’s due diligence behind the concept of age gating appropriate content from its products. So that children aren’t exposed to or affected by things above their grasps as minors.

Oh, and a green light to “erotic content” just in time for Christmas.

Now some of use saw this coming when the first image generators showed up after the Chatbots. And we noticed because we have danced with similar online demons before. We have a testimony in Christ that involved former devotion to the internets deities. And have spent entirely too much time dealing with the implications of Rule34 of the internet than most of our tech savvy online pastor brethren.

Now, so you don’t go searching for what Rule34 is, I’ll quote it for you.

“If it exists on the internet, there is porn of it on the internet.”

You would think given the trite and abrasive nature of the rule that it must be a farce born of the weird and toxic realms of 4chan or reddit. And you would be right save for the farce bit. This is not a joke. It’s one of the most true things you will encounter on the internet. And it would behoove me to remind you, the internet is where A.I. get’s it’s life blood from. It’s users.

A.I. is not being pitched to Amish famers and African tribesman in Kenya. It’s being pitched to people online. They access it online and they will treat it like an online thing that follows the rules of the internet.  And while it's online it’s only a problem for people who need screens to survive and who do things on those screens. We aren’t actually creating sexual deviancy, we’re creating images and videos of sexual deviancy. Which is a different kind of thing. And only people who have been saved from the sins of online porn will be able to see that.

Because Rule34 used to only exist online. And now it has a narrow but very real way to begin it’s existence in real time and space. No longer tied to the communal communication of the web, it will have agents and operators in the real world. And the same kinds of people making the A.I.'s that are tacitly pornographic, are the people making those agents and robots.

The Optimus robot and Ani, the Grok anime waifu of Twitter (still not calling it X), come from the same place and person. Twitter used to only be a place where 140 characters could be printed in digital ink for all the world to see. Now it’s the discernment and sexual downfall of swaths of men, who didn’t see the trap baiting their appetites, when Elon changed the name to X. And for this moment in time the robots we see are vaguely humanoid and monochrome. Sleek but not sexy. Nobody what’s to have sex with them and they are not being made, sent, or programed to have sex back. They don’t even have those parts. Not that that would stop anyone. But what they do have is an unbreakable connection to the internet that has to be there for them to be functional. And if you don’t know How the internet works. You will not be able to predict what embodiments of the internet will do in the real world.

There is a reason sex sells. It is among our most basic instincts and drives as humans. But it is also the first commandment we were ever given. Something even sin did not take away from us when our first parents fell from grace.

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Genesis 1:28 KJV

When you look at every piece of tech like a quasi neutral tool that requires human input to be good or evil. You can find yourself in places where you have no category for dealing with the evil found in those places. If sex can sell just about everything, then you should be highly suspicious of anything not trying to use sex to sell it. There are moral and ethical ways to own a muscle car that a car dealership would use tits as advertisements for. But the robots that took away the non sexual aspects of driving, by giving you autopilot, are now aiming for the home. What does a man have when he holds the wheel and the gear shifter, over the car whose movements are entirely under his control.

The word you’re looking for is “dominion” and it is exercised over beasts of the field, horses, and 5 speed Mustangs all the same.

What does the Tesla model Y driver exercise when the autopilot does the same thing? The word you’re looking for here will just make you blush a bit, I imagine. Because it’s the same kind of word that would be needed to let the same kind of robotic oversight into the home.

A robot to do the dishes, fold the laundry and mind the children has a very specific gender it replaces. And so does the robot that stands watchful over the house a night, changes the oil in the model Y, and file the taxes. When you put the humans together that used to do those things without competition, what do you get? Well, usually babies. What will you get when the robots who replaced those gendered roles get together? Likely, a wife happy with her programable robot husband and a husband happy with his customizable robot wife.

There is no need to have robots in the home unless you needed a way to stop babies from entering the same homes. That’s where this is headed. As sure as pictures of any given movie star could be faked into porn via OpenAI’s Sora once the guardrails come off. The only reason you want less children in the home, is because what children are, every single one, every time they are born is one more soul that worships God.

These robots amount to exactly what porn is. Sex with no children on a long enough timeline. Because every role we task them with that would have been a mother’s or father’s will replace a mother and father in due time. Mothers and fathers aren’t just supposed to have sex. They’re commanded to do such. Being fruitful is a distinctly human thing because we can’t copulate with these things that will bear our image. And the purpose of any system is what it does. So when these things start doing all the other things that mothers and fathers do, as if that was an optional part in having sex as commanded, then what exactly is being replaced if not purpose.

Christians do not get to have sex with each other without behavioural righteousness that models their relationships with God. The wife respects and obeys the husband like she would Christ and the husband loves and serves his wife like Christ would the church (Ephesians 5:25-29). But the robot will begin serving the husband like the wife doesn't and vice versa, only because it was allowed into the home as it it were an appliance. It has no obligations to act Christlike or Christian to the human it severs like a spouse. The oversized hockey puck that vacuums the home, devotedly, does not do so to make sure the husband and wife have more time to be fruitful. It does so to turn a profit on the opportunity to model the church’s right and righteous relationship with Christ. And so does, and will, every humanoid robot headed you way.

Perhaps that is why all these androids all look the same. Sleek black, white, and silver bodies. Human proportions and moments perfected ad nauseum.

In order for camouflage to work, everything has to blend in. You would never want something as bright as a red light to stick out. You might get the wrong impression of what goes on inside.