AI and the Tower of Babel
Written by David L. Bahnsen |
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Modern technology has always faced a certain Godlike aspiration from some of its more arrogant zealots, as even leading industrialists in the pre-digital era fancied themselves miniature deities on occasion. The AI moment is an odd twist on this Babel-like idolatrous tendency.
The subject of artificial intelligence has become a national obsession in the last year or so. Various questions about what AI will mean for society, the jobs market, and our way of life have become a media craze and an opportunity for great handwringing. Stratospheric stock prices of the companies that serve as the “backbone” of AI have added to the craze. Whether one owns stock in Nvidia or is afraid of what AI will do to one’s job or is a student who wants to know how AI can help write a paper, almost everyone has some skin in the game when it comes to the latest national hype.
In a lot of ways, the AI moment is not entirely new. The digital revolution itself has been years in the making, and many of us have lost count of the examples of “disruption” it has created. From personal computing to the internet to the cloud to now AI, digital technology has made obsolete many jobs and many entire sectors (RIP, typewriters) and has simultaneously created millions upon millions of new jobs. But what is new with AI is the so-called “generative AI” and the machine learning behind it that allows content creation with less human input and more machine capability.
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Works in the Book of James—“Fruits and Evidences of a True and Lively Faith”
James is writing about how true justifying faith leads to sanctification—to good works. He writes that a mere intellectual faith that does not lead to good works is dead (2:17). The question is then, what do good works do? Do they make us right with God? Or do they show that God has justified a person and is now sanctifying that person?
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. — James 2:24
It’s not uncommon to hear some people appeal to James 2:24 in order to argue that God saves people by faith plus works. In particular, some argue against the doctrine of justification by faith alone by appealing to this verse. They tend to pit Paul, who writes that we are justified by faith and not works, against James, who apparently writes that we are justified by faith plus works. This raises the question, who is right? What are we to believe? Are Paul and James actually at odds with each other? No, they are not.
What Are Paul and James Saying about Justification?
Simply put, although they are using the same verb, justification (in Greek it is also the same verb, dikaioō), they are using it differently. Paul is using it in its legal declarative sense, but James is using it in an evidential sense. They are complementing each other, not opposing each other.
Questions concerning Paul and James begin with Paul writing in Romans 3-5 about justification as a declarative act of God grounded in the work of Christ and received by faith. James, on the other hand, is writing about sanctification—the gracious work of God that necessarily follows from justification.
James’ primary concern is that a person who has been justified will have good works that demonstrate their faith. True saving faith—the instrument of justification (e.g., Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8)—necessarily leads to sanctification, and sanctification is evidence of saving faith versus merely a faith that believes in mere knowledge (see James 2:19).
Justification and Sanctification—Two Benefits of Salvation in Christ
In order to help understand how Paul and James complement one another, there are two important terms to define: justification and sanctification.The Westminster Shorter Catechism provides good and concise definitions of each one.
According to Question 33, “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.”
Question 35 defines sanctification as “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”
Notice that the actor in both is God, and both are of free grace (e.g., not our works, but grace—a gift of God). The difference, however, is that justification is God’s “act” and sanctification is God’s “work.” The word act means a single event at a distinct point in time. In the case of justification, it is a single declarative act by God.
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Do You Long for Truth and Meaning in Life? Read Hebrews
Written by Dennis E. Johnson |
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Hebrews presents a realistic but hopeful paradigm to make sense of your daily experience: like the Israelite generation who left Egypt with Moses, your life is a trek through a hostile wilderness, en route to a homeland that transcends this sin-stained earth.A Treasury of Truth and Encouragement
Hebrews is a rich treasury of life-transforming truth and heart-sustaining encouragement. Do you long to know Jesus of Nazareth? Hebrews introduces him as the eternal Son who radiates the glory of God (Hebrews 1:2–3), the royal Messiah whom God calls “God” (Hebrews 1:8), and the Creator of earth and heaven (Hebrews 1:10–12). Hebrews also shows how close this glorious divine Son has come to you, sharing your human flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:9–16), enduring suffering and trials like yours (Hebrews 2:17–18), and empathizing with your weakness to help you in crisis (Hebrews 4:15–16).
Do you long to see why Christians base all their hopes—and risk their lives—on this paradoxical union of divine majesty and human frailty in the person of Jesus? Hebrews reveals the perfection of Jesus as the one and only mediator between God and humanity, who secures our communion with God (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15). God created you for his friendship, but your bad choices have stained you to the core, creating a chasm of estrangement that you cannot cross. The Son came into the world to do God’s will, enduring temptation without sinning and offering his body as the blameless sacrifice that cleanses your conscience and brings you home (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26; 9:14; 10:5–10). This same Son was raised from the dead (Hebrews 13:20), “crowned with glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:9), and enthroned at God’s right hand (Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1). There he lives forever to pray for you (Hebrews 7:24–25).
Drawing on the dominant biblical-theological themes of Hebrews, this addition to the New Testament Theology series explores how Jesus fulfills perfect priesthood as he calls believers to hold fast to him amid persecution.
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“The Shadowy Nature of Theonomy”? A Reply to Batzig
The term theonomy implies nothing more than the application of God’s Law to all of life. It is true that the sundry laws of the Old Testament expired with the state of that people, but the Westminster Confession of Faith clearly teaches that the general equity of the Old Testament law did not expire with the state of Old Testament Israel. This general equity is normative and regulative not only for the church today, but also for the civil magistrate since he is a minister of the same God as the God who rules the church.
In the recent article, The Shadowy Nature of Theonomy (Nov. 22, 2022), Nicolas T. Batzig takes to task that grand old nemesis of post-modern and Reformed churchmen: Theonomy. He draws the conclusion that the judicial laws of the Old Testament are ecclesiocentric rather than theocentric, i.e., that the judicial laws of the Old Covenant are fulfilled in the New Testament Church alone. As a shadow of the future, their application was limited to the church only. The earthy Old Testament laws are spiritualized and solitarily find their home in the ecclesia. This thinking fits well with the radical two-kingdom theology prevalent at Westminster Seminary in California. The assertion is that these Old Testament laws have nothing to do with the realm of the modern civil magistrate today; the church is spiritual and she only becomes soiled when dealing with politics.
However, God’s Kingdom not only includes the church, but also extends beyond the church. The God of the Bible is sovereign and the center of the universe. All of life (including the civil magistrate) is under him and his law, thus the term theocentric.
I know Mr. Batzig’s arguments well since I was once in his camp. I studied at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia (when there was only one) during the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s. I came out of Seminary teaching Mr. Batzig’s views to the churches where I pastored.
Eventually, I concluded that Christ Kingship extends beyond the church into all areas of life. If Christ is not King over all, then he is not King at all. I became a student of Rushdoony, North, Bahnsen, Gentry, and DeMar. I was delivered from my “dogmatic slumber.”
The term theonomy implies nothing more than the application of God’s Law to all of life. It is true that the sundry laws of the Old Testament expired with the state of that people, but the Westminster Confession of Faith clearly teaches that the general equity of the Old Testament law did not expire with the state of Old Testament Israel. This general equity is normative and regulative not only for the church today, but also for the civil magistrate since he is a minister of the same God as the God who rules the church (Rom. 13:4).
Because of this silence of the church, many Christians today are struggling to find a way to push back against what they see as the deterioration of America. Hence, the rise of the conversation about Christian Nationalism. The modern church and her ecclesiocentricity has left a vacuum, and many Christians are looking for something to fill that vacuum. I have spoken against the use of the term Christian Nationalism (see my article on Christian Nationalism – Dump the Term While We Still Can), but I have also spoken for the concept of Christendom and the concept of a Christian Nation (e.g., here, here and here).
The Apostle Paul was an apostle to the church and not to the Empire of Rome. The early church was a persecuted church in embryonic form, and Paul did apply the Old Testament laws to the church (like not muzzling the ox, excommunication, and the necessity of two or three witnesses), and rightly so.
However, just because Paul limited their application to the church in her nascent form does not negate their regulatory purpose in the world outside of the church at other periods in history. The same general equity of these laws also applies to every other institution of life, especially the civil government. The experience of the New Testament church with the civil magistrate is not normative for all ages. Paul’s teaching in Romans 13 is the standard! The civil magistrate is to promote good and mitigate evil. The definition of good and evil is found only in the Bible, and the general equity of the Old Testament judicial laws have much to add to our knowledge of good and evil.
For example, in the Old Testament there was a law that demanded a parapet be put around the roof of a house. There was also a law that a kid shall not be boiled in its mother’s milk. In specificity, these laws are irrelevant to our society today, except where the general equity does apply. The law requiring parapets teaches us to love our neighbors by taking every precaution to preserve their life. My neighbor has a fence around her swimming pool. The boiling-milk law teaches us that mothers are to give life to their children and not death.
Christ told us that when we pray, we should ask that his Kingdom come. His Kingdom is clearly seen by God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. We do not pray that his will be done only in the church today, but rather on the whole earth in every part of life. The Lord’s Prayer is not ecclesiocentric. It is theocentric.
The consequences of ecclesiocentricity have been devastating for our nation and will likely bring a curse upon our children and grandchildren. This is not mere academics, but real life in a real world. Ideas have consequences. When Christians stopped believing in a theocentric world where God’s law reigns supreme in all areas of life, we, de facto, delivered the realm of the civil magistrate (and all other institutions) over to the religion of Neo-Marxism. Our silence to speak to the issues of our society helped create the lawless world in which we live today. Unlike John the Baptist, we failed to confront the king with the law of God. We neglected our duty as prophets.
America has been de-Christianized over the last 50-70 years, and consequently abortion and homosexual marriage are now legal. Men dress like women and dance before our youth. Young children are being groomed into changing their gender by surgical mutilation. Laws (e.g., the Respect for Marriage Act) are presently being promoted to silence all opposition coming from Christians in the public square. This is because what our enemy desires in the end is not toleration but domination.
We are in a war, and ecclesiocentricity is no option for Christians.
Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.
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