Get Ready For The God-Bot
Dear Foothills Family,
Is the God-Bot on the horizon? Will pastors like me face replacement by a machine?
This week our brother, Trent, will prove the human-touch is still necessary to share God’s Word to stimulate our faith and fill our hearts and minds! I'm grateful for Trent’s excellent contribution in the teaching ministry at Foothills!
The text to study in preparation is Acts 8:26-40.
You've probably been hearing and reading about AI, Artificial Intelligence. I read of an Australian who has programmed robots with artificial intelligence to do evangelism! There is a podcast called "Evangelism Chatbots" that you may want to check out.
Christians have always capitalized on new technology to spread the gospel—the Roman highway system, the printing press, radio, TV, the internet and social media. But, is robotic evangelism going too far?
While technology can be helpful in evangelism, God still desires a human gospel witness to share the gospel with another living person. In studying Acts 8 we see how God called a human servant to go from place to another location so that a particular person could hear and respond to the gospel message.
Acts 8:26-40 can be summarized in this statement:
“God loves to position his people to speak with people God has prepared.”
God has charged us with taking the gospel to our family and neighbors and to our city, state and country and the nations. We see this clearly in Acts 1:8:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
When Philip the man reading Isaiah, he took the initiative and asked him a question in verse 30:
“Do you understand what you're reading?” It’s always a good idea to follow the example of Jesus and ask people questions. This can help us find a bridge of connection to spur an ongoing conversation.
Here are a couple of examples:
- When an atheist asks, “Why is there so much evil in the world?” we could reply, “It's perplexing isn't it? How does atheism account for why terrible things happen?”
- When a classmate declares all religions to be the same, we can smile and ask: “How do you know that?”
- When someone says churches are filled with hypocrites, we can respond this way: “Why don’t you join us and then we'll have one more!”
- When someone sarcastically asks: “So I suppose you think all those sincere followers of other religions are going to hell?” We could respond with, “Do you believe in hell?”
Our sharing of the gospel must start where people are and end with Jesus.
Billy Graham once said, “If the church went back to its main task of preaching the gospel seeing people converted to faith in Christ, it would have far more impact on the social structure of our nation than...any other thing it could possibly do.”
God is sovereign, and works continually in the lives of everyone to awaken them with a hunger to know God's love. The Holy Spirit works in believers to put us in a place and time where we can connect with someone with whom God is already working!
May we be alert to these divine appointments at the relational intersections of life!
I hope you will join Trent and your church family at the 11 a.m. Sabbath Service to expand your knowledge and bask in the Glory of the Lord.
With Love,
Duff and family
