Afleveringen
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Romans:
“The just shall live by faith” (1:17). “God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:17). “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (4:20-21). “we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (5:3-5). “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (8:1). “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace… So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (8:5-8). “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (8:11). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (8:14-17). “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with perseverance” (8:24-25).
“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are” (1:27-28). “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (2:14). “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (3:1-3). “If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness,’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’” (3:18-20). “For all things are yours: whether… the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (3:21-23). “For the form of this world is passing away” (7:31). “But I discipline my body and bring it under subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (9:27). “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (13:12). “Whatever is not of faith is sin” (14:13). “There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, ’The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (15:40-44).
1 Corinthians:
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (1:20). “But their (the children of Israel’s) minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (3:14-18). “we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (4:18). “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked” (5:2-3). “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (5:7). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (5:17). “That though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (8:9). “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when you’re obedience is fulfilled” (10:3-6).
2 Corinthians:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (2:20). “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”(3:2-3). “therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (3:5). “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (3:9). “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (3:13-14). “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (3:29). “Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise, which things are symbolic… so then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.” (4:22, 31). “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (5:1). “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (5:6). “I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (5:16-18). “Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (5:22-25). “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (6:8-9).
Galatians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (1:3-6). “that… the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (1:18-19). “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6). “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (2:10). “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:17-19). “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Eph 3:20). “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ” (4:14-15): so this kind of being “tossed about” and easily led astray or deceived is a trait of children in the faith “you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (4:17-19). “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (4:20-24). “For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord” (5:8-10). “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (6:12-18).
Ephesians:
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (2:12). “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (3:3-9). “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (3:13-14). “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (4:6-7). “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (4:8). “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (4:13). “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (4:19).
Philippians
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (1:15-17). “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (2:6-7). “If then you were raised with Christ. seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:1-3). “you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (3:9-11).
Colossians
“that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:11-12).
2 Thessalonians
“upholding all things by the word of His power” (1:3). “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (2:11). “they could not enter in (to the Promised Land) because of unbelief” (3:19). Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it… for we who have believed do enter that rest” (4:1, 3). “the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (4:2). “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (4:9-11). “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (4:12). “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (4:16). “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:11-12). “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil” (6:13-19). “We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (8:1-2). “For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’” (8:4-5). “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (9:24). “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh” (10:19-20) “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (10:23). “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (10:35-36). “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (11:1). “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (11:3). “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (11:6). "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going… for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (11:8, 10). “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude — innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore” (11:11-12). “But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (11:16). “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:1-2). “now He has promised, saying ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (12:26-29). “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (13:2). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (13:8). “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (13:15).
Hebrews:
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (1:2-8). “For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its lower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits” (1:11). “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (1:17). “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (5:7-8).
James
“though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1:6-9). “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (2:24).
1 Peter
“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (1:3-4). “for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound. you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:5-8). “saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (3:4-7). “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (3:10-13). “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (3:14).
2 Peter
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (2:15-17). “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (3:21-22). “as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (4:17-18). “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (5:4-5). “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (5:14-15).
1 JohnDiscover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
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Today's podcast comes from this blog post, Electromagnetism and the Vital Force.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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As a Fellow at the Cultural Research Center and the Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities at Arizona Christian University, Dr. Adam Rasmussen draws upon his 25 years of experience in Christian education to inspire students to thrive under the Lordship of Christ in all aspects of their lives. With a passion for helping students connect their faith with reason and culture, he guides them to make meaningful and relevant connections that go beyond mere academic study. Dr. Rasmussen is a magna cum laude graduate of Northwestern College, where he earned a BA in history. He also holds an MA in Educational Ministries from Wheaton College, as well as a PhD in Educational Studies with a focus on leadership and administration from the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. His research interests include biblical literacy, educational ministries, and Christian apologetics.
To learn more about Dr Rasmussen or the Cultural Research Center, see culturalresearchcenter.com or arizonachristian.edu
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Derek Mason is the founder and president of Identity In Christ, Inc. and Identity In Christ Media. His ministry has also helped individuals break free from enslavement to pornography, PTSD, schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, severe depression and addictions. One of very few pastors delving deeply into the study and teaching of spiritual warfare today, Derek addresses the very real and dark spiritual forces at work in the world today and employs a Biblically grounded approach that has consistently helped hundreds. He also offers extensive experience in counseling and deliverance to support many in finding lasting freedom and healing. Derek currently serves as an associate pastor at Grace Bible Church in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and as the assistant director of BaseCamp USA.
To learn more about Derek, see idnchrist.com or you can find his book, "Embracing Our Full Victory in Christ," on Amazon here.
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Charlie Lewis is a seasoned businessman, entrepreneur, author and expository teacher of scripture. With over five decades of experience, Charlie has not only built a successful national insurance business who works with more than twenty-five thousand representatives, but has also dedicated his life to sharing the values and principles and the established precedents of faith that have guided him and led to his success. Together with his wife of over 55 years, Fran, Charlie has cultivated a legacy of entrepreneurship that extends to their sons, Zachary and Nicholas, and their families. As an author, Charlie has penned a series of books that provide readers with a practical roadmap to success and fulfillment, grounded in scriptural principles. Charlie’s teachings have been translated into several languages, making his insights accessible to diverse audiences worldwide. Charlie resides in Thomasville, GA.
To learn more about Charlie or to get his books, see charlielewis.net and ksam.net
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LG Nixon fuses a page-turning fantasy with a haunting theme and turns it into a spirit filled adventure with quirky and likeable characters the whole family can enjoy. Her stories are lighthearted but carry an underlying message of the importance of a Biblical worldview.
After growing up in a creaky old house with a grandmother who told stories of ghostly visitors, LG naturally gravitated toward the mysterious. Today, she enjoys writing stories filled with mystery, suspense, and other worldly wisdom. She researches and writes full-time from her home in Michigan where she prowls the night star gazing and watching for a supernatural events.To learn more about LG and her books, see lgnixon.com
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Raeanne Newquist, her husband, and 3 children joined Mercy Ships in 2019. After leaving everything behind in Southern California, they boarded the Africa Mercy in Las Palmas and made their way down to Dakar, Senegal for their first field service. On board, Raeanne volunteered in the communications department and later in chaplaincy. Currently, Raeanne works in the Mercy Ships U.S. Marketing department. Raeanne is the host of the New Mercies podcast, and is the voice of the Mercy Minute daily radio broadcast and serves as a staff writer.
To learn more about Mercy Ships or to consider volunteering, see mercyships.org/serve
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Roma Peace is an executive with Pure & Clean, a family owned business headquartered in Missouri that promotes the use of their hypochlorous acid (HOCl) solutions to prevent infection, improve patient outcomes and to heal wounds faster.
To learn more about Pure and Clean hypochlorous acid, see pureandclean.us and enter the code CNH10 at checkout for a discount
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Dr. Ryan Wohlfert is a Certified Mindset Specialist, Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician and Certified Chiropractic BioPhysics® physician, using a specific spinal correction protocol to help patients resolve chronic pain, and avoid dysfunction & disease. With 24+ years of education and clinical experience, Dr. Ryan has helped thousands correct their spine, improve energy & longevity, eliminate dependence on medication, and make simple healthy, pain-free living possible.
To learn more about Dr Ryan, see drwohlfert.com or you can get his free posture minicourse at https://www.drwohlfert.com/posture-minicourse
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Seth Gruber is the founder of the fastest-growing pro-life organization in the country (The White Rose Resistance) and a speaker, documentary filmmaker and author. His new documentary film, ‘The 1916 Project’ releases this fall on streaming services and is currently being screened all over the U.S. It's an unprecedented deep dive on the opening of eugenicist Margaret Sanger’s first illegal birth control clinic in 1916 and connects the dots from Sanger all the way to every cultural crisis and leftist movement threatening our culture and democracy today. The book releases the first week of September.
Learn more, schedule a showing at your church of the documentary, or preorder the book at https://the1916project.com/
Get more info on The Last Stand in June 2025 at thelaststand.com
You can also learn more about Seth at https://sethgruber.com/
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BRONWYN SCHWEIGERDT may be the most evocative psychotherapist you’ve ever heard. Instead of fixing peoples’ messes, her goal is to elicit feelings you’re most ashamed to have, such as hatred and betrayal. She knows that even though feelings are invisible, they don’t evaporate, but store away in our bodies when they’re disowned. Bronwyn has a masters degree in counseling, and another in nutrition. She is a public speaker, author, and licensed psychotherapist.
Check out her podcast, Angry at the Right Things, here: https://angryattherightthings.podbean.com/
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Jason Carver is a pastor and the founder of Standing Supernaturally for Marriage Restoration ministry. He has served in various pastoral roles in the church for over 25 years and is also a Board Certified Christian Counselor. Jason's personal story of marital restoration is a prophetic picture of what God can do in anyone's life who is faithful to the promises of God. He currently coaches and teaches courses on how to supernaturally stand for marriage restoration. Jason lives in Waco, TX, with his wife Christine and daughters, Abby and Sydney. He also teaches tennis at Baylor University and produces an international TV ministry program. 40 Day Stand: A 40-Day Devotional Empowering You to Stand Supernaturally for Marriage Restoration is his first book.
To learn more about Jason, see supernaturally.com or you can find his free gift of 40 days of prayers for your spouse at supernaturally.com/gift
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DR. MALAIKA WOODS is dually board certified with the American Board of Obesity
Medicine and the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology. She is the founder of Dr. Woods Wellness, and the #1 best-selling author of “Physician Unleashed: The Physician Freedom Formula.” In addition to running her own independent practice, Dr. Woods also coaches other physicians and practitioners on starting and growing their independent practices.When not working in the office, Dr. Woods enjoys singing, especially gospel music. She has been a choir director throughout the years and a wedding singer for many of her family and friends. Spending time with her wonderfully supportive husband, daughter, son and close friends are her most treasured moments. Her secret ambition is to one day write a fictional book that gets turned into a block buster movie!
To learn more about Dr Woods, you can find her on her free Facebook community, The Natural Hormone Fix, and/or you can download The Three Secrets to Hormone Balance Every Woman Should Know at drwoodswellness/guide
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Emma Tekstra is an actuary, independent health researcher and author of “How to Be a Healthy Human”. With a 30-year background in employee benefits and corporate health and wellbeing, she consults with employers looking for real solutions to runaway healthcare costs, and with startup companies bringing health solutions to market.
To learn more about Emma, see EmmaTekstra.com/About or EmmaTekstra.Substack.com. You can get a copy of her book here.
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Alexandra Yu is an author and registered nurse with many years of experience in the clinical research industry. Her passion for holistic health led her to launch the Her Holistic Healing podcast. Alexandra’s mission is to encourage women to seek God’s wisdom first for their health and life so that they can experience true, lasting healing that will allow them to make a greater eternal impact in their homes and communities.
Alexandra is a wife and mom of three children. She loves to read,
work out, travel, and play the piano, and she has a passion for helping at-risk children.To learn more about Alexandra, see herholistichealing.com or you can find a copy of her book at herholistichealing.com/book
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There is certainly a stereotype that natural healers of all sorts, including naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists, homeopaths, massage therapists, and etc are all a bit on the “woo-woo” side. When I first started practicing, friends would ask me (jokingly—mostly) whether they’d have to part a beaded curtain to get into my office, or whether they’d find it adorned with crystals. My husband still calls me a hippie, because I like yoga, and prefer to go barefoot whenever possible.
I’m also a strong Christian, though, and many of my patients choose my practice because they want the non-pharmaceutical, “heal the root cause” focus, without all the New Age or Eastern religious stuff thrown in.
But why are natural healing and alternative spiritual ideas so often entwined, anyway?
The Vital Force, Electromagnetism, and Energy Medicine
I think the reason these things go together has to do with the concept of the vital force—this nebulous concept of the thing that keeps an organism alive, maintains homeostasis, and heals when a disturbance occurs. Because this idea is so nebulous (or at least it has been historically), it’s often conflated with spirituality and the metaphysical. Most of my colleagues in naturopathic school were spiritual in some way or another; I’d say perhaps a third to half were Christian, and the rest identified with some other organized religion, or they had their own hodgepodge collection of spiritual beliefs. Everyone attributed the vital force to their own spiritual ideas, though—indeed, you couldn’t really be a naturopath and not believe in the vital force. It’s kind of fundamental to the whole philosophy (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/why-you-are-susceptible-to-illness/).
I’m now starting to believe, though, that the vital force isn’t spiritual at all; it’s actually electromagnetism (more on this here: https://www.drlaurendeville.com/electromagnetism-vital-force/). I rather suspect the soul is the source of that power, but in much the same way that a piano player plays the keys, and music results. Our souls are the players, our bodies are the keys, and the music is the voltage that then enervates the body. This may seem like semantics—we’ve only removed the spiritual by one extra step—but to me, this changes how I think about energy medicine tremendously.
For instance: acupuncture meridians turn out to be fascia, made of collagen and hydrated with crystalline water, acting as semiconductors of electrons on a tissue-based ‘wiring’ system (more on this here: https://www.drlaurendeville.com/electromagnetism-vital-force/).
Homeopathy turns out to borrow from the near-infinite structural possibilities of liquid crystalline water (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/the-fourth-phase-of-water/), imprinting a structural memory upon it in the form of a fractal (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/homeopathy-but-isnt-there-nothing-in-it/). Since frequencies can be converted into fractals and vice versa (they’re called cymatic images, https://ask.audio/articles/how-sound-affects-you-cymatics-an-emerging-science), it’s not too far-fetched to say that homeopathy contains the imprint of the frequency of the original substance. That frequency can affect the frequency of our own cells via resonance—the same phenomenon that occurs when you strum a guitar string, and the same key on a different guitar will begin to vibrate, without ever being touched. On a piano, when you play a low C, the C notes at higher and lower octaves will resonate as well—but the other notes won’t, because the frequency is wrong. This is why, with homeopathy, you have to get the remedy (the frequency) correct, or nothing will happen: only the right frequency will cause your cells to resonate in harmony, and come into appropriate alignment. (By contrast, this is at least part of the reason why synthetic electromagnetic frequencies (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/emf-how-do-you-know-if-its-too-high/) can be so damaging: they can disrupt the delicate frequencies of our own cells, thus interfering with their function).
Even auras turn out to have an entirely physical basis. Anyone who has ever been to Sedona has probably seen the Kirlian photography studios that offer to photograph your aura. It’s based on the corona discharge phenomenon, in which the photographic film is connected to a high energy power source, creating an electric field. When a person (or any other grounded object) touches it, those excited electrons have a direct route back to the ground, through that object. As they fall, they have to get rid of their extra energy, and they do so via light emission—essentially, this is the same idea as in Einstein’s photoelectric effect. According to Dr Richard Gerber in Vibrational Medicine (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/vibrational-medicine-richard-gerber/), Kirlian photography can offer useful diagnostic information—but only if the frequency used to excite the photographic film resonates with the body’s natural frequencies. Otherwise, it’s pretty, but useless.
Many energy medicine approaches say they work “on the quantum level”, which can be a non-explanation that just sounds impressive—but I do wonder if quantum physics isn’t just the interface between the spirit realm and physical reality. Quantum physics includes concepts like entanglement, or “spooky action at a distance,” as Einstein called it—which certainly sounds like it could apply to Jesus speaking a word of healing over the Centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10), or the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter (Mark 7:24-30), or the handkerchiefs and aprons imbued with Paul’s healing energy (Acts 19:11-12). It also encompasses concepts like scalar energy, the underlying energy in the universe that holds all things together (which sounds a lot like Hebrews 1:3).
Where Things Go Sideways
I’d venture to speculate that for all forms of energy medicine, there are two possibilities—either they don’t work at all except by placebo (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/placeboeffect/) (which is possible, if they haven’t been rigorously tracked—30% recovery I’d imagine would be more than enough to inspire passionate proselytes), or else they do work, if recovery is higher than that. If they do work, then they must do so via some scientific mechanism that God created (as He is the giver of all good gifts, James 1:17, and health and healing are good gifts, Deuteronomy 28), whether or not we know what that mechanism is yet. Science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Since technology is the harnessing of scientific principles to do work, and since magic (if believed in at all) is nearly always attributed to spiritual sources, then any medical techniques we cannot explain will likely be attributed to spiritual sources, by default.
As C.S. Lewis famously observed in Mere Christianity, though, Satan cannot create anything new. All he can do is twist or pervert something God meant for good (a good gift in the wrong timing, in the wrong amount, with the wrong motive, attributed to the wrong power, etc), thus deceiving people into following him, instead of God. Any non-falsifiable explanation for a real, physical phenomenon will always contain at least the possibility of deception, and I can’t imagine Satan not exploiting that (John 8:44). For thousands of years, acupuncture (or chakras, or fill in the blank on your favorite ancient energy medicine) weren’t explainable in any scientific way, but they seemed to work, so people kept doing them… and then of course, they tried to come up with explanations for why they worked. Since people at that time didn’t know the scientific explanation, though, their explanations were, invariably, spiritual. Even today, energy medicine practitioners who wish to study their craft usually also study the ancient esoteric religious texts with which they are intwined. And isn’t it only natural for people to think, well, they were right about the healing principles… what if they’re right about the rest? At that point, people don’t know what to believe, or what truth is (John 18:37-38). Once you get into the realm of metaphysics, anything goes, because you can’t prove any of it anyway…
Isn’t this the same question, more or less, as how we can determine which religion (if any) is correct, when it pertains to an invisible world? That too seems non-falsifiable, which is why many people will argue that one religion is as good as another. C.S. Lewis’s is the best philosophical argument I’ve heard on this, also from Mere Christianity: that our own souls and consciences point toward an external morality we did not create, and that, alone, verifies a spiritual world, and the existence of a God who created that moral code. Our experience of attempting to keep the moral code and failing to do so should thus help narrow down the religion we need (one of grace—and there’s only one of those). Then on top of that, there is apologetic (physical) evidence (https://www.drlaurendeville.com/anthropic-fine-tuning/) to corroborate the truth of the Biblical scriptures, the testimonies of skeptics and atheists who set out to disprove the Bible, only to become converts in the end (https://kimolsen.net/2014/05/13/men-who-were-converted-trying-to-disprove-the-bible-way-of-life-literature/), and the miracles that are supposed to follow those who believe (Mark 16:17-18)—evidence of the invisible invading the visible. Most religious assertions cannot be tested, and must be accepted on faith only—and while Christianity also requires faith, it first appeals to reason. We were never expected to believe anything arbitrarily.
Discerning the Truth
So, to the one who diligently seeks truth, concrete insights rule out all religions but one as a foundation. How then does that foundation help us to discern between truth and deception?
Our protection against deception is knowing God’s word, because it is truth (John 17:17, Psa 25:5, Psa 91:4, Psa 96:13, 100:5, 117:2, 119:142, 151, 160; 138:2, Prov 3:3). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and He will guide us into truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13, 1 John 5:6). But He can only bring to our remembrance the scriptures we know (John 14:26)… and remember that when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he did so by either misquoting scripture, or by quoting it out of context (Matthew 4:1-11). So our job is to renew our minds with scripture (Romans 12:2) to the point where we’ll recognize a counterfeit when we’re presented with it (1 John 4:1).
The bottom line, as I see it, is that when it comes to energy medicine principles intertwined with other religious teachings that lead us away from God’s truth, we must exercise discernment. Know the truth, so that some impressive and seemingly inexplicable phenomenon doesn’t lead you to question what you do know.
At the same time, though, let’s not “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17), and “greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Let’s not give Satan more credit than he deserves.
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Jodi Scholes is a celebrated author, educator, and Licensed Massage Therapist with over 30 years of experience in understanding and treating pain. Her work with elite athletes, including Major League Soccer team and U.S. Track & Field athletes, has taken her across the U.S. and internationally, providing high-level care and support. Her book, Body Blueprint: How Your Pain May Be Telling a Story, explores how a person's perception of pain is not solely influenced by biological factors but is also profoundly affected by mental and emotional stress. Jodi has shared her insights on a global stage, including delivering a TEDx talk titled "Body Blueprint: How Your Pain May Be Telling A Story.” She is a retired triathlete herself, and an improving tennis player. She continues to speak at retreats, teach weekly, and provide massage therapy, blending her extensive experience with her passion for holistic wellness.
To learn more about Jodi, see jodischoles.com
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Mrs. Christy Stutzman is a small-business owner, a music composer and a former teacher and state legislator. She has written for multiple news organizations including The Washington Times, The Daily Signal and is a featured opinion writer for the Washington Stand by Family Research Council. As the wife of a member of Congress, she traveled widely on diplomatic delegations and has been a strong advocate for conservative, pro-family causes on Capitol Hill and in political campaigns for the past twenty years. She has been a featured radio and podcast guest, and a featured speaker at political, Christian, and pro-life events across the country. Her new book, The Spiritual Price of Political Silence, connects the dots of political apathy and the cultural decline of American values. Mrs. Stutzman resides on her farm in Howe, IN with her husband, Marlin, and their two sons, Payton and Preston.
To learn more about Christy and to get a copy of her book, see booksbychristy.org
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Dr Tony Nalda holds a Doctorate of Chiropractic from Life University, and built one of the most successful chiropractic clinics in Central Florida. His expertise has made him a highly sought-after scoliosis specialist both in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Nalda is CLEAR Institute’s Chairman of the Board—the only non-profit chiropractic educational and certification center devoted to non-surgical scoliosis treatment and research, a MaxLiving board member and instructor, and a keynote speaker who teaches chiropractors across the world. He has written several books, including “Scoliosis Hope: How New Approaches to Treatment are Transforming Lives.” He has successfully led his family practice for 20+ years and continues to seek out the latest and most effective modalities for treating patients naturally.
To learn more about Dr Nalda, see scoliosisreductioncenter.com or you can find him on YouTube at Scoliosis Reduction Center
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For years now, even as headlines about the development of AI have become more frequent and more dire, I really never worried about it much, because I couldn't think of anything in scripture that sounded a great deal like a superintelligent machine. I'd read the end of the book (Revelation), I knew how it ended, and it wasn't in a robot apocalypse... so all the fears surrounding that possibility must therefore be much ado about nothing. (I did write a fictional trilogy for young adults back in 2017 about how I imagined a near-miss robot apocalypse might look, though, because I found the topic fascinating enough to research at the time. It's called the "Uncanny Valley" trilogy, where the "uncanny valley" refers to the "creepy" factor, as a synthetic humanoid creature approaches human likeness.)
When I finished the trilogy, I more or less forgot about advancing AI, until some of the later iterations of Chat GPT and similar Large Language Models (LLMs). Full disclosure: I've never used any LLMs myself, mostly because (last I checked) you had to create an account with your email address before you started asking it questions. (In the third book of my series, the superintelligent bot Jaguar kept track of everyone via facial recognition cameras, recording literally everything they did in enormous data processing centers across the globe that synced with one another many times per day. Though at that point I doubt it would make any difference, I'd rather not voluntarily give Jaguar's real-life analog any data on me if I can help it!)
Particularly the recent release of Chat GPT Omni (which apparently stands for "omniscient" --!!) gave me pause, though, and I had to stop and ask myself why the idea that it could be approaching actual Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I recently read a book called "Deep Medicine" by Eric Topol on the integration of AI into the medical field, which helped allay some potential concerns--that book contended that AGI would likely never be realized, largely because AGI inherently requires experience in the real world, and a robot can never have lived experiences in the way that humans can. It painted a mostly rosy picture of narrow (specialized) AI engaging in pattern recognition (reading radiology images or recognizing pathology samples or dermatological lesions, for instance), and thus vastly improving diagnostic capabilities of physicians. Other uses might include parsing a given individual's years of medical records and offering a synopsis and recommendations, or consolidating PubMed studies, and offering relevant suggestions. Topol did not seem to think that the AI would ever replace the doctor, though. Rather, the author contended, at the rate that data is currently exploding, doctors are drowning in the attempt to document and to keep up with it all, and empathic patient care suffers as a result. AI, he argues, will actually give the doctor time to spend with the patient again, to make judgment calls with a summary of all the data at his fingertips, and to put it together in an integrated whole with his uniquely human common sense.
Synthetic Empathy and Emotions?
But, "Deep Medicine" was written in 2019, which (in the world of AI) is already potentially obsolete. I'm told that Chat GPT Omni is better than most humans at anything involving either logic or creativity, and it does a terrific approximation of empathy, too. Even "Deep Medicine" cited statistics to suggest that most humans would prefer a machine for a therapist than a person (!!), largely due to the fear that the human might judge them for some of their most secret or shameful thoughts or feelings. And if the machine makes you feel like it understands you, does it really matter whether its empathy is "real" or not?
What does "real" empathy mean, anyway? In "Uncanny Valley," my main character, as a teenager, inherited a "companion bot" who was programmed with mirror neurons (the seat of empathy in the human brain.) In the wake of her father's death, she came to regard her companion bot as her best friend. It was only as she got older that she started to ask questions like whether its 'love' for her was genuine, if it was programmed. This is essentially the theological argument for free will, too. Could God have made a world without sin? Sure, but in order to do it, we'd all have to be automatons--programmed to do His will, programmed to love Him and to love one another. Would there be any value in the love of a creature who could not do anything else? (The Calvinists might say that's the way the world actually is, for those who are predestined, but everyone else would vehemently disagree.) It certainly seems that God thought it was worth all the misery He endured since creation, for the chance that some of us might freely choose Him. I daresay that same logic is self-evident to all of us. Freedom is an inherent good--possibly the highest good.
So, back to AI: real empathy requires not just real emotion, but memories of one's own real emotions, so that we can truly imagine that we are in another person's shoes. How can a robot, without its own lived memories, experience real empathy? Can it even experience real emotion? It might have goals or motives that can be programmed, but emotion at minimum requires biochemistry and a nervous system, at least in the way we understand it. We know from psychology research on brain lesions as well as from psychiatric and recreational medications and experiences with those suffering from neurodegenerative conditions that mood, affect, and personality can drastically change from physiologic tampering, as well.
Does it follow that emotions are 'mere' biochemistry, though? This is at least part of the age-old question of materialism versus vitalism, or (to put it another way), reductionism versus holism. Modern medicine is inherently materialistic, believing that the entirety of a living entity can be explained by its physical makeup, and reductionistic, believing that one can reduce the 'whole' of the living system to a sum of its parts. Vitalism, on the other hand, argues that there is something else, something outside the physical body of the creature, that animates it and gives it life. At the moment just before death and just after, all the same biochemical machinery exists... but anyone who has seen the death of a loved one can attest that the body doesn't look the same. It becomes almost like clay. Some key essence is missing. I recently read "The Rainbow and the Worm" by Mae-Wan Ho, which described fascinating experiments on living worms viewed under electron microscopes. The structured water in the living tissue of the worm exhibited coherence, refracting visible light in a beautiful rainbow pattern. At the moment of death, though, the coherence vanished, and the rainbow was gone--even though all of the same physical components remained. The change is immaterial; the shift between death and life is inherently energetic. There was an animus, a vital force--qi, as Chinese Medicine would call it, or prana, as Ayurvedic medicine would describe it, or (as we're now discovering in alternative Western medicine), voltage carried through this structured water via our collagen. That hydrated collagen appears to function in our bodies very much like a semiconductor, animating our tissues with electrons, the literal energy of life. At the moment of death, it’s there, and then it's not--like someone pulled the plug. What's left is only the shell of the machine, the hardware.
But where is that plug, such that it can be connected and then, abruptly, not? The materialist, who believes that everything should be explainable on the physical level, can have no answer. The Bible tells us, though, that we are body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess 5:23)--which inherently makes a distinction between body and soul (implying that the soul is not a mere product of the chemistry of the body). The spirit is what was dead without Jesus, and what gets born again when we are saved, and it's perfect, identical with Jesus' spirit (2 Cor. 5:17, Eph 4:24). It's God's "seal" on us, vacuum-packed as it were, so that no sin can contaminate it. It’s the down-payment, a promise that complete and total restoration is coming (Eph 1:13-14).
But there's no physical outlet connecting the spirit and the body; the connection between them is the soul. With our souls, we can see what's ours in the Spirit through scripture, and scripture can train our souls to conform more and more to the spirit (Romans 12:2, Phil 2:12-13). No one would ever argue that a machine would have a spirit, obviously, but the materialists wouldn’t believe there is such a thing, anyway. What about the soul, though?
What is a soul, anyway? Can it be explained entirely through materialistic means?
Before God made Adam, He explicitly stated that He intended to make man after His own image (Gen 1:26-27). God is spirit (John 4:24), though, so the resemblance can't be physical, per se, at least not exclusively or even primarily. After forming his body, God breathed into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7)--the same thing Jesus did to the disciples after His resurrection when he said "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). So it must therefore be in our spirits that we resemble God. Adam and Eve died spiritually when they sinned (Genesis 3:3), but something continued to animate their bodies for another 930 years. This is the non-corporeal part of us that gets "unplugged" at physical death. Since it can be neither body nor spirit, it must be the soul.
Andrew Wommack defines the soul as the mind, will, and emotions. I can't think of a single scripture that defines the soul this way; I think it's just an extrapolation, based on what's otherwise unaccounted for. But in our mind, will, and emotions, even before redemption, mankind continued to reflect God's image, in that he continued to possess the ability to reason, to choose, to create, to love, and to discern right from wrong.
The materialists would argue that emotion, like everything else, must have its root purely in the physical realm. Yet they do acknowledge that because there are so many possible emotional states, and relatively few physiologic expressions of them, many emotions necessarily share a physiologic expression. It's up to our minds to translate the meaning of a physiologic state, based on the context. In "How Emotions are Made," author Lisa Barrett gave a memorable example of this: once, a colleague to whom she didn’t think she was particularly attracted asked her for a date. She went, felt various strange things in her gut that felt a little like “butterflies”, and assumed during the date that perhaps she was attracted to him after all… only to later learn that she was actually in the early stages of gastroenteritis!This example illustrates how the biochemistry and physiologic expressions of emotion are merely the blunt downstream instruments that translate an emotion from the non-corporeal soul into physical perception--and in some cases, as in that one, the emotional perception might originate from the body entirely. This also might be why some people (children especially) can mistake hunger or fatigue for irritability, or why erratic blood sugar in uncontrolled diabetics can manifest as rage, etc. In those cases, the emotional response really does correspond to the materialist's worldview, originating far downstream in the "circuit," as it were. But people who experience these things as adults will say things like, "That's not me." I think they're right--when we think of our true selves, none of us think of our bodies--those are just our "tents" (2 Cor 5:1), to be put off eventually when we die. When we refer to our true selves, we mean our souls: our mind, will, and emotions.
It's certainly possible for many of us to feel "hijacked" by our emotions, as if they're in control and not "us," though (Romans 7:15-20). Most of us recognize a certain distinction there, too, between the real "us" and our emotions. The examples of physiologic states influencing emotions are what scripture would call "carnal" responses. If we're "carnal," ruled by our flesh, then physiologic states will have a great deal of influence over our emotions-- a kind of small scale anarchy. The "government" is supposed to be our born-again spirits, governing our souls, which in turn controls our bodies, rather than allowing our flesh to control our souls (Romans 8:1-17) - though this is of course possible if we don’t enforce order.
With respect to AI, my point is, where does "true" emotion originate? There is a version of it produced downstream, in our flesh, yes. It can either originate from the flesh itself, or it can originate upstream, from the non-corporeal soul, what we think of us "the real us." That's inherently a philosophical and not a scientific argument, though, as science by definition is "the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena." Any question pertaining to something outside the physical world cannot fall under the purview of science. But even for those who do not accept scripture as authority, our own inner experience testifies to the truth of the argument. We all know that we have free will; we all know we can reason, and feel emotions. We can also tell the difference between an emotion that is "us" and an emotion that feels like it originates from outside of "our real selves". As C.S. Lewis said in "Mere Christianity," if there is a world outside of the one we can experimentally observe, the only place in which we could possibly expect to have any evidence of it is in our own internal experience. And there, we find it’s true.
Without a soul, then, a robot (such as an LLM) would of course exist entirely on the physical plane, unlike us. It therefore might have physical experiences that it might translate as emotion, the same way that we sometimes interpret physical experiences as emotion--but it cannot have true emotions. Empathy, therefore, can likewise be nothing more than programmed pattern recognition: this facial expression or these words or phrases tend to mean that the person is experiencing these feelings, and here is the appropriate way to respond. Many interactions with many different humans over a long period of time will refine the LLM's learning such that its pattern recognition and responses get closer and closer to the mark... but that's not empathy, not really. It's fake.
Does that matter, though, if the person "feels" heard and understood?
Well, does truth matter? If a man who is locked up in an insane asylum believes himself to be a great king, and believes that all the doctors and nurses around him are really his servants and subjects, would you trade places with him? I suspect that all of us would say no. With at least the protagonists in "The Matrix," we all agree that it's better to be awakened to a desperate truth than to be deceived by a happy lie.
The Emotional Uncanny Valley
Even aside from that issue, is it likely that mere pattern recognition could simulate empathy well enough to satisfy us--or is it likely that this, too, would fall into the "uncanny valley"? Most of us have had the experience of meeting a person who seems pleasant enough on the surface, and yet something about them just seemed ‘off’. (The Bible calls this discernment, 1 Corinthians 12:10.) When I was in a psychology course in college, the professor flashed images of several clean-cut, smiling men in the powerpoint, out of context, and asked us to raise our hands if we would trust each of them. I don't remember who most of them were - probably red herrings to disguise the point - but one of them was Ted Bundy, the serial killer of the 1970s. I didn't recognize him, but I did feel a prickling sense of unease as I gazed at his smiling face. Something just wasn't right. Granted, a violent psychopath is not quite the same, but isn't the idea of creating a robot possessed of emotional intelligence (in the sense that it can read others well) but without real empathy essentially like creating an artificial sociopath? Isn't the lack of true empathy the very definition? (Knowing this, would we really want jobs like social workers, nurses, or even elementary school teachers to be assumed by robots--no matter how good the empathic pattern recognition became?)
An analogy of this is the 1958 Harlow experiment on infant monkeys (https://www.simplypsychology.org/harlow-monkey.html), in which the monkeys were given a choice between two simulated mothers: one made of wire, but that provided milk, and one made of cloth, but without milk. The study showed that the monkeys would only go to the wire mother when hungry; the rest of the day they would spend in the company of the cloth mother.
My point is that emotional support matters to all living creatures, far more than objective physical needs (provided those needs are also met). If we just want a logical problem solved, we may well go to the robot. But most of our problems are not just questions of logic; they involve emotions, too. As Leonard Mlodinow, author of "Emotional" writes, emotions are not mere extraneous data that colors an experience, but can otherwise be ignored at will. In many cases, the emotions actually serve to motivate a course of action. Every major decision I've ever made in my life involved not just logic, but also emotion, or in some cases intuition (which I assume is a conscious prompting when the unconscious reasoning is present but unknown to me), or a else leading of the Holy Spirit (which "feels" like intuition, only without the presumed unconscious underpinning. He knows the reason, but I don't, even subconsciously.) Obviously, AI, with synthetic emotion or not, would have no way to advise us on matters of intuition, or especially promptings from the Holy Spirit. Those won't usually *seem* logical, based on the available information, but He has a perspective that we don't have. Neither will a machine, even if it could simultaneously process all known data available on earth.
There was a time when Newtonian physicists believed that, with access to that level of data in the present, the entire future would become deterministic, making true omniscience in this world theoretically possible. Then we discovered quantum physics, and all of that went out the window. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle eliminates the possibility that any creature or machine, no matter how powerful, can in our own dimension ever truly achieve omniscience.
In other words, even a perfectly logical machine with access to all available knowledge will fail to guide us into appropriate decisions much of the time -- precisely because they must lack true emotion, intuition, and especially the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Knowledge vs Wisdom
None of us will be able to compete with the level of knowledge an AI can process in a split second. But does that mean the application of that knowledge will always be appropriate? I think there's several levels to this question. The first has to do with the data sets on which AI has been trained. It can only learn from the patterns it's seen, and it will (like a teenager who draws sweeping conclusions based on very limited life experience) assume that it has the whole picture. In this way, AI may be part of the great deception mentioned by both Jesus (Matt 24:24) and the Apostle Paul (2 Thess 2:11) in the last days. How many of us already abdicate our own reasoning to those in positions of authority, blindly following them because we assume they must know more than we do on their subject? How much more will many of us fail to question the edicts of a purportedly "omniscient" machine, which must know more than we do on every subject? That machine may have only superficial knowledge of a subject, based on the data set it's been given, and may thus draw an inappropriate conclusion. (Also, my understanding is that current LLMs continue learning only until they are released into the world; from that point, they can no longer learn anything new, because of the risk that in storing new information, they could accidentally overwrite an older memory.)A human may draw an inappropriate conclusion too, of course, and if that person has enough credentials behind his name, it may be just as deceptive to many. But at least one individual will not command such blind obedience on absolutely every subject. AGI might. So who controls the data from which that machine learns? That's a tremendous responsibility... and, potentially, a tremendous amount of power, to deceive, if possible, "even the elect."
For the sake of argument, let's say that the AGI is exposed only to real and complete data, though--not cherry-picked, and not "misinformation." In this scenario, some believe that (if appropriate safeguards are in place, to keep the AGI from deciding to save the planet by killing all the humans, for example, akin to science fiction author Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics), utopia will result.
The only way this is possible, though, is if not only does the machine learn on a full, accurate, and complete set of collective human knowledge, but it also has a depth of understanding of how to apply that knowledge, as well. This is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. The dictionary definition of wisdom is "the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting," versus knowledge, defined as "information gained through experience, reasoning, or acquaintance." Wisdom has to do with one's worldview, in other words, or the lens through which he sees and interprets a set of facts. It is inextricably tied to morality. (So, who is programming these LLMs again? Even without AI, since postmodernism and beyond, there's been a crisis among many intellectuals as to whether or not there's such a thing as "truth," even going so far as to question objective physical reality. That’s certainly a major potential hazard right there.)
Both words of wisdom and discernment are listed as explicit supernatural gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:8, 10). God says that He is the source of wisdom, as well as of knowledge and understanding (Prov 2:6), and that if we lack wisdom, we should ask Him for it (James 1:5). Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs as a person, with God at creation (Prov 8:29-30)--which means, unless it's simply a poetic construct, that wisdom and the Holy Spirit must be synonymous (Gen 1:2). Jesus did say that it was the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth, as He is the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). The Apostle Paul contrasts the wisdom of this world as foolishness compared to the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18-30)--because if God is truth (John 14:6), then no one can get to true wisdom without Him. That's not to say that no human (or robot) can make a true statement without an understanding of God, of course--but when he does so, he's borrowing from a worldview not his own. The statement may be true, but almost by accident--on some level, if you go down deep enough to bedrock beliefs, there is an inherent inconsistency between the statement of truth and the person's general worldview, if that worldview does not recognize a Creator. (Jason Lisle explains this well and in great detail in "The Ultimate Proof of Creation.")
Can you see the danger of trusting a machine to discern what is right, then, simply because in terms of sheer facts and computing power, it's vastly "smarter" than we are? Anyone who does so is almost guaranteed to be deceived, unless he also filters the machine's response through his own discernment afterwards. (We should all be doing this with statements from any human authority on any subject, too, by the way. Never subjugate your own reasoning to anyone else's, even if they do know the Lord, but especially if they don't. You have the mind of Christ! 1 Cor 2:16).
Would Eliminating Emotion from the Workplace Actually Be a Good Thing?
I can see how one might think that replacing a human being with a machine that optimizes logic, but strips away everything else might seem a good trade, on the surface. After all, we humans (especially these days) aren't very logical, on the whole. Our emotions and desires are usually corrupted by sin. We're motivated by selfishness, greed, pride, and petty jealousies, when we're not actively being renewed by the Holy Spirit (and most of us aren't; even most believers are more carnal than not, most of the time. I don’t know if that’s always been the case, but it seems to be now). We also are subject to the normal human frailties: we get sick, or tired, or cranky, or hungry, or overwhelmed. We need vacations. We might be distracted by our own problems, or apathetic about the task we've been paid to accomplish. Machines would have none of these drawbacks.
But do we really understand the trade-off we're making? We humans have a tendency to take a sliver of information, assume it's the whole picture, and run with it--eliminating everything we think is extraneous, simply because we don't understand it. In our hubris, we don't stop to consider that all the elements we've discarded might actually be critical to function.
This seems to me sort of like processed food. We've taken the real thing the way God made it, and tweaked it in a laboratory to make it sweeter, crunchier, more savory, and with better "mouth feel.” It's even still got the same number of macronutrients and calories that it had before. But we didn’t understand not only how processing stripped away necessary micronutrients, but also added synthetic fats that contaminated our cell membranes, and chemicals that can overwhelm our livers, making us overweight and simultaneously nutrient depleted. We just didn't know what we didn't know.
We've done the same thing with genetically engineered foods. God's instructions in scripture were to let the land lie fallow, and to rotate crops, because the soil itself is the source of micronutrition for the plant. If you plant the same crop in the same soil repeatedly and without a break, you will deplete the soil, and the plants will no longer be as nutritious, or as healthy... and an unhealthy plant is easy prey for pests. But the agriculture industry ignored this; it didn’t seem efficient or profitable enough, presumably. Synthetic fertilizer is the equivalent of macronutrients only for plants, so they grow bigger than ever before (much like humans do if they subsist on nothing but fast food), but they're still nutrient depleted and unhealthy, and thus, easy prey for pests. So we added the gene to the plants to make them produce their own glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp. Only glyphosate itself turns out to be incredibly toxic to humans, lo and behold...
There are many, many more examples I can think of just in the realm of science, health, and nutrition, to say nothing of our approach to economics, or climate, or many other complex systems. We tend to isolate the “active ingredient,” and eliminate everything we consider to be extraneous… only to learn of the side effects decades later.
So what will the consequences be to society if most workers in most professions eventually lack true emotion, empathy, wisdom, and intuition?Finding Purpose in Work
There’s also a growing concern that AI will take over nearly all jobs, putting almost everyone out of work. At this point, it seems that information-based positions are most at risk, and especially anything involving repetitive, computer-based tasks. I also understand that AI is better than most humans at writing essays, poetry, and producing art. Current robotics is far behind AI technology, though... Elon Musk has been promising self-driving cars in the eminent future for some time, yet they don't seem any closer to ubiquitous adoption now than they were five years ago. "A Brief History of Intelligence" by Max Bennett, published in fall 2023, said that as of the time of writing, robots can diagnose tumors from radiographic imaging better than most radiologists, yet they are still incapable of simple physical tasks such as loading a dishwasher without breaking things. (I suspect this is because the former involves intellectual pattern recognition, which seems to be their forte, while the latter involves movements that are subconscious for most of us, requiring integration of spatial recognition, balance, distal fine motor skills, etc. We're still a very long way from understanding the intricacies of the human brain... but then again, the pace at which knowledge is doubling is anywhere from every three to thirteen months, depending on the source. Either way, that’s fast).
On the assumption that we'll soon be able to automate nearly everything a human can do physically or intellectually, then, the world's elite have postulated a Universal Basic Income--essentially welfare for all, since we would in theory be incapable of supporting ourselves. Leaving aside the many catastrophically failed historical examples of socialism and communism, it's pretty clear that God made us for good work (Eph 2:10, 2 Cor 9:8), and He expects us to work (2 Thess 3:10). Idleness while machines run the world is certainly not a biblical solution.
That said, technology in and of itself is morally neutral. It's a tool, like money, time, or influence, and can be used for good or for evil. Both the Industrial Revolution and in the Information Revolution led to plenty of unforeseen consequences and social upheaval. Many jobs became obsolete, while new jobs were created that had never existed before. Work creates wealth, and due to increased efficiency, the world as a whole became wealthier than ever before, particularly in nations where these revolutions took hold. In the US, after the Industrial Revolution, the previously stagnant average standard of living suddenly doubled every 36 years. At the same time, though, the vast majority of the wealth created was in the hands of the few owners of the technology, and there was a greater disparity between the rich and the poor than ever before. This disparity has only grown more pronounced since the Information Revolution--and we have a clue in Revelation 6:5-6 that in the end times, it will be worse than ever. Will another AI-driven economic revolution have anything to do with this? It’s certainly possible.
Whether or not another economic revolution should happen has little bearing on whether or not it will, though. But one thing for those of us who follow the Lord to remember is that we don't have to participate in the world's economy, if we trust Him to meet our needs. He is able to make us abound for every good work (2 Cor 9:8)--which I believe means we will also have some form of work, no matter what is going on in the world around us. He will bless the work of our hands, whatever we find for them to do (Deut 12:7). He will give us the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8:18), even if it seems impossible. He will meet all our needs as we seek His kingdom first (Luke 12:31-32)-and one of our deepest needs is undoubtedly a sense of purpose (Phil 4:19). We are designed to fulfill a purpose.What about the AI Apocalyptic Fears?
The world's elite seem to fall into two camps on how an AI revolution might affect our world--those who think it will usher in utopia (Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” essentially depicts this), and those who think AI will decide that humans are the problem, and destroy us all.
I feel pretty confident the latter won't occur, at least not completely, since neither Revelation nor any of the rest of the prophetic books seem to imply domination of humanity by machine overlords. Most, if not all of the actors involved certainly appear to be human (and angelic, and demonic). That said, there are several biblical references that the end times will be "as in the days of Noah" (Matt 24:27, Luke 17:26). What could that mean? Genesis 6 states that the thoughts in the minds of men were only evil all the time, so it may simply mean that in the end times, mankind will have achieved the same level of corruption as in the antediluvian world.
But that might not be all. In Gen 6:1-4, we're told that the "sons of God" came down to the "daughters of men," and had children by them--the Nephilim. This mingling of human and non-human corrupted the genetic line, compromising God's ability to bring the promised seed of Eve to redeem mankind. Daniel 2:43 also reads, "As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they (in the end times) will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay." What is "they," if not the seed of men? It appears to be humanity, plus something else. Chuck Missler and many others have speculated that this could refer to transhumanism, the merging of human and machine.Revelation 13:14-15 is probably the most likely description I can think of in scripture of AI, describing the image of the beast that speaks, knows whether or not people worship the beast (AI facial recognition, possibly embedded into the "internet of things"?), and turns in anyone who refuses to do so.
The mark of the beast sure sounds like a computer chip of some kind, with an internet connection (Bluetooth or something like it - Rev 13:17).
Joel 2:4-9 describes evil beings "like mighty men" that can "climb upon a wall" and "when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded," and they "enter in at the windows like a thief." These could be demonic and thus extra-dimensional, but don’t they also sound like “The Terminator,” if robotics ever manages to advance that far?
Jeremiah 50:9 says, "their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; none shall return in vain." This sounds like it could be AI-guided missiles.
But the main evil actors of Revelation--the antichrist, the false prophet, the kings of the east, etc, all certainly appear to refer to humans. And from the time that the "earth lease" to humanity is up (Revelation 11), God Himself is the One cleansing the earth of all evil influences. I doubt He uses AI to do it.So, depending upon where we are on the prophetic timeline, I can certainly imagine AI playing a role in how the events of Revelation unfold, but I can't see how they'll take center stage. For whatever reason, it doesn't look to me like they'll ever get that far.
The Bottom Line
We know that in the end times, deception will come. We don't know if AI will be a part of it, but it could be. It's important for us to know the truth, to meditate on the truth, to keep our eyes focused on the truth -- on things above, and not on things beneath (Col 3:2). Don't outsource your thinking to a machine; no matter how "smart" they become, they will never have true wisdom; they can't. That doesn't mean don't use them at all, but if you do, do so cautiously, check the information you receive, and listen to the Holy Spirit in the process, trusting Him to guide you into all truth (John 16:13).
Regardless of how rapidly or dramatically the economic landscape and the world around us may change, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and faith works through love (Gal 5:6). If we know how much God loves us, it becomes easy to not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present our requests to God... and then to fix our minds on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, praiseworthy, or virtuous (Phil 4:6-8). He knows the end from the beginning. He's not surprised, and He'll absolutely take care of you in every way, if you trust Him to do it (Matt 6:33-34).
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