The Rest We Were Made For

And so right now, The news is exploding with doomsday predictions about what will happen as AI technology continues to expand.

Not everyone agrees.

Some say AI could annihilate humanity within a decade.

Others say it's all a hoax.

Some are embracing AI with unbridled enthusiasm, absolutely convinced this incredible technology will usher in a new era of prosperity and peace for all humanity.

People are all over the map.

And they cannot all be right.

Now, I talk about AI enough on Haven today that you may already know where I stand, that I do have some doubts about how good AI will turn out to be for humanity and for the world at large.

But my suspicions are not primarily rooted in the nature of AI itself, but in the nature of humanity and the pervasive sinfulness of humanity.

Biblically, Christians should be the first to proclaim this if we truly believe what God's Word says, namely that human beings are not innately good but innately sinful, with hearts that are self-centered, self-glorifying, self-serving, and with a bent toward evil.

There is a reason for the saying, "'Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.'" And AI concentrates incredible power in the hands of whoever can scale it and build it the fastest and then control it with the greatest ingenuity.

So the question is, whose hands will most powerfully possess the incredible power of AI and then what will they do with it? Or one step beyond that, and this would be the greatest fear of AI doomsdayers, that humanity might lose control of AI, and then it will begin to program itself, improving itself, and become like a technological Pandora's box.

Does anybody else feel like real life just turned into a sci-fi movie? There is a lot of anxiety out there about all of this.

Very smart people are losing sleep.

But as believers in Jesus, we are called to several things, wisdom, trust, and rest.

We do not need to be anxious or losing sleep.

We can trust that even if human beings were to lose control of AI, our God has not and will not lose control of history.

What will come to pass is already written.

And the Lord will bring history to the conclusion that he has promised throughout Scripture.

And what is that conclusion? Where is all of this heading toward? Scripture speaks of a glorious future in eternity to come.

It talks about it as a kingdom, a city, a wedding.

But just as prolific in all of scripture and perhaps even the most dominant presentation of the world to come is the theme of rest and Sabbath.

In Hebrew, these words come from the same root, Shabbat, and at times they're used interchangeably.

And Sabbath, Jesus says, is not what humanity was created for.