Monday Morning Music Ministry

Last week’s music video, related to the message titled “Scared Spitless,” was a song called “Not Lukewarm,” and it elicited many comments and questions. The quartet that performed the song comprises handsome black singers sincerely sharing a musical Gospel in tight harmonies.

The group is called Advent World, and I learned that its headquarters is in Dayton, Ohio, despite the vaguely Caribbean accents.

The group, although I had been unaware of it, is popular, and has a catalog of many commercial songs and albums. The repertoire includes traditional hymns and contemporary Christian songs. I confess that seldom have I altered my perception of an artist or musical group so abruptly or quickly as with Advent World, and most of the correspondents to MMMM shared the same reaction.

What we focused on: no problem with Advent World’s theology or Christian witness, at all. But after watching a video, or several, after clicking on their YouTube selections, we notice that their harmonies are somehow too tight; the quartet members’ mouths move in machine-like precision; the facial expressions are uniform; the eyes seldom blink; and so forth. A growing feeling takes hold, that we are watching robots.

… in fact, we are. Sort of. It is called Artificial Intelligence. The website of the “group” describes its chosen mode: “We use digital media to share Christ-centered content with people around the world…. Our songs and visuals are produced through a human-led, AI-assisted creative process. AI assists with voices, music, images, and visual production under human direction.” Again, there should be no misunderstanding that viewers question the faith or commitment of the creators of these productions. But many people think it is somehow creepy. (Or curious why all that technology and those efforts and apparently real voices are employed to substitute for… performances by real people.)

Its name also confused me a bit, and I learned that “Advent” refers to the producers’ affiliation with the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. Despite some points of heterodoxy, Adventists are regarded as largely mainstream Protestants. Ironically, Advent World does not list its relation to Seventh-Day Adventists. Where did I learn of its relationship? By consulting AI, Artificial Intelligence.

Yes, ironic; or, these days, appropriate. But is it dangerous?

What could be dangerous about AI?

Is it not a portal to greater understanding? Not necessarily: AI accumulates facts and shares knowledge… but is not an automatic dispenser of understanding.

Is it an aid to wisdom? Not necessarily: wisdom requires grounding, morality, and a perception of reality, none of which are imparted by clicks on a keypad.

Can AI be anything but a boon to creativity, social maturity, human progress? Not necessarily: the same promises were made when the internet itself came upon the scene, and more than half the “hits” dredge up bogus claims, political propaganda, and porn. Television was to be a blessing, but even in its early days the FCC Commissioner himself called it a “vast wasteland” and today it consists of mindless programming and seemingly endless commercialism. The “nuclear age” was to humankind’s salvation, and now…

None of these things are bad in themselves. But as Theodore Roosevelt said about the right to vote, “its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” Human nature is inherently evil – “deceitful and sick above all things,” Jeremiah 17:9 – redeemed only by Salvation in Christ; and therefore the greater social latitude given to people, the more dangerous (that word again!) and double-edged advancements like AI can be.

“Dangerous” is bad – AI puts thoughts in our minds and words in our mouths when we unhesitantly rely on it. But “Destructive” is even worse – AI discourages independent thought, research, and creativity. It will spread like a spreading stain.

For any sort of writing, from communication to scholarly papers to persuasion, AI makes us lazy. In politics, it substitutes for debate and the deep dives that vital issues demand of us. In religion, it can make a mockery of Faith – force-feeding matters of doctrine and belief. For those who seek the Truth, it tends to remove the “seeking.” It becomes Artificial Intelligence without the Intelligence – which is like being Godly without the God.

I will relate this to another contemporary term that insults our “intelligence”: Intelligent Design. If there is a design, there must be a designer, and the intelligence of a designer becomes almost irrelevant. That term seems to me “designed” to deny the presence, role, and work of Creator God. Another misuse of the word “Intelligent” to flummox otherwise intelligent people. Yet… many people are persuaded.

One of my favorite Gospel singers, Vestal Goodman, was also a mighty prayer warrior. She began many of her powerful prayers of thanksgiving, “Father God, how You must trust us…” and indeed the Lord does trust us, in many ways. He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell believers, so technically we earn God’s trust as His vessels precisely to the degree we yield ourselves to His Spirit.

That view of God’s trust is not to diminish God’s role, but in humility to acknowledge the source of our wisdom, strength, and spiritual initiatives. Yes, we can view it all, taken together, as intelligence in life.

But God sent the Holy Spirit to impart Real Intelligence. Nothing Artificial. Know the difference.

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Click: I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

8-17-26

My pastor years ago at the Assemblies of God church Christian Life Center outside Philadelphia, David Cawston, used this phrase to technically be polite but also to make an important point. And, perhaps, to wake up members of the congregation who might have been dozing. Or maybe to have some folks check their hearing aids.

Whatever. Sometimes we need the spit scared out of us; and even other euphemisms. And many sins or shortcomings.

Spitting is an odd topic for a spiritual essay, perhaps. But my immediate thoughts, or temptation to think, have been triggered by a spate of videos from Israel. Tourist photos, security cams, and amateur photographers have captured incidents of Israelis spitting on Christians.

They are identifiable by their peyots (sidelocks), kaftans, kipahs, etc. The images online and videos from around the world are of Christian clergy being spat upon; nuns being pushed to the ground and kicked; a statue of Mary having a cigarette pushed into her mouth; a statue of Jesus with His head knocked off; Christian churches being spat upon.

Of the many reasons that people choose to spit, absent chewing tobacco, the flu, and simple bad manners, the common purpose is to indicate disrespect.

One time I was invited to the Manhattan loft of friends, a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and his wife, Art Editor of a popular magazine, to answer a question that confused them. They are Jewish, and knew that I am a Christian. They had seen advertisements for Christian apparel with messages about Jesus spitting people out. I will spit you out. – Jesus. The passage, and context of the products, appeared serious enough, not irreverent, but seemed to my friends out of sync when attributed to a holy figure, the Son of God. Could I explain this apparent anomaly?

Well, that was an easy one. I was able to direct them to Revelation 3:16 (have you ever noticed how many important verses are in chapter 3s and verse 16s?) – Jesus tells the church in Laodicea, Because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Referring to the quality of people’s faith.

Jesus cannot be the only person who gets frustrated by apathy, indifference, hypocrisy, spiritual laziness, insincerity; or at the other extreme, arrogance, hostility, presumption, prejudice, self-righteousness, and a closed mind. “Lukewarm” specifically was a description of those who avoided reality and did not come face to face with the Gospel. It was to their own detriment to choose to be lukewarm in their faith. And if the Savior of humankind would feel like “spitting such people out of His mouth,” so should we. Such people… and each other; and ourselves, if applicable? No?

Yes, we must pray for the “lost.” Yes, we must lift up situations 70 times 7 times. Yes, pray without ceasing when we can. Is it Biblical to exercise “tough love” (the world’s terminology) in order to break through to some folks? Can we be frustrated when people are determined to avoid the Truth, even regarding their own salvation? – Jesus was frustrated, as we see rather explicitly.

And for other examples of spitting, we need not go far. Jesus was spat upon, and worse, while He was humiliated and tortured before He was condemned by the Jewish holy officials and executed by the Roman authorities. In Deuteronomy, Numbers, Job, and Isiah are examples of spitting as a severe sign of disapproval.

We should be conscious of people who spit on others, or on sacred symbols, as a metaphor for contempt. Perhaps, as increasingly in the news, these are veiled (?) warnings of rejection and violence, even in cultures that make public claims of tolerance.

Why have I been motivated this week to think about the ancient (but not extinct) choice of spitting on others? I wondered the same thing, but, well, these increasing numbers of news stories and images have disturbed me. What in the world is going on in the world?

As I have maintained above, in Jesus’s case His threat to feel like spitting lukewarm “believers” out of His mouth focused more on the deficient quality of their faith, not the people themselves. And as I have addressed, we pray for these people – after all, Jesus ultimately died for their chance at salvation.

So it is better to be a spitee, to coin a phrase, than to be a spitter. Neither condition is ideal in this broken world. Jesus referred to that act, but in a very specific context and justification.

The worst condition? Being lukewarm!

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Click: Not Lukewarm (Full Song)