Leviticus 17:11 begins with, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood…” When I entered the College of Business the spring semester of my freshman year of college, one of the classes that I took was Introduction to Business. It was spring of 1997. I had to purchase a text book for the class. It was a very thick textbook that was three-holed punch so it would be carried in a large three-ringed binder. I don’t remember much from the text book or even much from the class except hearing stories about pyramid schemes and the professor’s side business. But there was one thing that was mentioned in the textbook that caught my attention and I never forgot it. It mentioned about a “computer” that could be purchased for very large companies that could theoretically reply back audibly to voice commands or queries. It stored considerable data and based on the available data, it would make determinations for the business, including “politely turning you down from a date”. I remember that statement decades later because I was very intrigued by an “intelligent” system that could reply back un-preprogrammed answers. Back then instructions were given and based on what was given and so it would give an answer (excluding math calculations) based on directly-programmed results. WYSIWYG stood for what you see is what you get. Secondly the “turning down a person to a date” captivated me because I already knew that after being shot down from dates, to then be shot down by a computer would be just too much for my fragile ego to take.
But from that time forward with the advancements from flat file (data retrieval) and pre-programmed responses, it wasn’t until I was near graduation or graduated when I heard of the terms “data silos” and eventually BI (Business Intelligence). The understanding was that data—however much that was prepared in columnar format—would be stored and then retrieved. With the advancements of technology such as SQL databases, larger storage drives, higher available RAM, and faster processors, what took perhaps hours or days of compiling to provide a result could take seconds to a few minutes to provide results. This then gave birth to search engines which made “educated” guesses based on vast and massive amount of data. Before this, a student’s choices for information were dictionaries, encyclopedias (it was bragging rights if the school’s libraries updated their encyclopedias often enough), newspapers, and magazines. For the most part, access to this data was whole dependent upon someone writing it down (in print format) to then be carefully searched. Then data became what was perceived as instantaneous, even enough to turn a person down from a request for a date. As the years went by, eventually a new term has taken hold: AI (Artificial Intelligence). And despite considerable marketing and advancements of “technology”, AI is nothing more than an array of systems working together to make guesses based on infinitesimal data inputted directly or surrendered into the systems (to that end, no different than its predecessor systems decades prior). Every game that is played on your phone is sending data back without the user knowing about habits, gender, likes, dislikes, play time, etc. Habits and trends educate people (and systems) to see patterns develop. That is a simplistic example of how AI can then make educated guesses to provide businesses with answers.
However, and very dangerously, AI is becoming a buzzword for churches. How to grow congregations, sermon prep, and even virtual preachers are the trends that some desire to take. And despite best attempts and best guesses, there are two things lacking.
The first ties back to the initial words of Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood…” The job of the shepherd (pastor) and under shepherds (elders, deacons, disciples in training to become a pastor) is to feed a congregation (Psalm 23:2 and John 10:9). This takes two things which are knowing what to minister to people based on the (1) needs of the congregation and environmental/worldly/secular things going on in the world. It is the job of these men to be sensitive to these matters and to care for the flock to make sure that they are not just protecting but also properly feeding what the congregations needs to consume (it isn’t all about fear and rules). The second is extremely important to involve and that is the Holy Spirit. Through Him, He guides and prompts people—leader and congregant—to biblically respond and prepare for life. And through this, Jesus’ life which was poured out for mankind (see Romans 5:5) on Calvary’s tree and through His resurrection we do not have doctrine or religion or mere words (data/information) delivered to us. We have the living Word (see Hebrews 4:12) with living hope that helps our lives to be alive in Him. It is truly the life of our flesh made alive—not dead—by the blood of Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 2:4-5).
This then brings me to the second part of that verse in Leviticus 17:11 and the second thing, “…and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Left to ourselves, we are all guilty as sin and there is no hope for us (see Romans 3:10-18, 23). And despite terabytes of data from multiple Bible translations, no AI will present a true answer. Cold and calculating answers through comments and guesses from people may provide a quick response, but AI doesn’t care about what is beyond the grave. Further—and despite this may be perceived by a conspiracy theory, there are facts to prove the following—man and machine have the power to allow and kick out whatever data and responses AI is programmed to give. And if conditioned to provide unclear or no responses concerning what hope is and what is beyond the grave, then we, as Paul said, are most pitiable (see 1 Corinthians 15:19). Death, if that was all there was to Jesus, would be no different than many other leaders who died or were martyred for their beliefs, teachings, and leadership. But Jesus’ death was different. Condemned people are to face their own punishment, but Christ took that in our place (substitutionary atonement, see John 1:29 and 1 Corinthians 15:3). But the living hope doesn’t end there. Through Jesus’ resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:4 and 20-28), we are not condemned people (see John 3:17), least of all without any hope (see 1 Peter 1:3-12) but are made alive because Christ proved He was God and showed He had power over sin and death (see 1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
A selfish person could receive this power and use it to his/her advantage. But praises be unto God, all of this is made available for who will receive this (see Romans 5:8-11) blessed hope. AI, Siri, Bixby, and any other technology may direct people to search, but through the Living Word (the Bible and Jesus Christ) we can truly find answers for our souls.