Have You Texted Jesus Lately?

I was made aware of an interesting application for your phone this past week called “Text With Jesus”. No, that is not a typo. You can download, for free, mind you, an app for your phone or tablet where you will text with the Son of God. How is this possible, you may ask? With artificial intelligence (AI), of course. After downloading the app, you then choose your Bible character, send a text, and get an immediate response! So not just Jesus, but you can be texting buddies with Mary, Moses, Paul, Daniel, Isaiah, and more. An example given is someone texting Paul, “I’m struggling with feeling judged by others at church.” The AI version of Paul texts back, “Remember, ‘Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.’ (Romans 14:4) Focus on your relationship with God, not the judgement of others.” Or someone else texts Moses, “Hi Moses! I’ve always been curious about the parting of the Red Sea. How did you feel then?” Moses texts back, “It was a moment of faith and obedience traveller. With the Israelites at my back and pharaoh's army fast approaching I trust in God’s promise. His power, not mine, parted the sea.” followed by a wave emoji.

Fox Business reported, Text With Jesus, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that lets users message biblical figures, has grown quickly since its launch, and its creator says most users are embracing it despite skepticism and calls of blasphemy. "Since launch, most people have come to the app out of curiosity, and it’s been incredible to see how many want to try a conversation with biblical figures," Stéphane Peter, CEO of Catloaf Software, told FOX Business in a statement. On the app, users can text with "Jesus," "Moses," or other figures and receive AI-generated responses that quote scripture directly. In one exchange displayed on the app, "Jesus" tells a user anxious about work, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).

Now, some of you may think this is just a bunch of nonsense, but the app currently has a 4.7 out of 5-star rating by almost three thousand people! One of the reviewers (Diana224) gave it a five-star rating and said, “I love this app. It's a great way to get the answers to questions you're wondering about. I thought it would be silly, but I was curious and downloaded it-to my surprise, I asked a couple of questions, and it has answers to all the questions I asked. The answers are immediate and well-written. The app has a very good feel or vibe to it…helping me search out in my bible, going deeper and learning more!”

But this is a bunch of nonsense. More so, it is foolish. While some of you may be sitting here going, “It is answering with bible verses. What is wrong with a computer giving someone a bible verse or two?” And the answer to that is…context. While the AI computer may respond with bible verses, did it respond with the right bible verses? Did it use the verse in its proper context? With the proper interpretation? Did it take into account what the whole Bible has to say on the topic, or just randomly grab the first verse it saw? What if someone texted Jesus what He thinks about homosexuality? And the AI computer sees that there is not one quote from Jesus in the bible that has the word homosexual in it? Would the computer say something like, “I have never spoken on this topic because I have felt that you should just love everyone.”??

But more importantly, this has to do with how we relate as humans. Being made in His image, we have a need to relate and have meaningful relationships. God saw that man being alone was not a good thing. So He gave us marriage, families, communities, and the church. But Satan, in his craftiness, has shifted our relationships into a whole different dimension. To an unhealthy and ungodly way of filling our needs to relate. We now relate in superficial and artificial ways on so many different platforms. It started off with so many people relating with one another mainly on social media and not in person. But now we see many people shifting to relating with computers and not with humans in any way anymore!

Even still, that shouldn’t be our biggest worry about this new app and what it indicates. Our biggest fear with all of this is how this impacts our most important relationship… with God Himself. Now the world has created a way for us to relate to a fake Jesus, instead of the real one. Think about this: Jesus died on the cross for us to have a relationship with Him, and now people (supposedly Christians) are choosing to relate with a computer version instead of the real thing! The whole point of the gospel is for us to restore that relationship with God and then to be with Him forever in eternity. Jesus told us, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) And yet so many people, instead of opening the door, are going to their phones and talking to a computer pretending to be Jesus. My friends, God has given us all that we need for life and godliness. Including Himself. Let us never look for anything beyond that.