TWO ABSOLUTE GUARANTEES FOR THE REST OF HISTORY
Hope for us who are "one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind."
I probably read an incredibly profound article about the future of the world every couple of weeks, right now. Not only is the wave of A.I. development drawing people “out of retirement” to offer their perspective, but the singularity of the “event” is so strong that there’s genuinely a lot of good material to read on our cultural moment.
Take a quick gander through the virtual halls of X or Substack, and you’ll find plenty of perspective.
There’s no denying we are in the advent of something.
The likes of which we could draw parallels to the printing press, the airplane, the internet… Pick an example, I’m not really a history & technology buff. I’m just saying it’s probably big.
If you don’t think A.I. already has and is leaving an incalculable mark on the world, I’m not really sure what to tell you. Granted, I live in a sort of bubble and use it quite regularly. Actually, that’s probably not the best word to describe my anecdotal evidence. ChatGPT’s version of Spotify Wrapped last year said I was in the top 0.1% of its users. Whether that’s true or not, I have no way of knowing, but I can confess that it feels true.
As a writer, it would be foolish, or even asinine, to avoid it altogether. But it’s genuinely helpful in more ways than just vocationally or creatively. ChatGPT alone is causing a sweeping shift in how people get information. A 2026 study found 37% of consumers now begin searches with AI tools rather than traditional search engines.1
Why scroll a website with the nuisance of pop-up ads to get a pancake recipe when my little app on my phone can break it down for me in two seconds? Why get on a Bible app for a particular verse when I can look it up in Chat or Claude, but then also follow up with questions about it? I have used it (for better or for worse) for everything from writing to medical advice to having it help me defend my worldview.
So what in H-E-double-hockey-sticks is going on?
Honestly, I’m not entirely sure other than the word “CHANGE”.
I do think the world, Western culture in particular, and the United States, even more in particular, is going through change. There’s been huge news this week. I don’t mean more on Iran. I don’t have a clue what to think. I’m thinking about Starbucks.
I got a LinkedIn email this morning (yes, that formidable and horrible professional networking site with its egregious way of changing your friend’s voice into corporate-speak that you and I both cannot stand) that said Starbucks is relocating its corporate office to Nashville. Yeah, you and everyone else, Starbucks. In-N-Out just opened in Franklin last week or so. Its headquarters is well underway right next door to its newest location at the booming intersection of Berry Farms and Lewisburg Pike. I moved here two years ago for the start-up that I was a part of at the time. Almost everyone I know is a migrant to the area.
Speaking of change.
I was listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear on my drive to “the office” yesterday, clearly trying to change some habits myself. In any case, he mentioned something vaguely to the effect that psychologically or physiologically, when someone is an expert in something, they can recognize authenticity in things, even though the reason for being able to do so is essentially unverifiable. That’s wild. Think a subject-matter-expert on Monet or something like that.
I don’t know if it makes me an SME on A.I. writing, but I do find it fairly easy to recognize. You probably do, too. And boy oh boy does familiarity breed contempt in this regard. I genuinely dislike A.I. writing. I hate hearing a sermon that has relied on it too heavily. I loathe the Instagram posts I see that are riddled with all the clues and cues of some lazily thrown together slop for whatever reason(s).
Even now, I have to really limit my relationship with it so I also don’t slip into the easily recognizable features of LMM writing. No, not the em dash (I think or at least hope it will make a comeback). I’m talking about contrasting statements (it’s not ‘X’, it’s ‘Y’), the short, pithy sentences, the altogether “perfect” phrasing, the lack of active voice, and honestly just words like “not, shared, quiet, and together”.
I say all this to say, though I am no expert—in fact, I regularly reckon with the fact that I have no specific expertise—I do have something I want to say.
TWO ABSOLUTE GUARANTEES FOR THE REST OF HISTORY:
“Give me a candle and a Bible, and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you what the whole world is doing.”2
As I was looking for a source for this quote, a Reddit commenter was profusely declaring their disdain for this “fundamentalist garbage”, because “of course the Bible doesn’t tell us everything”.
That’s true, and that’s a long-time affirmation of the most faithful to Scripture. To believe in the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture—at least in part—doesn’t mean thinking the Bible teaches us about advanced mathematics (for example), but rather that it is true in all that it does teach.
In this regard, the quote is true. More than I recognize A.I.’s sloppy writing, I believe I am a subject matter expert on the condition of the human race. That’s no boast. If you’re a Christian, you are, too. Let me explain.
I can tell you that no matter the time or place in history, people will be sinning. “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Tim. 3:2-5).
I can also tell you that people will be undergoing great change: they will be radically saved by Jesus and be ever-increasingly changed from their former life and self to the radiant and glorious image of Christ.
If you have been wrenched from the pit of sin and death, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you have struggled with sin for years and, in a moment/moments of mercy, experienced the goodness and grace of God and have been “set free,” you know the richness of the Lord and his gospel that all your brothers and sisters do, too.
I don’t have the faintest idea what all the change of the world is going to amount to. Whether it’s A.I., new wars, or the long-term psychological effects of social media, I can see that there’s probably going to be some change. Honestly, I read other people’s writing and realize that I am truly an idiot. A fool who has squandered opportunity, experience, education, time, resource and more. But even if I am the fool, hopefully, a fool for Christ.
I do think we’re at an advent of sorts. I see the signs. I don’t know why big corporations (good ones like In-N-Out and horrible ones like Starbucks) are moving to Nashville. Not really. I mean, I get the tax implications, and the opportunities, and the upside—all that makes sense. But I’m not really sure “why” change is happening.
I have no idea what the potential of A.I. will be. I’m sure I am, “one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind.”
Whether we are at the cusp of dystopia or utopia, the third temple and the anti-Christ, or the technological version of the industrial revolution, I am certain of some “certainties”.
If you have some real skin in the tech world, or theology, or church, or if you’re a business guru, or historian, this may feel like a cop out. But I think there’s always a deeper truth worth remembering: “a deeper magic that the witch doesn’t know about,” as it were.
The truth is, regardless of the way or how fast the wheels of time begin to turn, they are fundamentally tethered to the axis of all history: the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The future will look likely unrecognizable to us, and in many ways that the experts can all discuss, but I’ll tell you this: people will still be sinning, and people will be getting saved. Change is going to happen either way. Some will become less and less themselves, and some will be radically changed into their truest selves—united with their Creator and God.
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:51).
Here’s what Chat said Search Engine Land said (lol): https://searchengineland.com/consumers-start-searches-ai-not-google-study-467159?utm_source=chatgpt.com
This is either John Owen or J.C. Ryle or neither, but probably one of them, and no one can really figure it out.