Omniscience of God

During a gathering of entrepreneurs in Las Vegas one of the speakers was a brand architect at Lego. During his presentation, he handed each attendee six Lego bricks. Then he asked them to estimate the number of unique combina¬tions that could be created with those six bricks. This sounded like a trick question, so one attendee aimed high and guessed several hundred combina¬tions. That left him several hundred million short of the actual answer!

Are you ready for this? The total number of possible permutations—six bricks with eight studs each—is 915,403,765. Nearly a billion possible permutations with six Lego bricks!

While the number of possible Lego combinations is mind-boggling, it pales in comparison to the sheer complexity and potential combinations found within DNA. Here's why:

Legos have a limited number of ways they can connect. DNA, on the other hand, uses four different "bases" (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) that can pair in specific ways. However, the sequence of these base pairs is what carries the genetic information, and this sequence can vary enormously.

A single strand of DNA can contain millions or even billions of these base pairs. A gene, which is a specific segment of DNA, might be hundreds or thousands of base pairs long. The number of possible sequences for a gene, let alone an entire DNA molecule, is astronomically huge.

To give you a sense of the scale, the human genome contains roughly 3 billion base pairs.
Even a relatively short gene of 1,000 base pairs has 4^1000 possible sequences (4 because there are 4 bases). That's a 4 followed by 1,000 zeros, a number far exceeding the number of atoms in the known universe!

Possible Preaching Angle:
The information encoded in DNA is incredibly vast and precisely organized, making the Lego analogy seem in comparison. It serves as a powerful reminder of the awe-inspiring power and intelligence behind creation and is a testimony to the purposeful Creator behind life.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

To give these verses some perspective, the distance from one side of the universe to the other is an incredible 93 billion light-years. Using this as our measure, God likens the distance between our thoughts and his thoughts to the distance from one side of the universe to the other.

To put that immense number another way, 93 billion light-years is 544 septillion miles (544 followed by 20 zeros). Even if we tried to travel from one side of the universe to the other at the speed of light (5.88 trillion miles a year), it would take an infinite amount of time. That's because the universe will continue to expand whilst you are travelling, even at the speed of light. So, the edge of the universe will remain forever sealed off from you — even travelling at the speed of light.

That means that your best thought on your best day is ninety-three billion light-years short of how great God really is.

Possible Preaching Angles: Greatness of God; Omniscience of God; Trusting God – The immense wisdom, insight, and love of God should calm our fears. You may not understand your current crisis and worry about the outcome, but God is in control, His love for you is everlasting, His plan for you will happen, and you can rest secure that your Father is watching over you.

Computers used for gaming include a graphics card (GPU) separate from the CPU (central processing unit). How many calculations do you think your graphics card performs every second while running video games with incredibly realistic graphics? Maybe 100 million calculations a second?

Well, 100 million calculations a second is what was required to run a Mario 64 from 1996. Today we need more power. Maybe 100 billion calculations a second? Well, then you would have a computer that could run Minecraft back in 2011.

In order to run the most realistic video games in 2024, such as Cyberpunk 2077, you would need a graphics card that can perform around 36 trillion calculations a second. This is an incredibly large number, so let’s take a second to try to conceptualize it.

Imagine doing a long multiplication problem, such as a seven-digit number times an 8-digit number, once every second. Now let’s say that everyone on our planet does a similar type of calculation, but with different numbers. To reach the equivalent computational power of our graphics card and its 36 trillion calculations a second, we would need about 4,400 Earths filled with people, all working at the same time and completing one calculation each every second. It’s rather mind boggling to think that one device can manage all those calculations.

Now, let’s move from gaming to the world of Artificial Intelligence which were trained using a large number of GPUs. A flagship Nvidia A100 GPU can perform 5 quadrillion calculations per second (a 5 followed by 15 zeros). In 2024, a medium sized AI will be trained using at least 8 GPUs. Very large models can use hundreds or even thousands of GPUs. In 2024 Elon Musk showcased Tesla’s ambitious new AI training supercluster named Cortex in Austin, Texas. The supercluster is made up of an array of 100,000 GPUs, each one performing 5 quadrillion calculations a second, using as much power as a small city.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Omniscience of God – While artificial intelligence has made remarkable strides, it cannot compare to God’s omniscience which far surpasses any human creation. He sees all, knows all, and understands the intricacies of every life. The hairs of every head are numbered (Matt. 10:30), the length of our lives is known (Psa. 139:16), and not even the smallest bird falling to the ground escapes his attention (Matt. 10:29); 2) Knowledge of God; Wisdom of God – AI can only process events after the fact, and perhaps anticipate some possible actions. But God knows all things, past, present, and things to come before they even happen (Isa. 46:10)

Editor’s Note: For an excellent statement of the omniscience of God, see A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, (Harper, 2009) p. 62 “He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn….”

The following 10 things will happen around the world every 60 seconds of this new year:

• Births: Approximately 250 babies are born worldwide every minute. (Source: Worldometers)

• Deaths: Approximately 105 people die worldwide every minute. (Source: Worldometers)

• Marriages: Around 116 people get married worldwide every minute. (Source: The World Bank)

• YouTube Uploads: Approximately 500 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. (Source: YouTube)

• Packages Delivered: Amazon delivers approximately 1,200 packages per minute. (Source: Amazon)

• Emails Sent: Approximately 200 million emails are sent worldwide every minute. (Source: Statista)

• Google Searches: Approximately 40,000 Google searches are conducted every minute. (Source: Google)

• Social Media Posts: Approximately 1.5 million social media posts are made every minute. (Source: Statista)

• Netflix Streams: Approximately 100 million minutes of content are streamed on Netflix every minute. (Source: Netflix)

• Twitter Tweets: Approximately 500,000 tweets are sent every minute. (Source: Twitter)

Note: These statistics are approximate and can vary based on various factors.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Divine Knowledge; Omniscience of God – The multiplied billions of events around the world each minute are no match for the infinite knowledge of God. With him, a day is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8), he has an infinite amount of attention for each person’s hopes, pain, thoughts, and prayers (Matt. 10:30; Luke 12:7). (2) Redeeming the Time—Ephesians 5:16 reminds us to make the most of the time because the days are evil. (3) Accepting Christ; Conversion—This can also be the moment when you turn from sin and give your life to Christ.

An investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde revealed a potential security threat for several world leaders. The confidential movements of France’s president Macron, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former president Trump -- even after two assassination attempts on Trump – were easily tracked online through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.

The security agents were found using the Strava app, which is primarily used by runners and cyclists to record their activities and share their workouts. The data it collects can also be used to track users' locations.

The newspaper identified a total of 44 U.S., French, and Russian security agents, all responsible for presidential security, who had public Strava accounts. Their movements, including professional trips, were therefore communicated online.

The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement to Le Monde that while staff are not allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty, “we do not prohibit an employee’s personal use of social media off-duty.” However, they added that “affected personnel have been notified" and that they "will review this information to determine if any additional training or guidance is required.”

These potential security breaches illustrate the risks associated with tech companies and consumer data. "Companies love our data, and we love the product, so we give away the data for free," said Ibrahim Baggili, professor of cybersecurity at Louisiana State University. "The government really needs to start cracking down on how data can be used and how long it can be retained."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God gives us the freedom to decide how to live, but we must consider how our choices affect others.

A report released by the New York City public school district alleges that school employees misused funds intended for homeless students' enrichment activities, including trips to Disney World, New Orleans, and other destinations. Six employees took their children or grandchildren on these trips, which were funded by grants specifically designated for homeless students.

Linda Wilson was identified as the key figure in this scheme. Wilson served the regional manager responsible for assisting students in temporary housing in Queens. The report alleges that Wilson not only took her own children on trips sponsored by grants for homeless students but also encouraged her subordinates to do the same. She allegedly told staff, “What happens here stays with us.”

To cover up the misuse of funds, Wilson forged permission slips using students' names and worked with an outside contractor to book the trips, flying under the radar of the less stringent oversight of community-based organizations. Had she booked directly through the city's Department of Education (DOE), she would’ve likely been caught sooner.

The investigation into this misconduct was initiated in May 2019 following a whistleblower complaint and concluded in January 2023. The report recommends the termination of Wilson and the five employees involved, and that the DOE seek reimbursement for all misappropriated funds. Both the DOE and the NYC Conflicts of Interest Board have accepted the report's findings and initiated actions accordingly.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God is deeply concerned with the welfare of the poor and oppressed. When those in positions of power misuse funds intended for the vulnerable, it is a grave injustice that God sees and will hold them accountable.

When jurors are seated onto a panel for a trial, they’re expected to assist in the pursuit of justice. But rarely does it result in a literal foot pursuit.

However, the trial of Nicholas Carter was the exception to the rule. The Portland Press Herald reported that 31-year-old Carter had just been convicted of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old when he attempted to escape custody by running out of the courtroom while his hands were cuffed.

Detective Jeremy Leal was present in the second-floor courtroom at the time. After Carter bolted, Leal and several judicial marshals immediately gave chase, following Carter down the stairs and toward the exterior door.

“All of sudden, we hear this huge bang. Crash. Boom,” said attorney Dawn DiBlasi. “And this guy comes running down the stairs. He’s handcuffed or shackled. He’s trying to escape. Literally, he’s got his hands on the railing, coming down, trying to jump three stairs at a time. His feet weren’t shackled.”

Security footage from the incident shows another attorney, who happened to be waiting in the hallway, attempting to thwart Carter’s escape, but he was unsuccessful. Carter eventually made it outside, crossed the street, and then tripped and fell in a yard.

That’s when he was apprehended by two other men, bystanders who just happened be to serving the court as jurors in a different case, according to Sheriff Dale Lancaster. As they held him down, Detective Leal was able to bring Carter back into custody.

Nicholas Carter now faces additional charges for the escape attempt.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just as this guilty man tried to run but was captured, there is no one fast enough or wily enough to escape the Lord’s judgment.

Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly, but eventually they do turn. Such was the case for Billy Ray Trueblood, who was finally sentenced in May of this year for charges in connection with the 2019 death of accountant Alex Reser. Authorities say that Trueblood sold Reser counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, which resulted in Reser’s death from overdose.

According to federal officials, the investigation zeroed in on Trueblood fairly quickly, as he was known for dealing opioids like Fentanyl. But they’d been unable to locate Trueblood until May of 2019, when one of the investigators happened to be watching the Portland Trail Blazers in an NBA playoff game and saw Trueblood captured on camera, seated just a few rows behind Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. Federal officials notified local police on hand at the arena, and Trueblood was arrested without incident.

At Trueblood’s sentencing hearing, Reser’s loved ones asked U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman for a harsh sentence. His father, Marty Reser, said in court:

[Alex] had so much to live for, but he died one day after we returned [from vacation]. For Billy, it was all about the buck … We were hoping for justice because our son Alex is not coming back … No one will ever again have the opportunity to spend time, create more memories with Alex.

Trueblood was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and four years of supervised release.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even when people think we’re successful at hiding from God, it’s all a fantasy. God knows us down to our core and there are consequences for sin. “… you may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).

Darkness captivates, baffles, and appalls us. It's a shifty thing of many textures, many moods, a state of fascination and of horror, an absence and a presence, solace and threat, a beginning and an end.

If you have ever been down a mine and been told by a guide to switch off your lamp you may feel like you have experienced it. But quantum physics has found that you are in fact surrounded by light you cannot see, for true darkness “does not exist.” Light particles—photons—exist throughout the known universe and beyond it.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Darkness is no impediment to our all-seeing God (Heb. 4:13). The One who created light (Gen. 1:3), sees all things (Prov. 15:3), nothing can conceal us from God, not even the deepest cave. Psalm 139:11-12 “… If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me’—even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.”

Bitcoin is a digital currency that promises complete anonymity for user’s transactions on the web. Among the users of Bitcoin are speculators who hope to profit from its volatility. Others like to use Bitcoin hoping to escape from the control of governments and central banks. A third group are criminals who use Bitcoin because they think it can provide them with anonymity when they buy and sell illegal goods, such as drugs, weapons, and hacking tools.

Sarah Meiklejohn, a UC San Diego computer science grad student, began to fill the shelves of a storage room in a building of UC San Diego with strange, seemingly random objects. A Casio calculator. A pair of alpaca wool socks. An album by the classic rock band Boston on CD.

Sarah was conducting a novel experiment to test Bitcoin's anonymity. She challenged the notion that Bitcoin was an ideal way to conceal one's identity and money online. She aimed to prove that Bitcoin transactions could often be tracked, even by users who thought they were anonymous.

So, she used her random purchases to test her theory and recorded all her transactions on a spreadsheet and checked the blockchain's public records. Her goal was to find patterns that would expose the owners and spenders of Bitcoins. She was confident that she could link those addresses to real individuals or entities.

Meiklejohn manually tagged hundreds of addresses with her transactions, which were a tiny fraction of the whole Bitcoin network. But when she applied her tagging, chaining, and clustering methods to the immense Bitcoin blockchain, many of those tags revealed not just one address but a huge cluster owned by the same person. With just a few hundred tags, she identified more than a million of Bitcoin's pseudonymous addresses.

In their final paper, Meiklejohn and her coauthors stated their conclusions: The blockchain was not untraceable, but a transparent ledger could expose large portions of transactions among people, many of whom believed they were anonymous. After Meiklejohn's work, a new era of cryptocurrency tracing began, and they would not stay anonymous for long.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Hiddenness; Omniscience of God - The belief that sins can be concealed is as old as the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve mistakenly thought that they could hide from God. In the same way, many people today believe that they can hide their activities from God and that they can do whatever they want without accountability or penalty. Their misplaced confidence will lead them to a shocking day of judgment at the Great White Throne of the all-knowing God.

News and concerns about Artificial Intelligence systems like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Bing AI Chat are all over the media. These systems are an unprecedented technological breakthrough and the consequences still unknown. What's amazing is that even the creators of these systems have no idea how they work.

NYU professor and AI scientist Sam Bowman has spent years building and assessing systems like ChatGPT. He admits he and other AI scientists are mystified:

If we open up ChatGPT or a system like it and look inside, you just see millions of numbers flipping around a few hundred times a second, and we just have no idea what any of it means. With only the tiniest of exceptions, we can’t look inside these things and say, “Oh, here’s what concepts it’s using, here’s what kind of rules of reasoning it’s using. Here’s what it does and doesn’t know in any deep way.” We just don’t understand what’s going on here. We built it, we trained it, but we don’t know what it’s doing.

Bowman is concerned about AI's unpredictability:

We’ve got something that’s not really meaningfully regulated and that is more or less useful for a huge range of valuable tasks. We’ve got increasingly clear evidence that this technology is improving very quickly in directions that seem like they’re aimed at some very, very important stuff and potentially destabilizing to a lot of important institutions. But we don’t know how fast it’s moving. We don’t know why it’s working when it’s working.

Bad news, your car is a spy. If your vehicle was made in the last few years, you’re probably driving around in a data-harvesting machine that may collect personal information as sensitive as your race, weight, and sexual activity. Volkswagen’s cars reportedly know if you’re fastening your seatbelt and how hard you hit the brakes.

That’s according to new findings from Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project. The nonprofit found that every major car brand fails to adhere to the most basic privacy and security standards in new internet-connected models. Mozilla found brands including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, and Subaru collect data about drivers including race, facial expressions, weight, health information, and where you drive. Some of the cars tested collected data you wouldn’t expect your car to know about, including details about sexual activity, race, and immigration status, according to Mozilla.

Jen Caltrider of the *Privacy Not Included project said,

Many people think of their car as a private space — somewhere to call your doctor, have a personal conversation with your kid on the way to school, cry your eyes out over a break-up, or drive places you might not want the world to know about. But that perception no longer matches reality. All new cars today are privacy nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information.

Modern cars use a variety of data harvesting tools including microphones, cameras, and the phones drivers connect to their cars. Manufacturers also collect data through their apps and websites, and can then sell or share that data with data brokers, law enforcement, and other third parties.

Possible Preaching Angle:

If this causes concern for every car owner and passenger because of the constant observation of our actions, imagine how aware we should be of God’s attention to all of our words, thoughts, and actions.

Baseball scouts are constantly looking for new talent, but Major League Baseball is now partnering with Uplift Labs, a biomechanics company, which “says it can document a prospect’s specific movement patterns using just two iPhone cameras.”

Uplift says it uses artificial intelligence to translate the images captured by the phone cameras into metrics that can quantify elements of player movement. It believes the data it generates can detect player’s flaws, forecast their potential, and flag their potential for injury.

Baseball scouts suddenly have a lot more information in their search for the mythical “five-tool player who has speed, fielding, fielding prowess, can hit for average and power and possess arm strength. Gone are the days when teams relied on a scout’s career’s worth of anecdata to determine how the player might perform at the big leagues.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, talents and liabilities. God knows us inside and out, better than anyone else, even ourselves or artificial intelligence.

George Orwell’s book 1984 is one of our society’s most frequently referenced illustrations of what life would be like under an authoritarian government. In the book, citizens of the fictional nation of Oceania are under constant government surveillance, including in their own homes. Devices called telescreens display propaganda and record peoples’ actions. This allows the government to monitor people even in what should be the most private place they know—their homes.

Historically in the US, the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the government, acknowledging the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects." It is a bedrock principle of the Bill of Rights.

But a new survey reveals that an astonishing number of Americans, particularly younger Americans, would be comfortable throwing this fundamental protection on the ash heap of history. The Cato Institute survey of Americans finds:

29% of Americans aged 18 to 29 respond affirmatively when asked, “Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity?”

20% of Millennials between the ages of 30 and 44 also want everyone watched.

However, among Americans 45 and older, support for such totalitarian surveillance drops considerably to 6%.

From Ivy League campuses to the digital domains of Facebook, there is an Orwellian sense of perpetual emergency. There is an irrational fear that misinformation and hate speech will overwhelm society unless every utterance is subject to a censor’s scrutiny.

If these trends continue, the US may confront a very different privacy landscape in the future. It is possible that at some point, the American public will be open to extreme government overreach.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christians might think that if we aren’t doing anything wrong what does it matter if we are being watched? But do you spank your children? Might some government official somewhere want to recast that as abuse? Do you teach your children that God made us male and female? Do you insist that marriage is between one man and one woman? What might some in the government think about that? To be constantly monitored is to be constantly assessed. And knowing, as we do, that our governments don’t measure right and wrong by God’s standards, we should fear the prospect.

Todd Brewer writes in an edition of Mockingbird:

Happy Holidays! Happy Advent! Happy Elf on the Shelf? Ha, there’s nothing happy about that Elf reporting every misdeed back to the big man at the north pole. This week, my daughter told me that her class’s elf on the shelf carries a Bluetooth Santa Cam, as if to make the Big Brother surveillance even more explicit. Perhaps it’s all fun and games … but the all-seeing Santa of the holidays can feel eerily similar to the Eye of Sauron.

Writing in Christianity Today, Russell Moore contrasts the watchful eye of the Elf-on-the-Shelf with that of God:

What stands out … is how strikingly more comprehensive the seeing of the God of the Bible is. Hagar … encounters God in the wilderness. “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’” (Gen. 16:13). This is a woman who is considered dispensable, no longer useful, and thus invisible to her community. But God sees her. She is not alone in the cosmos. His eye is on the sparrow, and his eye is on her.

Perhaps that’s why one of the most remarkable things about Jesus in his encounters with people … is his seeing them as they are, such as the private character of Nathanael: “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you” (John 1:48). After Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well, she tells her fellow villagers, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29).

This is not an Elf-on-the-Shelf religion; this is good news of great joy.

One day in 1995, a middle-aged man robbed two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight. He didn’t wear a mask or any sort of disguise. And he smiled at surveillance cameras before walking out of each bank. Later that night, police arrested a surprised McArthur Wheeler. When they showed him the surveillance tapes, Wheeler stared in disbelief. “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled. Apparently, Wheeler thought that rubbing lemon juice on his skin would render him invisible to video cameras. After all, lemon juice is used as invisible ink so, as long as he didn’t come near a heat source, he should have been completely invisible.

Police concluded that Wheeler was not crazy or on drugs – just incredibly mistaken.

The saga caught the eye of the psychologist David Dunning at Cornell University, who enlisted his graduate student, Justin Kruger, to see what was going on. They reasoned that, while almost everyone holds favorable views of their abilities … some people mistakenly assess their abilities as being much higher than they actually are. One study found that 80 percent of drivers rate themselves as above average – a statistical impossibility. This “illusion of confidence” is now called the “Dunning-Kruger effect,” and describes the cognitive bias to inflate self-assessment.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Hiddenness; Omniscience of God – The belief that sins can be concealed is as old as the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve mistakenly thought that they could hide from God. To their shame, they learned that no one can escape the all-seeing eyes of God. 2) Ego; False beliefs; Self-deception; Sowing and Reaping – An over-inflated opinion of oneself generally leads to a sudden reality check (1 Cor. 10:12; Gal. 6:7).

The week of Thanksgiving, Michael Larkin, in Hamilton, Ohio, answered a phone call. It was the local police, and they wanted footage from Larkin’s front door camera. Larkin had a Ring video doorbell, one of the more than 10 million Americans with the product installed at their front doors. The police said they were conducting a drug-related investigation on a neighbor, and they wanted videos of “suspicious activity” around his home. Larkin cooperated, and sent clips of a car that drove by his Ring camera more than 12 times in the requested time frame. He thought that was all the police would need. Instead, it was just the beginning.

A week later, Larkin received a notice from Ring itself: The company had received a warrant, signed by a local judge. The notice informed him it was obligated to send footage from more than 20 cameras—whether or not Larkin was willing to share it himself.

After sending the initial footage, Larkin started to find the police demands onerous. Larkin said, “He asked for all the footage from October 25.” Larkin said that he has five cameras surrounding his house. He also has three cameras inside his house, as well as 13 cameras inside the store that he owns, which is nowhere near his home. All these cameras are connected to his Ring account. He declined that request. He says his main concern at first was practical: Each clip would take up to a minute to download and send over.

Then he received an email from Ring, notifying him that his account was the subject of a warrant from the police department. This time, Larkin wasn’t able to choose which cameras he could send videos from. The warrant included all five of his outdoor cameras, and also added a sixth camera that was inside his house. It would include footage recorded from cameras he had in his living room and bedroom, as well as the 13 cameras he had installed at his store associated with his account.

Larkin, now incensed that police were requesting footage from inside his home for an investigation that didn’t even involve him. He said, “That’s the thing that upsets me the most—the fact that a judge just signed off on that. He’s just going to hand over footage of mine, and the case doesn’t even involve me in any way, shape, or form.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Government; Crime - The footage on Ring’s servers amounts to a large and unregulated web of eyes on American communities. This can provide law enforcement valuable information in the event of a crime, but also create a 24/7 ever-expanding web of surveillance operation that even the owners of the cameras aren’t fully aware they’ve helped to build. 2) Omniscience of God; Judgment Day - “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13).

Claude Vincent Griffin, 33, was arrested in early June after being identified in security footage of a burglary at a phone repair shop. Griffin was seen breaking the glass of a display case and pocketing several items. His feeble attempt at avoiding identification was foiled when the cardboard box he was wearing on his head tipped over and fell off.

Once Jeremias Berganza, the owner of Irepair Tech, saw Griffin’s face on the security footage, he immediately began asking around the shopping plaza if anyone had seen the man. Griffin was spotted shortly thereafter drinking with friends outside a nearby liquor store.

Police responded to Berganza’s call and arrested Griffin, charging him with grand theft, burglary, criminal mischief, cocaine possession, and resisting an officer without violence. According to Berganza, Griffin stole 19 iPhones and about $8,000 in cash, totaling about $15,000 in losses.

Possible Preaching Angle:

A thief might think that their disguise will protect them. But eventually, all masks will be stripped off and all deeds will be revealed before God’s throne of justice.

In an article written by Neil McArthur at the University of Manitoba, he said:

We are about to witness the birth of a new kind of religion. In the next few years, or even months, we will see the emergence of sects devoted to the worship of artificial intelligence (AI). The latest generation of AI-powered chatbots have left their early users awestruck —and sometimes terrified — by their power. These are the same sublime emotions that lie at the heart of our experience of the divine.

People already seek religious meaning from very diverse sources. For instance, there are multiple religions that worship extra-terrestrials. As these chatbots come to be used by billions of people, it is inevitable that some of these users will see the AIs as higher beings. There are several pathways by which AI religions will emerge:

First, some people will come to see AI as a higher power. Generative AI that can create new content possesses several characteristics that are often associated with divine beings:

1. It displays a level of intelligence that goes beyond that of most humans. Indeed, its knowledge appears limitless.

2. It is capable of great feats of creativity. It can write poetry, compose music, and generate art.

3. It is removed from normal human concerns and needs. It does not suffer physical pain, hunger, or sexual desire.

4. It can offer guidance to people in their daily lives.

5. It is immortal.

Second, generative AI will produce output that can be taken for religious doctrine. It will provide answers to metaphysical and theological questions, and engage in the construction of complex worldviews.

Third, generative AI itself may ask to be worshipped or may actively solicit followers. We have already seen such cases, like when the chatbot used by the search engine Bing tried to convince a user to fall in love with it.

Finally, AI worship poses several notable risks. The chatbots may ask their followers to do dangerous or destructive things, or followers may interpret their statements as calls to do such things.

Possible Preaching Angle:

False Religion; Idols; Idolatry; Technology – Since the Garden of Eden humans have been vulnerable to being lured away from worship of the true God. The sad history of mankind is filled with the creation and worship of idols made by human hands.

For years, Google Maps has offered Street View. Street View stitches together panoramic camera images to recreate a digital facsimile of the real world that you can explore online. Some people are discovering that if they scroll through the platform long enough and use a time travel feature, they just might find the image of a late loved one captured by one of Google’s cameras. Seemingly saved in Google Maps forever.

One post from UK-based writer Sherri Turner has already racked up tens of thousands of “Likes” on Twitter. She wrote, “I look(ed) at my mum’s old house on Google maps street view, the house where I grew up. It says ‘Image captured May 2009.’ There is a light on in her bedroom. It is still her house, she is still alive, I am still visiting every few months on the train.”

Google says the digital recreation of the physical world is powered by millions of cameras that capture multiple angles. While helping people remember dead family members isn’t really the intended purpose of Google Maps, a spokesperson said it was “heartwarming” that people were using the platform in this way.

But there’s more to the story than viral content. The images are a reminder that many people who show up in Street View don’t know their pictures are being taken, and the deceased have no say in whether or not their image remains on the service.

Google says it has systems in place for blurring out personally identifying information from passersby and license plates in the photos it takes. But clearly, some people can still be identified if a family member knows what they’re looking for. The enduring trend of finding lost loved ones inevitably serves as a reminder that Google plays a major role in documenting our daily lives over time.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Family; Resurrection; Second Coming of Christ – People find it comforting that they can see the image of loved ones preserved “forever” digitally. However, believers know that God has preserved not a picture but the souls of their departed loved ones and a great reunion is coming (1 Thess. 4:13-18). 2) Camera; Computers; Surveillance - Some people find these online images comforting, and some find them creepy. But it is a reminder that we can’t expect privacy any longer.