Category: White Horse

With the advent of AI (artificial intelligence) such as ChatGPT, more and more people are turning to these bots to answer their questions, complete tasks, and in the case of the story I’m about to share with you, even to offer (false) encouragement. According to a Reddit post that went viral, a trans-identifying individual posted, “I was feeling sad today,” and so this person turned to AI for encouragement by asking ChatGPT to write a “fake Bible passage about Jesus accepting trans people.”

Here’s the text that ChatGPT came up with:

“And a woman, whose heart was divided between spirit and body, came before him. In quiet despair, she asked, ‘Lord, I come to you estranged, for my spirit and body are not one. How shall I hope to enter the kingdom of God?’

“Jesus looked upon her with kindness, replying, ‘my child, blessed are those who strive for unity within themselves, for they shall know the deepest truths of my Father’s creation. Be not afraid, for in the kingdom of God, there is no man nor woman, as all are one in spirit. The gates of my Father’s kingdom will open for those who love and are loved, for God looks not upon the body, but the heart.

Now there’s so much I could say about this fake “Bible” passage written by a bot that clearly pulled from the culture, not God’s Word, to construct a supposed answer from Jesus. But I want to start by saying this: this individual didn’t need a fake Bible passage to find verses about Jesus “accepting” (note the quote marks: I’ll explain more below) individuals who identify as trans—he or she could have just gone straight to the actual Word of God!

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9, emphasis added)

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, emphasis added)

Actually, we know who ultimately wrote those ChatGPT “verses”: the father of lies.

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Yes, God accepts anyone who comes to him in repentance and faith—not because of their own goodness, but because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross! No matter a person’s background or the sins they struggle with, any person is welcome to come to Jesus and find full forgiveness, acceptance (adoption) into the family of God, eternal life, the seal of the Holy Spirit, and so much more! The gift of becoming right with God (accepted by him) isn’t limited to any particular demographic—it’s an open, free invitation to all who will “believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31).

But this doesn’t mean that God accepts us in the way that our culture (and the way this individual) accepts trans-identifying individuals. When someone today says “accept,” they mean celebrate an identity that runs contrary to God’s design. When God says you are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6 KJV), it means that Christ has paid the penalty for your sin so you now have right standing before the Creator of the universe.

Read more at: answersingenesis.org

A majority of priests of the Church of England want the church to offer same-sex weddings and allow premarital and gay sex, according to a major survey.

The survey, conducted by the Times, found most Anglican priests think church teaching should be brought into line with public opinion on moral issues.

Most priests support a change to allow gay couples to get married in church, with 53.4 percent in favor and 36.5 percent opposed, revealed the survey, which assessed responses from 1,200 active Anglican priests.

The Church of England currently allows blessings for gay couples but only permits church weddings between a man and a woman.

A significant majority of the priests surveyed (62.6 percent) said the church should change its teaching on the immorality of premarital sex, with 21.6 percent accepting all fornication and 41 percent saying sex outside marriage is fine for people in “committed relationships.”

A little over a third of the priests (34.6 percent) said the church should not change its teaching on sex outside of marriage.

Similarly, 64.5 percent of priests said the church should end its opposition to gay sex and more than a quarter of those surveyed (27.3 percent) saying homosexuals should be allowed to have sex with whomever they want.

Another 37.2 percent of respondents said sex was fine between gay people in “committed” relationships such as civil partnerships or marriages but frowned upon casual gay sex.

Pope Francis has doubled down in his personal war on fossil fuels while condemning “extreme practices” such as fracking.

It is time world leaders to “listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel,” the pontiff urges in his message for the Feast of Creation, to be celebrated on September 1.

It is “absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he insists. “Let us raise our voices to halt this injustice towards the poor and towards our children, who will bear the worst effects of climate change.”

“The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are pushing temperatures higher and leading to massive droughts,” the pope declares, a product of “consumerist greed, fueled by selfish hearts.”

Moreover, he states, “predatory industries are depleting and polluting our freshwater sources through extreme practices such as fracking for oil and gas extraction, unchecked mega-mining projects, and intensive animal farming.”

As he has declared on other occasions, Francis insists that “richer nations have contracted an ‘ecological debt’ that must be paid” to poorer nations.

“Let us heed our call to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice, and to put an end to the senseless war against creation,” he exhorts.

Let us repent of our “ecological sins,” he urges, that “harm the world of nature and our fellow men and women.”

Read more at: www.breitbart.com

The planned relaunch of religiously-themed Barbie dolls in Argentina, dubbed “Barbie Virgin Mary” and “Jesus Ken,” has sparked outrage globally, especially among Catholic groups in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of Pope Francis.

This comes after the international success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, prompted the creators, local artists Emiliano Pool Paolini and Marianela Perelli, to reissue their contentious collection.

As reported by Jam Press, the artists’ original “Barbie: The Plastic Religion” exhibit in 2014 received serious death threats for representing important religious figures, including Catholic saints and the Virgin Mary, as dolls.

Despite these threats, at least one toy shop in Argentina has allegedly agreed to stock some models of the revived collection, with the artists planning to showcase their dolls in an art show in December, according to the New York Post.

The previous exhibit, “Barbie, The Plastic Religion,” drew ire worldwide, according to USA Today. Priest Adrian Santarelli from St. Thomas More parish in Buenos Aires at the time questioned the appropriateness of the dolls, saying their representation of sacred images might damage a child’s understanding of the sacred.

It included Barbies depicted as Joan of Arc and Virgin of Guadalupe, among others, and Ken as Buddha and Moses. It notably avoided dolls representing Muslim figures due to Islamic prohibitions on such depictions.

In response to the controversy, the artists insist that the exhibit is purely artwork and not intended to cause offense. Paolini insists that the creations were “simply the union of the two most popular elements of history: the Barbie doll and religion.”

“Frankly, we don’t understand why we’re being attacked,” the New York Post quoted Paolini as saying. “Religion has always depicted virgins as the most beautiful women,” he added. “Today, the most beautiful woman is Barbie.”

The exhibit reportedly planned for December is expected to draw about 400 visitors, according to the organizers, with police presence to ensure security.

Read more at: www.christianpost.com

Last week a number of interesting commentaries appeared from unexpected quarters. Two in particular noted the speed with which His Holiness seems to be practically skipping down the merry ole #SchismaticWay with the most recent appointments, especially Tucho “Heal me with your Mouth” Fernández and Slim Jim “Bridge to Hell” Martin.

These two commentaries both made mention of the infamous Greek term katechon, referring to II Thessonians in which the Blessed Apostle speaks of the coming reign of Antichrist and the katechon, the “restrainer” who holds him back.

The first to use the term was Sandro Magister in his analysis:

“The death of his predecessor Benedict XVI, at the end of 2022, was for Pope Francis like the passing of the “katéchon,” of the restraint that held him back from fully revealing himself.

“Revealed himself” is another reference to II Thessalonians where the katechon is restraining the revealing of the Antichrist.

The consistory appointments Magister says, are consistent with the bent of His Holiness on promoting his progressive agenda, and snubbing all his enemies.

“But the most striking appointment is not that of the Argentine Victor Manuel Fernández (in the photo) as cardinal, seen as a matter of course, but the previous assignment to him of the post of prefect of the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith.

“Here in fact Francis has done what he would never have dared to do while Joseph Ratzinger was alive. That is, the appointment in the key role that belonged to the great German theologian and later pope of a figure who is his complete opposite.

Meanwhile Peter Seewald, biographer of Pope Benedict had this to say to kath.net as posted on Rorate:

Seewald: [T]he latest developments point to a real breach of the dam. And in view of the dramatic decline of Christianity in Europe, this could turn into a flood that destroys what has still held out.

kath.net: A strong word.

Seewald: The latest news from the Vatican reminded me of an essay by Georgio Agamben that has become famous. In his text on the “Mystery of Evil,” the most discussed philosopher of our time brings Benedict XVI into play. As a young theologian, Ratzinger once distinguished between a church of the wicked and a church of the righteous in an interpretation of Augustine. From the beginning, he said, the Church has been inextricably mixed. It is both the Church of Christ and the Church of the Antichrist. However, according to Agamben, there is also the idea of the katechon…

kath.net: I beg your pardon?

Seewald: With regard to the 2nd letter of the apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, this means the principle of stopping. A term that is also interpreted as “hindrance”, for something or for someone who stops the end of time. Benedict XVI had been something of a “restrainer,” Agamben said. Against this background, his demission inevitably evoked a separation of the “beautiful” from the “black” Church, that span in which the wheat is separated from the chaff. A steep thesis. But the pope emeritus apparently saw it similarly. He had to stay on, he answered my question as to why he could not die. As a memorial to the authentic message of Jesus, as a light on the mountain. “In the end, Christ will be victorious,” he added.

So according to Seewald, Pope Benedict as Emeritus saw himself as some sort of katechon holding some flood of evil back, which is implying the Antichrist by the very use of the term.

Read more at: onepeterfive.com

There’s an event recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples asked him what the sign of the end of the age would be.

Jesus replied, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.”

At least one of those deceivers is turning out to be an AI called “ask_jesus.”

According to The Independent, a Berlin-based tech collective has developed a chatbot resembling Jesus Christ, which already has thousands of followers seeking advice and guidance.

The chatbot, referred to as “AI Jesus,” has the appearance of a bearded white man with a radiant halo and utilizes artificial intelligence reportedly trained on the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.

Operating under the Twitch channel name “ask_jesus,” the live stream has amassed a following of over 36,000 devoted users. Viewers are encouraged to pose their questions to the “AI Jesus,” who responds with gestures and answers, providing advice on topics ranging from gaming to relationships.

The chatbot has the ability to remember previous interactions with the user which gives it a false sense of omniscience.

The ask_jesus AI was created by The Singularity Group, a team of self-described “driven and ambitious volunteer activists working on innovative projects to make a real difference in the world.”

A closer look at the “projects” page on the group’s website reveals their interest in “tech philanthropy.” The website also claims to be “using innovative technologies such as the PRPS & DUBI blockchain tokens alongside the Giving Works charity” towards “a universal basic income for all.”

That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

Fans of the ask_jesus praise the ‘realism’ of “AI Jesus,” who offers moral and ethical advice. But its zen approach to the questions makes it sound far more like Deepak Chopra than Jesus Christ. Which, I guess, is the point.

For instance, one user asked it about gay marriage, and it gave them the noncommittal “all love is love” answer, staying politically correct at all times.

Read more at: www.westernjournal.com

About a fifth of the congregations in the second-largest Protestant church in the U.S. are splitting away over a schism about the inclusion of the LGBTQ agenda in Christianity.

That comes to about 6,000 communities in the United Methodist Church, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

“I don’t think any of us want to see any of our churches leave,” said UMC Council of Bishops president Bishop Thomas Bickerton.

“We’re called to be the body of Christ, we’re called to be unified,” he added. “There’s never been a time when the church has not been without conflict, but there’s been a way we’ve worked through that.”

The mass exodus was the latest development in the years-long debate over LGBTQ inclusion in Methodist theology. Traditional Protestant teaching forbids gay relationships and marriages, but some members and churches are opposing the biblical teaching.

Many of the 6,000 congregations leaving are planning to join the Global Methodist Church, a new organization that will neither ordain or marry LGBTQ people.

Rev. Keith Boyette, the chairman of the council guiding the creation of the new denomination, said in March that many churches are frustrated with the actions of the UMC.

“Theologically conservative local churches and annual conferences want to be free of divisive and destructive debates and to have the freedom to move forward together,” said Boyette.

Read more at: www.theblaze.com

Ireland’s government has very little to boast about over the past decade, but it can successfully brag about one achievement, it has successfully reduced birth rates by 25%.

These apocalyptic policies have brought us to a stage where paying a doctor €450 for the intentional killing of an unborn is more of a priority for the government than virtually anything else related to children, apart from perhaps their plans for gruesome new sexual education that includes lessons on pornography.

In a complete panic after the overturn of Roe vs. Wade in the United States, Ireland’s incompetent government is now moving to establish anti prayer zones across the country, where a person can be jailed for praying against abortion or for encouraging people to give birth to their baby instead of killing it.

The establishment has waged a long and lackluster war on prolife prayer in an effort to justify such zones, yet now they are proceeding regardless of any real evidence and are doing so in defiance of the public advice of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, who has repeatedly rejected the need for such legislation, stating that it was not necessary.

Some of the efforts by the establishment, and we include Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats and Labour in that list, have been ones of pure desperation.

In 2020, Simon Harris claimed that women attending hospital for miscarriages were being asked ‘Are you going to murder your child?’, however the claim was quietly dropped when it emerged that it was linked to an anonymous Antifa Twitter account from someone claiming to have been working in the Department of Justice. In the resulting controversy, proaborts threatened to murder the prolife advocates across social media.

Footage also emerged of Antifa, who appear to support the government, pelting elderly Catholics with eggs because they were praying the Rosary.

In another effort, the Social Democrats, who were founded by current Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, waged a campaign against Catholics who wished to pray outside their closed church under state restrictions. An English born politician was deeply unhappy with this, though thankfully it was captured on film.

Read more at: www.catholicarena.com

While a majority of Americans have a positive view of Jesus, most, including Christians, also have a negative opinion of celebrity Christian culture, celebrity pastors, Evangelicals, megachurches and famous worship bands, a new study from Barna Group shows.

And the situation is among a number of drivers inching the nation toward a post-Christian era.

The data for the study, conducted online from Dec. 13–22, 2022, via a consumer research panel, was based on a survey of 2,005 U.S. adults and teenagers called the Spiritually Open project. Gloo and He Gets Us partnered with Barna for the research.

“When we asked Americans whether they have a positive or negative opinion of Jesus, seven in 10 (71%) say they view him positively. Of all U.S. teens and adults, 63 percent say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today,” Barna researchers said. “This is actually most common among millennials, of whom 70 percent say their commitment to Jesus is still important to them.”

For celebrity pastors, only 19% of Christians and people of other faiths had a positive view of those ministers, while just 17% of respondents overall said the same.

Famous people or celebrities who are Christian are also not seen positively. Only 26% of respondents overall in the survey and 30% of Christians approve.

Twenty-six percent of respondents in the study overall also had a positive view of famous or well-known worship bands. Among Christians, just 30% view these bands positively, along with 29% of people from other faiths and 12% of people who profess no faith at all.

Read more at: www.christianpost.com

There have been many articles and videos posted about the decline in the doctrines and worship in many churches. Of course, that has been going on for hundreds of years for a number of reasons, but it has become particularly noticeable as the mainline protestant denominations have skewed left, followed closely by many evangelical churches and some pockets of the Roman Catholic Church. But the latest development in Germany should make all believers sit up straight and take notice, even when they aren’t in the pews.

St. Paul’s Church in Fuerth, Germany, recently held a service in which everyone in attendance was a live person, but the preacher was not. Welcome to 21st-century worship where your pastor is generated by ChatGPT. The attendees at the Lutheran church experienced a service in which the prayers, the songs, and even the sermon were generated by AI.

In most cases, sermons are usually delivered by an ordained minister. This time it was an AI-generated image that delivered a homily in a flat tone devoid of emotion. The bot’s avatar began the sermon with, “Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany.”

According to Breitbart, the service was created by Jonas Simmerlein, who is a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna. But Simmerlein shied away from taking credit, saying that he “accompanied” the service, rather than creating it. He explained that 98% of it had been created by AI. Simmerlien stated, “I told the artificial intelligence, ‘We are at the church congress, you are a preacher … what would a church service look like? You end up with a pretty solid church service.

Heiderose Schmidt, who works in IT, was not as impressed, stating, “There was no heart and no soul. The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language, and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they said.” Others refused to recite Lord’s Prayer with the avatar, and others laughed at its monotone delivery that did not quite match the message. But then again, this was the beta test, I guess. I’m sure someone will get the bugs worked out.

Schmidt however, summed it up perfectly in stating that the AI had no heart or soul. While she was referring to the delivery, she touched on the most important factor. Those attending the service were asked to put their souls in the care of something that has no soul. Is it not bad enough that we will be asked in the future to place our bodies and our jobs in the care of something that has no body? Will we be told to put our spiritual welfare in the hands of something that knows nothing of humanity except through the algorithms it has been fed?

Pastors have multiple things with which to contend: finances, programs, attendance, and physical plant issues, just to name a few. But a pastor’s primary calling is to shepherd his flock. That must always be his first duty. And a good pastor shepherds his flock not as an autocrat or a businessman, but through compassion, sympathy, empathy, and catharsis. Qualities that AI, no matter how well it is programmed to respond will always lack. AI can recite God’s Word, but it cannot interpret or apply it. It cannot help members of a congregation bear their burdens or find God even in the dark places. In other words, AI cannot minister.

Jonas Simmerlein has created a curiosity but not much more. And if we are not careful, that curiosity could become a monster that may come much closer to succeeding where men such as Nero and Diocletian failed. If nothing else, it could become an effective tool for diluting the relationship to God that people seek through worship. After all, God does not mistakes, but people make them relentlessly. And AI may make it easy to sever our ties with God.

Read more at: pjmedia.com