Church uses ChatGPT for AI-generated service

The ecclesial community in question is United Methodist.

You could set up ChatGPT as a leader in a Unitarian Universalist community, and it'd undoubtedly find acceptance and even growth.

LLMs are indifferent and noncommittal about all these topics. Ask them about God, faith, religion, or spirituality, and the answers boil down to "there's no one right answer" and "some people say... but other people say..."

They've been pretty good at writing hymns. Just from nicking public domain lyrics and stitching them together like W. S. Burroughs cut-ups.

Deus Ex Machina

Humanity replaces all humans with AI generated beings who worship using ChatGPT

It's dangerous territory to get inspiration from a Large Language model instead of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for His Holy Scriptures but it should be the Scriptures that set foremost in precedence to other training material for a LLM if it is going to be used as a tool. Even then the proper way to get inspiration for a sermon is to pray and have a conversation with God about it, not a conversation with an AI.

I can think of many problems with getting inspiration for sermons from an AI instead of the Holy Spirit.

We don't want the pure and holy scriptures being subverted or interpretted by secular / political dictionaries, or corrupted by general internet corpora, political ideologies etc.

Also, consider this terrible scenarioo where a pastor may decide they want to get inspiration from the AI just because it makes them sound intelligent and they don't want to be embrassed, instead of relying on God for the inspiration.

But 1 Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

ChatGPT, just because it sounds intelligent is just a compressor - https://huggingface.co/papers/2309.10668.

The thing about faith is like the story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, faith sometimes requires holding-out for God, and getting inspiration through a chatbot is not doing that.

True transformation is only found in Christ. The Scriptures point to Christ.

To preach Christ crucified and resurrected is the only solution to a darkening world.

    Hebrews 4:12
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    For the word of God is living and active and
    sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing
    as far as the division of soul and spirit, of
    both joints and marrow, and able to judge the
    thoughts and intentions of the heart.

    (NASB)

The living Word is spiritual and speaks without the internet, and straight to the soul.

    John 16:8
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    And He, when He comes, will convict the world
    concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

    (NASB)

The Holy Spirit teaches, and guides. The Holy Spirit should do the teaching and certainly provide the inspiration, not ChatGPT.

I like the SwordSearcher project because they are drawing in theological dictionaries, which preserves the meanings of the underlying words. But these large language models such as ChatGPT don't really do that. We want to translate the Bible into foreign and new and evolving languages to help people understand the Bible and be led to the authentic Jesus Christ, not redefine the meanings of the passages in the Bible in terms of evolving dictionaries in attempts to change the Bible.

https://www.swordsearcher.com/resources.html

https://www.swordsearcher.com/video/index.html

LLMs are a convenience but they should not be used to generate sermons. To sound convincing is what politicians try to achive.

LLMs just as ChatGPT which are trained on the internet (untrustworthy information) generate coherent and convincing prose. But the Scriptures (God's Word, which is Truth) point to Jesus (the Word of God, who is the Truth). Prose generated from LLMs should be treated as impure and sermons should not use these AI systems for their inspiration. Rather, people should seek to hear from the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Holy Scriptures, and spoke through the prophets, and continues to speak to people.

    Matthew 15:8-11
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But
    their heart is far away from Me.

    ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as
    doctrines the precepts of men.’” After Jesus
    called the crowd to Him, He said to them,
    “Hear and understand.

    It is not what enters into the mouth that
    defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the
    mouth, this defiles the man.”

    (NASB)

    1 Corinthians 1:27
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    but God has chosen the foolish things of the
    world to shame the wise, and God has chosen
    the weak things of the world to shame the
    things which are strong,

    (NASB)

ChatGPT is trained on internet corpua. We don't want worldy ideologies creeping in to degrade the purity of the Holy Scriptures, thus correction comes from hearing and responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It's not good to get the inspiration for sermons from these disconnected language models, and automating that process sounds like an abomination.

    Jude 1:18-21
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    that they were saying to you, “In the last
    time there will be mockers, following after
    their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones
    who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of
    the Spirit.

    But you, beloved, building yourselves up on
    your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
    Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God,
    waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord
    Jesus Christ to eternal life.

    (NASB)

ChatGPT is of the world.

    1 John 2:15
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    Do not love the world nor the things in the
    world.

    If anyone loves the world, the love of the
    Father is not in him.

    (NASB)

    1 John 2:17
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    The world is passing away, and also its lusts;
    but the one who does the will of God lives
    forever.

    (NASB)

    James 4:4-5
    ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
    You adulteresses, do you not know that
    friendship with the world is hostility toward
    God?

    Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
    world makes himself an enemy of God.

    Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to
    no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit
    which He has made to dwell in us”?

    (NASB)