Friday, September 18, 2026

0:00It's Friday, September 18, 2026. I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Here's a question posed by the economist in London, Will Chatbot supplant the advice of e-moms and priests or help them spread the word? Now because this is the economist, it's that kind of secular news source, it's going to look at religion as religion. Maybe as Christians understand this, not the way we see the landscape. It's not the way we would define this theologically, but nonetheless, it is interesting. So e-moms, priests, and preachers, the question being posed here by the economist is whether we're about to be replaced by chatbots. Okay. So why would this question be raised? Well, it is because we're now looking at a situation across the culture in which chatbots are replacing human contact for a lot of people. We're not only looking at that, we're not only looking at Americans really distancing themselves from face-to-face conversation, conversation with human beings and holding their phones

1:03and spending their attention span on their phones. It is also the case that increasingly they are relating or think they are relating to chatbots. Now, in coming days, we're going to talk about some of the huge theological issues invoked in that kind of perception of a relationship. This comes down also to questions such as whether or not artificial intelligence has consciousness. We'll talk about that. The answer is no, but we'll talk about why at another point. But the issue here is asking whether or not chatbots are going to replace preachers, that's basically at our pastors. And then they go on and say, is that going to come in such a way these chatbots help or will they be seen as basically just a reshaping religion? Well, I'll just simply say that from a Christian perspective, religion is religion. In other words, just the sociological reality of religion, it's something that may change in any number of ways. The question for Christians, of course, is what is authentic Christianity? What is it called for? What is faithfulness in terms of historic Christianity?

2:04It's a very different thing. All right. So Pope Leo has mentioned his own concerns about artificial intelligence and relationships by human beings with these chatbots. And something I'm going to say, Pope Leo, the 14th is right to have those concerns. I think, frankly, he's too optimistic in some ways. But I also think it's very interesting that you have the Pope issuing this rather authoritative, at least in terms of the Catholic Church, this authoritative manifesto, which is known as an encyclical. And the reality is it's had 0, 0, 0, 0 effect on the entire field of artificial intelligence. And so it is very interesting. Not even the Pope seems to be making a material difference here. By the way, when it comes to Roman Catholics, they now have a chatbot known as Magisterium, artificial intelligence, quote, a chatbot that draws on a curated library of Catholic doctrine and scholarship, end quote. Now just talking about the practicalities of artificial intelligence, that's kind of the lowest level, where artificial intelligence is basically sorting materials. It's sort of like a search engine that's a lot smarter than the average search engine.

3:09And so you will see with artificial intelligence offered by Google and others, you now have searches that are coming back with a lot more depth, a lot more explanation when it comes to that search process. On the other hand, we need to understand there's something far more ominous going on here. It's concerning now the Mormon leadership. Mormon leadership says, hey, there's a problem here. And so the Mormon church, according to this article, is discouraging sermons written by AI because, quote, people ought to use their own feeling and inspiration end quote. And I'll simply say, for an evangelical perspective, what's missing there, of course, we understand that what we're talking about Mormonism, what's missing there is the evangelical scripture principle. When the entire task of the preaching ministry is not to be feeling and inspirational, but rather rightly to divide the word of truth and rightly to preach the inspired, in errant word of God. But it is interesting that it is a similar kind of parallel concern here. And that means that, by the way, according to Christian theology, according to the New Testament, preaching is to be an event, an embodied event in which a man of God called to this

4:12task opens the word of God, reads it and explains it, expounds it and presents it to Christ people. That's what is to happen in preaching. It's not to be merely some kind of artificial intelligence substitute. But you know what I want to say, having watched this world for a very long time, I've been a part of it. There have always been temptations to preachers to cut corners. There have been published sermons, printed sermons, books of sermons. It's always been a temptation to at least, let's just say, preach something like someone else preached in the past. Now when you learn from other preachers, that's one thing, but when you just borrow their material and presented it as your own, that's a clear problem. But when you're looking at the contemporary situation, you're looking at the fact that we're way beyond reading out of a book. We're now talking about artificial intelligence, not just even regurgitating text and collating it, but artificial intelligence creating new documents. And as a Christian and as a Christian theologian, it is set to tell you, it is very ominous

5:12to imagine that the day is coming or maybe it's already arrived when some churches are going to be hearing from the one they know is the preacher, something that was entirely created by, generated by, artificial intelligence. We're being told here that that kind of thing's already happening. Now it is interesting that a lot of different religious groups, and I mean very different world religions, at least see this as a big issue. You know that's very different than the way Christians need to see it, because preaching, which is the first mark, the preaching of the gospel is the first mark of the church that was affirmed in the Reformation. It's very clear. The first mark of the church is the preaching of the Word of God. And that's where we understand this is something that is absolutely essential to biblical Christianity. Now one of the interesting things is that when you look at sacramental churches and you look at churches where you have a more priestly ministry, preaching is often not central. It is absolutely central. Now it is interesting. You have some Catholic authorities say, you know, we don't see that as a massive danger here, because so much of the priestly ministry is about the sacraments.

6:13It's not about just a homily or a sermon. But you know, for Evangelical Protestants, this is a far larger issue. We need to hear, we're desperate to hear, the church is fed by the preaching of the Word of God. And that means authentic preaching coming from the heart of the preacher and offered from the pulpit to the congregation as a gift. You know, another part of all of this is the fact that there are some preachers and I'm just going to say this. There are some preachers who have gone so far as to create chatbots of themselves answering questions. One of these made National Public Radio and it was exactly as described here. This preacher has put his stuff out there on an AI platform so that you can have questions asked by the congregation that the AI chatbot answers. I can just tell you that even if that answer is accurate, that is not a model of New Testament ministry. It is lacking the entire personal dimension. It is lacking the accountability of the word being shared, a question being asked and

7:14a response coming heart to heart, soul to soul, not just screen to screen. Okay, there is something else that's embedded in this that deserves our attention. It's a very different dimension of this. It has to do with this report. It's in the economist. Here's part of it. A recent analysis by the economist found that open AI's models were more secular than respondents in any country on earth. That means that you're looking at 150 questions about grief, relationships, morality, and other personal or ethical problems are sent to 27 LLMs. Large language models, that's basically AI platforms. Quote. In a forthcoming paper, it describes how they invoke religion in only 5 to 16% of answers even though people it surveyed, as I said, that religious ideas would be relevant in 45 to 59% of cases. End quote. Okay, so this is the old computer language, GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. It turns out secular in, secular out. And so you're looking at Silicon Valley, which is unusually secular in terms of its worldview.

8:16It's sometimes more than secular, you know, human longevity of very interesting secular forms of thought. But it is very interesting that the economist found it interesting and tells us that open AI's models more secular than respondents in any country on earth. And my guess is they're not far off from many of the other platforms as well, large language models. Now we are living in a new world. And once that's true, but Christians have to keep in mind all the old questions remain. All the old truths are established. When it looks like big things are happening, this is in particular the most important time for biblical Christians to keep our wits about ourselves and in combination with the congregation. And in concert with faithful Christians all over the world to say, if no one else remembers how this is supposed to be done and how we are to think, Christians have no choice but to be faithful. Generation to generation, regardless of platform, regardless of technology, regardless of the existence or non-existence of chatbots, the assignment to preachers is to preach the

9:20word in season and out of season, not to ask a large language model AI platform for a sermon and preach what came out of artificial intelligence. It should take only a bare minimum of Christian intelligence to know that is not what preachers are called to do. By the way, it is also a warning to people who aren't preachers who are just members of congregations, Christians out in the world don't look to a chatbot for a conversation you should have with a pastor or elder in your church. All right, we're going to have other developments like this that are going to require our attention. This one is particularly important because it was taken up as a question by the economist. If the economist is interested in this, dear Christian, we need to be much more interested in this. All right, now let's turn to questions and I appreciate all questions. I really do. I appreciate all the questions that are sent in. It's an honor that you would entrust these questions to me. I want to be a good steward of these questions and that means not only in how I answer them,

10:21but in what questions we're able to take. I'm going to take a question here first today about someone who's writing me with some problem with something I've said. This is a concern sent in by a woman a listener. She says, quote, I wish you would acknowledge that some Christians have a deep desire to be married and wish they had had the opportunity to be parents, but that's not the life God gave them. I'm a Christian single woman in my late 40s who would love to be a mother and a wife, and you're a accusatory tone about delayed marriage as if it was always a choice is so very hurtful. I mean, not every Mary, but I've accepted that God doesn't promise marriage. God has been so good to me, but he hasn't given me a spouse or children. She says she's written before and this one now comes to my attention and she says, and I quote, sometimes you are hurtful and you're assumptions about people who are single adults. Okay, let me tell you what I appreciate. I appreciate the candor. I'm glad to hear from a sister in Christ and to hear with this kind of candor.

11:22I also want to do the right thing. I want to not only say the truth, I want to say the truth in the right way. I have tried, at least I have thought I have tried, and at least I have some track record for talking about the fact that when I address these issues to the people who are acting and thinking this way, I'm addressing this admonition or exhortation to the people who are acting and thinking that way. And so now I'm dealing with a woman writing in to say, I don't think that way. And it's a very sweet letter. And I appreciate so much the trust placed in me and even sending this letter. And this is a good reminder to me to be really careful of how I speak. I'm speaking not of those who just aren't married and aren't parents. I'm talking about those who have made decisions about choosing something else rather than being spouses and being parents. And I followed basically a secular logic in doing so. And so let me tell you, this question comes before me today. And it's the first one in my stacks, first priority. And it is interesting because just two days ago, I had a conversation with one of the leading

12:26religious sociologists or sociologists of religion in the United States. He had asked for the conversation based upon a book he's writing. And it was about Christians and increased marital rates and increased birth rates. He was asking for an explanation in the connection. And you know what? I think I was very careful in that conversation to meet the concerns of the woman who has so kindly written in, so directly in this letter. I wanted to say, and I did say, this is not in many cases a personal choice. It is in many cases simply a life circumstance. And I'm thankful for every Christian. And one of the points I made is that the church is about the only place on planet Earth. And you could add the extended family. And so in so far as you have healthy extended families, this can happen. But in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the families belong to the whole church. The children in one sense belong to the whole church. They're part of the fellowship of the whole church. And so one of the glorious things I see in so many Biblically ordered churches is that there are women who are not wives and they're not mothers or maybe they're wives and not

13:28mothers. And they are often just absolutely involved in the lives of families and children. And it's just, it's just the glory of God. You look at that. And so I want to be clear, I think it's a huge problem. And in many cases, we're talking about a spiritual problem and we're talking about what amounts to a revolt against a rebellion against creation order. This letter reminds me to make very clear that I'm not talking about all unmarried women or unmarried people. I'm not talking especially about those women who are not mothers. I am saying that where that is a choice, where that is traceable to a secularized worldview, where that is traceable. And that's the big issue I want to say. And that is that it is such a big problem that I have to talk about it. It is such a huge issue. So I was talking to again, this sociologist just two days ago. And one of the points I was trying to make is that a return to biblical Christianity into creation order is leading to the fact that you have so many young people, Christian

14:29young people getting married and becoming parents. And I just want to point out that's a glorious thing. Now here's the other thing. And I think this is clear in the scriptures. It's clear in the scriptures. And that is that a priority is given to telling Christian parents how they are to live and how they are to raise their children in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. And so then there is, especially in the New Testament, this beautiful eclacia, this beautiful picture of the church made up of a body of believers. And so we need to exhort young people to do what they need to do in faithfulness and young couples to do what they need to do in faithfulness. And I thank you for this letter. And I want to say I certainly didn't mean to be hurtful in any way when I talk about those who are willingly unmarried by choice and who are childless by choice. I'm talking to the people who are defined by choice. I recognize that there are many others, brothers and sisters in Christ who are not defined by that choice. It's good for me to say that out loud.

15:30I want to thank you again for this letter. I'm going to try to be just absolutely constant and self-monitoring about how I speak about this. But when I speak, I am going to speak enthusiastically and urgently to Christian young people in the main. I need to get married and get about the task of creation order in having children and raising them in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. Okay. Next I'm taking a question from a young man who's considering a call to ministry. But it takes a while to get to that in the way he tells his story. He says I'm a very active member of a Southern Baptist church in Oklahoma. And during the school year, he serves as a piano player and music director to church there in the state as he's a student. He says he is at a major university, majoring in agribusiness, pre-law, a minor in political science. He says the plan I have had for myself for a very, all of this caps, by the way, very long time has been to go to law school and then hopefully pursue a career in politics. But then he writes about his deepening relationship with Christ.

16:31His deepening passion for the scriptures and the Christian worldview. And then he writes this quote, all this to say, I'm no longer sure I should go to law school. I can't seem to get seminary off my mind. He says Southern in particular, I appreciate that. He says I truly believe I would enjoy seminary 10 times more than I would law school. I also had the joy of preaching a few times over the summer. And he says that quote, all three times my feet did not touch the ground until the sermon was over. Then he asked a great question. This is a great question. Quote, how do I know the difference between a passion and a calling? Okay, I want to tell you that I have no idea how to make the difference between a passion and a calling. And it is because my understanding of the way God works in exercising his will in us is that he makes us passionate for that which he calls us to do. So I want to tell you to this young man who sent in this question, this is my story. I really thought I was headed into law. That's really where I thought I was headed.

17:32And by the way, I'm just as fascinated with the laws I ever was. It probably comes out in the briefing. And frankly, if I could fulfill multiple professions all at once, law would be one of them. And by the way, that goes back to the medieval university law, medicine and theology, theology, the Queen of the Sciences. It's all together. It's all a part of the comprehensiveness of biblical truth. But I want to say this. I had the same issue. Why is it that all of a sudden when I was about 18 years old, I started having this fascination with preaching. Where's that coming from? I wanted to hear preaching. I wanted to hear more preaching. I was growing in my faith. I was growing in interest in theology and doctrine and in preaching. And then I found myself imagining myself preaching. And I started talking to people. My parents, I godly parents, my father, just a godly father talking to him about this. I went to talk to the youth pastor and he said, I've really seen this for a long time. I think you're called to the Christian ministry. Would you talk to my senior pastor who loved me? He was this very, very clear. What I wish one of them has said to me is that this desire is a godly desire.

18:36And it doesn't come except from God. So in other words, the desire to preach. And by the way, it's not alone. It's not alone. This is where Charles Spurgeon, the great pastor in London, was so helpful. He wrote a book entitled Lectures to My Students and it came from lectures to his students. They're in the pastor's college. And one of the things he dealt with is the call to ministry. And one of the ways Spurgeon really helped to recalibrate my understanding of these things is to say Satan doesn't give people the desire to preach the word of God. So that is a good desire. It's a good thing. Paul says that to Timothy. It's a good thing. Now is it your calling? Well there are objective criteria found in scripture about that calling. I believe it is men, Christian men who are called to preach. It is those who are of good reputation. You know, husband of one white, just go down the list. Just look at the letters from Paul to Timothy and Titus. You know, you have a clear, there's an objective set of criteria. And by the way, Charles Spurgeon said one of the objective criteria is able to teach. And so, you know, he said, you'll quickly find out if a young man is called to preach

19:39because he's going to be able to stand up and say something. You know, and actually teach and preach the Bible. There are subjective moral, I don't mean subjective in terms of the moral reality, but I mean, it takes Christ people perceiving whether or not this is a young man who had a quick character in conviction. And so all of that means, I mean, just tell you, I am in no position to articulate to you the will of God. I can tell you, I don't think that I don't think that God gives you a desire to do something. He's not calling you to do. So that's the bottom line. That is the great comfort of my life. When I was young, I came to this conclusion. Number one, the apostle Paul says, it's a good thing to desire to be a pastor. That's a good thing, he says, to Timothy. It is a good thing. That doesn't mean that everyone perceives that rightly, but you know what? The people around you say, I think this is right. You meet the objective criteria for the call and God puts this passion in your heart. I'm going to tell you, I think that is a very confirming sign.

20:39And by the way, this doesn't mean that you lose all interest in everything else. It just means that God has put a burden on your heart. I think that is central to the call to preach. And I just want to tell you, I connect to this so readily because this story is almost exactly my story. And I'll simply say to this young man, and you know who you are, I will hope that you and I get a chance to talk about this in person. And we would certainly love to have you right here at Southern Seminary. You will be in very good company. Okay, finally for today, I want to tell you, this is one of those questions that could take a very long time to think about because it's just so big, there's no short answer that can really suffice. However, this is a situation that requires an answer. And it requires us thinking very carefully, this is a young Christian man who's married and they're expecting as a couple, their first child. And he says, I love this. While I am beyond excited, if I'm myself thinking ahead to a difficult situation in my immediate family, this stems from an already difficult family dynamic.

21:40Okay, let me just say that's not an unusual Christian predicament. I want to say to this young husband and father, the predicament you say without even saying what the particular difficult situation is, I can simply tell you, difficult situations are they abound. They are plentiful throughout church history in many different ways. But then he describes what this difficult situation is. It's a younger sister transitioning, he puts that in quotation marks appropriately, from female to male and claiming a transgender identity. And then this young man asks, how should a Christian think about this kind of family situation? And how can I navigate it in a way that shows both grace and faithfulness to my family? What responsibilities do I have as a father to establish boundaries around which my child is exposed to things while still loving and honoring a family member with whom I profoundly disagree? How to hold my Christian convictions? Love my sister. Make wise decisions as a father without acting out of fear or a resentment. You know, if this were easy, I wouldn't address it. It's hard and it's complex.

22:42But you know what? I am so comforted by the fact that this Christian, a young father, husband, really has a very clear set of Christian convictions to know what the issues are. I'll tell you right away, that's like the huge achievement up front. You know what the issues are. How can you show Christ love? How can you tell the truth? How can you protect your child and yet be a brother to your sister? And you know, I have no quick easy answer to that other than talking about it out loud this way is exactly what's going to be required. And that does not mean that when your child is an infant, the child is going to have any understanding of all these things at all. But it does mean that over time you're going to have to tell the truth to your child about things in such a way that you model for them Christian compassion and Christian truth telling at the same time. And you know, I think in many families, you have a situation in which the person who is claiming to transition makes demands and sets down parameters that simply don't work.

23:46I think there are some families, I'll say I think not Christian families, who just blow up over this and then there's no lover concern that is expressed. Now, when I look at this Christian young man, I appreciate the fact that he loves his sister. He clearly does. And he loves his sister as a sister. And I think it's wonderful that he and his wife love Christ. And obviously they already love this baby. The Lord's giving them. They want to raise this baby in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. I think a lot of this stuff is what you can think about ahead of time. A lot of it is going to have to be worked out day by day, hour by hour, maybe even minute by minute in the context of how you relate to your family, to your parents, to your siblings, to this sister. And of course, how you raise your child in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. I think understanding that there will be some instantaneous moments where there are going to be some hard decisions to make. And yet there's also a longer period of time when you model your love for your sister as your sister becomes itself a part of your testimony to Christ in the gospel.

24:51But there is no sense in which I think Christian parents can participate in the conspiracy of a lie to any extent. And I do not at all discount or minimize the challenge that Christians face in this. I can still be tell you that in virtually every church, this is now a part of some Christian families experience. And if not now, then I think I say this with sadness, I think pretty soon. And so we're all going to have to think about this. But I appreciate this young man's biblical clarity and Christian witness. I so appreciate his concern for his child. And I appreciate also his love for his sister, you know, somehow, somehow Christians call to faithfulness in all these different contexts. I have to find a way to be faithful in all of them simultaneously. I think this is a part of the confusion of our age that is showing up in, let's just say moral situations and pastoral quandaries that no previous generation faced. We do. So let's face them talking out loud and seeking to be absolutely biblical in the way

25:55we think. Send in your questions. It's right me at mail at Albertmolar.com. I'm glad to hear from all of you. And we look forward to talking about what you want to talk about in a future edition of the briefing. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at Albertmolar.com. You can follow me on x or twitter by going to x.com forward slash Albertmolar. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to spts.edu. For information on voice college, just go to voicecollege.com. I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.