The Twilight of Being: Introduction
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Matthew 7:15-20
Matthew 7:15-20
Pray
Intro: Explain the intent of the dissertation.
My Degree
Dissertation: Praying about an issue to address in order to help equip the people of God with perseverance.
We are entering into a period of time in our human existence where technology is beginning Technology of AI
The Word of God warns us of this time.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
God gives us the instruction to be ready.
Click #1 and #2
2 Timothy 4:1-5- Be ready at all times to discern the truth.
2. Be able to recognize sound teaching.
Persevere in faith.
Because there will be a time where people will not endure sound doctrine.
There will be many who cling to the words of false teachers.
These false teachers will speak things that tickle the ears of those who are driven by self-ish desire.
They will reject the truth of God in exchange for lies.
They will turn aside to myths.
But God says to be ready.
Endure hardship for the sake of faith in the Name above all Names.
Preach and be ready to stand upon the immutable, eternal Word of God as a foundation of your being.
In the dissertation, I look at things taking shape in our world that have the potential to bring confusion to our identity.
This is the crux of the dissertation.
To look at alternative influences attempting to cause people to not know their true identity in Jesus.
This is a vital topic to consider given the period of time we live in.
We are entering into a period where we are inundated with competing voices.
Alternative forms of authority.
Vast sources to gather information.
These sources of information compete to distract us from who we are designed to be in the eyes of God.
If we do not know how to discern truth, we can get lost in the chaos.
Because of all of these false voices, the people of God must know the truth.
Click #3
3. We must know how to discern the authentic from the artificial.
As this becoming more difficult.
I wrote the dissertation to equip the people of God to know truth.
I wrote the dissertation in an effort to help all of us remember our true identity.
One who was created by God.
Defined by His authority.
It is Almighty God who defines His creation.
Not other humans or AI chat bots.
It is God Himself who declares our identity.
We are loved and Redeemed by our Messiah.
And equipped with His Holy Spirit to help us persevere as we declare His mercy to this fallen world.
We are to fight the good fight of faith and reject the lies of the enemy.
We are to fight the good fight of faith because we have a Savior who loves us.
We have a Messiah who went to the Cross for us.
We have a King who is victorious,
AMEN!!!
This morning, I am going to define terms.
The terms will help us understand some of the concepts I will address as we go through this series messages.
Explain humanity, free will, the capacity to choose.
Click AGENCY
Agency: The capacity to choose. To act to bring about the choice yet retain the sovereignty to alter the choice by an act of the will.
Humanity is a collective term.
Click Personhood and Self
Personhood: The locale of independent sentience within an individual human.
Self: The inward person. The place where we use the terms me and I.
Why define terms of our being?
Because of movement within secular humanity called Transhumanism.
Before defining Transhumanism I need to define Secular Humanism.
Click Secular Humanism
Secular Humanism: A progressive philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfilment that aspire to the greater good.”[1]
Secular Humanism suggests the Human is the salvation of the human.
There is no God.
We are required to research technologies that will enhance, improve humanity.
They see developing technology to improve the human condition as a way to continue the evolution of the human.
They believe, we have stalled in the process of evolution and it is up to humanity to continue the progression.
[1]“Humanism,” American Humanist Association, 2023, https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/definition-of-humanism/. Accessed on August 28, 2023.
Secular Humanism can serve a a larger category containing the movement Transhumanism.
Transhumanism is a difficult term to define in a brief capacity. It is difficult because it involve numerous fields of research.
Click Transhumanism
Transhumanism: “a movement predicated on the conviction that we should use technology to control the future evolution of our species.”[2]
[2]O’Connell. Mark, Ph.D. To Be A Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. (London, UK: Granta Books, 2018) p.2
From the Transhumanist perspective, human personhood and the concept of self is merely an expression of information.
Our mind is nothing more than a biological computer.
We are simply information.
The aspects of consciousness that we call the SELF is only an illusion.
They suggest that the brain stores information from experiences.
As the brain processes those experiences and memories, it produces the sense of consciousness.
As the brain experiences this sense of consciousness, it applies ownership to the memories and we think that we are independent selves.
But from their perspective, it is only an illusion produced by brain function.
They are working to develop technologies which will allow for Substrate-Independent Minds.
Click Substrate Independent Minds
Substrate-Independent Minds:
“operations available in a number of different computational platforms.”[3]
[3] More, Max and Natasha Vita-More eds. The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2013) pg. 146
They believe that we will eventually develop technologies to support brain function which has the capacity to produce the sense of self.
Click Whole Brain Emulation
Whole Brain Emulation: “Often informally called “uploading” or “downloading,” has been the subject of much science fiction and also some preliminary studies. The basic idea is to take a particular brain, scan its structure in detail, and construct a software model of it that is so faithful to the original that, when run on appropriate hardware, it will behave in essentially the same way as the original brain.[4]
[4] Sandberg, A. & Bostrom, N. (2008): Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap, Technical Report #2008‐3, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University. Accessed on 12/26/2022. https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/brain-emulation-roadmap-report.pdf
The brain can be scanned, uploaded and them run through any variety of devices.
The brain is only information stored.
Click #4
4. Consciousness is only the experience of information processing within the brain.
Personhood is a term used to define the function of an individual brain.
The self is not unique.
The self is not transcendent.
The self is not given nor is it defined by God.
Click #5 same slide
5. From the transhumanist perspective, the self is an illusion.
It is an illusion that can be altered, changed, manipulated.
That is why this ideology is so dangerous.
Because not only does it deny God, it denies the transcendent, unique identity given to each child of God.
It suggests that we do not have value or purpose.
This is why so many people struggle with identity.
As we are slowly being conditioned to perceive the self in terms given from secular culture,
There are so many people who are clamoring within this culture to find value in their identity.
This movement is clearly driven by the enemy.
It is a vile attack causing us to question the beauty of selfhood created in the image of God.
This is the crux of the book.
To expose these things and then bring truth to our true identity that is upheld by God.
Why take the time to identify the voices of the enemy attempting to cause the children of God to fall into confusion?
Because Jesus gives us this warning: Matthew 7:15-19
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Beware of false prophets.
Click #6
6. Matthew 7:15-20- Jesus gives us this warning because we are in the age of wolves.
Ravenous wolves attempting to make victims the people of God.
We are going to be talking about a number of false prophets, false ideas attempting to deceive the children of God.
Wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing presenting ideas to lead people into complacency.
This is where the wolves stalk their prey.
In complacency.
In a place where people are not watchful.
Click #7 and #8
7. These wolves hunt for those who are apathetic and complacent.
8. Unprepared and unwilling to take a stand in defense.
The wolves look for easy targets.
But Jesus gives us the instruction on how to identify the wolves.
Jesus instructs us: We will know the wolves by their fruit.
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
The fruit that is produced as a result of the lies.
We will examine the fruit of such wolves to help us determine truth so that we are not deceived.
Click #9 and #10
9. We are not without hope, because we have a Good Shepherd.
10. And our Good Shepherd equips us with the truth.
Not only do we have A GOOD SHEPHERD, we have a master Gardener who will cut down and burn all of the trees who produce bad fruit.
Benediction: Matthew 7:15-20
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
