Author: David Ellis

Over the course of four Sabbaths, we’ve discussed some simple questions that have big consequences. We’ve asked: What is AI? What does it do to truth, trust, and community? What roles belong to intelligent machines, and what must stay human? We’ve acknowledged that today’s AI cannot be considered as a sentient being, let alone as…

Across this series, what I’ve been recounting is more than just a technology story: It’s a creation story. AI is a whole new kind of communication medium, because it talks back, it shapes our attention and even our cognition, and—if we let it—it can shape our spiritual life. We’ve examined AI’s “neo-oracular” role, which is…

We’ve looked at AI as the latest in a line of epochal communication technologies, each one reshaping human culture and spirituality. From the first spoken stories to printed scripture to the Internet, each shift expanded our capacity to seek, share, and shape meaning. Now, for the first time, we are in conversation not just with…

Last week, we explored the idea that artificial intelligence marks not just another technological development but an epochal shift that transforms how we think and increasingly, how we engage in spiritual inquiry. We traced the arc of human communication, from spoken word to writing, from printing press to the Internet, and finally to AI. Each…

With the demise of the dinosaurs, earth became humanity’s oyster. With Tyrannosaurus rex out of the picture, we were free to scurry down from the trees or crawl out of our caves to explore the world and get on with the business of not just surviving, but of developing our culture, and doing so in…

A note on citations: In preparing this talk I cited the sources for some of my assertions in endnotes. WordPress has stripped them out here. For anyone who wants to see them, I will send a PDF file that includes the citations and endnotes. I’d post it here as a downloadable link, but I don’t…

PrefaceBefore I begin, I want to say that I was greatly enlightened by Kiran’s history of Adventism in class last week. Afterwards, I was further enlightened, not to say shocked, when I watched the Ty Gibson video Kiran mentioned. All that enlightenment came at the cost of some dismay. It made me see that many…

Good morning, and thank you for joining me once again as we continue to navigate the intricate and often challenging terrain of the Book of Revelation. As I said last week, I am no theological expert on this complex text, and though I’ve come to appreciate Dr. Weaver’s warning about the “theological challenges” scattered throughout…

Fig. 1. Site of the coming final battle between Good and Evil: Tel Megiddo (a.k.a. Armageddon), containing archaeological remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Source: Avram Graicer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36308008 Good morning, and thank you for this opportunity to explore what global scriptural prophecies—particularly those from the Bible and most…