Believers must ‘hold fast’ to godly things

By Bethany Riehl

I am not a robot.

But how do you know?

With new technology it’s becoming harder to distinguish truth from fabrication. ChatGPT is a language model that can write articles, essays, songs, poems, and books in seconds in such a way that it sounds very real. A pastor recently tested out the technology and his parishioners couldn’t distinguish the difference between his sermon and the one written by AI (artificial intelligence).

Deepfake is the most advanced Photoshop technology out there and can make it very hard to distinguish if you’re looking at a real video of that actor or politician saying that audacious thing or if it’s fake.

I will say it again, I am not a robot.

Trust me.

When I first heard of these new advances, all I could think was, “It’s going to become more and more difficult to distinguish truth from reality.” It’s going to get even uglier in our world than it is now, and truth will be very hard to come by. But God is gracious and faithful.

For the Christian, we don’t need to worry about AI as much as we need to guard against spiritual deception. It’s vital that we cling to the truth at all cost. “Hold fast” appears 28 times in the ESV Bible.

In Luke 8:15, when Jesus explains the parable of the sower and the seed, He says, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

Romans 12:9, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

1 Thessalonians 5:21, “…but test everything, hold fast to what is good.”

Hebrews 4:14, “… let us hold fast our confession.”

And what are we holding fast to, ultimately? Deuteronomy 13:4, “You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.”

We’re warned by Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and Jude to not be deceived or led astray in the last days. Check every statement about God and His Word with the Word – go to church, take your Bible, keep it open.

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).

The danger Christ warns us about is not against our government, conspiracies, or sicknesses – it’s against deception that undermines and takes our focus off of the gospel. It pulls our eyes from Christ and sets them on the world.

We are here, Christian, for the purpose of knowing Christ and making Him known. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (1 Timothy 4:8). Don’t worry about all of the craziness; “the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponent with gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:24, 25).

Our King is coming; hold fast. Endure to the end. n

Bethany Riehl lives in the Treasure Valley with her husband, three kids, and one super chill dog. She writes articles and fictional novels when she can, and her one desire is to point others to the love and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Her books can be found on Amazon or at your local library…after you request them to be in stock, of course.