In the church I pastor, we have homesteading courses, classes that teach, canning fruits and vegetables, building a pantry. The kind of skills your grandma taught you or used to teach you. Somebody recently asked me, is this church a prepper church? So, I thought about that question, and today, I want us to talk about the difference between being a prepper and being prepared.

Les Sillars, “Visions of the Apocalypse”, September 2025.

Carolina Lumetta, “Prophetic Foreign Policy” , September 2025.

Kim Henderson, “Beans, Bullets, and Band-Aids” , January 2025.

“Tortured fear and stupid confidence are the preferred states of mind.” That’s a remark from Screwtape, the demon, in C.S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters.He’s advising a younger demon on the mindset that they want to create for humanbeings. Either a tortured fear of the future, a sense that we’re living in Hell, or a stupid confidence that feels like we’re smart enough to create Heaven. The devil is satisfied with either of those approaches because they’re both different from what God has for us, to walk in the moment in His presence. It seems to me that this comment from Screwtape Letters is applicable tothe whole subject of artificial intelligence. Because we live in the tension between those who tell us that it is the greatest thing ever, that we are going to revolutionize mankind verses those who say the machines are coming and the Terminator series will no longer be science fiction, it’s real. The truth is somewhere in the middle. And so we need to talk about artificial intelligence, for one more week, to answer the question, “Can it be used to advance the Kingdom of God?”

Brad Littlejohn, “The right’s looming war over AI”, September 29, 2025.

Isaac Willour, “A reflexive fear of AI doesn’t serve Christ”, August 21, 2025.

Matthew Branaugh, “Generative AIIs All the Rage. Handle With Care”, July 25, 2023.

I want to return today to the topic of artificial intelligence. I want to spend one more week looking at warnings about this technology and then next week we’ll circle back around and we’ll look at the way this technology, this burgeoning technology, can be used by Christians. We don’t need to be afraid of it; we just need to understand where the boundaries are. And so, we’ll get to how we can use AI and how it can be profitable to the kingdom of God. But today, let’s look at additional warnings.

Juliana Chan Erikson, “Are AI toys safe for children?” December 15, 2025.

Daniel R. Suhr, “AI’s newest advance: necromancy?” November 25, 2025.

Brad Littlejohn, “Just say no to AI toys,” November 13, 2025.

Erin Hawley, “Your teenager’s new BFF,” September 25, 2025.