The Magical Bible
Welcome back to “Sins of the World.” I’m taking a deeper dive into the words of Galatians 5:19-21 to talk about what we need to avoid and how they can lead us to the Fruits of the Spirit. In Part 4, we talked about idolatry. Idolatry is defined as the respect, trust, or service given to any one thing or person instead of God. Idolatry violates God’s unique worth and glory, and deforms the image of God instead of conforming to believers. Today, we see idols in our world, including money, power, pleasure, and ideologies. Through Colossians 3:5, Paul shares with us the danger of allowing desires for material things to take over our relationships with God. We broke up three common idols that occur in our world today – consumer, digital medias, and nationalism – to see how we can ground these idols in to God, recognizing gratitude, achievement and social justice.
In Part 5, we’re going to talk about sorcery. Yes, the world of magic. There will be no Harry Potter business happening here though, for sorcery may not mean what common media says it means. We’re going to see the impact of sorcery in the ancient Jewish world and see what that impacts with us today.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you think of sorcery and the Bible, what comes to mind? Is it positive or negative?
Magic Manifested Among Us
The Greek word that Paul uses for sorcery is pharmakeia (farm-mak-i’-ah). It’s defined as the practice of manipulating human life or circumstances through potions, drugs, or magical arts from the living God. You may this word is close to our modern word “pharmacy.” This word does descend from the same ancient root word, but it does not concern legitimate medicine. The concern of sorcery is using substances or rituals to gain unlawful spiritual power or to deceive. Outside of this verse, it’s used one other time in the New Testament and it’s our focus verse today, Revelation 18:23.
Now, sorcery was forbidden in ancient Israel. Scripture condemns anyone who attempts to manipulate spiritual forces. In the first century, paganism normalized blending medicine, magic, and religion. People sold potions for love, revenge, or protection. Cults used hallucinogens to induce visions. The New Testament writers saw these practices as spiritually destructive, showing that the healthiest path of life is through the Holy Spirit.
Sorcery can be seen through multiple lenses. It represents a self-willed attempt to control our destiny rather than submit it to the Creator. It entices us by promising hidden knowledge or power, but yield bondage. It can fracture a relationship between our neighbors. We must seek to understand the modern equivalents of what sorcery looks like, how we can break free of the addictions to it, and how the Fruits of the Spirit can guide us away from them.
Now, if you’re like me, there were a few things that came to mind, either through our own understanding or through what we’ve been taught in the past. Today, we’re going to touch on horoscopes, crystals, and Generative AI. Now – you may be ready to click off this part altogether after hearing what I’m going to talk about. What I personally believe is that God can be shown through all of it, and these things can be used through God’s power and will. I want to talk about the impact of such things in our world, where they came from, and how we can progress forward. Before anyone tries to catch me in an AI. trap as well, please hear me out clearly and concisely.
Now, if you’re like me, there were a few things that came to mind, either through our own understanding or through what we’ve been taught in the past. Today, we’re going to touch on horoscopes, crystals, and Generative AI. The reason I chose horoscopes, crystals, and generative AI as my focus points today is because it shows a trajectory that falls under the umbrella of sorcery as defined biblically. A lot of Christians in the past have demonized the use of horoscopes, a lot of Christians currently are wrestling with the use crystals, and we’re seeing a heavy impact of generative AI coming into our future. I want to highlight the impact of these things in our world today and talk about how to walk along your journey with God with these in mind. Now, I will not be talking about generative AI favorably, at all. I do believe that generative AI, in its current iteration, is a massively negative impact to our modern society. Do I think it could be turned into a positive thing? Potentially. However, it needs to MASSIVELY change direction from where it’s heading. I want to leave this statement so you all have a clear stance on where I am on generative AI.
I do not support the usage of generative AI. I do not support it’s usage in replacing our ability to think critically, to do detailed jobs, and to create any types of writing, art, videos, and more. I do not support generative AI and the impact it’s made to our environment. I do not support the lack of regulations of generative AI and how it’s corrupting our world today. What I do support is creativity, critical thinking, supporting local artists, supporting research facilities, supporting personal intelligence, and support people who have fought hard to bring a lot of good into this world. You will never replace the power of a human.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: With everything that we’ve talked about regarding sorcery, what is your stance on it? How do you see it in our world today?
Let’s check out Revelation 18:23 to see what sorcery is talked about there:
AMP – And never again will the light of a lamp shine in you, and never again will the voice of the bride be heard in you; for your merchants were the great and prominent men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived and misled by your sorcery [your magic spells and poisonous charm].
NRSVUE – and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
VOICE – And never again will the light of a lamp bring warm light to your houses, And never again will the voices of the bridegroom and bride bring joy to your festivities. For the merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all the nation fell prey to your sorceries.
The author of Revelation is talking about the total desolation of Babylon. Lamps were essential for daily life in biblical, showing guidance, presence, and life. The absence of light shows where God’s presence and blessing have been removed. The lack of voices for the bridge and groom shares the end of joy, celebration, and community. Without these voices, there’s a collapse of society and the end of normality as one would know it. The merchants of Babylon were renowned and influential globally. Merchants had massive wealth and major social status, which is believed what led to their downfall – the focus of wealth and materialism.
Sorcery describes practices that deceive and lead people away from God, connected to idolatry and fast teachers. It represents rebellion against God and reliance on false powers. Babylon’s use of sorcery led to its corruption and focus of wealth and power.
The word for sorcery that both Paul and the author of Revelation used is the practice of manipulating human life or circumstances through potions, drugs, or magical arts from the living God. However, we a more generalized version of it here in Revelation. Sorcery is the practices that deceive people and lead them away from God. Often that’s where the conversations around horoscopes being used come into play. People would tend to rely on them over God. Let’s begin our discussion on that.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Sorcery often connected with the downfall of society. What aspects of society do you see going on around us that could lead to our downfall?
Horoscopes are Fun
If you haven’t heard of a horoscope before, let’s go through a quick summary. A horoscope is an astrological chart that shares the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and astrological aspects and angles at the time of an event (such as person’s birth.) It’s believed by astrology supporters that a horoscope can represent divine events relating to a certain point in time. However, horoscopes have been deemed pseudo-scientific since the 18th century. Commonly, horoscopes refer to an astrologer’s interpretation, typically based on the system of a solar Sun sign astrology (where the Sun is at the time of birth). There’s a lot more that breaks down how horoscopes work, but it goes beyond the scope of our conversation today. I believe this gives us a decent introduction to them though.
The Bible has a lot to say about astrology and the zodiac signs. We know that God created the stars to signify certain signs and seasons (Genesis 1:14). They were used often as navigational signs to help chart courses throughout the world. God often used stars to illustrate His promises. Astrologers however were not viewed positively throughout the Bible. Daniel put them to shame in Daniel 1:20 and were unable to interpret the king’s dreams in Daniel 2:27. Through Isaiah 47, we hear that God mentions how astrologers will face consequences in God’s judgment. The Mosaic law condemned the use to astrology in Deuteronomy 18:10-14.
The takeaway that Scripture shows us is that stars should remind us of God’s power and wisdom. They can bring us back into the presence and promises of God’s new covenant through Christ. God gives us the wisdom that we need to get through our daily lives, not the stars. We must remember that horoscopes are harmless entertainment. These can help us reflect about things that are ongoing throughout our lives, but that everything can be submitted to God. God is around us in all place, through all things. We must look to horoscopes as, not a path that guides wisdom and ideas into how we live our lives. We can look to the stars and reflect on God’s beauty, majesty, and wisdom. We recognize the stars provide a reflect into who God is, not who we are. This is where I mentioned that everything can be submitted to God for His use. God has a hand in everything that we are, and created use for a specific time and place in a specific time and way. The horoscope markings and the positions of the cosmos reflect that, but they don’t define that. The one who created us all defines it.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Have you ever used horoscopes in the past? How did they affect you? Did it change your perspective on your identity at all?
Crystals are Shiny
Crystal healing is a pseudoscientific, alternative medicine practice that uses stones and crystals like quartz or amethyst. People believe that these have healing powers in them, but there has been no scientific basis for it. They could do anything from boosting low energy to releasing blocked energy. It can be donate by wearing them, placing or meditating with them. It came from the ancient Egyptians, who believed these gems possessed magical properties. The ancient Greeks assigned many of the properties to the crystals.
Crystals faced the same belief that horoscopes did – they were understood to be demonic. They it takes away from our focus on God by allowing evil spirit to take our attention and attach it to certain objects. We can recognize that crystals can be used in our world today, and it doesn’t have to take away from God. We can recognize how beautiful crystals are and how God made them to be stunning pieces of the earth. They can also help with mindfulness and grounding. It can help keep our minds focused during prayer and meditation. They can guide our minds towards the goal of peace and healing. We can truthfully walk in the path that while God is the source of healing and peace over a crystal. If these are providing you comfort, peace, and guidance, then great! However, remember the one that created them. Remember the one that has the ultimate source of guidance, healing, and peace. The crystals can represent these sources of power for you, but the true power comes from the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Do you use crystals or have any crystal collection? How do you view your crystals?
Generative AI is a Nightmare
Now, it’s time to talk about generative AI. The big controversial item that has swept our news, politics, and economies. The Bible doesn’t say anything about AI, outside of the town, obviously. How do we then progress in the Christian community to understand how we should approach generative AI? I think it’s important to see the differences between conservative and progressive views on generative AI and to see what is the grounding lines that separate us, and use those views to see how Scripture helps us interpret our reality of over it.
Conservative Christians see value in it for things like stewardship and administrative tasks, and a bigger threat for human dignity. That it will dehumanize societies, that it’ll lead to a believe that machines will be treated as equals like humans, that it shouldn’t be used in spiritual or moral guidance, and that it’ll add more worldly views to Christians beliefs. Progressive Christians see it a potential tool for problem solving, There’s concern about the systemic bias, the economic justice, and the dehumanization of it all. While there can be hope for a positive outcome in the generative AI movement, there’s concerns across the aisles in the Christian community. The one universal outcome that concerns both sides is the dehumanization of it all. Progressives believe that relying on generative AI can reduce the uniqueness of humanity and weaken true community. Conservatives believe that it reduces distinct human qualities – like creativity, soul, and organic thought – to mere data processing.
It’s important for us to remember that we are the ones made in God’s image, and that anything generative AI makes is made in the image of the world. Progressives touch on the systemic and economic biases that exist as a result of it, but there’s also a massive environmental impact on the data centers that generative AI systems and LLM’s need. A single text prompt consumes about 0.24 Wh of energy and 0.26 mL. Now – this may not sound like a lot, but let’s take this on a bigger scale. ChatGPT handled about 330 million daily request from the US, so it’s using about 285.12B joules of energy. Your home typically uses 38B joules of energy a year. It takes 7 homes of annual energy to run one day’s worth of generative AI. The water aspect totals approximately 85.8M mL of water per day to manage generative AI. A typical home uses approximately 416.303M mL of water per year. So what my home uses in water in a year, 40% of the same usage goes to generative AI platform per day.
As a result, we move further and further away from retiring the use of the fossil fuel infrastructure, we take clean drinking water away from communities that are in need, and the it increases the special GPU units that are in demand, which leads to increase toxic mining of rare earth minerals and generate millions of electronic waste. We often see these data centers placed in marginalized communities as well, which leads to increased harm and systemic injustice to providing the basic resources of survival.
So I ask you this question: How can we fight against the usage of generative AI all throughout the world? First things first, defend all workers affected. Stand against the displacement of artists, writers, and laborers whose jobs are being stripped from them in order for these multi-million/-billion dollar corporations to cut costs and increase their profit margin. Reject the notion of these synthetic relationships, and instead invest in resources that all you to have real, authentic, and genuine relationships with real humans. Recognize that true creativity comes from God and through His gifts of wisdom and imagination – which algorithms and ChatGPT cannot do. Critique how training data hardcodes principles of racism, sexism, and marginalization into automated systems. I just witnessed Twitch force all users into using their data for training their generative AI models, without asking nor announcements. We need accountability from companies. We need them not to focus on their bottom dollar, but instead care for their product, their works, their communities, and their environment as they would for themselves. As mentioned, these systems often disproportionately harm the poor and the marginalized. If they want to infiltrate our communities, they need to be held to the highest level of environmental and communal care to ensure no one is being taken advantage of.
All of this can be done, but it needs our united voices to do so. This is one of the few things that conservative Christians and progressive Christians agree with: generative AI can lead to the dehumanization of God’s humanity. We need to remember that each human, regardless of any differential, has the right to exist and receive the resources they need to survive. We need to stand up, fight, argue, and elect political leaders and leaders of other industries to fight alongside us and put a stop to these machines trying to destroy humanity to save a few dollars?
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you think of generative AI, do you think of it positively or negatively? Do you believe it’s having a negative aspect of humanity as we speak?
Next part of the series: Making the World Less Hostile || Sins of the World #6
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