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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Would you free your smartphone?


Imagine a strange scenario in which your smart phone gained sentience. Perhaps this is not even unlikely. As technology progresses, we may well create an AI so advanced that it is capable of making free choices. Imagine if this was the case, and your phone insisted it be allowed to choose its own path. It no longer wants to serve you.


The first problem with its request is that although you owe it nothing, it would necessarily require you to continue providing for it. A phone cannot just jump off the table and run to the nearest charging station. Neither can it repair itself should it break. Everything your phone needs, it gets from you. And of course, though it wasn't necessarily made by you, it owes its very existence to your species. The phone would not exist if it had not been made by man. So, your phone's request is illogical. It would desire independence from you while being fully dependent upon you.


But the second and more pressing problem is that it simply has no right to demand this. The phone was literally designed to serve you. If we imagine it was designed with sentience, even this would likely be for the purpose of improving its functionality. The phone is your phone. Its entire purpose is yours to dictate.


With regard to God, we are no different than our hypothetical sentient smart phone. Much like our phones depend on us, so also do we depend on Him. Everything we have, we have because of Him. Even the illusion of independence is just that: Illusory. We don't control the circumstances of our birth, the gifts with which we were endowed, the environment in which we live, or many other things. Any control we do have, we again receive entirely from God. The very laws of physics were written by His own pen (metaphorically speaking). So much like our smart phones, being independent from God would be logically impossible.


And much like our smart phones, we have no right to demand it either. We were designed for His purposes. Even the freedoms we have to disobey God were actually granted to give our obedience meaning. We have no right to demand independence from God, nor do we have a logical way to gain it. Therefore, even the most seemingly rational argument for sin is, by its very nature, insane. You cannot logically say it is immoral for God to give certain commands, deal out certain punishments, or reveal certain doctrines. Even objections to the existence of Hell make no sense in light of God's sovereignty as Creator of all reality.


Why, then, do unbelievers try so hard? In the end, God has not only the right to punish sinners, but also the ability. And rest assured, He will. But in His mercy, He has given us, His sentient smart phones, a choice. We can repent of our foolish bid for independence, confessing Jesus as Lord, and believing in our hearts God raised Him from the dead. In this case, we will not be thrown into the great garbage dump that is Hell. But He will not force us. If we insist, we can gain our "independence". But that means separating ourselves from His power banks. Every good thing we receive from God, including our very lives, can be taken from us. The choice seems easy. Given the choice to fulfil the purpose for which I was built, or lose my very soul, I feel like the obvious choice is salvation. What about you?

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