Walking home from the office on Tuesday, I was caught by a news item on the BBC Newshour 20h edition. Robot priest unveiled in Germany.
As the news anchor tried frantically to point out the strangeness of the idea, the spokesperson for the church was all excited and self-feliciting for the "pioneer" work they are proud to have achieved.
I was like, What? What are you talking about?
Ironically, this work was made to commemorate the 500th anniversary life and work of Marthin Lurther. How ronical! It is stunning that God who would not even allow angels preach, such a lofty calling reserved only for Jesus' disciples now gradually transferred to robots!
The Mirror published online under the theme: "Robot 'preacher' can beam light from its hands and give automated blessings to worshippers."
The mirror further explained, "Five hundred years after Luther published the Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg, kicking off the Reformation, an evangelical church launched a unique automated blessing robot for the special celebrations in the historic town located in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The robot on show in the old town of Wittenberg is called "BlessU-2" and was developed by the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau."
Daily mail says, "After the robot wishes users a 'warm welcome', it asks if they want to be blessed by a male or female voice.
It then asks the believer: 'What blessing do you want?' - which results in the robot making a mechanical sound as it raises its arms to the heavens and starts to smile.
Lights then start to flash in the robot's arms as it says that 'God bless and protect you' as it recites a biblical verse.
After the blessing, the user has the possibility to print the dictum.Church spokesman Sebastian von Gehren said: 'It is an experiment that is supposed to inspire discussion.' Von Gehren explained that they consciously decided against a typical human appearance. He said that the reactions vary wildly, with 'one half thinks it's great' while 'the other cannot imagine a blessing from a machine.
Remarkably, von Gehren said that especially people who have little in common with the church are attracted to the robot, with many people 'now coming every morning and evening."
Looking at the history of evangelism in Europe, there was a time when missions was the burning lamp in the heart and mind of every European. In "Christian Mission" by Michael Sievernich Original in German, displayed in English, he wrote, "Christianity had spread throughout the European continent during a thousand year process that extended from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages. With its variety of missionary methods (e.g. peaceful mission, mission by coercion and the conversion of tribes by first converting the ruler), Christianity had reached all European peoples. It extended from Greece to Scandinavia and Iceland ; it stretched from Ireland in the far west to Eastern Europe's West Slavic and Baltic peoples. This process had brought forth European Christianity which, in turn and by stages, initiated missionary activity beyond Europe's borders. The religious missionary enterprise was generally tied to the economically driven power politics involved in European overseas expansion."
In the near future, we will have computerized robots with the right sermon people would like to hear. Sweet sermons on prosperity, wealth, friendship, tolerance, grotesque love void of boundaries, inclusiveness, and so on. Then man can sweetly avoid the preaching on sin, correction, rebuke, sacrifice, holiness, the fear of God, Hell, the Coming Judgement, homosexuality etc. How convenient!
Sievernich continued, "From the very beginning, "mission", in the sense of a universal trans-cultural dissemination of faith, was an essential part of Christianity. In subsequent centuries and epochs missionary activity took on many forms, from processes of micro-communication via a capillary network that spread into nearby regions, to the professional preaching of the Gospel by trained missionaries.”
Jesus said the harvest was plentiful but the workers were insufficient.
The church worldwide is dwindling while muslims have more than enough suicide bombers and terrorists to send.
Most parents in church have no passion for the spread of the gospel. As our teenagers grow, the thought of career choice mounts in parents minds. Right from childhood, parents envision their kids as doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, servicemen and women or some other "nobel" ambition.
Few parents, very few see their kids as missionaries, pastors or evangelists. Even though Christians profess a lot of reverence for God and His kingdom, they can even give money lavishly to religious projects. However, giving their precious kids to God's kingdom is not their idea of prestigious or an honourable future.
Among lawyers, among doctors, among the business community, scholarship, in science labs and among politicians are men and women called by God, who rather have seen a more plausible future among men than in God's vineyard.
The very that robots could serve as priests is an indictment on the Christian conscience. It is clearly the. Most obvious display of Christians rejecting the ministry. Truly, Jesus said, in Matthew 9:37 “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
God wants human beings, Christians on the mission field, on the pulpit and everywhere. When Jesus came he called men to abandoned what careers for a higher calling.
We need to preach from the pulpit as well as from our homes the importance of the call of God, the place of ministry and service in the kingdom of God.
We need to emphasize how much God needs us and our kids. We need to reemphasize that eternal treasures are greater than earthly treasures. And that in seeking them God can call us or our children to any place of service.
Otherwise, a robot pastor will be standing on you pulpit any time sooner or laterm.
Dear Lord, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15. And we will service in any capacity in full obedience.
I pray this story wakens us up.
God bless you all.
God bless you all.
David Pam McQuel
This is not God driven. Before you know it the devil's schemes have already been implemented. No robot was made in the image of God. No robot received a call from God and verily no robot can preach God inspired messages. Since they are man made, they will be tools to carry out man's propaganda and evidently that of their master.
ReplyDelete