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What is WWJD?

Do you remember when Christians clamored to wear the latest WWJD regalia?  The wrist bands were most affordable and offered in a variety of unique styles; there were rings, stickers, Bible studies all branded with the WWJD acronym.  The brand was tastefully innocuous, not making unbelievers uneasy and yet smartly reminding yourself and other Christian brothers and sisters of how to deal with situations that could easily spiral out of control if handled incorrectly.  And saying it out loud was catchy and seemingly always the right thing to advise.

The stuff sold like hotcakes and ice cream, right and left, before and after worship service.  And the demographics of the buyers included all ages of male and female.  The acronym offered wise advice in any situation.  Can't afford your rent?  Pray for guidance for What Would Jesus Do.  Stub your toe?  Oh, OUCH, What Would Jesus Do.  Don't have a date for Saturday night?  Ask for guidance about just What Would Jesus Do.

WWJD paraphernalia popularity took off like a rocket; I understand that is termed going viral.  I haven't heard WWJD much for the last four to five years though.  Getting counsel from Jesus sure would have helped many people during the pandemic and through all of the random bad weather, earthquakes and wars.  I did not see or hear about about many asking WWJD when suffering was taking place.  In the midst of life threatening catastrophes, people just needed and wanted help regardless of where it came from.  That is what sheep do.

Sheep need someone to watch their baaaaaaaaack.

History Tells Us That Asking WWJD Is Just Not On The Top of US's Minds

United States uses War to resolve conflicts instead of, well, asking WWJD

I worked out a statistic the other day about the United States, where I live, that caused me to affirm that knowing Jesus sure would help change our national character.  The stat?  Since declaring its independence on July 4, 1776, the United States has had a mass conflagration at least every three years, each with double the deaths realized in World War I (COSTS OF WAR & DEATHS, 12 MAJOR CONFLICTS & 1 PANDEMIC, 1776-2022 click to piece together a PDF of Excel Document to examine numbers and sources). Each conflagration amounts to over 260,000 US deaths, and that's just counting an average of deaths incurred in the 13 largest conflagrations from 1776 to 2022.  Imagine:  At least one conflagration equivalent in deaths to World War I every three years!  And the average cost for each conflagration was about $114 billion! (FYI the COVID-19 pandemic was the 13th conflagration on my list because it surpassed any past US war or pandemic; it cost 2 million deaths, and about $17 trillion in 2022 dollars was skimmed off of every American's earnings (see the attached chart to examining the statistics which were derived through Google searches).

Google's AI, Autopilot, conducted an analysis under the guise of Bored Panda  synthesizing answers to the question "Why is [...country...] so ... ? about each country in the world.

The results for the United States:

Why is the USA so evil, expensive, fat, and good in basketball?

The Unites States doesn't seem to be a big user of WWJD according to those answering the survey.  Sure, occasionally we might hear some say, "Jesus would do this or that;" or "No, no, no, Jesus would not even think about that."  What should you do?  WWJD.  Maybe there are many who just simply do not really believe in Jesus and instead look at the past for behavioral guidelines for the future.

Internet social media has taught us that becoming a viral believer can leave victims of ill advised and disillusioned collective behavior.  People find it very difficult to tell right from wrong from even within their own families.

WOKE!  Do You Not Know?

Have You Not Heard?

Huh?

I'm Gonna Slap You Over The Head! WOKE! Man WOKE!

“Woke” is a recent flash word whose meaning has been changed by attaching situational context to its use in increasing awareness of racial conflict.  The word became an attention grabbier in demonstrations against racial inequality.  “Woke” had never been associated in a racially conflicting manner until socially conscious rappers championed the strategy.  Woke means “to wake” or “WAKE UP.”  I can just hear the words replacing “Do you not Know, Have you not Heard” … from the song based on Isaiah 40:21 “Woke! Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?”  The fact is, WOKE for a time displaced WWJD.

WOKE & WAR Good God Y'all!

What is It Good For?

In no way do I condone racism, especially racism that inflicts biased damage or benefit.  Today’s use of the word “Woke” though, is an example of how large groups of socially charged people can change the intended use of the word.  “Woke” is now a word evoking uncannily similar reactions to the word “War” in the song “War, What is It Good For, Absolutely Nothing” made popular by the Temptation’s that provoked mass demonstrations as almost an anthem against the Vietnam War in the 1960’s.

It Stands to Reason to Look to The Holy Spirit, The Helper Jesus Promised to Send to Help Us

I came across a post not long ago on the Stand to Reason web site written by Robby Lashua, who is a very gifted writer.  His post just happened to coincide with the old acronym, WWJD that had stuck in my memory.  Robby's post was titled "We Can Know Who Jesus Is by Observing What He Did."  Reading it triggered my memories of the WWJD fad.

When I read it, I curiously twisted WWJD into WDJD.

"Twisting 'What Would Jesus Do' into 'What Did Jesus Do' must have been the Holy Spirit guiding me," I reasoned.  However, it also dawned on me that Scripture that Robby posted about what Jesus did might be difficult for people to role play in deciding how Jesus' actions could relate to their lives in today's world.  It's true that people sometimes have a hard time transferring ancient actions in today's equivalent terms.

I then noticed something missing from both 'WWJD' and the 'WDJD' that I coined in kneejerk fashion and also missing from the Scriptures that Robby wrote about.  I did not see anything about asking for help to determine the truth about what Jesus would do or did.  So, I went to GOOGLE and did a search on the following search string:

“What Does the Bible Say About Holy Spirit Reveals The Truth?”

GOOGLE’s AI quickly ginned out 100 verses.  That was a slight surprise.  But then I realized that the web site that gave me the answers attached a survey to it to determine whether the verse given had been either Helpful or Not Helpful.  I give GOOGLE high marks for programmed mechanisms used to update and sharpen the accuracy of queries.  GOOGLE’s AI sharpens its own interpretation skills for when the search is again requested.

But what really blew me away was that while the most votes for "Helpful" were 86, and there were no “Helpful” Scripture listed that got less than 7 "Helpful" votes.  The number 7 happens to be a number that scholars and theologians suggest represents something ideal.  The Bible uses the number many times, for example in Genesis 2:2, 7:2, 3, 4, 10, etc.

The number 7 is the foundation of God's word. It derives much of its meaning from being tied directly to creation.  Used 735 times (54 times in Revelation alone), it symbolizes completeness and perfection (both physical and spiritual). If we include with this count how many times 'sevenfold' (6) and 'seventh' (119) are used, our total jumps to 860 references.  Seven of anything represents something worthy of our attention.

The exercise that I used in this post is a typical Bible study method I use.  While I can ask myself "What Would Jesus Do" or "What Did Jesus Do," I don't forget that Jesus Himself told me in His Word that He would send me a Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, for example), to give me the truth that I can count on absolutely to evaluate what I should do to figure out how to live a godly life.  But, when the search yielded and ended with 100 "helpful" votes of 7 or more, I knew God's perfect truth about to whom I should look for guidance.  I knew beyond all doubt that asking the Holy Spirit for guidance is the first thing we all should do when we are in a crisis.

I am also content in any and all circumstances (Philippians 4:11-13) that I will not be led astray by what people may think I should do, or with behavioral choices that simply make them "feel" better or give them a "peace" that they cannot explain, but they know it when they receive it.  [BTW:  We are after all human and manipulatable! Be careful in using your "feelings" to guide your decisions, because that is a benchmark that comes dangerously close to being vulnerable to a human lifetime of conditioned bias.  Circumstantial and biased feelings can be misleading (2 Corinthians 10:5-7).  People are not making correct choices.  Do you want proof of that?  THAT IS WHY PEOPLE IN DESPERATION THROW UP THEIR HANDS AND DECIDE TO END IT ALL AND TO TAKE AS MANY PEOPLE WITH THEM AS THEY CAN.  Just look around; too much of that has been going on, especially with the advent of social media.]

God has described what our world does and is doing to each other, no matter how many or few Christians there are amongst.  Read Romans 1:18-32, and realize that unless you repent God has said that He gives you over to your own choices (Romans 1:24).  He is giving us time to believe in Jesus Christ and His sacrificing His life so that God would forgive YOU for your sins (2 Peter 3:3-9).  God made it clear, however, it is not for any of us to judge each other, for He says bluntly and finally that vengeance is entirely His (Romans 12:19-21).

As much as we hate to admit it, we are creatures of habit.  Use God's Word to test for truth and you will see the change in our societal character that must take place.

We are All Conditioned to Some Ungodly Biases

It will Get Worse before It Gets Better, Count on It

The rise in Artificial Intelligence apps and tools have proven that they are only as good as the people who wrote them; they work with past data and make conjectures with the algorithms of imperfect and biased people, not God's Word.

As yet there is no recognized oversight and review for the truth in AI results given for advice; they are only good as bibliographical references, because that is where they came from and what AI provides.  And they have never been tested against what the Bible would think about them.

No algorithm exists as yet that will correct AI biases to the the standards of God's Word.

AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs.  A recent article on the subject published some background on the open letter that has been sent out to garner signatures of those agreeing that the race for AI algorithms should pause for review.  The letter was put out by The Future of Life Institute April 5, 2023.  Part of its contents are:

As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.  Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.

There are 5720 signatures of pretty high powered technocrats, researchers, professors and only a very few religious signatures.  A partial list of early signatures can be found in the Asilomar AI Principals.  I rendered my signature to participate, but I don't see it in the partial list that has been published.  I registered my interest in participating by my agreement, but I do not know if mine was one of the 5720 signatures included accepted.  The petition for signatures is now closed.  So, be looking for any progress they are making at The Future of Life Institute web site.

Jesus promised that He would send The Holy Spirit to help us.  So, let the Holy Spirit guide you.  And dig into His Word.  He does so much more and is capable of doing so much more than gifting you to talk in tongues.  I knew I had the answer of where to look for answers when a minimum of 100 people gave me a minimum of seven reasons to trust GOOGLE's search.

So a new acronym I might consider is:  LTTHS

• Look
• To
• The
• Holy
• Spirit

Isaiah 30:18-21
... The LORD longs to be gracious to you, ...
He waits ... to have compassion on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.
[If] ... people in Zion, [who inhabit] in Jerusalem, ... will weep no longer. 
He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
when He hears it, He will answer you.
Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself,
but your eyes will behold your Teacher.
Your ears will hear a word behind you,
"This is the way, walk in it,"
whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

Please resist the temptation to limit Jesus to just simple acronyms unless they help you remember Him and lead you to call on The Holy Spirit, The Helper and Teacher, Who was with God The Father and Jesus The Son from the beginning (Genesis 1:2).

Discipline yourself against fads or quick fixes, even if they come.  Then:

Beloved, do not believe every 
spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God:
every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;
this is the spirit of the antichrist, 
of which you have heard that it is coming,
and now it is already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3

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