How AI Is Competing with Religion in the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., March 29, 2025 

Lance Wallnau is a charlatan campaigning for God and Donald Trump in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil.  The Wall Street Journal has described Wallnau as “one of the most important figures in the new Apostolic Reformation;” but Walnau now has competition beyond religion with artificial intelligence (AI) and the algorithms of social media. 

AI is competing with religion and reason to define God’s truth on social media, while Wallnau exploits emotional displays and healings among evangelical and charismatic Christians.  John Wesley was a 19th century Anglican priest who warned his followers to be skeptical of the kind of emotional displays used by Wallnau. 

Religion and politics are interwoven with moral standards of legitimacy that originate in religion and  apply to politics.  Standards of legitimacy should be determined by reason and faith; but since popularity has become the measure of success in both politics and religion, AI has mimicked God’s truth on standards of legitimacy that were once the province of religion.

In the greatest commandment Jesus taught that God’s will is that we love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves. In the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, God’s will is to reconcile and redeem, while Satan’s will is to divide and conquer; but demagogues like Trump have done convincing imitations of God in politics and the church, leaving the victor in the cosmic battle for God’s truth in doubt.

Altruistic love is needed to promote the common good that’s required to restore political legitimacy in America’s tribal politics; but spiritual warfare based on religious differences has exploited political differences and prevented reconciliation.  Crowds cheering Trump and declining church attendance in mainline churches remind us that we can no longer rely on the church to be the moral steward of American democracy.

AI and its fake news have become major factors in the battle for truth, with internet algorithms challenging reason and religion to define God’s truth.  The standard for legitimacy for all who claim to be Christians should be the altruistic teachings of Jesus as the word of God, but the church continues to promote exclusivist doctrines never taught by Jesus as God’s will.  

In a 2023 commentary on Entering a New Era of AI Without Understanding Its Potential Dangers, I admitted I didn’t understand the dangers of AI--and I still don’t understand those dangers.  The cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil continues unabated.  And so long as unprincipled demagogues like Trump continue to use religion and the misrepresentations of AI to sustain their political power, the victor in the cosmic battle between good and evil will remain a mystery. 

Notes:

Martin Malley has confirmed the deceptions of Trump and Musk that social security will not be affected.  https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/martin-omalley-trump-musk-social-security-florida-seniors-1235302956/.  Musk has even asserted that social security is a ponzi scheme.

“In 2022 JD Vance spoke at a Christian political event hosted by Lance Wallnau, and he is one of the chief proponents of a radical religious doctrine that helped fuel the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. See JD Vance and the Prophets of Trumpism, at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/opinion/jd-vance-lance-wallnau-seven-mountains.html.

“Lance Wallnau, is a self-styled prophet in a fast-growing evangelical movement.  He came down off the stage to lay his hands on people who had requested prayers. Then he explained why re-electing Donald Trump is essential to save America. “Don’t think for a moment that it isn’t possible for this country to veer off course and go over a cliff in November,” Wallnau told about 2,000 people gathered under a tent in late July. “It’s quite possible, and the only thing that can arrest that is an activated, catalyzed body of Christian patriots.” Wallnau is one of the most important figures in the New Apostolic Reformation in evangelical Christianity.  He blends direct experience of the Holy Spirit with a call to engage in politics as a form of “spiritual warfare.” He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, but his main goal is to elevate Christians to greater influence to transform society.  Matthew Taylor, a scholar who tracks the New Apostolic Reformation, says that no evangelical leader did more than Wallnau to provide a theological rationale for religious conservatives to accept Trump. “Wallnau was already popular,” said Taylor, of the Maryland-based Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. “But he became a mega evangelical celebrity through his endorsement of Trump.” Now, Taylor sees Wallnau as presenting a threat beyond his advocacy for a political candidate. “I would call Lance Wallnau a Christian supremacist,” Taylor says. “He wants Christians to be in charge of society and to tear down the wall of separation between church and state.”

On Evangelicals Calling for “Spiritual Warfare” to Elect Trump, from  Wall Street Journal at https://apple.news/A6Tr6GeWSRACG9ySoKrW34g.

On  Entering a New Era of AI Without Understanding the Potential Dangers (11/25/23), see 

https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/11/musings-on-entering-new-era-of-ai.html.

David Brooks has opined that “the people in AI seem to be experiencing radically different brain states all at once, and it is incredibly hard to write about AI because it is literally unknowable whether this technology is leading us to heaven or hell.”  In the same commentary I cited Ezra Klein who opined, “Science fiction writers and AI researchers have long feared the machine that you cannot turn off.”  I continue to share the doubts of David Brooks and Ezra Klein, and today I am no closer to understanding whether AI is good or bad than I was in 2023.

 

On What Is Truth #40 (August 30, 2015), see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/what-is-truth.html.

On How Altruistic Values Can Prevent a Dysfunctional Democracy, see commentary #481 (2/3/24), see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/02/musings-on-how-altruistic-values-can.html.