Can AI (ChatGPT) Pass A Presbyterian Ordination Exam?

The Five Areas of Presbyterian Ordination Examinations

Can artificial intelligence pass a Presbyterian ordination examination? Hey guys, it's Keith Foskey, and today I'm going to be doing an experiment into artificial intelligence asking questions that may be asked on an ordination examination.

Many of you are familiar with my videos where I talk about Presbyterian superior theology, and while not everyone agrees that the Presbyterians do have superior theology, we can all agree that they do have a very extensive process for ordination.

There are five areas where a person who wants to be ordained in the Presbyterian church has to show proficiency. Proficiency? They have to know about it. They have to understand these things. The five things are Bible content, theology, worship, church polity, and biblical exegesis, including an understanding of the original languages.

So we're going to put some questions in from those five areas and see how ChatGPT stands up regarding those questions. We'll start with a question about basic Bible content. So I'm going to ask the question, what are the major covenants named in the Bible?

Here's the answer. It says there are several major covenants named in the Bible which are agreements made by God with various individuals or groups. Here are some of the most important ones. The covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David, the new covenant, and these covenants played a significant role in shaping the history and theology of Judaism and Christianity.

Interesting, it not only gives the covenants, but it gives a short description of what each one is about. Now, notice it did not mention an Adamic covenant. I'm going to ask a question. Did God make a covenant with Adam?

All right, so here's what it says. It says, although there is no explicit mention in the Bible of a covenant between God and Adam, some scholars interpret the events of Genesis 1 through 3 as an implicit covenant between God and humanity.

And it goes on to describe Genesis 1, Genesis 2, and Genesis 3, and it ends with this paragraph. It says, therefore, while there is no explicit covenant language used in these passages, some scholars argue that the events of Genesis 1 through 3 can be interpreted as an implicit covenant between God and humanity and promises and obligations on both sides.

The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union

So let's move on to the second topic, and that is the topic of theology. Define the doctrine of the hypostatic union. All right, the doctrine of the hypostatic union is a central tenet of Christian theology that explains the nature of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God.

The term hypostatic union refers to the union of two natures, the divine and the human, and the one person of Jesus Christ. I probably would have said that almost exactly the same way. According to this doctrine, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human.

That's the Vera Homo Vera Deus statement, possessing both a divine nature and a human nature without any confusion or mixture between the two. This is actually quite good. So there's a longer paragraph here.

I'm not going to read the whole thing. I would say it does a pretty decent job of explaining the hypostatic union. And something else a chat GPT will do, if you don't know, say explain this for a 10-year-old.

So now it's going to give the doctrine of the hypostatic union for someone who is with the vocabulary of a 10-year-old. And it says, the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches us about Jesus Christ.

It says that Jesus is both fully God and fully human at the same time. This means that Jesus is not just a regular human being, but he is also God. And because he is both God and human, he can understand and help us in a special way that no one else can.

The hypostatic union is important because it helps us understand that Jesus is not just a regular person who was chosen by God, but he is actually God himself, who became a person. This is what makes Jesus so special and important in the Christian faith.

Wow, that's pretty decent. So now we're going to move on to the third category, the subject of worship. So I'm not a Presbyterian, so I'm just coming up with a question that I think someone may ask. And this is what I said.

I said, define liturgy and its place in public worship. So let's see what it says. Define liturgy and its place in public worship. And this is the answer. Liturgy refers to the set forms and practices of public worship in a religious tradition, often including prayers, reading from scripture, hymns, and rituals.

Liturgy provides a structure and order to public worship and helps to create a shared experience of worship among members of a religious community. Seems like that would be a reasonable answer. The next section, section number four, is church polity.

Church polity is about how a church is structured in regard to its government. So let's see what it has to say about this. So the question I asked is, what does the Bible teach regarding church governance?

And this is what it says. It says, the Bible provides several principles and examples of church governance, but there is no one definition or definitive model that is prescribed for all Christian churches.

Different denominations and traditions have developed different forms of church governance based on their interpretation of biblical passages and their particular historical and cultural context. That being said, there are some general principles and examples of church governance that can be found in the Bible.

Here are a few. Leadership, congregational input, eldership, and accountability. It's interesting that it mentions eldership. It says in number three, the Bible often speaks of a group of elders who are responsible for leading and overseeing the church.

And it mentions 1 Timothy 5 and Titus 1. And it says, this group may be composed of both paid and volunteer leaders and may include both men and women. Okay, here's a first thing right away that is interesting.

ChatGPT allows for women elders. That's an interesting side note, because I would imagine that there are many of us who would disagree with ChatGPT. And this gives a good reason why this OpenAI source is drawing information in from a lot of different sources.

It's like a really, really intense search engine, and it's finding information from other sources, drawing them all in. And it is probably finding both complementarian and egalitarian sources, and it's making a general statement.

It can include men and women, depending on what denomination it is. But would this pass a Presbyterian ordination examination? Well, it depends on if you're in the PCA or the PCUSA. Lastly, we come to the section of biblical exegesis, and this specifically deals with the original languages.

And I'm curious to see how the AI program will deal with a question about the original languages. So I am going to ask a very basic original language question. I'm going to say, in John 1 .1 .1, Jesus is called Lagos.

What did this mean to the original audience of the book? The term Lagos appears in John 1 .1. It is often translated as word in English translations of the Bible. In the context of John's gospel, the term Lagos would have held special significance to the original audience, which was likely a mixture of Jewish and Greek speaking Christians.

In Greek philosophy, the term Lagos was often used to refer to the principle of reason and rationality that govern the universe. The Stoic philosophers, for example, believed that the Lagos was a divine principle that permeated the natural world and guided it towards its proper ends.

That's basically correct. In Jewish thought, the term Lagos was used to refer to the wisdom of God, which was often personified as a female figure in Jewish literature. The wisdom of God was seen as the means by which God created and ordered the universe and was often associated with the Torah and other sacred texts.

In the gospel of John, the term Lagos is used to describe Jesus as the divine word of God. By identifying Jesus with the Lagos, John is making a bold theological claim about the nature of Jesus and his relationship to God.

Jesus is not simply a or a teacher, but is the very embodiment of God's wisdom and reason in human form. To the original audience of the gospel, this would have been a radical and challenging claim as it challenged the traditional Jewish understanding of God and the Greek philosophical understandings of the Lagos.

The term Lagos helped John to bridge the gap between the two cultural traditions and to present Jesus as the fulfillment of both Jewish and Greek thought. Well, there you have it, folks. That is ChatGPT attempting to pass an ordination exam.

Now, was that a real ordination exam? No, those were questions I just came up with off the top of my head, but I did go through the five different areas that are given in a Presbyterian ordination examination.

If we're going to go for theology, might as well go for superior theology. So, how do you think the software did? Did it answer the questions well? Did you think this was a fun experiment? Would you like to see me do some more things with ChatGPT in the future?

If so, leave your answers and questions in the comments below. It's important to keep this in mind. A computer can never replace a pastor, nor can this type of a program ever replace diligent study and research.

So, this was just a fun activity. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you like the content of this video, please check out our other videos at calvinistpodcast .com. Follow us on Twitter at YourCalvinist, and if you have questions for a show or a video idea, send them to me at calvinistpodcast at gmail .com.

Thanks for watching. God bless.