The whole universe is filled with great danger. As it often seems to work out, where there is great danger, there is great opportunity. For this reason, taking advantage of the greatest opportunities often requires the greatest faith and courage.
There is a scene in the movie Oppenheimer when J. Robert Oppenheimer was about to set off the first atomic bomb, and Army General Leslie Groves Jr. asked about the possibility of the bomb destroying the world. Oppenheimer said, “The chances are near zero.” When Groves asked, “Near zero?” Oppenheimer replied, “What do you want from theory alone?” To this, Groves said, “Zero would be nice!”
Did some of the scientists think that this bomb might start a chain reaction that could not be stopped until the whole world was consumed? Yes. Some of the scientists thought it might just consume all of the oxygen on Earth, which would be just as bad. Actually, there have been a number of experiments in which some scientists thought they might destroy the whole earth. They didn’t want to do this, but they had the concern that it could. Is any scientific experiment worth that?
The fact is that science has advanced so far that there are often at least a few different groups able to take the next step in something which really could be putting everyone at risk. Each of these groups is usually pressured by the consideration that, if they do not take this risk, another group not as responsible as they are will, and the irresponsible group will then have control over the new factor that has been released.
It was the Nazi pursuit of a nuclear bomb that drove our country’s pursuit of it. The Nazis may have beaten us to it if it had not been for our Special Ops that sabotaged the Nazi heavy water plant and supplies. When he saw the nature of the Nazi regime, Albert Einstein, who was a pacifist and did not believe in war, encouraged the U.S. development of an atom bomb because it was so unthinkable to let the Nazis get it before we did.
The greatest and most dangerous threat to humanity—more than all of the gamma-ray bursts, asteroids, volcanoes, or other potential planet killers—seems to be mankind and the kind of stuff we are coming up with now. Artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the greatest disaster yet or to some of the greatest blessings. Its abilities could be used to prevent us from again releasing something as terrible as what was released from the lab in Wuhan, China, which threatened the whole world and devastated much of it. Or, it could be used to do worse by leading to the release of more powerful pandemics by those with evil intent. It could also help to cure many of the diseases now afflicting mankind.
Even so, I’m not putting my hope in AI to save us from ourselves or from anything else in this dangerous place. AI is now “out of the box,” just like the atom is. The question is no longer whether we are going to allow AI, because it has already been allowed to exist, and there is no way to put it back. The question now is who is going to oversee and manage it.
One of the developers of AI recently proposed to the United Nations that the U.N. take it over. The U.N. may seem like the biggest and safest international organization, but it is not. It may be one of the most corrupt and easily manipulated political organizations in the world, and it is very biased against the U.S. and Israel. Who is going to oversee the U.N.? What makes anyone think the U.N. has the expertise or wisdom to manage AI, or a devotion to what is good and right to keep it from being used for evil? It seems one of the most important things one would need for this job is superior intelligence, and the U.N. has never shown that.
We are in a very dangerous place now while this is being decided, and we will likely continue to be in a dangerous place with it from now on. It will be more dangerous if Christians don’t walk in the faith and courage we’re called to walk in and be the light and salt we’re called to be. AI is here, and if Christians try to run or hide from it instead of engaging with and being part of who governs it, evil is going to fill the vacuum the Christians leave. We must have the faith and courage to engage in the important issues of our time.
© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
