Phil Gons

Bible & Tech

Jesus Is Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel—and the World

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Many Christians read their Old Testament and see in it mostly the story of God the Father, perhaps with occasional pre-incarnate appearances of the Son and the rare glimmer of the Holy Spirit. They think that human history can be broadly divided up into three continuous phases:

  1. The Acts of the Father (Genesis–Malachi)
  2. The Acts of the Son (Matthew–John)
  3. The Acts of the Spirit (Acts–Jude)

In other words, the Father was the primary actor from the creation of the world until the incarnation of Jesus, when God incarnate assumed center stage until his ascension into heaven and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the promised comforter sent to replace him (John 14:16; 16:7; Acts 1:4).

While there is some truth to this sequencing of the roles that the three persons of the Trinity have played in the history of redemption, is this compartmentalized view of the persons how the apostles read the Old Testament? Or did they see Jesus playing a much more prominent role than a handful of Christophanies?

Jesus Is Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel—and the World
Jesus Is Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel—and the World
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AI in Christian Higher Education

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Leading product at Logos in the Christian tech space, I’m involved in frequent discussion about AI. I’ll highlight two recent examples, specific to Christian higher education, hoping they can help to stimulate your own thinking and discussions on this important topic.

AI in Christian Higher Education
AI in Christian Higher Education (Generated by Gemini)

“AI in Your Theological Research and Spiritual Study”

Last month I had the chance to address a group of chief academic officers from about a dozen Christian higher-ed institutions at the Association for Biblical Higher Education’s annual Flagship CAO Gathering, where Logos was the event sponsor. Here’s the topic I was assigned:

SESSION 4 — HOW TO INTEGRATE AI INTO YOUR THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND SPIRITUAL STUDY, PHIL GONS, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER | LOGOS (WA)

Discover how to integrate AI into your theological research and spiritual study with wisdom and care. In this session, you’ll learn how to ethically and effectively use AI-powered tools within Logos to enhance accuracy, context, and clarity in biblical interpretation. We’ll explore best practices, discuss real-world applications, and provide guidance on ensuring AI remains a faithful servant—supporting, not replacing, deep engagement with Scripture and theology.

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The Judgment of the Sons of God by the Sons of God

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In Psalm 82, the psalmist describes the rebellious sons of God ruling unjustly over the nations (Ps 82:2–4) that Yahweh had allotted to them at Babel (Gen 10–11), which we read about in Deuteronomy 32:8 in the DSS and LXX.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

Deuteronomy 32:8

We get a glimpse of this reality in Daniel 10, where Jesus and Michael, the prince of Israel (Dan 12:1), have a conflict with the prince of the Persian kingdom (Dan 10:13, 20) and the prince of Greece (Dan 10:20). These are real heavenly rulers who rule over real nations.

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This reality was at play in the Exodus narrative when Yahweh promised to “bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt” (Exod 12:12; cf. 15:11; Num 33:4). These were not idols. They were evil heavenly rulers empowering the Egyptian sorcerers and magicians (Exod 7:11–12, 22; 8:7) to perform miracles to rival the ones Moses performed.

Moses provides further insight into this relationship between the these evil heavenly rulers and the Gentile nations. Yahweh hadn’t given these gods to Israel (Deut 29:26); rather, he’d apportioned them to the other nations (Deut 4:19). The Psalmist identified these heavenly rulers as demons (Ps 96:5 [LXX]; 106:37; cf. Isa 13:21; 34:14; 65:3 [all in LXX]), and Moses said that those who sacrificed to them sacrificed to demons (Deut 32:17; cf. Lev 17:7), a point that Paul (1 Cor 10:20; cf. 1 Cor 8:4–6; Acts 17:18) and John (Rev 9:20) corroborated.

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Responsible Use of AI in Logos

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Common Good magazine interviewed me a couple of months ago on Logos’s use of AI for Bible study and published a revised transcript as “AI within Your Theological Library.”

If you’re interested to better understand how Logos’s theology of technology works itself out practically as we carefully apply advances in information technology in the form of large language models and generative AI to Bible study, I’d encourage you to read it.

AI Within Your Theological Library
AI Within Your Theological Library

Here’s a selection:

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A Biblical Theological Framing of Technology

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The team at Logos asked me to write some thoughts on technology and how we at Logos think about the role of technology in the mission of the church and our for-profit business that exists to “use technology to equip the church to grow in the light of the Bible.”

Many have angst about this new era of large language models and generative AI. While this next wave of innovation brings with it its own set of unique risks and dangers, there are also many opportunities for good. And that has been true of virtually all technological innovation since the beginning of time.

It’s my conviction that the Bible’s timeless message provides us with a strong foundation for building and applying technology in every generation for the good of the church and the glory of God, neither being ignorant of its risks and dangers nor being negligent to put it to productive use in kingdom and gospel work.

A piece entitled “Redeeming Technology: How Technology Fits into God’s Story” appeared on the Logos blog yesterday. In it I briefly trace the theological theme of technology through the overarching good-news story of the Bible and tease out some principles that Christians should be mindful of as they evaluate, use, build, and apply technology.

Followers of this blog may be interested in reading it.

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What Is the Gospel? How Genesis 12:3 and Galatians 3:8 Open Our Eyes to the Whole-Bible, Whole-World Good News

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It seems like an elementary question with a simple answer. Almost every Sunday school child at gospel-preaching churches knows that the gospel is the good news about Jesus dying on the cross to save sinners through faith so they can be forgiven and have eternal life.

While there’s a beautiful simplicity to the gospel that even a child can understand and savingly believe (Matt 18:3, 6; 19:14), there’s also a depth and multifaceted richness to the gospel that drops the jaws of the inhabitants of the spiritual realm (1 Cor 2:6–10; Eph 3:10–11; cf. 1 Pet 1:12), baffles theologians (1 Pet 1:10–12; cf. Dan 12:8–9; Zech 4:4–6), can’t be exhausted in all the world’s books (cf. John 21:25), and will be an endless source of delight for all eternity (cf. Rev 4:9–10; 5:13; 7:12).

In this post, I’d like to consider some common conceptions of the gospel and then invite you to broaden your horizons beyond these essential elementary truths into depths and glories of the gospel that you might not often enough consider.

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The Eternal Promise of Eternal Life: The Covenant of Redemption in Titus 1:2

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Titus 1:2
Titus 1:2

Our church is studying Titus on Sunday mornings, and our family happens to be working through Titus right now in our regular Bible time together, too. We’ve be making our way through the New Testament over the last few years, slowly reading through a portion of Scripture and looking for patterns and major themes and discussing anything that stands out. During a recent family Bible time, something in the opening few verses piqued my curiosity, which I’d never deeply considered before. As with most fruitful study, it began by asking a question and then led into digging deeper in Logos.

Here’s how Paul opens his letter to Titus:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.

Titus 1:1–3

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