Friday, October 23, 2026

It's Friday, October 23rd, 2026. I'm Albert Moeller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. There are so many events going on all over the world, and in some sense, many of them demand our attention. But the events that demand the greatest attention, the headlines that really are most compelling are the ones that raise very basic issues, and sometimes they even connect some dots. And that's actually what has taken place just over the last several days in terms of headlines that have to do with the theft of information, attempted theft of information in Silicon Valley by a man who had been associated with OpenAI and has now been arrested for trying to, let's just say, steal information, to steal intelligence from OpenAI and Silicon Valley and convey it to a specific source. And that is Saudi Arabia. Now, this gets so complicated because as you look at a map of the world, Saudi Arabia is generally very well identified as an ally of the United States of America. At the same time, the explosion in terms of artificial intelligence and all the technology from Silicon Valley and all the rest, and especially as that's now applied not only to economic matters, but also specifically to national defense. And as you look at developments right now in the Middle East, as well as developments in the United States, you can see all of a sudden. All of this comes together in a way that no one had really anticipated. So you have the situation there in the Persian Gulf. You have the situation there with Saudi Arabia. And now you are even looking at headlines about the government in Saudi Arabia being on a more shaky foundation because of the war with Houthi rebels and other things that are taking place. There's a reshaping and a reshaking of what's going on there in the Middle East. The headline in the Wall Street Journal is prosecutors connect ex-OpenAI worker to Saudi revolution. Royal previous front page article in the Wall Street Journal also points to the very same thing. The New York Times says Saudi ties in bugging of OpenAI. This is one of those stories that sounds, well, it sounds almost like science fiction or a James Bond movie gone awry. So the James Bond, the high tech, sort of high tech dimension of all of this is that this man has been now arrested and is being charged with trying to steal information to do corporate intelligence against OpenAI. And to do so by hiding a recording device. And he had taken a small recording device that he was planting in some strategic areas where he could document and steal the information and evidently get it to his source there in the Middle East. And one of the interesting things about it is that in order to make this particular device work and perhaps even to disguise it, he covered it with toilet paper. Now, I'm telling you, you can't make this up. And so the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, major newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, the Washington Post, you go at it and they're all basically saying the story comes down to the discovery of this recording device because of the use of toilet paper in order to at least wrap and perhaps do some sound deafening for this device. And guess what? Here's the thing. If in the midst of Silicon Valley was some of the most high pressure conversations taking place with the highest stakes when it comes to worldwide technology and when it comes to worldwide economics and military, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. It turns out that if you try to hide a recording device and then you cover it with toilet paper and stick it on the wall, someone just might notice. The other thing to notice here is that when the police or intelligence agencies start to be suspicious about something like this, the dots tend to be connected. One of the dots in this case, or you might say several of the dots in this case, had to do with anticipated travel because this man had bought a one-way set of tickets. For himself and for their young child in order to go back to Saudi Arabia and to do so via another capital in the Muslim world. Okay, so you just look at that and you say, okay, you know, you just might be kind of telling people that you're the guy when you buy a one-way ticket when you supposedly have a job here in the United States. And you're also looking at the fact that when you see the whole world of artificial intelligence, you see all this high technology. It is a matter not only of money, it's always about money, but it's also about national security. It is about the relationships and the relative stature nation by nation. The nation that leads in terms of artificial intelligence is going to be a nation with a decided not only technological advantage, but military advantage. Furthermore, here's another just very strange phenomenon for our time. This technology takes incredible intelligence and incredible investment to develop over time, but it can be stolen in a flat instant. That's just fascinating. In other words, you have someone who's been working for years, has been working out the theory, has been developing experimental models. Someone's putting literally billions of dollars into invention and research and laboratories and all the rest, and they can put all of that investment into it only to have the product stolen. Of course, when it comes to artificial intelligence, there are also those right now who are saying this will mean the end of the world. So, you know, there's a lot of people who are saying this will mean the end of humanity. So, we understand the stakes just could not be higher, even according to many of the people who are inside the industry. But I just want to point out again that human nature always shows up. Here's the thing. That means fallen human nature always shows up. And so, even as the financial pages like to talk about the financial dimensions and potential of artificial intelligence, they have to run a news story about the fact that prosecutors are now connecting an ex-open AI worker to the Saudi royal family and to a conspiracy to do intelligence, to steal intelligence materials from this American corporation and to do so with a recording device wrapped up in toilet paper. If you were a novelist, I doubt you'd come up with this particular plot. Okay, next. Also, while we've been talking about Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia has been a key ally to the United States for a long time. Not unproblematic. Going all the way back to the period right after World War II. Even going back earlier in the 20th century, the reshaping of the Arab world came with two big things. And one of it was the breakup of the British Empire. And the other was the giant explosion in the industry related to petroleum and oil. And so, modernity brought this giant need for petroleum. And it just so happened that there's an awful lot of oil there under the sands of Saudi Arabia. And so, what was a very, very old historic dynasty, the House of Saud, as in Saudi Arabia, that particular royal family, which, by the way, is not numbered in the tens or dozens, but in the thousands, that royal family really became one of the most significant political players in the United States. All right. Because of that, you had the development of major conferences in places such as Riyadh or Dubai, areas there in terms of the Persian Gulf, and in particular, some in Saudi Arabia. And some of these conferences began to really take on international significance. One of them was described as Davos in the desert. So, the Davos meeting, very famous, taking place in Switzerland, is a meeting of the corporate and the digital elite. And we've talked about the problems there. As a matter of fact, the historian Samuel Huntington talking about the rise of Davos man, this person who is involved in these new technologies, these new companies that has very little commitment or sense of citizenship to any particular country, but instead sees himself as a global citizen. This meeting is called Davos of the Desert, and it had been a major, major event. But I say has been because the 2026 meeting, which was to take place there in the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and was to involve many people coming from the West, and that means even American companies, including the big American companies related to artificial intelligence and all the rest. It has been largely American speakers, very well-known corporate leaders who have spoken at these events. It's not going to take place, and it's not taking place because there are corporate leaders who are just saying it's not safe to be in Saudi Arabia at this time as the Houthi rebels are now attacking Saudi Arabia. They've attacked the airport in Saudi Arabia. All I want to say is from a Christian worldview perspective, there's something really big here we need to know. And that is that in a fallen world, there is an enormous titanic struggle, not only between light and darkness, but between order and disorder. And you know, the Saudi Arabian regime, the royal family, has been enormously effective in establishing order. But right now, that order is threatened by an external source, in this case, the Houthi rebels. And so you have very real attacks that have taken place. And especially when you're talking about attacks on a modern, very sophisticated airport, that's the kind of thing that even regimes, governments there in the Middle East had not expected. That's something Israel has to think about. But a lot of these Arab countries thought, we don't have to think about this. Well, now, after the situation is made more starkly clear when it comes to Iran, and after Iran basically has a set of rather nefarious allies all over the region, and that includes the Houthi rebels, now you have multiple regimes, multiple governments, multiple rulers there in the Middle East who understand that destabilization can come to their territory very, very fast. What had appeared to be an absolutely intact Saudi society, rather free from the danger of this kind of attack, well, all that has now changed. The ground rules are fundamentally now different. About this, the Wall Street Journal stated, and I quote, Saudi Arabia has decided to postpone its flagship investor conference, highlighting how missile attacks on the kingdoms, airports, and capital city by the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen are threatening its economic ambitions. And so, the Saudi government has had to respond to that by postponing, rescheduling what's known as the Future Investment Initiative. It was, as I said, to begin on October the 26th, but now it is being postponed until 2027. It does make you wonder, just in terms of how things are unfolding, what will the situation in this region or elsewhere look like by the time we think about October of 2027? In one sense, that's going to come very fast. In another sense, the world could be reshaped over and over again before then. Before we turn to questions, I want to tell you about a very significant obituary that ran just in recent days. It has to do with the death of Marjo Gortner at the age of 82. And he died in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October the 2nd at age 82. The news is just kind of getting. Major media are giving some attention, but my guess is the average American has no idea who Marjo Gortner is or now was. Marjo Gortner was very, very famous in much of America as a child preacher and child evangelist going back to the early period of his life. And he was one of those very interesting, well, let's just say religious celebrities. And he appeared to set the world on fire as a boy preacher. And as a boy, I mean a very young boy. Penelope Green writing the obituary for the New York Times has it right when she writes, quote, by the time he was four, Marjo Gortner was an ordained minister coached by his parents into a tiny simulacrum of a Pentecostal preacher, belting out hellfire and brimstone. They then tell us, quote, he was born into the business, the fourth generation of a family of ministering men. But it was his mother, Margaret, known as Sister Marge, who taught him the trade, writing the scripts for the sermons and drilling him in day-long sessions, end quote. Okay, so this story is exactly what it sounds like. It is about what can only be described as religious fraud. And it was religious fraud in a particularly Pentecostal context here with the idea that at the center of it was a supposedly divinely called and spiritually anointed five-year-old boy preacher. We now know, for example, that his mother, yes, his mother was writing the sermons, but he was quite the gifted child in terms of pulling this off. He would memorize the sermons. He would write the sermons. He would be dressed in his little suit. He would get in front of the congregation and he would hurl his message at them. As the obituary in the New York Times continues, speaking of Marjo Gortner, quote, he was a hit on the evangelical circuit, glad in a little white suit and cowboy boots, his hair a nimbus of blonde curls that his mother had bleached and permed. He gestured and lunged, delivering his lines in a piping voice from a pint-sized pulpit and rolling his R's as his mother had taught him. We're then told later in the article, and I quote, Purge sewed special pockets into his suit so that when he went through congregational offerings, twenty dollars would get you a kiss from little Marjo. There was ample room for the money. Not long before he turned five, he officiated at the wedding of a young couple, earning the copious press coverage and a spot in Ripley's Believe It or Not, as well as, well, it says criticism here from religious leaders who found the publicity stunt unseemly. Well, what's really interesting is that the article then tells us that even as a boy, this man didn't believe what he was preaching. So even as he wasn't even writing the sermons, he didn't believe what he said, and that includes he didn't believe in the existence of hell. He doesn't believe in the power of the gospel. His ministry, insofar as that's what it was called, it came to an end when he was about 14 because the boy preacher had a voice that changed, and guess what? A changing voice meant a changing understanding of the people who were watching him. He was all of a sudden less interesting, and he was drawing much smaller crowds and smaller gifts as well, including the money that was being put in. He was drawing much smaller crowds and smaller gifts as well, including the money that was being put in. All right, to make a long story short, let me just say that as an adult, Marjorie Gortner really did identify very clearly as someone who did not believe the gospel, and he went into acting, and he actually cooperated in making a major media event, kind of tracing his own story. As his story becomes very well understood now, as people are able to have the information and the truth about all of this, his father turns out to be very weak. His mother turns out to have been, I think, especially pretty wicked, but it's all falsity. It is all a game. It is all an act, and it was all about the celebrity, and it was all about the money. It's a very sad story. The headline of the obituary is, again, Marjorie Gortner, 82, child preacher who later exposed the con, dies. Okay, so I'm asked questions sometimes about how Christians are to think about something like this, and you know, this came out, and I received the obituary, just after I had taught an expository lesson on 2 Corinthians chapter 4, where the apostle Paul begins in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 by writing, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. What I think here is so important is that the apostle Paul here, right in the New Testament book, we know is 2 Corinthians, warns the church already that this kind of fraud is going to show up, that this kind of fraudulent claim about Christianity is going to show up. False preachers are going to show up. The apostle Paul doesn't say one that is particularly identified as five years old, but his warning covers them all, and that includes this little preacher's parents as well. What the New York Times in this obituary doesn't cover is something else that came up years ago, when it relates to Marjo Gordner, and that is the fact that even as he was a flamboyant preacher, there was no gospel in what he was preaching. It was a very different message. You have to wonder how many people recognized that at the time, how much discernment was present at the time. The warning that comes from the apostle Paul is just a wake-up call for us all, that there's the danger of having false prophets, false preachers, and a false gospel show up just about anywhere. And then you also have the apostle Paul pointing out to the Corinthians, and thus to us, why we should know the gospel of Jesus Christ, love the gospel of Jesus Christ, defend the gospel of Jesus Christ, and do so without hesitation. As he says at the end of this very paragraph in this letter of 2 Corinthians in chapter 4, for God, who said, let light shine out of the darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In other words, don't settle for anything different. Don't settle for anything less. Okay, now we turn to questions, and I'm always thankful for the questions that are sent in. And I want to say at this point, I think it's also important that I say I'm particularly thankful for questions that come in focusing on a different dimension of my answer and engagement with some previous question that came in. And that's just very healthy, and I really appreciate that. I had a listener who wrote in, a young man, and he's raising some of the issues that have come up with so many parents cutting off children and just basically cutting off all contact. And this modern estrangement that is taking place as a part of, I think, a very clear development and, frankly, corruption of a very bad therapeutic worldview that is now coming with this effect. What I wanted to talk about in terms of that part of the conversation, and I had a thinking, a public interview that I just did that we'll link to at the bottom of this program. This is something that really does demand our attention. And I talked about the fact that there are so many young people who are just cutting off their contact with God. And I talked their parents in a very sinister and selfish way. Okay. But then I do get this question and it's sent in by a young man who says that after going through Christian family counseling with the blessing of a good gospel church, he says he's decided to be estranged from his parents for the protection of his wife and children due to pervasive and persistent patterns of emotional abuse. And he asked if I would address this and talk about when this kind of estrangement is and is not appropriate. And I really appreciate the conscience of this young man. It's made very clear in the sensitive and very careful way he writes this. It's clear that this is not a case in which this is just the result of some kind of secular therapeutic advice. This is something that has even been guided by Christian counsel and by pastoral counsel from a gospel church. So that is a very good point. And very sadly, I just need to say just an affirmation of the issue raised here that we are talking about a societal problem that is evident in the fact this becomes a growth industry based on the fact that we're not going to be able to do anything about it. We're going to be able to do something about it. And quite frankly, at the expense of many parents, and you have this secular world that basically says you should look internally and you are all that matters and your parents don't matter anymore. And it's leading to all kinds of distress. And a lot of it is just morally baseless. But as you say that, it also reflects the fact that in some cases, I would say a far smaller number of cases, this is why there aren't bestselling books in the secular book source on this. There are situations in which Christians have to take the step of licensing themselves based upon, I think, a very clear-headed, honest Christian assessment, in this case, in conversation with the elders of a gospel church, just because there is something that requires a separation. And let me just point out, that too is deeply biblical. It's deeply biblical to know that at times we have to let good and kindred go. We have to allow and even bring about a separation simply because of spiritual reasons. I want to be careful with this because I think the secular world wants to say it's all about you and how you feel. That is not what this writer is saying. He's talking about a spiritual situation that is done with very clear accountability in a local church. And this man also is just really careful. And I love this. He says he doesn't want to fall into the same trap of calling things we don't like toxic without properly defining our terms. So this is exactly what I hope for out of listeners. It's a good clarification and it's a good thing for me to come back. And I appreciate the letter in order to say that clearly there are some situations in which this is exactly what has to happen. And we as Christians hope this is not permanent. We must hope that too. But there are situations in which on gospel terms, clearly morally mandated terms, and concern for, for instance, this man's wife and children, sometimes hard things have to be done. I think one of the key differences, and I want to say this to the young man that sent in this letter, I think one of the key differences is you pray for something better. You're not self-satisfied in a broken relationship. You are hoping for and praying for something better. And I'm going to hope and pray that by the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, what is brought into your family, is indeed something better. In the meantime, I think you are raising all the right spiritual issues. Now I'm turning to a very young man who asked a very direct question, a 13-year-old young man. And he writes in asking this, and I'm going to read it. He writes on Hawaii and it's just straightforward. I'm going to read it exactly as he wrote it. If God said be fruitful and multiply, why was Jesus not married and did not have children? Okay. Well, I think it's because of this. You also know that the, God who revealed this and told us to be fruitful and multiply is indeed the God we refer to as father and there is no mother. So this is where we understand the distinction between the creature and the creator. And thus, this is Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. He's the son of the father. He's God in human flesh. He's fully God and fully man. I would simply say to this 13-year-old boy, I just want to tell you that the theological problems of Jesus being married would be overwhelming and overwhelming. Let's just think about that. And instead, Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. And this is one of the reasons why in the Old Testament, we were told to look for a son who would be born. And indeed, Jesus was born exactly as the prophets had foretold. And he's fully God and fully man. Therefore, it would have been impossible for him to marry a mere human. That just wasn't a part of the father's plan from the beginning. And there's another dimension to this. I want to say to this 13-year-old, and that is that Jesus was born as a son of the living God. The promise of the gospel is that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is described as the bride of Christ, and Christ is described as the bridegroom. And so, it's not that we're left in the dark about where all of this leads. It leads to the glorious truth that Christ is redeemed to people by his blood, and that the father has called sinners to himself through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are made together. We're made up as a church. And to the church is given the right of Christ. So, I understand what you're talking about here. But remember, the New Testament also talks to us about the marriage supper of the Lamb. So, there's more behind your question, my guess is, than you even knew. I appreciate a 13-year-old asking an honest question. And my intention was to give you, from Scripture, an honest answer. With time running out, I want to take another question, this time from a 15-year-old young man who writes also from Maui. That's interesting. I don't know if he knows the other young man. I'm going to guess maybe he does. And points in this question. Number one, what are your thoughts on revival and revivalism? How do you stand with church traditions and the sacraments? Two, how do you balance preaching, personal salvation, and discipleship with addressing systemic brokenness or injustice in the world? Three, how do you determine if a moral stance comes directly from the Bible versus cultural traditions of the past? Four, how do I build a stronger daily habit of prayer and reading the Bible? What do I do when God feels distant or silent in my life? How do I better understand my God-given purpose or spiritual gifts? Okay, I just want to say thank you to this young man for encouraging me by writing all these questions and sending them in. I can't deal with all of these in terms of even what they all deserve. I want to try to do something rather quickly, and that is, number one, you said, what are my thoughts on revival and revivalism? I'm going to say that revival is a sovereign work of God bringing a power of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of sin, bringing a power to the preaching of the Word of God, and a power in terms of the evidence of conversion and of repentance and of growth and grace. And all of that is God's sovereign gift. Now, when it comes to revivalism, you say revival, and then you ask revivalism, I want to tell you that revivalism in one sense might be God's people seeking to pray for revival to come, recognizing it when it comes and seeking to apply all that is learned in the course of what God is teaching them. I think the way this question is asked, revivalism here probably points to something else, and that is that in the 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, there were those who sought to turn revival into a formula. If you do this, God will then bring revival, and so we're going to do these things that are formulaic in order to bring about revival. And I'll just say, I think the testimony of the church looking honestly at much of revivalism is it produced a good deal more energy than conviction in many cases. So there is a difference between revival and revivalism. We are one of the things we have to watch in a lot of cases is anything that ends with ism. Okay, secondly, preaching personal salvation and discipleship as measured over systemic brokenness or injustice in the world. Number one, we need to be really clear about systemic brokenness, and we need to be really clear about injustice in the world. But the clearest gospel preaching points particularly to our sin and the barrier that is thus between us and the Father that can be removed only through the Son. The Christian worldview takes both of these with full seriousness. Personal salvation and the task of discipleship in terms of addressing systemic brokenness or injustice in the world. I just want to say that this doesn't work the other way around. In other words, if we begin with systemic injustice or brokenness, we're not going to get necessarily to the gospel, and we might never preach the gospel. But we preach the gospel, and the gospel comes with social consequences. It comes directly from the Bible versus cultural traditions of the past. I will simply say I can answer that in a hurry, and that is read the Bible. If it's in the Bible, it's biblical. If it's not in the Bible, it could be an application of Christian reasoning to understand what a commandment in the Bible now commands and requires of us. And that's true with many modern technologies. You're not going to find computers in the Bible. That doesn't mean the Bible doesn't offer moral principles that apply to our engagement with the digital world. And then finally, I'm just doing my best to try to get to as many of these as possible. I'm taking it on as a personal challenge about building a stronger daily habit of prayer, reading the Bible, what to do when God feels distant or silent in your life, and how can you come to know even more adequately God's purpose for your life and spiritual gifts. I'll just say I find all of this to be answered by what we call as Christians the means of grace, and that is reading the Word of God, the fellowship of the saints, the preaching of the Word of God in church, what happens to us in the Holy Spirit in terms of all that we experience in obedience to the Word of God in the company of Christ's people. And it's by prayer, it's by the reading of scriptures, by all of these things. And I just want to come to the end here to say, number one, I am thrilled, I'm honored, I'm encouraged by a 15-year-old young man asking these questions. And I want to say I took it at this time simply in order to say that all of these things take us back to the fact that we can only answer this on biblical authority. We can only answer this in terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of this can be lived out faithfully only in the context of Christian discipleship in the fellowship of the local church where the Bible is preached and the gospel is clear. If you have a question, just write me at [email protected]. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at albertmohler.com. You can follow me on X or Twitter by going to x.com/albertmohler. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. For information on Boyce College, just go to boycecollege.com. I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.