Institutions are Artificial Intelligences

Institutions are artificial life forms. Let me explain. Under the view of the law, a corporation is considered a "living" entity. If I run a business, and I incorporate that business, I am no longer the business, but the corporation is the business. If in the business a customer gets injured. That customer can not sue me, but can sue the corporation. The reason I am not sued is because the corporation, as an artificial intelligence, is responsible for the injury, not me.

A corporation, under law, is considered an immortal being. The institution set up in the corporation borrows the consciences of the actual living beings to function, but those real people come and go, while the corporation remains. Oxford University is such an example. It continues "to live" for centuries while it borrows the real consciences of people every generation to perpetuate it.

While it is an artificial intelligence, the corporation determines what it does by the by laws and charters of incorporation, therefore, all who participate - even though they are the real life - are bound by those charters and bylaws. Consequently those bylaws determine what the corporation can or can not do, which determines what the people loaning their real lives to the institution can or can not do. That is why in the courts of law it is the corporation that is culpable for the injury of the customer, not the real people.

This artificial intelligence is created by man for his use. There are many benefits to participating in an institution. This protection from liability already mentioned is one. Another is increase in personal profit by all participants as they get their pay checks, stock dividends, or commissions. These institutions are always hierarchal in structure, so as one advances up the corporate ladder, not only does one pay increases, but one's personal prestige and power increases.

Since the artificial intelligence is a tool created by man for man's benefit, it is morally neutral. Computers parallel the institution. They are artificial intelligences that cannot do anything by themselves, and require a user and a programmer to give it life. The programmer is like the writers of the bylaws and charters of the corporations. They can write anything they want, but once the program is written, then the users are bound by what the program can or can not do. So with computers you can draft great literature on a word processor, or you can write smut. You can do wonderful research through the internet or you can cruise for pornography.

The point is, we have to choose the programs we use and we choose what we are using it for. Likewise you choose which institution you use, and what you use it for. In a word, the system of institutions is the world system. And even though, it is created by man, Satan uses the artificial intelligence of institutions for his own ends. Since institutions are immortal, needing the consciences of new generations to sustain it, and since Satan is immortal, he is able to move institutions the way he wants since each generation is only seeing a segment of this artificial intelligence. That is why Harvard University and other Ivy League institutions began as Christian undertakings, yet are now pagan institutions promoting ungodliness.

Here is the reason that the church should stay away from institutions. Even when the intention is good, and even if it is started by the Spirit, when the generation that began the institution dies off, a new generation assumes it without the first impetus of the Spirit. The nature of the artificial intelligence of institutions is that it assumes a life of its own. That next generation then finds itself serving the life of that artificial intelligence, instead of the Living God, while they mistake the life of the artificial intelligence for God.

History if full of examples of institutions that began with the Spirit but ends with the flesh. Consider the YMCA, which had a clear Christian beginning. Today the Y has nothing to do with real Christianity and is only associated by name only. Fortunately some institutions hold on longer to their spiritual moorings. The Salvation Army is an example. They are still are a vibrant Christian institution. But when one views all the Christian institutions throughout history, the loss of the Spirit is the norm, not the exception. Institutionalizing Roman Catholicism plunged Europe into the Dark Ages. Many Protestant denominations that were once living communities in the Spirit of God have died and have dead fellowships today, although there are always pockets of living Christian congregations in some of those generally dead denominations.

They die because they rely on the artificial intelligence of the system - by laws, creeds, government procedures, formats, schedules, programs, and so on - instead of the living God. Even institutions filled with leaders and members who are seeking the living God, are still bound and restricted because they seek God within the confines of the artificial intelligence of their corporation. God will not be boxed in and told how to do things. Neither can the sons of God be boxed in. So they leave the institution and, sadly, often make their own institutions.

The church is an organic entity whose intelligence is the living God, not the artificial intelligence of corporations. Satan loves Christians staying in church. No he does not take their salvation from them because of the institution. But he does restrict their freedom in Christ. And for many, he keeps Christians as babies who never truly discern good and evil by not maturing.

In a separate article, I made the distinction that marriage is not an institution, even though it is lived institutionally. When marriage is lived according to preconceived concepts and constructs of how a marriage should be, it is being lived institutionally. Imposing those institutional ideas on each spouse suffocates the life of the relationship. But when a marriage is a friendship kept together by the vow to stay together, and both spouses are given the freedom to follow Christ as they understand, natural love and affection blooms organically. In this regard, it is understood that Jesus is working out the destinies of each partner, and each partner is alongside the other in helping those two destinies. Destinies that are intertwined because of the marriage, but individual because each are a son and daughter of God.

Likewise, when Christ is allowed to bring friends together in fellowship spontaneously a living and vibrant friendship can grow. The Lord will bring people into our lives temporarily to meet certain needs that only God can understand at the time, and no institution can comprehend. He may do that through an institution or not. It does not matter. For it is God maturing us in Christ through a variety of means. And since the friendships are organic, there is no obligation or expectation place upon one another, for all are free in Christ. When one tries to place expectations on the other, institutionalism has crept in. The exception, of course, are mutually agreed obligations or expectations. But even there, if it is not possible to maintain those obligations, I believe it would be better to release each other from the obligations so a healthy love may continue to grow.

Despite all that I have written, I am not advocating the destruction of institutions. As I said in the beginning of this article, institutions are morally neutral. My call is to following Christ organically. And Christ may lead you to an institution for a season. But all things in Christ are free. We are free to participate in organized religion. We are free to fellowship with believers in house churches. We are free to meet friends in coffee shops, or where ever. Christ does not lay heavy burdens upon us. He gives us the freedom to choose what we do. If Christ leads me in one way, I will go that way. But there are many things He does not lead, but allows us to choose for ourselves. When we participate with any institution, understand the artificial intelligence and life of that institution. and do not be restricted by the institution. If it hinders your freedom in Christ leave it. If it can benefit the body, use it. Do all for the glory of God.