Ron Rhodes said, “The importance of eschatology is found in the fact that about 25% of divine revelation was prophetic when originally written. In other words, one out of four verses in the Bible are prophetic in nature.”
We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.
We are futurists. We interpret the unfulfilled End Times prophecies as future events that will occur in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context.
Biometrics, Artificial Intelligence, cashless commerce, the manipulation of human DNA, global government, the exponential growth of human knowledge, and the rebirth of national Israel are End Times phenomena the Bible predicts. All of these are increasingly trending in the news.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might have a role in the future Great Tribulation. It could, for example, power the Image of the Beast.
In the Revelation we are introduced to an associate of the antichrist. Then we read that he tells “those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the [antichrist]. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (13:14-17).
Will AI “give breath to the Image of the Beast” and function like a Terminator?
AI is getting spooky. I read an article titled, ‘Conscious AI’ may already exist as expert receives backlash over terrifying warning.
Excerpts:
An artificial intelligence expert has been criticized for saying that AI used for finance, research or medicine could have already developed a consciousness.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever claimed on twitter that: “It may be that today’s largest neural networks are slightly conscious.”https://www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/news/conscious-ai-already-exist-expert-26223303
In January 2015, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and dozens of artificial intelligence experts signed an open letter on artificial intelligence calling for research on the societal impacts of AI. The letter affirmed that society can reap great potential benefits from artificial intelligence, but called for concrete research on how to prevent certain potential “pitfalls.” Artificial intelligence has the potential to eradicate disease and poverty, but researchers must not create something which cannot be controlled. The four-paragraph letter, titled Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence: An Open Letter, lays out detailed research priorities in an accompanying twelve-page document.
Yuval Noah Hurari has distinguished himself as a commentator on the “cognitive revolution” and its impact on future societies. His books, Homo Deus and Sapiens have been translated into 65 languages. Harari’s thesis is that data and artificial intelligence pose an existential threat to human existence as we know it today. Says Harari, “We are one of the last generations of Homo sapiens. Within a century or two, Earth will be dominated by entities that are more different from us that we are different from chimpanzees.” What entities would this be? Harari refers to artificial intelligence (AI) as having the “power to re-engineer our bodies and brains” while noting that “these technologies are developing at breakneck speed.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/randybean/2021/11/16/rethinking-ai-dire-warnings-and-imperfect-results/?sh=59c98e846efd
We are not saying that AI will definitely fulfill the prophecy of giving “breath” to the Image of the Beast. But you can see how it could, or at least that it is a precursor.
AI is something expected by futurists like ourselves.
We believe the resurrection and rapture of the church are imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it. It will happen before the Great Tribulation.
Jesus will return in the clouds.
He will raise the dead in Christ.
He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies690.
We will all join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.
Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!