Christians are encouraged to look for “the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). 

We look ahead to tomorrow, living with the awareness Jesus could come today.

One of the ways we look ahead to tomorrow is to consider the hundreds of unfulfilled prophecies in the Bible. We can expect the world to be moving in the direction predicted for the End Times.

We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by our futurist reading of the Bible:

• To avoid sensationalism, we are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news.
• We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy. We’re saying that they are the things you’d expect to be happening in the build- up to the future seven year Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

There is an intriguing passage in the Revelation about a statue, a guy we call the false prophet, and the Beast, which is another name of the antichrist.

An image of the Beast is going to come to “life.”

Rev 13:14 And [the false prophet] deceives those who dwell on the earth – by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. Rev 13:15 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.

It sounds a lot like what we would call Artificial Intelligence; AI for short. The world is definitely trending towards more intelligent and more powerful AI. 

So much so that this week, “More than 1,000 tech leaders, researchers and others signed an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems.”

Excerpts: 

The demand is made in an open letter signed by major AI players including: Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, the research lab responsible for ChatGPT and GPT-4; Emad Mostaque, who founded London-based Stability AI; and Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple.

Its signatories also include engineers from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta and Microsoft, as well as academics including the cognitive scientist Gary Marcus.

“Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control,” the letter says.

“Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”^[1]

Thebulletin.org reported, How science-fiction tropes shape military AI. The article said, 

The Terminator series has proved influential. In 2016, then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva discussed what he and members organizations called the “Terminator conundrum.” He wondered: “What happens when that [machine] can inflict mortal harm and is empowered by Artificial Intelligence? How are we going to know what is in [its] mind?” Selva also wondered what adversaries would do with the technology.^[2]

This is a real headline.  Romanian Prime Minister Unveils First AI Government Assistant.

Excerpts: 

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă brought a surprise guest to Wednesday’s cabinet meeting: his new honorary assistant, a completely Romanian-developed artificial intelligence.

Romania, which famously has the fastest internet in Europe, has long been building its image as a technological powerhouse within the EU in terms of new software and innovation, and can now show yet another achievement to add to its inventory.

“The Romanian government is marking a first, I might say, at a national and international level,” Ciucă said while introducing the language model. “The first government advisor using artificial intelligence.” 

The robot, which is integrated into a mirror and projects its written answers onto the glass, bears the name “ION” (Romanian version of John), which – according to the PM’s enthusiastic report – is in fact the Romanian word “noi” backward, meaning “us.”^[3]

The sole reason we talk about AI is this: The Bible, 2,000 years ago, predicted an “image” would come to life. That prophecy could be fulfilled by AI. We are alive in the first and only time in history that makes any sense.

We are witnessing the stage-setting for the seven year Time of Jacob’s Trouble, more commonly called the Great Tribulation.  

  

We will not, however, be on Earth when God is pouring out His wrath.

The resurrection and rapture of the church are imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Jesus will come, in the clouds, and raise the dead believers of the Church Age.

He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies. We will 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!