We focus on prophecy each week for about five-minutes. The Bible is about 30% prophecy. About 500 of those prophecies are the yet-to-be fulfilled prophecies of the Last Days.
It’s more than a curiosity; it’s extremely practical. For one thing, it shakes-off spiritual apathy. The apostle Paul said: “[know] the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).
Prophecy also encourages holy living. The apostle Peter, after a long discussion about the Last Days, wrote, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (Second Peter 3:11-12).
Looking at today’s headlines, it seems the “time” in which we live is one in which several prophecies could easily go from unfulfilled to fulfilled.
For example: A passage in the Revelation makes an incredible claim:
Rev 13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
Rev 13:14 And he 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.
These verses describe events in the future Great Tribulation. The two “beasts” are the antichrist and his assistant, called the false prophet.
I want to focus on the phrase, “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.”
A few years ago I would have been at a loss to explain how someone could give “life” to an image. Today I’d immediately call it Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI is becoming commonplace. I just read an article titled, Lie-detecting computer kiosks equipped with artificial intelligence look like the future of border security.
Excerpts:
International travelers could find themselves in the near future talking to a lie-detecting kiosk when they’re going through customs at an airport or border crossing.
The US Department of Homeland Security funded research of the virtual border agent technology known as the Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time, or AVATAR, about six years ago and allowed it to be tested it at the US-Mexico border on travelers who volunteered to participate. Since then, Canada and the European Union tested the robot-like kiosk that uses a virtual agent to ask travelers a series of questions.
“The technology has much broader applications potentially,” despite most of the funding for the original work coming primarily from the Defense or Homeland Security departments a decade ago, according to Aaron Elkins, one of the developers of the system and an assistant professor at the San Diego State University director of its Artificial Intelligence Lab.
He added that AVATAR is not a commercial product yet but could be also used in human resources for screening.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/lie-detectors-with-artificial-intelligence-are-future-of-border-security.html
Meanwhile, a leading roboticist who developed an advanced humanoid robot has predicted that artificially intelligent androids will be given civil rights within 30 years.
Dr David Hanson, whose Sophia robot once said it wanted to “destroy humans,” made the predictions in a research paper titled ‘Entering the Age of Living Intelligence Systems and Android Society.’
Advances with artificial intelligence will mean computers… will require the same rights as humans by 2045, the paper – published ahead of the release of the new PlayStation 4 game Detroit: Become Human – claims.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/robots-civil-rights-android-artificial-intelligence-2045-destroy-humans-sophia-singularity-a8367331.html
Dr. Stephen Hawking, the brilliant physicist who recently died, warned about AI. He said, “AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization. It brings dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many. It could bring great disruption to our economy…”
In an interview he said it could one day reach a level where it outperforms humans and becomes a “new form of life.”
I’m not saying that the image of the beast will be a form of AI. I am saying that AI is exactly in line with the kind of technological developments you’d expect from reading the future unfulfilled prophecies.
We are not looking for any particular sign, or prophecy to be fulfilled. Jesus promised He’d return to rapture His church – which entails the resurrection of the dead in Christ of the Church Age, then the translation from earth to Heaven of all living believers.
It is presented in the Bible as an imminent event.
Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up. Ready or not, Jesus is coming!