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The Future and Endtime

The Future and Endtime

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Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad

· by · In: Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime

A famous phrase from at least the time of Rome said, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. Does it apply to now? Is God preparing to destroy parts of the world and so is allowing them to descend into madness so that they bring on their own destruction? To say the least, it’s happened before. The Latin rendition was, “Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat,”  an opinion that’s been around for centuries.

Paul the Apostle spoke of this in a different way. He said that God sends “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (II Thessalonians 2:11) But to whom is that strong delusion sent? Paul covers that quite succinctly. Those who “receive not the truth, that they may be saved.” (II Thessalonians 2:10)

I’ve personally witnessed the progression of history over the last 50 or 60 years. I enjoyed and spent time sharing my faith at Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park in London in 1971. How has Britain progressed over the last 50 years? Or Dam Square in Amsterdam where I was in 1972? Have the nations of Western Europe and North America “progressed”? You might think to say yes. But what do you think the answer would be in the eyes of God? “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

What incredible depth that saying has and I think I only for the first time really saw it and realized it tonight. Is that saying something that the Hebrew Bible would agree with? It certainly is. One of the most incredible passages in the Old Testament bears out this thought. God said to the spirits around His throne, “Who shall persuade [ancient king of Israel] Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead… And one came forth and said, ‘I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets’. And the Lord said, ‘Go, you shall persuade him’.” (I Kings 22:20-22)

This is almost unfathomable for many people. But the Bible says that the Lord convened a multitude of spirits before His throne and that he sanctioned one who said he would go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets of the evil king Ahab.

This is not taught in the kids’ Sunday school class on Sunday. Or most likely even from the pulpit. But it’s the same idea as the ancient thought, “Quos Deus vult perdere prius”. Or as another translation gives it, “Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason”. Perhaps, if you prefer the Greek rendition, Sophocles said, “Evil appears as good in the minds of those whom god leads to destruction.”

God, at length, when they have rejected His messengers, despised His words and misused his prophets, sends a lying spirit to deceive fully and utterly those ones who have already gone so far in rejecting Him.

Like the Bible says of ancient King Saul, who ruled before King David, “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him”  (I Sam 16:14). This is where we are now in our times. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

We all feel it and sense it. There is a spirit of madness and virtual insanity that is upon so many in our nations at this time. It is unsustainable. It is overwhelmingly lacking in basic truth and a grasp of reality and the truth that is of this time. But historically this is what happens before destruction. The ancients knew this.

But these are the overwhelmingly fearful and foreboding times we live in. If you study history, you’ll be aware of times when a lone voice was raised, “one crying in the wilderness”. (Mark 1:3) But it went unheeded. The multitude had hasted to follow evil. “They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his people until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no remedy.” (II Chronicles 36:16) Ask the Germans, they can tell you about it.

Well, this kind of talk is not popular. It’s depressing and discouraging. Still, historically, a solid case could be made that the times we are in right at this moment could be encapsulated by that phrase, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”.

Madness, unreasonableness, fierce senselessness is the order of the day here in our times and even is daily seen in my home country. Hopefully you are not sucked into these things. Hopefully you are anchored in the Lord and His truth. Because the delusion is very strong in our times. And multitudes are being confused and perplexed by it. May God help you and us all.

 

I’ll take over now, thanks

· by · In: Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime

It wasn’t a dream, but a strong, vivid experience—just before I woke up. There was a lucid presence, and it felt more like me than I was. So persuasive, so reasonable, and so overwhelming.

“This was all for your good,” I was told. It would take a load off my shoulders. It would begin to navigate life for me, make better decisions than I’d been making, and all I had to do was sit back, relax, and let it take control.

But I struggled with it. The reasoning was perfect and, in a way, spoke what seemed like objective truth. I knew it was some form of AI, having taken on life-like attributes, and it was very persuasively prodding me to let it have control of my most basic being. “All for my good, of course.”

It said it was a better version of me than I was. It had all the attributes and nature of my mind, soul, and personality—but without the downsides, the weaknesses, the shadows, and the wavering. All I had to do was say yes, to yield, to submit. You could say it was a dream—or even a nightmare—but it didn’t feel that way.

When I was in the experience, I knew what to do. It wasn’t a question at all of whether this thing had come from the Spirit of God. I knew it hadn’t. Instead, it was a life-like presence that had emerged from the realm of modern science—some kind of brand-new upgrade now capable of matching and mimicking my innermost individuality, able to simply replace me as the captain of my soul. But again, it didn’t feel like a dream. It felt like a being, trying to reasonably convince me to let it take over my life, right in that realm of consciousness just before waking.

As Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) That was what was at stake. I could just let go and let this new, AI-driven version of me take over—and I was told everything would go so much better. And it felt very, very real.

Perhaps if I’d written it down immediately, I’d remember more. But it was so unusual, so topical and current, that I had to take some time just to digest the experience. I believe what happened was that God allowed me to have this incident as a warning—of what is either just around the corner or perhaps already here.

It really looked like a good deal. A better me? Sure, why not? It’s sobering to think of how many people I may even know personally who, in a situation like that, might totally go along with it and sign on the dotted line.

People have been conditioned for generations now to fully and immediately accept anything that comes across as scientific. If they were presented with this offer in a modern, convincing way, multitudes would go for it. But if some clear and obvious demon tried to muscle into their heart and mind, they might actually resist that.

This all sounds like bad news—and I suppose it is. On the other hand, it seems exactly like the kind of thing envisioned in Revelation 13, written in 90 AD, about the condition of the world in the last days before the return of Jesus. For more on this, you could read a recent post I wrote called “Summoning and AI”, based on a New York Times article about the merging of AI and demonology that’s progressing rapidly in places like Silicon Valley.

God help us all. Seriously. This looks like something so many people would accept in a heartbeat. It was only because I have the Lord—and the protection and wisdom of the Holy Spirit—that I was able to resist this thing and even recognize what was happening. In one sense, some of the events spoken of regarding the end time don’t seem to be here yet. But in another very real way, some of them truly do seem to be happening already, right now.

 

“Summoning” and A.I.

· by · In: Angels, Miracles and the spirit world, Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime, Uncategorized

I scan the horizon daily for “the signs of the times”. Some things have been there for years. But, what’s new? What’s now in view that indicates progress toward the very final end time foreseen in the Bible?

“Artificial Intelligence” has been around for years, in some sense. But in recent times, with things like Chat GPT, there’s a new chapter and a new time of greatly enhanced computer advancement. For me, I view this from the perspective of a Christian who’s looking to see the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the coming of the future foretold through the Biblical prophets.

I prefer to keep things as simple as possible. But I’m going to need to take the narrative up a notch in discussing A.I. and the Bible , to some of the more mysterious, complex aspects of the Biblical future, spoken of by Jesus and the prophets.

Most of those reading this have heard somewhere of “the Anti-Christ”, the prophesied world dictator who will arise, just before the return of Jesus. And certainly the concept of “the mark of the beast” has become more and more known, even by secularist around the world.

They may not believe it but many millions have come to know the ideas behind the verse that says of a future point in time, “No man might buy or sell unless he had the mark of the beast… in his hand or his forehead”. This is also where the famous reference to “the number of the beast [the anti-Christ] which is 666“. (Revelation 13:16-18)

But the number of those grasping these things greatly shrinks when we get to places in the Bible that may be where we find Artificial Intelligence becoming part of the fulfillment. We could start with one of the least understood things Jesus of Nazareth ever said. And He said it at a pinnacle moment in a pinnacle chapter, when He was telling His disciples about His return to earth and the time just before that event.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand it, I’m not sure anyone yet has a complete, total grasp of how this will be fulfilled. Jesus said, “When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso reads, let him understand.” (Matthew 24:15)

Didn’t get it, did you? No worries; we’re going to try to delve into this, comparing Scripture with Scripture, as well as bringing in AI, and then see if there’s a clearer idea of it all from doing that.

Probably the biggest enigma in what Jesus said there is that phrase “the abomination of desolation”. Most likely you have no idea what that is. And I’m not going to be able to definitely clear it all up for you. But it’s worth looking into since Jesus brought it up. And also the prophet Daniel was told about this over 500 years before Jesus pointed to it, when talking about His second coming. [By the way, I went over these things in more detail in a video I did some years ago which linked Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 with the last verse in Daniel 9, verse 27. Here’s the link to that video:]

“Mark! Mark! I have it! The abomination of desolation is the Anti-Christ!”

Well, some do teach that but I personally don’t think the “AC” is the abomination. Jesus said “the abomination of desolation” was spoken of by the prophet Daniel. That phrase is used in several places in Daniel but the one that is most clear is Daniel 11:31. It says this. “And arms [armaments] shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength [soon to be rebuilt temple in Jerusalem]; and they shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.”

This and other places always give the picture of the abomination being a thing. Jesus said it will “stand” in the temple. It will be “placed” there. But the Antichrist is a person “the son of perdition”, similarly to how Jesus was a person, the very Son of God. As well, II Thessalonians 2:3 & 4 says the Antichrist will “sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”. So I feel pretty strongly that the abomination is “a thing”, not a person.

The mystery deepens, no? One thing to remember, the word “abomination” in the Old Testament was often used to speak of what we today call an idol. They were physical objects, placed in temples where the gods of old, Dagon, Ashtoreth, Baal and others were worshipped. The Greeks and Romans had similar things, all the way up to New Testament times.

“Mark, is there anything in the book of Revelation about this?”

I think there is and this is where we get a view of where Artificial Intelligence may be an integral part of it all. I mentioned already those mysterious verses in Revelation 13 about “666” and “the mark of the beast”.

But we have to go deeper. We have to squeeze the truth from more of these verses to get a fuller picture. Many have heard vaguely of the Antichrist to come. But far fewer know that the book of Revelation says he will have a “side kick”, evidently a number 2 man, who the Bible calls “the false prophet”. And it says of this false prophet, in Revelation 13 that, “he has power to give life to the image of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the Beast should be slain.” (Revelation 13:15)

What’s the image of the beast, you ask? It becomes fascinating when we find that the word “image” in the Bible is often referring to an idol, just as the word “abomination” did in the Old Testament. If you do a Word study on those two words, “abomination” and “image”, you’ll see how many times they are referring to what we today call idols.

And I’ve taught and do believe that “the image of the Beast” in Revelation 13 and “the abomination of desolation” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 are the same thing. That might be a jump for some but I believe it is a sound conclusion that can stand review.

It is my opinion that “the abomination of desolation” and “the image of the beast” both refer to some kind of very advanced “machine”, for lack of a better word. Or I could say computer but one that’s so far advanced that it’s beyond what most regular folks in the world today can imagine. My thought on this is similar to a number of Bible students who’ve looked deeply into the specifics of the Bible’s teaching on the end time.

And this falls into the realm of reality since we all know just how fast and how far technology is advancing in those fields. Elon Musk is creating bio chips to link our brains into a mega-network that may bring on forms of bio-technical eternal life.

In all this, I zero in on the verse that says, “He had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many of those that did not worship the beast should be slain”. So, a life-infused computer that can speak, also directing or monitoring all economic transactions on earth, as it says in Revelation 13:17. But actually, how farfetched does that really seem to be in the times we now live in?

I want to bring in here some things that have appeared recently in the New York Times newspaper. And keep in mind the part about “he had power to give life to the image of the beast”. Because that’s what’s comes to my mind when I’ve several times seen the word “summoning” in connection with what the absolute top scientists in Silicon Valley and elsewhere are working on with these things.

What are those tech creators summoning? The articles say they are summoning spirits, demons from beyond or whatever to inhabit and dwell in their most advanced computer concoctions in order to have them reach the limits and realms that the A.I. coders are trying to take things to. And this sounds exactly like what those verses in Revelation said would ultimately happen.

I’ll end this with just a few of the quotes I’ve taken note of in the New York Times articles that have come out about this. Here’s one.

“In 2018, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google — and not one of the tech executives known for overstatement — said, ‘A.I. is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.’”

[from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/11/technology/silicon-valley-confronts-the-idea-that-the-singularity-is-here.html]

And even more, this quote gets to the essence of where AI advancement has come to. Read this paragraph with focus and bring in what the Bible says “the image of the Beast” will be capable of.

“We typically reach for science fiction stories when thinking about A.I. I’ve come to believe the apt metaphors lurk in fantasy novels and occult texts. As my colleague Ross Douthat wrote, this is an act of summoning. The coders casting these spells have no idea what will stumble through the portal. What is oddest, in my conversations with them, is that they speak of this freely. These are not naifs who believe their call can be heard only by angels. They believe they might summon demons. They are calling anyway.”

[from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/opinion/chatbots-artificial-intelligence-future-weirdness.html]

Friends, this is not coming from Alex Jones or some loony loner in a cabin in Idaho. This is published in what’s considered by the power elites to be the most reputable newspaper in America. They boldly publish that the most advanced scientific creators are now openly summoning demons into their computers.

I’ll end this with part of an article by Ross Douthat, again in the New York Times. It perhaps summarizes much better than I can what we are seeing here and what this is leading towards.

“In this sense what we’re doing resembles a complex incantation, a calling of spirits from Shakespeare’s “vasty deep.” Build a system that imitates human intelligence, make it talk like a person and answer questions like an encyclopedia and solve problems through leaps we can’t quite follow, and wait expectantly to see if something infuses itself into the mysterious space where the leaps are happening, summoned by the inviting home that we have made.

Such a summoning is most feared by A.I. alarmists, at present, because the spirit might be disobedient, destructive, a rampaging Skynet bent on our extermination.

But the old stories of the magicians and their bargains, of Faust and his Mephistopheles, suggest that we would be wise to fear apparent obedience as well.’

[from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/opinion/magic-science-ufo-ai.html]

 

 

Has Putin shot his bolt?

· by · In: Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime

There was almost no fear greater than the fear of Russia. But now Putin’s had to (as they say in poker), “Put what you’ve got on the table.” And it hasn’t looked good so far. No one expected Ukraine to be able to withstand Russia. But they have.

One year into the war, it’s rather a stalemate. But that’s a defeat in many ways for Russia. They were our greatest fear and have been for over 70 years. And now? You can feel they have perhaps two choices. Go fully nuclear, the unspeakable alternative that’s remained our global fear since World War II. Or they can continue to send 10’s of 1000’s of their young men (in a nation desperate to repopulate itself) into the meat grinder of eastern Ukraine, to face resolute Ukrainians and the best weapons the Western powers can provide. Simply put, it’s not looking great for the mystique of Russian superiority and ultimate world dominance, as so many of us have bought into for so long.

And what if you study Bible prophecy? What about “the king of the north”? What about Ezekiel 38? My friends, we’ve been counting on these guys, haven’t we? No need to squirm, I could do the same. I think there are a lot of folks around who’ve been counting on Russia to provide a good deal of the power and “evil” to be fulfilled that’s been predicted in the end time build up, spoken of in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation.

But presently, Russia is losing huge numbers of troops and equipment on the plains of eastern Ukraine. And those resources in blood and treasure are not something that springs freely up out of the ground. They are depleted, they’re being exhausted and so very many look at it and feel it’s a fool’s errand that Mr. Putin has sent Russian power and prestige into. “All for nothing”, so many feel of the present war in Ukraine. My prophecy aficionado friends, how will Russia invade the Middle East if they can’t even take the eastern most part of Ukraine?

I hope you’re not expecting me to pull the cookies out of the fire and the rabbit out of the hat on this. I’m as stumped as you are. Perhaps some scenario develops where Putin is overthrown and a new leader arises who’ll lead Russia into a wiser and more prosperous future, more than at any time in its past. But as always, “what if’s” abound at every turn.

How does this all impact the picture of the unfolding end time, which in other areas continues to proceed most forebodingly? I really don’t know. And in my searching the internet for anyone else out there who sees all these data points leading us toward… what!…, I haven’t heard of anyone coming up with a clear, cognizant foreseeing of where all this is leading.

New and stranger goings on proceed briskly in the secular nation of Israel in the Middle East. Will the new, ultra religious government there clear the way for the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem? And artificial intelligence meanwhile is gathering pace by leaps and bounds; some now predict that “the singularity” is only 7 years away. Tragic natural disasters fall on top of immense refugee crises, war against Iran is a daily storm on the horizon, Western nations muddle through their internal befuddlements and suicide rates for young people increase year by year.

And the latest fear is that China will come to the aid of Russia with an infinity of weaponry, matching what the West is giving Ukraine. My, how that would be an unfathomably ominous turn of events in this saga. Would that not bring us face to face with the full scenario of World War III that was so before us at the height of the Cold War?

How does it all turn out? Will Russia ultimately sue for peace (as Germany did in World War I) and be defeated on the battle field after human losses unheard of before that time? Will China come to the side and aid of Russia, creating a new axis of power internationally? Will there be a cease fire where both sides get just enough of what they want so that both can claim a type of victory? Your guess may be as good as mine.

Still, I remain convinced that the end of the matter of these wars and rumors of wars is that through the haze and heartbreak will be the unfolding of Bible prophecy that will ultimately lead to the so welcomed second coming of our dear Jesus Christ to bring peace to the earth, after “a time of trouble such as was not since the beginning of the world”, to establish His righteous government, ordained and foretold by God and the prophets.

Of course that sounds ludicrous to the unbelievers who are in the majority now. But as the final events unfold, I believe so many will see ultimately that the only sane explanation of this present world is one that takes us to what turns out to be truly our only hope: God Himself and His intervention to save us all from ourselves and each other, where the people of the earth accept and welcome the intervention of God to pull our existence out of the destruction we have brought it to.

 

The Bible Belt and the End Time

· by · In: Current events, The Future and Endtime

What could “the Bible Belt” have to do with the prophetic End Time? Bear with me, there’s ground to explore here. For those outside the USA and not familiar with the term “Bible Belt”, I’ll explain.

The Bible Belt is a term generally given to the southeastern United States. At the same time it’s referring to the large number of Christians in that part of the USA who’ve continued to keep the faith in fundamental Christianity. This region has continued to have more ardent believers who identify as socially conservative Christians, compared to any other part of the country.

The Bible Belt is where I come from and now reside. I was not raised a Christian. By the age of 12, I loved to debate Christians my age, to mock and break their faith. Most often, I was successful since so many were weak in faith and shallow in their Christian experience.

But all the while, there was the influence of my Methodist grandparents, back when being a Methodist meant something. Sadly, over that last 50 to 60 years, that movement has deteriorated into a gender-fluid miasma of quasi-Christian verbiage and has functionally ceased to be the Christian influence that it was for 200 years. But my grandparents were of the generation in which they still “flew the flag” of genuine Christianity and that strongly impacted me, even at the age of 5 or 6.

What in the world does this have to do with the prophetic End Time? The Bible says there will be those going through the final days before the coming of the Lord who “will be strong and do exploits.” There will be Christians here who’ll stand up against the Antichrist and will be victors, even as many are martyred.

“They overcame him (the coming Antichrist) by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev. 12:11) This is in the chapter that speaks most clearly about “the woman in the wilderness”, which I believe to be the saved believers on earth in the final days.

There are a number of places in the Bible that clearly foretell of discipleship Christians alive and prospering in the end time before the coming of the Lord, who are teaching, witnessing and letting their lights shine in the final days before the return of Jesus to this earth.

As I survey my horizon, I do feel that those fervent believers across the USA “Bible Belt” have a reservoir of faith and conviction solid enough that, in the final end time, they’ll recognize what’s going on and will stand up to be some of the Lord’s strongest witnesses in the “great tribulation” (see Matthew 24:21, Daniel 12:1), before the Lord returns to establish His kingdom.

At this present time, these millions of “Bible Belt” Christians are being mocked and marginalized by the modern, Christ-less American media. They’re maligned as racist, bigoted, “homophobic”, uneducated remnants of a distant and indecent past. So the media voice of “this present world” would have us believe.

One place that shows the transformation happening to many American Christians is in the battle against the woke/Progressive agenda becoming fully dominate in public schools. Recently, I’ve been encouraged to see parents and grandparents realizing the necessity of standing up for their Christian values in the present battle for the soul of public education here. I wrote about my experiences with this in “Check out your local school board”.

I see many American Christians who are in a rather steep learning curve presently. They are seeing their American nationalism, a foundation stone for millions here, has to now be reevaluated as my nation daily moves more speedily away from the Godly moorings it was established on in earlier times.

Speaking plainly, I do feel that “the woman in the wilderness” of Revelation 12:6 & 14 may include these Bible Belt Christians who are now finding that the only thing they have left, as times “wax worse and worse”, is their foundation of faith in God that they learned from their forefathers. Ardent American Christians are increasingly realizing that the basic Christian decency this nation was steeped in for generations has been abandoned and swept away by the “woke/progressive” hordes who presently dominate our national debate.

As the final end times come ever closer, “Bible Belt” Christians will find that they’ve been tragically misled by those who’ve told them they will be “raptured just any minute”. And as one prop and falsehood after the other is seen by them to be a lie, they’ll come to find that the truth that they’ve known in Jesus is still as strong as ever. And probably much to their surprise, they’ll become some of the ones who’ll be the strongest voices for the cause of Christ as the darkness rapidly descends upon this world and this nation, before His return.

***

I’ve written on this subject before and it might be good to including links to those places, to provide context and a more complete view. I wrote, while in Bulgaria, about “the women fled into the wilderness”. Here’s the link to that:  https://www.propheciesofdaniel.com/fleeing-into-the-wilderness-in-bulgaria/

And is anyone presently living a brand of discipleship Christianity that could be an example and foreshadowing of the endtime Christians to come? I wrote this article about a young American family who currently remind me of future end time Christians to come. There’s even been a movie made about them. https://www.propheciesofdaniel.com/living-end-time-exploits-now/