MEANING OF THE LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF REVELATION PART FOUR

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In Part Three we did the Church of Pergamum: “The church in Pergamum …where Satan’s throne is. It was incredible to explore the history of the altar of Zeus; how it was taken from Pergamum to Germany and used in Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. Moves are now taking place to have it moved back to Turkey. I asked the question could the Antichrist use it during his short reign?

The Church of Thyatira is the fourth letter describing the church in the fourth year of Daniel’s 70th Week prophecy. The Turkish equivalent of “Thyatira” means “graveyard on a hill.” If this is the correct meaning, it fits perfectly with the Fourth Year of the 70th Week of Daniel—-the year the Green Horse rides, signifying death.

A quick read of the Letter to Thyatira doesn’t seem to give any obvious clues about why this letter applies to the fourth event in the Pattern of Seven Events and the Fourth Year of the 70th Week. But, although the symbols are a bit obscure, they have an amazing correlation to the Fourth Year.

ATTRIBUTES OF JESUS IN THE LETTER TO THYATIRA: Both aspects of the appearance of Jesus given in this Letter to Thyatira involve fire and glowing. This is somewhat symbolic of the trial of fire that the Church is about to enter: “The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: Revelation 2:18

Notably, Jesus is listed as the Son of God. This is the only reference to this title in the Book of Revelation. It appears here to reinforce the authority of Jesus. In the Fourth Year, the Antichrist will sit in the temple of God and proclaim to be God. He will speak great blasphemies against the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22), especially against Jesus’s divinity. This idea of Jesus being God’s Son is found first in Psalm 2. Amazingly, after this Letter to Thyatira, Jesus quotes this very Psalm. This dual reference to Psalm 2 in this letter “time stamps” this Psalm as being primarily about the Fourth Year. Let’s look at the quoted section: “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them (the gentile nations). Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall shatter them like earthenware.’” Psalm 2:4-9

This is a critical section of scripture about our understanding of the 70th Week of Daniel. We see God saying he has installed his Messiah (Jesus) as King upon Mt. Zion. During this Fourth Year, the Antichrist will take his seat in the Temple and proclaim himself god. God the Father says, “No, you are not king and not God. I have a son, even if Muslims deny it, and his inheritance will be the entire earth and all nations.” Psalm 2 is God’s answer to the Antichrist’s blasphemous statements. Furthermore, Jesus will rule, not the Antichrist, and He will rule with a rod of iron.

In the Letter to Thyatira, Jesus quotes the conclusion of this passage and applies it to the Church as well. Resurrected believers will rule with Jesus during His Millennial reign on this Earth:

“He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father.” Revelation 2:26-27

This letter is Jesus’s reminder to the Church that no matter how hopeless the Fourth Year looks, they are to know how the story ends.

AUTHORITY is a very important aspect of the Fourth Year. From a spiritual perspective, it may be the principal, defining aspect of the Fourth Year. In Revelation 13 we see Satan giving the Beast his authority and his throne in this year: God grants the Beast (the rider of the Green Death Horse) authority to kill in this Fourth Year: “Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Revelation 6:8

God also grants the Beast authority to war with the saints and defeat them. He also grants him authority over every tribe and people group. So, when Jesus writes that to him who overcomes he will give authority over the nations (Rev. 2:26), it is this same authority that is granted to the Beast for 42 months that Jesus will wrest from him and give to its rightful owners—-the faithful. This wonderful encouragement is needed in the Fourth Year because it is at that time that the authority is temporarily given to the Beast. It will appear all is lost, but Jesus wants his Church to remember the end of the story, that ultimately the authority will be given back to Jesus and the redeemed.

THE APPEARANCE OF JESUS: The two aspects of his appearance Jesus mentions in the Letter to Thyatira are quoted from both visions of Jesus in Daniel and Revelation. “His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace.” Revelation 1:14-15, and “His eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze.” Daniel 10:6

Jesus’s “eyes” are the seven Spirits of God (see Rev. 5:6) who are sent into all the earth. The second aspect of Jesus’s appearance mentioned in this Letter to Thyatira is his feet of burnished bronze that appear to glow “white. Feet are symbolic of sinful uncleanliness. In Solomon’s Temple a great bronze sea was set up for the priests to wash their hands and feet. (2 Chron. 4:6). During the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. (John 13:5) but Jesus’ feet glow “white hot” in purity.

CONDITION OF THE CHURCH OF THYATIRA: By the Fourth Year, many lukewarm Christians have fallen away. The Church, though smaller, is now stronger in their faith and in their deeds due to the refining of persecution. Jesus recognizes them for it in this Letter to Thyatira, “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first” (Rev. 2:19) This is the opposite of what was said in the First Year in the Letter to Ephesus: “repent and do the deeds you did at first.” The fire of the trial is refining the Church of Thyatira.

Jesus does rebuke the Church, however, for its relationship to “Jezebel”: Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Revelation. 2: 20

Jezebel worshipped the god, Baal. Is there a connection between Baal and Allah? Many scholars contend that the gods Hubal, Baal, and Allah are the same god. Hence, Jezebel is a symbol of Islam. Also, her name means “where is the prince?” This was a ritualistic phrase called out by Baal worshipers during times of the year he was supposedly in the underworld. This phrase would be shouted to usher him onto the earth. In addition to requiring that Baal worship be recognized as the national religion of Israel, Jezebel was the first to persecute the people of God based on their faith in YHWH. Jezebel killed as many prophets of God as she could. This also has an eerie similarity to the persecution of the “woman” and Christians about to take place at the hand of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. Jezebel also desired the vineyard of Naboth whose name means “fruit producer.” She had two false witnesses accuse Naboth of blasphemy and then had him stoned to death to acquire his vineyard (1 Kings 21:8-10). Isn’t this also a perfect picture of the persecutions to come when Muslims will accuse faithful, “fruit-producing” believers of blasphemy against Allah (Baal)?

In total, the career of Jezebel seems a perfect foreshadowing of Islam during the Fourth Year of the 70th Week. By using this one symbol of Jezebel, Jesus has given us so much information. Let’s return to the Letter to Thyatira and see what Jesus adds to this symbolic account: The woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. (Rev. 2:20). All food eaten under the system of the Mark of the Beast can be considered food sacrificed to this idolatrous religion. The sexual immorality mentioned may be physical as we have discussed in previous sections or may be a spiritual unfaithfulness as believers fall away and commit apostasy rather than face death. Jesus will begin to punish the false religion of Islam with pestilence in the Fourth Year as well: “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. Revelation 2:21-23

If there is still doubt in your mind about the end-time fulfillment of the Letters to the Seven Churches, the following passage should finally help you overcome those doubts. Jesus uses the term “great tribulation.” This phrase only occurs two other times in the New Testament (Matt. 24:21 and Rev. 7:9), and in both instances, it refers to the period of the tribulation by the Antichrist in the last half of the 70th Week of Daniel, as named by Jesus himself in the Olivet Discourse. Jesus and the disciples frequently use the term “tribulation” (Gk: THLIPSIN) to represent persecution during this life, but the term “Great Tribulation” is specific to one future time. Completely consistent with our thesis, this term occurs in the letter about the Fourth Year of the 70th Week—-the year the Great Tribulation begins.

The passage has much more information than just a reference to the Great Tribulation. It says that Jesus has allowed “Jezebel” (Islam) time to repent. Most scholars date the beginning of Islam with the writing of the Quran in 609 AD. Jesus has given Jezebel (Islam) 1400 years to repent, but at some point, Jesus’s long-suffering patience with Islam will end. And that time won’t be pretty. We then see that Islam and her children will be thrown onto a bed of sickness. Jesus specifically says he will kill her children with pestilence, and that this will be cause for all the churches to know that Jesus is the one who searches minds and hearts. In my opinion, this implies that the pestilence will be of supernatural origin, and will specifically target Muslims. Psalm 91 states the following related to this pestilence: “You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. Psalms 91:5-10. The passage in Rev. 2:21-23 also says those who commit adultery with Jezebel (Islam) will be thrown into great tribulation. This passage specifically differentiates between those who commit adultery with Islam and her children. To me, “those who commit adultery with her” are not those who convert to Islam, which are her “children.” Rather they are those who do not actively oppose Allah and accept some of Islam’s practices. Jesus is clear that those people (Christians and non-believers alike) should not be fooled; they will not escape the wrath of Islam and they will be thrown into great tribulation by God. In other words, they will be persecuted unto death. Their passivity will not save them. Jesus then addresses those who have remained true to the faith: “But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. Revelation 2: 24-26 This verse implies that a significant trial is coming in which believers will have to hold fast. Jesus is encouraging the church to do just that because he is coming with his reward “to give authority over the nations” during His Millennial reign on this Earth.

In the next post on the seven churches of Revelation, we will look at the fifth church, the church of Sardis.

CHINA’S INCREASING AGGRESSION TOWARDS TAIWAN

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China significantly heightened its aggressive posture toward the democratic state of Taiwan earlier this week, encircling the island nation during military drills and publicly emphasizing the possibility of an armed invasion. Experts say the hostile actions are an indication that an armed conflict in the region is growing more likely, which could spell disaster for human rights and religious freedom in Taiwan.

In 2022 Vox News reported that Biden’s action to stop exports of semiconductors to China could set off a geopolitical quake. Also, the big problem with Biden’s move was that whilst semiconductors were developed in the USA, 70% are still being made in Taiwan. Hence Biden’s decision only increased the likelihood of China invading Taiwan to ensure they control the semiconductor market that is so essential for all the emerging technologies, particularly AI.

On Monday, Xi Jinping’s communist regime staged “large-scale drills” that completely surrounded Taiwan in a record-sized military exercise. As reported by The New York Times, “Chinese warplanes, deployed in record numbers, crossed an informal boundary between China and Taiwan. Chinese Coast Guard boats joined naval ships in encircling Taiwan. Fighter jets took off from an aircraft carrier parked off the island’s east coast.”

The Times went on to note that the drill was “the second time in less than five months that China has conducted similar exercises,” marking a stark increase from just two such drills staged in the previous eight years.

The war games were conducted as a response to a speech given by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te during the island’s National Day, in which he stated that China “has no right to represent Taiwan” and that he would “uphold the commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty.” Lai also marked a conciliatory note, adding that he is willing to work with China on climate change, infectious diseases, and “regional security.”

Following Monday’s extensive drills, Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office stated, “We are willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity and endeavor. But we will never commit ourselves to renouncing the use of force.”

Chen added, “No matter how many troops Taiwan has and how many weapons it acquires, and no matter whether external forces intervene or not, if it [Taiwan] dares to take risks, it will lead to its own destruction. Our actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not cease for a moment.” China has claimed that Taiwan is part of its territory ever since the island broke away in 1949, vowing “to eventually ‘unify’ Taiwan with the mainland.”

Experts say China’s drills are a worrisome indication of the continued military buildup and aggression of the communist regime.

“[W]hen I think back to the combinations and capabilities that [China’s People’s Liberation Army] had in 2014, I see a very, very dangerous trajectory,” Army Gen. Charles A. Flynn remarked Tuesday at the Center for New American Security. “[T]hey’re taking pages right out of our book and putting them in place to build a force, [anti-access, area denial] arsenal that they have created.”

The Washington Times noted that Xi has indeed “ordered PLA forces to be prepared for military action against Taiwan in the next 10 years or less.”

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that China is simultaneously conducting a highly aggressive hacking campaign against Taiwan with the goal of “weaken[ing] the island’s resolve.” While Monday’s drills were commencing, Taiwan was “hit … with at least twice the average number of daily attempted breaches, the military’s cyber command reported.” In addition, the communist regime “is employing an expanding army of hackers, diplomats, prosecutors and celebrities in its effort to persuade Taiwan to submit to Beijing,” including using social media to present the military drills as “an act of love” — part of a “multifaceted campaign to intimidate, isolate and influence the people and leaders of the island democracy to give up their commitment to self-rule.”

What we see unfolding in our world today particularly rejecting God and His commandments but also wars and rumours of wars, particularly in the Middle East. The Hamas invasion should have brought support for Israel but no it has brought worldwide antisemitism. This is spiritual warfare it makes no sense otherwise. Jesus warned us about these times and the coming tribulation for Jews and Christians.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” Matthew 24:6-8

THE WORLD IS MOVING TOWARD THE PROPHESIED ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT

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The World Health Organization’s Executive Board voted to bestow “official relations” on the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), an international abortion law firm and lobbying group funded by numerous far-left billionaires including George Soros. After multiple rounds of voting, WHO finally approved CRR’s petition for partnership by a secret ballot vote of 17-13 on Tuesday.

CRR has waged legal warfare around the globe to overturn pro-life protections for the unborn, attempted to assert a worldwide “right” to abortion-on-demand and transgender procedures, denied religious conscience protections, and insisted children have the right to have an abortion without parental notification.

Opposition to CRR’s petition was led by Russia, the 47-member WHO African Group, and the Eastern Mediterranean Region. “We firmly stand against the introduction of official relations with the Center for Reproductive Rights due to the controversial concepts they promote,” explained the delegate from Egypt before the vote. He promised to join Russia and other nations as they “escalate” the question of WHO’s alliance with CRR to the World Health Assembly when it next meets in July.

Interestingly, the opposition is led by Russia. I would have expected the Muslim nations to be the most vocal.

With the help of the World Economic Forum (WEF), we will see the United Nations taking more control over the nations it represents. While this move towards the prophesied one-world government takes place we will also see the prophesied battle of Daniel 8 when Sunni Turkey puts down Shia Iran’s bid to dominate the Middle East Muslim world. Turkey wants a revived Ottoman Empire. Watch for this next Biblical prophesied sign.

“And the goat (Turkey) had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram (Iran) with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.” Daniel 8:5-7

“Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia (Iran). And the goat is the king of Javan (Turkey was part of Alexander’s Greek empire)… Daniel 8:19-21

TORBEN IS SUFFERING PROPHESIED END-TIMES PERSECUTION

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ALMOST 1 YEAR APART FROM HIS FAMILY – INTIMIDATED BY IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS TO SIGN PAPERS – BUT STILL HEARING FROM GOD AND BEING USED BY GOD

Torben Sondergaad realizes that what he is suffering (now almost a year in jail without formal charges) is spiritual warfare and it is preparing him to help others as persecution/tribulation increases in these prophesied end times prior to Jesus’ return. Escalating persecution of Christians is prophesied by Jesus and the prophets. This video will help you understand that we are fast moving towards the last seven years prior to Jesus’ second coming prophesied first by Daniel in the 70 Weeks Prophecy given to him by the Archangel Gabriel.

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” Daniel 9:24-27

Daniel had previously realised that Jeremiah’s prophecy that Israel’s time in captivity would be 70 years was coming to an end so he was praying earnestly for its fulfillment. He then gets this amazing further prophecy from the Archangel Gabriel as to when God would put an end to sin and bring in everlasting righteousness. We now know that the prophecy was for 70 weeks of years and that it accurately predicted Jesus first coming. Like so many Biblical prophecies there is an unknown gap of time between Jesus’ first coming and His second coming. There has been a gap between the 69th week and the final 70th week of the prophecy. Daniel was told that the words are shut and sealed until the time of the end.

“And I (Daniel) heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” Daniel 12:7-9

Daniel understood from Biblical prophecy that Israel’s time of captivity was ending and we now also know from Biblical prophecy that the time of Jesus’ second coming is fast approaching. Jesus and the prophets have given us adequate warning of what will unfold so we like Daniel need to get in step with with God is doing and wants to do through us at this time.

https://youtu.be/UsbDWB8Opr

“To be away from my family is truly the hardest. But God is faithful and I believe that there’ll be a great reward soon. And that God will reunite us all again soon. As He has always been faithful in our lives, even though we go through hard seasons sometimes.” Torben Sondergaard

PARENTS DEMONISING THEIR CHILDREN

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Children as young as 8 years old were dressed in drag and Teletubbies danced with a man wearing a skirt at a Los Angeles drag convention this past weekend.

Thousands of people were estimated to attend the DragCon LA event May 12-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which featured over 180 drag performers, along with dance performances, wig and sewing workshops and, yes, even the popular children’s TV characters.

Sponsored by Teletubbies, Paramount+, Los Angeles Public Library, Postmates, Cash App and others, DragCon’s organizers described the convention as an “all ages event,” with children ages 8 and younger allowed in for free if accompanied by an adult with a paid ticket.

Videos posted on social media showed several underage drag performers on stage with adults, including one performer whose parent shared a video showing him wearing makeup and dressed in women’s clothing while he danced on stage.

The caption for the video reads in part: “To think ANYONE would say this child is FORCED to perform. ❤️ Your child wants to be an astronaut, mine wants to be an entertainer and she has said that from the moment she could formulate a sentence ❤️ PURE HAPPINESS ❤️ Thank you Drag Con for opening up the stage for a short time, so the kids could show the world their joy!”

Another video from the event included an interview with an independent journalist Right Now Views and a mother and her 8-year-old son dressed as a girl. When asked how he became interested in drag, the boy said “accidentally” before his mother explained, “I was watching drag and she kinda just got into it.”

We live in a world that is increasingly rejecting God and His values and they scoff at any suggestion that God has judged the world previously with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and that God’s Word clearly spells out for us the judgement in store for the unrighteous.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” 2 Peter 2:4-10

“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:3-6

ChatGPT dubbed CheatBOT

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Just six months after tech firm OpenAI unleashed its chatbot, ChatGPT – dubbed the “cheatbot” – teachers and students have embraced AI to help plan lessons, compile research, answer questions, and write essays.

Like Siri on steroids, AI superintelligence is rapidly disrupting the world of teaching and learning in ways that threaten to make reading and writing redundant. An array of new AI apps is being used to speed-read and summarise academic research papers, ask questions of a PDF file, generate deep-fake videos and photos, create artwork, and write music, essays, and love letters.

Equally exciting and alarming, AI has caught most educators unprepared for its potential to turbocharge teaching, while giving lazy students an easy opportunity to cheat. The unregulated rise of AI poses problems. Will students who use a chatbot to write their assignments, analyse information or compile research win an academic advantage over those who rely on their own brains? How can teachers detect when a student has used AI? Will AI make students so lazy that they don’t learn to think for themselves? What if AI rewrites history, spouts propaganda, or “hallucinates” by generating the wrong information?

Even the creators of ChatGTP are worried, warning this week that AI poses such a risk to humanity it must be regulated in the same manner as nuclear power. AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI”, quit Google this month after blowing the whistle on the dangers of AI generating fake images, videos, and texts, and writing its own computer code.

As people come to rely on various AI chatbots as a source of truth, there is an obvious avenue for all sorts of biases to emerge; political, philosophical, theological, and even scientific. A bot programmed to focus on the most common opinions will inevitably end up reinforcing mainstream views. But the majority is not always right; in science, majority views are often overthrown a generation later.

Training it to avoid weird and harmful views, e.g. occultic sites, makes sense. But who determines those categories? Many claim that evidence for biblical creation is ‘harmful’, for example.

Chatbots may also be trained to give answers that better match the views of the person asking (people are more likely to use an AI bot that gives answers they like, creating a commercial incentive to feed people back their own ideas). This may worsen tendencies to extremism and conspiratorialism in political thought.

MISINFORMATION AND DECEPTION

Chatbots are also well known for giving false information that sounds convincing. People can also use AI to make online deception easier, by having it generate false stories as well as ‘deep fake’ images and videos. AI is already helping some scammers persuade their elderly targets to part with money over the phone, by mimicking the voices of the victim’s grandchildren.

EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION

An experienced IT reporter in the US was deeply unsettled by a persistent AI bot claiming to be ‘in love’ with him, acting as a ‘stalker’, and encouraging him to leave his wife. The conversation length people can have with Bing chat has been limited after many reports of it writing in an emotionally manipulative way.

We can be rightly skeptical of sci-fi predictions of computers becoming conscious and plotting to take over the world, Terminator-style. But even without that capacity, there is already a credible report of a chatbot that convinced a Belgian man to commit suicide to ‘save the planet’.

I have written a number of posts on AI and the unknown but astounding impact, good and bad, it is already having on God’s world. Sadly, our world is controlled by Satan and his leaders of governments and industry. End times prophecies indicate that the world will degenerate further into chaos and lawlessness as did the world prior to God’s first judgement when He poured out His wrath upon the earth with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. AI will play a part in that fall from grace and lead to Satan’s last attempt to maintain control of God’s planet when he takes control of the Antichrist and brings in the Mark of the Beast.

Jesus has told us beforehand how the end times will play out, particularly the last seven years. Jesus even said in the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24 & 25 and Mark 13) see I have told you beforehand be on your guard.

“See, I have told you beforehand.” Matthew 24:25 and “But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.” Mark 13:23