16) Hope Over Fear

Feeling the weight of apocalyptic headlines and wondering whether school, career, and long-term plans still matter? We take that anxiety head-on and offer a grounded path forward: act from hope, not fear. We draw a clear line between faith—trusting God’s character and promises—and hope—expecting those promises to become personal in your future. That shift changes how you show up for your life today, from studying and skill-building to providing for family with steady hands.

We also confront a more immediate disruptor than speculation about collapse: the accelerating wave of artificial intelligence. If systems begin improving themselves, the nature of work will change fast. Rather than freeze, we talk concrete moves—learning AI tools, choosing fields where judgment, ethics, and relationships matter, and building resilient, marketable skills. Stewardship remains our mandate. People will still eat, travel, file taxes, fix cars, and raise kids. Your competence and integrity will be needed.

Alongside practical prep, we widen the lens to a spiritual horizon. If technology lightens certain loads, disciples can invest more deeply in service that no machine can perform. We explore the gathering to Zion, the civic and logistical wisdom required for large movements of people, and the pattern of cities of refuge. We reject harmful stereotypes and remember our call to love the house of Israel. Through it all, we keep the balance: live spiritually as if the Lord returns tomorrow and temporally as if He tarries. That bifurcation breeds peace, purpose, and readiness.

If you’ve been tempted to put your future on hold, come hear why this is precisely the moment to learn, prepare, and hope. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the one step you’ll take this week to build both skill and soul.

Transcript

Framing The Big Question

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Black Swan Rising Podcast, an L10 production. For transcriptions, show notes, and extras, please visit us at the Black Swan Rising Podcast.com. Now, broadcasting across the world from the heart of the American Bible Belt, here is your host, Michael B. Rush.

Faith Versus Hope Defined

Acting From Hope, Not Fear

Provide Temporally, Prepare Spiritually

The World Won’t Simply Collapse

Keep Learning And Building Skills

AI, Singularity, And Work’s Future

Spiritual Economy Of The Millennium

Disclosure Rumors And Timelines

Keep Providing Amid Uncertainty

On Stereotypes And The Jews

Adam-ondi-Ahman’s Practical Purpose

Gathering To New Jerusalem

Cities Of Refuge As A Pattern

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Black Swan Rising Podcast. I am your host, Michael B. Rush. Well, friends, today we are going to talk about a question that I have been asked repeatedly. And the question may vary from the person who's asking it, but in general, it's how do I motivate myself to prepare for a career, to take school seriously, to take my job seriously? You fill in the blank. When I think that the world is about to go to hell in the handbasket, and does any of this stuff really matter anyway? Well, you know, I understand why people are asking this question when they see the world seemingly collapsing around them. But I think we need to ask ourselves: is this question being motivated out of fear? Because one of the main tenets that all the disciples of Jesus Christ are supposed to have, the three I would say that are commonly cited together, are faith, hope, and charity. Okay, we've talked a lot about charity on these episodes. The whole purpose of my Black Swan Rising podcast is to help people retain their faith, particularly their faith in Jesus Christ. However, I haven't spent a whole lot of time talking about hope and the need for hope. Because that's really the crux of this question, I think. Because if you are going to continue preparing for the future, that is an outward manifestation of both faith and hope. Faith and hope go hand in hand, but they're not the same. And I think it's important to distinguish between the two. Faith is about truth. Faith is the spiritual power by which you believe God. His character, you believe his promises, you believe his revelations, his commandments, and his reality. Faith says that God is who he says that he is. These are manifestations of faith. God exists. Christ atoned for our sins. God's word is trustworthy, his commandments are binding, his covenants are real. These are things that we have faith in. These are truths, fundamental truths that we live by. So what is the difference between faith and hope? Well, if faith is about truth, hope is about the future. We have faith that things that happened truly happened, and we have hope that things that have yet to happen will actually happen. For example, we have hope in the resurrection. We have hope in our future redemption and transformation and eternal life, and that we can ultimately become like Jesus Christ. This is hope. It's confidence that God will fulfill his promises in our lives. Let's think about it this way. I absolutely know that Jesus Christ can make someone whole and worthy and pure. I know that Jesus Christ can make people's weaknesses become strengths. This is faith. I know that these things are possible. Hope is that Jesus Christ will do these things for me. I know he can do them for other people, and I hope that he can do them for me, because I have not seen all of those things in my life yet, but I know that he can do them, that he has done them for others, because I believe the scriptures, and I believe all of those accounts, and I have a hope that he can do them for me. Let me share one of my favorite scriptures on hope, which I think illustrates this concept great. This is found in Ether chapter twelve, verse four. Wherefore, whosoever believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, and maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. So in this scripture, the hope comes in the hope for a better world and for you to have a place on the right hand of God. And then it so these are things that are personal to you. So hope stems from you know the realization of gospel promises and covenants to you personally and to your love those that whom you love. This is where hope comes in, because we all know that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. We know that Jesus Christ will do incredible things to other people, and we hope that Jesus Christ will do incredible things for us and for those that we love. So when we are having hope for a better day, for a brighter future, if you are filled with hope, then you should be acting on that hope. If you are filled with fear and with despair, then you act very differently. Now, that being said, there there is still some you know truth in this this question that you know I I wanna I want to talk about. Let's just think about Noah. Let's let's have uh a mental exercise for a second here. Let's assume that life before the flood was pretty similar to life now. Well, that would mean that uh Noah had to do something to provide for himself, and so did Noah's children. They probably had jobs, they were probably saving up for their future. Who knows? Noah may have been investing in the stock market, maybe he had some apartment complexes that he was developing or some commercial real estate. Who knows? Whatever those things were, I am sure that they occupied a great deal of Noah's time or Noah's children's time. And if so, how is that any different from people now that are fretting over how they're going to provide for their future families, what they're going to be when they grow up, you know, what kind of grade they're going to get on their American heritage, you know, test, their economic test, their accounting 101 test, you know, what kind of job they're going to get, what their salary is going to be like, whether or not they're going to get a big enough raise. I understand that these things are pressing matters. And guess what? God created mortality so that this would be the case. He intends for us to provide for ourselves by the sweat of our brow. And does the fact that the second coming may be happening sometime soon somehow mitigate and override all of those responsibilities for us to provide for our temporal needs? And the answer is, of course, no. No man knows the hour when Jesus Christ is coming again. And it is wise to remember that every single generation since Christ came the first time has thought that theirs would be the day. And if they were pining away, chewing their fingernails, worrying about Christ's coming, they could waste away their lives. And that is certainly not what the Lord would have them do. We need to be judicious, we need to prepare ourselves fiscally and temporally, we need to provide for our families. And in that regard, we should act as if the second coming is going to be years away. Because, again, no one knows the hour. However, from a spiritual perspective, we do need to be living our lives spiritually as if the Lord is coming tomorrow. But we need to be able to bifurcate these two things. Because if we are constantly living in the shadow of the second coming from a temporal perspective, we are not going to be making the kinds of decisions that we would otherwise need to be making. If you are a longtime listener to this Black Swan Rising podcast, you know that I believe that we are in for some very interesting times. I believe that we will soon see the rise of an incredible antichrist. I think we are going to see supernatural events coming front and center. However, I do not believe that these things are going to cause the general collapse of the world. Indeed, when you talk about the horror of Babylon and the secret combinations and all of these kinds of things that are vying for global domination, they are not striving to destroy the world. They want to reign over something, right? And from the perspective of Ezra's Eagle, even when we're talking about the dire situations that are going to take place within the United States of America, according to that prophecy, the United States is still, regardless of how hard things are going to get, it is not going to collapse, which means the economy is going to continue. And it means that people are going to need to participate in the economy on an ongoing basis. We are going to need healthcare providers. We are going to need people that are doing taxes. We are going to continue to need auto mechanics, and we're going to need people that can fly airplanes and cook food and perform all of these services. It's not like the world is going to, people are going to stop eating because these things happen. People are going to still need to do the dishes and wash their clothes and put their kids to bed and brush their teeth and take care of personal hygiene. None of this stuff stops. The world will continue. Indeed, I believe we will all be surprised with how quickly these crazy events become part of the norm. So if you are holding off on preparing for your future because of the crazy events that are surely going to happen at some point, well, you're being very unwise. You need to plan for your future as if these things are not going to happen from a fiscal perspective. Because no one knows exactly how all of this stuff is going to shake out. And the fact of the matter is, is we all are going to need to continue to put gas in our cars and food on our table. We're going to need to have skills that we can market and provide for ourselves. Nothing about the future is going to change that. So we need to take our education seriously. We need to continue to plan for the future. We need to be economically independent. We need to be self-sufficient. Nothing about the second coming will change that. Okay. Now there are some things from a technological perspective that you ought to be thinking about. And when I say thinking about, I'm talking about thinking about in terms of your ability to provide for yourself and your family in the near future. And what am I talking about here? I'm talking about artificial intelligence. I believe that we are on the cusp of an event that scientists refer to as the singularity. Now, what in the heck is the singularity? Well, the singularity is the point when AI is developed to the degree that it can improve itself. And once AI is programming itself, it can begin to solve human problems far faster than humans can solve problems ourselves. Right now, human beings are the ones that are developing these processor chips and things like that. As soon as AI develops to the point that it is developing its own chips and can solve problems, you know, at a much faster rate, we are going to see technological advancements at breakneck speed. And friends, there is not much that AI cannot do better than human beings. Ultimately, AI, when it's fully implemented, should result in 100% unemployment. And that is a sobering reality. I think that this is a far greater concern than the second coming from a career perspective. Okay. It used to be that in the days of the aristocracy, that all of a nation's assets were held in the hands of very few. And then we had the industrial revolution that enabled the common man through his own work ethic and tenacity to be able to go out and provide for himself and accumulate wealth and assets in a way that has never been seen in history before. But with the advent of AI, I think that we could very well see the return of a modern aristocracy, wherein because of the implementation of AI, you see wealth once again consolidated in the hands of those that control the AI. And what does the world look like then? You know, that is a pretty sobering thing to be thinking about. Because if you think about it, can you think of many things that AI could not do better than a human being? I mean, let's talk about accounting. I mean, AI should be able to do accounting much faster and with far fewer errors than a human being. It could do taxes, it can do transactions on an epic scale, volumes that would boggle the mind and with complete accuracy. It should be able to handle legal matters, it should be able to troubleshoot and diagnose medical conditions far better than a human being. I imagine that we'll get to the point where AI can do a blood sample and figure out everything that is wrong with you and provide the exact treatment plan that will deal with these issues. I can see AI performing surgeries and on-the-spot diagnoses of diseases and troubleshooting issues based off of not just the information in the moment, but every single recorded surgery in history. And therefore, you know, AI is obviously going to be able to do this better than any human being could ever do it. This is ultimately where the future is heading. And this, friends, is one of the other reasons that causes me to believe that we are very close to the second coming. Because I believe it is that this AI that will enable us to focus in the second coming on the things that will be the very most important. The one thing that AI is not going to be able to do for us are the ordinances of salvation. And ultimately, I believe that that will be the economy of the millennium. I think that AI is going to take care of all of you know the day-to-day necessities of life. And that will leave us to be able to do some incredible things for our posterity, for those that have gone before us, as well as bringing salvation to the entire cosmos. And that should be very, very exciting to anyone that considers it. Now, let's let me read a passage to you that comes from the Pearl of Great Price, which is a unique book to the LDS canon. And this verse talks about the what I believe we will be doing during the second coming. Now let me read you this verse. And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made, and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. I believe that this verse is talking about all of the cosmos coming to the earth during the millennium to receive the ordinances of salvation. And who will be able to provide those ordinances of salvation to them? It will be the Lord's covenant people. I think this is the day that Isaiah chapter two, verses two and three are talking about. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above all the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. I believe that this is what this is talking about. I believe that this is why. In the book of Revelation, when John is talking about the size of the New Jerusalem, he describes it as being, I believe it was 1600 furlongs by 1600 furlongs by 1600 furlongs. That is that's a cube that is roughly the size of North America and extends way out into space. Why would the New Jerusalem extend into space? Well, I believe that that is because we are going to be receiving so many visitors from other places that they are going to be queuing up to receive their ordinances. And we are going to need as many hands as possible. And so the fact that AI will be able to take care of all of the ordinary necessities of life will be a welcome thing. But until that happens, I think we are going to have some serious growing pains. But fortunately, I think that these growing pains and that the timing of all of this is happening according to the Lord's will. And honestly, I don't expect that we're going to have a tremendous displacement because honestly, I believe that this is going to correspond hand in hand with the events of the last days. So as you're thinking about these things, and if you are a young person starting out in life, don't throw your future away. You are going to see things and experience things that the prophets of old wished that they could see. But these will be your days, not their days. So that is very, very exciting. So get excited about your future. Don't you know be depressed that you're somehow going to be gypped on your future because nothing could be further from the truth. But be wise in what you choose to study. The world is changing, and it's changing in incredible ways. So pick something that you will be able to provide value in that changing environment. But again, I think that your spiritual preparations are going to be far more important to you in the long run than you know any of your educational pursuits. Because you know, ultimately, everything is spiritual in nature. You're not going to be talking about a million years from now about your career on earth. You're going to be talking about the spiritual things. Because it's those spiritual things that are going to shape the rest of eternity for you. Now, all of us should be thinking about this spiritual economy that is certainly in the very near future. And what can you do to prepare yourself for that spiritual economy, which is definitely coming? You are very soon going to have people that you know and love who are going to be pulling their hair out when they see what is going on in the world around them. I just, I don't know if this is true or not, but you know, I just read an article today, and in this article, it's this guy named Christopher Lee. I don't know how trustworthy this guy is. He's a he makes all kinds of like UFO documentaries, things like that. He is saying that he has a source that has told him that Trump is going to be disclosing all things uh alien on May 1st. I don't know if that's true. All I do know is if you have watched The Age of Disclosure, which I have been pushing on this show, then you know for yourself that something is going on. There, that documentary is filled with testimonies from very high-ranking government officials that confirm that yes, something is going on and some form of disclosure is imminent. So we could be seeing some very interesting things in the very near future. Now, one of the things that we have talked about on you know prior episodes has been Chris Bledsoe and his announcement of the lady. Now, Chris Bledsoe recently posted on his Facebook account that when the lady appeared to him and told him that the world was about to enter into the age of the divine feminine, he said that the lady told him that this would take place when the red star of Regulus appeared on the horizon just before the sun came up in front of the Sphinx. And he said that he was told by somebody that that date corresponded with Easter of 2026. He since has said that he has learned from NASA that that date does not correspond with Easter of 2026, but the end of August of 2026. So that's the latest and greatest coming from Chris Bledsoe. And I guess he says that he is actually planning on being in Egypt in the end of August and not in April. So that is an that is an interesting update from Chris Bledsoe. So you know, I had talked about, and you know, Chris Bledsoe had obviously talked about Easter timeline for that, which apparently now is being pushed out to the end of August. So regardless, that's not very far away. So you could be seeing some very crazy things happening in the very near future. Nevertheless, none of these crazy things is going to fundamentally alter society's need for food and shelter and clothing. People are going to continue to marry and be given in marriage, and they're going to continue going on vacation, and they're going to continue going to concerts and going out to eat and getting massages and filing their taxes and you know, riding in Ubers and all that kind of stuff. It's not going to change. And so we're we're going to need to be able to provide for our families. And we we need to take that obligation very seriously. Just to give you scriptural backup for the importance of being able to provide for yourself and for your family, consider 1 Timothy 5, verse 8, which says, If any provide not for his own, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Okay, so let's not be slackers. Let's be productive and let's get out of our parents' basements and go out there and be productive members of society, in spite of the fact that some very strange things may be happening in the near future. Okay, let's go to another question. I have been asked numerous times about what people should be thinking about the Jews. Apparently, there's, you know, these conspiracy theories going around that, you know, many of these elites are Jewish people and that Epstein was Jewish and the Rothschilds are Jewish, and you know, all of these, you know, Jewish people that have nefarious interests and are part of the deep state. And what do I think about that? Well, I think that to stereotype any nationality with such a broad brush is ridiculous and dangerous. This is exactly the kind of thing that Hitler did. He pushed all of society's woes upon the Jews. Now, are there Jewish people that are wicked? Are there Americans that are wicked? Of course. Of course there are Jewish people that are wicked, and of course there are Americans that are wicked. Because there are some wicked Jewish people, does that mean that you know all Jews are wicked? Of course not. That's ridiculous, and I would be incredibly disappointed in any Christian or anyone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus Christ that is stupid enough to be spouting this kind of ridiculous nonsense. Okay? Remember, Jesus Christ was a Jew. And when he comes again, he will come to save the Jewish people. Okay? Don't forget that. Yes, there may be some Doofuses who happen to be Jews. Well, guess what, friends? There are doofuses of all nationalities. Being a doofus, I wish that it could be confined to a certain race, but it's, you know, it isn't. Okay, another common question that I get asked is about this meeting that is going to take place in Adam on Diamen. Okay, so this is a question that is very catered to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So there have been leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ that have talked about a meeting that will take place in Adam on Diamen, which is a very rural community in Missouri, north of Independence. Now, what are my thoughts on this meeting? Well, I know that a lot of people think that this meeting is going to be, you know, this big secret meeting where you know all of the key holders from all prior dispensations are going to give an accounting of everything that they did with the keys that they were entrusted. And, you know, people are jonesing to be present at this meeting because they want to see all of this stuff and you know be part of this. Yeah, that that may indeed happen, but I believe that this meeting is going to be far more practical in its nature. And it's going to have to do with events that are going to be of dire importance for some serious planning and coordination taking place. What am I talking about? Well, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that Missouri will be ground central for the New Jerusalem. Now, I have spoken on this podcast previously about how the New Jerusalem is going to descend from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. We read about this in the book of Revelation. We also read about it in the Book of Mormon in Ether chapter 13, verse 3. So this doesn't mean that the entire continent is going to be transformed into the New Jerusalem overnight, but it does mean that the city center is going to be coming down and we are going to start having a gathering of the righteous from all over the world. And that is going to take a tremendous amount of coordination. Think about what is going to need to take place in advance of this incredible gathering. Just think about how do you have clean water when you have hordes of people gathering in mass in a rural area without any kind of infrastructure. Just think about the logistics of a septic system in that kind of environment. These are things that we don't like to think about. But if overnight you start having hundreds of thousands of people camping out, that's going to get pretty nasty pretty quickly if there isn't any kind of coordination. So I believe that this meeting that will take place in Adam on Diamen is going to be preparing in a major way for the massive influx of people who are going to spontaneously be gathering in the land that they know will become the New Jerusalem, just as in the Book of Mormon, people spontaneously begin to gather in the land of bountiful. And as such, we are going to need to have leadership that will prepare the way for these kinds of things to take place. And I believe that many of the leaders that will be there are going to be leaders under John the Beloved. They're going to be leaders that are coming from the lost tribes of Israel. And they are going to have technologies that are going to facilitate these kinds of things, but they're still going to need to be rolled out, and there's still going to need to be some sort of leader chain of command to ensure that people are not starving and that people are not living in their own filth and that people have clean water to drink and you know things like this. I mean, this is going to be a serious need because until we have those needs taken care of and a system that can be expanded, the larger gathering wherein the righteous from all nations on the planet, that's not going to be able to occur until this organization happens. So those are my thoughts on that. I think that that meeting is going to largely be civic in nature. And it's it's going to involve those kinds of things. So I hope that that uh that makes sense. It's it's going to be a very practical meeting, and it's going to need to happen in order to facilitate the gathering to Zion. And that gathering is going to take place in miraculous means. Now, I I think that people that are here in America, I think many of us are going to find ourselves trekking it to the New Jerusalem. But people that are across the sea and far, far away on Judea's plains, I think that the Lord is going to prepare miraculous means for them to be gathered to the New Jerusalem. And this is what I believe that those scriptures that the larger Christian community interprets as being related to the rapture, they're actually being related to people being gathered into the New Jerusalem by the 144,000 through miraculous means. So I hope that that makes sense to folks. Again, this is this is my opinion, but it's an opinion based in the fact that many people are going to be gathered to a place that right now is entirely lacking in this kind of infrastructure. And that is going to need to take place before this can happen. And largely a lot of that stuff, that infrastructure will be descending from the heavens, but it will need to be built out because ultimately it's going to encompass the entire continent. And we are going to need to help in that build out. And we're going to need to help in the organization and the feeding and the clothing of the saints that will come in staggering numbers. Because remember, the rest of the world during this time of gathering is going to be in absolute chaos. Every man that will not take up his sword against his neighbor is going to need to flee to Zion. And I think that we have a type and a shadow of this that's given, I believe it's in Numbers 35, where we learn about these cities of refuge. And if you haven't studied this, you ought to study it because it's very, very interesting from a doctrine doctrinal perspective. In according to the law of Moses, if you accidentally killed somebody via manslaughter, there was this right under the law of Moses, and it was really more than a right, it was an obligation for your nearest male kindred to avenge your death. And anyone who had killed someone on accident, according to the law of Moses, was able to flee to a city of refuge. And there were three cities set up on the east side of the River Jordan, and there were three cities set up on the west side of the river Jordan. And if somebody made it to one of these cities of refuge, they were exempt from the law of Moses. Now, if there was evidence that they did not kill somebody accidentally, but intentionally that they were lying in wait to kill this person, then there would be a trial. And if the person was found guilty, then they would be killed, they'd be removed from the city of refuge and they would be killed. Otherwise, they would remain in the city of refuge until the high priest died. And once the high priest died, they could then leave the city of refuge and they would be exempt from the law of Moses. That is really interesting because the new Jerusalem is called the city of refuge. Interestingly enough, if you're not familiar with the story of Joseph and Asenath, you should look that up because Aseneth had her name changed by the Lord to the city of refuge. And she was promised that in the last days the righteous would gather unto the city of refuge that would be called in her name. Well, friends, I just got the news that I am about to become a grandpa. So I am going to cut this episode short, but I am going to end it with a song that I wrote. And this is the first time it will ever be heard by the general public. So uh let me know what you think. Until next time, friends, keep seeking, for they that seek shall find a side.

Personal News And Original Song

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Damning all progression to endless states of woe. Stone cold turn the hearts of men and all become therefore the damning beast is hate, its selfishness and pride. Its hunger never ends, nor will it be denied. Pleasure is it meat, passion is its stay as it feeds, its hunger grows with pangs both night and day. The victims of this beast become the living dead, hollow, joyless souls imprisoned by this druid for all they do and say, their void will only grow. For pleasure fades to nothing, and ever has been so. What say ye of this beast? Can its power ere be gone? Can a wretches such as these transcend death session along? The beast would sneer no way. There a link to hope was cut. From a wretches such as these, the door to grace is shut. The keys to death and hell The Savior subs is the Lord Manuel. There are no hollow voids before the Savior's might. At his spoken word, endless worlds took their form, and at his gentle touch, the wretch can be reborn his hand. He alone can slay. An empty tool is in me. What one was lost is found. For his grace can free the wretch. The ones with sin was bound. Where is thy sting of beast? Your prisoners are free. The beast can hold its own.