Part 3 A.I. Another Idol or the Final Idol: The Speaking Image of Revelation 13

In this final podcast on Artificial Intelligence and the Speaking Image of Revelation chapter thirteen, Mark presents the possibility that AI will aid man in his age-old efforts to eat of the Tree of Life, to live forever, and save himself apart from God.

 That through the medium of AI, man will worship the creature and sit in God's temple (the human body) and declare that he is god. 

By reliance on programs and technology, Mark also highlights the deceptive dangers that the God's people face in accepting counterriots instead of taking God at His word and embracing the work of His Spirit. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Imagine for a moment, the year twenty forty, a mere fourteen years from now. A message spoken to a woman early in the morning as she's getting her children uh ready for their day. It's spoken to her through an invisible implanted earbug, kind of like an earring. It's from her AI payment processor, the one she's used for seven years to run her small business. The message is condensed and restates account suspended, pending compliance verification. A new regulation requires that she verify her biometric profile and download an app into her memory reminder before her account can be reinstated at her banking account and other accounts before she can buy or sell anything. She looks across the kitchen table at her children, eating breakfast, assisted by her robotic maid, Nanny. And somewhere in the back of her memory, she remembers listening to a podcast she half dismissed. It was 20 years ago. It was about AI and a mark on her head, her forehead, her hand, in order to buy and sell. Well, I'm Mark Roser. Welcome back to Tub. That stands for The Unsealed Book. This podcast today, we're covering the landscape of Revelation 13, The Beast, aka, the Antichrist, with the false prophet, his mark, the image, and the number to buy and sell, his number. Well, this isn't a political commentary. This is not a news analysis or a tech podcast. This is a verse by verse, symbol by symbol, walk through one of the most important prophetic passages in all of Scripture, and we'll show step by step why this passage, written 2,000 years ago, is becoming increasingly legible to our generation in ways no previous generation could have imagined. But before we dive in, let's review briefly. This is part three. AI, another idol, or the ultimate idol, the final idol. For in part one, we looked at Genesis three. Man was offered an upgrade. Can be like God, the serpent said. The devil, Satan, had led angels into rebellion and now offered man to be like God, just eat of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil from that tree led to a corrupted race of men who corrupted themselves to the point where they even intermingled with angels and it brought about the flood, the judgment. Well, we're living in the days of Noah now. It won't be by water, it'll be fire. And we looked also in our podcast previous on the Tower of Babel, which was a post-flood rebellion, where man wanted to build a tower up into the heavens, not to relate to God, but to replace God. And they wanted to make a name for themselves. They had one language, and God had to intervene again because he said nothing that they imagine, no purpose will be withheld from them because they're united with one language. Well, we're living in days where AI and technology is uniting the world like never before. And we saw uh in that lab last podcast a seal and sign of the end of time. Knowledge will abound, Daniel said, and many will run to and fro. But Michael at that time would stand up for Daniel's people, the nation of Israel. It'll be a time of great trouble. Many would be purged, but the wise would understand what is going on. Well, we're going to get into Revelation 13. And but before we do, let's just acknowledge a simple but profound observation of the day we live in. In the Western world, two worldviews are colliding, not quietly, but openly, daily. The one is a biblical worldview that dominated Western civilization in times past and helped our civilization to progress, the order, the law, the freedom, the democracy wouldn't have it without the influence of Christ in the church. That biblical worldview says reality, the universe, the earth, mankind are created by a holy, loving God, and that there's purpose, there are morals, and that we are accountable to God, and that God has promised to save us through faith in his Son. Well, there's another competing materialistic worldview that says reality, all that there is, is only matter, only physics, only chemistry, nothing beyond that, originating by chance or forces we do not yet understand. But it exists without purpose or meaning. That is beyond what we give to it, man gives to it, through the knowledge of good and evil. Well, materialism claims to be scientific. But the most honest science of our generation points in the opposite direction. The universe is expanding. It's not always been there, it's not static. Matter had a beginning. There was a Big Bang. There was a primary cause. There was a banger that brought about the Big Bang. And the universe is so fine-tuned, our planet in particular, so fine-tuned that life couldn't exist on this planet unless there was a host of factors so finely tuned, so harmonious in unity that we can live. Well, life is too complex. I mean, with the study of DNA and of cells, of genomes, I mean, it's just all points to design. You see, code requires a coder. Information requires a mind. Design requires a designer. And the writer in the book of Hebrews in the 11th chapter tells us clearly the things that are seen were not made of things which do appear. Yes, God created through his word everything that's seen and unseen. And he upholds it all by his word, a word-based universe, a God. Yes, and this brings us to Revelation 13 in the Word of God here, a passage that for centuries seemed very difficult to understand. Yes, had previous applications with pagan Rome, image worship, paying for a certificate to buy and sell in the market showing that you swore allegiance to Caesar. And through the centuries there have been fulfillments, shadows, images, as Revelation 13 predicted. But today, in the age of AI, we've got images that speak, synthetic voices, digital images, autonomous systems. And the idea of a speaking image is no longer strange. The things we read in Revelation 13, the speaking image, are some strange things. And for you, this podcast on AI, the speaking image, may seem strange. And let me read it to you. From the King James, it says in Revelation 13, verse 15, he had power to give life unto the image of the beast. And the image of the beast should speak. Given him breath, given him the ability to speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast could be killed. Well, for most of church history, this was interpreted in ways where they tried to fit it with that day, which is what we're doing today as well, because no one could imagine then an image that literally speaks, acts, or enforces. But we now live in a world where images do speak and move and persuade, and images command and are getting to the point where they can't enforce behavior. Well, we're in that first generation capable of seeing this prophecy in more literal terms. Man has invented and knowledge has produced so many inventions. And let me say at the outset, AI is a wonderful tool and can be used to help man in so many ways. We talked about medicine, uh diagnosing uh kinds of cancer and the treatment that'll work for a particular individual just based on uh millions of previous scans and trials and producing medications more quickly and understanding DNA and all the all that AI, artificial intelligence can do to help solve problems and difficulties. But like any invention, it can also be used for terrible harm, for control. And with man's nature being sinful, that's why the writer wrote, Lo, this only have I found, says the preacher in Ecclesiastes, that God made man upright, but that they have sought out many inventions. Well, the word's really schemes, but inventions back in 1611 and the King James translation, uh, inventions uh uh didn't really mean mechanical gadgets or technological creation. It meant a scheme or device of one's own making, a self-devised plan, contrary mostly to God's will. Born of human intelligence, yes, and imagination, but with a sinful bend. Well, that's what the Hebrew says, and God's not against our use of our intelligence to invent and create. He gave us that in the imagination to do so. But when it's not submitted to God, well, and man is no longer upright. He can seek control and manipulation, and to replace God, that is his dependence on God. And where will that take us in the next 14 years, 20 years? Well, if we give AI full reign and allow it to take the place of God in our lives, we're in trouble. We'll be in trouble like my parents' generation, who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, when Europe and Asia were engulfed in war with dictators, uh, the rise of Hitler out of the chaos of World War I in Germany, and of a second world war, and dictators like Mussolini and Stalin in Russia, and Mao Tesong in China, and all the totalitarian control, the authoritarianism. Well, the book of Revelation tells us of a time, and before we go deeper, we need to remember what kind of book Revelation is. John Stott once wrote that many Christians avoid the book of Revelation because of its strangeness, strange imagery, dragons, beasts, horns, bowls, trumpets. But Revelation, each symbol, each symbol relates a spiritual reality and something that will manifest in time in history. The symbols in Revelation, they're not meant to confuse, they're meant to reveal. So we read in Revelation 13, we need to keep in mind the symbols need to be consistent with the rest of Scripture, and they will point to real spiritual and historical forces. And in Revelation 13, 1 to 4, we read of a beast. There's two beasts in Revelation 13. The first is the sea beast. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. That's in Revelation 13, verse 1. Well, the sea is a biblical imagery, it's often repeated of the nations, restless, unstable, in turmoil. The beast rising from the sea represents a global political anti-God power emerging amongst the nations. Satan's aim is always to maintain his rule. And he uses sinful men. And those like Hitler and Stalin and Malte Song, anti-God, this first beast, this last beast that will emerge, is empowered by the dragon, the sea beast. It says the dragon gives him his power, his throne, and great authority. Well, we remember Satan offered Jesus in the wilderness and his temptation, all the kingdoms of this world for worship. And Daniel prophesied, he described four beasts or empire coming out of the restless sea. John's beast arises out of the midst of the peoples of the earth. The waters are the peoples and the crowds and the nations and the languages, it says in Revelation. Isaiah the prophet said, the nations are like the raging sea. In the gospel, the sea signifies the nations in anguish and perplexity as they look with apprehension on what is coming on the earth. So we see the dragon conjures up the beast. When nations encounter turbulent times, times of uncertainty, as I mentioned, the recent historical examples, you can expect, you can expect anti-God powers with blasphemous names on their head, claims of authority and power that belong to God, and mottos and creeds that are anti-God. In John's day, it was Caesar, who was revered as Dominicus et Dios, Lord and God, while many other anti-God governments have made their way through history. For the beast has seven heads. Well, we know seven in the book of Revelation, as in the rest of the Bible, symbolizes completeness. It's a full number, a full sequence, a full cycle, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, seven churches, seven thunders. Yes, it's a full expression of something. So the dragon will have a full expression of powers that he gives his authority to. Yes, the beast's seven heads, complete expression of satanical political power throughout history. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority, just like he did Babylonian powers as well as those and Tyrus. And the dragon does this because he has made war on the seed. And Revelation 13 follows Revelation 12. The two chapters are inseparable. You remember the woman of Revelation 12 who produces the man-child. She brings him forth, the one who is to rule all nations, the rightful ruler, which is Christ. Yes, the dragon Satan, he wanted to devour the man-child Christ. But the man-child, he defeated Satan, broke his head at Calvary, ascended into heaven, where he has authority and power. And yes, he allows Satan the dragon a short time. And he does make war against Christ's offspring to test them and to try them. But they overcome him by the blood of the lamb. It tells us in Revelation 12 there was war in heaven, that there were angels who rebelled with the great dragon. And Satan being cast down, pursuing the woman, and his strategy always the same either kill the seed, corrupt the seed, somehow prevent the seed from doing its mission, from Cain to Abel, his righteous brother from Pharaoh, killing the firstborn of all the Israelites in Egypt, Moses escaping. I mean it was Haman in the book of Esther, wanting to, it was genocide against Israel. Herod, remember Herod and Bethlehem killing all the children, the boys under the age of two because of the Christ child. Yes, Rome and the early church. It's the same picture, Revelation 12, wanting to destroy the seed. An expression of an ancient war. But of course, Satan has experienced a fatal wound. And yes, he has a counterfeit resurrection, it says in Revelation 13, 3, and I saw one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death. And his death stroke was healed. That's the American Standard Version. The fatal wound is mentioned three times in Scripture, so it matters. What does it mean? It's not that the dragon who was wounded, Satan who was defeated at the cross, can never recover. It's not the dragon who has the wound healed, it's the beast. It's the political expression of satanic power that receives a wound and has throughout history. I mean, pagan Rome became Christian Rome. Finally papal Rome, the beast. Yes, uh pagan Rome was mortally wounded by the sword of God's word, by the seed of Christ. Yes. In three short centuries, they turn the world upside down. But the wound seems to be healed, meaning the beast reappears in new forms. Every time a satanic empire falls, eventually another will rise. The beast dies and returns again and again. And this is a counterfeit resurrection, a parody of Christ. And the revelation intentionally draws out these contrasts and these parallels. Christ was slain, the beast appears to be slain. Christ rose, the beast recovers. Christ receives worship. The beast demands worship. Christ has a mark. He marks all those that are his. We saw that earlier in the book of Revelation. The beast also has a mark on his. Christ has a bride, the beast has Babylon, the whore of Babylon. Satan cannot create, he can only imitate counterfeit. And he has 42 months. There's a set time of testing that God allowed. There was given him authority to continue for 42 months. That's Revelation 13 5. Well, when there's time frames in Revelation, we don't take those as a literal 42 months by which some have sought to arrive at a day in which Christ will return. No, the 1260 days, the 42. 42 months to three and a half years. These appear, but they're symbolic. It means Satan's time is limited. It's a broken seven. It's the time before the purposes of God are completely fulfilled. Yes, it's a God-controlled period of pressure on God's people to refine them, to test them. It's a time during which the beast is powerful, but not ultimate. Yes, he's terrifying, but he's not sovereign. Yes, and he may have global influence, but it's not eternal. It's just for a short time. Three and a half, a broken seven. And God sets boundaries. So the church must understand we must resist the temptation to treat Revelation as either not relevant to our day or some kind of past history or some rigid wooden literalism that can't see the forest through the trees. No, John saw a system that would be built with tools he couldn't name. We can name them, and we can recognize them. You see, when an AI system is given authority to make decisions about life, decisions that affect access, rights, movement, speech, survival, buying and selling. The church must be a prophetic voice, name what is happening, and call people of God to worship the true and living God who breathe life into the first man, not a machine that simulates it. Yes, and the current Pope, Innocent the 14th, has even come out recently, the day before my podcast today, with uh with a long document on AI. Well, the church must reckon with more close images, the one that are standing on its stages. I mean, even in our modern Western worship, we've evolved to incorporate digital media, visual arts, technological productions as a central element of our gathered experience. Now, it's not wrong to use uh the arts in the church. They should be used in media. But when it becomes a central feature, it becomes more like a production, and we become like uh spectators, that shift uh is not good. And then even in the medieval liturgy, uh, the New Testament church was a participatory church. They met with Christ in their midst, inspired by the Holy Spirit with gifts and manifestations of God's presence. Yes, the modern, often megachurches, the congregation watches while a priestly class performs. And yes, these visual mediums, uh kind of like the stained glass of the medieval time. Now we got screens. But the danger's the same. An image is given breath, craft, production, sophistication, it speaks. The congregation receives it, but they don't participate in the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, if there is any, it can be questioned because it can counter the control. Well, the church that cannot distinguish between a manufactured spiritual atmosphere and the genuine movement of the Holy Spirit has taken a step toward the world John describes in Revelation 13. And it can tend toward, and we have had with leaders and celebrities, uh uh idol and the idolatry that the scriptures warn against. I'm not thinking of man more highly than we are, uh, wearing a stage light, a worship self-list, and uh we need to be aware of this and be a prophetic voice. You know, the mega church, the dark campus, but the screens are a lie, the holographic figure. We are back in 2040. Uh a holographic figure stands on the stage, the AI rendered likeness of a beloved pastor who died a few years early. Uh, and this AI rendered likeness is trained on 40,000 hours of his sermon, reconstruct it with near perfection, fidelity of voice, mannerism, theological idiom. Forty million people subscribe to this ministry. It preaches every night. It doesn't sin, it never struggles, it never needs forgiveness, and it gets the doctrine mostly right. But no fire. The broken and contrite spirit's not in it. The thing that makes a preacher a shepherd's not in it. And somewhere in the company of the redeemed, the real shepherds weep. Not because the technology is too powerful, but because the sheep can't tell the difference. Well, we get to the second beast, which is the false prophet. We're talking about religion. It says in Revelation 13, 11, I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke as a dragon. We want to turn to this second beast and talk about the second beast, because the first one was intensely political. The second one we see has a religious dimension, uh, ideological power. Looks like a lamb, gentle, spiritual, harmless, but is very deceptive, manipulative, satanic. It's a dragon. It's a sheep in wolf's clothing that Jesus warned about. The second beast represents the false religion, false spirituality, false miracles, false authority, false moral framework, false light. That really leads to darkness. Because if the light in you, Jesus says, is darkness, how great that becomes. So here we have the second beast. He is the public relations arm of the first beast. He makes the world what the first beast demands. And he has power, signs, wonders, and fire. He does great signs that he should even make fire come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. Kind of reminds you of the prophet Elijah calling fire down. And this isn't stage magic or sleight of hand. This is fire coming down from heaven. But it leads to a supernatural deception. False Christs, false prophets, showing great signs and wonders with all power and signs and lying wonders. Paul warned about this as well. The false prophet uses religious awe to direct worship toward the beast. It was given unto him, that brings us to the verse, verse 15, the speaking image. And it was given him to give breathted, even to the image, that the image of the beast should both speak. This false prophet commands humanity to make this image. It's a constructed representation of the beast. It's animated, it has a voice, a presence, and authority, and it gets to the point where it can enforce to the penalty of death. Oh, we've had ancient idolatry where if you didn't worship the image, you died, like Nebuchadnezzar's golden image with the Hebrew boys getting thrown in the furnace. But for the first time in history, we have digital images, autonomous systems, AI-generated speech, machine-driven enforcement automations. And that category exists, that infrastructure exists, and the prophecy sounds very contemporary when we get to the buying and selling. It says in verse 16 and 17, he causes all to receive a mark in their right hand or upon their forehead, and that no man should be able to buy or to sell except he that has the mark. Well, the mark, the economic commerce component. Yeah, the purpose of the mark is simple. Control commerce, enforce loyalty, separate those who are loyal to the regime from those who are not. And it's not primarily about technology, it's about allegiance. Technology simply becomes the delivery system. And the real worship issue is the same issue from Eden. Issue is worship. Yes. Are you going to worship God, Lucifer? Or are you going to worship yourself, your own image, and have your own will to be like God? I will be like the Most High. Well, here's wisdom. He who has understanding, this is Revelation verse 18. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beasts, for it is the number of man. And man's number is 666. Well, there's different translations. Some says it's the number of amen. But John says we need wisdom, not speculation, not conspiracy theories, not saying this person's the Antichrist, but wisdom. And we said seven represents completeness, a full number. Six represents incompleteness, man created on the sixth day, man falling short of perfection, man without God, man raised to the highest level, 666, man enthroned as God. That's why we looked at the upgrade offer in Genesis 3. That's where it all started. Where Lucifer, who became Satan, the devil, propagated to man the knowledge of good and evil. You can be like God. Man in rebellion to God, perpetual rebellion since then, counterfeit perfections, man-centered religion, man-centered power in government, man-centered salvation. Man can save himself by his own works. Yes, it's the number of humanism, man replacing God as the ultimate standard of what's right and wrong. The beast is the ultimate expression of humanity without God. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying if Revelation 13 gives us the technological infrastructure, when Paul talks about lying, signs and wonders in 2 Thessalonians 2, he gives us the person who will ultimately sit at the center of that infrastructure and use it. And it may not just be a man, the number of a man, it may be man corporate, man sitting in the temple of God, our bodies to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. But when man sits in that temple and declares he's God and he decides what is good and evil, well, we've got a great problem. And Paul wrote, he talked about the day of the Lord, that it won't come until the man of sin emerges. He says there's something to be revealed, and he describes this. Yes, above all that is called God. Here's a full uh reading. Let no man beguile you in any way. For that day, the day of Christ, will not come except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. This is a parallel passage to Revelation 13. He opposes, he exalts himself against all that's called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God, man worshiping man, his own image, the creature worshiping the creation rather than the creator. And Paul gives us five characteristics of this, and every one of them is enhanced by artificial intelligence to a degree previously unimaginable. He's a man of sin, not merely a sinner, but sin personified, systematized, institutionalized, son of perdition, same phrase used of Judas Iscariot, a man who had every proximity to truth, closeness to Christ, listened to his teaching, but was totally transactional, completely contrary to Mary who broke her alabaster box and spent herself on Christ. No, Judas was in it for what he could get. He opposed what Mary was doing. And this man of sin, the son of perdition, opposes everything that's called God. He's not merely indifferent to religion. He's actively going to exalt himself like Lucifer to take God's place and receive worship. So what does it take? And will there be a specific individual person at the head of this, a single human being? I don't know. Will it be a system? We don't know. But interestingly enough, we have the man of sin sitting in the temple, man's body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, and then Paul says, there will be strong delusion. For those who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. The delusion's not the primary cause of people's destruction, it's the consequence of a prior choice. They didn't love the truth, they wouldn't accept the truth. An AI age is precisely the age in which we have so many choices, what we want to believe. An AI can present them to you. And it's catastrophic. It's catastrophic. And the church must understand that the strong delusion is not primarily a future event or person to be survived. It's a present trajectory to be resisted. Every time a believer chooses something other than God to trust in, put their faith in, rely on, it takes the place of God, our trust. When man seeks to save himself, yes, we want to prolong life, we want to heal Alzheimer's, we want to live longer, live better to serve God. But when it becomes to replace God, yes, when it replaces the living community of the church, and our church is online, and the appetite for truth is being slowly, quietly starved, and something else in its place that has a form of godliness but denies its power. Paul said we should turn away from such because it's going to lead us to deception. It's going to be like a vaccine against the truth. We'll have a little bit of it, but we'll end up with strong delusion. We need to love the truth, love the local church, genuine relationships, the practice of truth-telling, truth-receiving. Yes, COVID gave the Western church an opportunity to get back to the basics when there was lockdown. Churches were shut down, the megachurch model couldn't operate, and they had built their whole uh structure, infrastructure, production on that, and congregations were fragmented. And for a season, the Western church was living the house church model, the model that sustains the persecuted church in China. The model of the early church that ran for the first three centuries. It was a God-given reset, a moment to decentralize, to empower every believer as a priest, to rediscover our gifts, the gifts of the Spirit, to rebuild around prayer and community. But when the doors reopened, most churches chose the familiar. They returned to business as usual. So the strong delusion won't arrive all at once. Slowly, quietly. We talk about the frog in the water as the waters heated. It gets to the point where it's boiling by a thousand small choices, to prefer the comfortable simulation over the costly reality. The church that keeps choosing simulation is the church that will not recognize the counterfeit. And like Lucifer, he knows there's a God, even though he said, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will ascend above the heights of the cloud, I will be like the Most High. It'll be again a time of the Tower of Babel, where we seek to build a temple that reaches to heaven. Well, I'm Mark Roser, and this is the Unsealed Book Podcast. The whole of the book of Revelation you can get at this podcast. And I hope they are an encouragement to you. These podcasts do not come to bring alarm or fright. This uh not belling, buying or selling, uh, this aim of Satan to either silence or replace. If persecution doesn't work and coercion doesn't work, yes, legal force doesn't work, false religions won't deceive, false reality, he will put to death those who will not submit. Yes, we need to have discernment, we need to have courage, we need to have fidelity to God. We need to stay grounded in Scripture, recognize the drift of culture, expect deception, expect pressure, expect that God will limit He is sovereign. So I want to say in closing, Revelation 13 is not given to frighten us, it's given to prepare us. The world is moving toward a final idol, a counterfeit idol, a final system of worship and control. But the Lamb has already overcome, and those who follow him will stand with him. This is the patience and the faith of the saints. God bless you. I hope these special editions of AI, another idol, or the uh ultimate idol, uh have been uh preparatory for you to use AI, yes, as a tool to serve God, but never a replacement to hear what God is saying, to wait upon him, to see his face, to speak what he's saying, to construct uh uh from his heart. And that's my prayer is that God's heart may come across, his desire is to save all, his desire is that we enter the ark that he has prepared, which is Christ. It is the days of Noah, but all who enter will be saved. And by the way, I visited the Ark Encounter recently. Uh, on my way back, we uh went to Gethsemane, the Abbey of Gethsemane. It was a four-day uh time to get away, to be with the Lord, and on the way back, coming back, stopped at the Ark Encounter. The whole thing was constructed so that you, I, others who maybe haven't heard, haven't submitted their life to Christ, may understand there is a final fiery judgment coming. And we are living in the days before the return of Christ. These are the days of Noah, and the signs abound in the AI, the speaking image, what forms that will take, God knows. But we need to be discerning. Enter the ark, stay in the ark, wait on God. God bless you and keep you, and make his face shine upon you, and your children, and your children's children. to a thousand generations.