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For decades, Christians have been confronted with predictions about the end times. Dates have been suggested for the return of Jesus, political leaders identified as possible candidates for the Antichrist, and new technologies connected with the mark of the beast.
Wars, planetary alignments, computer systems, blood moons, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, and countless other developments have been presented as evidence that prophetic events are about to take place. Many predictions have come and gone, yet the words of Jesus have not changed: “So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34
I have watched this pattern personally for almost six decades of ministry. When I was eighteen years old in 1967, my pastor taught that the Antichrist would be revealed in 1975 and that the rapture would occur three and a half years later, followed by the Great Tribulation. I believed it.
I married in 1970, but because I thought we had only about five years of freedom remaining, I did not want to have a family or buy a house. Why prepare for a future that, according to what I had been taught, was about to disappear? Thankfully, within about a year, the Holy Spirit began correcting my thinking, and I eventually began publicly opposing this kind of teaching.
Over the following decades, I watched the pattern repeat itself. There were warnings about the 1982 alignment of the planets, then 1984 - Big Brother - Computers taking over the world, followed by 1988 and 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. When 1988 passed, another prediction followed for 1989. Then came Y2K, when fear caused some believers to store food and supplies and make major financial and lifestyle decisions. In the mid 2000's, blood moon rapture predictions and other supposed signs, and today we still hear new rapture predictions and attempts to connect current events and technology with Revelation.
The dates change, the technology changes, and the predictions change, but the pattern remains remarkably familiar. Jesus warned about deception, but our protection against deception was never supposed to be our ability to become better predictors of tomorrow. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit. He said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.” John 14:26. He also said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” John 16:13.
Notice who Jesus identifies as our guide. Not a prophecy expert, bestselling author, television preacher, theologian with an elaborate end-times chart, or someone claiming to understand the latest world event. The Holy Spirit.
This does not mean teachers have no place in the Body of Christ. God has given teachers to His Church. But no teacher replaces the indwelling Holy Spirit, and believers should never surrender spiritual discernment simply because someone is educated, respected, sincere, famous, or persuasive. A teacher can be sincere and still be wrong. A scholar can be brilliant and still be wrong. Millions of people can believe something and still be wrong.
Recently, I listened a Professor discussing Revelation and the end of history. I respect his sincerity and intellect, and I agree strongly with something he said about Revelation: “The book is about Jesus Christ. It's a revelation of him. That is if we understand it correctly when we finished reading it, we should know more about him than we did at the start.” That is an excellent standard by which to judge our study of Revelation.
The Prophessor also said, “We are now in an age where AI is making us capable of the greatest and most subtle kind of deception the world has ever seen.”
I see AI very differently. I believe artificial intelligence represents one of the greatest opportunities the Church has ever been given. At 77 years old, I am now able to accomplish things in ministry that I simply could not have accomplished before. Since I began using ChatGPT in January 2023, after sensing a strong urging from the Holy Spirit to explore it, I have been able to accomplish in minutes, for $20 per month, work that previously would have required thousands of dollars and weeks or months of effort.
Can AI be used deceptively? Of course. So can television, radio, books, pulpits, and human beings. Christians were being seriously deceived long before generative AI existed. Deception does not require artificial intelligence. It requires people who fail to exercise spiritual discernment and allow someone else's interpretation to replace their own dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
This is why Hebrews 12:2 AMPC is so important: “Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus.”
- What if some of our obsession with end-times prophecy has itself become a distraction?
- What happens when Christians spend more time looking for the Antichrist than looking to Christ?
- What happens when believers know the latest theory about 666 but are filled with anxiety about tomorrow?
- What happens when every new technology becomes another possible fulfillment of Revelation?
- Yesterday it was barcodes, computer databases and microchips.
- Today it is artificial intelligence. What will it be tomorrow?
This does not mean we ignore Revelation. It means we return Revelation to its rightful center: Jesus Christ. When after studying Revelation, we become frightened of AI, world government, the Mark of the Beast, the Antichrist, economic systems, and what might happen tomorrow, but we have not come to know Jesus more deeply, something has gone wrong with our study. The Professor himself gives us the test: “If we understand it correctly when we finished reading it, we should know more about Jesus than we did at the start.” He also said,
So perhaps we should ask different questions about end-times teaching. After listening to it, do I know Jesus better? Has my faith increased? Do I have greater peace? Am I more conscious of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me? Am I more effective in sharing the Gospel and serving people? Or have I become anxious about tomorrow, constantly watching world events and depending upon prophecy teachers to explain what supposedly happens next?
For nearly sixty years, I have watched end-times predictions come and go. Dates have passed, supposedly prophetic interpretations have become obsolete, and yesterday's terrifying new technology has become today's ordinary technology. But Jesus has remained the same. The Holy Spirit has remained faithful. The Gospel has not changed, and our calling has not changed.
I am seventy-seven years old now. I have no desire to spend whatever years remain to me trying to calculate when Jesus will return or identifying every possible fulfillment of Revelation. I want to live today, listen to the Holy Spirit today, serve people today, and use every legitimate tool God places within my reach, including artificial intelligence, to communicate the Gospel and build up the Body of Christ. Above everything else, I want to keep looking to Jesus.
The world will always give us something new to fear, and predictions will continue to be made. But Jesus already told us what to do about tomorrow: do not be anxious about it. Scripture tells us where to look today: “Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus.”
Perhaps one of the greatest protections against end-times deception is much simpler than we have made it. Stop looking for everything that might happen tomorrow. Listen to the Holy Spirit who lives within you. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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