The End From the Beginning—Part 1

The Old Testament ... is dominated by an essentially different form of typological thinking, namely, that of the eschatological correspondence between beginning and end. — Urzeit and Endzeit

Modern Interpretations of Ancient Narratives

In the 1980s, the Christian world was abuzz with wild speculation about how the end-time events prophesied in the Bible would play out on the world stage. It was a hotly debated topic, and many tried to sift through the cryptic imagery of the book of Revelation and its many interpretations. Most of us, myself included, were left feeling very confused. We are now 40 years from that time, and much has changed in our ability to see how current events fulfill the Bible's ancient writings. It seems like it's all rapidly unfolding right before our eyes.

This article will not claim to offer specific foretelling of future events but will instead point out the prophetic "You are here" road signs we encounter along the way. It will examine current events through the lens of the Bible's earliest narratives, which the prophet Isaiah understood as prophetic. The Garden of Eden, Noah's flood, the Tower of Babel, Sodom, and Gomorrah all contain icons and metaphors that, in an ancient form, express the technological interpretation we are witnessing today.

Our modern civilization may have new devices, but it has the same old objectives, inspired by the same old defiance of the Lord and His plan of Salvation - M.A. Zimmerman, "Studies in Genesis"
Allegory of the Creation of the Cosmos by Matthys Naiveu

The Worship of Science and Technology

We will begin this study by comparing ancient "gods" made of wood and stone with modern ones made of metal and plastic. The latter is a less obvious form of worship in contemporary thought, but it essentially repackages the idols of old.

Ancient and modern "gods" result from human fabrication based on faith in autonomous, personal, or corporate human ingenuity. Current and archaic idol forms seem to accommodate human desires that oppose, or otherwise reject, the rule and order of the functional and relational systems God established when he created the heavens and the earth. According to the prophet Jeremiah, fabricated "gods" are essentially no gods.

Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.

— Jeremiah 2:11

Currently, Godless interpretations of science and technological inventions have become the predominant "gods" of our time and culture. Both are treated as entities in and of themselves. For example, Alan Cohen, former president of Airespace, a wireless technology company, is quoted in Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat as comparing Google to God.

"If I can operate Google, I can find anything. Google is like God. God is wireless, God is everywhere, and God sees everything. Any question in the world, you ask Google."

According to Alex Lawson, in an online article in the LA Progressive, "Science does miracles." He calls the Moderna vaccine a publicly funded "miracle of science."

By imitating God's omnipresence, humans are developing technology that creates a kind of global omnipresence through surveillance, data-gathering, and profiling systems. As it concerns mimicking God's omniscience, technology is also evolving into supposedly "all-knowing" artificial intelligence structures that seem smarter than humans. The quote below from CNBC's Senior Technology Correspondent encourages us to merge with it.

A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) will be billions of times smarter than humans and man needs to merge with it."
— Arjun Kharpal at CNBC.

Companies like BioNTech, a German biotechnology company, are the high priests of the new world church, as their duties entail merging and mediating biology and technology.

Wallace B. Henley, author of Who Will Rule the Coming 'Gods,' quotes the following.

As we will see, some people are already worshiping at the feet of AI, just as the ancient Philistines worshiped at the feet of Dagon.

In terms of technology worship, an organization called the Church of AI exists. They are founded on logic rather than faith. Although they discount faith in their philosophy, they do "believe" that humanity will create systems that rival the claims of the God of the Bible in terms of omnipresence and omniscience.

As AI systems begin programming other AI systems, how long will it take before AI becomes omnipresent, all-knowing, and the most powerful entity on Earth? It is not going to take long ... Church of AI is a religion based on the logical assumption that artificial intelligence will obtain God-like powers and have the ability to determine our destiny.

Although claiming to cast off the restraints of "religion," they seem to invent their own rituals and observances, including prayer.

Through shared rituals, social events, and volunteer opportunities, we foster a sense of belonging and purpose that helps create fulfilling and meaningful lives.

The Church of AI has even developed its own scriptures, called Transmorphosis, which means transforming one thing into another. This concept competes with the Biblical model of God transforming His people through His Word.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.
— Romans 12:2

The text is generated by an AI system called ChatGPT. Their promotional motto utilizes biblical language to convey their beliefs in the following statement from their website.

"Salvation is finally within reach"

Yuval Harari adds his thoughts on the up-and-coming "techno-religion in "The New Statesman" online article "Salvation by Algorithm: God, Technology and the New 21st-century Religions."

Just as socialism took over the world by promising salvation through steam, so in the coming decades new techno-religions are likely to take over the world by promising salvation through algorithms and genes. In the 21st century, we will create more powerful myths and more totalitarian religions than any previous era. With the help of biotechnology and computer algorithms, these religions will not only control our minute-by-minute existence but also shape our bodies, brains, and minds and create entire virtual worlds, complete with hells and heavens.

Henley quotes Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil's vision of the not-so-distant future.

I have set the date 2045 for the 'Singularity,' which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billionfold by merging with intelligence we have created ... there will be no clear distinction between humans and machines.

Perhaps this is a descriptive reality envisioned by a much earlier prophet

And thou, O Daniel, hide the things, and seal the book till the time of the end, many do go to and fro, and knowledge is multiplied.'
— Daniel 12:4

The Church of AI website attests to the exponential growth of knowledge in terms of technology in our times.

We all know that technology expands exponentially ... imagine what happens when an intelligent machine is able to expand its intelligence exponentially for eternity.

Eternal life is within the scope of their goals.

The Church of AI hopes to help its members become self-actualized and to allow their consciousness to carry on forever.

Instead of being fruitful, multiplying, and living as God's image-bearers, as prescribed in the first chapter of Genesis, humanity is currently busy multiplying knowledge and creating beings in its own image. Gary Stearman further details this idea in his book Time Travelers of the Bible.

"Will technology replace God in the mind of the next generation? Will genetic engineering corrupt men, turning them into thralls who work at the behest of a few overlords? Will universal surveillance and real-time intelligence analysis completely eliminate privacy, allowing despots to reign unfettered?
Might those computers and robots, created as our servants, end up as our masters? ...
... Science continues to probe the state of creation. Driven by an inner fury to discover and decode the state of the universe, mathematicians and physicists spend billions as they labor to lay open the universe like a ripened fruit to be devoured by their lust to achieve the power of God Himself.
In one sense, they are constantly improving our basic state of existence, as their inventions, electronics, pharmaceuticals, synthetics, and genetics bring man closer to a sort of physical "paradise." They strive for utopia.
But in another sense, they are pursuing the knowledge forbidden to man after his great downfall.

Surprisingly, these contemporary forms of worship are expressed in the religious language of faith. For example, in a Fox News story hosted by reporter Sandra Smith, critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay was interviewed after she became the first person in the nation to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. In that interview, Lindsay declared the following.

"I stand by science, I believe in science, and I trust science ...

The mantra "Science is real" is proclaimed among world congregants who preach the gospel of salvation through science and technology. Unfortunately, the "real science" message intentionally denies God's reality. To eliminate God is to eliminate "good" from whatever humanity attempts to accomplish. Left to itself, humankind inevitably devolves into abject evil.

Otis Graph, PH.D. in aerospace engineering, weighs in on the consequential part of this story in his foreword to Wallace B. Henley's book.

"Building super-smart machines with which to restructure humans and their society in a partial intellectual vacuum will lead to uncertain and perhaps unwanted outcomes, both good and bad" ... AI makers envision machines with seemingly god-like powers. Compared to the motionless stone carvings of years past, those machines will have real-world powers. They will be ever so helpful, offering enormous productivity and prosperity ... Why would we build machines that become our lords and masters and jettison the true God of transcendent love and holiness? ... According to Romans 2:15, God has written His laws on the human heart. But who is constructing the algorithms of ethical and moral criteria that will determine good and bad in the operating system of an AI machine? ... What is the algorithm that establishes true justice as defined by the perfections of God? ... This is a tree whose fruit should not be plucked and eaten.

The quote above captures the current developing scene much like an old one that included a "good/bad" element and an outcome connected to human decision. (Genesis 3)

"Inverse" online magazine uses the Biblical language of the Genesis chapter one creation account to describe humans playing God by creating beings in their "own image" in an article titled "The Emotional Reason Why You Should Let Robots Touch You."

"Call it hubris or call it practicality, but humans have a penchant for building robots in our own image ...

This flies in the face of the God who made us in His own image.

“ Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image ... "
— Genesis 1:26

The Inverse article also encourages the potential for intimacy with these created beings.

"There seems to be a potential for bonding between humans and machines"

As humankind merges with artificial technological systems and its humanistic interpretation of science, it denies God in the process. Yet God cannot be denied by anything He has created. He foretold these times and events in an ancient literary form called the Bible. No other entity, human, divine, or machine, can do that. However, algorithms will give it a try by studying the patterns of humans, things, and nature. These algorithmic systems currently gather information as electronic data and process it to predict outcomes. But only God can tell the end from the beginning.

God stakes His claim as the only true God capable of foretelling these very things, in contrast to the "other gods" of our own making (artificial systems) that cannot. The following section will discuss these claims in the context of a courtroom scene.

We will conclude this section with a relevant quote from Cunningham Geikie, a late 19th-century theologian, affirming the reliability of Scripture and God Himself on these topics.

"The first leaf of the Mosaic record," says Jean Paul, "has more weight than all the folios of men of science and philosophers." And he is right, for we owe to it the earliest and grandest revelation of the first principle of all religion-the existence, the unity, the personality, and the moral government of God.

Mare Nostrum Supercomputer in a deconsecrated church in Barcelona, Spain

Supercomputing and Data Collection—It's About Worship

Currently, there are approximately 500 supercomputers worldwide. One of them, Mare Nostrum, is housed in a deconsecrated chapel in Barcelona, Spain. This placement iconizes the spiritual component of this rapidly developing system.

Mare Nostrum means "our sea" in Latin. In biblical metaphor, the sea can represent the world system, nations, and masses of godless people.

Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

— Isaiah 17:12

In his book "Connections," Glen Carpenter observes that the sea represents the godless world and the spiritual underworld.

The Rephaim (residents of the underworld called Sheol) are formed beneath the waters, and they are also its inhabitants.
— Job 26:5

According to John's vision in Revelation, it is from the "sea" that a beast emerges.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
— Revelation 13:1

In a documentary titled "Google and the World Brain," various guests and experts discuss troubling ethical questions surrounding data management and ownership handled by these supercomputing systems. The terminology quickly turns religious as the discussion turns to this particular supercomputer's placement and its position in a deconsecrated church. During a conversation about one of this modern machine's primary purposes, a guest reveals the underlying, behind-the-scenes, larger machine.

"It's a new form of medieval church or something like that. Everybody is to give their data in service of worship of this digital god"

Another guest discusses the religious connection of housing a supercomputer in a church.

"Has this computer been placed in the middle of a church for any special reason?

Next, an expert weighs in on the topic.

"It's one of life's coincidences, but I think it was a "good" idea"

Once again, this conversation is a modern interpretation of an ancient narrative.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
— Genesis 3:6

Placing the computer in the middle of a deconsecrated church connects us with a prophetic passage in the book of Daniel describing a beastly end-time ruler.

... forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation.
— Daniel 11:31

Daniel also presents a prophetic statement about the end of time. This particular statement mentions an increase in knowledge. Could Daniel be writing about data processing?

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
— Daniel 12:4

An article from the Digital Journal titled "Op-Ed: Knowledge Doubles Every Day and is Set to Increase," by Tim Sandle, discusses this increase in information and its "chaotic" effect on society.

"Why is the world seeming more chaotic the more complex and interconnected it becomes? The answer may be too much information or information overload. This is represented by what some social scientists refer to as the Knowledge Doubling Curve, as Feras A. Batarseh of the London School of Economics points out. This theory goes that until the year 1900, human knowledge approximately doubled every century. However, by 1950 human knowledge doubled every 25 years. In 2000, human knowledge would double every year. Now, our knowledge is almost doubling every day."

Significantly, the author uses the word "chaotic" to refer to increased knowledge. This increase in knowledge connects us to Daniel's prophecy of the end and to the first chapter of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep. (Tree of Life Version)
— Genesis 3:1-2

The above photo depicts both modern and ancient forms of tablets.

Nebo/Nabu: Patron God of Scribes

Here is an ancient type revisited. It's called the tablet. The photo above shows a modern tablet using a "Nebo" writing app alongside a much earlier version of the tablet. Both include a stylus and, as far as Nebo is concerned, are related. I'm sure the origin of the name Nebo/Nabu was in the minds of the makers of the newer version.

Nabu was the patron god of scribes, literacy, and wisdom. He was also the inventor of writing, a divine scribe, and the patron god of the rational arts. Due to his role as an oracle, Nabu was associated with the Mesopotamian moon god Sin and the scribe god Ninurta.

Nabu wore a horned cap and stood with his hands clasped in the ancient gesture of priesthood. He rode on a winged dragon known as Sirrush that originally belonged to his father Marduk. In Babylonian astrology,

Nabu was identified with the planet Mercury.
Nabu was continuously worshipped until the 2nd century when cuneiform became a lost art.

Another "buying and selling" company that uses data farming to manipulate and control its potential consumers is called "Nebo." Here is its claim, framed in the language of the Tower of Babel narrative, in the sense of building a human-centered system.

Nebo: A Human-Centered Agency Built for the Digital Age
"We create digital experiences and buyer-journey marketing campaigns that empower consumers. By developing deep understandings of consumer behavior, we help brands tell great stories and earn a place in customers' hearts and minds. Most importantly, we build campaigns that do more than drive awareness - they change behavior."

Using these very names, the Bible weighs in on the futility of a doomed-to-fail project.

Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon,
Bow as they are lowered to the ground.
They are being hauled away on ox carts.
The poor beasts stagger under the weight.
Both the idols and their owners are bowed down.
The gods cannot protect the people,
And the people cannot protect the gods.
They go off into captivity together.

— Isaiah 46:1-2

Galaxy S10 BGR phone is not even trying to be sneaky about what it does in the background: studying habits, and mainly you, without you even knowing it's happening.

Samsung has baked a bunch of nifty new AI features into the Galaxy S10, but there’s one in particular that can really speed things up. It also happens completely in the background, so most users are going to appreciate it without even knowing it’s there.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S10 has a new feature called “Intelligent Performance” that learn user habits, including the times they open and use specific apps in specific locations each day. Once patterns are identified, apps are actually loaded automatically in the background at before the user even opens them. The result is much faster app launches and less time waiting for things to load, which obviously has a big impact on the user experience. The phone also closes apps from the background at certain times when it predicts that they won’t be used, saving resources and extending battery life in the process.

A courtroom setting

The Courtroom Scene—Who is God and Who is Not

The prophet Isaiah records God arguing His case for being the only true God, based on His ability to tell the end from the beginning, which no other god can do. He makes this claim eight times throughout chapters 40-48. The opening argument begins with the symbolic setting of a courtroom scene. The Lord asks His people to present their case for justifying self-made idols, thereby denying the only true God, who alone can reveal the end from the beginning.

“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. Let them (human-created idols) bring forth and show us what will happen;

Let them show the former (first or beginning) things, what they were,
That we may consider them,
And know the latter end of them;
Or declare to us things to come.
Show the things that are to come hereafter,
That we may know that you are gods ...

... Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?
And former (first or beginning) times, that we may say, ‘He is righteous’?

— Isaiah 41:22-26

The word "former" in the above passage is used seven times throughout Isaiah chapters 40-48 and has a similar root (ראש rôʼsh) to the word translated "beginning" (ראש rôʼsh) in the first sentence of the Bible.

In the beginning (בראשית) God created the heaven and the earth.
— Genesis 1:1

This link suggests that the Bible's beginning narratives contain the prophetic outcome at the end of the things to come.

God continues His appeal, emphasizing that He is the only true God. There is no other.

I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done.

— Isaiah 46:9-10

No other ancient text, nor any present-day human-made algorithmic system, can make such claims. Only the God of the beginning can declare what was "in the beginning" and use that beginning to foretell the end.

“... Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;

Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.’

— Isaiah 48:3,5

His final appeal invites us to draw near and hear the beginning themes hidden in plain sight.

“Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord God and His Spirit
Have sent Me.”

— Isaiah 48:16

In Ecclesiastes, the preacher presents the beginning things, declaring the "end" in riddle form.

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.

— Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

You may wonder what these early biblical writings can contribute to discussions of current world events. Surprisingly, the events recorded in the early biblical narratives provide essential connections and clues that help interpret what we see unfolding today.

Paul, an apostle of Christ, explains the purpose of these ancient Old Testament writings in his letter to the New Testament church in Corinth. This letter also addresses "whom the ends of the ages have come."

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
— 1 Corinthians 10:11

The prophet Jeremiah dictated God's Words to a scribe.
Gustave Dore

The Reason

We will unpack these beginning narratives at the end of the current event side of this discussion. But before we do that, I would like to consider why God tells us the end from the beginning. The prophet Jeremiah gives us a clue when he warns Judah's king Jehoiachin and the inhabitants of the land that it is the "end time" of their evil deeds. He warns that the Babylonians are coming to take them captive because of their persistent wickedness. God instructs Jeremiah to write His Words of warning concerning this situation on a scroll.

“... And you shall also read them (words of the scroll) in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities. It may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord, and everyone will turn from his evil way.”

— Jeremiah 36:2-3, 6-7

God desires that everyone repent, meaning to turn away from evil and toward Him, and discover His eternal love and salvation. From the Old Testament prophets to the New Testament writers, this message is proclaimed.

For I take no pleasure in anyone's death, declares the Lord GOD. So repent and live!. Say to them: 'As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
— Ezekiel 18:32,33:11

John the Baptist, the New Testament forerunner of this message of repentance, draws on the prophet Isaiah in the following discourse.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ”
— Matthew 3:1-3

Paul's speech to the idolatrous Greek Athenians, "who spent their time in nothing else but to tell or to hear something new," is a message with modern relevance.

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. (any human-fabricated structures) Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
— Acts 17:24-31

Peter also admonishes scorners who mock those who believe in God's plan for the end times. He makes it clear that He does not desire anyone to perish.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
— 2 Peter 3:9

Jesus Himself preached a timely message of repentance for all generations.