General Articles

Anything Man can Imagine :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR7

Some years ago, I was asked to write on an idea for a script for a movie a Hollywood film guy I called friend was thinking of doing. The project never came to fruition because he was diagnosed with an untreated recurrence of melanoma and died within 3 months of the diagnosis. Sadly, it was his own decision to ignore the follow-up exams the oncologist prescribed.

I still think about the project that would have made an interesting movie; I think.

My friend, Michael, wanted my script outline based upon the Biblical prophecy found in the book of Joel.

My note to myself in lamenting the story’s fate is as follows:

Author’s note:

This short story was written for a film that never came to production because of strange circumstances. It is a story of what might ultimately eventuate in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It depicts—taking literary license—the description of a bizarre, horrendous military force prophesied by Joel, the Old Testament prophet to one day descend upon Jerusalem.

The story I wrote began:

Dr. Gershwin Beilah glanced at the large monitors whose images were fed by satellite-relayed cameras on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem. He directed his eyes again to the old Bible, the passages of his attention underlined in red ballpoint.

The scientist read in a quick whisper.

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

The story the script was to depict was God’s Judgment during the Tribulation era. A most horrendous force of beastly soldiers will, the prophecy foretells, overwhelm everything in its path.

The Scripture in God’s word telling of that future army says the following:

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. (Joel 2: 3-9)

This future army seems to be of super-human capability. Of course, we must understand that it is most likely a force, at the very least, possessed by a demonic influence.

The prophecy refers to it as the Lord’s army, but I take it that it is God’s, only in the sense that He uses even evil for His ultimate good purposes. I.e., the Lord will use this evil military force to, when all is said and done, carry out His divine judgment against the rebels of that last few years before Christ returns in the Second Advent.

It is with my study on this army during the time I was working on the script that tripped my interest in a news article I came across.

The news item was in connection with a secretive military project to create a technologically enhanced army. The article addressed the U.S. military planners’ concerns that the American public would object to such an army.

–Thus, they said, because the public had been subjected to the horrors presented in the fictional moves such as Terminator and others.

The planners  are afraid, so the news story goes, that the public would remember the dystopian effects –the death and destruction—of those movie technological hybrids upon the people in their path.

That news item was analyzed as follows in an opinion piece I found that encapsulates matters involved.

The demonization of cyborgs! Sounds like a satirical Futurama plot where Bender campaigns for robot rights or something.

From Frankenstein to the Terminator, the message is often that technology’s integration with the human body robs the human spirit of its compassion and leads to violence and grave, unintended consequences. However, fiction can also reflect imaginative applications of emerging technologies as well as real concerns with those technologies. For these reasons, fiction can be a powerful tool for engaging the public in discussions of bioethics. A better-informed public that creates and consumes media related to emerging technologies may thus help DOD and its partners forecast ELSI concerns to mitigate problems early int he development of enhancement-related capabilities.

But the Army doesn’t think that the public will find its own way to loving the robot soldiers of tomorrow.

The study group recommended that efforts should be undertaken to reverse the negative cultural narratives of enhancement technologies and leverage media as a means of engaging the public. Across popular social and open-source media, literature, and film, the use of machines to enhance the physical condition of the human species has received a distorted and dystopian narrative in the name of entertainment. More accurate depiction of technology and its applications in fiction and nonfiction media could lay the groundwork for a new generation that sees opportunity for societal benefits in cyborg technologies. [Source: U.S. Army Worries Humanity Is Biased Against Deadly Cyborg Soldiers Because Of Movies Like Terminator by Matt Novak, Gizmodo news, Dec 10, 2019]

Whether human or demonic, or a combination thereof, that future, tribulation era army seems at least on the drawing board and probably is much further advanced in its planning. Like in the case of Babel, God’s own declaration about the fallen minds of man comes starkly into view in regard to preparation for that future time of His wrath and judgment.

“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Gen. 11: 6)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is deeply a part of the scientific mind of man. The super-human army or at the very least, the AI force, is just a matter of time in development. It is a fearful thing to contemplate. But the Lord also has something to say to us about that kind of fear, and about the mind we can appropriate because He lives within the believer.

 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1: 7)  

Oh, Oh, Here Comes Chicken Little! :: By Gene Lawley

Published on: by RR7

One of the loud cries, primarily of those who do not believe God has any interest in concerns of this world, is somewhat like that of the fictional Chicken Little. In that story, something hit him on the head, and he began to yell to all the people of the town, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

We are being told repeatedly that worldwide temperatures will rise to levels you might hear in a discussion of how to cook your Christmas turkey dinner, as well as the “unescapable fact” that in a very short time the ocean levels will rise to engulf the continents! The simple answer to this cry of fear is to point them to the rainbow that often brightens the sky as the sun reflects off of the moisture in the clouds after a rainfall. According to Genesis 9:13-16, God promised to never again flood the earth:

“I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

The forecast told by Peter in 2 Peter 3:10 is not a pretty prospect for the end of time when God again judges the earth:

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

That event is several centuries in the future, however.

Current events are filled with the sense of hopelessness, of despair, of clamoring for someone to do something to ward off this coming disaster of climate changes that will overcome the world.

Three dictionary companies have issued their choices of the “word of the year.” Oxford Publishing selected “climate emergency,” actually two words, but claimed they are inseparable. The On-line Dictionary chose “existential,” a word that showed up in the mid 1900’s meaning “hopelessness” and “despair.” Merriam Webster claimed “they” was the top new meaning of a word.

Note that the first two show how much the “global warming, climate change” fear is being embraced by the world’s population. Note also that Time Magazine has issued its 2019 “cover of the year” picturing a sixteen-year-old girl from Sweden who has come to America preaching the fear of this planet’s inability to care for its inhabitants and somehow we must reduce our population dramatically and quickly.

The third word of new meaning for 2019 offered by Merriam-Webster is “they.” That reflects the progress of the “gender manipulation frenzy” and sexual revolution that has captured so much attention and demands total submission to those claims of superior rights of expression of their sexual orientation.

No wonder there is a sense of hopelessness and despair that is seemingly ready to engulf the world. There is “no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

One woman wrote that if parents do not believe there is a God, yet their children are having greater progress in good character traits, grades, and well-being, they should lie to their kids, saying they do believe in God. She says, “even though you believe you will go to a grave and turn to dust.” What she does not realize is that kids can see through their hypocrisy and lifestyles that deny that lie.

The reader who seeks truth and would believe the Scriptures would do well to read the forecasts of Jesus as He tells of what is to come when God’s judgment comes upon the earth in the last days. These are told, primarily, in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

In Luke 21:7-28, Jesus tells the future events to His disciples, of the soon-coming, then, of the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem, the signs and times of the last days of this age, and the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age.

In Luke 21:10-19, He tells some details of the destruction that is to come upon the earth in the last days, which seem to be happening in these days:

“Then He said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls.’” 

Finally, in Luke 21:25-27, He says this: “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” 

Next, He says this: “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near,” and then tells of the coming declaration of statehood for Israel—coming several centuries in the future (May 14, 1948).

The key thought in the passage is “when these things begin to happen, look up….” The question is, “are they beginning to happen—even 71 years ago (May 14, 1948)? Yes, there is no doubt, for sure since 1948.

The fearful destruction of no livable earth that accompanies the cries against “climate change” is demanding a gigantic reduction in the earth’s population. That is the cry of that Sweden girl—the earth will not be able to support a population of its present size.

But God, the God they do not recognize, has a population reduction plan. It’s called “judgment!” The prophets of old tell us in the Word of God of that plan.

The population total is a moving figure, but right now it is estimated to be 7.7 billion. The stated goal of the promoters of a New World Order is to reduce the population to only one billion, or maybe 500 million. Two reasons are behind those figures—those few are more easily controlled and the earth’s support systems could handle that number.

Of course, those calculations arise out of a mindset that does not recognize God in any manner. If those “Chicken Littles” were to check out the prophecies of the Bible, they would discover how their fears are totally unnecessary.

Let’s look at the population problem, specifically. When Jesus comes to “snatch away” those who have been saved by His grace, and soon to occur as the world begins to experience the seven years of tribulation prophesied by the Apostle John in Revelation chapters 4-19, a great multitude of the population will be reduced. First, an unknown number of Christians will disappear as Jesus comes and snatches them away to be with Him. Then, many will be killed by the devastating judgments that will occur.

After that “snatching away” will come the Gog-Magog war reported in Ezekiel 38-39 in the nations around Israel as God judges them. Many will die, for it will take seven months to find and bury all of the bodies of the dead.

At one time, in Revelation 9:15, one-third of mankind will be killed. Two hundred million from the kings of the east will die as they attempt to conquer Israel. A great multitude who do not take the “mark of the beast” will be killed and are shown in Revelation 7, standing before the throne of Christ in heaven. In Zechariah 13:8 we are told that two-thirds of the Jewish people will be killed, and the remaining one-third will be hidden away in the wilderness. That seems to be what is left after the final conclusion of the confrontation of those who took the “mark of the beast” and followed the Antichrist to defeat, for the Scripture concludes with, “And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse” (verse 21).

A rough calculation with estimates as necessary concludes with between four and five million (but quite likely far less) of Jews will survive. There is no indication that any Gentile mortals, saved or unsaved, will survive the tribulation period. The Scripture is clear that none who take the mark of the beast will be saved, and it is unknown how many who do not take that mark are able to avoid death by the hand of the Antichrist, if any.

Therefore, Chicken Little, an over-populated world will not be a problem. Contrary to the fears of the “chicken littles,” there is hope for the believer in Christ. Titus 2:12-13 tells of that “Blessed Hope” that we look for: “…teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Jonah, in his prayer from the belly of the great fish, stated a very important truth: “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love” (Jonah 2:8).

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com