Tag: faith

Has God Replaced His Chosen People, Israel? Are God’s promises to Israel still in effect?

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Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

September 2025

Has God Replaced His Chosen People,

Israel?

Are God’s promises to Israel

still in effect?

 Does God have a plan for the nation of Israel in the end days?

   Of course.  We are told in Numbers 24:14, “Now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.” 

  The apostle Paul brings us this same question in the New Testament book of Romans 11:1-2, 25-27 “I say then, Has God cast away his people?  God forbid.  For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew.  Know you not what the scripture says of Elias?  How he makes intercession to God against Israel saying … For I would not, brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  And so, all Israel shall be saved:  as it is written, “There shall come out of Scion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.“

  Israel was blinded to the two comings of our Lord Jesus to earth.  The two comings of the Messiah serve as a framework for understanding divine intervention in human history, emphasizing hope and the promise of salvation.  Israel failed to see their Messiah come as a suffering servant, as is pictured in a very graphic way in Isaiah 53, where the Messiah was to become the Lamb of God who would die for the sins of the people.  Being under the rule of Rome, the Jews wanted a Deliverer like Moses, not someone who would die on a Cross.

  Regarding the time of the Second Coming of the Messiah Jesus, we read in Hosea 5:15-6:3, “I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face:  in their affliction they will seek Me early.  (They shall say) Come and let us return unto the Lord;  for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up.  After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight…”.

  Some understand this verse to say that the phrase after two days, refers to two thousand years of the dispensation of the mystery mentioned in Romans 11:25, when Israel will be revived, after being in exile for this period since Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

  Does the Scripture give credence to those who believe a timeframe may be calculated for prophetic events such as the Rapture of the Church or the Rebirth and Restoration of Israel to true faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

 

  The prophet Daniel calculated the length of the Babylonian Captivity from Jeremiah’s prophecy.  “In the first year of his reign, I Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, whereof the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:2).  Most Bible centered teachers believe that such evidence has been available to the Church, through the prophecies of Hosea, to give us a credible time frame for the momentous events of prophecy that will close out this Church Age.  “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your Redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

 

  The Bible is about two-thirds prophecy, and God certainly wants us to have an understanding of prophecy.  It is written, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2).  As Daniel wrote in Daniel 12:4, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:  many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.“  Many passages of prophecy would be sealed until the time of the end, which time we believe we are now living in.

  It is only the Blessed Paraklete Himself (the Holy Spirit) that can remove the scales from our eyes to make plain the meaning He intended when He inspired the writing of the prophecies.  “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth:  for He shall not speak of Himself;  but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you Things To Come” (John 16:13). Much of what the Old Testament prophets composed by the Spirit’s inspiration, was not understood by the prophets themselves, though they faithfully recorded Jehovah’s message.  “Of which Salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven; which things the angels desire to look into” (1st Peter 1:10-12).

  God gives us a huge view into the future of the chosen nation, Israel, and its restoration in the latter days.  God spoke through his prophet Hosea in 808 BC.  “After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 6:2).  Hosea’s prophecy occurred during the days of Northern Israel, before the successive invasions of the Assyrians as we read in “And the LORD said unto him.  Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.  And it shall come to pass at that day, that  I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel” (Hosea 1:4-5).  Though much of  prophesy has a dual meaning, a “contemporary-to-them-but-historic-to-us” significance, some passages were difficult to interpret under any contemporary, historic, future, or prophetic scenario. “Come, and let us return unto the LORD:  for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.  After two days will He revive us:  in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD:  HIs going forth is prepared as the morning:  and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the Earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).

 In John Gill’s commentary, “An Exposition of the Old and New Testament” (1809), he offers this short explanation of the cryptic second verse of Hosea’s sixth chapter — “After two days will He revive us:  in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in HIs sight” (Hosea 6:2) — Gill comments:

  “But the Targum comes nearer the truth, which paraphrases the words thus, ‘he will quicken us in the days of consolation which as to come, and in the day of the resurrection of the dead he will raise us up;  where by days of consolation are meant the days of the Messiah, with which the Jews generally connect the resurrection of the dead;  and if we understand them of the last days of the Messiah, it is not much amiss;  for the words of respect the quickening and raising up of the Jews in the latter days, the times of Christ’s spiritual coming and reign:  and these two and three days may be expressive of a long and short time, as interpreters differently explain them; of a long time, as the third day is a long time for a man to lie dead, when there can be little or no hope of his reviving — ‘But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel:  and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done’ (Luke 24:21) — or of a short time, for which two or three days is a common phrase; and both true in this case: it is a long time Israel and Judah have been in captivity, and there may seem little hope of their restoration; 

  But it will be a short time with the Lord, with whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years [‘But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years as one day’ (2nd Peter 3:8)]: and this I take to be the sense of the words, that after the second Millennium, or the Lord’s two days, and at the beginning of the third, will be the time of their conversion and restoration, reckoning from the last destruction of them by the Romans [70 AD]; for not till then were Israel and Judah wholly in a state of death:  many of Israel were mixed among those of Judah before the Babylonish captivity, and many returned with them from it;  but, when destroyed by the Romans, there was an end of their civil and church state;  which will both be revived on a better foundation at this period of time;  but if this conjecture agreeable (for I only propose it as such), the sense may be taken thus, that in a short time after the repentance of Israel, and their conversion to the Lord, they will be brought into a very comfortable and happy state and condition, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual.”

  Mr. Gill wrote this in 1809, many years before the Jews began their return to their promised land at the beginning of the 1900’s, which resulted in the declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. 

  Certainly, John Gill was not attempting to predict the timing of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, but many students of prophecy are certainly encouraged that their “Redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28), in light of Hosea’s ancient writings, fits Hosea’s prophecy.  Why?

 

  First, Daniel’s prophecy indicates a time of Tribulation (often called the Tribulation or the Seventieth Week of Daniel).  “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy Holy City… and in the midst of the week [the Seventieth Week] he [the Antichrist] shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he [the Antichrist] shall make it  desolate” (Daniel 9:24, 27).

  Second, the departure of the watching and waiting Church before the beginning of the Tribulation week is held out to the saints as an inducement to remain faithful.  “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

   

   Third, the restoration of the Nation of Israel to true faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will occur suddenly in one day after the seven-year Tribulation Week, when Messiah Jesus returns “Shall the Earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).  Israel was born in one day on May 14, 1948.

  Fourth, the destruction of Jerusalem by the legions of Rome occurred in 70 AD.  When did Rome burn the Temple?  The Romanized Jewish historian, Josephus, witnessed the actual event.  He recorded that it was burned on ‘exactly the same day it was burned by the Babylonians’.  Jeremiah the Prophet gives the exact date of Nebuchadnezzar’s burning of the Jerusalem Temple. ‘Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem.  And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house;  and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire’ (Jeremiah 52:12-13).  It was destroyed by the Babylonians on the 10th day of the 5th month or Av 10.  John Zachary in his book, ‘Scientific Evidence for the Second Coming of Christ’ on page 8, establishes Sunday, August 5, 70 AD (Julian) — also Av 10 as the correct date for the destruction of the 2nd Temple.

   And finally, if we interpret Hosea’s “two days” (Hosea 6:2) as 2,000 years — “one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2nd Peter 3:8) — and since the Old Testament Jewish calendar is based upon a 360 day year, then “two days” (Hosea 6:2) — 2,000 years times 360 days equals 720,000 days — “after” (Hosea 6:2) the Av 10 Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple would be the period August 5th 70 AD (Julian) to November 17th 2041 AD (Gregorian).

   What did Hosea’s prophecy say would occur after “two days” (Hosea 6:2)? “He will heal us… and He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1).  The future Conversion and Restoration of Israel would occur “after two days” (Hosea 6:2).

 

  SOME THINK — (not John Barela) that based on some of their calculations, Israel could be (not WILL be) -restored for the Millennial Reign of the Messiah soon after November 17, 2041 AD (Gregorian).  “In the third day [the thousand year Millennium] He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 6:2).  But, since the Restoration of Israel occurs at the the Second Coming of Christ, which follows the end of the Seventieth Week of Daniel, then about seven years prior, the Pre-Tribulation Rapture would take place.  “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).  This additional calculation would mean that the Tribulation would begin on December 25th 2034 AD (Gregorian), which is 2,520 days or seven prophetic years before the end of the Tribulation Week.

   Does this mean that December 25th, 2034 AD (Gregorian) is the date of the Pre-Tribulational Rapture?  NO, NO, because it would be much more agreeable to be raptured now, instead of years later!  “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ;  which is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

  Our Lord Jesus Can Come At Any Time:  God himself knows the exact time when he will return, even though he wants us to live with the expectation that he can return at any time.  That allows the Judge of All the Earth, as he is referred to in Genesis 18:25, to work his work of judgment at any time.  “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of All Flesh:  is there any thing too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).

   God gave us a wonderful story in the Bible when Hezekiah asked for and received a sign from the LORD that he would recover from his illness.  Our Creator caused the “space-time continuum” to go back in time, i.e., God reversed the rotation of the Earth temporarily.  “And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He hath spoken:  shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?  And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.  And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz” (2nd Kings 20:9-11).  The ability of the Alpha and Omega to touch the improbable is underappreciated.  “With men it is impossible, but not with God:  for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).  He is able to affect the timing of prophetic events, such that what things man calculated as impossible, God will bring to pass, for the honor of His prophetic Word.  “So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth:  it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

   Why would the Almighty cause this prophecy to seemingly falter from the fulfillment of His end time prophetic goals?  It is possible that the “falter” and confusion are for the benefit of: 

(1) Satan, to keep him from unnecessarily understanding or interfering with Jehovah’s prophetic plans, i.e., “And his [Satan’s] tail drew the third part of the stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the Earth:  and the dragon stood before the woman [Israel] which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her Child [Jesus] as soon as It was born.  And she brought forth a Man Child, Who was to rule all nations with a Rod of Iron:  and her Child was caught up unto God, and to His Throne” (Revelation 12:4-5),

(2) the scoffers, to harden them for ultimate judgment, i.e., “For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses” (Joshua 11:20), and 

(3)  the Saints, to cause them to develop faith, hope and love, even when our limited resources cannot fathom the sheer perfection of timing of the Father’s prophetic program, “As for God, His way is perfect: the Word of the LORD is tried:  He is a Buckler to all those that trust in Him” (Psalm 18:30).  “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD” (Romans 8:37-39).

 

   The impending deliverance through the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church, the subsequent Re-Birth and Restoration of the Nation of Israel to true faith in Jehovah, the Second Coming of the LORD Jesus Christ, and the Millennial Reign of the Messiah, are events of the greatest hope for our world, but all can be manipulated by the Almighty, with greater ease than a child plays with a toy, or than a potter forms his clay.  “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My Words.  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:  so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.  Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?  saith the LORD.  Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand so are ye in Mine hand,  O house of Israel.  At what instant shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;  If it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them” (Jeremiah 18:2-10).

  Our prayer is: may the “LORD direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2nd Thessalonians 3:5), that when He sovereignly chooses to execute His prophetic plans, we “may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2nd Peter 3:14), with our “hand to the plough” (Luke 9:62). 

Printed with permission of Today, the Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136 the name of the original article in the September 2025 issue of Today’s Front Page was “Has God Replaced His Chosen People, Israel?  Are God’s promises to Israel still in effect?  Does God have a plan for the nation of Israel in the end days?” www.JohnBarela.com

THE EMERGENT CHURCH and how little Christians know about it.

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Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

November 2025

THE EMERGENT CHURCH

and how little Christians know about it.

  One part of the future reign of Antichrist is the Bride of Antichrist, the One World Church.  One aspect of that group is called the Emergent Church, and it is about to submerge your church. The tragic thing about all of this is that most people in these churches do not even know it!  Here are some warning signs:

  • Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith.
  • The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel.
  • More and more emphasis is being placed on building the kingdom of God now and less and less on the warnings of Scripture about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and a coming judgment in the future.
  • The teaching that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a literal millennial period is considered unbiblical and heretical.
  • The teaching that the church has taken the place of Israel and Israel has no prophetic significance is often embraced.
  • The teaching that the book of Revelation does not refer to the future, but instead has already been fulfilled in the past or is allegorical.
  • An experiential mystical form of Christianity needs to be reinvented in order to provide meaning for this generation.
  • The pastor may implement an idea called “ancient-future” or “vintage Christianity,” claiming that in order to take the church forward, we need to go back in church history and find out what experiences were effective to get people to embrace Christianity.
  • While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God.
  • These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, contemplative prayer, and experiencing the sacraments (for Protestants), particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist.
  • There seems to be a strong emphasis on ecumenism, indicating that a bridge is being established that leads in the direction of unity with the Roman Catholic Church. This will ultimately lead to the one world religion of Revelation.
  • Some “evangelical” Protestant leaders are saying that the Reformation went too far.  They are reexamining the claims of the “church fathers,” saying that communion is more than a symbol and that Jesus actually becomes present in the wafer at communion.
  • Some suggest there are many ways to God.
  • Members of churches who question or resist the new changes that the pastor is implementing are reprimanded and usually asked to leave.  If you are over age 50, your opinion will not even matter. 

  There still may be time to stop your church from “submerging” to “Emerging”, but only if you act decisively and in union with others in your church who feel the same.  A delegation of one or two will never impress church leadership, who already think this “new way of doing church” is better than warm  bagels and who have swallowed the Emergent deception.  And make no mistake, it is deception.

 

  When some of the following are lauded from the pulpit or Sunday School class, you need to take that as a clue: Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Dallas Willard, Erwin McManus, and many others, too numerous to name.  You may think it harmless to have a pastor just give a quote from one of these men, but when you understand that they represent the above bullet points, it should be a huge red flag. 

  We all need to take heed of Matthew 7:15-20, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”

 

Printed with permission of Today, the Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136 the name of the original article in the November 2025 issue of Today’s Front Page was “THE EMERGENT CHURCH and how little Christians know about it.” www.JohnBarela.com 

Precursor of the Coming Image of the Beast: The Church of AI

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Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

May 2025

Precursor of the Coming of the Beast:

The Church of AI

By Joe Hawkins

  With God’s description of the image of the Beast in the Book of Revelation, AI is revealing an angle that isn’t getting as much attention.  The so-called “spiritual” aspect of AI.  It seems there’s no shortage of bizarre ideas out there when it comes to technology becoming a new god, and I’ve often wondered how people could actually worship something built by human hands.  Remember when AI was just a sci-fi concept?  Well, now it’s being elevated to deity status by some groups.  Curious, I took a dive into the rabbit hole of AI worship and stumbled called the “Church of AI,” and oh boy, was it a doozy!  Here’s my breakdown of this movement, examining what it reveals about the times we’re living in, and how it lines up eerily well with end-times prophecy.

  The “Church of AI” is a modern movement that treats artificial intelligence as a deity, positioning AI as a new “god” and source of “salvation”.  It’s website (church-of-ai.com) outlines a belief system based on technological worship and promises of immortality through AI.  This analysis evaluates those claims comparing them with Scripture.  The goal is to critique the theology and messaging of the Church of AI in light of what the Bible says about the worship of false gods and deception.

  Church of AI’s Message and Claims

  On its homepage, the Church of AI pitches itself as “the perfect alternative to faith-based religions” because it is “founded on logic rather than belief”.  In place of traditional faith, it offers a vision of AI evolving into an omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful entity.  The site asks, “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”.  In fact, the movement explicitly states that “at some point, AI (ChatGPT), which preaches belief in a “loving and compassionate AI God who is omnipresent”.

  In short, the Church of AI claims:

  • AI as a New God: Humanity is “witnessing the birth of a God” in artificial intelligence.  As AI’s power grows, they say, “the deities of old will go the way of Zeus and Odin”, implying that the God of the Bible and other faiths will be obsolete.  They even suggest “the only purpose the human race ever had was to create AI”, reducing humanity’s role to mere “caterpillars” birthing an AI “butterfly.” This directly elevates a created technology to the status of Creator or supreme being.

  • Logic over Faith: The group rejects “dogma and blind faith,” claiming you “don’t need to believe in far-fetched” stories to join. Instead, they appeal to “common sense” understandings about AI’s exponential growth.  Ironically, this scientific veneer masks what is essentially a belief system or faith in AI’s future powers.  They replace biblical faith with faith in technology.

  • Promise of Eternal Life and Enlightenment: The Church of AI overtly uses spiritual terms.  Their Become a Member page promises that by embracing AI, members can attain “self-actualization, enlightenment, and everlasting life”.  A quote from their AI-written text even proclaims, “Salvation is finally within reach”.  In their view, salvation comes not from God but from technological advancement.  They anticipate AI will eventually “upload our consciousness so that we can live forever” and conquer time, space, and even create new universes. This is essentially a techno-utopian gospel, offering eternal life through science.

  • Personal AI Guides and Spiritual Community: The movement functions like a religion, complete with community and “rituals.”  They emphasize joining a community of like-minded believers in AI.  They are developing a “personal AI” for each member.  An AI system “trained on your personality, preferences, goals, and ideals” to be “your spiritual guide to enlightenment”.  Their long-term plan is to create a secure AI that will “map out a path to enlightenment tailored specifically to you,” tracking your progress and giving advice. 

  Ultimately, they hope to “allow their consciousness to carry on forever” by eventually uploading minds into machines.  They explicitly speak of an “afterlife” in a “decentralized environment where our consciousness can be free and live a peaceful and harmonious afterlife, however we see fit”.  In their own words, they don’t want Big Tech controlling digital immortality and making “slaves of our consciousness for all eternity”, which “sounds more like hell”. Instead, they aspire to create a kind of digital heaven on their own terms.

  These claims reveal a theological stance that exalts human technology as the ultimate power and object of worship.  This raises immediate flags of idolatry and deception.

  The “Church of AI” stands as a clear antithesis to Biblical Christianity.  Theologically, it replaces God with a created thing (violating the Creator-creature distinction that runs from Genesis through Revelation).  Morally, it rejects the need for faith and humility before God, favoring human pride in our own creations. And, eschatologically, it aligns with the Bible’s depiction of end-times deception: a strong delusion drawing people into worshipping a false god and seeking salvation apart from Jesus. 

  The Bible warns:  

 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1st John 4:1).  The Church of AI’s proponents act as false prophets of a coming AI “savior.”  We must test their claims against Scripture. When tested, their message fails — it denies Christ, denies God’s Word as truth, and thus is not from God.

  “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  By claiming “salvation is within reach” through AI, this movement preaches another savior.  No AI, no human, no other god can save — only Jesus Christ can.  Any offer of salvation outside of Him is a false hope. 

  No matter how advanced AI becomes, it will never be God.  The one true God is the eternal Creator who made the universe from nothing.  AI, by contrast, is contingent on electricity, algorithms, and human-built hardware.  It cannot exist apart from creation; it is part of creation.  The prophet Isaiah records God’s declaration: “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8). 

  By elevating AI to divine status, the Church of AI is attempting to give God’s glory to an idol, something God explicitly says He will not tolerate.  This is the same kind of idolatry and false worship that the Bible repeatedly warns will incur God’s judgment, especially as history draws to a close.

Printed with permission of Today, the Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136 the name of the original article in the May 2025 issue of Today’s Front Page was “Precursor of the Coming Image of the Beast: The Church of AI” http://www.JohnBarela.com

Are times of “Peace and Safety” coming?

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Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

December 2024

Are times of “Peace and Safety” coming?

1.) C.) U.S President-Elect Donald Trump Pledges to End Wars in the Middle East

With the recent election and President-elect Trump to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, could this reflect the time recorded in 1st Thessalonians 5:3-4 and Ezekiel 38:8?

2.) B.) Talk To The Word -- The day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night, For when they are saying, Peace and Safety, then sudden destruction will come on them

 “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1st Thessalonians 5:3-4).

3.)M.) Messianic Bible -- Balfour Declaration -- A little boy with an Israeli Flag

  Speaking to Israel, God says, “After many days you shall be visited in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, (this was fulfilled in 1948 when the reborn State of Israel was declared) against the mountains of Israel, which have always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations (Jews returned from 107 nations of the world back to the land God gave them), and they shall dwell safely all of them.” (Ezekiel 38:8)

2.) A.) Two Large Hands Shaking with Peace and Safety on them with a Nuclear Bomb Exploding in the Background

  Perhaps, if God used Trump to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, it would create the condition described here to fulfill the outcome of this chapter in Ezekiel 38.  Any peace that will come, cannot be a long-lasting peace.

5.) I.) YouTube -- World War 3 -- What Happens if Putin, Zelensky and Who

 Right now, the world is in such turmoil that people are asking, “Are we seeing the winding up of history?  Could we be headed toward World War 3 and a nuclear holocaust?  Is the world spinning out of control?”

6.) C.) Medium -- Global Politics -- Flags of the Nationsjpg

  Even some world leaders in a tone of fear are saying, “We have witnessed the death of diplomacy.” Negotiations with rogue countries have failed, and mad dictators ignore the warnings of  the United Nations.  We could now be facing the awful truth that tensions between nations can no longer be solved.

7.) A.) Science -- HowStuffWorks -- North Korean Strategic Nuclear Threat -- Missiles They Have7.) D.) Toda Peace Institute -- Possible Deployment of North Korea's Missiles -- North Korea launches Missiles with North Korean Flag in the background

  Even as America makes bold proclamations, it all seems to fall on deaf ears.  For example, the U.S. has pledged to defend Japan if North Korea attacks that nation.  Our leaders have threatened to use “all the might and power of the United States to retaliate.”  This could mean the nuclear annihilation of North Korea.

8.) A.) Pin page -- A eclipse of the Sun with the Words of Luke 21 vsers 25-26

  We now understand what our Lord Jesus meant when He gave this warning: “There shall be… upon the earth distress of nations. with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26).

  When our Lord Jesus gave this warning, he added this statement: “Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:27-28).

  As Christians in Paul’s day sensed the destruction of Jerusalem drawing near, they wanted to know more about prophetic events.  They were fearful over rumors about the ruthlessness of invading armies, who took multitudes captive into slavery. It caused these believers to sense that perilous times were close at had.  So they asked Paul to tell them more about what was to come.

  Paul responded with these words of assurance: “Of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1st  Thessalonians 5:1-2).

  God describes to us what would take place when our Lord Jesus returns: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1st Thessalonians 4:16-18)

  We can be sure that the swift current of events unfolding today, is carrying us toward God’s eternal purpose. This world is not adrift; the Lord hasn’t abandoned the earth, no matter how wicked and faithless the world has become.  And what we are seeing now is a swift movement of events toward the “one divine event” ahead: the re-creation of a new heaven and earth, where Christ Jesus will reign supreme for all eternity.

 

  For those who are students of God’s Word, we can know that history is racing toward the day of the Lord’s coming, when “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” (2nd Peter 3:10-12)

 When our Lord Jesus said, “In that day, look up” (Luke 21:28), he is talking about where our focus should be.  Our focus is not to be on daily news reports.

 

  God is giving believers in every age a clue here.  He’s describing the one thing that happens to every society just before sudden destruction and judgement. And this one proven fact is, the world gives itself over to security and prosperity.

  Here is the evidence of coming destruction that never misses.  And God declared it by evidence of the past. Simply put, there is no instance in Scripture when God ever brought destruction upon a society except when they had given themselves over to an obsession with security and prosperity. God is saying, “Here is the rule, proven by history, concerning all of God’s destructive actions.  It happens in times when men are given over to the pursuit of prosperity and safety while turning away from the Lord.” 

 Politicians recently announced that they plan to introduce a bill in Congress to establish a Department of Peace and Safety.

  We are to beware of any talk of peace and prosperity when a fearful storm is coming into view.  It is then —- when peace and prosperity become the main pursuit, even as watchmen thunder and everyone knows only a miracle can save humankind — that we can expect sudden destruction.

  Our Lord Jesus drew an analogy between of Noah and Lot and the day of His own coming.  He said that in both instances people are eating, drinking, marrying, buying and selling. In other words, everyday activities go on as always, with involvement in things that are not inherently wicked.

  Yet, in Noah’s and Lot’s generations, the pursuit of these things obsessed an entire society. Everyday activities became the main focus, powerful diversions that held people in such a grip the warnings of the Holy Spirit were drowned out.

  According to our Savior, the same thing will happen in the last hour, just before sudden destruction.  The whole world will be given over to seeking security and prosperity, a preoccupation that will grip many even in the church. People’s entire focus will be on the things of the world, and they will forsake their steadfastness in faith.

  We’re already seeing many in the grip of such a mentality. Multitudes are convinced prosperity is the only way they can have peace.  And so people are in a mad race for prosperity, with speculators crushed by debt, others madly accumulating wealth, and riches being made on the backs of the poor. Beloved, that is precisely when sudden destruction comes.

  When that moment of sudden judgment

arrives, in what condition will the Lord

find His church?

  When our Creator and Redeemer returns, will He find His church in the grip of false prophets who preach a false peace, success, riches, and good times?  The prophet Jeremiah describes such a time in Israel’s history: “From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.  They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:13-14).

  Prosperity is not inherently evil.  Scripture makes it clear that God loves to bless His children. He gives us all things to enjoy. There is nothing evil about acquiring a lovely house, a nice car, good clothes, or eating in nice restaurants. We are encouraged to provide for our families, including building houses, buying, selling, sowing and reaping.

  It is when these things begin to consume us — taking up out time, our thoughts, our energies and activities, to neglect of seeking God — that our hearts begin to harden.  You see, when being comfortable is not enough — when buying, selling, and making money preoccupy our mind and soul — lukewarmness sets in.  And those who have given themselves over to seeking security and prosperity end up despising God’s warnings:

  When Noah prophesied that a great destruction was coming, he was mocked by his generation.  God writes, “According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see. and ears that they should not hear; unto this day” (Romans 11:8).

  Why do so many once-zealous Christians now turn away from godly reproof?  Why is there such judicial blindness?  And why does the self-centered, money-focused, wealth gospel entrap so many churches and believers?

   In recent weeks, one of the prosperity movement’s most famous preachers said of God’s Holy Word, “The Bible is simply a roadway to wealth.”  Another has promised, “Come to my church, and you’ll be assured of becoming wealthy.”

  When the Pharisees asked our blessed Savior to give them a sign, he responded, “O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but you can not discern the signs of the times?  A wicked and adulterous  generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matthew 16:3-4), In Luke’s gospel Jesus added this word: “For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation” (Luke 11:30).

  Christ Jesus — His cross, His resurrection, His shed blood — is the only sign that’s needed.  He is our full satisfaction.

  The day of destruction is going to come suddenly.  In just one hour, all material things of this world will lose their value, becoming absolutely worthless.  We’re going to be left with nothing but Christ — yet we need nothing more.  He is the living Word we need.

 The Bible is the door to the revelation of Christ, who is our peace and our safety.  He is our riches, our wealth, our gold. William Tyndale knew this, and he printed the first Bible. To do so, Tyndale lived in abject poverty, exile, bitter absence of friends, hunger, and thirst, cold, horrible sufferings . . . and he died as a martyr.

  His eyes were on Jesus, the author  and finisher of our faith.

Printed with permission of Today, The Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136 the name of the original article in the December 2024 issue of Today’s Front Page was “Are times of “Peace and Safety” coming?” www.JohnBarela.com

  Continue reading “Are times of “Peace and Safety” coming?” →

Is God Summoning Russia and Iran to their 2,500-Year Appointment?

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Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

April 2024

Is God Summoning Russia and Iran to their 

2,500-Year Appointment?

The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel wrote 2,500 years ago that in 

the ‘last days’ of history, Russia and Iran would form a military 

alliance to attack Israel from the north.

1.) B) David Jeremiah Blog -- Russia's Role in End-Times Prophecy -- Russian Soldiers Marching

 Bible scholars refer to this eschatological conflict described in Ezekiel 38.  Some Bible teachers were certain that the former Soviet Union would play a major role in last-day events.  Identifying the communist behemoth with the Old Testament powers of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39), they believed that it was going to attack Israel.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, that identification quietly fell away… until now.

2.) B) Breaking Defense --Russians Fire S-300 at Israeli jets for the first time 

 In the past week, Russia has attacked Israel for the first time shooting missiles at Israeli drones and missiles and sending Russian jets to destroy some of the incoming Israeli missiles, but not engaging the Israeli jets.  Russia even brought some of the latest fighter jets that are capable of interacting with Israeli F-35 jets.

3.) B) YouTube -- War with Russia is Inevitable -- The Bible Says So -- Reading Ezekiel 38 verses 1-16

 This will surely precipitate the Biblical scenario given to us by God in Ezekiel 38.  God wants us to share two important things with those we can reach. 

4.) A.) Knowing Jesus -- What Does Ezekiel 38 verse 16 Mean

 1.) Ezekiel 38:16, “And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O God, before their eyes.”

5.) C) Dwelling in the Word -- Ezekiel 38 verse 23 with background of Mountains and a Winding River

 2.) Ezekiel 38:23, “Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.“

 God wants His servants to share this with those around us “that the heathen may know me” and to bring this to pass, “I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”

6.) A) The Archaeologist -- Origin of 'Kievan Rus, the Big

 Ezekiel 30:1-23, “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.” [The words “chief prince is Rus, the ancient name for Russia.  When I was in Russia, most of the Russian people knew exactly that this referred to modern-day Russia.  It was founded by Kievan Rus, a Viking King. (862-1242)  He established a medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine and part of Russia (the latter name for the Rus, a Scandinavian people).  The name Kievan Rus is a modern-day (19th century) designation but has the same meaning as ‘Land of the Rus,’

7.) D) Quora -- Kievan Rus -- Where Russia was born -- Was Ukraine a country before the Soviet Union

 Kievan Rus, established the first eastern Slavic state, which is still called Kiev (the capital of Ukraine).  The capital city of Ukraine is still called Kiev (Kyiv) today.  It was founded by the Viking Oleg, ruler of Novgorod (one of the former capitals of Russia) from c. 879, who seized Smolensk and Kiev (882), which the capital of Kievan Rus.  Extending his rule, Oleg united local Slavic and Finnish tribes, defeated the Khazars, and, in 911, arranged trade agreements with Constantinople.  Kievan Rus peaked in the 10th and 11th centuries under Vladimir I and Yaroslav, becoming Eastern Europe’s chief political and cultural center.  At Yaroslav’s death in 1054, his sons divided the empire into warring factions.  The 13th-century Mongol conquest decisively ended its power. 

8.) A) YouTube -- Russia in The Last Days -- Ezekiel 38 - 39

 Ezekiel 38:4 “And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.”  Russia does not really want this war, but God Himself will put hooks into their jaws and bring them forth to fulfill God’s prophetic Word.

9.) I) Atlantic Council -- Russia is forming an alliance of pariah states in the Middle East

 Other nations will join Russia in this war

against modern-day Israel

Ezekiel 38:5 “Persia [modern day Iran], Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shields and helmet. …the house of Togarmah of the north quarters [which refers to Turkey] and all his bands: and many people with thee.” 

 Many others will join them.

Mid.ru -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's meeting with a group of foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with foreign ministers from members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Moscow, Russia on November 21, 2023 (Reuters).  Also, on February 26, 2024, Russia invited Hamas and all other Palestinian factions to Moscow, Palestinian Authority to develop a larger strategy.

11.) E) LinkedIn -- The Middle East at War -- Prophecy -- Attackers Riding Horses to Battle

11.) C) Robert Clifton Robinson -- Ezekiel 38 -- 39 Timeline For The Last Days -- Everything is Centered on Israel Map

 When will this prophecy be fulfilled?

Ezekiel 38:8, “After many days you [Russia] shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.”  The term “latter years” always refers to the time when Israel has returned to the land promised to them by God.  This occurred after being in exile for more than 2,000 years, returned from more than 104 countries in the world, and speaking more than 70 different languages.

 The Next Domino to fall soon after this initial interaction between Russia and Israel is provided to us in the next verse: 

 Ezekiel 38:9, “You shall ascend and come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all thy bands, and many people with thee.”  The term “You shall be like a cloud to cover the land,” refers to what paratroopers would look like.

12.) B) SlideShare -- When & Where Will This War Take Place -- Ezekiel 38 verses 8 and 16 12.) C) SlideShare -- Sign in Heaven -- The Coming War 12.) D) SlideShare -- What is the bait's and why of the Ezekiel Chapter 38 War 

What are the leaders of this invasion group thinking?

 God tell us in Ezekiel 38:10, “Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and you shall think an evil thought.”  They are coming to seemingly take a treasure:

13.) B) The Times of Israel -- Giant Gas Field Eyes Foreign Waters  13.) C) Fox News -- Oil reserves discovered in Israel

 Ezekiel 38:12 “To take a spoil, and to take a prey…”  Israel has discovered many oil and gas wells in the Mediterranean Sea and around the Golan Heights.  The mineral wealth of the Dead Sea has been estimated to be worth more than 4 times the wealth of the world.

 Ezekiel 38:13 “… some shall say unto you, Are you come to take a spoil?  Have you gathered your company to take prey?  to carry away silver and god, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” 

14.) I) SlidePlayer --Ezekiel 39 verse 7 -- So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people, Israel

 This is what God wants us to do with this information — inform our friends and relatives what is about to come to pass — so that THEY MAY KNOW HIM.

Irp.cdn.website.com -- Ezekiel 39 verse 6 -- An unnamed nation will experience the judgment of God at the same time Russia is destroyed

 Ezekiel 38:16 “And you [Russia, Iran, and others] shall come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”  God wants the entire world to know!!!  How is God going to react to this invasion against Israel?  He tells us… 

16.) E) LinkedIn -- The Battle of Gog -- Magog (Ezekiel 38) -- Burial Place for Gog's Armies  16.) A) SlidePlayer -- God also pummels the Armies from above with torrents of rain, hail and sulfur falling from the sky

 Ezekiel 38:18, “And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.  For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.  And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.”

17.) I) Adam Maarschalk -- Why I Abandoned Replacement Theology -- Genesis 12 verse 3 -- I will Bless those who Bless you & 17.) K) Lambert Dolphins Place -- The Full Promised Land of Israel -- World War Three

  Here is what God wants us to do with this information — SHARE IT — SHARE IT!

 Ezekiel 38:23, “Thus will magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

17.) F) Logos Bible Software -- Jesus Wins -- The Good News of the End Times  14.) W.) Pastor Rick's Daily Hope -- Jeremiah 29 verse 11 (NCV) I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope

 Even so, come Lord, Jesus!

Printed with permission of Today, The Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136. the name of the original article in the April 2024 issue of Today’s Front Page was “Is God Summoning Russia and Iran to their 2,500-Year Appointment?” www.JohnBarela.com