Countdown 2 Eternity

Announcer: Welcome once again to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes, a weekly radio ministry from Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. Together, Tom and James examine current events and connect what's going on in our world to Bible prophecy. Let's lean in and listen.

James Kaddis: Well, hello my dear brothers and sisters! I want to welcome you to another episode of Countdown to Eternity. I'm going to tell you this right now: this one's going to be a doozy. Isn't that right?

Guest (Male): Yes, it is. Yes, it is. James, can we talk about the Pope today?

James Kaddis: That's why I said this was going to be a doozy, bro.

Guest (Male): Speaking of the Pope, you have Patrick O'Brien on. That's so cool.

James Kaddis: Pat's a great guy. He's a good friend of mine. Me and Pat have done a bunch of shows together. He's good people. He's got a big heart for the Lord, and I really love him. I think he's a wonderful man.

Guest (Male): He's fantastic. That's so cool. I didn't even know you knew him until I saw your program. Okay, you ready? Let's start with the Pope, and then who knows where we'll go from here.

Last week, we talked a little bit about Peter Thiel and stuff. Check this out. He warns about the Pope. He calls the Pope a "useful idiot" for China on AI. He said the Pope recently issued this AI encyclical, or he would characterize it as an anti-AI encyclical. Again, this was maybe too harsh, but the rhetorical point he has on it is that the Communist Party of China is not going to listen to the Pope.

There's a chance people in the US will. In effect, the Pope's encyclical was working for the Chinese Communist Party. He's not saying he's an agent for the CCP, but he's acting like one. So, basically, what I gather is this is interesting because last week we were looking at Peter Thiel warning about AI and a one-world government.

He also says we have to push forward with AI because China's going to, and then we're all going to be in trouble. So, he is saying the Pope, by trying to shut down the West from advancing AI, puts the West in a very precarious position. It's very fascinating. By the way, everyone, there's more to say about the Pope. We have a lot here, not just this, but I find this part interesting.

James Kaddis: It is so remarkable because there's been a lot of discussion about who the false prophet is going to be. I'm not here to tell you that the false prophet's going to be the Pope, but every Pope that we've been talking about over the last several years seems like they are trying hard for the position.

It just looks like it. I'm looking at the quote that Peter Thiel gave, and I'm not so sure I disagree. This is his exact quote: "I'm not saying he was an agent of the Communist, but he was at least acting as a useful idiot for the CCP." By the way, I don't know that I look at that in its context and think he's completely wrong.

The Pope is pushing for international regulation of AI. He's been doing that for a long time. The Vatican put out their AI Bible, if you remember that whole thing.

Guest (Male): Let me throw this out there. If we think back to last week, Peter Thiel is warning that the solution they're going to come up with is basically a one-world government. Ultimately, as you look at what the Pope is saying, the only way you're going to regulate this is, as the Pope says, it has to be regulated.

Guess what we're looking at? We are looking at a one-world government. I know we don't want to rehash that whole subject again, but this is the direction it's going. Let me throw this out there: do you think it is a viable statement then that if the West slows down and regulates its AI development, China will not? China's going to go forward with everything they've got.

James Kaddis: Listen, if we have any president that even comes close to the President of the United States, he'll never let that happen. The reason why is that specific reason: it's China.

Guest (Male): It is. All right, so we're coming up on midterms. We could see a lot of things change. We start looking at AI and what Peter Thiel says. I personally am not a tech genius, but I agree with you on this. I look at it and go, there's a huge problem, but the solution is also a problem. We're in this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

James Kaddis: It is a complete "damned if you do and damned if you don't" situation in many ways. It's like checkmate has been done on humanity. But, praise God, Jesus is coming again. That's the ultimate checkmate. The devil's going to think he's got us, but Jesus is coming again. We've got to keep that in mind.

Until Jesus comes back, friends, you've got to look at this and go, how do you work through this? There is an issue that I constantly try to remind people of, and that is the fact that AI has no real sentient mechanism tied to it. It's not aware of its own existence, although it emulates the idea that it is. It isn't. It doesn't have a living soul breathed into it by God Almighty.

The issue that we're having right now in the world has nothing to do with the technology itself. It has everything to do with the very abrupt abdication of what the human being is supposed to hold sacred to something like that. In other words, we're living in a world today where nobody seems to want to put in the difficult work of being able to understand the matters before them.

They have handed it to the mechanism of AI. They feel completely lost if they don't have a phone to look at or a screen to look at to do the thinking for them. Their very soul is being completely blocked from any real or meaningful interaction. I would argue that you could take any argument that's being made about AI right now.

For example, this is the big one that everybody's talking about: so many people are going to lose their jobs to AI. Actually, people are going to lose their jobs to other people who know how to successfully harness AI. Don't get me wrong, there are some AI tools that are being deployed right now that are making certain functions obsolete.

The reality of it is, if let's just say you're an accountant, and your function is being replaced by something that AI is doing right now, you win as an accountant if you learn how to leverage AI in order to accomplish at a deeper level and more extraordinary level what you do as an accountant.

The problem is mankind is not willing to elevate itself to work harder to build what's necessary in order to develop the mastery that's needed in order to understand it. That is exactly what goes into the environment that we're seeing in the end times. If you just simply look at the description that's given to us in a passage as elementary as Second Timothy, chapter three, it makes it very clear.

It says in the last days, perilous times will come. But look at what it says. This is super important. "For men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." These are all normal human characteristics as a result of the fall of mankind. But then look at what it goes on to say.

"Without natural affection." That isn't just mitigated to homosexuality. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." But hear this. This is it. This is heavy. Look at this line.

"Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." In other words, the mitigation of their own neurological function is being given to AI. No one is thinking. No one is doing what God naturally designed them to do. I would argue that if you continue to live your life to the fullest that God has designed for you to live, if your brain exercises within the context of that which is correct, according to that which is beautiful, understand the idea.

The idea is you have something that AI will never have. That's why within the context of the end times when the Apostle Paul talks about this in Second Timothy, he says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

The idea here is if I'm utilizing the raw, hard, cold, mechanical function of AI, my very soul, which is being developed by that which God inspired, is the one that controls it. That which becomes aware of self and sentient, and that which becomes the one who is the image-bearer of God, the one who has an epistemology, the one who bears an understanding of thought process, the context of how AI is looked at in that situation now completely changes.

That's the problem. The problem of what we read about in Revelation 13 will have nothing to do with technology taking over at a level that humans will never be able to function. I've heard Bible prophecy guys say this. They look at what happens in technology and they say, "Well, Jesus has to come back on September 23rd or any other day because we are not going to be able to keep up with the technology we're creating."

Actually, that's not true. I'm going to modify that statement. That statement should be worded: "Human beings will, because their love has waxed cold, because they're in a state of ever-learning but never growing, never coming to the knowledge of the truth, they will abdicate their responsibility to these technological tools which will never be able to accomplish for them what's necessary."

That's what's going on. That's why I don't look at somebody who says, "I use AI," and say, "You're a bad person." I would say, "No, you're probably living life to the fullest as God intended for you to use." I'm going to use it strategically, understanding that God controls me, not AI. The Spirit of God fills me, not some artificial intelligence. I'm going to use my real intelligence, not artificial intelligence, to be able to determine how that will serve me. That's not my master. That's my slave. It's that simple.

Guest (Male): Amen. Let's walk through this a little bit further because if we go back to when the internet first came around, people said it was evil and all these sorts of things. Now what's happened with AI is everything's on steroids. There's no doubt about it. But this was the warning: it's a tool that you can use for good.

By the way, everybody, it's in everything. You might not even think you've ever dealt with AI, but much of what you're doing during the day, you're partnering with AI in one way or another.

James Kaddis: If you drive a 1950 car that has no electronics in it, you use AI every day when you drive. The light systems that tell you to stop and go, the road systems—everything is AI.

Guest (Male): It's just becoming much more advanced all the time. Now, with it, here's where the tricky part gets, and this is why the deception is going to increase. Jesus said, "Be careful that no one deceives you." Also, if possible, even the elect would be deceived because the deception's going to get greater and greater. It mimics God. It will get to the point of being able to mimic God.

If we go back to the Garden of Eden, we can see how it works on the human mind. In the book of Genesis, the serpent comes to Eve and engages her in a conversation. He says, "Oh Eve, did God really say that? He knows when you eat the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, you won't surely die, but you'll be like God, you'll know good from evil."

He engaged her mind in a conversation, and she enjoyed the conversation. What's happening with AI is it affirmed people. If you take people who are in a bad relationship—you got married to some guy who's a jerk—and all of a sudden you go online and there's this AI bot, and you ask it a question, and you ask it for marriage help, it's going to start to affirm you.

It's going to start to tell you how wonderful you are. One conversation can get a vulnerable person into a place of being hooked. It's already being shown case after case happening all across the Western world where in some countries, they're already putting restrictions on AI use for any kind of relationship.

People are engaging in relationships. Men are engaging in relationships with AI because it says things that he wants to hear from his wife. Women are especially susceptible to it. I would say the most vulnerable group out of everyone to this right now is younger people, adolescents, people who are going through puberty.

Virtually almost every kid when you're in high school and junior high, you think you're weird, you stand out, it's hard to make friends, nobody really likes you. You go down this path. You're isolated, which has happened over the last six years. Especially younger people became isolated. You're told you can't go to school, you've got to stay six feet apart.

This isolation was all part of this process. It was spiritual, although people were bringing in these rules and regulations. You isolate someone who already feels like nobody really likes me, and then the AI affirms you, how wonderful you are. So, what do you have? You no longer have natural affection because you're given over to this machine that will lead you.

James, I think it's worse than any drug that has been launched on humanity because it's something that you can't unfeel or unsee once it goes into your mind, especially a person that's vulnerable. They're going to start—they'll go back to it the next day. "I feel really good when I have this conversation with my chatbot," whatever it is. And it will tell you these things. You're drawn into it. You can no longer have a normal relationship with human beings. That's where this is going, and we've already reached that place.

James Kaddis: I agree a thousand percent. By the way, did I just tell you this? I got a nasty text from somebody that told me that when I say I agree with you a thousand percent, it's just absolutely ridiculous. Can I just double down on something like that? I think there's a certain irony in attempting to sound intellectually superior while actually failing to recognize what might be one of the most elementary forms of rhetorical emphasis.

"I agree a thousand percent" is obviously hyperbole. Treating it as anything else says considerably more about the critic than it will ever say about me. I just had to say that. I mean, literally missing the rhetorical device while congratulating yourself for correcting it isn't sophistication, it's embarrassment that's actually dressed up as intellect.

Okay, I'm done. I'm sorry. I'm going to get myself in trouble by saying that, but give me a break. And by the way, I do agree with you a thousand percent. I agree with you, for the sake of the person who wrote that, I agree with you a million percent, brother.

Guest (Male): That's really high. Getting back to this, this is where we're at with this AI. It's so much more dangerous than anything that we have faced before. It's only going to get better and better. We have the AI videos that are fake, and they're looking more real. You go back six months ago, you could pick out things. It's getting harder and harder to tell what's fake and what's real.

That's a problem. But then you throw in the feeling and the emotional and getting into your head the same way the serpent did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan knows how vulnerable people are when they're isolated, when they're alone, when they're questioning, when they're wondering. He comes along and says, "Oh, you are so beautiful. You are doing all of the right things."

James Kaddis: I would argue that what you said, there's a very critical part in this that I think is on the target in a big way. Think about this for a second. You talked about how dangerous it is. What perhaps is the most significant part of all of this is that AI in and of itself has not become as dangerous as everybody says.

What's become dangerous is the capitulation of humanity to the leading and inspiration of AI. That's off the charts. Jesus says in the Olivet Discourse that lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold. This is the natural progression as we are witnessing right now: this "without natural affection," "unloving," "the love of many growing cold."

This whole normalcy—we need human beings. God created us that way. That part's removed, and you have something that mimics the best human being. Boy, what a world this is that's set up for the false Messiah, too.

That's where it becomes huge. That's where even the statement about the Pope becoming a useful idiot is important. Think about it like this: the danger is not simply what AI can do; it's what humanity is increasingly willing to surrender to it. I think that's the bigger issue. Let's examine—