Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been around since rudimentary computers were invented during World War II to help break secret military codes. The cyber revolution has led to smartphones being thousands of times more powerful than the computers used to put a man on the moon, and AI continues to significantly advance.

AI generated image

In 1969, the IBM 360 computers used by NASA could hold approximately six megabytes of information. Today’s average smartphones have at least 16 gigabytes, or more than 2,500 times more storage than those NASA IBM computers. A decade ago the Economist magazine noted, “The McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank, says AI is contributing to a transformation of society ‘happening ten times faster and 300 times the scale, or roughly 1,000 times the impact’ of the Industrial Revolution” (June 25, 2016, p. 3 of Special Report Section). Computers can now not only perform analysis faster than ever on data sets of unprecedented size, but they can weigh the value of the data and “learn” as they accumulate more successful results, simulating how neural pathways are strengthened in the brain during learning.

In 2014, tech billionaire Elon Musk, founder of the Tesla electric cars and of SpaceX, warned the rise of artificial intelligence was “potentially more dangerous than nukes [nuclear weapons]” (p. 13). He later added: ”Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.” (quoted by Matt McFarland, “Elon Musk: ‘With Artificial Intelligence We Are Summoning the Demon,’” The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2014). Stephen Hawking, the famous astrophysicist, also expressed his concern, stating, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race” (Rory Cellan-Jones, “Stephen Hawking Warns Artificial Intelligence Could End Mankind,” BBC News, Dec. 2, 2014).

We can interface on the computer with AI virtual assistants such as IBM’s Watson, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google now, but there are serious privacy issues with the amount of information about people these services are collecting. There is also a growing trend to replace human soldiers with robotic forces in the military. Modern conflicts are increasingly like laboratories for refining and demonstrating future military technology.

The Ukraine war with Russia has allowed NATO countries to test their advanced weaponry in a real battle, increasing further knowledge. Forbes.com, in an article on April 22, 2025, titled, “How Ukraine Is Replacing Human Soldiers with A Robot Army,” reported, “Ukraine has scaled up drone production at pace, going from a few thousand in 2022 to 200,000 in 2024 to 2 million last year". James Barrat, an expert in the AI field, notes: “Fifty-six countries have or are developing battlefield robots. The race is on to make them autonomous and intelligent…” (Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, 2016, p. 21). Revelation 9 describes the angel blowing the 5th trumpet, and what are called “locusts” ascending from the great abyss. Verses 7-12 seems to describe some kind of flying drone or craft.

Clearly, there is a worldwide race among top technological nations to build this first cyber Tower of Babel, unleashing a danger it probably could not control. God’s timely intervention put a temporary stop to the advancing technology that threatened mankind's welfare when ancient humanity united with the goal of developing more knowledge and technology: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). God’s response was: “...now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:6-7).

Revelation 13:16-17 describes a future time of totalitarian state control, in a modern Babylon, regarding who is able to conduct commerce, which would seem to require significant monitoring of every person, but just as with the ancient Tower of Babel, God said He would intervene in the end time and not allow the human race to eventually extinguish itself. As Christ promised, “Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive]; but for the elect’s sake [that is, the sake of His followers] those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

As Jesus Christ reminded us to pray daily: “Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, Contemporary English Version). This will be the ultimate solution to man’s dangerous delving into AI and other technological pursuits that can end in catastrophe.

• Source:

  Beyond Today magazine (May-Jun, 2017),

• https://www.ucg.org/learn/beyond-today-magazine/beyond-today-magazine-may-june-2017/artificial-intelligence-coming-threat

 

Not Only a Matter of Diet

Aug 20, 2013

United Church of God

 2 minutes read time

From cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, nowhere in the Bible do we find an example of a servant of God or follower of Jesus Christ eating the flesh of an unclean animal.

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If at any time the distinctions between clean and unclean meats had ceased to exist, shouldn’t that have been made clear in the Bible through the example of God’s servants?

On the contrary, well into the time of the early Church we find Christ’s followers scrupulously avoiding eating animal flesh that God had revealed as being unclean (Acts 10:14; 11:8). Prophecies of the time of the end make the same distinctions (Revelation 18:2; Isaiah 66:15-17).

But there’s more to the matter than diet. A thorough study of the Bible helps us understand other dimensions to the significance of the distinctions between clean and unclean meats.

God’s Word describes the flesh of unclean animals as an “abomination” (Leviticus 11:10-13, 20, 23, 41-42) and “detestable” (Deuteronomy 14:3)—and in that light we are warned against consuming such meat (Leviticus 11:43). Strong language, but the lesson is that we need to accept all aspects of the Bible, including the basic food laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

In instituting the sacrificial system for ancient Israel, God commanded many specific sacrifices involving animals. Nowhere, however, does He command or allow the sacrifice of an unclean animal, nor is there a record of any of God’s servants ever sacrificing such an animal to Him.

Such a sacrifice would have joined the holy with that which God had designated unclean and defiled. It would have been simply unthinkable to a true servant of God because it would have been an affront to the Creator Himself.

Previous in this series

[Infographic]: A Biblical Guide to Clean Vs. Unclean Meats

 

Feast of Pentecost (Sunday, May 24, 2026)

Jesus Christ chose the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew) or Pentecost as the day on which God first granted His Spirit to the New Testament Church. Also, according to a respected Jewish tradition, God gave the ten commandments from Mount Sinai on the Day of Pentecost and covenanted with ancient Israel they would be His holy people.

It was on Pentecost that God first made His Spirit available to all who would repent. (Pexels)

The annual Holy Day of Pentecost is the anniversary of the beginning of Christianity under the New Covenant. It was on Pentecost that God first made His Spirit available to all who would repent—thus beginning the Church, which He commissioned Christ to build.

After Christ was resurrected He told His disciples “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In other words Christ gave the disciples and the members of the Church down through the ages the job of preaching the Gospel message to the world. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)

Before Jesus was crucified He promised His disciples He and the Father would come and dwell in them (John 14:17, 20, 23). That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. Acts chapter 2 describes this magnificent event. "Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [languages], as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4).

The speaking in various languages occurred as a crowd of people from many nations gathered in Jerusalem, with each visitor hearing the speech of the disciples in his own native tongue (Acts 2:6-11), demonstrating the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter explained this was a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28), telling his listeners how they could also receive this Spirit: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:38-39).

God used these miracles and Peter's preaching to add 3,000 people to His Church in one day. These converts were all baptized and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:40-41). From this pivotal point, God's Spirit has been available to all who truly repent and are properly baptized.

The Holy Day of Pentecost annually celebrates God’s gift of His Spirit which began the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27 and will be completely realised at Christ’s return. Our responsibility is to grow in grace and knowledge, aware that we are part of the spiritual temple God is building, as the annual Holy Day of Pentecost commemorates: “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

• Source:

  Bible Study Course - Lesson 12

• https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-study-course/bible-study-course-lesson-12/pentecost