The Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 is the key passage for understanding the end times. Jesus' words in this passage outline events leading up to his return to the earth and to the end of the age. One of the key elements of this Olivet Discourse is the prediction of false messiahs, false prophets who will appear before the end of the age. Jesus warns his disciples to be on their guard against such imposters who deceive many people and they'll come just before his return. Another important aspect of the Olivet Discourse is Jesus's description of events that will take place just before his return. He mentions wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, widespread persecution of believers. And these events are seen as birth pains. that will increase in frequency and intensity until the end of the age. And these events will lead to eventually the great tribulation, seven-year period of intense suffering and judgment, and will culminate in Jesus's return to earth. And Jesus also emphasized the importance of being prepared for his return. He tells his disciples to stay awake and be ready and watching, because he will return in an uninspected hour. Jesus' return will be sudden, and believers must be ready at all times. The Olivet Discourse also mentions the gathering of the elect from the four corners of the earth, and this event is seen by some as the rapture of the church. It's rich, the Olivet Discourse is rich and complex. It's a passage that gives insight to the end times, and by studying Jesus's words, we can gain a deeper understanding of events that will take place before his return, and be better prepared for the end of the age. Now stop right there. Anybody notice anything different about what I just did? Well, some of you might say, well, that's a little weird, because you don't normally read that much. I don't know if you know that, but I usually don't read. I've got a few words on my notes that kind of like reminder words of dates and stuff, but I don't usually read, but I thought it'd be fun because everything that I just said was not my words at all. I didn't come up with that. It didn't come from my brain. It came from chat GPT. I'm not kidding. I just, here's the question I asked ChatGPT. Now this is, if you were here last month, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'll tell you more about that in a second. But ChatGTP is AI, artificial intelligence. And it's, in the last two months, it's kind of gone nuts, if you haven't noticed. But I just went into ChatGPT and asked, I said, write an essay on the Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 from a pre-tribulational point of view. And I just read to you the introduction that chat GPT in 10 seconds. Now you have to understand chat GPT isn't going like out on Google and searching for something someone else said. That's not what artificial intelligence is. Artificial intelligence creates something from nothing. So I could have turned this in as a term paper and nobody could Google it and find those words because it was created for me in that 10 second period, which is a little shocking. Cause you know, pre-tribulational Matthew 24, Olivet Discourse, that's not just an everyday. In fact, Google doesn't even do that good of a job. If you ask Google the same question, it'll give you a list of people, but some will be, you know, not pre-tribulational, but post or on millennial or, you know, preterite. Like Google's pretty confused. It Googles things up, if you know what I mean. But Chad GPT actually put it pretty much the way I would have said it for the most part, like, which is kind of shocking. And it tells us what's gonna happen in the future. It's kind of amazing. In fact, we'll get into this a little later. I'll talk more about GPT a little later in tonight. But will sermons be written by pastors? You better believe it. I bet it's already happening. Because I know some pastors that go on and find sermons online and just pretty much. cut and paste and copy other people's sermons. And that's really kind of a goofy thing. That doesn't really leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit. I think chat GPT is only gonna remove the Holy Spirit that much more, and maybe a whole nother spirit's gonna be on those sermons, to be frank. But what I wanna do is take a look at Matthew 24, and I'll show you later on where chat GPT might come into the conversation more. What I wanna do is look again with you at Matthew 24. As I said, it's where we are in our verse-by-verse Bible study here at church. So if you're just joining us here at this Prophecy Update, that's kinda like we're building on the last Sunday and Wednesday night teaching that we've started in Matthew 24. But one of the things I went over on Wednesday night is I showed the folks what Jesus says. Here are the things that you look for and things to be sort of finger on the pulse. If you wanna know what the last days, the end times look like, Jesus makes a list here. And we sort of went over the list, but I mentioned on Wednesday night, I'm not gonna go over the things we're watching in relation to the list. We just went over the list. But I kind of like that because that's sort of what Prophecy Update is all about. It's us on a Friday, first Friday of each month saying, what's going on in the world that sort of relates to what the Bible says will be seen in the last days? That's kind of what we do on these Prophecy Updates. And of course, the Olivet Discourse is a huge one. We could talk about so many passages. We could talk about things we're seeing from Ezekiel 38 that are stacking up puzzle pieces. We could talk about the nations and their posture toward Israel. Israel itself is a major theme in Bible prophecy. That's why almost every prophecy update we look at and talk about Israel, because Israel really is the epicenter of all things Bible prophecy, and Jerusalem specifically, and even more zero to end, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in Israel. Anybody who studies Bible prophecy really need to be watching what's going on in Jerusalem because that's a huge part of it. So it's kind of fun just to look and see what's going on in the world as it relates to what the Bible says will be marking the last days. But Jesus really gives us a lot here. Paul talks about some with Timothy. and to the church at Thessalonica, Paul talks about the last days. And so there's all kinds of passages of scriptures we can dive in on Prophecy Updates to talk about. But since we're here, let's take a look at it again. If you would just look with me, Matthew chapter three, 24 verse three is where we're gonna be here. Matthew 24 verse three. It says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then, shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. In verses three through 12, we see Jesus give sort of the introduction. And one of the things that we're talking about is on Wednesday nights and what have you, is who's Jesus talking to? And some could argue, and I wouldn't fight too hard on this one, that Jesus is talking specifically to the Jewish people. But one of the things that I see here, and I'll continue this as we get a little further in our Wednesday night through the Bible study, that I see Jesus talking to three different groups in Matthew 24. And it's very possible that Jesus is, I would say, talking more to the nations, not just the Jews, but all people. And the reason why is he talks about These are the beginnings of the sorrows, verse eight. All these are the beginning or the precursor to what? To sorrows. Does anybody remember what the Greek word for sorrows is in verse eight? Odin, which is? Birth pains, right, that's an important one, right? Jesus said, this is the beginning of birth pains, sorrows, odin. As a woman travails in child labor, and Paul the Apostle jumps on that same idiom of child labor, and we know, we talked about that, how it's talking about frequency and intensity, and as it gets more and more frequent, and more and more intense, all these things are the beginning of the sorrows that are coming. The sorrows that are coming, I believe here are talking about the tribulation period. And that's seven years where the wrath of God will be poured out upon a Christ-rejecting sinful world. The last three and a half years of that seven years is called the great tribulation. And Jesus is gonna talk further about that. But whether you believe it's the Jews only, you can make that argument, or if you believe it's all the nations. I believe it's all the nations, both contextually here, but as you read it, it's interesting. We're watching these things unfold really exactly the way Jesus said right here. These things are happening, and they are the beginning. And to me, that means that the rapture of the church could be soon and could be next. And somewhere in here, and I'm gonna say this kind of ambiguously, somewhere in here, the gear changes. And you can talk about possible gear change in verse eight, and then in verse nine, when it says, and then, so after what? After the beginning of sorrows, then, verse nine, they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, shall kill you, and shall be hated of all nations. This is persecution. But the question is, is it persecution of us? the Christian church in addition to the Jews, or is this just talking about the Jews? And I'm not gonna nail that one down exactingly, because I don't know for sure, and I'm just being honest. I have good friends that feel strongly one way or the other, and maybe you do too. But I'm gonna kind of reserve that to let the Lord show that a little further down the road. The reason I say that is, do you think before the rapture of the church, is it possible that we Christians face radical persecution? Well, I'd say it's actually possible and maybe even probable. And one of the things that the post-tribbers accuse us of, those that believe the rapture of the church is gonna happen after the tribulation period, they say, you guys are just trying to escape all these things. And I would say, yes, we are, exactly. And that's what Luke says, pray that you be counted worthy to escape all these things. So I would agree with that. But we're not just trying to escape it arrogantly like we don't deserve wrath or trouble. I mean, we all deserve death and hell, let's just be square about that. Praise the Lord for his grace. But is it required that we go through tribulation in the sense of persecution? No, it's not required, but it would be arrogant for you and I to say, we're not gonna go through any trouble, because what about the Christians that are being persecuted today? horribly around the world. We can't forget as we sit comfortably here at H.C. Creek talking about end times and future persecution, you gotta understand there are millions and millions of people getting persecuted as we speak. I'll talk more about that later if we have time. But so I want you to know, we don't believe as pre-Tribbers that somehow we're gonna get away from any troubles or trials. We could go through worst times in any time in history. But one thing you can be sure of is you're not gonna go through the tribulation if you're a Christian, and why? Because we're not appointed to the wrath of God, and the wrath is gonna be poured out during the tribulation, and we are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. That's what 1 Thessalonians chapter five makes that clear. So I disagree that we're gonna go through the wrath of God. I don't believe the wrath is gonna come down on us. That's gonna be different than simply persecution. It could be bad. So I don't wanna just be arrogantly saying, well, we're not gonna go through any trouble. We could, we really could go through a lot of trouble before the rapture of the church. Now, I go into that because this whole dissertation that we looked at here, Jesus lists a bunch of things. And so let's just break them down and talk about some of these events that could be the very things Jesus is talking about in our list here. And the first thing on the list is the rise of antichrists. And I say that not the rise of the antichrist, but the rise of antichrists. Remember, we talked about this last week, that John said in 1 John, there's gonna be many who come saying they are Christ, and there are many antichrists. that are coming. Now, we know that the Bible talks about one Antichrist. He's, you know, given a bunch of names in the Bible. We've done whole prophecy updates of talking about the Antichrist and what he's gonna do and his various names. There's like many, many names. Somebody's counted something like 35 names in the Bible that you can ascribe to Antichrist. He's called, you know, the beast, son of perdition. He's called the Assyrian. Interestingly enough, we can go on and on about the various names of this coming world leader, but we're not talking about him. But Jesus says this, when he says, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. So here in verses four and five, the idea is, you say, well, I don't see the word antichrist here, but what you have to understand, when John talks about that, One of the things you have to remember is the word antichrist doesn't just mean what we would say from elementary school, that means against Christ. It does mean that. But it means not only against, but it means in opposition to, and also in place of. That's an important thing. In fact, I'll show you once again, this is what we went over on Wednesday night. You know, the Greek word for Antichristos, or Greek word is Antichristos, the adversary of the Messiah. But one of the key things there is the opposing God part. So when the Bible talks about many antichrists will come, like John says in 1 John, there are those that are gonna come and try to be in place of, but also opposing God. And when you break down antichristos in the two base words, anti of course means against, opposite to, before, instead of, or in place of. That's kind of a key there, in place of, and then the Christos is the word, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. Peter said that. You remember when Jesus asked in Matthew 16, who do you say that I am? And he said, Peter said, you are the Christos, the son of the living God, the Messiah. So this is in place of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. Anything, anyone that says they're, you know, is opposing or in place of is antichrist. And that's why the apostle John says, there will be many who come who are in place of God. And this is where I think you and I should be watching. See, cause I used to read this and think that there would be some weirdo looking, trying to look like Jesus walking in Pioneer Square saying, I am Jesus the Christ. That does happen. in Portland particularly, I gotta say. There's a lot of those guys. But I don't know that that's exactly what is being prophesied here as much as people who are coming in trying to replace Jesus with something else, or to oppose what Jesus actually came and stood for. Any of that is actually that spirit of antichrist. And we've done whole studies on that, so I'm not gonna spend a ton of time talking about that. Now, who are these who are opposing God, and who would you put in that category? I think it's a much more broad category than perhaps what we actually originally think. You want to know who's kind of in place of Christ? Is the description there of Romans chapter 1, the rebellious stubborn, stiff-necked people that Paul refers to in Romans 1. It's one of the more brutal chapters, but I wanted you to see it with your own eyes, so I popped it up here, and I thought I'd bust out the ESV version, just so you can kind of hear it in readable English. I think it's profound, really. Paul warns in Romans 1, and we'll read verses 18 through 25. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Now pause just for a second. The wrath of God is gonna be revealed by the way, in the day of the Lord. If you follow the Bible narrative, the day of the Lord is when the wrath of God gets poured out. So even though some people don't ascribe Romans chapter one as a prophecy or a word of Bible prophecy, I kind of think it is. because we're talking about the wrath of God that's gonna be revealed. That's coming, and it's gonna come on these people, and then we read on. It says, verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. Now, pause just once again. We'll move into the next scripture in a second. But these people, the Lord says, everyone that's ever lived on this planet has no excuse. And if there's only one thing that gives you, nails you down, you may have nothing else to defend yourself. But if there's one thing you can't argue against is creation itself. That's what the Bible says. That everyone knows that God must exist just by looking at creation. That's what it's basically saying here. from even the invisible attributes of God, the things you can't see, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly, the Bible says clearly perceived. I believe when you look at the creation of the world, you're clearly seeing. God's power and might, and for a human being to say, well, that's not God, it just was a convenient set of circumstances and a big bang that happened to go from clashing of gases and from goo to you, and it just happened accidentally. For you to say that, you're actually lying against your own reason and logic. When you look at creation, that's what the Bible says, your argument is taken away, whether you like it or not, just by creation alone. So you are without excuse. If you're an evolutionist who's saying, well, God didn't do any of that, and the things that are, we can't see God, he's invisible, so we don't believe in him. It always amazes me that people, just because they can't see something, they don't believe in it. There's a lot of things. Do you believe in air? Well, I don't know, I can't see it. Yeah, but it's there and we all agree, right? Would you agree there's air in this room? You're like a lot of hot air here at A.C. Creek, but no. Yeah, you say, well, I see it in wind. No, that's wind, that's not air, that's wind. There's a difference. There's even air when you don't see wind, which is kind of an interesting thing. And people, they don't doubt that air exists. And there's a lot of things you can't see that we know actually do exist. But God is the biggest one of those. Well, this section goes on after verse 20, it goes into verse 21, as we keep reading here. For although they knew God, see God doesn't give them an out. We never knew you God. God says, yes you did. "'And you saw me in creation, "'and you saw me in the glory "'of all the things around you. "'You saw me and you knew me. "'For although they knew God, "'they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, "'but they became futile in their thinking, "'and their foolish hearts were darkened.'" This is where Romans one gets a little scary. Who darkened their futile hearts? I would say it's either A, the people we're talking about here, or B, God did it himself. Remember Pharaoh, nine times it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord. And then nine other times it says, and God hardened Pharaoh's heart. That's what Romans 1, remember Romans 1, I'm not gonna go as far into this, but later in the chapter he says, so God gave them over to their perverted lusts and reprobates minds and all that stuff. In this one it says, their hearts were darkened I think probably initially by their own foolish stubbornness, but then eventually the Lord says, yeah, I'm gonna just complete that darkness, that darkened heart when you rebel against me long enough. So what do they do? Their foolish hearts were darkened. Verse 22, claiming to be wise, they became fools. Boy, have we seen that today? The same people that go around acting very smart and academic and intellectual, they're the ones who are being described here. A lot of those in our academic societies, people that are all lofty in their thinking, but they've become so wise in their own eyes, but they come off really foolish. And it's painful to see what these people are saying today. Who would have thought? We'd see what we're seeing today in our world, you know, claiming that men can have babies and there's, you know, infinite number of genders and like, we're just claiming to know stuff, but we've just become total fools. The Bible predicts that this, verse 23, and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. This is where they're worshiping the creature over the creator. Are we worshiping animals and creeping things and what have you? Oh, that's very pagan, but that's very much happening today. And it goes on, verse 24, as we finish this up, therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. And later on, he's gonna talk about homosexuality here in the same chapter. That's how they dishonor their bodies among themselves. Verse 25, because here's the issue. because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. Wow, Paul hits hard on that passage, doesn't he? And so who are those that are antichrist? They're the ones who say, yeah, we see creation. Yeah, we see animals and the earth and the beauty of creation, but they're saying we reject that it comes from God. And so instead they replace God, exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creation, the creature, rather than the creator. That's exactly what's happening today. There's a major religion that you all know, and it's called climate change. It's an interesting thing. By the way, last month, I talked about this, and I shouldn't do this. I was being facetious when I talked. I said something about climate change last week, last month, and I was being facetious, really sarcastic, and I made some comment, and a bunch of people went online on our YouTube channel and started talking about, I didn't know Brett was into climate change and Earth and all this, and they're like, oh, I don't know, Paul. I guess he's still a brother in Christ, oh well. I was like, oh boy, oh my goodness. You know, but anyway, I don't generally read all those because it's just too painful. And there's a lot of them, who's got the time? But I did read that one and I was a little disappointed. No, if you happen to be watching out there from wherever you're moaning about my climate change, I do not believe, I always say I believe in climate change because the earth's gonna melt with the fervent heat, just like Peter says. And global warming is real, it's just gonna happen in a few seconds, not over millions of years. And so call me evil or whatever. It depends on who you are. It's one of those arguing points. But it is interesting because what I would say is climate change and what have you, global warming as they used to call it, which is hilarious. I can't believe people don't even talk about this. Why did you change from global warming? Because I remember back in the 70s when I was a kid, it was all about global cooling. They were so afraid. You guys remember that? Then it's global warming. And then they said, well, it's kind of going back and forth. You think? It's called Seasons. And as it turns out, there's cycles. And man, I mean, and I'm not just trying to insult people. I'm saying there's legitimate scientists that don't believe in man-made climate change. But they get silence, canceled. They're gonna lose their job and all that if they, it's really quite a sinister deal. Why? Because climate change is a massive religion today. And it's something that people, they get riled up. And so what have they done? They claim to be wise, but they become fools. And I'd say they've exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worship the creation rather than the creator. So when you hear them talk about this, that's why there's almost a religious piety and passion about it. No greater group that's talking about this religion, and boy, I'll tell you, let me show you how it's a religion. This was at the World Economic Forum. I told you last month, watch what happens at the WEF this month of January, and boy, it didn't disappoint. It was stupider than I thought it was gonna be. I'll show you a couple things. Number one, this is something, notice how religion, this almost comes off religious to me, check this out. Dear friends, scientifically, this is not a climate crisis. We are now facing something deeper. Mass extinction, air pollution, undermining ecosystem functions, really putting humanity's future at risk. This is a planetary crisis. This is a safety crisis, but above all, it is also a justice crisis. Many areas in the world are uninhabitable. This uninhabitable zone is increasing. If we continue with our greenhouse gas emissions, then by 2070, as many as 3 billion people will live in uninhabitable zones. Now, let's talk about that for a second. Remember what Al Gore said 20 years ago? He was wrong. So what do they do? They keep moving the dates. Now, what is it, 2070, she said? If you're AOC, we're about halfway through our 12 years to total destruction. Do you remember when AOC said that? If you remember that, we're all gonna die. But man, people say that we Bible prophecy guys are doom and gloom. Good night. These people are doom and gloom, and religiously so. And so they're moving dates, you know, now they're saying it's, you know, 2070, but uninhabitable. You know, they're saying the earth will be, and it's just really quite a doom and gloom situation. But if that's not bad enough, while they were meeting, there was 10 mountains around the world where a bunch of people came and were, they're angry because the World Economic Forum and the others groups and stuff are not doing enough. for climate change, which that's, so if these people are, there's another group that's mad at these two because they're not doing enough. And so how radical is that? Well, they climbed, this group here climbed what they believe to be Mount Sinai. I'm not sure that it is the Mount Sinai, but that's a whole another question. But let's show a little bit, they had a little worship ceremony up on there as they worship the earth and all this. And it's very ecumenical, by the way. All the religions kind of gathered here around the green commandments. And check out the reenactment. This is quite amazing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are here at Mount Sinai, a place of historic revelation, a holy spot to the three Abrahamic faiths. At the same time, the world's political and civil society leaders gather south of here at Sharm el-Sheikh for the UNFCCC COP 27. We're here to kick off a global spiritual call to action on climate justice, being held at 10 different mountaintops around the world, culminating in a first-of-its-kind ceremony of repentance for climate justice in London. later on today. We recognize that we stand today at a fateful juncture in human history. The world's scientists have presented overwhelming evidence for the reality of man-made climate change that will, if unchecked, kill tens of millions of people, eradicate thousands of species, and endanger the lives of all our children and grandchildren. These tablets are already a little bit broken. They were made by the strike for Friday's teenagers. He broke the Ten Commandments on his way up the mountain. Keep your promises, which are not being kept by the world leaders. The whole world needs to cut our emissions by half by 2030. And they're not yet. We take these Green Commandments, we look down to Sharm el-Sheikh, and we're not satisfied. I hope they cleaned that up. That's not good for the environment. Sorry. Well, and then they went back into the hallelujah chorus at the end there, but be that as it may, it's just getting weirder and weirder, and it's really a religion. I hope you understand that. I hope you're not duped. There's people that are even more moderate that are more dangerous than this. Most people, I think, look at this and go, yeah, that's a little weird. But I would challenge you to do some research, and you have to kind of dig a little deeper to find, because these guys have been canceled and stuff, but find some of the real scientists that are brilliant. There's Pulitzer, not Pulitzer, a Nobel Prize winning scientists that are saying, none of it's true. And then they sort of un-Nobel Peace Prize them, even though they invented amazing things and understand science. But it's all these goofy, you know, low-level, you know, meteorologists that just want to keep their job that are kind of still talking about climate. Like, it's really shocking when you do a deeper dive. But, you know, you have to be careful, because like all the other issues, the algorithms are trying to steer you away from actually getting to the root of what the issues really are. But it's religion. So what happens? Well, World Economic Forum, they're looking for, along with all these other groups, the answers. What are the answers to climate change? Well, and like the coronavirus, in any good crisis, You use that to get what you really want, even though they won't say what they're really going after, but they're going to use climate change to the nth degree to get whatever they really want. And by the way, World Economic Forum says they're all about the climate, but they're really all about globalism and obtaining power, and it's very clear. Like, you don't even have to look that hard to see it. One of the things that they're hoping they'll be able to use is everything from biochips and transhumanism and basically using technology to help us solve all the problems of the world, including climate change. And that's why you're going to hear them talk about all this stuff and the furthering of technology and what have you. One of the things, do you guys know what singularity is? That's something to kind of keep your eye on, that word singularity. It basically is, you know, looming, you know, and it's a slippery concept. but it describes the moment that AI, artificial intelligence, exceeds beyond human control and rapidly starts to transform society. And if you've watched or looked into the chat GPT thing I mentioned last month, it's already exponentially boomed in the past month. I want to show you a little bit of that. Some people are suggesting, and I wouldn't hold my breath, Popular Mechanics just a few days ago said, humanity may reach singularity within just seven years, trend shows. And the idea of singularity, some people are excited about it, other people are horrified about it. And it's something to kind of think about. Remember last time, I mentioned ChatGPT under the thing as the newest tech. It was shown in December, I think this third iteration of ChatGPT, and that's just one AI that's being bounced around right now, but it's one of the more popular ones. And I told you last month, you know, it's only a month old, and it's already taken off, and it's doing stuff that people are shocked. Well, that was a long, you know, seems like a billion years ago now. In the past month, do you remember last month I said, somebody's going to take advantage of this, and this technology is going to be like bigger than iPhones and maybe even bigger than the internet. And so what's happened since our last Prophecy Update? Microsoft, well, check this out, Forbes article, it's raining money for chat GPT company, OpenAI, as Microsoft officially throws down $10 billion investment. $10 billion just in the last month Microsoft is throwing out. Now, by the way, the inventors of chat GPT and all the other AI stuff that's going on, there's some really smart guys that know how to do all this stuff. Their argument is it's not going to take over the world because we're going to make an open source and everybody's going to contribute. And so it'll be a balanced, you know, sort of information that's out there. We'll have balanced And what's funny right now, I think it's funny that I can ask it to write a sermon for me about pre-tribulational Matthew 24 take on Jesus's words. And right now, because it's all open source and people are equally contributing, you can find it. If you also said, what's the climate change activists take on Matthew 24, you can look that up too. And it'll give the honest view of what a climate change religionists would believe about Jesus's words in Matthew 24. But it is fairly balanced, but as soon as Microsoft gets a hold of it, you understand it's no longer open source and it's no longer going to be one-sided. It's going to be all about who's in control and who's steering the ship and steering AI. But of all the people that want it, it's not just Microsoft. There's probably the group that is craving that kind of power the most is that group, World Economic Forum, which they met, of course, in, how do you say that, Davos? Davos, I always say it wrong, Davos. And so what was our friend, Klaus Schwab, up to when I mentioned this meeting last month? Well, here's, a few weeks after we talked about it, here's one of the things he was all excited to talk about. Check this out. Can you imagine that in 10 years when we are sitting here, we have an implant in our brains and I can immediately feel, because you all will have implants, I can measure your brain waves and I can immediately tell you how the people react or I can feel how the people react to your answers. Are you excited to have a brain linked to Klaus Schwab's brain? I think I already am feeling a little sense of what he's doing. I think I got it. No, sorry, I shouldn't do my picture. This is bad. All that to say this article is basically saying that Microsoft sees and everybody's tapping into not only that open source AI, but there's all kinds of others. And most people don't have any idea what that AI is capable of. The creators of some of the technologies that go into this, the thing that's amazing is it doesn't even require tons of memory or supercomputers to run. This is one of the more shocking things. To run your most stout processing for the chat APT or GPT is 1.9 gigabytes of information. And that's kind of shocking. They'll say all you need in your computer or your little implant chip in your brain, all you need is 1.9 gigabytes and it'll run seamlessly and quickly. So when I asked for it to create a sermon, it does it in 10 seconds. Really kind of in real time, because you can't even read it as fast as it starts typing it out. So it's really kind of in real time. I mean, it's getting to where they're actually experimenting with being able to, you know, you can just be a person who doesn't have a clue about anything. And then somebody can ask you a question, hear the question, and then start giving you, with your in-ear device or whatever, it'll give you the answer that you need to say, and it'll do it in real time, and it won't be some answer from the internet. It's a creation of artificial intelligence. That's all right there. Now, what's interesting, by the way, you know, robots always kind of crack me up, because I always thought, what a joke, you know, these robots. But have you noticed they're getting better? Did anybody see, I should have put the video up of the construction working robot. Did anybody see the robot that, the guy said, oh, I left my tools down there. Could you get my tools? And then this little robot, Boston Dynamics robot, not the dog one, this is like a humanoid robot, runs over, grabs the tools, starts climbing the, you know, scaffolding, and it gets up on the level, but it doesn't go all the way up, it could, obviously you can go all the way to the top, but instead he just tosses the box of tools up just perfectly, and it goes chink, and sits right where the guy is, and he starts reaching for his tools, and then the robot kind of climbs and then does a back flip off the scaffolding and lands on the ground and walks away. It's shocking, like they're getting the whole thing, but you're saying, but Brett, they're still too dumb. Well, if you couple that with AI, you know, we're starting to get closer to, you know, I'll be back. Like seriously, like smart learning robots that actually have strength and power to do stuff. That's actually really close. And there's a lot of people very nervous, including Elon Musk. Have you listened to Elon Musk talk about AI? I think I showed a video once about him. He's kind of the one talking about putting implants in people's brains, but he's also the one saying, yeah, this is pretty scary. So I'm not sure what he's thinking other than he's really scared, but he's doing it anyway. That's kind of the thing about Elon. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the World Economic Forum, these are the guys that want to sort of be in place of Christ. They're the answer to the problems in the world. They're the ones that you can trust. And this guy here told you, you don't have to own anything, but you'll be happy. You won't have to go anywhere. You can just stay in your house and not own anything, and you'll be happy. That's what this guy has said. I've shared quotes that he's given. I should take this picture down. Number two. I was just enjoying it a little too much. Number two, Jesus then says, so Antichrist, we can talk about that all night. Just the spirit of Antichrist in place of Christ, we can talk about that all night. But that's what you look for. Anybody who's saying we know more than God, The earth, you're all gonna die if it wasn't for us. Like these are the kinds of things that God alone has the power to deal with. And as soon as somebody says they're smart enough to sort of circumvent what's happening in the world and the future of humanity, we're already off course. And that's part of this antichrist sort of mentality. The second one is clear enough, wars and rumors of wars. And man, again, we could camp out all night on this one. There's a lot of wars and rumors of wars. But I want to give you a few updates on some things that you should know about. If you're a Bible prophecy buff, there's some things you should probably be aware of. Did you know a while back, Tehran, made an announcement and whether it's true or not, it's questionable. Sometimes those Ayatollahs and those Muslims down there, they definitely make stuff up sometimes and they like to boast. Remember when we were, you know, the Gulf Wars and all that, what was the name of the guy that was constantly boasting of things, but he was never right. Like he lied about everything. It was Baghdad Bob or something. Do you guys remember him? Yeah, there's a kind of a thing where the Muslims like to say stuff. By the way, that's part of Islam. Islam, you can lie if it's to further the cause of Islam or to bolster the strength of Islam. That's part of the Islamic religion. You can lie. It's part of their faith. It's in the Quran. So it is a little hard sometimes to believe stuff, but the Israelis, the Mossad, the reason I give it credit at all is the Mossad is sitting up and taking note, and they're saying there's something that we should worry about. So if the Mossad is saying that, which is one of the best intelligence agencies in the world, one of the things you have to kind of listen to is Mossad. Well, this article came out in the Jerusalem Post, and it's this, it's 400 seconds to Tel Aviv. Iranian media publishes Hebrew hypersonic missile threat. Now, we know that Russia has been getting these hypersonic missiles worked out and figured out. We also know that North Korea has been working on a hypersonic missile and claim to have it. The question is, do they really? And we do think the Russians have it. Is it fully operational? Is it effective? It's only been done in their own tests, but time will tell. Some say that the Russians have actually used it in the Ukrainian war. But that's something that's kind of interestingly debatable and all that. But the idea of a hypersonic missile is there's no real defense missile system, defense system that can really defend against a hypersonic missile. It's too fast. You see, we get sort of complacent because the Israelis, they have the Iron Dome system, and we're so impressed. If you've ever seen the Iron Dome system at work, it's incredible. These sort of slower rockets come firing in from Hamas or Hezbollah, and they come over the border. But the Iron Dome system basically triangulates and figures out where those rockets are. Before they hit the ground, they're blown up in the sky. And it looks like 4th of July. And the Jews, like, I've been there. When bombs are flying, the Jews, you know, the Jews kind of go around, oh, here comes more missiles. But, you know, they realize they're Iron Dome, and it gets 95% of the missiles. You say, what about the other 5%? Well, the Jews, it's very expensive to use Iron Dome. So if a rocket comes over their border, they'll let some of them just fly if they're gonna land in the middle of some field or something. And so they do let some of them come and detonate. But almost never, almost never does a missile come through the Iron Dome system. I showed you a few prophecy updates ago, the new laser system that Israel developed, and that's pretty amazing. And the best thing about that is it does a similar thing, only instead of costing millions of dollars, what was it, like $1.97 or something per use of the laser? It's like $1.97 to fire the laser and take out the missiles that are coming in, which is very much more affordable. And so they're wanting to employ that technology further down the road. But even the laser technology, they say, the supersonic, hypersonic missiles, I should say, are still too fast. So Iran's Sobi Sadeh newspaper published a threat in Hebrew on the front of its front page, in Hebrew letters, so that the Jews could see it, a threat saying, this was last Monday. warning that a new Iranian hypersonic missile could reach Israel, Tel Aviv, in 400 seconds. The US, Russia, China, North Korea groups have successfully tested hypersonic missiles, although exact details about such weapons are still somewhat scant. So the people groups that are supporting Iran, like Russia and North Korea, and they exchange weapons. Some believe that these people are giving these missiles to Iranians. And the Iranians, the first thing they wanna do is blow Israel off the map. They've been saying that for decades. They wanna wipe Israel off the map. And this, by the way, could be the rumors of wars of Ezekiel 38, the Gog Magog invasion that we've studied in detail, which includes a confederation of nations, including Russia, of all places, Syria, Iran, and Turkey. These are nations right now that you can see very quickly getting in line and lining up. In fact, if you go to the northern border of Israel today, right there on the Golan Heights, Just a few miles away from the Golan Heights borders are Iranian troops, Russian troops, Syrian troops. They're all lined up at the border of Israel right now. Those are the things that are going to happen in Ezekiel 38 and 39. It's perfectly postured. Now, is it the one? I don't know, but it sure, like if it happened tomorrow, nobody'd be surprised. And one of the things that we should always track is Russia's posture toward Israel, and that is getting quite chilly. And it has to do with what's going on with Israel's response to Iran, because Iran and Russia are sort of allies. And the more Israel defends herself against the Iranians, the more that sort of perturbs the Russians, because the Russians and Iranians are friends. And so you need to keep an eye on this Russian-Israeli relationship because the Bible says there's gonna be a hook in the jaw of the bear from the north, Russia, and it's gonna be drawn down into Israel. That's gonna happen according to the Bible. Just the question is when. Isaiah 17 talks about the destruction of Damascus, the oldest city in the world, by the way, never been totally destroyed. There's always been people living in Damascus as long as cities have been around for the history of the world. But the Bible says that Damascus, that, you know, southern city in Syria, that you can see the lights across the hills when you're standing on the Golan Heights. You can see the lights across the mountains from the city of Damascus. That city is gonna be made a parking lot at some point. The Bible tells us that, the destruction of Damascus. Again, that could happen. The Jews are bombing Damascus as we speak, right now. That's not new. They've been doing that for a long time, because the Iranians are trying to sneak in more and more missiles and weapons there into Syria, posturing for what? Why are the Iranians stacking missiles in Syria? The only reason for them to do that is to have an offensive someday, sometime against Israel. And so Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and a few other nations that we've, you can look up our Gog Magog prophecy updates. And also, if you want, just go to our Through the Bible series and look up Ezekiel 38. We go into that in great detail. With all that said, you know, Iran, did you see just a little over a week ago, the Israelis, well, I shouldn't say this, someone, blew up a bunch of military sites in Iran. Did you guys see this? AP News article, Iran blames Israel for drone attack, threatens retaliation. Now, the funny thing is Israel never admits. They just kind of like, oh, how unfortunate. They're always very, we're sorry that that happened to you guys, whatever. But it actually happened. Here's some footage, video footage of what was happening there. This is one of their military sites. And these drones drop these little bombs very exactingly. And some people say, well, why are the Jews doing that? That's not very nice. Well, if you have a nation that's not far from you geographically, and they're threatening to blow you off the map, And they put on the front page of their main newspaper of their nation saying, 400 seconds to Tel Aviv, and we're gonna blow you into the sea. No wonder the Jews feel compelled to sort of take out their military installations. And the Jews have been doing this for a long time. They've been taking out the bunkers where they're trying to develop nuclear weapon facilities. The Jews just keep taking them out, as well as the nuclear scientists that are developing that. But more of this, in fact, these drone attacks this last week were pretty shocking. And you can see they're trying to undo some of the damage there. But basically, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its legitimate and inerrant right to defend its natural security and respond resolutely to any threats, wrongful actions by the Israeli regime, whether and whenever, wherever deemed necessary, their letter read. Their article goes on and says, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently re-entered the premiership, has long considered Iran to be the longest threat, the biggest threat to his nation. So whether Israel did it or not, we can't be dogmatic, but everybody kind of knows it was Israel. But with all that said, this article, The thing you gotta understand about this article is Iran's blaming Israel, but Russia went on record last week saying, yeah, Israel did it and we're gonna hold you accountable. Like Russia is starting to make little threats to the Israelis, which that should cause concern. So not only you have the Iranians threatening Israel, but you have the Russians. And if there's one thing the Russians have proved in this past year is they are willing to do stuff that you're kind of shocked at. These are shocking times. And it wouldn't be that shocking for Russia to take an aggressive posture against Israel. And that would then fulfill Bible prophecy. When's the Gog Magog war gonna happen? I don't know. It could happen tomorrow. Cause I don't believe it has to happen for the rapture of the church. I do believe it could happen, you know, after the rapture of the church or before. So my point is it doesn't have to happen. I think we can still wait for the rapture of the church and know that the rapture could be at any moment. Eminence is kind of what we believe. But I do believe that the Gog Magog War that we're talking about, Ezekiel 38, is gonna happen somewhere around the rapture, for sure, either before or after. And I also believe the bombing of Damascus, Isaiah 17, could be the catalyst that kicks off the Gog Magog War. I'm not saying it has to, but when you kind of put the pieces together, you can see today, the world events that are happening, you can see the Jews defend themselves, they're bombing Iran, getting rid of their military strength, because they know the threat is real. And then also the Iranians trying to get more weapons there in Damascus and Syria. Syria is a mess right now, but the Israelis are constantly bombing Syria because they don't want those missiles to be postured where they can kill people in Tel Aviv, especially if Iran has those supersonic missiles. Things are heating up to say the least. The Gog Magog war could happen tomorrow. It really could, nothing needs to happen. Now, one of the things I've heard people say is, Brett, you don't talk enough about China. And I would defend myself. I was thinking about that earlier today, and then about an hour before the service, one of the Athe Creekers sent me this. China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, Well, anyway, I thought that was pretty funny. And man, I guess I do talk about China and that's defense right there. But as it turns out, China is something for us to kind of keep an eye on. And it's interesting because we could talk about where China fits in with Bible prophecy. And I don't believe I believe China doesn't have as much to do with Bible prophecy. I know there's the 200 million man army that's marching from the east, but I'm not convinced that that's just necessarily China. We'll get into that more as we talk further about that. But I do believe like the United States is not in Bible prophecy. China is largely absent too, which is kind of shocking. But I do believe that the United States and China could have a role in setting the stage for what's going on in the very last days and the tribulation. And so it is worth watching, especially when it comes to this idea of the wars and rumors of wars. Right now, there's a lot of rumors about war as it relates to China. And as it turns out, one of the things that made big news, this is almost funny to me. Did you guys see this? The suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over US Pentagon says. This has been shocking. There's this big spy balloon that's been going across the country. I think it was over Kansas today. It was over Montana yesterday, and it's this, and you know, the United States government is tracking high altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continent of the United States right now, the Pentagon spokesperson said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his upcoming trip to China in response to the flying of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States in what marks a significant new phase in the tensions between Washington and Beijing. So because of this balloon, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is saying, yeah, we're not going to go to China. I'm kind of thinking, man, you need to go to China. Like, this is a great time to talk to them, say, hey, what's with the balloon and all the other horrible things you're doing to us? Like, the balloon is the least of the concerns, if you ask me. Of course, the Babylon Bee chimed in perfectly. Wait, hold on. Let me give you this. Oh, this is just a little video kind of showing. If you didn't see it, It's going out about breaking news because Pentagon officials are telling CBS News tonight they are monitoring a suspected Chinese spy balloon that's been flying at high altitude over the U.S. And this comes just as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. CBS' David Martin is following this developing story at the Pentagon. And good evening, David. So where was this found? Well, on Wednesday, the spy balloon was over Montana, which is where some of the silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles are located. President Biden initially wanted to shoot it down, and jet fighters scrambled to be in position. But the Pentagon ultimately recommended against it because of the danger of falling debris might pose to people on the ground. So, the balloon remains over the U.S., flying higher than a commercial airliner, but lower than a satellite, conducting surveillance of what an official called sensitive sites. This official added, this has happened before, but never for this long. Nora? Well, a dramatic escalation, David Martin, with that new reporting. Thank you so much. Is it just me, but how many things do we hear from the Pentagon and from the White House, things that just don't even come close to adding up? Like this balloon, and they're not wanting, like we could grab that balloon without letting it fall to the ground, and I would recommend us doing it technologically where we save this stuff and learn what's actually happening instead of just blowing it out of the sky. A few of us in this room could figure out how to get that balloon down. And we can do it ourselves with our drones and stuff that we have from Kmart or whatever. Like we don't wanna make it fall down and hurt people. Like really, come on. So that's where the, I'm not alone. There's a lot of people, but that's where the Babylon Bee, I liked what they said about this. Biden says he'll shoot down Chinese spy balloon as soon as he's done letting it spy. One smart aleck person said they did a very detailed, they zoomed in with a high resolution camera and they got a closer picture of what it really is. I thought that was pretty funny. You know, honestly, I'm not honestly that concerned about this big balloon. It's something like three or four buses in length, wide, and three or four buses. It's a big sphere. It's way bigger than a weather balloon. It's pretty huge, actually, this balloon. But I'm not as concerned about that as much as I'm concerned about something like, say, like this. Again, the Jerusalem Post article, U.S. Forest Guard General warns of war with China in 2025. That's actually news that I kind of go, hmm, that's not cool. Forget the balloon for a second. And this, by the way, this four-star general is, you know, decorated. General, he says, General Mike Minihan. He says, I hope I'm wrong. He heads the Air Mobility Command. Wrote to the leadership of its roughly 110,000 members. He says, my gut tells me we will fight China in 2025. That's something to at least sit up and take note, a four-star general in the United States military. But who knows? Now, what's interesting about that is, so you got China doing all kinds of stuff. We could talk about Taiwan and the South Seas and the threats, and you know that China's sort of watching Russia and how the world responds to Russia, because what happens there, I think, will sort of enable or lead China to be more bold. And if you're China right now, you'd be encouraged by watching what's going on in the world with the Russian situation. Speaking of the Russian and the missiles I was just talking about, the Russians continue to test the Zircon missiles. They call them unstoppable. Here's some video footage they just put out a couple days ago of testing off of one of their ships, one of these supersonic missiles. And it goes over 6,900 miles per hour. That's pretty zippy through the sky. It goes up into space and then comes back down. And they call it unstoppable because, again, radar systems and anti-missile systems can't quickly enough detect it. That's what they say. I hope and I pray that the United States has some top secret stuff that we don't know about that can actually deal with these. But nobody's really saying we do, which is kind of interesting. Oh boy, man, we're running out of time, and only on point number three. The next one is kingdom against kingdom. We talked about this on Wednesday night, remember? It's kingdom against kingdom, and then also nation against nation. And the King James, that's the way it says it in our text here. Then the word nation in the Greek, just a quick reminder, the word nation is ethnos, where we get our word ethnicity. a large group based on various cultural, physical, or geographical ties. And then the word for kingdom is that word, basilia, which means kingdom, an area ruled by a king. So it's not Jesus being redundant, saying nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. It's ethnicity group against ethnicity group. and kingdom against kingdom, which is kings, presidents, rulers, all of those things will be wars and rumors of wars, but you'll also see kingdom against kingdom, but also ethnicity against ethnicity. We've seen kingdom against kingdom for a lot of years now. You can argue in the last couple centuries that we've been at war and horrible wars and war after war. We're seeing that even today. But this ethnicity against ethnicity seems to be on the rise, racism. And you might have your mind go to, well, yeah, the racism in America and the African Americans, black people in America. And that is a problem, but I also believe there's a narrative and there's something that they're trying to divide instead of unite, which is really funny. The very people that claim racism, they're only stirring up the pot and making things worse, which we're seeing. But there's a racism that I believe in some ways we kind of forget, but it's happening all around us. And it has to do with antisemitism. Did you see what's happening in Congress? You know, where, and again, Babylon B strikes again. Ilhan Omar blames her removal from Foreign Affairs Committee on the Jews. And the reason that's funny, if you don't know why that's funny, it's because she's made a bunch of anti-Semitic comments. She spoke evil, horrible things against the Jews. Anti-Semitism. She's a Muslim who was speaking evil things against the Jews. And so they removed her from the Foreign Affairs Committee, which makes sense. Everybody freaked out, this is so funny. Did you see AOC, I should've got that video, that was entertaining. She freaked out and there was another gal, I don't even remember, I just heard it on the radio, so I don't even, who was the one that was just crying? Yeah, Talib, oh that was her? Okay, I just, I only heard it on the radio, I was like, wow, somebody get some Kleenex or whatever. But they're all upset about this, that she was removed, not from Congress, she wasn't removed from Congress, but she was removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee, which she should've been. She's an anti-Semitic, hateful person against Jewish people. And this is something you have to understand. And it wasn't the end of the world, it was just removal from a committee. But that's a whole nother thing. The idea of anti-Semitism, it's amazing that we had to go through all this today just because of that. She should have been removed long time ago from all the horrible things she was saying about the Jews. And people are still acting like it's not a big deal. Anti-Semitism is, Brutal right now. Did you see just a few days ago, seven killed in Jerusalem, JP article, seven killed, three injured in Jerusalem synagogue massacre. In the worst murderous rampage Israel has known in years, seven people were killed in a shooting attack outside of a synagogue in Jerusalem neighborhood of Nev Yaakov Friday evening. After a second terrorist attack then in the city of David, which we go there, we've been there as A.C. Creekers, where we go down to the Hezekiah's Tunnel, right there, another attack happened the next day. And in addition, since Friday night, the police have arrested 40 different suspects who were taken in for questioning to determine if these attackers were planning things together. And by the way, one of the things that's shocking is we're seeing antisemitism all around the world, but even in the church around the world, whether you're the Pope or other denominations of churches, Protestants, it's amazing to see antisemitism in the church, so-called. Antisemitism among the people that are in the church, any professing Christian who proclaims faith, And what I would say as a Jewish God, wouldn't you agree that Yahweh is the God of the Jews? He is, the Bible says that. And belief in the Jewish scriptures, wouldn't you say our Old Testament is very Jewish? Yes, even the New Testament's very Jewish to that end really, but our scriptures are very Jewish. And shouldn't we have a love in our heart for the one who hung on a cross and had a placard over his head that said King of the Jews? Like it's an interesting thing, and Jesus being a Jew, at the same time hating the Jews, If you're that person that claims to be a Christian and you hate the Jews, you're walking in total contradiction of yourself. And you need to take a whole new hard look at your faith and what you actually believe. I'm shocked that there's actually people saying, yeah, we believe in the Bible and we're Christians, but then they also hate Jews and are very anti-Semitic. By the way, I'm gonna go onto a dangerous landmine here, but. Honest question. People try to act like, you know, the plight here in America and slavery and all that stuff, which was horrible in our history. There's sort of this narrative in America that's, you know, what's happened to the African American is the worst thing in the history. And it is a bad black part, you know, in our, I mean, when we talk about the black history in America, we need to teach that and learn from it, of course. But here's my question, what's the difference between antisemitism and all other race-based hatreds? There is a difference. Now, my buddy, Steve, the tour guide, when we were talking about this, I thought his answer was really interesting, and I wanna read to you his answer. I wrote it down because I thought it was pretty true. Steve said this about the question. The question, what's the difference between antisemitism and all other race-based hatred? He said, the difference between antisemitism and hatred for blacks, for example, is not in the index of suffering, He said, I would never tell a black person in the Jim Crow South, rejoice, at least you're not suffering like the Jews have. He said, I would not say that. Suffering is suffering, and we should never trivialize one person's suffering by pointing to someone else's suffering that's surpassing it. So what is the difference, Steve said. He said, here it is. Antisemitism always has as its goal, the murder of every single Jew down to the last one on earth. In this, it stands apart from all other hatreds. No one speaks of murdering every last black person on the earth. No one speaks of murdering every last homosexual on the earth. This, of course, was the goal of every famous anti-Semite in history, from the Ramses II to Haman to Hitler, and is currently the declaration goal of organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah in the Middle East. And by the way, that's exactly right, I have to say. Again, it's not an index of suffering that we're talking about. It's the end goal of the hatred that is so sinister. And what sets the Jews apart is there's no other people group like the Jews that have been, they try to ethnically cleanse off the whole earth. There have been groups in Africa that have tried to wipe out whole groups of African people. And that's horrifying, ethnic cleansing or whatever they call it. But the Jews, there's been many attempts throughout history to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. And so I just wanna say, we need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem, praying for our Jewish brothers and sisters. And I say that because, you know, Israel right now is in largely an unbelief. They don't believe in Jesus, the Messiah, and they're lost. And I'm not even defending the Jews or their behavior. but I am saying God still calls them his people and he still has a covenant with them and there's gonna come a day after the rapture of the church where God's gonna re-engage with his people, the Jews, and there's gonna be a whole judgment where how you treated the Jewish people is gonna be how God's gonna judge the nations. We'll talk about that later as we get further in Matthew 24. Oh man, I'm out of time. Let's just do a little bit more. Number four. Number four, we're almost done, we're almost done. Some of you are like, eh, yeah. Number four, a really fun one, famine, yay. Time Magazine, just this week, there may not be enough food for everyone in 2023. The world is acknowledging right now this weird famine crisis. And you know, So much of what we're seeing, even the World Economic Forum, the leader of that particular topic, here's what he had to say about famine. It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, there were only 80 million people marching to starvation around the world. That's starvation, not chronic hunger. Then it jumped to 135. Why? Man-made conflict and climate shocks. That's before COVID. COVID comes along, Just economic devastation, supply chain disruption around the world. The number goes from 135 to 276 million people. You think it can't get any worse. Then the breadbasket of the world is shut down. Ukraine, now the longest bread lines in the world. The number has now jumped from 276 million people The 350 million people marching to starvation, not knowing where the next meal is coming from, because Ukraine alone grew enough food to feed 400 million people. Now, compounded with the fertilizer crisis, the fuel crisis, I could go on and on. It's all bumbling all around the world. The world is in serious trouble right now. Does anybody feel like you're listening to kind of a, one of those evil, like evil used car salesmen? Like, I'm not sure I, like all the reasons. Now the World Economic Forum, they've been fighting against this for years, the whole famine in the world. They're not doing a good job. Things are worse today. And why? Like he gave all the reasons. I'm not sure. Again, I have a lot of questions still that are not being answered. And I definitely don't trust the World Economic Forum to give us the answers to these problems. But as it turns out, you know, one of my favorite topics is the surge in egg prices. I love this graph, but it's eggs of, you know, they started out, you know, $1.93 back in January. Now they're $4.25 in some places in our country. So you got famine. Quickly, you just gotta click through these now. Pestilence. The Greek word for pestilence, by the way, is the word loimos, which means a plague. Pestilence, troublemaker, public nuisance. So the question is, what is Jesus saying when he uses this word loimos? Some say the word plague might even be better as it relates to disease and germs. But it could mean other kinds of plagues as well. NPR article discussed nine diseases that keep epidemiologists up at night. That World Health Organization, that most trusted, of course, no, I joke. I'm being sarcastic for you out there on YouTube. I don't trust the World Health Organization, but they're talking about the Nipah virus, the Crimean Congo hemorrhage fever, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Zika virus, Ebola and Marburg virus disease, MERS, which is the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and then disease X. I think that's just to kind of cover all the bases to make sure, oh yeah, that's what we're talking about, disease X. But the World Health Organization doesn't rank these diseases, which ones are the most likely, but they're saying they're coming. And then onward, earthquakes in diverse places. We talked a little bit about this on Wednesday night, so I'm not gonna dive into this one much. One thing that I'm gonna say, because I like to be as truthful as I can be, and sometimes I think Prophecy Update people like to, Stretch the story, give God the glory, if you know what I mean. I don't see that we're seeing earthquakes increasing in the world, and this is something that you can track, and the United States Geological Services and stuff, they track earthquakes. Now, if it seems like they've increased, part of it is because our technology's getting better, and we are tracking more earthquakes around the world. So one of the things I don't, even though there's some people say, oh, they're getting more and more, and I don't know about you, but I feel like they're more and more, but actually the math shows that they're not getting more and more. But what I would argue is that what Jesus said about earthquakes being in diverse places, places that they were not before. And that's something we are seeing if you kind of follow the maps. So just kind of being careful about what Jesus is saying there. And then number seven, affliction or persecution, we might call that, verses nine and 10. And by the way, religion news article, Christian persecution higher than ever. as Open Doors, which tracks Christian persecution around the world, the watch list marks 30 years. So in the past 30 years, they're saying we're seeing extreme high levels of persecution around the world. This is what Jesus said would be kind of foreshadowing the coming of Christ and the rapture of the church and the end times. I had some statistics here, but we'll go over that maybe next time. But then number nine, on our list, is that what we're on? No, eight. Iniquity abounds and love is cold. Maybe that's the two, eight and nine, you might say. But are we seeing iniquity abound? Do I even need to talk about that? You know, I mean, do I need to talk about, you know, these drag queen shows? Is that abounding iniquity? And these stupid parents that think it's great to bring their children to be sexualized and these things. Like iniquity is abounding grotesquely in our culture. But along with that, love is growing cold. I think these two things kind of go together, and that's why I put them as sort of one point here. Because people want to do their sins, and they want to hang on to those sins, we're seeing division, hatred, and anger in exponential levels. And I'd like to end on this, since we've got to end it. I'd like to end it on this note, because I always like to end on something that's really important. And that is, you know, this love going cold. Don't let that happen to you. Even though iniquity is abounding in our world and in our culture, don't let the idea of your love for people to grow cold. And we can have a righteous anger about evil things that's going on in the world. Jesus displayed that and we can too, I think. But Jesus still was the epitome, the personification of love at the same time. And that's what you and I have to be. If you're gonna err, don't err on the side of anger, err on the side of love. And the reason I say that is don't forget what Jesus taught, what we're told in the scripture. John wrote in 1335, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Not if you know your Bible prophecy. or if you know more about the vaccine than the other person, or if those people are just stupid and you're really smart. Whatever, we have to be kind of careful, and it is kind of funny, and it's very easy to take pot shots at stupid people. I'm just gonna say it. I probably made that mistake tonight, and I apologize for that. But at the same time, I do joke around a lot, but I do wanna make sure that I have love in my heart. When you have that person at work that has a worldview that's totally wacko, rather than just going, what an idiot, You gotta start looking in your heart and say, Lord, how can I love that person? Because this person's gonna know that I'm a disciple of Jesus, not for my Bible prophecy eschatological brilliance. No, they're gonna know your disciple of Jesus by your love one for another. And let's make sure that's the key for everything we do. In fact, let's pray that in, and then we'll call it a night. Lord, we do ask you to help us with this. As we see ridiculous more and more in our world, we see Romans 1 where people have done stuff that's just so far beyond what we can imagine, but your word has been so right all along the way about human nature and the sinful condition of man. And we find ourselves, Lord, struggling sometimes with how to deal with people that are so rebellious and so hardened toward your love and your goodness. but I pray that you'd keep us soft and sensitive and loving, even the most unlovely things, Lord, I pray that we'd know when to speak up and be bold. You told us to be that, not afraid, but that balance, Lord, give us that perfect balance of speaking the truth, but also speaking it in love. So give us that, Lord, we need help with that. Bless these, your people, so much to see, so much to talk about what's going on in the days we're living in, but I pray as we live in these days that we would let our light so shine before all men, and that people might know that you're a God of love and compassion, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness, and that people would repent of their sins and turn to you and be saved. Lord, I pray that that would happen. So bless the rest of these things that we're talking about, Lord, as we consider these things. May we think rightly. May we be biblically based in everything we think. Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.