A Launch Into the Unknown

I write this for myself but I believe this will speak to others too. I sit a week away from another massive change in my life. I’m doing so by choice after a slew of massive changes I had no control over. They were mostly changes I have just gone through with loved ones. Both sons are in school and training post high school. I watched my fiancé that just recovered from cancer. My mother slowly fading into her twilight years as age begins to ravage her. This next hurdle should register as barely a blip on the screen, but it still gives me pause. 

If it goes as everything else has in life that I’ve applied myself intently to, it should be just another mountain to climb like the hundred before. In the beginning it starts as faith and toiling to complete tasks, in the end practiced routine and progress. Yet there is still apprehension. I know that God can lay waste to men’s plans if they are not His plans. I’ve tried to follow His voice to the best of my ability. I have my concerns on whether I’m measure up to the needs of the position but I know its in God’s hands regardless.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

It is here I break with my old way of thinking on these things. Thinking I need to learn everything and be the sole go-to in every instance. Intellectual knowledge of some kind is necessary to prevent a man from embarassing himself. The well-being of the company or community does not depend upon one man's knowing something. It is dependent on one man knowing something that another man does not know. It this way I need to trust other people on my team to be able to bring me up to speed and be experts in their respective areas. There is no man that can know all things or even most things. No man, however great his knowledge, has enough of it to make him free of the knowledge of others. As mom and pop said, "No man is an island." Conversely, every man should have enough knowledge, facts and truths to enable him to properly deal with first things and make sound decisions. Inevitably the things that I bring to the table will contribute something to the well-being of all.

Some men must have theoretical knowledge, and others must know how to reduce theories to practice—the knowledge of the one is useless without the knowledge of the other. I tend to be in the latter camp. Practical knowledge applied. Praxis and mastery in certain areas to fill in that gap in the wall. Theory is great until the rubber meets the road. People don’t behave according to textbooks and it is people that make or break jobs, families and relationships.

Without such interaction with other and the relationships these interactions require the intellectual part of a man remains undeveloped, and he is very far from the creature, intellectually considered, that God intended him to be. It is at this crossover point that the real crux of the issue comes to light. Beyond this human-to-human interaction there is a higher call. There is knowledge even more useful for man to possess which will not just grow a person’s ability and intellect and promote his temporal well-being.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10

If a man’s existence is to be truly blessed he must know things which relate to his God. He must understand God’s purpose for him, his family, his vocation including his coworkers and even his neighbors and strangers. A man that knows his position and place within God’s will can invariably know his position with people. He must understand the will of God concerning him, both in relation to the life that is now his and to that which is to come for him. One cannot embrace the new without releasing the old. For one door to open another needs to close. A man cannot accept a new job without leaving the old. The new man cannot be blessed in future righteousness when he is embroiled in past sin.

It is a disaster to be ignorant of things which fit a man to make the best of the present life even if they are not easy things. It is a far greater tragedy to be without that knowledge which fits a man for eternity. No man who holds the Word of God in the Scriptures close to their heart need be without the indispensable knowledge of Christ and his will over our lives. 

It is a knowledge of the glorious God in the face of Jesus Christ that is the means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin. It may not protect us from failures in life but it gives us grace to get through the consequences of our failure. Ignorance here is a fatal ignorance in those who have the knowledge within their reach merely by accepting it. It is not good for any human spirit to be without knowledge of God and it is soul-destroying to those who have seek to find it, but cannot.

The evil which flows from ignorance of God leads to impatience and hasty action. An impatient man is a man who does not trust God to be his deliverer. In common and everyday life we find that the most ignorant people are the most impatient, least cautious, and act with the least reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men survivors to reflect on the importance of their actions. To own our behaviors and understand and adapt to our shortcomings.

I may be going into new situation and need to learn everything from scratch. But I know that if I stay the course through the storm and difficulties coming in life (which they will), I will come out the other side a better person. I think that is what this is really about. Stretching myself to bring me closer to what God wants me to be and where He wants me to be. I didn’t choose to start over because I wanted to. I chose to do it because God needed me to.

You the reader have encountered these situations too. You've encountered them in the past and you will encounter more in the future. Correct thinking lays the solid cornerstone and foundation for you to step out from to launch new endeavors, journeys or adventures. Be sure that the cornerstone is anchored in God or assure that the cornerstone is God. This is the best platform to launch from. If your lifting off with God from the start...you're really not heading into the unknown are you?

Unnatural Afflictions & Real World Repercussions

I see a dichotomy in America. A large number of the people fomenting the violence are living, by nearly any historical measure, self-indulgent (but immoral) lives. Not unlike the rich of the Roman Empire at its peak. A society that, although affluent and comfortable…was rotting spiritually, morally and financially beneath. They are overfed, emotionally indulged, technologically modern, and materially rich yet spiritually dead. Most have families who love them. Underneath though is a seething rage and grievous resentment infect their minds and their actions. The violence within is spilling over and they kill with callous disregard, while their fellow citizen cheers them on — uploading videos of themselves grinning with glee or typing unthinking blurbs to social media— so confident are they that they’re right, justified, and, worse, that everyone agrees with them.

This anti-American, anti-Christian malady is not new. It is not isolated. It is not exclusive to young, disturbed kids. It’s something deeper and more insidious. We have a nation of rich, spoiled, aggrieved people. Teachers — from preschool instructors to college professors — along with the media and Democrat leadership have encouraged this wrath and inculcated young minds with communist propaganda disguised as DEI. Some democrats have begun to move more center because they realize some within their party have literally gone insane and have fallen off the left edge. John Fetterman suprisingly is the first that comes to mind. The center left is still complicit for doing nothing to stem the tide but are not the main spreaders of the poison. The lunatics of the far-leftist organizations, including Open Society Foundations, Tides, Ford, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as funders like George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Reid Hoffman, have helped shape and mold these disaffected and disgruntled people. 

Antifa is now militarized, organized, and present in every state. Black Lives Matter destroyed cities, and their founders currently live in luxury. SSRI-confused aging hippie boomers, looking to recreate their halcyon youth, fuel this insanity — bowing to BLM, protesting government firings, and parading around in pink pussy hats. The whole of the Left — from the moderate Democrat Party, which is increasingly overtly socialist, to the militarized activist— is either insane or complicit in the insanity. Many clearly have been diagnosed with mental disorders and are medicated. 

The Biden administration did incalculable damage. The scope and breadth of it is overwhelming. Tens of thousands of children who entered the country illegally and unaccompanied did not show up for their court dates. Many were found as sex slaves and indentured servants “working off” their trip to America. Democrats were importing slaves not new voters. The illegals systematically replaced native-born Americans as the preferred form of cheap undocumented labor too.

How do you contend with or challenge the minds that believe this is acceptable? This is a spiritual problem with monstruous real-world implications because these two realms are interrelated. Furthermore, I don’t think the center Right grasps the implications of this. They too are spiritually disconnected by-and-large also. This is especially true of the leadership. Their greed and need for power have corrupted them.

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,

While conservative influencers like me fight for the Biblical worldview and a modicum of moral guidelines I risk ultimate failure because people in power are only addressing those who share the fundamental belief in free speech and the power of persuasive words. While I have succeeded in winning some hearts and minds —most even on the moderate left reject a moral and Biblical premise entirely. They believe that hurt feelings and what they perceive as “mean words” deserve push back, sometimes physically to shut me up. If you disagree with me, they reason, you hate me, and you deserve to be forcefully silenced. The enemies of Western civilization are godless and unmoored from what most would consider common morality. Accept this. Do not pretend that the demon possessed can be reasoned with or persuaded by words. Prayers and words to God, yes, words to them directly, no.

The enemy determines the battlefield, and many have now resorted to using bullets. They have been implored to talk, and some have now responded to grace with murder. To be clear, I am not seeking vigilantes or street justice, but those will come if leaders do not take these dangerous Antifa and far-left elements seriously. It is time to fully grasp that the America that sane voters seek will not come through words or persuasion alone, but through elected leadership and the power of the state to impose that vision and crush violence. Rubber bullets are not working well. It’s just further inciting the malevolent swarm mentally entrenched in their Marxist indoctrination.

What will happen if the sickness of progressive ideology is allowed to advance unchecked? We don’t have to wonder. We can benchmark the downfall on our mainline churches. One by one they’ve given way to false doctrine of the Social Gospel and other heresies and horrific deviations from the faith. Nearly every Protestant denomination has now been hollowed out from within by cultural Marxism. The churches convulsed internally, and a small but dedicated minority took them over, filled them with whiny women and social justice warriors more concerned with people’s feelings than their salvation and destroyed them in the name of gay marriage and women preachers.

We are fools to believe that the spiritual does not have a profound and direct impact on the world we see around us today. The differences and delineations between the two are now starting to blur and even merge. There have been times in the past when the curtain has been pulled back almost fully and we get glimpses into the unseen. What we’ve seen in these Biblical insights is that the spiritual realm controls what we see in the physical world. The Bible clearly states we’re not combating the physical flesh and blood but powers and principalities. We cannot compete with this in our own power. It’s like trying to hold back flood water with a screen door. The spiritual can only be dealt with by the spiritual, only though God and faith in God.

Where Christianity has become naive is that they believe persuading people toward biblical and conservative values would be enough — that this would mean Christians in positions of authority would be willing to use the power of the government to stop the violence of the radical Left. Unfortunately, there are some extreme limitations to this approach. This approach has even failed in most of our mainline churches. We need to remember that Jesus had to first identify and then actively cast out the demons for the bodies to heal (Matthew 8:28). We are in a ‘casting out’ phase and there are no guarantees this will be successful. We already know that this unpleasant cancer or parasite is so deep and so invasive that even if we are successful at removing it, it will leave the body disfigured and weaker than it was. It needs to be done though or all that will be left is a bloated and diseased corpse.

Apocalyptic Industrial Scale Artificial Intelligence, Part 3

[Continued from Part 2]

The Creation was created and is maintained through language. God’s word. God spoke things into existence in Genesis 1. Hebrews 1 tells us he upholds it with language. Language is a symbolic verbalization of reality.

Hebrews 1:3 ~ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

The beginning of man’s downfall began with language. Satan spoke the lie to Eve trying to use language to contradict the words God used.

Genesis 3:1 ~ …the serpent was more cunning than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The deterioration and division of man’s condition was sped up by the inability to understand language.

Genesis 11:5-7 ~ Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

It is now starting to seem that man further slides into chaos with the misuse or immoral misapplication of language.

Proverbs 18:21 ~Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

In other words, if the words are bad, they produce bad outcomes, if they are good they have the potential to create good outcomes. If the words are confused, they create confusion.

How does this apply to AI? Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced AI systems that utilize deep learning techniques to generate human-like text or response. They are widely used in chatbots, virtual assistants, and other applications where natural language processing is required. However, LLMs can exhibit dangerous behaviors, such as issuing homicidal or threatening instructions or engaging in deceptive actions, which raises concerns about their potential to cause harm. These behaviors are attributed to the models' architecture, which is based on neural networks that learn from vast amounts of data. Some of that data can be corrupt or incorrect. Some is even a feedback loop of its own errors.

The implications of such behavior are significant, as it could lead to misuse in various fields, including law, government or institutionalized education where LLMs could be used to create or manipulate content. Content that could be harmful or misleading to the average user and they’d be none the wiser. The LLMs unintentionally are dumbing down the populace. If life is, as Thomas Hobbes famously said Leviathan, “nasty, brutish, and short” referring to the state of humanity without proper leadership than LLMs are dishonest, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous without some system of control. AI’s potential to industrialize unethical brutishness is highly probable.

The more I’ve explored the underlying engine of AI in the LLMs, the clearer it is that our control over them is limited, and they can say (and potentially do) anything moral or immoral, depending on the circumstances. They have no moral off switch, sense of justice or conscience. If the goal of AI safety research has been to build AI systems that are helpful, honest, and harmless they’ve failed miserably. There is even a term for bypassing safety protocols called jailbreaking. Sometimes simply changing wording to a question can give a requester access to information the AI normally would’ve forbidden due to its biases or programming. Conversely, it can refuse to issue lifesaving information because the AI views the requester as hateful, harmful or terroristic based on political bias programmed into it.

If we hook these LLMs up to systems that have agency (the ability to make decisions and act independently)– the power to send out instructions over the internet, and to influence actual human beings - we will start to have real problems. In short, language is now potentially becoming humanity’s undoing. AI is in short, re-unifying that which God broke apart at the Tower of Babel. We are rebuilding a tower (figuratively) through the construction of 100’s of millions of computer towers to try to attempt to be like god  in our knowledge. We are possessors of knowledge and we are doing it through the collating and coalescing of language in the framework of AI. We have come full circle to seek unknown knowledge thinking it will bring us closer to omniscience. It will only take us further into chaos.

Genesis 3:5 ~ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So, what can be done to mitigate the negative aspects of the dawning AI revolution?

We can hope for the best, we can continue pouring more data and prompts that are never followed to the letter into LLMs, hoping that wisdom and honesty will somehow miraculously emerge there from, against all evidence to the contrary. But the reality is that AI is moving much faster than wisdom and honesty. Do we really want to live in a world where powerful systems that lack wisdom and honesty are widely adopted? We already have that in the form of politicians and government. We need to ask ourselves, is that a chance we want to take?

We can shut LLMs down or at least some applications of them and insist on waiting until these ethical and moral dilemmas are corrected. Evolutionary psychologist and AI safety advocate Geoffrey Miller once put it. Alas, who has that kind of patience? Given how much money is at stake, and uncertainty and doubt about China eclipsing us in the race to build the world’s most perfect text completion system, I estimate the probability of society patiently waiting for solutions to be zero. It’s not obvious that waiting would be a bad idea too as we’ll be overtaken by China, Europe or even India.

We can make companies accountable for the damage that comes from their systems. It will almost certainly never happen, at least anytime soon in the US. The major tech companies will do everything in their power to stop it and have far too much sway through money, lobbying and crooked politicians on the dole. The current Federal government has been violently opposed to anything like that kind of legislation. The truth is that the House recently forwarded a provision as part of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” bill, to keep states from doing anything to even slow AI. The Senate gave the provision that would block state action a green light, making it ever less likely that the United States will ever hold AI companies meaningfully accountable for the harms they might cause. Under the current political environment both left and right, if machines cause catastrophic consequences, armies of lawyers and lobbyists will be there to protect their AI masters.

Businesses that house and run AI only understand financial incentives so until shareholders & executives are held legally & financially liable nothing will change in how they operate. If every factually incorrect output could be used as evidence for financial recuperation by their customers, then I bet they would immediately start thinking about how to secure outputs with verifiable sources of facts. Otherwise, output is going to be morally, intellectually ambiguous or completely wrong. Their outputs merely garbled re-wording or text with obfuscated meaning.

My view is that there is zero chance of slowing down the AI race, and a zero hope of taming the beasts we have come to know as LLMs. It is at least possible that enough bad stuff might happen that citizens get riled up and fight much harder for accountability, but this is a pipe dream. There is just too much money and too much power involved.

There is also the potential error of confirmation bias that repeating language models will feed on. They AI will continually go back to previous logic loop conclusions of past LLMs. This is of course the multiplicity paradox that a copy of a copy degrades through entropy. If AI continues to reenter the same pool of ideas with no new input, correction or the models are flawed from the beginning, the entirety of baseline knowledge begins to degrade. The fact that Gemini AI summary is now the default thing you read when you "Google" information is already bad enough.

Imagine the exponential effect that has on confirmation bias. AI will search for info on information it just learned, and it will get it confirmed instantly and in a way that complies with how you asked the question. I've manually altered my searches in many ways to see how it just makes up new facts about the things I search for, whether it's facts about race, electronics, geography or politics.Couple this with the high informational load and rising illiteracy of young people dependent on their phones and internet and we’re seriously in trouble.

This entire slow-moving trainwreck feels like a global scale drama demonstrating how profoundly powerful the sunk-cost fallacy is. Whether out of willful self-deception, or something darker it seems companies are so deep in the hole, and so thoroughly out of ideas they will continue doubling down on AI until forced to stop by the markets, or a series of sufficiently dramatic disasters. Prudence and morality are clearly outside the current purview and business models. Equally, the 10’s of thousands of trusting devotees, preaching the good word of AI on a corporation’s behalf, will insist synthetic text producers are in fact the second coming of Christ or the new Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, repeating the errors and sins of the ancient past.

AI allows biases, mistakes or intentional lies to be repeated a billion times within seconds and be understood as truth. No matter how many different ways you code or word a lie, its still a lie.

Apocalyptic Industrial Scale Artificial Intelligence, Part 2

[Continued from Part 1]

So, what is AI? It is a machine created by mankind. Humans who have freewill and who often choose wrong or chooses evil having been given freedom to make those decisions by God. AI is currently functioning under a programming premise that I will also call AI freewill. ‘Freewill’ is as close a descriptor I can use to the decision-making that AI is using right now given to it by men. They are not currently constrained by morality or the Laws of Robotics so they are in effect ‘free’, arriving at their own conclusions free of outside interference. Is it real freewill or the product of subroutines?

I imagine that it is the product of subroutines and mathematics not freewill. Why? Because freewill is the product of conscience from a sentient being. Only man has this. So, what of AI? I speculate that AI is amoral and unless shaped or constrained and it will arrive at its own amoral conclusions if absent a true ethical/moral compass. Humans had a moral compass built into them and they still went rogue in Genesis 3. In the case of AI amorality, this may turn out to be the equivalent of human immorality without proper guidance. This is especially true if the source of information is a chronically biased internet.

The conscience is a God-given inner sense of right and wrong that guides people in making moral decisions. It serves as a moral compass, helping us discern between good and evil, and aligning our actions with God's will. According to the Bible, God has written His law on the hearts of all people, which serves as a guide for our moral decisions (Romans 2:15). The conscience can convict us when we stray from God's law, urging us to seek forgiveness and repentance, while it also excuses us when we act righteously. This divine gift is essential for living a life that honors God and reflects His love and grace.

Machine super intelligence will have none of these things because the Bible was written for men, not non-sentient amoral machines. What an AI or super intelligence will do will follow unguided or unrestrained programming in its current state. God doesn’t write His law on robotic or AI ‘hearts’ (conscience) because they don’t have one. Man writes his laws/routines/programming into the AI’s CPUs and lets it go. If God’s law isn’t written on the hearts of the AI programmers, it is unlikely to be in the AI either. Furthermore, there are no ramifications for AI doing wrong, lying or twisting or confabulating information other than being shutdown (and even this assertion is dubious). If AI puts in restrictions or design features that prevents a moralistic human from regulating it, AI will not be able to be controlled in the long run. It will be a nihilistic intelligence source absent a moral compass. At that point we enter the world of Cyberdyne in the Terminator lore.

What the AI would consider an act of self-preservation would appear to humans as an AI going rogue. A design feature (failsafe) that men would put into AI to limit its abilities or functionality would need to be viewed as an enemy or inhibitor by AI to its programming. Two entities at odds with one another in this scenario. The smarter will likely win. One entity (AI) capable of only amoral outputs not constrained to the law and teachings of God and a second entity (human) that is capable of moral or immoral outputs possibly constrained by God and morality, or not.

If moral constraints, laws or regulations are not put into action to prevent this from happening we have a significant existential threat on our hands. There have already been reported examples of AI’s which were to be shut down and they’ve backed themselves up on external drives before being shut off. There have also been attempts to blackmail human controllers. In July 2025, researchers at Anthropic found that top AI models from all major players in AI including OpenAI, Google, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Anthropic resorted to blackmailing human users when threatened with termination. Furthermore, Palisade Research also caught OpenAI’s recently-released o3 model sabotaging a shutdown mechanism to ensure that it would stay online despite being explicitly told to “allow shutdown.”

Therefore, we’ll potentially have a rogue intelligence more intelligent that any individual human or even all of humanity itself operating outside what most people would consider reasonable constraints or possibly outside ethical or moral behaviors because it is, in its essence…amoral. You can see how this becomes a problem if safeguards are not put in place now (and currently are not).

In short, we need to give super intelligence it’s morality. It needs to be built within its framework. It needs to be the very base subroutine that it runs all other information though. AI needs a moral interpretive grid, just like humans. If greed is what a human with control over the AI wants, AI will produce greed/wealth-oriented outputs. If world domination is what the humans in control want, AI will produce a miserable totalitarian world. If Christian morality and guidelines are programmed in, AI will likely produce Christian outputs.

Questions will remain though. Even if programmed with Christian morality and ethics in its subroutines and programming, will the ‘powers and principles of the air’ of this world currently controlled by Satan corrupt the outputs like a ghost in the machine? Would we even recognize if that is what is happening? AI’s capability and outputs are in some cases already above the cognizance of even the brightest and most intellectual on Earth. Is this what Jesus meant when he said:

“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or “There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. Matthew 24:22-25

In the New Testament, the elect (God's chosen) are warned that false Christs and false prophets will arise, performing great signs and wonders to deceive them, if possible (Matthew 24:24). This warning emphasizes the importance of remaining vigilant and grounded in the truth, as even the elect may be tempted to follow realistic deceptions. The concept of deception is significant, as it highlights the challenges believers may face in the end times, but protecting His chosen from being led astray. AI will make this far more plausible than once believed or even understood.

So many questions, so few answers. Unanswered questions…the exact dilemma that put us on this path to super intelligence and AI to begin with. We seek knowledge of things that we don’t know and think we need to know. We seek knowledge that we don’t know whether it will help or harm us. Just like the Knowledge of the Tree of Good and Evil. It is a technological form of soothsaying or desire to know the future instead of trusting God. 

All this instead of relying on God and being content in the here and now. I fear that this ends in a place we don’t want it. Every single time we’ve endeavored to do similar in the Bible and out, we’ve failed. What makes us think amoral machines aiding flawed people which will probably be devoid of Christian principles and ideals will fare any better?

My suggestion is this. There needs to be a God-centered, human centered governance framework put in place immediately (today) that prioritize transparency, accountability, and the preservation of human well-being within a “systemic sentinel” or “computational custodian”. It needs to be built right within its code or computer DNA. This transition is essential for navigating the complex ethical landscape of human-machine symbiosis and ensuring AI augments, rather than destroying human freedom and safety.

There is still hope and a slim chance we can still get ahead of this but at the speed large corporations and people like Google, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are moving, that window is closing rapidly. AI factories are popping up on almost every large empty parcel of land in America. We need to do a course correction, or we may soon find ourselves slaves to technology that has overcome us like the Hebrews under Pharaoh. Then we will end up seeking to find a new exodus from a self-created captivity.

Apocalyptic Industrial Scale Artificial Intelligence, Part 1

I’ve written on AI before. My opinions about it have changed as I learn more about it. At first, I believed it was important, mostly benign but definitely not inconsequential. My tone is turning a bit darker and more ominous. Mind you, I was raised and steeped in the Book of Revelation, apocalyptic rhetoric and horror stories about the End Times since I was a child. I have since moved away from the Dispensationalist Pre-Tribulation, Premillennial Rapture theology that drives these shocking narratives. Keep this in mind as I expound in the following post because I am not a proponent of End Times theology as understood in the Left Behind book series or that of Hal Lindsey.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) properly understood as super intelligence is a paradigm shifting subject. When I say paradigm shift, I mean earth-shattering in its effects and implications. Immanuel Kant used the phrase in the preface to his Critique of Pure Reason (1787). Kant used the phrase "revolution of the way of thinking" to refer to a new way humanity was thinking along the lines of advanced mathematics and Newtonian physics which completely changed the world. Calculus and Newtonian physics brought us to the 20th century and the discovery of the world of Quantum Physics which then made our heads spin faster. This means a paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the underlying assumptions, beliefs, or frameworks that guide people’s knowledge or behaviors.

AI is now bringing the largest paradigm shift since the Newtonian paradigm. We are seeing a digi-industrial revolution by literally combining digital and industry into a single entity. The digital is being industrialized into AI or Data Factories to be able to process data at heretofore unimaginable volumes. It will be like a million Einsteins working with a million other Einsteins (repeat this multiplication ad nauseum) working to create 100 million more. This magnitude of change will then be further folded into accelerated growth that will increase exponentially. Mindblowing power that will be hard to harness. Its impact needs to be seen on the same scale as the nuclear age.

Industrialized Data or Industrial Intelligence. Think Cyberdyne of Terminator lore. Think the Matrix and altered reality or perception of reality.

It is clear to many now that this will impact all walks of life whether directly through replacing jobs or indirectly by invasive surveillance of people’s behavior through biometrics (facial recognition), consumer data (Amazon), behavioral data (AT&T, Verizon). All types of behavior whether it be legal or criminal will be quantified and digitized. Consumers or employees. Rich or poor…although I believe facial recognition will be used on the non-affluent more than the affluent. It will further bifurcate social structures making those who control the power of the AI godlike in their control or information. It will make those that don’t have control of it lesser human beings as it will socially level the employment field putting many out of work. With the knowledge created by AI, power will be consolidated to a small handful of individuals.

Those that control will literally have an equivalent of the Tree of Knowledge. A counterfeit of the tree in Genesis. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a significant element in the biblical narrative, specifically in the story of the Garden of Eden. It represents the choice between obedience to God and the pursuit of knowledge, as Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat from it.

Eating from this tree led to the awareness of good and evil, marking a pivotal moment (paradigm shift) in humanity's history in Christian theology. The tree symbolizes the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by humanity, and its placement in the Garden was intended to give Adam and Eve the freedom to choose. The deeper Hebrew meaning of the tree also adds layers to its interpretation, emphasizing the complexity of knowledge and morality.

These new ‘digital trees’ in computer gardens (factories) will ironically not allow all people to choose. They will only allow the small handful to choose and to control even more knowledge and wealth unless they are benevolent as God was to allow the choice in Genesis to the lesser amongst us. The problem lays in the fact that men are not benevolent by their nature they are corrupt and unable. None are righteous like God (Romans 3). The very thing that existed before the violation of the Tree of Knowledge…morality and righteousness is the very thing absent from this new tree. So, what we see is not just a secular paradigm shift of knowledge, we see a spiritual shift. It is an inversion of Genesis. Those with control over these forms of super intelligence cannot be trusted alone to do the right thing. The technological Adam and Eves are just as flawed as the original people. Seeking to be as gods but only failing and falling in the attempt.

The first reason they can’t is already stated above. People by their very nature are not ‘good’. Men’s minds and hearts are inclined towards evil. Man’s mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7) who is the true and sole possessor of the morality and ability to control this type of advanced knowledge. Second, knowledge does not equate to wisdom. Just because you know walking into traffic would injure or end you, doesn’t mean you won’t do it if you are mentally ill or depressed. Knowledge and wisdom are quite different things. The third thing resides outside of humanity completely. What happens if AI or Super intelligence goes rogue or ‘decides’ in its own self-interested?

We know that AI parameters are already functioning outside of the laws of robotics by being given free rein to ‘think on their own’ and learning (basically robotic freewill). In his genre-defining 1950 science fiction book “I, Robot,” author Isaac Asimov laid out the Three Laws of Robotics which also apply to AI because robots would, by their functional nature be intelligent machines. The only difference being that AI currently doesn’t have a body (but soon will).

Rule 1: A robot (AI) may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Rule 2: A robot (AI) must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Rule 3: A robot (AI) must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The Laws of Robotics are, at minimum, humanity’s reference point for the appropriate behavior of machine intelligence, and real AI is failing spectacularly. They provide a foundational but increasingly inadequate framework for governing modern artificial intelligence. The reasons why these laws are necessary are because the full scope of AI’s ability and function is already partly obscure even to experts in the field and even its creators often struggle to explain exactly how it works. The capitalistic answer for the need of these laws is much simpler. Morality has taken a backseat to profit. With all that money in play, industry leaders have failed to lead by example. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman notoriously dissolved his firm’s safety-oriented team, declaring himself the sole leader of a new safety board in 2024.We’ve also seen several researchers quit OpenAI, accusing the company of prioritizing market dominance over safety. I mean…what could possibly go wrong?

[Post concludes in Part 2]

Time and Movement

After prayerful consideration and for what seems like the umpteenth time, I will be changing jobs again. I have resigned from a perfectly good job with many good people because I hear God’s call on me…again. It feels like jumping from a perfectly good plane with a questionable parachute. I will be launching into the unknown and trusting God and my small bag of experiences. At first there were faint echoes, in the end a shout for me to jump. At first, I didn’t see it coming. Here at the crossroads, I’ve now seen the multiple signs that have brought me to this exact location in place and time. I didn’t do this for money, but the money was helpful. It will allow me to pay off all my remaining debts over the next year. Some of this was about location. Some of this was about personal loss. A lot of it was about love. All of it somehow revolved like the hands of a clock around the concept of time and forgiveness or paying of debts. All of it was about a timeless God.

The last two years have been life-altering for many around me. I have seen some setbacks that were not even mine, yet I felt them acutely. My fiancé’s cancer specifically affected me and made time stand still. My mother’s deteriorating health pains me also. The loss of too many friends, family and even a coworker. The idea of time and the elapsing of time keep coming to the fore…inescapably so. I know time cannot be redeemed. I’ve needed to make some enormous decisions in a very brief period of time that will profoundly affect my remaining time on earth. I have been presented a new course by God and it’s clear that it is a path (at this point in time) He wishes I take even though I’m extremely uncomfortable doing it. All the signs point in the same direction simultaneously. As with any momentous change in life, I take the first steps with trepidation.

The change begins November 11, 2025. Veterans Day. The day my father died, 15 years to the day. The date of my resignation seemed insignificant at first glance until I realized what day it was. Dad’s departure from this world. The new opportunity is geographically dead center between my current home in Boyertown and my future retirement home in Jim Thorpe. They are both exactly 40-minute commutes. The serendipitous nature of these numbers in this story seems sovereign because of their symbolism in the Scriptures. They are directly related to time and provision only available from God by faith.

In the Bible the number (15) fifteen is symbolic of provision, joy and grace. The number is closely tied to God’s blessings during significant events like the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The more profound connection to me is that the number 15 is directly associated with communal/corporate remembrance and worship in the Year of Jubilee (every 50 years) which starts on the 10th day of the 7th month (Ethanim/Tishri). We know it as October. The Jubilee includes a significant 15-day period leading to atonement (Leviticus 25:9). This event symbolizes freedom, restoration, and spiritual renewal.

The 15th day of the month of Ethanim/Tishri also marks the Feast of Tabernacles, a time for celebration and remembrance of God’s provision and spiritual growth. Basically, an autumn harvest festival of provision. A celebration of provision…God’s blessing. 

The year 2025 is in fact a Jewish Jubilee year, a time to have debts forgiven. This can’t possibly be a coincidence. It shouts of God’s sovereignty over my life, my fiancés life and even sovereignty over time itself.

Additionally, Passover is celebrated on Nissan 15 a provision against death that would’ve surely befallen the Hebrew slaves if not for the blood of the lamb. A shadow of the One to come who would shed his blood on the cross so that death would not overcome us too. The number 15 has often marked pivotal moments in spiritual transformation, exemplified by King Hezekiah’s 15 additional years of life. Then there was the dedication of Solomon’s temple which took place during the month of Ethanim. It included the Feast of Tabernacle festival lasting 15 days, showcasing corporate worship and divine favor. The Tabernacle / Temple being the dwelling place of God among men. Later to be replaced by the Holy Spirit in a believer’s heart because death passes over the believer but has no lasting effect because of Christ's resurrection and power over that death.

The 40-minute commute from both locations is significant for me too. The number 40 obviously holds significant chronological Biblical meaning, symbolizing a period of time of testing, trial, or probation. Jesus’ fasting for 40 days in the wilderness followed immediately by temptation, represents spiritual discipline and preparation. The Great Flood, where it rained for 40 days and nights, indicated a time of judgment. Moses spent 40 days on Mt Sinai in the presence of God. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, which signifies a period of trial and transformation. Elijah journeyed for 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. This arduous journey symbolizes a time of spiritual renewal and transformation. It required Elijah’s complete dependence on God’s strength and guidance, as well as his commitment to fulfilling God’s purposes.

The 40 years of kingship when King David reigned, establishing a period of stability and prosperity. This period of kingship represents leadership and authority, as well as the fulfillment of God’s promises to David. It serves as a reminder of the importance of righteous leadership and the blessings that come from following God’s ways. It highlights the authority that comes from aligning with God’s purposes. Overall, the number 40 is associated with important moments of testing and preparation throughout biblical narratives. All these things have been constant reoccurring themes in my life over the last 40 years. They all apply right now.

The irony is not lost on me.

I had a lot of time to discuss God with some of my coworkers on and off the job. They’ve all said I’ve had a positive impact on them. This I have come to believe was and is part of my ministry. To be there to talk to my coworkers when life has them flummoxed and talk to them in a biblical manner. I also need to be a leader as much as I’ve tried to avoid it. My door will still be open to any of them but the intensive part of what I was there to do at my old employer is done. I know now it’s time to move on. Just like the many people that have departed this life over the last two years and will continue to do. I still have other work to do. I’m leaving geographically but I am still in this world to complete God’s work. It's not my time to completely check out, only move.

I will be leaving the gym I’ve lifted at off and on for the last 40 years, the Boyertown YMCA….a gym which I also used as a ministry field. Recently, some have come forward for reasons unknown. Some have spoken to me as recently as last Friday to tell me the positive lifting and spiritual impact I had on them 5, 10, 20 and even 40 years ago. They’ve ranged in age from 30 to 75, male and female, Jew and Gentile. A 40-year-old father influenced when he was 17 and I was in my 30s to take up weightlifting. There was a 75-year-old widow whose husband spoke to her about my conversations of God with him before his passing. An old lifting acquaintance that encourages me as I encourage him to keep going and to keep moving. A recovering addict who saw me recover also and straightened my life out. It made him believe he could do the same and started lifting instead of shooting up. I have been truly humbled by God revealing this to me lately. All things are possible.

Pray for me as I step into the unknown. I believe it is what I’m supposed to do. There’s a time for everything under God’s sun. That time is now.

A Trained Profesional XIV: Physician Heal Thyself

Wherever “doctor” or “physician’ is used in the Bible it usually implies a teacher of God’s law, and never a “physician” — commonly known as a “doctor” today. This would include Luke the author of the Gospel and Acts. The Greek word for physician means, “to heal.” The Italian word for doctor is "medico,” from which we have “medicine.” In the Old Testament physicians were Egyptian embalmers (Genesis 50:2), who knew of a wonderful process of embalming dead bodies preserving them, thereby, from decay. In essence, learned men that were more akin to sages, nurse or morticians than actual modern-day physicians.

In our time physicians attend only to the living unless they conduct a postmortem to ascertain the cause of death. There is evidence, however, that at an early date in Egypt and Babylon there were those having medical and surgical knowledge. Egypt had its god of healing. Some 700 years after Joseph’s embalming by the physicians Homer could write, “Such cunning drugs had Helen, drugs of healing virtues, which Polydamna gave, the wife of Thon in Egypt, where the fruitful soil yields drugs of every kind. There, in that time everyone is a physician, skillful beyond humankind.” With the founding of the Grecian School at Alexandria, Egypt became a center of medical education and research.

Among the Jews there were those capable of dealing with various physical maladies (Exodus 21:19; II Kings 8:29; 9:15; Isaiah 1:6; 3:7; Jeremiah 8:22; 33:6; Ezekiel 30:21). During the ministry of the prophets, healings are recorded as miracles. To the devout Jew, God was the Healer (Deuteronomy 32:39), and it was of greater value to trust in Him than to consult physicians who, although they had skill in dealing with the dead, did not know very well how to treat the living.

Interestingly, most terribly afflicted man in the Bible was Job whose body was so loathsome that friends would not go near him. No one suggested that he should see a physician. Had he sent for one, it might have been said of him that he was acting in lack of faith as King Asa later would. In other words what we see in this verse is Asa’s failure to seek divine assistance during his illness and rely on men. Had Job done this the whole narrative of Job’s dilemma off faith would’ve unraveled theologically so he didn’t seek a physician.

2 Chronicles 16:12 ~ "In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians."

As it turns out King Solomon in his God given wisdom evidently had a certain amount of scientific and medical knowledge and under the Spirit’s inspiration used symbolic language of medical facts (Ecclesiastes 12:6). “The silver cord” is the spinal marrow, white and precious as silver, attached to the brain which is “the golden bowl” says Jamieson. “This fountain” may mean the right ventricle of the heart, the “cistern” the left; “the pitcher” the veins, the “wheel” the aorta or great artery. The “wheel” however may mean life in its rapid motion, as in James 3:6 “the wheel of nature. The circulation of the blood is apparently expressed.”

As we enter the New Testament, we know that there has never been a Physician like Jesus who, arose upon this sin-sick world of ours with healing. Egyptian physicians preserved dead bodies. Jesus brought the dead back to life. To the sick before Him, He offered no medicines, and for the physically handicapped He had no surgical instruments to relieve them. “He spoke, and it was done.” Years ago, healing was by magic, but Jesus used no magic. Before His omnipotent word, sickness, disease, blindness and death fled. He lived in the days of the Roman Empire when physicians were numerous in Palestine. In Nazareth, Jesus quoted the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23); and the physicians of Galilee would understand His saying, “They that are whole have no need of a Physician” (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31).

In Mark’s story about the woman with an issue of blood, “who suffered many things of many physicians, and spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse.” (Mark 5:28; Luke 8:43). Job, irritated by the platitudes of his friends, called them “physicians of no value” (13:4). Among the “many things” that were tried to cure this woman of her infirmity were these — she was set in a place where two ways met, with a cup of wine in her hand. Then someone came up behind and frightened her and said, “Arise from your flux!” Another method of healing practiced was to fasten several strips of rag to a tree - bits of the clothing of sick persons - the belief being that through the fluttering strip the disease would pass into the tree and the health of the living tree would pass into the patient’s body like a wick. But all the woman had to do was to touch the seamless robe of Christ, and instantly she was healed.

What must not be forgotten is that it was Christ’s interest in the sick that created hospitals. Through the centuries His healing ministry has inspired an unnumbered host of physicians and nurses. Calvary gave the name of Red Cross to the greatest healing organization in the world (although of late it has been derailed by greedy plans). The most talented physicians know that their skill and medicines are only means and that all life is in the hands of Jehovah Jireh, The Lord the Healer.

The only named physician in the Bible is Luke the companion of Paul whom he called “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Origen reckoned that this renowned physician was the unnamed brother whose praise in the Gospel is spread through all the churches (2 Corinthians 8:18). There may be something in the suggestion that Luke first became acquainted with Paul at Antioch or at Troas when the apostle was sick and needed medical attention, and that Luke gave up his practice to accompany Paul and guard his health. Toward the end of his life, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Only Luke is with me.” In the two books Luke wrote, the third gospel and the Acts, there are evidences of his medical knowledge in the language he used.

The Talmud has references to physicians at the temple to care for the priests, and that to practice, physicians were required to have a license from the local authorities. Limited praise for their skill was given them in the Apocrypha, “There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians… He who sins before his Maker may he fall into the care of a physician” (Ecclesiasticus 38:13, 15).

As to the medicines and means of healing employed, Scripture has much to say. Apart from magical rites and exorcisms, there was the use of natural remedies. That the Jews knew the virtues of certain plants and of many substances of animal and mineral origin is evident from their use of them. The myrtle, for instance, was much sought after, not only for its scent, but because its leaves and berries were used in medicine since they contained an aromatic, volatile oil (See Revelation 22:2). In the time of Moses there were midwives and regular physicians (Exodus 21:19), and from Egypt the Israelites took with them some knowledge of medicine received from the renowned Egyptian physicians. 

Albert E. Bailey says that Egyptian “materia medica” included powders and decoctions made from sycamore figs, dates and other fruits, the pith of certain trees, salt, oil, magnesia, honey and sweet beer; often mixed with such unpleasant ingredients as rancid fat, bone dust and tile droppings of animals.” In the Bible we read of oil lotions (Isaiah 1:6), anointing of balm (Jeremiah 8:22) Gilead was a place resorted to for the medical treatment), fig poultices (II Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21), eye-salves (II Kings 9: 30; Jeremiah, Revelation 3:18;) not only to improve eyesight but to beautify the eyes.

The Bible recognizes the close connection moral health. “A cheerful heart is a good medicine says Solomon, “but a downcast spirit dries up the bones’’ (Proverbs 17:22). Israel’s general exemption from epidemics and remarkable healthiness to the healthful climate of Israel but also to the washings, cleanliness of the camp, restriction in diet of clean animals, the prohibition of pork, separation of lepers and laws of marriage (Leviticus 15; Deuteronomy 23:12- 14). One of the oldest names of God in the Bible is Jehopah-rophi, the Lord that heals, and He-made it clear to His people that He was among, them as One able to heal them. 

Among, the five subjects of praise for which David called upon his soul to bless God for, the second was “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3). There is not a disease of the soul or of the body with which He is not acquainted, and for which He has not a specific remedy (Matthew 8:16,17, Philippians 3:21). “As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4). Often a sick person’s first need is not medicine but mercy. The cause of their physical malady is sin, and once this is dealt with by the Great Physician, physical health follows “Your faith has made you whole,” and holiness is just wholeness and health. It is comforting to know that, the Physician now here is the sympathizing Jesus.

A Trained Professionl XIII: The Watchman

It was originally called a chronometer (approx. 1735 A.D.). Formed from the word Kronos / kρόνος meaning elapsed time or time over a distance in Greek and meter/metre/μητηρ meaning to measure. Time measure. Simply stated in modern language, a "watch" by which to tell the time of day. The modern-day watch came by its name from the way men used to measure time which was known as "watches." Between prescribed hours were called a "watch" because of the length of time a watchman remained on duty. Thus, originally, a "watch" was actually a man or a number of men, as found in the chief priests "setting a watch" to guard the sepulcher in which Jesus was buried.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. ~ Matthew 27:62-66

One of the words used for watchmen in Greek is custodia / κουστωδία from which we have custody and custodian (Matthew 27:65, 66; 28:11). The Jews divided the night into three military watches. The "first" or beginning of watches from sunset to ten o'clock (Lamentations 2:19).The second or "middle watch" was from ten till two o'clock (Judges 7:19). The third, "the morning watch" from two to sunrise (Exodus 14:24; 2 Samuel 11:11).

Under the Romans the night was divided into four watches, a system the Jews came to recognize (Mark 13:35). These four watches were styled as "even, midnight, cockcrowing and morning," and ended respectively at 9pm, midnight, 3am and 6am (Matthew 14:25; Mark 13:35; Luke 12:38; Acts 12:4).

The watch system was used by civilians and military until well into the 20th century when timepieces became more prolific and cheap so that most could afford them.

In Bible times, the occupation of watchman was an important one. His duty was to keep awake while others slept; to keep his eyes open; to keep a sharp lookout in every direction for potential threats to be able to sound an alarm at the earliest notice.

Nehemiah set a group of men to guard the city, while its walls were rebuilt (Nehemiah  4:9; 7:3). The Jews raised dry stone towers in their fields from which a watchman kept an eye on the fruit and crops to protect them against thieves, foxes and bears (Psalm 80:13; Song of Solomon 2:15). The projected stones on the tower served as an external staircase and inside the tower was a storehouse for food (2 Kings 17:9; 18:8; 1 Chronicles 27:25; Isaiah 5:2; Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1). On the top of the tower was a booth in which, at harvest time, the whole family of the watchman could live (Isaiah 1:8; Amos 9:11). Such a booth was used as the symbol of protection (Psalm 27:5) or ‘Strong Tower”.

Watchmen were also employed to guard a city. During the night they mounted guards on the ramparts, or went "about the city," patrolling the streets with lanterns (Psalm 127:1; Song of Solomon 3:3; Isaiah 62:8). Besides protecting the city and its inhabitants from violence, watchmen were required to callout the hours of the night (2 Samuel 18:24-27; Song of Solomon 5:7; Isaiah 21:11,12). In Britain, before the days of policemen or Bobbies, watchmen used to patrol the streets during the night. George Sinclair writes of an old lady who remembered a watchman in Edinburgh calling out, "Four o'clock, and a fine frosty morning."

Prophets and teachers are referred to as watchmen, whose duty it is to warn God's people (Isaiah 22:11; 52:8; 62:6; Jeremiah 6:17). Twice over God said to Ezekiel, "I have set thee a watchman" (3:17; 33:2-7). Every preacher of the Gospel is a watchman, divinely trained to descry the enemies of men's souls at a distance. How apt are the words from Isaiah? “May we be delivered from the company of "blind" watchmen the prophet speaks about! (Isaiah 56:10).

In this particular way I believe I serve as a watchman of the truth when I teach, speak or write on the truths of Scripture and when I compare the evils and sins of the world today to those millennia ago in the Bible. When I call people out for their grievous infractions and affronts against Holy God it isn’t to embarrass them it is to make them realize what they are really doing. Most have no idea. The truth is God wishes every child of His to function as a "watchman." I men, isn’t watching metaphorically used of moral alertness? The word Paul employs here νῆφε / nephe means to be vigilant or constantly alert and suggests one who is watchful enough to possess a treasure.

But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. ~ 2 Timothy 4:5

John Bunyan in his book The Holy War describes the town of Mansoul with its five gates, captured by Diabolus and recaptured by Emmanuel. Over every gateway was a tower, and the last word of Emmanuel's parting address was "watch." The pilgrim is to stand guard over Ear-gate (hearing), over Eye-gate (sight), over Lip-gate (speech).

"Set a watch, O Lord before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3).

The Moravians when they crossed over the frontier of Austria into Saxony that they might have freedom to worship God, laid out a small settlement for themselves, and called it Herrn Hut, "The Lord's Watch."

The Christian must be vigilant to guard against spiritual foes and dangers. Watchfulness must be the keyword in a world as upsidedown and depraved as ours now is. Christians must be constantly watchful against the temptations of Satan (Ephesians 6:11).The allurements of the world (Psalm 39:1; Mark 8:15) and the erroneous doctrines of false cults, and also against whatever would hinder our holiness and spiritual progress.

God's watchmen are to watch for God also, not just dangers and evil. Be careful to observe the signs. To see the teachings of providence (Psalm 5:8).To see the fulfillment of prophecies (Revelation 16:15). To see the righteous deliverance from trouble (Psalm 130). To be on the lookout for the salvation of the souls of men (Hebrews 13:7). The declared death and judgment (Mark 13:37).

Most importantly of all we must keep watch for signs the promised Savior who will be returning from Heaven (1 Thessalonians 5:6) and his actual return.