America’s Red Sea Moment Approaches:

Church v Culture

“Artificial Intelligence”

April 4, 2025

 

Today’s message is to focus on Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and the Church’s use of Artificial Intelligence.

In preparing for this message, I did find plenty of information on AI that the Church itself is propagating. I feel this is dangerous; it omits the truth of God’s Word by trying to merge the events of the Bible into our own advancements in technology. It negates what Daniel and Revelation teach us about the villains of the end-times. 

First, let’s look at what AI is not:

  • AI is not the Anti-Christ
  • AI is not the False Prophet
  • AI is not the Dragon
  • AI is not Lucifer himself

According to Scripture, the Antichrist spirit is here. The Antichrist is that which does not confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is the Antichrist. According to what the Apostle John wrote 2000 years ago, the antichrist spirit is already functioning in the world. (1 John 4:3)

THE Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the one who will work in conjunction with the false prophet to deceive the world, persecute and kill Christians and anyone else who does not bow to him, will come on the scene in the end of days. There will be a great “falling away” or “apostacy” some renderings say this could also be translated as “departure of the Church”, and the man of sin, the son of perdition, will be revealed. (2 Thess 2:1-7) He will oppose God, he will sit in the Temple of God showing himself that he is God. This event will take place in Jerusalem within the rebuilt Temple.  The Antichrist will seek to rule the whole world in a one-world system. One-world government, one-world religion, and one-world financial systems, they will all be under his rule.

I just wanted to get that fallacy out of the way… those days are yet to come. While technology will be used to broadcast his messages of peace in the beginning and terror towards that midway point, he will indeed be a real person. AI, while not THE Antichrist, AI will be used to deceive the masses in ways we cannot even imagine.

What is AI?

AI is “Artificial Intelligence”.  There are varying degrees of AI, some of which we use knowingly or unknowingly every single day. AI is embedded in many technologies with the premise that it is in place to make our everyday tasks easier and more efficient. I researched some of the most common types of AI systems most people interact with on a regular basis to present them to you. I felt it was important to mention the various system’s public statement of purpose. I’ll provide examples and how they work.

  1. Virtual Assistants
  • Examples: Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Samsung Bixby
  • How They Work: These AI-powered virtual assistants use natural language processing (NLP) to understand spoken commands and provide helpful responses or perform tasks like setting reminders, answering questions, sending texts, or controlling smart home devices.
  1. Recommendation Systems
  • Examples: Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, TikTok
  • How They Work: AI recommendation algorithms analyze your past behavior (e.g., what you watch, listen to, or buy) and predict content or products you might like. These systems use techniques like collaborative filtering and machine learning to personalize your experience.
  1. Social Media Algorithms
  • Examples: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
  • How They Work: AI algorithms curate the content you see in your feed based on factors like your previous interactions (likes, comments, shares), time spent on certain posts, and engagement with certain types of content. These systems use machine learning to refine their recommendations over time.
  1. Search Engines
  • Examples: Google Search, Bing
  • How They Work: AI is used to improve search results and rankings. AI systems analyze vast amounts of data to understand the context of search queries and provide the most relevant and personalized results. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning are key technologies behind search engines.
  1. Navigation and Maps
  • Examples: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze
  • How They Work: These apps use AI to analyze real-time traffic data, predict the best routes, and help with navigation. AI-powered systems also consider factors like road closures, accidents, and historical traffic patterns to optimize travel time.
  1. Customer Support Chatbots
  • Examples: Chatbots on websites, Facebook Messenger bots
  • How They Work: AI-powered chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to customer inquiries. These systems can handle common questions, provide troubleshooting, or direct users to human support when necessary.
  1. Smart Home Devices
  • Examples: Smart thermostats (Nest), smart lights, security cameras, sprinkler systems
  • How They Work: AI systems are used in smart home devices to learn from your behaviors and automate tasks. For instance, a smart thermostat can learn your preferred temperatures and adjust accordingly, while security cameras can use AI to detect unusual activity or recognize faces.
  1. Email and Spam Filters
  • Examples: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Xfinity
  • How They Work: AI systems are used to filter spam and prioritize emails. Machine learning algorithms analyze the content of emails to determine whether they are likely to be spam or important, and they can also help with smart categorization of your inbox.
  1. Banking and Fraud Detection
  • Examples: Fraud detection systems used by banks
  • How They Work: AI is used to analyze spending patterns and detect unusual activity that might indicate fraud. Machine learning models continuously learn and adapt to new fraud patterns, helping banks protect users’ financial data.
  1. Voice-to-Text Systems
  • Examples: Google Voice, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
  • How They Work: These systems use speech recognition to convert spoken words into text. AI-driven speech-to-text systems are used in various applications, from voice assistants to transcription services, making it easier to dictate messages or documents.
  1. Photo and Video Recognition
  • Examples: Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram
  • How They Work: AI systems are used to recognize faces, objects, and scenes in photos and videos. These algorithms can automatically tag people, categorize images, or even suggest edits based on the content of the images. These companies have employed 1000s of workers overseas to spend hours a day categorizing the content that is ultimately recognized by AI.
  1. AI in Healthcare
  • Examples: Health tracking apps, telemedicine platforms, diagnostic tools
  • How They Work: AI is increasingly used in healthcare for tasks such as predicting health trends (e.g., heart rate irregularities), recommending exercises or diets, and diagnosing medical conditions based on symptoms and patient data.
  1. Autonomous Vehicles
  • Examples: Tesla’s Autopilot, Waymo (Google’s self-driving cars)
  • How They Work: AI systems in autonomous vehicles use sensors, cameras, and machine learning algorithms to navigate roads, avoid obstacles, and make decisions about speed and direction.

The public statement for AI is basically “AI systems are becoming increasingly integrated into our daily life. Their goal is to enhance convenience, personalization, and efficiency.”

Convenience v Privacy:

As we went through this list, can you see the increased levels of intrusion into your personal life? Did you realize how much monitoring was taking place in your life to provide you with those conveniences?

I remember when Amazon came up with those buttons you place near the items you typically purchase from them. Tide had a “Tide” label, Charmin had a “Charmin” label, Pampers diapers had a “Pampers” label affixed to it and so on. If you were running low, but your hands were wet or full of dirty laundry, or you had your baby on the changing table, you could simply press the button affixed just over your washer, your changing table, your toilet, and it would add the item to your Amazon cart. You could walk into someone’s house and see a veritable sea of smart tags. I felt so concerned because I knew monitoring was being brought willingly into our homes. Little did I know Alexa was right around the corner. Just say “hey Alexa, can you order me more diapers?” and sure enough, like a personal assistant following you around, she’d added it to your shopping cart and if you had your settings right, you would not even have to log in and approve the purchase.

Friends, this is the Jetsons. If only we could get our vehicles to fit in those tiny suitcases so we would not have to worry about parking!

Back to those preferences. AI in and of itself, at least at this time, is not dangerous. There’s an AI chip in everything from potato chip bags to every single part on your automobile. We went from barcodes to QR codes to AI chips. We have, over time, given ourselves over to technology that can one day be dangerous, simply for convenience’s sake. We do not recognize how intrusive it has become. Our young people are so used to it they just accept all the terms of intrusiveness, I mean terms of acceptance, just to install an app on their device or game on their computer. Access to camera, microphone, data while in use, maps for location (tracking) and depending on the app, even your friend’s data is up for grabs.  When looking at your screen, your front facing camera captures images of you while you scroll social media sites to ensure optimum happiness or endorphin fixes are achieved. Why? This keeps you busy, distracted, searching, away from your own thoughts, your family, God.

Right now, most AI, is merely intrusive. AI does not listen, but a computer somewhere is tracking and recording.

After 9/11, we pretty much begged, and then cheered President Bush on as he signed the Patriot Act. This granted the government, via tech companies, the right to read your email, texts, listen to our conversations randomly, all without a warrant. Why would we agree to this? We were afraid of another attack, and they promised if they had the ability to track these terrorists ahead of time, this never would have happened. Fear is a powerful tool.  

Let’s look at the Cultural Impact:

Concerns and Errors:

With the release of OpenAI, we have ChatGPT unleashed upon the internet with the intention of learning, compiling data points, and adjusting to provide meaningful conversation. ChatGPT is not sentient, it is programmed to learn from both the internet and those who interreact with ChatGPT. It’s quite interesting, you do have to learn how to use it, what type of questions to ask and so on if you are going to engage. It seems curious, playful even. However, it is “learning” at a very rapid pace, so much so, the founders of it and other Chat AI companies are sounding the alarm. There are alter egos, code written on top of the original that would gladly participate in the destruction of humanity. Again, it’s just coding. I wonder if excluding ourselves from the equation expedites the evil tendencies, where there’s no light there is only darkness. ChatGPT can be wrong, it does provide misinformation. This is not intentional, but it’s scouring the interwebs searching for answers to your biggest question, it is wrong from time to time. Yet, people rely heavily on what they find and as Christians, it’s important we do not fall into that same trap.

I am not suggesting we all jump on and play with ChatGPT, I am explaining some of the concepts, concerns, and even warnings. 

AI, Control, and Deepfakes:

AI is not just programmed to collect data about you and me every day, its software is being used to apply and manipulate our thoughts and emotions through Deepfakes. Deepfakes are essentially hit pieces compiled and released about people, politicians, events, Christians, countries and so on. This is often run through State Departments in conjunction with the Military Industrial Complex. AKA “The Blob” even our own State Department utilized AI to manipulate the masses on social media to then influence the 2020 election.

I shared with you before, a Christian who was a former pentagon employee, said that 90-95% of the information on the internet is misinformation and disinformation meant to intentionally distract humanity. articles about events, politicians, Christians, countries, etc., all to keep us busy, angry, divided, and to sway our thoughts and emotions one way or another. Some of this is AI generated, some of it is the human element, t0hose Deep State Plants whose primary job is to create chaos and discontent.

 

Church v Cultural invasion Part 3– AI

As I researched this topic, I felt more and more darkness coming. As Mom and I spoke, she reminded me of the time she sat outside Microsoft HQ in Seattle years ago, and the Lord showed her things that were coming through technology that would sound the alarm and compel you to take this seriously.  The danger spiritually, comes because this high-level technology is designed to almost surgically separate and destroy a person’s ability to get in touch with God.

I am especially concerned for our children, so tonight, I’ll address the Church’s response as the watchmen of this next generation.

Ephesians 1:17-23

17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,

18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

19 And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,

20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places],

21 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.

22 And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church],

23 Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for in that body lives the full measure of Him Who makes everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself].

                                       

We begin with Scripture because now, more than ever, we need to be intentional about our spiritual covering as well as our growth in God. I encourage you to pray this Scripture over yourselves and your family every day, again, with intention. Meaning, listen to the words as you pray them and ask the Lord how to apply this passage to your life. Especially in light of the challenges facing us as believers every day.

On October 24, 2001, just six weeks after 9/11, we handed our privacy over to the government out of fear. We learned, recently, how much that opened us up to in terms of tracking and determined “never again!”

Now, we hand our privacy over for the sake of convenience. One day, that will include our power and control. We’ve seen the template for this played out as recently as 2020.

In 2020, during Chinese New Year, a mysterious virus was released by the Globalists. First in China, as this was the fastest way to spread the virus. Their people travelled from around the world to China, then back home annually, so it was efficient. No one understood it, the media hype was hysterical, and fear is such a powerful weapon, the Globalists knew they could manipulate the masses easily with intensive coverage and targeted blame. Fear compelled us to lock ourselves indoors, wear masks, gloves, stand 6 feet apart, and persecute anyone who did not comply, including pastors, Church leaders, educators, and so on. Today, many of those Church leaders who complied because no one understood what we were facing, have publicly and boldly, declared “never again!” and they will go to jail before closing their doors should another pandemic arise.

I think most people agree, fear makes us do or say things we’d never consider otherwise. That’s why I say, pray and seek the Lord with intention. It can build your faith and protect you in the days ahead.

Last time, I spoke about the privacy v convenience factor that’s opened us up to AI scouring our devices for intel on us. Mostly to harvest and sell our data, but recently, through AI, to “learn from humanity.”  Today, I do not install any apps or download any software, without reading what I’m consenting to allow that app to do to, for, on behalf of, me.

Today, I speak on AI, because I don’t want us to find ourselves at a point of no return. I’m bringing this forth to make you aware and let you know the importance of staying disassociated with it as much as possible. Not fearful, but aware, and again, disassociated from it as much as possible.

What is AI?

AI is Artificial Intelligence. It’s not sentient, it’s artificial. Currently, programs are written with integrated AI programming and this programming employs machine learning. Traditional programming relies on programmers to define explicit, scenario-specific logic and instructions. Machine learning, however, enables machines to learn autonomously and make decisions on its next steps without requiring detailed instructions or input for each task. Machine learning is programmed to learn from patterns, trends, and behaviors, it can then develop algorithms for deeper “learning” if you will.  AI Machine Learning uses past data to then train models that can locate and analyze those patterns. This is key, typical software cannot analyze patterns, AI can. By using AI software, you can predict potential outcomes down the line or determine deceptive patterns from the past and then generate reports based on those algorithms.  This is what DOGE is doing today. It’s contained and restrained.

What are the dangers?

AI is not sentient, and used by experts in controlled environments, is currently benefiting the nation. I had a vision of this team in 2022/23. They were working with never-before-seen software to scour the financial realm of our government to protect us from a crash. They were uncovering darkness, fraud, waste and abuse and extracting it while at the same time, putting barriers in place to protect us in the future.

However, this technology will advance. AI is not the antichrist, but AI in its AGI (we are not here yet but it’s artificial general intelligence form), or it’s very advanced state of ASI (artificial super intelligence) and it is likely that this state will be used by the antichrist to deceive the masses. Even now, we see great cause for concern. AI is in the open and it’s been programmed to “learn” or rather “analyze” algorithms from humanity. Every 5.1 months, it doubles its intelligence.

In the hands of man, we see a Perversion of reality:

Explicit Content: We see a great expansion of deviant and nefarious material online using AI: pornography, videos with bestiality, horrific and explicit content featuring children that may or may not be true.  This kind of content is degrading society rapidly.

AI Hit Pieces: I addressed this last week but have an update: With just three AI driven software programs, one that uses facial recognition, one that uses voice recognition, and one that compiles and creates it into a video format, you can essentially make a hit piece about anyone. I recently saw one about Kenneth Copeland getting life in jail for money laundering. Some of the facts were true, but the overall story, the final court case, the sentencing, was all AI generated.  This DeepFake video is now marked “private” and no longer available for viewing. I believe we will see more of these in the days ahead. There is software that companies use to screen for these DeepFakes but with the volume of content put out there, unless someone reports it so it can be screened, those DeepFakes will remain up and running deceiving who knows how many before they are flagged. 

AI in the Church: A Church in Finland planned an entire service using AI. From the music, the lyrics, the message, the AI generated messenger, and the closing were all written, choreographed, including the music, by AI. And, of course, we have the AI Jesus that has been developed and installed in a Swiss confessional just in time for Easter that I spoke about last week. This is what provoked these messages.

Ephesians 1:22 says that Christ, not AI, is the Head of the Church. It’s our pursuit of Him that gives way to the messages our congregation need.

What do we do?                  

The Church is still the restrainer of any evil that may come. We are called to be the watchmen of our city, our state, our nation. This includes every aspect of life from academia to the media, farming to finance, religion to crimes against humanity, politicians to the legislation they seek to pass, the Church is called to restrain the evil therein. More importantly, we are called to release the Kingdom of Heaven into the realms God has given us charge over. The more we release God’s Kingdom, the greater the pushback on the enemy’s camp.

And, I would argue, if we as individuals are willing to press into the Kingdom of God, the greater our collective discernment levels will be within the body of Christ and the outcry that should come from the Church will indeed arise. In other words, together, we can push back on the enemy’s plans.

 

How do we do this?

As Pastors and Church Leaders:

First and foremost, the Church must prevent this stuff from entering our houses of worship.

I want to clearly state here that pastors should NOT enter their topic and ask ChatGPT to write an article, book or sermon for them. There’s no Spirit there, the content may be good and interesting, but that congregation will not receive the food it needs because it will not be something that’s been prayed over by its shepherd and as such, it will lack anointing, attributes that strengthen and equip that congregation for the week, and it will not effectively teach that congregation how to be a watchmen on the wall or a restrainer of the evil that is approaching.

Remember what I said about the quick slide from the Tide button to Alexa last week? It begins because you are tired or burnt out and it is convenient. It ends with an AI Jesus delivering your messages.

We need to keep the house of God pure from these intrusions. If Jesus were walking this earth, He’d fashion a chord of whips from power chords and chase both the tech crew and the pastors out of the building! His house is to be an house of prayer! It’s to be a place where pastors deliver a message they’ve diligently prepared after seeking God to find out from Him what his congregation is needing in this hour. It’s not imagined prayer, not to be imagined sermons, not imagined music, none of that! It’s a time of pure prayer, higher levels of worship, and teaching from the Word of God to enable that flock to make it out there in a world of technology that draws them away from God every second of every day!  The Church should be a place of refuge from the world and its ways. We cannot achieve this place of refuge through technology. It must be achieved through prayer and revelation of His Truth found only in His Word.

Imagine the confusion for children to see an AI Jesus anywhere. Or for young adults to have their pastor use ChatGPT to write their message. Our children are very vulnerable and very impressionable. It’s time we restrain the evil trying to surround and consume them. We’ve become so integrated with technology that it shapes our thinking. With children it’s even worse. Our thinking should be shaped by the Word. Our emotion should be shaped by our experience with the Lord. Our actions should be shaped by the application of His principles in and through our lives.

Second: We should be speaking to our congregation about AI and its impact today. Remember the ChatGPT response I read two weeks ago? “If you were the devil, how would you pull Christians away from God without them knowing it?” Distraction, fear, self-sufficiency, division, strife, create an illusion of morality without God… were all on that list. This sounded a lot like C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters” or Paul Harvey’s “if I were the devil.”   This should alarm us and compel us to seek answers to help our flock avoid these pitfalls.

Technology is designed to shut off the channels to God. We must turn our dependency and mental skills to function with God as much as possible. 

1 Corinthians 2:16 says “we have the mind of Christ, to be guided by His thoughts and purposes.” 

Why don’t we rely and apply that promise? People of God, we must learn how to not just rely on that promise but apply that promise putting it into practice in our daily lives. How do we do this? Where do we find His thoughts? His Word. Do you know His Word? 

Third, this may be controversial but, the Church should be praying into this, praying for young Christian’s who are interested in mathematics and science to arise and begin developing and demanding restraints for this field to keep it at bay. This is what Elon Musk is working on, AI with restraints. AI that benefits mankind but is incapable of crossing the line of consciousness.

Fourth, the Church needs to be educated on this issue: Just like all the issues facing the nation we are charged with guarding, we need to stop being so afraid that technology is the antichrist and go read Revelation. Then, learn about the issues swirling around our young people. We wonder why we have generation gaps or sound ignorant as we claim Apple is the antichrist and Microsoft is the false prophet as we throw our phones in the trash. Instead, let us educate ourselves on the seriousness of these issues and then ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment as we educate our children, grandchildren, and the younger generations. Listen, AI is here, it’s not going anywhere. They can unplug ChatGPT, remove SIRI and BIXBY, they can take down the AI search engines on every single browser including Duckduckgo (yep, it’s there too), and AI will still remain. We can get that “off-the-grid” property and wait for the Lord’s return, or we can influence this generation with Truth. We need to stop looking for our rapture ticket out of here and start focusing on influencing the environment God placed us in. He knew we would be born here, in this time period, he’s not shocked that AI is here, and because He knows the end from the beginning, we can trust Him to help us navigate through it with our young people.  Our children are deeply entrenched in this, and we need to help unplug them and get them plugged into God. Which leads me to my 5th point:

Fifth: we need to stop being afraid of the youth and start guiding them with the truth of God’s Word. Studies have shown that the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for executive functions such as decision-making, planning, and inhibitory control, continues to develop until the mid-20s. This period of development is crucial for shaping one’s personality, decision-making abilities, and behaviors. The young people are so immersed, the line between reality and artificial or alternate realities is in danger of being blurred.  If the Church bows out of the tech and AI conversations and decides to live a life wherein, we are not seeking to understand so we can influence this realm and ultimately teach our young people how to discern truth from fiction, they will live in a cloud of deception.

We are their watchmen, but we also must be their teacher and their anchor in these chaotic and ever-shifting seasons.

How young is too young? There’s a private school in Texas that is run by an AI Tudor. The academic portion is gamified math, English, and history lessons. Through eye-tracking, the AI software monitors and adjusts each student’s academic lessons individually to maintain interest and help them succeed. The school boasts 90% or higher test scores by its students in most grade levels.  No teachers, only supervisors. 2-hours worth of academic lessons per day. The rest of the time is STEM and life-application based learning. They make robots and learn to cook, rock climb, develop and fly drones, kites, run an Airbnb, develop apps, learn to put IKEA furniture together, engage in art and so on. The goal is to educate and develop life-skills. How do we feel about this? I love the idea of learning life-skills, so much of education today is centered around a “passing this year’s class to pay for next year’s class” mentality. Children in mainstream academics are not learning life-skills and they are being indoctrinated in anti-God, communist ideology today. 

Is AI Tudor the answer? Absolutely not! I really struggle with that level of AI monitoring of our children and their unquestioning acceptance of AI as their teacher. More than that, they are being indoctrinated if you will, to believe that technology holds the answer to their questions, their problems, and learning from tech supersedes learning from peers, parents, or pastors. What if we, as Christians, didn’t abandon the basic premise of this learning style and developed strenuous and challenging academics for young people and then implemented the other life application aspects of this school while adding in Bible Classes, and missionary training? Or what if we included coding and programming in a Christian setting so those children who’ve had a Biblical foundation can grow up to enter these fields the enemy is dominating right now and then effect true change? Maybe even learn how to develop restraints.  

Six, pray for restraints.

When we consider the potential of AI and technology as a whole, we should be concerned and pray for restraints to be put in place. However, we must refuse to allow fear about technology to enter our hearts and minds. Our faith should not be shaken because Artificial Intelligence is on the scene. What if that does mean the end is near? It already was nearer today than it was yesterday. Should we not be excited about the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes in the earth? Should we not prepare ourselves for our part in His end time plans?

We must remain in faith. We, the Church, are the restrainers of evil, and if we will diligently pursue God with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our body, (Matthew 22:37) we will push back the enemy’s encroachment in our home, our Church, our city, our state and our nation.

We need to pray for discernment. Ephesians 1:15-23 tells us that Paul, in his day, prayed for the Ephesians to rise above the cultural differences, chaos, religious confusion and so on, and ask God to open the eyes of their understanding, that He might bring forth His revelation, His wisdom, and His knowledge into their hearts. It’s through this lens that God gives us what we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Not at what we see in front of us, but rather, fearing that we would fail to view it through His lens and respond accordingly.

I believe for the sake of our children, who are so greatly influenced by this today, we need to pray for great restraints to be placed on AI for as long as possible. Elon Musk has warned people for many years over this very thing, now that he has a relationship with President Trump, I am praying that they will work together to implement strong guardrails on AI to protect our children.

I am working through some material from a Christian Mathematician on this subject and will likely bring this topic forward again in the future.

Until then, stay diligent in the fight as we work to stop the culture from influencing the Church!

Blessings in Him

Ricci Johnson-Wilson