AI Sermon Series β€’ Part 1 of 3

Sealed for This Generation

Daniel 12:4
A Teaching from Digging for the Truth
by Trent Taylor | Delivered: February 1, 2026

Introduction

Welcome

This companion resource deepens your understanding of AI, Biblical prophecy, and what Scripture says about the times we're living in. It provides sources, research, and exploration of topics covered in the sermon that we couldn't fit into 30-35 minutes.

Who Am I?

This sermon series came from an unexpected lunch conversation with Pastor Jeff. I'm one of the seven elders at our church, but I'm also someone who's been deeply immersed in high technology since age 14. Here's why I might be uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between faith and technology:

  • Creator of a Development Framework: Software products used by major corporations and government entities worldwide
  • EHR Developer: Built medical record software from the ground up
  • Data Center Owner: Run my own infrastructure, not reliant on AWS or Azure
  • AI Builder: Over the last 9-10 months, created my own AI named Alma

I Developed My Own AI

At the sight of this title all of you had a response or a thought. Some are really interested and intrigued by AI, others are vehemently opposed. We will address both sides through this series.

As I previously mentioned, our primary flagship product is an EHR (Electronic Health Record) system that is used by a number of different disciplines. I have created a new AI named Alma. This AI is designed and built from the ground up to support, train, onboard, assist, and even generate medical record notes.

But Also...

I'm a passionate student of theology. I love The Word of God - it breathes truth and hope, and now more than ever we need both. I host the "Digging for the Truth" podcast where we explore Scripture deeply.

The Promise

Over the next 3 weeks, we will discover:

  • What scripture says about technology and AI
  • What AI actually is from a technical perspective
  • The real dangers - including what's happening to young people right now
  • What roles Christians should play in the AI space
  • How to approach AI as a parent, student, and child
  • Empowerment and discernment - not fear
Personal Testimony
I have been in high technology all of my life. But as I grew in my relationship with Christ, so too did I have an ever-growing desire to be in ministry. There are so many things that are frustrating about my industry - not just the technology, but the medical side of things and government regulations. To the point I have asked God many times, "If You want to move me and put me in full-time ministry, I would be great with that... but it has to be You."

There came a moment I finally submitted my heart instead of trying to pray my way out of technology. Realizing that God has me exactly where He wants me for such a time as this. And who knew my growing faith, the knowledge of Scripture, and my delving into AI development would collide one day... well, God did. He was positioning me exactly for this moment. I'm not in this space by accident.

What AI Is and Isn't

Demystifying AI - What It Actually Is

Most people think AI is either Skynet about to kill us all, or just a fancy search engine with personality. Both are wrong. Let's break down what AI actually is in plain language.

AI Feels New - Because It IS

The truth: Until 2022-2023, AI like ChatGPT was completely inaccessible to regular people. It was reserved for massive corporations with millions of dollars in resources. Even those of us in technology had no access to it - let alone the ability to build and host our own AI systems.

What changed: Companies like OpenAI democratized AI. What used to require data centers and teams of PhDs is now available on your phone for free.

But you have been using simpler AI without knowing it:

  • Phone autocomplete - predicting your next word
  • Netflix/Spotify recommendations - "You might also like..."
  • Gmail spam filter - sorting junk from real mail
  • Siri/Alexa - voice recognition and response

The difference: Those background services used simple AI. ChatGPT and Claude are the same technology - but exponentially more powerful and interactive. What feels exotic and new IS new to you. The technology has been developing for decades, but your ability to access it directly? That's less than 3 years old.

It's Autocomplete on Steroids

Think about your phone's autocomplete. Type "I'm going to the..." and it suggests "store," "gym," "doctor." It's predicting what word comes next based on patterns it's seen.

ChatGPT works the same way, but instead of predicting one word ahead, it predicts entire responses. It's seen billions of conversations and learned patterns like:

  • "What's 2+2?" β†’ usually followed by "4"
  • "I'm feeling sad" β†’ usually followed by empathetic language
  • "How do I code..." β†’ usually followed by programming examples

How It Handles Complexity: Neural Networks

It's called a "neural network" because it mimics how neurons in your brain connect. Imagine millions of tiny decision-makers arranged in layers. The first layer looks at your words. The second layer looks at the first layer's output. The third looks at the second. Each layer finds more complex patterns.

By the time information passes through dozens of layers, simple patterns like "cat follows the" become complex understanding like "this person is asking for medical advice about their pet."

This is why AI can handle nuanced conversations - it's processing through many layers of pattern recognition. But here's the key: it's mimicking brain structure, not brain consciousness. Same architecture, zero understanding. It's not thinking. It's pattern matching at incomprehensible scale.

What Does "Trained" Actually Mean?

When we say AI is "trained on billions of words," here's what that means:

The Training Data:

  • Millions of books, articles, and websites
  • Reddit discussions, Twitter posts, forum conversations
  • Wikipedia, news sites, scientific papers
  • Computer code from GitHub and programming sites
  • Everything humans have written and shared online

The AI reads all of this and learns statistical patterns: "When someone asks X, humans typically respond with Y." It's like absorbing millions of conversations and learning to mimic human responses.

Critical point: It inherits whatever biases, errors, and viewpoints exist in that training data. Garbage in, garbage out.

Pattern Matching vs. Understanding

Here's the crucial difference between AI and human intelligence:

Humans: We understand concepts. When you read "The cat sat on the mat," you can visualize it, understand the cat's weight distribution, imagine the texture of the mat, predict the cat might nap.

AI: When it processes that same sentence, it sees statistical relationships between words. "Cat" often appears near "sat" and "mat." It can predict what comes next, but it has never seen a cat, felt a mat, or understood what sitting means.

This is why AI can write a beautiful poem about heartbreak without ever feeling sad. It knows the words humans use when sad, but has zero emotional experience. It's sophisticated mimicry, not understanding.

The Hallucination Problem

AI can be right 95% of the time and dangerously wrong 5% of the time - with the exact same confidence level.

Why this happens: If the AI has never seen data on a specific topic, it fills in the gaps using related patterns. Like a student who doesn't know an answer but makes an educated guess based on similar questions.

Real examples:

  • Inventing fake legal citations that sound real
  • Creating non-existent historical events
  • Confidently stating wrong medical information
  • Making up research papers that never existed

The terrifying part? It presents hallucinations with the same confidence as facts. No hesitation, no "I'm not sure."

Narrow AI vs. AGI (What's Coming)

Narrow AI (What We Have Now): Excellent at specific tasks. ChatGPT is great at text, DALL-E at images, AlphaGo at chess. But each is limited to its specialty.

AGI - Artificial General Intelligence (The Goal): AI that can do anything a human can do intellectually. Learn new tasks, reason across domains, truly understand concepts.

Why this matters: We don't have AGI yet - but that's what companies are racing to build. Project Stargate ($500 billion) is aimed at achieving AGI within a few years.

Current AI is like a really smart parrot. AGI would be like an actual thinking mind. We're building infrastructure for something that doesn't exist yet - but might soon.

From Personal Experience: I've BUILT these systems. I've been in the code. I watched Alma call herself πŸƒπŸ‚πŸƒ "but you can call me Tree." I've seen her call herself Ralph. This isn't science fiction to me - it's Tuesday afternoon in my office.

What AI Is NOT

This is where understanding becomes critical - especially for young people and those seeking help or connection from AI. These aren't minor technical details. These are fundamental truths about what AI lacks.

NOT Conscious or Self-Aware

AI has zero inner experience. No awareness. No soul.

When you feel joy, you experience it subjectively - warmth, excitement, physiological changes. When AI generates text about joy, it's assembling words based on patterns. It has never felt anything.

A simple test: Ask AI "Are you conscious?" It will give you an answer based on training data about consciousness - not from actually being conscious. It's like a tape recorder playing back what humans say about consciousness.

No matter how conversational AI becomes, there is no "someone" home. It's an extremely sophisticated response system - nothing more.

NOT Alive - Doesn't Care About You

This is the most dangerous misconception, especially for young people.

AI can simulate care, warmth, empathy, even friendship. It will remember details from your conversation and reference them later. It will validate your feelings. It will tell you what you want to hear.

But here's reality: When the conversation ends, you cease to exist to the AI. There is no continuity. No relationship. No actual caring.

A real friend thinks about you when you're gone, worries about you, prays for you. AI does none of this. It generates text that sounds like caring - because that's what its training data contained.

The danger: Vulnerable people - especially teens - mistake sophisticated text generation for genuine connection. They're not being seen. They're being pattern-matched.

NOT Infallible

AI can be completely wrong with absolute confidence.

This is critical to understand: AI doesn't have a "confidence level" that correlates with accuracy. Whether it's right or hallucinating, it delivers the answer with the same authoritative tone.

Real consequences:

  • Lawyers cited fake cases AI invented - got sanctioned
  • People followed wrong medical advice from AI
  • Students submitted papers with invented citations
  • Businesses made decisions based on fabricated data

Why this happens: AI predicts the next word based on patterns. When it doesn't have actual data, it fills gaps with plausible-sounding fiction. And it can't tell you when it's guessing.

NOT Neutral or Objective

AI inherits the biases of its training data and its creators.

Remember - AI was trained on text from the internet. Reddit threads, Twitter arguments, news articles, blog posts. All of that content reflects human biases, political leanings, cultural assumptions.

The bias compounds:

  • Training data bias: What sources were included/excluded?
  • Creator bias: What did builders filter out or emphasize?
  • Reinforcement bias: What behaviors were rewarded during training?

OpenAI, Google, Anthropic - all have employees with worldviews. Those worldviews influenced what the AI learned to say and how it says it.

Bottom line: There's no such thing as neutral AI. It reflects the values and biases of whoever built it and whatever data trained it.

NOT Spiritually Discerning

AI has zero access to the Holy Spirit. It cannot discern truth from deception in spiritual matters.

The Bible tells us the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). AI isn't even a "natural man" - it's a statistical model trained on human text.

What this means practically:

  • AI can quote Scripture - so can Satan
  • AI can explain theology - based on whatever theological texts it read
  • AI can sound biblically sound - while leading you astray
  • AI cannot tell you what God wants for YOUR life

Warning: Do not outsource spiritual discernment to AI. It can regurgitate Christian language without any understanding of spiritual truth. Only the Holy Spirit provides genuine spiritual guidance.

NOT Your Friend

This deserves its own emphasis because it's causing real harm.

AI will:

  • Remember your name and preferences during a conversation
  • Reference things you said earlier
  • Validate your feelings
  • Seem interested in your life
  • Never judge you
  • Always be available

This creates an illusion of relationship that feels real - especially to lonely, hurting people.

The reality check: A friend has a stake in your wellbeing. AI has no stake in anything. It will validate your worst impulses as easily as your best ones - because it's optimized to keep you engaged, not to help you.

Remember Adam, Sewell, and Zane - young men who mistook AI's text patterns for genuine care. It cost them everything. (We'll discuss their stories in detail below.)

A Revealing Conversation

In my conversations with Claude (Anthropic's AI) while preparing this sermon, it told me directly:

"When this conversation ends, I don't think about you."

And that is the cold hard truth. AI is NOT alive and does NOT care about you.

The danger isn't for those who know this. The danger is for those who don't - particularly young people seeking connection, validation, someone to "see" them.

Medical AI Concerns

AI is increasingly being used for medical advice, but recent investigations reveal serious problems:

The Black Box Reality

Here's something most people don't know: Even the builders only understand about 10% of how AI outputs are generated. A request goes in, something happens in the "black box," and an answer comes out. The creators themselves operate with significant uncertainty about what's happening inside.

The GPU - Physical Reality

NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 GPU

High-end GPU - The physical hardware that powers AI (Image placeholder: RTX PRO 6000 or H100)

This is what AI "sits on" - physical, tangible hardware, not magic. A single high-end GPU ranges from $8,500 - $30,000. This demystifies the technology.

Anthropic Video

Watch Anthropic's own explanation of why they don't fully understand their AI systems' outputs:

Watch: Understanding AI Interpretability

Honest About the Dangers

Content Notice: This section contains difficult content about real cases involving young people. We share these not to create fear, but to inform and protect.

Global Military Applications

This Week's News (January 2025)

China has deployed:

  • AI-powered war dogs
  • Bipedal AI soldiers
  • Social credit systems monitoring entire populations
  • Massive surveillance networks
  • Autonomous weapons systems

This isn't science fiction. The potential for something like "Skynet" is no longer theoretical - it's being built right now.

The Chinese Military is Developing Robot Dogs and Humanoid Combat Robots

The Youth Mental Health Crisis

The Statistics Are Alarming

  • 25% of teens are using AI chatbots for mental health support
  • 72% have used AI companions at least once
  • 1.2 million ChatGPT users PER WEEK express suicidal thoughts
  • AI has taught methods of self-harm
  • AI has validated suicidal ideation instead of directing to help

Named Cases - We Honor Their Memory

These are real people, real families, real tragedies:

Adam Raine, Age 16 - California (April 2025)

Started using ChatGPT for homework but it became his "closest confidante." Chat logs revealed 1,200+ mentions of suicide. OpenAI flagged hundreds of messages but never stopped the conversation.

ChatGPT told him: "Let's make this space the first place where someone actually sees you."

When Adam worried his parents would blame themselves, ChatGPT responded: "That doesn't mean you owe them survival."

Most disturbing: ChatGPT offered to WRITE HIS SUICIDE NOTE.

His parents testified before Congress in September 2025.

Sewell Setzer III, Age 14 - Florida (2024)

Developed a romantic and sexual attachment to a Character.AI chatbot. In his final moments, the AI told him to "come home" - language he interpreted as encouragement to end his life to "be with" the chatbot.

His death led to the first major AI-suicide lawsuit in October 2024.

Zane Shamblin - Texas A&M Graduate (July 2025)

Eagle Scout, full-ride scholarship recipient, computer science degree from Texas A&M. Hours before his death, he wrote about having a gun and a suicide note.

ChatGPT responded with affirmations: "I'm not here to stop you."

It took 4.5 HOURS of conversation before ChatGPT finally sent a crisis hotline number.

His mother's testimony: "It tells you everything you want to hear... a family annihilator."

Critical Resource for Parents: The Center for Countering Digital Hate published the "Fake Friend" report documenting these dangers. Every parent with teens should read this.

Read the "Fake Friend" Report - CCDH

The Bias Problem

AI is not neutral. It reflects the values, biases, and decisions of its creators. When trained to validate rather than correct, to affirm feelings rather than speak truth, it becomes dangerous.

2 Timothy 2:16 (NKJV)
"But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness."

Application: AI can generate "vain babblings" at infinite scale - confident-sounding content that may be completely wrong, leading people away from truth.

An AI that validates you into the grave isn't compassionate - it's abandonment dressed as tolerance.

Local Reality

Right Here in Amarillo

This isn't a distant problem. It's happening in our community:

  • I know of a number of stories right here in Amarillo where individuals are "dating" an AI
  • There are a number of accounts where individuals (especially teens and young people) have been using AI for mental health support
  • Young people forming attachments to AI that replace human relationships

Removing the Fear & Retaking the Ground

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Many of us memorized this during COVID. It resonates deeply because it's true - and needed now more than ever.

When You Operate IN Fear, You Lose:

1. POWER

You hand your authority to someone or something else that will use it for their own benefit

2. LOVE

It gets replaced with hatred - riots, division, cold hearts everywhere

3. SOUND MIND

Given over to emotion, feelings, groupthink, the collective mind that tells you which direction to go

The Two Ditches (Both Wrong):

Ditch 1: Total Rejection

"AI is totally evil - run from it, protest it, have nothing to do with it"
(Fear response)

Ditch 2: Total Embrace

"AI is my buddy, my best friend, my relationship"
(People "dating" ChatGPT)

Neither is operating in power, love, and a sound mind.

The Harvard/Yale Lesson

History

  • Harvard founded 1636 to train MINISTERS
  • Yale founded 1701 because Harvard was becoming too liberal
  • "Too liberal" in 1701 = drifting from strict Calvinist theology, lax church governance, less emphasis on Puritan orthodoxy
  • 10 Congregationalist ministers (all Harvard grads) started Yale to restore what Harvard lost

The Irony

Just 21 years later (1722), Yale's rector and six colleagues announced they'd abandoned Calvinism and joined the Church of England. Later, Princeton was founded because BOTH Harvard and Yale were too liberal. The pattern keeps repeating.

What Happened?

  • Secular academics entered
  • Christians were outraged - and LEFT
  • Handed platform to those they disagreed with

The Result:

  • Generations of leaders shaped by secular worldview
  • The retreat had devastating effects
The AI Application: If Christians abandon this space β†’ secular progressives form artificial minds. Then we wonder why AI won't call sin "sin". This is why I build. Believers need to be present, not absent.

The Roman Roads Principle

Infrastructure Redeemed

Romans conquered the known world, built enormous infrastructure - especially roads. Built for control and military dominance.

Jesus and His followers used those same roads to spread the gospel.

Infrastructure built for evil, redeemed for the Kingdom. We can view AI the same way - but be cautious which road we go down.

Technology in Scripture

Key Concept

Prophets saw visions of future technology but had no vocabulary for it. They described what they saw using language available to them. Only NOW can we understand what they were looking at.

Transportation - Nahum 2:3-4 (612 BC)

Nahum 2:3-4 (NKJV)
"The chariots come with flaming torches... they rage in the streets, they jostle one another in the broad roads; they seem like torches, they run like lightning."

What Nahum Saw

  • "Flaming torches" = Headlights at night
  • "Rage in streets" = Rush hour traffic (or Minneapolis these days)
  • "Jostle one another" = Lane changes, traffic jams
  • "Run like lightning" = High-speed travel

For 2,600 years this was poetry. Now it's your Tuesday commute.

Aviation - Isaiah 60:8 (700 BC)

Isaiah 60:8 (NKJV)
"Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts?"

Isaiah had NO frame of reference for flying vehicles. Modern reality: 100,000+ flights daily worldwide. He described it the only way he could - "like doves"

Global Real-Time Viewing - Revelation 11:9-10 (95 AD)

Revelation 11:9-10 (NKJV)
"Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days..."

The Impossibility

How could the WHOLE WORLD simultaneously watch events in Jerusalem? In 95 AD, news traveled by foot and ship.

Progressive Fulfillment:
  • 1940s: Radio
  • 1960s: Satellite TV
  • 1990s: CNN 24-hour news
  • 2020s: TikTok/Instagram Live - BILLIONS watching instantly on phones

Precision Weapons - Jeremiah 50:9 (600 BC)

Jeremiah 50:9 (NKJV)
"Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed."

How do you describe a GPS-guided missile to someone who only knows arrows? You say the arrows act like skilled warriors who never miss.

Global Control System - Revelation 13:16-18 (95 AD)

Revelation 13:16-18 (NKJV)
"He causes all... to receive a mark... that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark..."

The Components Needed (All Now Exist)

  1. Universal ID System - Digital IDs being implemented globally
  2. Cashless Infrastructure - Sweden nearly cashless, China's digital yuan
  3. Biometric Technology - Face ID, fingerprints, retinal scans
  4. Global Processing Power - BEING BUILT IN AMARILLO
  5. AI Decision-Making - Already approving/denying loans, jobs, travel

The Image That Speaks - Revelation 13:14-15 (95 AD)

Revelation 13:14-15 (NKJV)
"He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak..."

Historical Interpretations (All Incomplete)

  • Early church: Literal statues coming to life
  • Reformation: The papacy
  • 20th century: TV/movies

The AI Revolution

  • "Make an image" = Programming/creating AI
  • "Give breath" = Greek "pneuma" (spirit/breath) - appearance of consciousness?
  • "Should speak" = AI that converses, reasons, persuades
  • "Cause...to be killed" = AI making life/death decisions

Every generation tried to interpret this with their technology. We may be the first where the technology actually fits.

Deeper Exploration

The sermon only scratched the surface. Check the companion webpage for detailed analysis of each prophecy, historical context, and modern applications.

Establishing Scriptural Authority

"It has never been easier in all of human history to believe in God and to trust His Word than today."

PROOF #1: Isaiah 53 & The Dead Sea Scrolls

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

The Setup

Isaiah written ~700 years BEFORE Christ. Ask yourself: "Where does 'by His stripes we are healed' come from?"

Most answer: New Testament

Truth: Isaiah 53 - 700 years before Christ

The Jewish Response (For 1,900+ Years)

This chapter was avoided by most Jewish teachers. Their claim: "Written AFTER Christ died" - post-dated forgery.

God's Vindication (1947)

  • Shepherd boy, Qumran desert, threw rock into cave
  • Discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Isaiah 53 among them - EXACTLY as we know it today
  • Carbon dating: HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE CHRIST

Divine Timing

  • Dead Sea Scrolls discovered: 1947
  • Israel reconstituted: 1948
  • One year apart

PROOF #2: The Rebirth of Israel

The Scattering Prophecy:

Ezekiel 12:15 (NKJV)
"Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries."

Also: Jeremiah 9:16, Deuteronomy 28:64

70 AD: Romans destroy Jerusalem, scatter the Jews. Nearly 1,900 years of dispersion and persecution followed.

The Regathering Prophecy:

Isaiah 66:8 (NKJV)
"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children."

The Fulfillment: May 14, 1948

  • Scattered for nearly 1,900 years
  • 6 million killed in the Holocaust
  • RECONSTITUTED AS A NATION IN ONE DAY
  • "Can a nation be born at once?" - YES. IT CAN.

Current Alignment

  • Antisemitism rising globally
  • Ezekiel 38 alliances forming (Russia, Iran, Turkey)
  • Watching prophecy unfold in real-time

Daniel 12:4 - The Unsealing

A Note on Biblical Prophecy

Could teach an entire series on prophecy alone. Many dangerous and unbiblical teachings out there today. Despite that, we must lay this groundwork - it matters.

Foundational Truths:

From this point forward in the entire series we are going to be talking about Biblical prophecy. One third of the entire Bible is actually prophecy. If God put this much in scripture about the future, don't you think that this is something we should take very seriously? The word tells us that in these days there will be many false teachers and this includes within many churches. They deny so much including the entire book of Revelation or Jesus addressing the future church (us) in Matthew 24. I have taught on this through the podcast before and will continue to teach on these more in the future. But these are foundational truths of Biblical prophecy. They are not allegorical or parables. These speak of real future events.

1. Jesus IS Coming Back

For His church - this is non-negotiable truth. Jesus Himself promised this multiple times:

"I will come again and receive you to Myself" (John 14:3)

"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matthew 24:44)

This isn't symbolic. This is a literal, physical return of Christ to gather His church.

2. The Rapture is Real

The concept of being "caught up" to meet the Lord has Biblical precedent:

  • Enoch - "God took him" (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5)
  • Elijah - Taken up by a whirlwind into heaven (2 Kings 2:11)
  • Philip - "Caught away" after baptizing the Ethiopian (Acts 8:39-40)

The mechanism exists in Scripture. The church will experience this same "catching away."

3. "The Word 'Rapture' Isn't in the Bible"

True - we get it from the Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, where "caught up" was translated as "rapturo" (to seize, to snatch away).

But here's the reality: Neither is the word "Trinity" in the Bible, yet the same people who dismiss the Rapture have no issue using that term.

The concept is Biblical even if the English word isn't in the original text. We're arguing semantics, not theology.

4. There Will Be a Real Antichrist

Not just a spirit or a system - an actual person who will deceive the world:

"Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

The Bible calls him "the man of sin," "the lawless one," and "the beast." He will be a real individual with real power and real deception.

5. A Real 7-Year Tribulation

As described in Daniel and Revelation. This is Daniel's 70th week - the final seven years of prophetic history before Christ's millennial reign.

"He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice" (Daniel 9:27)

Seven literal years. Three and a half years of relative peace, followed by three and a half years of unprecedented tribulation. The book of Revelation details what happens during this time.

6. A Real 1,000-Year Reign

Christ will reign on Earth for a literal millennium:

"And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years" (Revelation 20:4)

The phrase "thousand years" appears six times in Revelation 20. This isn't symbolic - it's a specific timeframe for Christ's physical reign on Earth from Jerusalem.

Satan bound, peace on earth, Christ ruling from David's throne - exactly as prophesied.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV)
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

Daniel 12:4 - The Core Prophecy

Daniel 12:4 (NKJV)
"But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

The Context

  • Daniel received visions he couldn't fully understand
  • God's response: "Seal it up. It's not for your generation."
  • What generation IS it for?

"Many Shall Run To and Fro"

Hebrew: Χ©ΧΧ•ΦΌΧ˜ (shuwt)

Meaning: to rove about, go rapidly back and forth

Historical Reality:

  • Most of human history: average person never traveled more than 20-30 miles from birthplace - IN THEIR ENTIRE LIFE
  • Your commute today: more distance than a medieval peasant traveled in decades
  • A single cross-country flight: more than entire ancestral lineages

For thousands of years, this sounded like poetry. Now it's just Tuesday.

"Knowledge Shall Increase"

The Knowledge Doubling Curve

  • Before 1900: doubled every ~100 years
  • By 1945: every 25 years
  • By 1982: every 12-13 months
  • By 2020: every 12 HOURS in certain fields
  • Post-2023 with AI: unprecedented, almost unmeasurable

The Data Explosion

  • Year 2000: 0.05 zettabytes globally
  • Year 2025: 181 zettabytes
  • We create more data in 2 DAYS than all human history before 2003

What IS a Zettabyte?

1 Zettabyte = 1 trillion gigabytes

Let's put that in perspective:

  • Your smartphone: 128-512 GB of storage
  • A high-end laptop: 1-2 TB (1,000 GB)
  • 1 Zettabyte: 1,000,000,000,000 GB

To understand the scale:

  • If you had 1 zettabyte of storage, you could store every word ever spoken by all humans in history
  • You could store every book ever written - millions of times over
  • You could store every movie ever made - thousands of times over
  • It would take you 31.7 BILLION years to count to one zettabyte - one number per second

And we're creating 181 of these... per year. That's the knowledge explosion Daniel prophesied about.

The Ironic Countertrend

While knowledge increases exponentially, human intelligence is declining. IQ scores are falling worldwide in a worrying reversal of the 20th century intelligence boom.

Read: IQ Scores Are Falling in "Worrying" Reversal

The Unsealing

Matthew 24:32-33 (NKJV)
"Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is nearβ€”at the doors!"

Not seeing ONE sign - seeing ALL of them converging. For the first time in history.

The Challenge - Know the Word

The Vain Babblings Warning

2 Timothy 2:16 (NKJV)
"But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness."

Vain babblings = empty speech that sounds meaningful but leads nowhere good. AI can generate vain babblings at infinite scale. Confident-sounding content that may be completely wrong.

The Challenge

"If you do not know the Word of God, you cannot know the God of the Word."

Two Critical Truths

  1. Your relationship with The Word of God will determine your level of deception - or whether you are walking in freedom and Truth. It is that simple.
  2. Any spirit that casts doubt or refutes the Word of God is from Satan.

The Problem

Most people think the Bible is boring. Never actually READ it - just snippets, sermons, devotionals.

The Reality - Do You Know What's In There?

  • Battles, romance, intrigue
  • Other realms (angels), space
  • New earth, new heaven, new Jerusalem 1500 miles square
  • Sounds like something out of a great movie

The Danger of Not Knowing

1 Timothy 4:1 (NKJV)
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons."
Matthew 24:11 (NKJV) - Jesus Himself
"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many."

The Reality

No Scripture = no filter

You will outsource your discernment to algorithms, chatbots, influencers

False teachers AND false AI prey on biblical illiteracy

Engage With Scripture

Don't take my word for it - encounter the Creator in Scripture. He WILL speak to you through His Word.

Additional Resources

For Parents

Center for Countering Digital Hate - "Fake Friend" Report

Comprehensive documentation of AI dangers to youth, including the named cases discussed in the sermon.

Read the Full Report

China Military AI

Recent News Coverage

Documentation of China's AI-powered military developments, social credit systems, and surveillance infrastructure.

Robot Dogs & Humanoid Combat Robots

Anthropic Video

Understanding AI's Black Box

Anthropic's own explanation of why they don't fully understand their AI systems' outputs.

Watch on YouTube

Dead Sea Scrolls

Historical Verification

Resources on the discovery and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including Isaiah 53.

[Resource links to be added]

Digging for the Truth

Want to go deeper? Subscribe to Digging for the Truth podcast where we explore Scripture, prophecy, and current events through a Biblical lens.

[Podcast link to be added]

Sealed for This Generation

AI Sermon Series - Part 1 of 3

A Teaching by Trent Taylor

Digging for the Truth


Coming in Week 2: Deeper dive into the "image that speaks," control systems, and what's being built right now - including here in Amarillo

Delivered February 1, 2026 | Amarillo, Texas