The Day of the Lord is usually thought of as the end of the world. Some scholars interpret this in an apocalyptic manner, as meaning the day the Lord plans to destroy the earth and establish his new kingdom. For example, the book of Revelation, a vision given to the apostle John, describes the time of God’s wrath upon those determined to be wicked. Many of the events in the book of Revelation are described also by the prophet Joel, who prophesies, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31). Jesus also refers to some of this, also quoting the prophet Isaiah, stating, “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31). For some, the day of the Lord is a negative thing, a time of terror and reckoning. For others, those who belong to God, it is a day of hope, when God’s promises to his faithful will be fulfilled…

It wasn’t science that convinced Google engineer Blake Lemoine that one of the company’s AIs is sentient. Lemoine, who is also an ordained Christian mystic priest, says it was the AI’s comments about religion, as well as his “personal, spiritual beliefs,” that helped persuade him the technology had thoughts, feelings, and a soul. “I’m a priest. When LaMDA claimed to have a soul and then was able to eloquently explain what it meant by that, I was inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt,” Lemoine said in a recent tweet. “Who am I to tell God where he can and can’t put souls?” It’s worth pointing out that Lemoine is hardly the first Silicon Valley figure to make claims about artificial intelligence that, at least on the surface, sound religious. Ray Kurzweil, a prominent computer scientist and futurist, has long promoted the “Singularity,” which is the notion that AI will eventually outsmart humanity, and that humans could ultimately merge with the tech. Anthony Levandowski, who cofounded Google’s self-driving car startup, Waymo, started the Way of the Future, a church devoted entirely to artificial intelligence…

Last week, top Pentagon officials testified before the US Congress on the subject of “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) or what the man on the street calls Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO). The testimony covered about 400 reports by pilots and service members from 2004 to the present, up from 143 assessed in a report released about a year ago. The sightings are “frequent and continuing” and often occur in military training areas or other designated airspace. In fact, according to the report, sightings are increasing in frequency. Most of the incidents the task force reviewed were reported in the last two years. At the hearing, Pentagon officials testified that sightings of UFOs are becoming more frequent and may pose a danger. But recent revelations also point to an alien attraction to the holy land…

On the morning of Shabbat, I was awakened by a loud sound. I immediately knew what it was. F-16s were taking off from a nearby airbase. This was a very unusual occurrence on a Shabbat…. Those F-16 take-offs were soon followed by more in the afternoon. Then out in the Mediterranean, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Barak 1 surface-to-air missiles (SAM) were fired from the Israeli navy’s corvette warship, Eilat. The targets of each of these attacks? The morning fighters attacked targets in Syria. The others went after three drones flying from Lebanon toward Israel’s Karish gas field and its newly installed drilling rig. The SAMs took out two of the drones, while the jets destroyed the third. Why is the second event so significant? Because it is just one element of several that appear to be moving us ever closer to Ezekiel 38. What makes this event so distinct is the clear hand of Iran behind it. These drones were not from the Lebanese government. In fact, the Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib criticized the launching of the UAVs…

Satan’s bag of tricks includes his skill of casting doubt by asking you to question and rethink what you know is good or true. That is how Satan tricked Eve into eating and sharing the forbidden fruit with Adam after the serpent famously told Eve, “You will be like God knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-7). We all must acknowledge that the Evil One prides himself as the master of getting inside your head so you will rationalize behavior that you know is sinful, harmful, hurtful, and wrong. Therefore, protect yourself with the “armor of God” when he targets you. (See Vol. 81.) The story of how sin entered humanity ends with God punishing humankind because Adam and Eve allowed themselves to…