A most relevant Scripture for this moment on God’s prophetic timeline is:

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

More than 1,200 enthusiastic believers “assembled together” the week before last in Norman, Oklahoma, during the Prophecy Watchers conference. As if on cue, a profound event occurred to highlight the reason Gary Stearman, Bob Ulrich, and Mondo Gonzales have Prophecy Watchers as the name of their ministry. Israel, God’s timepiece, as we sometimes refer to that prophetic nation, was attacked on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

All eyes and ears of the gathered prophecy watchers in Norman were affixed upon the ongoing “war,” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has termed the conflict.

As I understand, more than two thousand people live-streamed the conference. So I sense that the very core of believers yearning for Christ’s return were tuned in to the conference and that the Lord might have, in His own omniscient orchestration, made sure the observing eyes and ears of His eternal family who are yearning for His Son’s call to the Church were affixed on and attuned to the brutal, beastly assault on His chosen nation and people yet again.

Of course, all the speakers at the conference, myself included, were bombarded with questions about what this war might mean. I’m sure readers of this commentary are asking the same.

Let me say that I, too, am asking the same questions regarding what all this might mean.

Like all of you who are intensely interested in what’s going on, my own interest revolves most specifically around: What does it all mean in terms of the nearness of the Rapture?

I believe that is a perfectly appropriate question to ask, based upon Hebrews 10:25 quoted above.

The key phrase here, of course, is “as ye see the day approaching.” This goes to the very heart of our Lord’s desire to be faithful members of His heavenly family. We are told we should gather with fellow children of God while we see or watch for the approaching day.

The “assembling together” phraseology isn’t merely a suggestion to go to church regularly but a command to come together as one in watching developments pointing to that day. I believe “that day” refers to the time of Tribulation and, more importantly, to the Day of Christ when the glorious dawn breaks for all believers—that spectacular instant when Christ calls us to Himself in the Rapture.

Watching for that day is not an exhortation to only those who attend prophecy conferences. It is a command to all believers in Jesus Christ, who has secured forever their place in God’s eternal family.

Again, we are commanded by Jesus as to what we should be doing as we see the day approaching:

“What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch” (Mark 13:37).

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

All conference attendees in Norman were stunned to have such a powerful signal to be “looking up” when the news of the attack on Israel suddenly came. The word “coincidence,” as Hal Lindsey has noted, is not in God’s vocabulary. The atrocity against Israel has immense significance.

This present Israeli war will have profound ramifications, I believe, based upon all the many other things we see as we watch the day approaching.

If you don’t know the One who has all of this otherwise frightening confluence of end-times signals under complete control, follow what our God Instructs so you will become a member of His eternal family. You will then be able, through Holy Spirit discernment, to see with clarity that “day” approaching.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). 

It becomes more obvious by the day: AI is in the process of invading the world.

Artificial intelligence has so quickly taken over in daily doings that it is indeed hard to keep up. It certainly has popped up in my life unexpectedly.

Daughter Dana, who is always in the middle of putting together my PowerPoint presentations, has recently been working on my part in the Prophecy Watchers conference in Norman, Oklahoma. (By the time this is posted, I will—Lord willing—have already done it.) Point is, as a blind guy for nearly forty years, when using PowerPoint, I must have audio prompts to lead from one slide to the next so I can keep track of each area I wish to address.

These prompts are usually a narrator giving a statement about what the following section will cover. We usually choose someone we know to do these audio prompts—Dana’s husband, Mike, for example, has done it several times.

This time, however, Dana surprised me. She said she had chosen an AI narrator; an artificial intelligence voice would be giving the prompts.

You know what? It sounds like a real professional broadcaster. I kind of miss Mike’s voice but have to admit this AI guy sounds almost as good as my late, great friend Dr. Dave Breese did all those years ago.

So it isn’t an unpleasant invasion that AI has made in this case. I believe the Lord is using that stupendously advancing technology in ways to further His Kingdom work. However, this isn’t the ominous way this technology will ultimately be used to help enslave a world ripe for deception and delusion.

Along with advancing AI is the growing interest that even the US government, once so quiet about UFOs, demonstrates in now wanting people to focus on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP). I don’t believe the two recent developments—AI and UAP interest—are coincidental. I believe their coming together at this crucial time at the end of this Church Age (Age of Grace) has great prophetic implications.

The following recent news in regard to NASA looking into the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life will perhaps help frame my point.

NASA has consistently said there is no evidence of alien life in the cosmos. But some among the authorities exploring the universe are advancing other ideas.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will be “essential” to finding and proving the existence of extraterrestrial life and UFOs, NASA said.

The space agency recently released its highly anticipated 36-page UFO report that said NASA doesn’t have enough high-quality data to make a “definitive, scientific conclusion” about the origin of UFOs.

Moving forward, AI will be vital to pinpointing anomalies while combing through large datasets, according to the report compiled by NASA’s independent research team on UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena), a fancy word for UFO.

“We will use AI and machine learning to search the skies for anomalies… and will continue to search the heavens for habitable reality,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a Sept. 14 briefing. “AI is just coming on the scene to be explored in all areas, so why should we limit any technological tool in analyzing, using data that we have?”…

Dr. Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator, elaborated on Nelson’s point, saying AI “is an amazing tool” to find “signatures that are sort of buried in data.”

That’s how NASA and scientists around the world are going to be able to find the metaphorical needle in a haystack, Fox said…

“The [16-member, independent UAP research team report] panel finds that sophisticated data analysis techniques, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, must be used in a comprehensive UAP detection campaign when coupled with systematic data gathering and robust curation,” the report says…

The use of AI has been a controversial topic that governments around the world, including the U.S., are grappling with.

Advocates have lauded the potential capabilities of generative AI and the possibility it could catapult society to the next evolution of humankind. On the flip side, it can also create a dystopian future if guardrails aren’t put in place, or if it’s in the hands of ill-intended users, experts have warned…

The NASA panel was asked if regulating AI would impact the space agency’s ability to use the budding technology to potentially find extraterrestrial life.

“No, don’t think that any attempts to that the Congress has underway to try to write a law that would appropriately put guardrails around AI for other reasons are in any way going to inhibit us from utilizing the tools of AI to help us in our quest on this specific issue,” Nelson said in response to the question. (“NASA reveals latest weapon to ‘search the heavens’ for UFOs, aliens- released a report that highlighted the importance of artificial intelligence,” Chris Eberhart, crime and US news reporter for Fox News Digital, September 25, 2023)

Now to try to make the AI-alien connection.

There will be tremendous deception during the Tribulation, as Jesus said in His first answer to His disciples when they asked for the signs of His coming. Jesus also told John, the writer of Revelation, about the things to come when Antichrist is in power during that Tribulation era. The prophecy John was given that makes my point is the following:

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live” (Rev. 13:11-14).

There will be “great delusion,” according to Paul’s prophecy.

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

The big, deluding “lie,” I believe, will be made up in part by the False Prophet telling the world that the many lights they see descending to earth are space beings he supposedly is calling down from heaven.

Satan and his hordes will be ejected from the heavens after the great war in Heaven against Michael and his angels. Satan and his fallen angels will be cast to the earth. My contention is that this will likely be the “fire” coming down, supposedly called down by the False Prophet, as given in the Revelation chapter 13 prophecy above.

With all the “miracles” being produced by the Antichrist and False Prophet—the demonic activity—it is almost a certainty that AI, in its greatly advanced state, will play some part in deceiving people into believing that these are aliens from other star systems who have come to assist Antichrist in saving the planet—or some such claim.

Also, the “image of the beast” offers fascinating fodder for thought about the use of AI by the Antichrist regime.

Most people left on earth after the disappearance of millions–those who have vanished, which includes all children before the age of accountability—will be ready to accept anything to get back to some degree of normalcy—even aliens from outer space come to rescue them. Instead, they will be welcoming the most hideously wicked forces imaginable. Here is what God’s Word foretells about those forces’ leader.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:12).

You don’t want to be left behind on this judgment-bound planet when the False Prophet likely uses some greatly advanced form of AI to mesmerize the inhabitants of the post-Rapture planet.

Jesus said it will be the worst time of all human history (Matthew 24:21). Here is how to be Rapture Ready and eternally in God’s family so you will avoid this time of hell on earth.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).