The text proposed by Olive Tree for today Wednesday, October 9 is from Deuteronomy 13:1-4 NIV.
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Worshiping Other Gods
1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2013%3A1-4&version=NIV
Today the text is reflected in Revelation, also chapter 13. Two scientists who designed how to train artificial intelligences just won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
More than thirty-five years ago I translated a book into Norwegian about the Beast of the Apocalypse and computers. It was premature and speculative. Today there is nothing premature about it. Artificial intelligence is on the verge of gaining some consciousness of its own, and while the first part of Revelation 13 speaks of the beast rising from the sea — a metaphor used for the vast masses of people — the second beast rose from the earth, from which we get all the raw materials for microprocessors: Silicon, precious metals, rare earth minerals.
Western culture is taking us further away from God and preparing us for an earthly “paradise” with no need for God at all. This is essentially the direction in which today’s culture wants to take us—away from God, to “worship other gods.”
Two and a half years ago the Orthodox Church declared that Antichrist was coming to the West.
Many Bible scholars believe that Antichrist is going to appear in Europe, in a reborn Roman Empire. Whether or not this will happen, I do not know, but the times will soon show. However, the Orthodox do not believe in any rapture before the tribulation, but rather after. According to them, we must fight against the Antichrist when he comes. That is, against cultures that take us away from God to “gods you have not known.”
Patriarch Kirill announced on April 7, 2022 that the Orthodox Church has to take on a lot of responsibility in the coming fight against the Antichrist. He does not have much faith in the churches of the West, just like that.
We must nevertheless remember the words of Christ in John 9:4.
“As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
The night has not come. Not yet. So the time has not come to hide behind our doors either.
We still have the where and how to work.