Will the Image of the Beast Itself Cause Christians to be Killed?

                 The second beast mentioned in Revelation 13 – the “beast out of the earth,” or, as Bible prophecy researchers have taken to calling this figure, “The False Prophet” – is given authority to accomplish things that would have seemed like outlandish science fiction fantasy as recently as ten or twenty years ago. The False Prophet “gives breath” to an “image” of the first beast – the beast out of the sea, which is a figurative reference to both the Antichrist and his end-times kingdom – so that the image could both “speak” and could “cause” Christians to be killed. This is the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of that specific passage in Rev. 13: “it [the False Prophet] was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

                Note that the RSV translation gives the False Prophet himself as the causative agent for the killing of Christians (and of those many other non-Christians who might refuse to take the mark of the beast). “It was allowed to give breath…and to cause,” is how the RSV puts it. However, recently I noticed something about the various translations of this verse: Other translations list the image itself as the causative agent for the executions. Here are several other highly respected translations of this verse:

·         “so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.” – English Standard Version (ESV)

·         “that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” – New King James Version (NKJV)

·         “so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.” – New International Version (NIV)

So, which is it – is the False Prophet (beast from the earth) directly causing Christians’ deaths – or is the image itself causing them?

One might respond by arguing that this is just a meaningless semantic distinction, because the fact that the False Prophet causes the image to be created in the first place would mean that he is at least indirectly causing the deaths of Christians. However, I don’t think this is a trivial question of semantics at all. Because if these other respected translations have it right, and the image itself is causing people to be killed, then that requires us to dig much more deeply into the question of what this image is and how such an image could itself cause people to be targeted.

I have pointed out in some other posts that the Greek word eikon, which is used in this verse, is defined on Bible Hub as referring to an image, representation, likeness or possibly a statue or dummy. How we understand the eikon will vary significantly, of course, depending on which of these terms we associate with it. Is it a sort of talking bust, like a version of Michelangelo’s David that can speak to us? Is it an AI deep-fake video of the Antichrist speaking? Is it a poster put up on walls of buildings that we pass on the street, like the way posters of Big Brother stared down at the terrified subjects in Orwell’s novel 1984?

The fact that we can’t place ourselves in John the Revelator’s mind and clarify with him exactly what the eikon consists of, then, places on us the burden of speculating about other possible contextual clues that could lead us to more accurately assess how this term should be understood. And the line of thought I’d like to pursue in this blog post is the scenario of the image representing or directly incorporating advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

I believe there are several contextual clues in the language of Revelation 13 that could lead us to a hunch that the eikon of the first beast incorporates AI. These are the specific ones I notice:

·         Global domination and massive wonder, reverence and submission are associated with the public reaction to the first beast: “It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.” Thus, the first beast represents an incredible expansion of global power and control that has never been witnessed before in Earth’s history. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon and Hitler never wielded anything approaching to the first beast’s authority (which is shared with the second beast), because, just to mention several factors - they never wielded nuclear weapons, they never controlled the whole economy of the entire globe, and they never were so world-famous that their every word, post and speech was covered online and on television and smart phones. All of this implies, then, that the eikon of the first beast is charged with some sort of incredible super-power that “wows” the people who perceive it. And AI could be just the vehicle to achieve that level of dominance.

 

·         The second beast has some sort of radically newfangled power, the power to “give breath” to the eikon: “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast.” This language of John’s is reminiscent of God’s blowing breath into the recently formed Adam in the early pages of Genesis. The name Adam comes from adamah, or “red earth,” and this mud figurine has breath literally blown into its nostrils by God. Thus, the phrase “give breath” implies a sort of (mock) godlike power maintained by the False Prophet, truly leading to shocking manifestations of "great signs and wonders/portents". And the creation of artificial intelligence is essentially man’s attempt to play God: to create a new sentient being that will act upon its surroundings in an autonomous way that can’t be fully controlled or predicted. Thus, we can probably presume that the eikon won’t be a poster on a wall, a marble bust, or even reproduced footage of the Antichrist speaking (like you would see on a cable news channel or a YouTube video). All of those technologies were firmly in place by the twentieth century. No, we're in uncharted territory now, and I believe it’s more likely that the eikon will either be an AI-powered doll that speaks, or an AI deep-fake video, because the words formed out of that “breath” will themselves “wow” the world’s inhabitants. And of those two possibilities, I think the AI deep-fake video a more likely one, because laymen watching videos online usually can't even discern deep-fake videos from real footage.

 

·         The “worship of the image of the beast” works in tandem with acceptance of the mark of the beast, which is a marker (Greek charagma) of participation in the global economy. In regard to the latter, a large amount of Bible researchers believe that it’s likely that the “mark” will somehow be connected to a transformed, digitally-based economy, where your purchases can be tracked, and access to funds can be withdrawn at the whim of the global government that control them. That also seems to me more than probable, if not a certainty. If this is correct, and if the mark of the beast is connected to a transformed economy, then it’s also likely that AI would be a crucial tool used to identify those who don’t take the mark. The False Prophet would presumably be far too busy to personally attend to exactly who is and who isn’t accepting the mark. But an AI set up by the False Prophet could process that data quite rapidly by scanning people’s records and digital footprints and then providing governments with lists of people to be eliminated.

     On that note, take a moment to read this interesting story about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has partnered with Palantir (a digital tracking company) to use AI in scanning people’s medical records so as to determine whether or not they would be appropriate targets for deportation.

                Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over recent decades to the point where, increasingly, it controls us more than we control it. (Indeed, that has been one of the key warnings sounded by critics of superintelligent AI – that it could replace the need for humans, and even possibly decide to turn against us if it doesn’t need our help anymore). The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of Man are antiquated nostalgic memories at this point, because the development of our own scientific ingenuity since the Enlightenment has eventually trapped us in a matrix/prison too powerful for us to escape on a societal level. This entrapment is seen in the context of AI, and it's also seen in the context of nuclear weapons.

                One possibility that is rarely discussed, but which I believe might be plausible, is that the second beast’s creation of the first beast’s eikon or image takes place after the first beast has died. Consider the language used: “Because of the signs it [the False Prophet] was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.”

    If the second beast is given power to perform “on behalf of” the first beast, does that potentially imply that the second beast rises to global power after the first beast dies? In other words, perhaps truly global authority is far too much for these two figures to wield simultaneously. If I perform a service or function “on another person’s behalf,” that could mean that that person is absent, and thus requires me to act as a sort of stand-in for him. Also, the eikon that speaks is set up “in honor of” the Antichrist. Does that mean that perhaps the first beast died, and that his fans around the world are mourning him and honoring his legacy, as one who passed away too soon? Recall the outpouring of honor and remembrances given to powerfully famous figures who died too soon – such as Kurt Cobain, Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, or Tupac Shakur. The loyal fans of those figures set up images in remembrance (or in honor) of them, and placed these images on tee shirts, websites, posters, album covers, billboards, etc. Could a similar dynamic be at play here? It's unclear, and I don't think we can come to any firm conclusions on that question right now.

There are now YouTube channels that create extraordinarily convincing videos entirely with the use of AI. Recently I clicked on one video to listen to what was described as a famous pastor’s sermon denouncing Trump. The video was clearly marketed so as to generate lots of clicks, because thousands of people had viewed it. About ten minutes into watching it, however, I started to get suspicious. The word choice, pacing and overall “feel” of the video felt a bit “off”. Then I finally scrolled down to look at the video’s details – and I saw that the entire thing was fake - generated by AI - yet extremely convincing and life-like. That is how persuasive this technology has become. That sort of persuasiveness is probably part of why the "strong delusion" is able to wrap the world up so strongly in the last days.

So, when you consider how easy it would be for a super-powered AI (such as Elon Musk’s Grok - which has recently been integrated into the Pentagon's networks - or OpenAI’s Chat GPT) to scan all digital traces of every living person on earth – even those who live under widely different forms of government leadership – and especially to note whether or not they have accepted the new “digital dollar” or “central bank digital currency” (or whatever), you can easily continue that train of thought to envision the leaders of the world acting on that information by arresting and/or executing those newly perceived as “enemies of the state” (or potential “enemies of the state”).

Consider one way that might take shape. The AI eikon takes only a few minutes to scan online data for all U.S. citizens, and that scan quickly produces a list of people who made the surprising – and risky – decision to not take the mark of the beast. That list will be relatively small, since Revelation specifically says that the majority of the world’s inhabitants will choose to take the mark. The AI can then present that to leaders in the form of a “confidential/classified list of potentially unruly citizens” who need to be dealt with. The speed, overwhelming accuracy, and deadly efficient force with which this process could take shape is much more easily imaginable if powerful AI were centrally involved in such an operation. One thus gets a bit of an idea why in Revelation 13 the world's people ask, regarding the beast system: "Who can fight against it?" It's simply too draconian, too lawless, and too all-pervasive for anyone to even think about challenging its power.

Think about another possibility, too: Imagine, for the sake of argument, that the mark of the beast actually isn’t a readily identifiable phenomenon like a digital currency. Imagine John the Revelator instead only was metaphorically referring to people’s loyalty to (or submission to) the authority of these two beasts. Well, it turns out that AI has become so sophisticated in recent years that it can be used to scan all of the history of your digital traces: blog comments, Facebook posts, Amazon transactions, Google search history, etc. AI could be programmed to develop a sort of classified “dossier” that would essentially sum up for the Powers that Be whether or not you can be trusted to be a loyal citizen. Are you silent, compliant and complicit? Or: are you ornery? Are you insistent on your civil rights? Are you knowledgeable, articulate and vocal about your criticisms of the beast system? Especially in the latter case, then you could indeed be a threat to that system's continued existence. And ICE/DHS/police departments could be provided with classified lists of citizens to target that don’t even refer to whether or not you are a Christian. In other words, the AI-generated dossier could include you on its list of targets even if you are a peaceful, nonviolent Christian protestor (which, as I have reminded people in this blog post, you should certainly be, since the resort to any form of violence against the beast system would be both completely counter-productive and forbidden by Christian principles).

     In conclusion, then, while none of these envisioned scenarios are a sure thing, I do believe that a look at John’s diction and contextual clues could indeed produce situations that align with them. We are now rapidly approaching the time when the world will be presented with dramatically new realities, often shocking and violent, but also in some ways profoundly seductive and appealing to the unsaved. It is vital to remember that John refers several times in Revelation about the Christian’s duty to firmly refuse to take the mark of the beast, even if it comes with all of the exciting promises in the world – such as “Universal High Income” and a “future robot-powered world of leisure and freedom,” two concepts that Elon Musk in particular has recently taken to promoting in public comments.

    The eikon of the beast, the mark that will solidify your participation in the buying and selling of goods, and even the potential explosive information released to the public (possibly about “aliens,” “reverse-engineered UAPs,” “remote viewing,” ancient artifacts, etc.) will all be part of what Paul refers to as the “powerful delusion” and apostasia (defection/departure/falling away), in 2 Thessalonians 2. It is vital to be solidly grounded in Biblical principles, and prepared to resist the world’s final call for us to submit to its own “gods” (demons). We have one God and one Lord Jesus Christ, and loyalty to him will cause us to separate ourselves from this globally powerful Babylonian system – even at great risk to ourselves. But we are assured of our future blessings, by a real God who - unlike HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey - doesn't lie to us or manipulate us so as to maintain its own future survival.