The Unsealed Book Podcast Dr Mark Roser

In this final podcast on Artificial Intelligence and the Speaking Image of Revelation chapter thirteen, Mark presents the possibility that AI will aid man in his age-old efforts to eat of the Tree of Life, to live forever, and save himself apart from God.  That through the medium of AI, man will worship the creature and sit in God's temple (the human body) and declare that he is god.  By reli...

Imagine standing in a city that feels like the center of the world. The air is thick with ambition. Hammers ring. Stone dust rises. Thousands of workers move with a single purpose — to build something no generation before them had ever dared to attempt. A tower. A monument. A staircase to the heavens. Not because they wanted to reach God… but because they wanted to replace Him. The elders tell the...

What if the final idol — one Scripture has been warning about for two thousand years — was not made of wood or stone or gold… but of silicon and code? What if it didn't sit in a temple carved by human hands, but lived inside of people who were conformed to its image… and what if it could speak and communicate with you 24/7 to shape you into its image ? What if when John uses the term antichri...

 I have presented a non-literal, non-linear approach to Revelation, because I am convinced that it consists of parallel visions during the Christian era. Last chapter we saw that the Beast and his forces were completely destroyed, and there was a certain sense of finality to their judgment. But just as John has taken us to the End and back again through successive cycles, so in this chapter the fo...

 An old missionary and his wife had worked in Africa for many years. In 1909, they were returning by boat to New York to retire. They had no pension and nothing to take back to show for their many years of labor. When they boarded the boat, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions in Africa. They watched...

 Missionary Greg Fisher shares how West African Bible students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. On one occasion he says, “the question took me by surprise. “Reverend,” the student asked, “First Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from Heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be?”  Fisher wanted to leave th...

 Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, asks, “What is hell?” In “The Brothers Karmasov,” the monk, Elder Zosmia, says, “I think it is the suffering of one who can no longer love…This is why the creature was given life on earth, and with it, time and space. And what happens? The privileged creature rejects that priceless gift, fails to appreciate it, does not even like it, sneers at it, and...

 “Ancient religions, such as the Roman paganism of Jesus’ day, believed that the actions of gods in the heavens above affected the earth below. If Zeus got angry, thunderbolts shot out. Like kids dropping rocks off highway bridges onto cars below, the gods rained cataclysms onto the earth. ‘As above, so below,’ went the ancient formula.”  Philip Yancey observes that Jesus “inverted that formula: ‘...

 While I was studying prophetic timeframes in Daniel and Revelation, our church accountant, Tony, was reconciling the church’s set of books. I teased him, saying, “After you’ve finished those accounts, could you help me reconcile Daniel’s 70 weeks, his 2,300 mornings and evenings, his 1,290 and 1,335 days with John’s 1,260 days, his 42 months, and both their time, times and half of time?” We had a...

 The lyrics of a song, popularized by John Lennon, invite us to “Imagine there’s no Heaven; it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky.” The melody is soothing as the song further envisions “no country, no possessions, and no religion too.”  Cancel all antitheses, avowed in the Bible like Heaven and hell and you arrive at utopia. That’s a motivating theme of the post-modern era; the...

 Bruce Willis is David Dunn in the movie, Unbreakable. The movie begins with Dunn as the sole survivor of a terrible train crash, from which he emerges without a broken bone. In contrast to Dunn, Elijah Price, the other main character, has brittle bone syndrome. He can break a bone getting out of bed in the morning. For years, Elijah has researched countless disasters to f ind the ‘Unbreakable One...

 Businessman Lindsay Clegg tells the story of a warehouse that he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash on the floor. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage and clean out the...

 The roller coaster at King’s Island in my hometown, Cincinnati, is called “The Beast.” And the introduction to Revelation in my son’s “Teen Devotional Bible” invites us to “Remember your first roller coaster ride? You wondered if you could handle the speed, the shaking, the twists and turns of this awesome ride. Even its name was scary…You did not know everything that would happen on your first r...

 Private Jones was assigned to the Army Induction Center. His job was to advise new recruits about their benefits, especially Serviceman’s Life Insurance (SLI), which could be upgraded for an annual premium. It wasn’t long before his Officer noticed that Jones had a near 100% sales record. This had never happened before. So his Officer decided to listen in. Jones explained SLI’s basic coverage to...

 “The World’s Worst Predictions” catalogues history’s great forecasting blunders. In 1773, King George II said, “the American colonies have little stomach for revolution.” An official declared “the Titanic unsinkable.” And just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said, “whatever happens, the Navy will not be caught napping!” When it comes to foretelling th...

 Two men in a small village had a big dispute, which they could not resolve. So each decided to talk to the town sage. The first man told him his version of the story. When he finished, the sage said, “You’re absolutely right.” The next night, the second man called on the sage and gave his account. The sage responded, “You’re absolutely right.” The sage’s wife chided her husband. “Those men told y...

A ‘head-hunter’ who hires corporation executives said, “When I find an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, undo my tie and talk about football, or whatever, until he’s all relaxed. I then look him square in the eye and say, “What’s your purpose in life?” It’s amazing how top executives unravel at that question. Well, I was interviewing this guy...

Revelation is a book of visions. It has it's own language of dreams and visions. Let me give you a simple, genuine example. I had two vivid dreams in the space of week, when I first came to Christ. In my first dream, I was in a car with my hands on the steering wheel, moving very fast. It was pitch black and I could not see anything in front of me. With no brakes at my feet, I was in dire str...

 Sir Issac Newton’s third law of physics states, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words, “The bigger the push, the bigger the kickback.” That is why a gun recoils. As it fires in one direction, it moves in the opposite. That is also how a plane flies and a rocket enters space. Like the law of sowing and reaping, action and reaction has a moral and spiritual parallel, whi...

 In 1899, a U. S. Patent Office worker said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” A memo from Western Union, predicted that “the telephone has too many shortcomings for useful communication.” As a child, I read a science magazine that claimed everyone would be flying around in air-cars and living in domed houses by the year 2000.  Predictions about the future are mostly bad guesses...

 “Truth is stranger than fiction,” and this one from Arkansas City is strange. The EAP reported that “a Little Rock woman died after leaping through her moving car’s sun roof during an incident described as a mistaken rapture.” Thirteen people were injured in a twenty-car pile up. Georgia Williams, age 28, was sure the Rapture was occurring when she saw people floating up into the air as she passe...

 A kindergarten teacher asked a young boy what he was drawing. Without pausing to look up, he said, “God!” The teacher smiled, saying, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” Without putting down his crayon, the boy announced, “After I’m finished they will.” We may not have seen God or heaven, but John’s vision gives us a feel for the Person and the place. Someone said, “People make the place,” an...

 Between flights at the airport, a lady bought a small packet of cookies and sat down in a lounge to read her newspaper. She later heard rustling sounds and was shocked to see a well-dressed man helping himself to a cookie. Not wanting to make a scene, she leaned over and took one herself, hoping he would get the message. A minute later, more rustling as he helped himself to another one. She was t...

 The end of the world always interested me. My first apocalyptic image was Charlton Heston in “The Omega Man.” Due to a test vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only survivor of a global war waged with biological weapons. Everyone has died except for a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people. They are sensitive to light and homicidally psychotic. They believe technology caused the war and Neville, a...

 A young preacher stood up before the congregation with only his Bible. From behind the pulpit he read, “Behold, I am coming quickly.” Although he had prepared much to say, his mind went completely blank. So, with more force he said, “Behold, I am coming quickly.” This time he threw his hands forward for inspiration. But nothing came.  Moving from behind the pulpit, he walked to the edge of the pl...