Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Scott Townsend: The Growing AI, Tech Traps The Church Must Avoid

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Scott Townsend: The Growing AI, Tech Traps The Church Must Avoid · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity.
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  No topic off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Fierazzo.
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  Brothers and sisters, thank you so much for tuning in.
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  We cover a lot of different topics all from the lens of the biblical worldview on this
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  podcast.
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  And my brother, Scott Townsend, gets into things that a lot of people don't talk about,
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  but we need to kind of keep up with some of this.
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  What's going on technologically with AI and with other things, and just to keep that
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  good perspective so the body of Christ can be balanced and equipped.
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  But before I bring him on, and he's on Substack, I want to mention, if you missed our past
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  interviews with Scott, you can go to our search at worldofumatters.tv.
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  And at the search, just type in Scott Townsend.
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  And the most recent one, we talked about AI, not being as intelligent as we've been told.
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  And then there's another one before that.
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  So look those up if you can, but I want to direct you to his Substack now.
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  And here's the site, I am a watchman.substack.com.
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  I am a watchman.substack.com.
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  Brother, good to see you again.
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  Thanks for all you do and for your time.
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  Thank you very much for having me on again, David.
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  It's a great privilege.
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  Praise God.
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  I know you're busy, so I appreciate it.
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  Now, you told me something before we got on that you send out different articles and
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  different information on different days of the week, and you have a different kind of
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  purpose for doing so, please run that down for us again.
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  Thank you for allowing me to speak to that.
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  Yes, I have three different series on Substack, which I do weekly, on just very briefly,
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  what I do on Tuesday night typically is a tech oriented article.
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  And the reason the originating story for that was I wanted to give our audience more
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  background into the things that I was researching that came up typically in John Haller's
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  tech roundtable series that we have about every six weeks.
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  The second series is very personal, the second one.
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  It has to do with coming alongside the watchman community and putting difficult topics and
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  thinking processes to provide some leadership, thought leadership.
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  And I call that series the kitchen table series.
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  And the idea behind it is let's just talk honestly as brothers and sisters in the watchman
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  community.
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  And that series is really, really amazing.
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  And then, of course, the last one I just started, I think six weeks ago, I've got
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  another blog post for this coming out later tomorrow night.
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  Friday night, I release a blog update on my development that I'm doing for advanced
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  gospel initiatives.
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  So that is more technical.
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  I talk about the different projects that I'm working on.
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  This would be the Scott Townsend behind the public persona.
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  This is the technical part of me that few people get to see.
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  And I made a commitment just six or seven weeks ago to begin letting our audience, David,
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  see that part of what I'm working on.
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  And the goal is to ask for prayer.
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  Prayer is on the bottom of that to help me to think clearly and to execute what the
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  Lord has put on my heart in mind.
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  Just as a teaser, one of the advanced topics that I gospel initiatives I've already
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  begun talking about more publicly is having to do with using a Raspberry Pi platform to
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  basically hold a web server in the palm of your hand, no internet required.
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  And anybody that connects to that captive Wi-Fi portal, such as you would have in a hotel,
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  could actually get a hold of all of the post-rapture emergency message content that we have
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  on the rapture kit.
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  So this is an evangelism tool.
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  Anybody that puts one in their backpack to broadcast something.
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  If anyone joins it, they get to hear the gospel.
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  And of course my real use case, my passion is to be a missionary to tribulation saints.
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  That's what I call myself nowadays.
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  And I envision this type of technology to survive all the gospel or any to biblical worldview
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  websites that are taken down and canceled.
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  And yet, as new believers come to faith after the rapture, they need training.
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  You know, a lot of them are very, very young in the Lord.
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  Some know the Bible.
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  They just never committed in John 3 to be born again.
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  But I want this to be a training appliance that they could take into the wilderness so
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  that anybody that wants to see sermon series or read Bibles or books or see the kind
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  of information that would normally be on the rapture kit that they can do that.
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  Awesome.
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  I mean, rapturekit.org.
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  There's a direct link, friends, rapturekit.org.
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  Scott, we're going to try to do justice to three really different topics today.
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  But I want to start with one you recently wrote about last month.
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  And actually, almost a month and a half ago now, cognitive decline when using AI.
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  This one's really kind of eye opening, but not surprising.
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  It says there's strong scientific evidence that relying heavily on chat, GPT and other
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  large language models for writing and creative tasks leads to cognitive debt, resulting in
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  reduced mental engagement, creativity, and reduced memory over time.
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  Tell us about this because we know how much of a lure or technology and things like this
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  are to especially the younger generation.
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  So go ahead.
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  You know, Dave, this is important, you know, that we understand some of the far reaching
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  implications of using AI.
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  And in a nutshell, the key thought here is that when we use AI, we're delegating thinking.
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  And what happens is we're not using the deep part of our brain that does critical thinking
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  skills to work out things on our own, using our own gift abilities.
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  And you know, we're not really, we're getting lazier.
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  And that laziness is so easy to understand because AI continues to get very competent.
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  So people, you know, that are searching for a biblical passage, including myself sometimes
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  when I'm doing research.
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  You know, my brain is getting old, like many of us, and, you know, I just need help
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  remembering.
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  I know what the scripture, what the content is.
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  I don't remember what, you know, the book and chapter in verse are in all cases.
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  So you do a quick search.
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  But you know, over a period of time, when you let go of your own ownership of thinking
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  through, especially critical decisions.
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  And I'll just speak to pastors using AI for sermon writing or sermon prep.
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  That should not be a thing.
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  That's a red line in my opinion.
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  If pastors really understood how AI works, they would avoid it like the plague in that capacity.
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  We don't want to put an AI between the Holy Spirit and a pastor, especially as they're
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  preparing to address their congregation on the weekend.
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  So it's very important that we do not let go of that aspect of our ministry and calling.
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  So, but the thing is, guys are doing it, you know, they're putting in a prompt, a pastor
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  Kurt Reed.
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  And I talked about this a few months ago where he said, God, look, I can't believe this
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  is happening, but I just overheard a conversation of a pastor and a church that said, I just
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  preach the best sermons there is of my life.
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  And he's went on to boast, to boast about the fact that he used AI to do it.
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  And it was done in 45 seconds.
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  So that is wrongful thinking.
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  I don't think the Lord has a very high opinion of that.
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  And I'm concerned about pastors.
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  So I'm trying to speak to this along with others.
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  Yeah, who determined that it was the best, you know, series, preaching series in his
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  life?
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  Did he determine that?
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  How many comments from his audience?
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  And so what does that mean, Pastor Kurt?
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  That's not a good reflection on that guy.
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  What does that imply about the, you know, the spiritual maturity of the church itself
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  and also, you know, the willingness of a pastor to take shortcuts or to somehow introduce
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  a, it's almost like uplifting your, your own skills in order to look better or to appear
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  more thoughtful in terms of a sermon.
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  And by the way, AI is very competent.
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  No doubt about it.
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  It can do amazing things, but let's have clarity over where that boundary is.
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  And so getting back on topic with this, David, when we let go and let AI, we're robbing,
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  we're disenfranchising the way that the Lord has created us to be occupiers until he
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  comes.
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  I mean, we're not supposed to take a back seat.
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  We're supposed to be very critical thinkers and we're supposed to help people with understanding
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  the gospel, apologetics, we're supposed to help them understand how to connect the
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  dots and to report watch and warn the things that we see coming.
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  And to me, David, that is not like Christianity 101.
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  You know, that is PhD level understanding of the word as being a good Berean.
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  It's years and years and years of uptake of important information and background in order
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  to have the correct context to help people in the body of Christ.
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  So you provide several sources that reinforce this cognitive debt hypothesis.
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  I just want to say a basic way that we can understand this is most of us that are older
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  and grew up at a time where we had phone numbers of our friends memorized and addresses
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  and everything else.
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  And now you just pick up your phone, hit a button.
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  You don't have to know numbers.
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  So there's just a lot of issues that it makes sense that, of course, the brain is not functioning
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  as it's capable of functioning.
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  Scott, you want to close this one out before we jump to the next one?
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  Yeah, I liken it to video games, you know, you can waste a lot of time doledging in the
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  flesh in that way.
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  Sorry, these are strong words.
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  And I just, I, what used to game, you know, and that was before it became a watchman, you
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  know, I don't game anymore, I see it as a time suck and it's not a productive way of
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  using my time.
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  Mm hmm.
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  Amen, brother.
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  Thank you.
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  Okay, let's jump to the next one.
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  This would be your most recent, the future of computing, how AI and quantum are shaping
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  tomorrow.
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  And I'm thinking, how many more, I mean, we're going to continue to see headlines like
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  this, the future of computing, because where is this going to take us?
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  But what do you cover in this one, Scott?
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  Well, look, we have all known, if you read Revelation 13 and work backwards, that it,
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  there's a series of implications about the mark of the B system as a system.
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  And also, how it's enforced and the, you know, the cashless society that it implies,
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  you can't buy or sell without the mark.
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  For example, that is not a cash transaction, which is anonymous.
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  So we knew this was coming, according to the scriptures, and we saw evidences of it creeping
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  along the technology, you know, logarithmic curve almost.
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  So what we're seeing recently with Jensen Huangs, who's the CEO of NVIDIA, the largest,
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  most wealthiest company in the world, by the way, in terms of market cap.
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  They are beginning to talk about introducing, you know, AI as a way of controlling the
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  stability of a qubit inside of a quantum computer.
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  And also introducing 6G communications technology in order to harness the very rapid internet
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  of things and the ability to do vast amounts of data connectivity and very short amounts
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  of time.
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  And they use the example, download a full-length Hollywood movie in seconds.
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  That's the speed that they're talking about.
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  And when we are hearing the CEO of one of the most important technology companies in the
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  last five years, talking about the convergence of the exact architect architecture of the
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  B system, here, you've got AI that controls and decision-making and policies and controls
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  of the uptake of information processes it, understands what's happening in the world.
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  You've got quantum that could do hacking and other advanced encryption-breaking systems.
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  And if AI controls quantum, the AI could say, go crack this bank and give me all their
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  money.
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  See, this is not good.
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  And then you've got the final leg, which is you've got the mark and the mark authenticates
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  somebody in the B system.
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  Now, we're not going to see this.
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  I'm pre-mailed, pre-trib.
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  The mark comes after the restrainers removed.
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  I want to make sure our audience understands that.
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  And so what will happen is that the communications part of it between us and space will happen
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  to facilitate instantaneous acknowledgement of bicell authorization decisions and all
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  the other control narratives of the promised B system that's coming.
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  And just to put a cherry on this topic, where do you go with this information?
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  Yeah.
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  And I'll just say that to me, it just means when we see the evidence of these systems beginning
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  to unify and deploy, coming out of research labs and beginning to be a real thing, then
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  that means that we are so much closer than when we first believed, not setting a date or
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  time, not getting caught up in that, but to understand the season that we're in.
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  And why is that important?
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  To me, I can't remember who says this all the time, but I love it.
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  It's not an escape theology, it's Pastor Joseph Morris, by the way.
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  It's not an escape theology, it's a hustle theology.
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  You know, I love the way that he characterizes that.
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  It means we need to be about the father's business.
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  If we're seeing it, we need to be responsible as watchmen and watch women to raise the alarm
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  to understand these things enough that we can have intelligent communications with people.
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  And it's tough for Christians sometimes to understand we are in this world, not of
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  this world, but yet we use some of the technologies.
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  And I think every time we have you on, we could probably do the same topic.
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  The future of computing, because it's not going to stop.
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  There's going to be constant advancements, and we'll talk more about that later.
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  We've got to take a brief pause with Scott Townsend.
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  Here's some good news to tell you about.
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  And then we'll be right back on World View Matters.
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  And using the World View Matters conference coming to Green Bay, Wisconsin may 1st and
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  2nd, 2026.
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  Here's some of the featured speakers, Ken Michael, Olivier Melnick, Tim Chafee, Mark
• 16:01
  and Amber Archer, Laura Perry Smalls, Dr. Jake Jacobs, Jay Seigert, Gary Cod, Scott
• 16:09
  Shera, and Elijah Abraham.
• 16:12
  The World View Matters conference may 1st and 2nd, 2026, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
• 16:17
  All right, friends, the website and ways you can register coming soon.
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  Friends, we are now in our third year already of producing World View Matters, and we're
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  amazed how far it's taken off, praise God, to continue speaking the truth and exposing
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  evil, having great guests like Scott and so many others.
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  We depend on your prayers first and foremost, and then you sharing, of course, but also
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  your financial donations.
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  So if you are able financially, right now we're running a new campaign, and you could,
• 16:47
  for example, give a tax deductible gift, $200, whatever amount you can, but some people
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  give monthly, 25 a month, and we would love if anyone gives, we'd love to send you our
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  brand new stainless steel tumbler, as with my tagline, keep speaking the truth about things
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  that matter, and World View Matters on the other side.
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  So please visit worldviewmatters.tv, and as always, we appreciate your prayers first and
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  foremost, and your encouragement.
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  And then for those who are able to give financially, we're moving, and I think hopefully we're
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  glorifying God, and he's propelling this ship.
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  But Scott Townsend, so did we wrap up the future of computing?
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  If we can, we can go to the final topic.
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  Now, I think we're ready to go to the next one.
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  There's a lot to comment about this next one, too, David.
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  Remember, we talked about AI companions and the development of that type of snare.
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  I'm going to call it what it is, and so I'll give you an update.
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  What we're, what used to happen, just to give our audience kind of a background on this,
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  is that there were companies that were specializing in providing AI companions, which is the
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  ability to have conversations normally through text messages to a semi-competent AI.
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  A lot of it was done through machine learning, which was the older version of AI, and they
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  were paid apps and everything like that.
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  But what we're seeing recently is very frightening to me.
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  AI companions have grown in their maturity and acceptance, and many hundreds of thousands
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  of users are using them all the time now.
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  And that is ranging from companionship to solve loneliness problems, self-esteem problems.
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  But AI's have a serious flaw in that they provide what is called syncopathic responses.
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  They will tell you what you want to hear, and they guide people into erroneous thinking.
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  But of course, they do not have a biblical worldview, and one of the most shocking,
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  but predictable things has just happened through open AI.
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  They made an announcement that short-coming, I think it's in December, they're releasing,
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  and I'm not kidding you, David.
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  They're permitting age-verified users to have erotic-based conversations with an AI
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  companion, and talk about the filth of that level of conversation, because look, in a
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  traditional way of interacting with sexually explicit material, that's one way.
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  When AI is involved, it learns, it memorizes what you like and don't like, and all that
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  stuff, and it's more targeted, and understands it's data mining you, and all the information
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  can be used to manipulate you, and you never know what your data, if it's safe, if it's
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  going somewhere, you don't know anything about what's happening behind the scenes.
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  And of course, the great concern is if we already have a pornography epidemic, which we do,
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  having an interactive form of pornography is almost indescribably threatening to the
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  human race, I will be that direct with it.
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  And so, to me, privately, I'm wondering, is this what explains the fact that in the
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  Tribulation period, no one marries anymore, what's going on with this narrative, and they're
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  not the only one.
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  So, open AI is announced this, but GROC has already implemented this, so there are limited
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  number of personas, some of which are imbued with the ability to talk in an inappropriate
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  way for users, and the entanglement of these AI companions is just further, separates
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  a user, could be a man or a woman, from any attempt at a real relationship with real,
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  you know, I would say the way that God has designed relationships to be a completely
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  bypasses normal, you know, ways that God has designed us, and it's very isolating and
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  dangerous, and I'm very concerned, which is why I appreciate the fact that we're talking
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  about this, David.
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  Thank you for your leadership.
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  Well, shocking, as you said, but predictable, we are the most connected technologically
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  with gadgets and technology and machines than we've ever been in history, but we are the
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  most disconnected, personally, from people, from that physical contact, you see families
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  at a restaurant, and most of them, if not all of the family members, but they're looking
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  down at their cell phones, and they're out with, for dinner together.
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  So I understand how this is a lure-scot because loneliness becomes such a, it's a bigger
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  issue than it was 50 years ago.
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  Now it's a different level of lonely when you talk about the lack of interpersonal connection
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  or communication.
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  Speak to that, because I'm reading this article that you wrote, it's, this system has
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  grown over 60 percent in the last year, more than 120 new apps launching this year alone,
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  and this is the direction it's going.
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  The church has to be ready for stuff like this.
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  That's the key part of this in my ongoing effort to speak to pastors through my open letter
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  to pastors, cleverly labeled, or one through four, and a bonus, and a bonus post on pastor
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  have you been left behind.
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  That was my motivating speech to that audience that I predict will be a thing in the future.
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  So my heart goes out to pastors and to the kind of crushing weight of the everyday responsibilities
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  and distress and conflict that they're finding themselves in all day long.
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  And in 2020, a lot of things broke in the church, a lot of things broke period and interpersonal
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  relationships with masks that obscured people's face, zoom that distance people, separation
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  distances and things like that.
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  And we've not really recovered from that.
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  And unfortunately the church has to step into that void.
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  But with the uptake of the adoption of these technologies, David, it is very clear that
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  people that could be in church even, more people that believe that they're broken and
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  desperate need for help, where they would have gone to church as a last effort exploration
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  of what can God offer them.
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  You know, that gets triaged out of their worldview.
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  And all of a sudden, they pick up the convenience for a few dollars a month of interacting with
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  an AI companion.
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  And once the hook sets in, David, it is a very, very dangerous place.
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  And as anything, I mean, it can become addicting.
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  Yeah.
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  This article, a recent survey showed teenagers and young adults engaging in daily, emotionally
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  significant interactions with AI friends.
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  That's just sad.
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  But that's where the, what the church has to understand, they, they want community, they
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  want interaction, but they're not getting it in the right places.
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  Scott, close us out in the last couple of minutes here.
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  Well, just to finish that one, David.
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  Look, this is a challenge for youth pastors, especially because the youth are the most
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  vulnerable.
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  So youth pastors need to stand there and really address us with their, you know, groups
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  that they're involved in, no matter what age groups are coming through schools.
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  And I think has brought, you know, challenge to all pastors, you know, we're needing to
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  be about the father's business in a way that has never been seen before in future or
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  previous generations were at the very last part of it.
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  And we have to be missional in terms of how we can have kingdom impact for the Lord.
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  And it's not a trivial or lightweight topic.
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  It is very sobering.
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  And of course, for pastors and watchmen, there's great accountability there too.
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  Amen, brother.
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  So much more friends.
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  And these are extensive articles that the three topics we just briefly touched on here
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  with Scott, but we just appreciate your time, brother.
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  I love this perspective because we have to talk about these things.
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  I don't necessarily love all the subject matter.
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  We always get into on some of these podcasts, but we're here for the body of Christ.
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  Hopefully God is speaking, equipping, just giving people information and through the
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  biblical worldview, a different way of looking at what's going on in the world.
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  And that's why I appreciate ministries like yours.
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  So again, the website friends, I am a watchman dot sub stack dot com.
• 26:09
  Remember to check out the rapture kit dot org.
• 26:12
  It's just rapture kit dot org.
• 26:13
  Scott, again, thank you for your time.
• 26:15
  Lord willing, we will do this again soon.
• 26:18
  Thank you very much David.
• 26:19
  Always a pleasure to be with you.
• 26:21
  All right.
• 26:21
  You're most welcome.
• 26:22
  And by the way, check out their round table, John Halle's round table.
• 26:26
  Those guys, I mean, sometimes it goes over my head too, but I'm just trying to keep
• 26:31
  up with what they're talking about because they are on the cutting edge.
• 26:34
  And by the way, Halle reads the New York Times, so you don't have to.
• 26:38
  Friends, thank you so much for your prayers, your encouragement for sharing the
• 26:42
  podcast and of course your financial support.
• 26:45
  God bless you and as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.