Latest / The Daily Article / Is AI a tool for the Antichrist? The problem with Peter Thiel’s take on the end times
Transcript
- 0:02[SPEAKER_00]: Good day.
- 0:02[SPEAKER_00]: It's Friday, March the 20th, 2026.
- 0:05[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Dinnison Forum's daily article podcast.
- 0:09[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article, written by Dr. Ryan Dinnison, Senior Editor for Theology.
- 0:17[SPEAKER_00]: Peter Teele is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who made his mark with PayPal, Facebook, and Planetar before becoming one of the largest donors to the Republican Party and in early advocate for President Trump.
- 0:31[SPEAKER_00]: However, he's in the news this week for an entirely different reason.
- 0:36[SPEAKER_00]: Teele helped organize an exclusive conference in Rome.
- 0:39[SPEAKER_00]: where he led four days of discussions on the anti-Christ and his view that modern society is hardling towards an inflection point that could pave the way for the end times.
- 0:50[SPEAKER_00]: He claims that the anti-Christ will use issues like nuclear war, climate change, and perhaps most importantly, artificial intelligence, to promise security in exchange for devotion,
- 1:02[SPEAKER_00]: and lead people to submit willingly to the sort of one-world totalitarian government depicted in the book of Revelation.
- 1:09[SPEAKER_00]: And while the lectures in Rome are not the first time he's taught on this subject, he gave similar talks in San Francisco and Paris.
- 1:16[SPEAKER_00]: This week's events have generated far more attention in religious circles.
- 1:21[SPEAKER_00]: Part of the reason is that the meetings were arranged by Catholic organizations and located on the Vatican's doorstep, both of which raised the eye of the Pope and others who
- 1:32[SPEAKER_00]: The Catholic newspaper of Ineirae went so far as to describe Tiel as, quote, an agent of chaos.
- 1:39[SPEAKER_00]: Father Antonio Spadaro, a prominent Jesuit theologian, added that Tiel, quote, arrived in Rome not merely as a man of technology, but as an interpreter of the apocalypse.
- 1:50[SPEAKER_00]: In, quote, while Tiel would perhaps dispute the first accusation as being a man of technology, there's little in his work on this subject that would take issue with the second.
- 2:00[SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to apocalyptic topics, he speaks with a level of confidence and specificity that leaves little doubt that he sees his beliefs as far more than theories.
- 2:11[SPEAKER_00]: One of the ironies of Teele's message is that he believes the antichrist will be making people so focused on their fear of innovation and technology, whether AI or some other development.
- 2:22[SPEAKER_00]: that they become obsessed and see every aspect of their lives through the lens of that fear.
- 2:28[SPEAKER_00]: As he told Ross Dutette, last summer, the way the anti-Christ would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon, non-stop.
- 2:36[SPEAKER_00]: You talk about existential risk, non-stop, and that is what you need to regulate.
- 2:41[SPEAKER_00]: In quote.
- 2:42[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, throughout these lectures and other conversations, he stokes many of the same fears.
- 2:47[SPEAKER_00]: And this emphasis on fear is one of the key areas where he is correct in his assessment of the general public, yet fundamentally wrong in his assessment of the Bible's teaching of how Christian should respond.
- 3:00[SPEAKER_00]: As he described in his San Francisco lecture last fall, quote, if the antichrist is going to take over the world, you need something very powerful to stop it, and quote, the larger context surrounding that statement implies that he sees some force in the world serving that function.
- 3:18[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas scriptures teaching on the subject in Revelation 19 verse 20 is that it will ultimately be Jesus who wins the day.
- 3:26[SPEAKER_00]: That Christians are meant to find our hope and strength in Jesus rather than ourselves or some other force is crucial to maintaining a biblical understanding of these issues.
- 3:36[SPEAKER_00]: After all, this battle between Christ and Satan's attempt to oppose him is not limited
- 3:42[SPEAKER_00]: In the first of his letters to the churches in Asia, John writes in 1st John 2 verse 18, children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrist's have come.
- 3:57[SPEAKER_00]: One of the problems with spending too much time dwelling on who the final Antichrist will be is that Satan likely has someone who could fit the description living in the world at all times.
- 4:07[SPEAKER_00]: When John wrote Revelation, that someone was likely the Emperor Demission, and up until the reign of Constantine, who ever set on the throne in Rome, was often seen as a popular candidate for the role of the Devil's chosen one.
- 4:23[SPEAKER_00]: Later on in church history, Martin Luther came to see the Pope as the anti-Christ during his struggles with the Catholic Church, and more recent generations have looked to Hitler, Stalin, and a host of other infamous leaders.
- 4:36[SPEAKER_00]: The truth is that Satan doesn't know when the end times will start.
- 4:40[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was quite clear in Matthew 24 verse 36 that only the Father knows that information.
- 4:47[SPEAKER_00]: and it seems safe to assume he's not sharing those details with the devil.
- 4:51[SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, the only way Satan could be assured of having an anti-Christ-type figure when the events of Revelation commence is that he has someone who fits the description present at all times.
- 5:04[SPEAKER_00]: That's important for us to understand today, because it means that looking for clues as to who such a person or entity might be is largely fruitless.
- 5:14[SPEAKER_00]: God wants our attention focused on his plans, rather than speculation about the devils, so he's told us just enough to know what's necessary to follow his plans well.
- 5:25[SPEAKER_00]: And that fact is made even clearer in Christ's description of what to expect when the
- 5:32[SPEAKER_00]: In Matthew chapter 24, the disciples approached Jesus in private to ask when the apocalyptic events he had just described would come to pass.
- 5:42[SPEAKER_00]: Christ replies by telling them about wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, and other persecution in Matthew 24 versus 3 through 14.
- 5:52[SPEAKER_00]: Given the COVID pandemic and increase in natural disasters,
- 5:55[SPEAKER_00]: And the series of wars that have placed most of the world only a stepper to remove from the conflict, it is understandable that more and more Christians would be interested in teal thoughts on the antichrist and what the Bible teaches about the end times.
- 6:10[SPEAKER_00]: However, Jesus did not tell us to look for these kinds of events so that we could predict when he's coming back.
- 6:16[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, the purpose was so that when bad things happen, we wouldn't be afraid.
- 6:21[SPEAKER_00]: You see, when we hear of wars, natural disasters, plagues, and everything else, our dire situation can really only end in one of two ways.
- 6:32[SPEAKER_00]: The first possibility is that these events will pass, and the world will put itself back together in some new semblance of normal.
- 6:38[SPEAKER_00]: In which case, we should not be afraid.
- 6:40[SPEAKER_00]: The second possibility is that these events really do mark the end times in which case Jesus will return shortly.
- 6:49[SPEAKER_00]: And again, we should not be afraid.
- 6:52[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, Christ wants his followers to live in such a way that when the world was falling apart, they were not.
- 6:59[SPEAKER_00]: And that is still his calling for each of us today.
- 7:03[SPEAKER_00]: So whether AI brings about the antichrist, the world hurdles towards some sort of global totalitarianism that deal describes, or any of these other predictions and concerns come to pass, the proper response for Christians to keep our focus on helping people to know Jesus and to live with confidence that God is still in control.
- 7:25[SPEAKER_00]: Are you living with such confidence today?