Watchman on the Wall

Announcer: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and SWRC.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things.

Today, Bob Maginnis and Larry Spargimino will discuss what the Christian perspective on the high-tech revolution of artificial intelligence should be. And author Greg Patton will help us live in today’s world.

Has some American pastors fallen asleep as Watchman on the Wall? Are some too afraid of waking people up during the night that they refuse to blow their trumpets even though they see the danger approaching? Church leaders today face temptation to remain silent about sin.

However, the church and its pastors must strive to honor God instead of pleasing people. Sometimes the most loving thing the faithful watchman can do is sound the alarm. Follow the Lord’s leading as you speak up and alert others to the approaching danger.

Read more about the epidemic of silence in American churches in Prophecy in the News magazine number 22. Order yours today by calling 1-800-652-1144 or visiting prophecyinthenews.com. Subscribe for more insights into today’s church as accusations of Christian nationalism join other epithets against Christians trying to follow scripture. Prophecy in the News magazine, subscribe today. Here is Watchman on the Wall host, Dr. Larry Spargimino.

Larry Spargimino: Artificial intelligence is the new electricity for the modern age. Powerful, it’s unstoppable, and it's about to change what it means to be human. What once belonged to the realm of science fiction is now becoming the new reality.

Super intelligent machines are invading daily life, taking over the very tasks that define what it means to be human. Will these machines serve humanity, or will they decide we are all obsolete? Retired US Army Colonel and national security expert Robert L. Maginnis has written a must-read book. It’s titled AI for Mankind’s Future.

It provides a Christian perspective on the high-tech revolution. In a few minutes, I will tell you how you get your own copy of this wonderful book. It really is wonderful, detailed, so much in it. Bob Maginnis, thank you so much for being on our show once again.

Bob Maginnis: It’s always my pleasure, Larry.

Larry Spargimino: Well Bob, you open your book with a stark warning. So why should Christians be concerned about AI right now?

Bob Maginnis: It’s taking over a lot of things in our lives, some of which we’re glad to abandon, others not so much. What I did in this book, Larry, is to explain the mechanics and the reach of artificial intelligence for the Christian world. I want us to know how to avoid the very evil aspects of it while harnessing the good to advance the gospel.

If you were to ask the broad population, they would be divided on whether it’s helpful or whether it’s generating fear. Helpful, yes, it’s improving our healthcare. A CAT scan or cancer test or a host of pharmaceutical issues are related to artificial intelligence, and so it is improving healthcare in that regard. It certainly is making things more convenient. It’s improving our communication arguably.

But fearfully, people are saying, well, it’s going to rob my job, it’s going to manipulate my thinking, it’s going to compromise my privacy. It’s going to replace the things that I hold dear in my life. And so I really with this first volume, Larry, I wanted to introduce artificial intelligence. What is it?

And I will tell you later in this year I have another coming out that answers the question who is in charge of AI? And there's a third volume coming out late summer, early fall, where is it leading? And so there are just such an explosive issue that is impacting every aspect of life.

Larry Spargimino: Well, just kind of a general question, but you and I believe in eschatology, Bible prophecy. So do you think that AI could be the Antichrist’s most effective weapon in his arsenal to put planet Earth in bondage? How does it fit with Revelation 13 and other scriptures?

Bob Maginnis: I think it’s the perfect match. Of course, I teased that in Chapter 17 of AI for Mankind’s Future. It’s entitled AI, Satan’s End-Time Strategic Weapon. And then I will just tease the later this summer book because the final algorithm is all about what Revelation 13 says and how this artificial intelligence can be used in ways in which we only imagine at this point.

Of course, it deals with what Daniel went through in Babylon and how he lived amidst something not dramatically different. It was a different type of technology, a different type of culture, but he learned to wrestle with those realities.

So that’s for later this summer. But right now, it’s important for Christians to understand that AI is not a human. It doesn’t have feelings. It doesn’t have purpose and meaning in life. It’s a pattern recognition and a prediction machine. But it’s incredibly persuasive and it is incredibly confident, and we often don’t appreciate what we’re dealing with here.

Larry Spargimino: Well, I remember I believe it was in 2014, Elon Musk way back then said that AI was more dangerous to humanity than nuclear warfare. And then he had an interview with Sophia, who was a robot with wires sticking out of her head, and I remember she actually threatened him.

She said, if you’re nice to us, we’ll be nice to you. And now that’s 2014, and I think at that time Sophia was a citizen of Saudi Arabia. This thing is probably moving ahead more quickly than we even imagined.

Bob Maginnis: No, you’re absolutely right, Larry. Elon Musk also said here in the last two years that AI is going to release the demons, and I don't take that lightly. I think it is a tool that can be used for great good, but also great evil.

It’s all about wrestling control over humanity by a set of people that now control all the outlets for artificial intelligence. Whether the Elon Musks or the Sam Altmans or the Eric Schmidts or the Zuckerbergs and so forth, these people have great power to manipulate messages, images that we see, things that we listen to.

It’s Katie bar the door. There’s no stopping where some of these people want to go. They actually want to define things that are clear in scripture about salvation and heaven and so forth. Yes, there is a theology amongst these artificial intelligence gurus, and that's something that I think Christians have to come to grips with. They need to know their scripture and they need to be discerning.

Larry Spargimino: Yes, absolutely. Well, you know what’s so tricky about this is that people today are looking for convenience, anything to make life easier. So technology is certainly helping in many ways. Are we even today at the present time, are we somehow dependent on AI?

Bob Maginnis: Well, there’s no question that we are. Just look at your automobile. Yes, I’m not talking necessarily about the autonomous driverless automobiles that are coming in many cities, but how many of us used to tune up our own cars and take care of it?

No, today for the most part, you have to have a giant computer brain connected with all sorts of wires to diagnose the problem. Well, it’s going to get far worse than that. The artificial intelligence, agentic artificial intelligence is going to actually do things without a lot of guidance, and that becomes problematic when they start to, much like in the military where we have now given a great deal of control to these artificial agents to make not giant decisions yet, but eventually they will be, especially if the Chinese continue to develop in the way they are.

So we are in kind of a metamorphosis at this point. Back in the 50s, the first idea about what is artificial intelligence started to come out. And then over the decades, especially in the last decade, things have just exploded in capability. And I trace that, of course, in the book. People need to understand this didn’t come out of nowhere. There is a very serious building blocks here, and now we’re just going to exponentially explode in a direction that most people are not aware of or are prepared to cope with.

Larry Spargimino: For my next question, maybe you can’t answer it, so just say next. But the question has to do with Venezuela. Was AI used in the capture of Mr. Maduro?

Bob Maginnis: Well, artificial intelligence is part of our communication and our intelligence network. It’s part of our decision-making network. It is becoming more pervasive. I can’t say for sure that we were relying upon AI mechanisms or AI empowered instruments.

But I will tell you, when General Kane, the chairman, got up there in front of the world after President Trump spoke and he described the operation, he said this was flawless. Well, we did have one helicopter shot and we did have a couple soldiers wounded.

However, in order to orchestrate from 20 different locations 150 aircraft and thousands of people, people out on the sea, satellites over, we have to have instantaneous communication and seamless operations. That is instrumented through artificial intelligence, especially agentic systems. Things that you don't want a human to necessarily have to take time to think about and to come to decision, you can relegate some of that to artificial intelligence. So I would say yes, there was a role. It wasn’t as significant as it is going to become in the future.

Larry Spargimino: Well, I know I heard some reports where our guys and I guess gals were involved as well where they actually I guess somehow they had the building, they knew the hallways, the doorways, where Maduro was, where his wife was, and I'm thinking, well, how do you have the building if you’re not there? But for once they said they rehearsed actually on the spot, so to speak, and it sounds to me like something that AI would create.

Bob Maginnis: Well, that protocol of practicing in a facility that’s similar to what you’re going to take down is something that Delta has been doing for years. The SEALs do it also. Just like when we went after Osama bin Laden outside of Islamabad years ago, the SEALs practiced on a mock-up, and we have mock-ups in many places throughout the US military.

What was unique likely is some of the particulars that it really took an inside agent to identify, and we could put that together using some of the creative tools that artificial intelligence provides us. So that’s pretty typical, but it’s getting more sophisticated and harder for humans to quite comprehend how fast this stuff is moving and how effective it can be.

Friends, you will want this new book, AI for Mankind’s Future. The author, Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Maginnis is the author of 12 books. He’s the seasoned columnist and a former Fox News military analyst. Our toll-free number 1-800-652-1144. Give us a call for your own copy of AI for Mankind’s Future.

And if you’re new to our ministry, please check out our website swrc.com. We have books, recordings, information about future conferences and so on to help keep you on the cutting edge of questions, answers, and controversies regarding red button issues affecting Christians in today’s world.

So let’s get back to our guest Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis. Bob, what about how we’re using AI for our kids? Are we integrating AI into K-12 education, and what are the potential benefits and dangers of AI for children’s development in general?

Bob Maginnis: I have a chapter in AI for Mankind’s Future that deals with education. And yes, it can be a significant positive for child education. It can tutor and really replicate the level of education and on any topic if it’s properly put together and dependent upon.

Now it can be incredibly dangerous too, as you would expect Larry. If it becomes a chatbot or kind of a mentor or a best friend as often they are because you can activate these things like Alexa or Siri or some of the other chatbots and they sound just like a human being. They mimic our emotions, they mimic the type of response you would get from a parent or from a pastor or someone.

Unfortunately, we’ve had some cases that are well documented where AI has recommended some pretty adverse outcomes that have resulted in suicides, not just for children but for adults. Are you going to like unfortunately some children become so wedded to their iPhones or to their chatbot that they don't interact with human beings and as a direct result they really become almost machine-like in their responses themselves.

So we are called to be humans, not chatbots. We don't want to become computers, we don't want to become AI. And that is a real danger. Even pastors that are using AI to write their sermons or to quote evangelize, that is a real thing and it’s happening in many places around the world which of course I document in the book as well.

Larry Spargimino: Well Bob, when will we pass the point of no return? I mean, what is the point that we can be so enmeshed in AI that we can no longer extricate ourselves, and are we near that point and when will we reach that point?

Bob Maginnis: That is a real concern, Larry. President Trump put together what's called Genesis Mission here not long ago and he said we’re going to win this artificial intelligence arms race against the Chinese, Russians, and others around the world. Well, because we’re not putting the guardrails, enough of them in place, my concern like you expressed is that we are going to go too far.

And like Elon Musk and others in the AI arena warn, you don't want to push this too fast because it’s going to create situations that we cannot reverse. It’s that good. And we’re spending trillions of dollars today all over the world investing and we’re advancing at lightning speed.

It’s not one year or two years. You think when the internet started really in the early 90s during the Clinton administration, it was, it took couple decades really to become what it became. Well, AI is accelerated probably 10 times or more than the internet just because it has that platform and it has the technology, it has the government, the culture all behind it.

It’s transforming absolutely every aspect of life and we should not think that we’re going to be able to control this easily. We need to get real bright, real fast on how to control this by putting together guardrails and that starts in the family and what the churches need to understand what this is all about because it has significant, I would say, spiritual implications.

Larry Spargimino: Yes. Regarding technology, are we able at the present time or are we near that point where we can create machines that are self-conscious and can make their own decisions and can perhaps even decide that humanity, we’re the problem? I mean, and we really are, the Bible does speak about the fall, all the wars that we have, the lust, the selfishness and so forth. But are we at that point where they can decide and are we at the point where maybe autonomous robots would even decide whether to shoot, whether to bomb, whether to start a war? It’s kind of like we’re sitting back, okay, let’s turn it over to the robots and see what they do. Are we getting close to that?

Bob Maginnis: Well, yes and no. AI is not conscious the way we look at it, and I do go through the explanation not only in this book but in subsequent books in great detail because that is a theological, a philosophical question as to do they understand? Are they self-aware? Do they think through things?

Yeah, they can make decisions. Agentic AI is just that. When we are like the autonomous vehicle, that vehicle’s going to make decisions based on the sensors that are all around it. It knows the city areas and then it stops at the right place where you get in the car and then it, you tell the AI I want to go to this location and it says buckle up and it takes you to that exact location.

Now there are some flaws in that system. That’s the simplest way of looking at it, but it’s becoming far more sophisticated than just that. Medically, it can guide a very almost microscopic entity into our bloodstream, into our brains, do surgery and so forth.

That’s where we’re going in that particular realm. It’s automating our workplace and obviously we talked about education. There is very little that AI can’t have some sort of application in. Yes, it can improve our lives, but it can also rob us of our privacy and seek to control us.

We are being, if we’re not careful, we’re going to be controlled by machines and that's my real concern and a very significant spiritual issue. That's why I wrote this trilogy. You need to understand what AI is and what it isn’t yet because even the real experts, and I went to MIT this summer for a course on agentic and generative AI to understand the other side, the real scientific side, but then the theological, I kind of wrap that around my understanding of the technology.

So it’s very important that we understand what we’re dealing with here and also that it is going to continue to grow and become more sophisticated. It’s almost like a monster of sorts. It is getting larger and larger, more important every day and governments are going to rely on it much more than they ever have and we see that in our own government. And then of course our economy is tethered to it and so forth. So these are issues of grave concern. They may change our lives in ways that we don't want them changed.

Larry Spargimino: Well thank you, Bob, for this first interview. We’re looking forward to having you back for another interview. We will continue our discussion on our next broadcast. So friends, be sure to tune in to your Watchman on the Wall broadcast of Southwest Radio Church.

Announcer: The new book, AI for Mankind’s Future by Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis is a timely and sobering examination of artificial intelligence through a distinctly biblical and prophetic lens. One every Christian should read as technology rapidly reshapes the world.

In AI for Mankind’s Future, Maginnis warns that these challenges are not distant; they are time sensitive. Rejecting the secular belief that AI will replace humanity, he firmly upholds scripture’s teaching that mankind is uniquely created in God’s image and entrusted with divine purpose.

AI for Mankind’s Future, order your copy today by calling 1-800-652-1144. You can also order AI for Mankind’s Future at our website swrc.com. If you want to be informed, spiritually grounded and prepared for the future unfolding before us, AI for Mankind’s Future is an essential resource. Order your copy today and gain biblical clarity in an age of artificial intelligence. 1-800-652-1144.

Time to be encouraged as you and I are living in today’s world. Here is pastor and author, Dr. Greg Patton.

Greg Patton: Let me ask you something today. Do you think God ever gets it wrong? I oftentimes say that trouble ain’t trouble till it hits me. I hear about your trouble and I pray for you, I do, and yet it's totally different when it comes to my house.

My colleague that you’ve heard on Watchman on the Wall before, Dr. Ken Copley, they found out that his daughter Esther, one of nine children, had a brain tumor. Brain surgery, and now two weeks later found out that it's malignant. Doc told me this the other day. It’s really interesting. My daughter Esther has the closest, sweetest, purest walk with God of anybody I’ve ever known. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and we trust him implicitly.

Let me ask again. Do you think God ever gets it wrong? You know the answer to that. But there are times that we still ask questions like that. There are many times I’ve thought that if I were God, I would do things differently. God makes no mistakes.

Have you heard that the wealthiest man in Ohio died last week? At 3:17 they think in the morning and he had 12 dollars in his pocket. For six hours his body lay on a cold linoleum floor in Northwood High right next to the vending machine in hallway B. The industrial floor buffer was still running, spinning in lonely wild circles against a row of gray lockers, filling the air with the smell of burnt rubber.

Elias Thorne. To the school board he was employee number 509, a payroll expense they debated cutting every fiscal quarter to save some money for the new football stadium. To the teachers he was the invisible silhouette in the navy blue jumpsuit who emptied the trash cans after the bell rang. To the students he was just old Eli, the guy with the limp and the hearing aid who hummed old jazz tunes while mopping up spilled milk here and there.

The corner report was clinical: massive cardiac arrest. The police report was short: natural causes, no next of kin. But if you stood in the freezing rain outside the First Methodist Church, fighting for space alongside 600 sobbing teenagers and adults, you’d have heard a totally different story.

You’d have heard that Eli died because his heart was just simply too big for one body to hold. He always was working late, I never understood why he loved mopping floors so much when he had an engineering degree. I thought maybe he'd just given up on life. Then she opened the church doors.

There they were, around the block. Traffic stopped for half a mile. It wasn’t just students. It was the whole town. Nurses, mechanics, police, everybody. Yep, they walk among us. Great people. There’s probably dozens of stories just like this one from coast to coast in America. People who make a difference in other people’s lives and I often wonder why God takes people like that. Eli was only 67.

They may appear to just be a lonely janitor taking care of business and something special about these people. This was just a simple modern Bible story without a single verse as we live in today’s world.

Announcer: Often called the new electricity, artificial intelligence promises unprecedented progress, efficiency, and power. But as AI advances toward superintelligent systems capable of overseeing nearly every aspect of human life, serious questions emerge.

What happens to human purpose? Who defines truth and morality? And where does this technology fit within God’s plan for mankind? Find out in the new book AI for Mankind’s Future by Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis. A timely and sobering examination of artificial intelligence through a distinctly biblical and prophetic lens. One every Christian should read as technology rapidly reshapes the world.

Blending technological insight, biblical worldview, and prophetic discernment, AI for Mankind’s Future equips believers to understand the spiritual stakes behind emerging technologies and to stand firm in truth as deception increases. AI for Mankind’s Future, order your copy today by calling 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. You can also order on our website swrc.com.

More insight into artificial intelligence from Bob Maginnis coming up on tomorrow’s program, so be sure to tune in. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Visit swrc.com.