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Fred R. Coulter—October 17, 2008

Now let’s continue on, welcome everybody to the Feast of Tabernacles, day 4, 2008. Last time we covered The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil—who is one of the great intellectuals of our age—and putting together what he envisions as the evolutionary future of man by technology; and being able to have human beings so that they can improve their intelligence, improve everything about them by being able to take advantage of technology, hook up to computers and use all of the rapid knowledge that computers have.

And mankind, in his own way, is rejecting God. And what they’re doing—and intellectuals, just like Ray Kurzweil are doing—they’re worshipping their own minds. They’re worshipping their own intellectual capacity. And they are locked in to a logic of evolution which blinds their minds.

Let’s come to Psalm 14, and let’s see where we ended up last time showing that a lot of this thinking has to do exactly as the same thinking that Satan the devil had: ‘I will become like the Most High.’ Well, you can’t become like the Most High when you reject God. Actually, the truth is God’s plan is so that we become the very children of God; and we become greater and more than what Ray Kurzweil has imagined in his super ‘singularity’ of combining human intelligence and improving the evolution of human intelligence with the evolution of the non-biological machines so that we have millions and millions and millions of times more intellect—and yet, he hasn’t solved the problem of what do you do with the evil of human nature. And that’s exactly where those who don’t believe in God, or reject God, end up!

Now let’s come to Psalm 14 (pg 710). While he has concluded how ‘wise’ he is, and how great we’re going to invent, and how marvelous we are going to perform, if you don’t know God—if you reject God—doesn’t matter how great you think you are, God says, ‘You’re a fool!’ Now there can be intellectual fools, the super-elite, ultimate intellectual elite are fools! Now we’ll see that here: Psalm 14:1: "The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God!’" The whole basis of this is that man will solve his own problems and man will expand and fill the whole universe with his intelligence.

However, God says: "They are corrupt… [because he can’t get rid of the corruption of human nature—only God can.] …they have done abominable works, there is none who does good…. [While they think this is good—and we’re going to read a little bit more of it today to see where the ultimate conclusion is coming—well, they think it’s good, it’s evil, it’s abominable!] …The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understand, who seek after God…. [That’s the most important thing that man can do is seek after God!] …They are all corrupt, they are altogether filthy; there is none who does good, no, not even one" (vs 1-3). And that’s why in the salvation through Christ we need the goodness of God, the righteousness of Christ, the imputed righteousness that God gives to us. That’s why we need, with the Spirit of God, to have the laws and commandments written in our hearts and in our minds—to give us the true wisdom of God, not the intellectual vanity of this world, who of those who profess themselves to be wise, but they are utter fools!

"Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up My people as they eat bread? They have not called upon the LORD. There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous…. [And that’s what’s going to happen to them: When their worlds come crashing down upon them at the return of Jesus Christ.] …You have put to shame the counsel of the poor; but the LORD is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD turns away the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad" (vs 4-7). And that’s when the Millennium is going to begin.

Let’s come to Romans, the first chapter, and let’s see it’s exactly like what is happening in the politics in America with the presidential election. We have someone who has says he has "change we can believe in." And that he is going bring change, and he has better judgment than anyone else so far, and yet, he has the experience of a gnat. And he’s going to be our "messiah." And people say, ‘Well, it’s time for a change. Change you can believe in.’ Well, here’s change you can believe in: it’s going to end in utter destruction, and so will that!

Now let’s come to Romans 1, and let’s see what God says about these kinds of things. See because, God being merciful and kind, and God waiting for the sin to come to the full. The sin of the world hasn’t come to the full, yet. And here’s the great, intellectual, scientific, technological sin that must blossom to its fullness—as well as the evil and perversity, as well as the occult and the satanism and all of that. Everything must come to the full, which then is the climax or the completion of this age and the return of Christ and the setting up of the Kingdom of God; whom God has selected each one of us to participate in, and to set it up, and to bring righteousness and truth and love and knowledge and understanding that is going to fulfill the human life and expression, with the fulfillment from God rather than bowing down to some machine and say, ‘Oh machine, save me, you are so intelligent.’

Now let’s understand something that’s important. Let’s come down here to Romans 1:16 (pg. 1,146): Paul writes: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…"—and it’s not a gospel of religion—it is a gospel of the Kingdom of God and the setting up of the Kingdom of God and all that that entails. And it’s about conversion and it’s about change, and it’s about becoming the very sons and daughters of God. And it is about God’s rule on the earth and in the universe, which He is going to share with us. So this Book [the Bible], which this man probably rejects and despises, and being a Jew, probably would not accept anything of the New Testament, is the answer to the foolishness of what he is proposing. We shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

"…because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes—both to the Jew first… [listen up, Ray Kurzweil] …and to the Greek. For therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith… [Because the most important thing for men to do is not expand their knowledge and intelligence and their abilities, but to know God!

To have a relationship with God!

To believe in God,

to love God,

to hope in His plan—not in the things of men!]

…according as it is written: ‘The just shall live by faith’" (vs 16-17)

And you see, it would be counted as foolishness if I said to Ray Kurzweil, ‘The real answers are in the Bible. And what you have is vanity and foolishness. Now, you may succeed to a good degree of what is going to take place, that you claim is going to take place.’ And we’ll read a little bit more about it in just a bit. But you see, knowing God is the greatest thing that we can do. Having the Spirit of God is the greatest thing that can be given to us—not some computer we can hook our brain up to.

"The just shall live by faith." Now the converse of that, v 18, Paul writes: "Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness… [that is ungodliness] …and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness… [Get God out of the schools; God out of the government; God out of our lives; God out of politics—but they can’t take God out of our hearts. They may take our heads! But they can’t take God away from us, because NOTHING will separate us from God. We are the answer to what Kurzweil proposes. Not his vain, intellectual buddies.

Verse 19: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them… [Where does he think the laws and dynamics and all of these things of technology come from, but from God! But, as we will see, they’re so locked into evolutionary thought that they can’t comprehend anything else.] …for God has manifested it to them; For the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made—both His eternal power and Godhead—so that they are without excuse" (vs 19-20). And much more so being a Jew.

"Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but they became vain in their own reasonings, and their foolish hearts were darkened. While professing themselves to be the wise ones, they became fools And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed creatures, and creeping things…. [And computers and things that the hands of man have made.] …For this cause… [Because there is a God Who judges.] …God also abandoned them to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to disgrace their own bodies between themselves, Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie; and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the one Who is Creator, Who is blessed into the ages [of eternity]. Amen" (vs 21-25).

They worship their own minds.

They worship their own machines.

They worship their own technology.

And pat themselves on the back

and give themselves awards

and have banquets to exalt themselves and tell them how great they are;

and what a fantastic future that they have to look forward to if they would only come to the point of ‘singularity.’

Now, I need to read a little bit more here, to show you how they propose to accomplish this. And they’re tinkering with the very creation of God to do it. And let’s see what they propose. Now, I’m going to read you something here, it’s going to be given at a much earlier date than some of the things we are reading, which is the introduction to his chapter five.

There are few things of which the present generation is more justly proud than the wonderful improvements which are daily taking place in all sorts of mechanical appliances…But what would happen if technology continued to evolve so much more rapidly than the animal and vegetable kingdoms? Would it displace us in the supremacy of earth?

Well, a machine will—according to this.

…Just as the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and as in like manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so now in these last few ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, of which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the antediluvian prototypes of the race.

Isn’t that something! The best of the races this side of the Flood. And where did we start with this? ‘Noah was perfect in his generations.’

…We are daily giving [machines] greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race. —SAMUEL BUTLER, 1863 (FOUR YEARS AFTER PUBLICATION OF DARWIN’S THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES)

He later writes:

Who will be man’s successor? To which the answer is: We are ourselves creating our own successors. Man will become to the machine what the horse and the dog are to man; the conclusion being that machines are, or are becoming, animate.

In other words: machines will become our gods. Now that’s the introduction to his chapter on Three Overlapping Revolutions entitled GNR. Kurzweil writes:

The first half of the twenty-first century will be characterized by three overlapping revolutions—in Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics.

And they have already proposed that they can make, by nano-technology, a tube which will reach clear up into the heavens. Sound a little bit like Genesis 11: "Let us build a tower whose height will reach into the heavens"? Yes!

These will usher in what I referred to earlier as Epoch Five, the beginning of the Singularity. We are in the early stages of the "G" [genetic] revolution today. By understanding the information processes underlying life, we are starting to learn to reprogram our biology to achieve the virtual elimination of disease [hmmmm], dramatic expansion of human potential, and radical life extension. Hans Moravec points out, however, that no matter how successfully we fine-tune our DNA-based biology, humans will remain "second-class robots:’ meaning that 205 biology will never be able to match what we will be able to engineer once we fully understand biology’s principles of operation.

We will become greater than ourselves!

The "N" revolution… [which is nano-technology] …will enable us to redesign and rebuild—molecule by molecule—our bodies and brains and the world with which we interact, going far beyond the limitations of biology…

Now, that sounds absolutely scintillating. Well, let’s see if they’ll do it. God tells all evolutionists: "Get your own dirt, don’t use Mine."

The most powerful impending revolution is "R"… [which then, ‘R; is robotics] …human-level robots with their intelligence derived from our own but redesigned to far exceed human capabilities.

Now, if you can’t get rid of the evil, how then are you going to stop the robots if they all get together and conspire to kill all human beings? How can they reign supreme without their human masters?

…human-level robots with their intelligence derived from our own but redesigned to far exceed human capabilities. R represents the most significant transformation…

Have you heard that word in politics and science and new age religion and etc.?

…because intelligence is the most powerful "force" in the universe.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! God is the most powerful force in the universe. And you are bucking up against God! And God is going to take care of you. He’ll let you design all of these things. He’ll let all of these things work. And in one WHACK! stop it all. All He has to do is just cut off the electricity—right? Or send a powerful magnetic storm that will FRY all of these machines and make them worthless! Now how great are you?

Intelligence, if sufficiently advanced, is, well, smart enough to anticipate and overcome any obstacles that stand in its path.

What an arrogant statement! Now, I saw the interview of Ray Kurzweil by Glen Beck—and he’s modest, unassuming, very nice presentation of a man. You see, so Satan doesn’t send some monster on to drive us away, because he wants to lure us all in. But the human intelligence enhanced by the machine intelligence is

…smart enough to anticipate and overcome any obstacles that stand in its path.

Hmmmm!

While each revolution will solve the problems from earlier transformations [through evolution], it will also introduce new perils….

Utt-oh! How do you get rid of the problems?

…G will overcome the age-old difficulties of disease and aging but establish the potential for new bioengineered viral threats…. [super-virus now added by machines and nano-technology] …Once N [nano-technology] is fully developed we will be able to apply it to protect ourselves from all biological hazards, but it will create the possibility of its own self-replicating dangers…

Why don’t you ask God how He did it, because He’s got the perfect answer in our biological bodies. Oh, but you won’t do that because you don’t believe in God.

…which will be far more powerful than anything biological.

So there you have the seeds of your own destruction sown in the solution, and that’s a basic premise you have forgotten, Mr. Kurzweil. Every new solution has within it, sown the seeds of its own destruction!

We can protect ourselves from these hazards with fully developed R [nano-robotics], but what will protect us from pathological intelligence that exceeds our own?

How you going to do that? Machines ganging up on you to kill you.

I do have a strategy for dealing with these issues, which I discuss at the end of chapter 8. In this chapter, however, we will examine how the Singularity will unfold through these three overlapping revolutions: G[enetics], N[ano-technology], and R[obotics].

Well, let’s see what else he has here. Has to do with genetics:

Underlying all of the wonders of life and misery of disease are information processes, essentially software programs, that are surprisingly compact.

Oh, even for you, God made something that challenges your thoughts. What do you know about that!

The entire human genome… [which they are trying to map out a number] …is a sequential binary code containing only about eight hundred million bytes of information.

I think you’re going to find you’re greatly underestimating that.

As I mentioned earlier, when its massive redundancies are removed using conventional compression techniques, we are left with only thirty to one hundred million bytes, equivalent to the size of [the average (I have that pg. cut off) but anyway, a very small size].

He continues:

Sufficient information already exists today to slow down disease and aging processes to the point that baby boomers like myself can remain in good health until the full blossoming of the biotechnology revolution, which will itself be a bridge to the nanotechnology revolution [so we can live longer]. In Fantastic Voyage [and they even made a movie out of it—right?]: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, which I coauthored with Terry Grossman, M.D., a leading longevity expert, we discuss these three bridges to radical life extension (today’s knowledge, biotechnology, and nanotechnology). I wrote there: "Whereas some of my contemporaries may be satisfied to embrace aging gracefully as part of the cycle of life, that is not my view. It may be ‘natural,’ but I don’t see anything positive in losing my mental agility, sensory acuity, physical limberness, sexual desire, or any other human ability.

Then why do you want to hook up to a machine if you don’t want to lose those?

I view disease and death at any age as a calamity, as problems to be overcome."

So here’s how he overcomes it:

When I was forty, my biological age was around thirty-eight. Although I am now fifty-six, a comprehensive test of my biological aging (measuring various sensory sensitivities, lung capacity, reaction times, memory, and related tests)… [so he’s being tested all the time] …conducted at Grossman’s longevity clinic measured my biological age at forty.… [So he only aged 2 years in 16] …Although there is not yet a consensus on how to measure biological age, my scores on these tests matched population norms for this age. So, according to this set of tests, I have not aged very much in the last sixteen years, which is confirmed by the many blood tests I take, as well as the way I feel.

What is the secret?

These results are not accidental; I have been very aggressive about reprogramming my biochemistry. I take 250 supplements (pills) a day and receive a half-dozen intravenous therapies each week…

One every day except for whichever day he doesn’t take it

…(basically nutritional supplements delivered directly into my bloodstream, thereby bypassing my GI tract)….

So now he is a hydroponic human being.

…As a result, the metabolic reactions in my body are completely different than they would otherwise be.’^.

But you see, you’re cheating! You’re using all of this biological information to extend your life, and you say that all of the revolution that you are coming up with here is going to extend it. Well, I can understand. You want to live long enough to get there. Okay.

Approaching this as an engineer, I measure dozens of levels of nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, and fats), hormones, and metabolic by-products in my blood and other body samples (such as hair and saliva). Overall, my levels are where I want them to be, although I continually fine-tune my program based on the research that I conduct with Grossman. Although my program may seem extreme, it is actually conservative—and optimal (based on my current knowledge). Grossman and I have extensively researched.

CHAPTER SIX: The Impact...

Now, here’s where he begins to put it together. And I will be done in just a few minutes with reading just a few things.

Panoply of Impacts.

In other words: a whole over-arching umbrella of impacts on the human life.

What will be the nature of human experience once nonbiological intelligence predominates? What are the implications for the human-machine civilization when strong AI and nanotechnology can create any product, any situation, any environment that we can imagine at will?

Hmmmm!

I stress the role of imagination here because we will still be constrained in our creations to what we can imagine.

Oh, what a shame!

But our tools for bringing imagination to life are growing exponentially more powerful.

Watch out for your vain reasonings!

As the Singularity approaches we will have to reconsider our ideas about the nature of human life and redesign our human institutions.

Hmmmm!

We will explore a few of these ideas and institutions in this chapter.

So we have here now:

For example, the intertwined revolutions of G [genetics], N [nano-technology], and R [robots] will transform our frail version 1.0 human bodies…

Did you realize that: you have a 1.0 human body? That’s not a very good body. Well, God says He’s going to transform it. So he can go up—he’s got a 3.0 body here. 0.0/3.0 that we’re going to get to. God’s got one that’s going to be spiritual! Hmmmm! I suggest, Ray, you get with God’s program if you want to do some of these things, and get off your high-horse and your intellectual vanity and all of those scientists who work with you, because though you may accomplish some of these things, you’re going to end up finding yourself fighting against God. And you still have solved the problem of death. You’re only 56 and living on 250 supplements a day and 6 transfusions per week. What are you going to do when you have to double them to maintain what you have?

…will transform our frail version 1.0 human bodies into their far more durable and capable version 2.0 counterparts. Billions of nanobots… [now these are robots nano-size/monocular size] …will travel through the bloodstream in our bodies and brains.

God already created them. If you do what God says, it will work!

In our bodies, they will destroy pathogens, correct DNA errors…

How are you going to get rid of the evil of human nature? Well, now if you want a sex transformation you don’t have to go through an operation, just go the machine and tinker around and give yourself an estrogen DNA background and WALA! you’ll become a woman. Or if you’re a woman and want to become a man, you just go to the testosterone section of the computer and you say, ‘I want to become a man’—rrrrhhhhaa, and out you come.

…eliminate toxins, and perform many other tasks to enhance our physical well-being. As a result, we will be able to live indefinitely without aging. In our brains, the massively distributed nanobots will interact with our biological neurons….

Just infuse the brain with millions, hundreds of millions of nanobots to make our brains better. But who is to say that they will live?

…as well as neurological correlates of our emotions, from within the nervous system. More important, this intimate connection between our biological thinking and the nonbiological intelligence we are creating will profoundly expand human intelligence.

Warfare will move toward nanobot-based weapons…

Wonder if that sounds a little bit like Revelation 8 & 9? How about that!

Learning will first move online, but once our brains are online we will be able to download new knowledge and skills.

What do you want to learn? Oh, let’s do that! There it is.

The role of work will be to create knowledge of all kinds, from music and art to math and science. The role of play will be, well, to create knowledge, so there won’t be a clear distinction between work and play. Intelligence on and around the Earth will continue to expand exponentially until we reach the limits of matter and energy to support intelligent computation. As we approach this limit in our corner of the galaxy, the intelligence of our civilization will expand outward into the rest of the universe, quickly reaching the fastest speed possible. We understand that speed to be the speed of light, but there are suggestions that we may be able to circumvent this apparent limit (possibly by taking shortcuts through wormholes, for example).

So he says:

So What’s Left? Let’s consider where we are, circa early 2030s. We’ve eliminated the heart, lungs, red and white blood cells, platelets, pancreas, thyroid and all the hormone-producing organs, kidneys, bladder, liver, lower esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, and bowel.

Wow! Eliminate all of that!

What we have left at this point is the skeleton, skin, sex organs…

How are they going work without hormones?

…sensory organs, mouth and upper esophagus, and brain.

You’re just like these things you see on television today. These walking robots, and the only thing you have is your brain.

The skeleton is a stable structure, and we already have a reasonable understanding of how it works.

Well, you better learn a whole lot more if you’re going to do all of this.

We can now replace parts of it (for example, artificial hips and joints)…　

But that’s not creating new life. And let me tell you, my experience has been, even though they work well, they are an absolutely poor substitute for the creation of God. Had I taken care of it better and not have been so stupid, I wouldn’t have put myself in that position to need them. So, while I have them, I have to be very, very careful with them, because they could fail! All right, let’s go forward here:

…although the procedure requires painful surgery, and our current technology for doing so has serious limitations. Interlinking nanobots will one day provide the ability to augment and ultimately replace the skeleton through a gradual and noninvasive process. The human skeleton version 2.0 [human body] will be very strong, stable, and self-repairing.

We will not notice the absence of many of our organs, such as the liver and pancreas, since we do not directly experience their operation. But the skin, which includes our primary and secondary sex organs, may prove to be an organ we will actually want to keep,

Now, why would he want to do that!? You’ve gone this far.

…or we may at least want to maintain its vital functions of communication and pleasure.

No! Reinvent it! Do some nano-technology magic here.

However, we will ultimately be able to improve on the skin with new nanoengineered supple materials that will provide greater protection from physical and thermal environmental effects while enhancing our capacity for intimate communication [sex]. The same observation holds for the mouth and upper esophagus, which constitute the remaining aspects of the digestive system that we use to experience the act of eating.

Why eat?

Hold on! I am almost done!

As we discussed earlier, the process of reverse engineering and redesign will also encompass the most important system in our bodies: the brain. We already have implants based on "neuromorphic" modeling (reverse engineering of the human brain and nervous system) for a rapidly growing list of brain regions.’

That’s why they are doing all this brain research.

Researchers at MIT and Harvard…

That’s where the real intellects are. Oh my! And let’s see, Yale, Harvard? I think Obama came from Harvard, didn’t he? or Princeton? Somewhere around there. He’s got to be one of these great intellects. That’s why he’s bringing about so much change—do you suppose?

…are developing neural implants to replace damaged retinas. Implants are available for Parkinson’s patients that communicate directly with the ventral posterior nucleus and subthalmic nucleus regions of the brain to reverse the most devastating symptoms of this disease.

Now:

We Are Becoming Cyborgs. The human body version 2.0 scenario represents the continuation of a long-standing trend in which we grow more intimate with our technology.

We snuggle up to it at night and put a little technology, a machine, in our mouths and suck ourselves to sleep—on the nano-technology—you can just see it. Have to make a little fun of this.

Computers started out as large, remote machines in air-conditioned rooms tended by white-coated technicians. They moved onto our desks, then under our arms, and now into our pockets. Soon, we’ll routinely put them inside our bodies and brains. By the 2030s we will become more non-biological than biological. As I discussed in chapter 3, by the 2040s nonbiological intelligence will be billions of times more capable than our biological intelligence.

And what happens if it fails, and you die!? Because you haven’t solved the problem of death. This is pure fantasy!

However, there is a way around this inherent limitation. Biological evolution did create a species that could think and manipulate its environment. That species is now succeeding in accessing—and improving—its own design and is capable of reconsidering and altering these basic tenets of biology.

A new species.

Human Body Version 3.0. I envision human body 3.0—in the 2030s and 2040s—as a more fundamental redesign. Rather than reformulating each subsystem, we (both the biological and nonbiological portions of our thinking, working together)…

You can think yourself into something great—right? Yes!

…will have the opportunity to revamp our bodies based on our experience with version 2.0. As with the transition from 1.0 to 2.0, the transition to 3.0 will be gradual and will involve many competing ideas. One attribute I envision for version 3.0 is the ability to change our bodies. We’ll be able to do that very easily in virtual-reality environments…but we will ‘also acquire the means to do this in real reality. We will incorporate MNT-based fabrication into ourselves, so we’ll be able to rapidly alter our physical manifestation at will.

That is: come and go wherever you want to go. And I’ll end here with this:

Become Someone Else. In virtual reality we won’t be restricted to a single personality, since we will be able to change our appearance and effectively become other people. Without altering our physical body (in real reality) we will be able to readily transform our projected body in these three-dimensional virtual environments. We can select different bodies at the same time for different people. So your parents may see you as one person, while your girlfriend will experience you as another. However, the other person may choose to override your selections, preferring to see you differently than the body you have chosen for yourself. You could pick different body projections for different people:

There you go. We become God, make ourselves what we’re going to do and you are no longer the individual that you really are. You are an absolute lie and a fake because you have assumed these proportions. Utterly stupid and ridiculous.

Now we’ll examine some more things in the Scripture to give answers to these things that we have read and brought up.

(go to the next track)

Now let’s look into the Bible and see the great, major problem that Ray Kurzweil does not even address, which is the first problem to address, which is the problem of sin. And again, this goes back to the beginning. And Paul refers to this as the singular event that, in God’s judgment against Adam and Eve, changed the nature of men and women. And we have a nature that is a mixture of good and evil that is defined by Paul as the "law of sin and death" within. And that is a spiritual component that is not a genetic component; and all the genetic engineering you can do cannot get rid of it. And Kurzweil did not answer the problem of how do you get rid of evil? And only God has the answer as to how evil came into the human realm, and how to get rid of evil through Christ Jesus, as the Creator of mankind and our perfect sacrifice.

Now, let’s come to Romans 5:12—here is a key singular verse that undoes everything that Kurzweil has brought up, because until you solve this problem you can’t possibly do any of the things that he has said. "Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world… [now remember, Eve was deceived and she transgressed. Adam was not deceived, so he sinned knowingly.] …and by means of sin came death… [that’s the second problem that Kurzweil cannot solve. Now you may be able to extend your life a little longer, but that does not necessarily mean that you’re going to live forever. The keys to life belong to Jesus Christ. And eternal life only comes through God the Father and Jesus Christ. It doesn’t come through worshipping some sort of super-intelligent machine.] …and by means of sin came death; and in this way, death passed into all mankind… [How? By inheritance.] …and it is for this reason that all have sinned."

And you have got to solve the problem of sin. So all of his technological writing, all of the great thinking that he has put forth to do it, he hasn’t come to the fundamental question that God deals with, with human life: sin, death, reconciliation and salvation. That must first be done. And you cannot approach any human endeavor to make that happen, and to come to the point that you are going to fill the universe with all of the artificial intelligence of man. That is foolishness beyond comprehension!

Now let’s come to the book of Proverbs 14—now, Kurzweil may be very well intentioned. He is, otherwise he wouldn’t do it. But does than mean he’s right? No, it does not. He may have certain opinions, but in the age where we hold opinions as sacred, it doesn’t mean they’re right. Nor with technology–because certain things are able to be done technologically does not mean that it’s going to produce the results that we expect; because you have to answer the problem of how do you get rid of sin and human evil? Because it says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There’s not one, no not one that does good. Their feet are swift to shed blood"—and all of the things that the Bible talks about human nature. You can talk about all these lofty principles, but, Mr. Kurzweil:

How are you going to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism?

How are you going to solve the problem of evil which besets the human race?—and yes, even yourself.

If you just look to your ownself as a human being, any one of us, here’s what Proverbs tells us:

Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death." That’s where it’s going to end. It started with Adam and Eve. Oh, but we think: Oh, it’s not going to be that way.

Come over here to Proverbs 16—and this is where every man and woman has to have his or her encounter with God and His Word through repentance. And until that happens, here’s the motis operandi: Proverbs 16:2 "All the ways of a man [or a woman] are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits." The spirit of man. He weighs that.

Verse 4: "The LORD has made all for His own purpose; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." And we read of that in the book of Revelation, how God is going to end evil, bind Satan, get rid of him, change human nature, change the hearts and minds of people that survive through all of the holocaust that comes at the end. Give them a new heart and a new spirit.

Verse 5: "Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD… [Now that strikes a dagger right into the heart of these super-ultra intellectual elite—especially when it’s read from the Bible.] (God says): …though joined hand in hand, he shall not be unpunished."

Now, let’s look at some other Scriptures which talk about life, and which talk about death. Let’s come to 1-Corinthians 15:21 (pg. 1,173) and let’s see what it tells us. "For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead…. [And that is through Christ, Who is resurrected—not through supplements; not through pills; not through body 1.0. 2.0 , 3.0; not through a machine which has greater intelligence than we do because intelligence without God and without heart, is worthless and comes directly from Satan the devil, who appears as an angel of light. Doesn’t come from God.] …For as in Adam all die…" (vs 21-22). I will die, you will die, Kurzweil will die—every man has died. And the greatest testament to the death of human beings is every time you watch one of these programs on the Egyptian pyramids and the pharaohs and their tombs and the remains that they have of them, and you see that they wanted to live forever but you look at the bones and they’re still dead! Isn’t going to happen that way, the way the Kurzweil says. ALL die!

Now, "…so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (v 22). So the Bible and everything that it has in here is superior to this book [Singularity is Near] and all the ideas. The ‘singularity’ is having your mind hooked up to a machine, and it doesn’t solve the problem of sin. And the Bible tells us how GOD solves the problem of sin. And how Christ is coming to this earth to set up a Kingdom which shall NEVER be destroyed, nor superceded by any man! or any spirit being. We’re going to be made alive in Christ.

"But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruit… [because He was dead and is alive and lives forever more.] …then, those who are Christ’s at His coming" (v 23). That’s when the resurrection is going to take place. And that’s why, brethren, the events surrounding Pentecost are going to be absolutely universe-shaking when they take place. And awesome and mind-boggling beyond anything that is on the earth. And I hope that Kurzweil lives long enough to live through it and see saints resurrected out of the grave and to see that his knowledge and his plans and everything, and his schemes, and all of those with him and all of his compatriots, and all of his pills and all of his intravenous feeding—are going to come to nothing. And the only way to live forever is through Christ and the resurrection. That’s the only way it’s going to be.

All right, let’s look at some other things. Let’s come back to a little more practical level. Let’s come to Ecclesiastes, the third chapter. And this gives us a whole thumbnail sketch of human existence. Ecclesiastes 1:1 (pg. 834) _{[transcriber’s correction]}—here is the best summary of the cycles of human generations down through time. And Solomon started it out this way: "…vanity of vanities! All is vanity." All of this [the book, Singularity is Near] is vanity. And vanity is that which will not exist forever. Now our temporary human life is vanity—every bit of it—unless we have God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And without that all the rest of it is vain, stupid, selfish, carnal nonsense. And all of that has to be repented of.

Let’s look at this cycle. Solomon was a whole lot smarter than Kurzweil. Wisest man that ever lived, and he never overcame sin, and he died. Ecclesiastes 3:1: "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heavens: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of [death] peace" (vs 1-8). A time to be born, a time to die. Everyone’s going to confront that.

Verse 9: "What profit does he have who works in that in which he labors? I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised by it. He has made everything beautiful in its time; He has also set eternity in their heart…" (vs 9-11). Isn’t that amazing? God placed within the consciousness of man, through the spirit of man that is in him, to think of things beyond himself in the time and space in which he is living–and a desire to live forever. But yet, God also shows that it has to be God’s way, through Jesus Christ! Can’t be any other way. All other plans have failed. Only God’s plan—as evidenced by the resurrection of Jesus Christ—will work. You need to understand that.

Now, let’s look at some more here in the book of Ecclesiastes—let’s go on here in chapter three; let’s come down here a little further. Verse 10: "I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised by it. He has made everything beautiful in its time; He has also set eternity in their heart… [that’s where we left off] …so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end…. [Even though he thinks about it, unless God calls him and opens his mind and has provided the Word of God for him, he has not a clue. He may have many ideas, many different things, so forth.] …I know that nothing is better for them, but to rejoice and to do good as long as they live. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it…" (vs 10-14). You’re not going to give yourself eternal life—isn’t going to happen.

"…and God does it so that men should fear before Him. That which has been is now; and that which is to be has already been; and God requires an account of that which is past" (vs 14-15). God’s going to call us all into an account.

Let’s come here to Ecclesiastes 7:25: "I set my heart to know… [So Solomon wanted to know. He sought it out a little differently. He didn’t have computers in his day.] …and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness; And what I find more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets… [and still, I haven’t heard what he’s [Kurzweil] going to say about the attraction of love between a man and woman, bearing children. I didn’t get into that part of it, but here’s something that even the greatest men in their genius cannot figure out.] …whose heart is snares and nets, But and her hands are like fetters…. [Just get all wound up in terrible things, because of consorting with women that should not be consorted with.] …Whoever pleases God shall escape from her… [Because he’s got some wisdom from God to avoid it.] …but the sinner shall be taken by her" (vs 25-26).

"‘Behold, what I have found,’ says the Preacher, ‘counting one by one, to find out the sum… [So he’s saying all of this…what he’s saying here is: ‘Look, I’ve gone through and experienced all of these things’] …Which my soul still sought, but I do not find… [here’s what he didn’t find]: …one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found…. [So he says, ‘I can go through a thousand men and find one that will really be what he should be. But I haven’t found it among women.’ And remember, he was the expert. He had 300 wives and 700 concubines. He is speaking from experience.] …Lo, this only I have found, that God has made man to be upright… [that’s why every man thinks he is good. But he was made upright so that through God, in His plan through Jesus Christ, can become the children of God and like God—without having to be attached to some stupid computer machine. You retain your thoughts. You retain your choices. You retain your individual identity and it’s not blurred into some machine that somehow could react in a stupid way and kill everything attached to it. He hasn’t dealt with the sin of machines. What if the machine rebels and decides to destroy, because it now has reasoning capacity beyond that of a man and he’s taken the basic reasoning of men and enhanced it millions of times—the good thoughts and the evil thoughts.] …but they have sought out many devisings’" (vs 27-29). Haven’t they! Many, many, many devisings!

He says a little later on: "What good is life if you live a thousand years twice told and you die?" Or in the case of Kurzweil the computer crashes. What are you going to do when the computer crashes? How are you going to recover? Where is the knowledge center to re-plug in all the information that it lost? And like I said before: What if they get to the point they’re doing a lot of these things and then God sends a powerful magnetic storm and fries every one of those machines, even right attached to them! So you better think about God in some of these things.

Let’s come over here to Ecclesiastes 9:1 "For all this I took to heart, even to make all this clear, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God…. [not their own, hands of God] …No man knows either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all; there is one event that happens to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him who sacrifices, and to him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner. He who swears is as he who fears an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event that happens to all…. [They die!] …Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart… [How do you solve that, Kurzweil?] …while they live, and after that they go to the dead. For whoever is chosen, to all those living, there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die; but the dead do not know anything, nor do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten" (vs 1-5). Even if it’s on a computer.

Verse 6: "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; nor do they any longer have a part forever in all that is done under the sun." There we have it, that’s the story of life.

Let’s continue on and look at some other things that we need to understand. Let’s come to Ecclesiastes 11:5—and here is what we need to learn through Christ. But without Christ, without God, without the Holy Spirit, we don’t even have a beginning clue as to how these things work. "As you do not know what is the way of the spirit, or how the bones grow in the pregnant woman’s womb; even so you do not know the works of God Who makes all."

Men plant seed, but they don’t know how seed grows. And they put the different seeds in the ground, whatever it may be—out of the same ground comes many different grains and fruits and vegetables. All from a seed. All from the same kind of nutrients in the ground. And you can have onions and you can have pomegranates; and you can have apricots and you can have carrots; and you can have tomatoes; and you can have oranges and you can have cantaloupe; and you can have garlic and leeks; and you can have hot peppers—and all of these things come from a seed and it’s put in the ground and watered. And man doesn’t know how all of these things are specialized to deliver what the seed should deliver.

So likewise with the resurrection. They can’t conceive of the resurrection. They don’t know anything about God. You cannot solve the mysteries of life and the mysteries of the universe by rejecting God and embracing satanic evolution and coming to a conclusion that you yourself can do good; and you yourself can overcome evil—because you cannot!

Regardless of how upright you may consider yourself to be. Unless you repent and are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit of God, you aren’t going to understand anything about this life and you do not have the hope of the first resurrection. Granted, God may not forget you and resurrect you then later in the second resurrection, that is true. But as far as living forever and living in the Family of God, that is reserved for the resurrections and nothing else!

So where do you begin to unwind all of this silly arrogance and self-exaltation in great mammoth pronouncements as to the greatness of the human intellect and the human machine and the human things that people can do, and what they can make.

Let’s come to Isaiah 40—God gives the answer. I suggest that everyone who thinks I’m offending someone from what I’m saying, that you take a night when it is clear and you go out somewhere and you look into the heavens and you see what God has made. And understand that no puny, itty-bitty human brain, regardless of the self-valued intelligence that is there, is in comparison to anything of God. And to have the effrontery and the vanity to say that all of this is going to expand and fill the universe with intelligence is absolute poppycock and nonsense!

Here’s where to start: Isaiah 40:12: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span?…. [Commanded that they be there and they existed and calls them all by name and by number! How’s that for intelligence? How good is your computer?] …And who has comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD… [You think you’re so great! Can you tell God what to do? No!] …and who was His counselor that he might instruct Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and made known the way of understanding to Him?" (vs 12-14). So God challenges man: ‘You think you’re so great! You think you have all of these things! You think you can do these things! Come and look out at the heavens above and see what I have made.’ And humble yourself and repent of your stupid thoughts and you wretchedness and your abominable exaltation of pride and arrogance.

You want to know about power? Verse 15: "Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket… [Yet, Satan thinks oh they’re great and ‘I’ll give these to whoever worships me.’] …and are counted as the small dust of the scales; behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts of it sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing… [You want to challenge God. You want to fight God. You better look at what God says, because when you take up to fight God, and to replace Him, and to reject Him, and do not acknowledge Him, and to say you’re going to bring eternal life—when you yourself are the vessel of death! You better have another thought, whoever you are!] …and they are counted by Him as less than nothing, and vanity" (vs 15-17).

"To whom then will you compare God?… [to your brain?] …Or what likeness will you compare to Him? The workman [makes a computer] melts a graven image… [well, the computer becomes the idol, doesn’t it? Not much different.] …and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains" (vs 18-19). What do they do with making computers? They use gold, they use copper, they use silver, and they use silicon, and they use other things to make it work. And then they worship it, they worship it! This is our intelligence. This is the great thing!

Now, in the case of religion, if they’re not smart enough to do that, v 20: "He who is too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot… [now that takes a lot of intelligence, doesn’t it?] …he seeks for a skillful workman for himself to prepare a graven image that will not totter…. [Isn’t that wonderful! We’re going to make gods!] …Have you not known?…. [God is mocking. Now He’s getting serious. He said, ‘Have you not known?] …Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers; It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; Who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity" (vs 20-23). And all of their scientists; and all of their soothsayers; and all of their magicians; and all of their wise men; and prognosticators are NOTHING!

That’s why, brethren, we need to take this Bible and learn it and know it and understand it and let the Spirit of God work in us and through us to give us the faith and the hope and the love that we need—and not to be bamboozled by any of these things that are going to come down the pike that people are going to say, ‘Ohhhhhh, that’s godlike.’ It’s not!

Yes, "It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; Who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, then He shall blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away like stubble…. [You read the book of Revelation, what God is going to do to all the men who come and fight Him. They are going to be absolutely consumed!] (So God says, v 25): …‘To whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal?’ Human intelligence? A computer? Expanding evolution of the human mind to the sixth epoch?

"‘Who is My equal,’ says the Holy One." You want a lesson, you go out in humble adoration with tears of repentance in your eyes and you look up into the heavens.

Verse 26: "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who has created these things, who brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one fails…. [That’s what God says] …Why do you say, O Jacob, and O Israel you speak… [That applies to any man.] …‘My way is hidden from the LORD and my cause is disregarded by my God?’" (vs 26-27). No, God knows! You cannot come to the knowledge of truth by rejecting God, for God is Truth—and the fountain of knowledge and truth. And you’re not going to accomplish eternal life by the silly, foolish things proposed in this book [Singularity is Near] to extend life. God alone gives life and it comes from Him and eternal life comes from Him. And He does it in a far better way than trying to have 260 pills every day and 6 intravenous feedings a week and then you’re still going to die!

"Have you not known? Have you not heard… [And if you’re Jewish, hasn’t your rabbi taught you? And if you’re Protestant, hasn’t your minister taught you? And if you’re Catholic, has not your priest taught you? No!] …Have you not known, have you not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary?… [Nor does He need a computer.] …And His understanding no one can fathom" (v 28).

Now let’s come over here to Isaiah 41:21—so God challenges everyone. You want to come up into the universe to God? "‘Draw near with your cause,’ says the LORD; ‘Bring out your strong reasons,’ says the King of Jacob. ‘Let them bring them out, and declare to us the things that shall happen… [We just read what Kurzweil proposes will happen.] …let them reveal the former things, what they are, that we may consider them and know the final end of them; or declare to us things to come…. [That can only come from God! And from no man.] …Reveal the things that are to come after this, so that we may know that you are gods…. [That’s what Satan said. ‘You eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you will be like God.’ No you won’t! You’ll be just like Satan the devil! Not God!] …Yea, do good, or do evil, so that we may be dismayed and see together’" (vs 21-23).

God do something to impress God! But as we saw yesterday, not even the greatest temple, designed by God, given to David for Solomon to build is worth anything compared to a ‘contrite heart and a broken spirit.’ And where God can dwell in your heart and your mind, that’s where God wants to dwell. That’s the whole meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles for us today. So we need to honor God.

Now notice what God says to all the men like this, v 24: "Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination." Now, that’s what God says.

That’s why Christ is going to come with the Kingdom of God. That’s why He’s going to bring it to the earth. Because this earth is going to be enveloped in evil and technology and fighting and warring and despotism of the highest caliber that has ever been in the history of the world. Right in the middle of that Christ is going to rip apart the heavens! And every man is going to pee in his pants! And his bowels will just go everywhere! They’re going to know when Christ returns that it is for real.

And so, that’s why, brethren, when we come across things like this:

No man is going to bring any utopia to this world.

No man is going to fill the universe with the intelligence of men through a computer.

No man is going to challenge God and live.

That’s why there has to be repentance. And brethren, let’s be happy that God has called us so we have an opportunity to be resurrected, return with Christ to the earth and to bring the Kingdom of God and to bring true happiness and true peace and true understanding for all people—and we’ll cover that tomorrow.

Scriptural references:

Psalm 14:1-7

Romans 1:16-25

Romans 5:12

Proverbs 14:12

Proverbs 16:2, 4-5

1 Corinthians 15:21-23

Ecclesiastes 1:1

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Ecclesiastes 7:25-29

Ecclesiastes 9:1-6

Ecclesiastes 11:5

Isaiah 40:12-28

Isaiah 41:21-24

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

Genesis 11

Revelation 8; 9

Also referenced:

Book: The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil

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