Point of View February 18, 2025 – Hour 1 : Millennial Round Table

Point of View February 18, 2025 – Hour 1 : Millennial Round Table

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

During today’s Millennial Round Table, host Chelsey Youman welcomes co-host Liberty McArtor from the the Know Why Podcast. In the first hour, Pastor Joshua Barnes joins them. They’ll discuss changes in the Middle East, possible end-time prophecy that’s fulfilled, trends and developments in the battle against abortion, and other issues facing millennials and all of us.

Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/pointofviewradio and on Twitter @PointofViewRTS with your opinions or comments.

Looking for just the Highlights? Follow us on Spotify at Point of View Highlights and get weekly highlights from some of the best interviews!

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now your host for the Millennial Round Table, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:00:21] I'm so excited to be with you on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon in February. We have so many world events to cover, so much national news, international news, but of course always with a biblical perspective. I'm looking forward very much to our show today because joining us this first hour is Liberty McCarter. You know her as a Point of View writer and the podcast, the host of the podcast, Know Why.

[00:00:49] She is also the president of that podcast. So thanks for being with us today, Liberty. Thanks for having me, Chelsea. I'm excited about our conversation. Me too. We also have joining us Josh Barnes. It's been a couple of weeks since he's been with us and we're so excited to have him today. He is, of course, the host of The Bible Explained, a YouTube channel, which I have perused. If you haven't already gone to The Bible Explained on YouTube, he's got a whole host of materials there. Thanks for being with us today, Josh. Yeah, thanks for having me. Looking forward to it.

[00:01:19] We are going to start with really a biblical discussion that we've had several times on the show, but I want to go on a deeper understanding here. The world events are happening fast in front of us and how do they align with what scripture has to say about the time that we're living in, whether that's prophetic scripture on the end times or even just what the Bible says for us as believers.

[00:01:42] How to not be deceived by the world around us. If you've listened to Point of View ever before, you know that here we just desire to seek truth in a world that continually has misleading information in an information world where everybody's reality can be whatever essentially silo they're living in, who they're following on social media. I think that's a lot of information with increases in media with increases in AI and deceptive media tactics.

[00:02:07] You know, it's difficult to decipher sometimes what's up and down and truth from lies. That's something that I'm so passionate about. I know Kirby is passionate about and we want to start our discussion today with a little bit on that topic. We're going to be talking about Elon Musk, not just some of the comments that he's made, some of the ideals that he's espousing publicly.

[00:02:29] I want to get outside of the Doge topic because I think that's taking up a lot of headlines, but maybe some of the headlines that aren't as forward as we think they should be about what he's up to, not just with SpaceX, but with Neuralink and some of the technology.

[00:02:44] And he's progressing. And why? Because I think it's important to understand who, when someone is really coming forward on the public scene with a lot of power and a lot of influence, not just on our president, but with Doge on the federal government and access to information about us. Who who is Elon Musk? What has he said publicly about his belief systems and where what's his philosophy on where humanity is headed? Because he's certainly in such an influential role on that topic.

[00:03:12] In the next hour, Ethan Watson will be joining us and we're going to break down some political news on the international front, both the Ukrainian war and some developments there, as well as breaking down the discussion on the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas. But we're going to dive right in. I'm going to start with you, Josh. I want to talk about what the Bible has to say we can expect in the end times related to the Mark of the Beast system specifically, as well as the false prophet.

[00:03:42] But before we get into those details, which I can assure you, I have been doing thorough research on for several years now, as I know you have Pastor Josh, I like to say, give you your title. But the first thing I often hear pastors say, Josh, that we don't need to worry about the end times as much or have too much focus on the end times because Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour. And so why is it important for us to pay attention? I'm going to I'm going to leave you with that question.

[00:04:10] I'm going to answer with a little bit of my own. And that would be because in many verses in the Bible, the Bible says, pay attention. It says in Matthew 24, you don't want to be misled. Pay attention, because in the end times, there's going to be a lot of increases in deception, even a great deception.

[00:04:29] In Second Thessalonians 2, 3, it says, do not let anyone deceive you in any way that many will be a led in First Timothy for one led away from the Holy Spirit by deceiving spirits. And so, you know, when I talk about end times, it comes from this perspective of wanting truth to rise to the surface for us to be aware what we're seeing with our eyes in front of us and that it is important. We've been instructed to pay attention and be discerning during this time.

[00:04:55] Josh, I would love for you to answer and, you know, that question from your own perspective and vantage point. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Okay, so when we're talking about the end times, there's so much to say. But I'll say that I instinctively sort of naturally resist the idea of trying to find fulfillments in the news for end times prophecies and end times events.

[00:05:24] There's a couple of reasons for that. One of them is because this is something that people have been doing for 2,000 years since the prophecies were made. We can look throughout all of church history and all the way through people have been saying, look, that looks like the Antichrist. Look, that looks like the Antichrist. That looks like the Antichrist. The Pope during the Reformation, he was the Antichrist, right? Hitler was the Antichrist. You just go through every age of church history. You always find Antichrists. You know, Barack Obama was the Antichrist. Trump was the Antichrist.

[00:05:54] Just everyone's always calling people Antichrist and trying to find fulfillment. So instinctively, I think we should not jump on the bandwagon. And we become what I would call historicists. I think a lot of scholars would call it a historicist, where you're trying to find – you're trying to make whatever the prophecy is fit with what we have today. So I think that there's just a preliminary thought. That doesn't mean that we aren't seeing the beginnings of things that will result in these.

[00:06:23] Hopefully, we'll get around to that in a minute. Another reason why I'm a little bit hesitant with all of this is because I think when we're looking at prophetic things in Revelation, if we take the end times as a whole, it appears to me, and I'm very convinced of this, that these are things that are meant to demonstrate supernatural powers that are unexplainable. And a lot of times what we're doing is we're finding things that are explainable today,

[00:06:50] like the Euphrates River getting a little bit drier or something, you know, a little bit less water or things like that, and saying, aha, see, this is the fulfillment of the prophecy. I disagree. I think if we're looking at this as a whole, we see that these things mentioned in the end times are meant to be supernatural, miraculous things, not things that could just happen any old time.

[00:07:13] Now, with that being said, I think it's also important to remember that everything in the world or all of human history has been leading us towards this final showdown that the Lord has planned. If you're a premillennial, you believe that. There's other views of eschatology. But I do believe that there is a seven-year period. Many people call it the tribulation in the future. And that, yes, history is moving in that direction.

[00:07:41] So I don't think it's wrong to look at where we are and say, boy, I can see how this plays into that direction. I can see how this could fit into that. But I think we have to be just really balanced, really nuanced with our thinking here, rather than just jumping onto a bandwagon and getting overwhelmed. I like to call it the Harold Camping mentality, you know, the guy who was predicting the return of Christ every year a few years ago before he passed away.

[00:08:10] I think we've got to stay away from those kind of ideas. Well said. That's a lot of wisdom, Josh, as we begin this discussion analyzing the world around us and some significant developments, as you mentioned. And really just I want to round out our discussion when we get back after this break with Liberty about, you know, the importance of the Bible saying to stay awake at all times, pray that you have strength to discern truths from falsehoods, and how can we best do that as believers.

[00:08:39] When we get back after this break, we're going to continue breaking it down. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. President Trump is always full of surprises, but the biggest surprise so far

[00:09:06] was his bombshell announcement that the U.S. would take over the rebuilding of Gaza. This is not going to happen for many reasons. You can't just evacuate two million resident Palestinians, first because nearby countries don't want them, and second, a forced evacuation would likely be a violation of international law. The U.S. won't implement Trump's suggestion, but the proposed policy provides an important teaching opportunity. This policy rests upon a flawed view of human nature. It is an outer inner theory of human behavior.

[00:09:35] If you can improve the environment around someone, I can improve their behavior. Build nice public housing and the crime rate will go down. Rebuild Gaza and the problems in the Middle East will be solved. By contrast, the gospel is an inner outer theory. You change human behavior from the inside out, and we also understand that changing a person's environment doesn't change their sin nature. The problem is even worse in Gaza because we're dealing with radical Muslims. Andrew McCarthy refers to their view as Sharia supremacist Islam.

[00:10:05] This view has been around for 1,400 years. It is worth mentioning that the people in Gaza voted to have Hamas rule them. They didn't do that so that their leaders could turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East. Nearly every American president naively believes that Muslims share our common humanity and just want a better life for themselves and their children. Most Muslims have a different goal, eradicate Israel from the region and implement Sharia law in the land.

[00:10:32] You would think we had learned from nation building in the Middle East that hasn't worked. It is very difficult to grow a democracy on Muslim soil. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view. For a free booklet on a biblical view of Israel, go to viewpoints.info.com

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Welcome back to Millennial Roundtable. I am discussing with Josh and Liberty now a little bit on the wisdom of looking at the world around us and comparing it with end times and the prophecy and what the Bible has to say and really the importance of understanding truth in a world of lies around us. Liberty, I want to go to you now and just gauge your thoughts before we dive into some specifics here

[00:11:26] on the importance of paying attention, but also, you know, as Josh mentioned, being cautious and avoiding maybe talking about specific events as a fulfillment of prophetic scripture because, as he mentioned, that's been done for thousands of years, sometimes accurately, sometimes inaccurately, and just using caution with that. What are your thoughts, Liberty? Yeah, I think I agree with both of you. I agree with Josh that we have to be careful not to ascribe too much of our own meaning

[00:11:56] to things that we see in the world. And even if things are happening, I was reading just this morning, the Bible says that to the Lord, a thousand years is as a day. And so things could be happening, but that doesn't necessarily give us a timeline. However, just in general, we need to have a biblical worldview so that we are not deceived. And that applies, you know, across the timeline, so to speak, whether the Lord's coming tomorrow or not for another thousand years,

[00:12:25] we have to watch out for false teaching. We need to make sure that we are anchored to the Word of God. And so I think it's always important to just be aware of what's happening in the world and make sure that we are standing on firm biblical footing. Absolutely. Towards that end, we're going to look at what the scripture has to say about a character that Revelations discusses as the false prophet. I think we all, you know, much has been made on prophecies about the end times Antichrist.

[00:12:54] But when it comes to the false prophet, it's a little bit maybe less focused on who is this character. And really what the Bible has to say is just like we have a Trinity, we have God, the Holy Spirit and the Son Jesus who took on flesh and died for our sins. You know, the enemy also has his own, they always say he replicates in reverse, really what the Bible has to do. And so in the end times, there's going to be, we have Satan,

[00:13:23] and then he will have an incarnation of himself in the flesh, which will be the Antichrist. But there's also going to be a false prophet. And the false prophet is warned about much throughout scripture. Jesus warns of the many false prophets who will come to you in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly ravenous wolves. And that's talking more just generally about the world that we're going to find ourselves in as believers,

[00:13:50] that a lot of people are going to have false religions, false predictions, and fearful, you know, things to say that we shouldn't be led astray, that the gospel is our truth and God is our hope, our salvation. Our hope is in our salvation in him, nothing of this world. But specifically in the end times, Revelations talks about another beast rising from the earth that will have two horns, one like a lamb, but it speaks like a dragon.

[00:14:15] The implication being that he's going to look benign and look gentle, but really give messages from the enemy. Falsehoods, we know that Satan is the great deceiver and the master of lies, and that the false prophet is going to likewise have those same types of misleadings around him. He's also responsible in Revelations 13 for setting up the beast system. So what is that?

[00:14:43] The false prophet is said to cause all to be marked on their right hand or their forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. The Bible says everyone, rich, poor, young, and old, will be forced to decide whether or not they're going to take that mark. Of course, we know that John in Revelation said to use discernment, that discernment is going to be required when discussing the mark, which is my goal today, guys, is for us to use discernment and have these discussions.

[00:15:11] And finally, the false prophet is going to use miraculous signs to kind of enforce worship of the Antichrist, the false savior. So that's my summary. I'm going to go to you, Liberty, and just get your thoughts. Is this someone that you've ever spent much time looking into in the Bible? And, you know, what are your thoughts on even what we're beginning to see on the world stage? As I would say, perhaps, we're starting to see the ingredients for what could be that mark of the beast system,

[00:15:41] maybe for the first time ever. Or, you know, how much extraordinary authority and almost, I guess the word would be like oversight of every single person on Earth would have to be required for a system like that to that scale to be in place, that every single individual on Earth, in order to buy or sell anything, will have to have taken this mark. And I think we're starting to see that with crypto banking.

[00:16:07] We can see just these ingredients being in place for a giant system on that scale eventually to be established. That's my assessment. Liberty, I'd love to get your thoughts. Yeah. And, you know, I will be honest that the false prophet mentioned in Revelation is not something that I have studied, you know, a whole lot myself.

[00:16:29] I do think that what, in some of the resources that you sent, the thing that probably concerns me the most is the advancement of this ideology of transhumanism for multiple reasons. And this is something that I know Point of View has discussed many times. Kirby's put out a booklet on it. And, yeah, it could be kind of setting the stage, like you're saying, for the mark of the beast that's mentioned. Again, we don't know that for sure.

[00:16:59] But whether it is or not, still, the idea of transhumanism, of combining humanity with technology, is problematic for multiple reasons. One, it's very prideful. I think in a lot of ways people think of this as a kind of modern utopia. You know, this is the way that we can eradicate disease. This is the way that we can live forever. We can get rid of human problems.

[00:17:26] We can become so much smarter, so much more powerful. It's kind of a modern-day Tower of Babel, and we know how that turned out. So this idea of wanting to become more powerful, to try to create a new world order where everything is perfect, is not new by any means. We've seen this with, you know, since the beginning of time. We've seen this with dictators, with Marxism, with, you know, all sorts of examples. But we have this really advanced technology that's a part of the conversation now.

[00:17:55] So I think that it's the same problem of human pride and trying to find that perfect kind of state of existence without God. But now you have modern technology adding a whole new layer. And then just really quickly, I'm sure we'll get into this more later when it comes to the false prophet.

[00:18:16] You know, I'm not really sure because to me, a false prophet, if I'm understanding the Bible correctly, they need to be proclaiming to speak for God or to speak for Jesus. And I don't see Musk doing that at all. He's very clearly said that he's not religious. So I do think that we need to be careful because he's very popular. But we can get into a lot of other false prophets who are currently claiming to speak for the Lord and are clearly not.

[00:18:42] And those are the people who concern me a little bit more as far as the ability to manipulate Christians, if that makes sense. Yes. Well, we are going to go to break in just a minute. But, Josh, I'd like to get your response to Liberty. Yeah. And thank you, Chelsea, for the reminder of the break coming up because I would just blow right through it if I wasn't warned. There's a lot to say, and I don't even know where to start. I guess I'll say first, I think Liberty's right about this.

[00:19:10] I mean, I'm not surprised by that. She's right about almost everything. But I think she's right about the idea of a prophet in the Bible is always someone who speaks on God's behalf. Even someone who's preaching the Bible can be considered a prophet biblically because they're taking God's words and speaking it to people and standing as the mouthpiece of God to them.

[00:19:33] And so to call Elon Musk a false prophet would be difficult to do because he doesn't claim to even believe in God, let alone speak for him. But that, I think, is what's happening in Revelation 13. The false prophet in Revelation 13 is a little known fact about the end times because it's a little mentioned. It's only mentioned in Revelation 13 and the preceding chapters.

[00:20:02] It's not mentioned in really any other, or at least it's not clearly mentioned in any other of the prophetic books of the Bible. And so it can be, we have very little information about this figure, whoever this is. But apparently what happens in the end times is that this prophet serves as sort of a John the Baptist to Jesus sort of a role where John the Baptist came and announced Jesus before he came.

[00:20:29] And then he came, this false prophet begins to announce that the Antichrist, that this political figure is, in fact, God of human flesh, is the Messiah. And then he, then Antichrist walks into the temple and claims to be God and demands that everyone worship him. And so he kind of works in conjunction with the Antichrist. And, and again, he claims to be speaking on God's behalf. And, and in fact, does that.

[00:20:56] So I think, again, you, in order to, to think about, well, do we see this today? Um, it would have to be someone who speaks on God's behalf, um, or claims to speak on God's behalf and turns to a political leader over a conglomerate of nations in Europe, um, to, uh, and calls him God. So there's a lot of moving pieces, but the things we know haven't, certainly haven't happened yet.

[00:21:24] Um, so we're going to dive into those moving pieces right after this break. Who can you trust years ago? Many of us could probably have provided a fairly long list, but today, well, today it seems we almost can't trust anyone. Educators don't even know what a woman is anymore. Many so-called public servants have shown all they care about is themselves.

[00:21:52] The FBI has been accused of bias, law-breaking, betrayal, and journalism. It's largely corrupt, with no Clark Kent standing up for truth, justice, and the American way. All of this is why Point of View Radio is more important than ever. And your part in supporting us is more needed than ever. Do your part today in supporting trustworthy truth.

[00:22:18] Stand with us and help push back the lies and the darkness. Visit pointofview.net. Don't put it off. Take a moment right now and click on that big blue button that says, Donate Now.

[00:22:44] Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:23:13] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable, where Josh Liberty and I are talking about what the Bible has to say about the false prophet in Revelations. And then we're now we're going to – I'm sorry, Revelation. I'm not supposed to put the S on the end of that. I am aware. We're going to turn now to a little bit of current events that are developing around a character who's really come to the forefront of culture, technology, and now politics. I mean, if I can think of an arena, he's in it. And that is Elon Musk.

[00:23:43] You know, over the last few years, he has become increasingly more public. But also, I would say he's had a lot of access to important spaces, whether that's him buying Twitter, turning it into X, him developing Neuralink, which is a brain chip, the first of which was installed in a human brain at the end of January, I think. We got an update today. You can read all of this on pointofview.net, of course.

[00:24:11] Don't forget to like us on Point of View Radio on Facebook. But we're turning now our discussion to Elon Musk with the caveat that we've all said here and agreed on this show, you know, just to be careful to try to interpret too much of modern-day events and, you know, point to them and say that their biblical prophecy is being fulfilled. I think it's still important to talk about them with the biblical lens.

[00:24:31] So we're going to talk first about Elon Musk and in his own words and in his own action, you know, what are his views on God, Christ, the Bible, even AI and the world where it's headed. And so I used, ironically, the first time ever I used AI to generate this information.

[00:24:52] And they came up with 90 resources for me that really discuss Elon Musk saying he respects the Bible and the teachings of Christ but is not personally religious and does not espouse those views. When he talks about God, it is often about technology being a God, which for me, you know, I think you guys just mentioned Liberty. You know, you guys don't see – you see the false prophet in the Bible as a religious symbol.

[00:25:20] I'm a little more of the mindset that, you know, in the end times we're a much less church religious people. And so I don't know that the Antichrist is going to represent a traditional religion. For all we know, you know, he's going to represent astrology or something that a lot of people are following. The occult is that. You know, we've got a whole lot on the world around us.

[00:25:44] But what I will say about Elon Musk is he has said that AI is the next God, that it is a God that we as humans are creating God is his terminology. And that he's referred to it as unleashing a demon that cannot be controlled.

[00:26:01] And so his anecdote for AI, which he views as a destructive mechanism and force that can't be stopped, his solution is that – and his vision, I would say, is that human enhancement and prosperity through technology by merging humans with technology is the only way to compete and stay relevant in an AI world.

[00:26:27] This is a really interesting philosophy because we've seen a lot, like you said, of transhumanism, which if you're not aware of what transhumanism is, don't forget to go to pointofview.net where Kirby has a great publication on this. But transhumanism is this belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, so beyond our genetic DNA now, through the use of science and technology.

[00:26:54] And so while you've heard of the World Economic Forum and Schwab and all of those crazy humanists who are saying we need to have the next evolution of a human species by merging us with technology, I would say, are you – Elon Musk is in the same camp but for different reasons. I mean, he's reached the same conclusions that the World Economic Forum, you know, these big New World Order people have reached.

[00:27:19] But instead of saying it's, you know, to make us more relevant and important, it's to say to compete with AI. And then I'm going to end on this. He also has – and this made news, so you can Google all of this. He's been known to surround himself with Satanist imagery and the occult.

[00:27:37] Most famously, he wore a – during Halloween, a black and red Devil's Champion armor set, and it had a picture of the goat's head, the symbol on the chest with an upside-down cross. He's worn shirts that says, you know, One World Order – I'm sorry, New World Order. You know, he's got some interesting symbols of Satan around him if you want to look into that. I just think it's noteworthy when we're talking about him in general.

[00:28:04] But I'm going to start with you, Josh, because I threw a lot out here, everything from his position on transhumanism and AI to his own personal views. So feel free to jump in. Yeah. So first off, I would just very, very respectfully disagree about the religion in the end times.

[00:28:21] I think Revelation gives us a pretty clear understanding that in the end times there is a claim to be worshiping God by a very massive religious force. In Revelation 17, this is called the harlot, which is a phrase that's used throughout the Bible to speak about some religion that is claiming to worship God but is not doing so. The false prophet implies that.

[00:28:49] And we also know that they are responding to two witnesses that are in Jerusalem that are bringing people to Christ. We know that there's at least 144,000 people who are coming to Christ. And so there's a response. No, we're the true religion and, you know, so on and so forth. So I think there is a lot of religion in those seven years that we talk about. But beyond that, I do think Elon Musk is not a great role model.

[00:29:14] I mean, while he does some good things, and I'm grateful for the Doge contribution he's making to our country, and I'm certainly thankful for X. I think that when we're looking at Elon Musk just in general, I don't think we should set him up as some sort of role model for our children.

[00:29:31] But that doesn't make him also the false problem of the end times, but it also means that he's certainly a figure who's doing good things with a flawed character. I'd love to talk about the mark of the beast, but I also don't want to run over Liberty. I'm sure she has other comments to say. I'd love to hear Josh's perspective on the mark of the beast, actually. Yes, yes.

[00:29:56] And feel free to give the background on Neuralink for our listeners who are trying to connect the dots with our discussion today. Yes. So, Liberty, by the way, you sent the paper that you had AI write about Elon Musk. And I had AI read the paper to me as I was driving around this morning. So it was very ironic. But apparently, Elon Musk has done a lot with this.

[00:30:22] His idea to counter AI taking over the world is essentially to enhance humans with AI, which is, yeah, that's pretty scary if you've ever seen any sci-fi movies in your life. And so, yeah, I think that's a little weird and obviously concerning. But I think that when we're looking at the mark of the beast, when I look at it, let me just say, anyone can feel free, of course, to disagree with me.

[00:30:50] But the mark of the beast to me does not need to be anything technological. In fact, it doesn't even fit very well, in my opinion, with a technological thing. The mark of the beast is unpurposely visible. It's supposed to be in the right hand that they're going to use to shake people's hands. They're going to write things with it. You can't hide your right hand. Or in your forehead where it's right up there visible. You're walking down the street. People see it.

[00:31:16] And the reason is because they're trying to spot people who refuse to worship the beast, who refuse to worship the Antichrist so they can track them down and kill them. So if you don't have it, they can spot you immediately, arrest you, and kill you. So the idea for the mark of the beast is something visible. It's not something invisible that's like inside of your head. The mark of the beast, it's not like they're tracking the people with the mark of the beast.

[00:31:44] They're trying to track down the people who don't have it. It's also not something you accidentally take thinking it might help you with business or something. You take it on purpose because you are worshiping the beast. If it were something you could accidentally take, it wouldn't serve its purpose. It's supposed to divide those who will worship him from those who refuse to worship him. So the other thing that we know about the mark of the beast from Revelation 13 is that it's only one number. It's not like it's holding tons of information. I guess it could also do that.

[00:32:14] But the thing that we know from Revelation 13 is that it's just a number or it's a name or it's a mark, a symbol, right? So you don't need a computer chip to hold a symbol or to hold a name or just one number. You'd need it to hold a lot more information. So while I think a computer chip or some sort of technology could work here for the mark of the beast, I just I don't see that being the best fit, in my opinion, for what the mark of the beast is. Interesting.

[00:32:44] I actually have a lot done a lot of research on this and tend to agree with you, Josh, when it comes to the mark of the beast. The system itself for buying and selling is when I look at crypto banking or computer chips where people are purchasing with their palm of their hand now and Whole Foods, for instance. You know, that system I can see. But what you're referring to, this number and symbol, I did some research and I found a theological paper that is published.

[00:33:11] You can go online and find this that says in Greek, when John was writing this, 666 also happens to look like the symbols. This is going to blow your mind for Allah. And if you look in Arabic, which was not a language created at the time, so would have been foreign to John when he saw it in a vision that he wrote it down in Greek. But if you go look and make the comparison, it's pretty similar. More when we get back after this break.

[00:33:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth. Welcome back. We are discussing with Liberty and Josh. Josh is a pastor and has so much information on theologically what is and is not what the Bible does and does not say. I should say about the mark of the beast. And of course, everything we're saying about the world around us is conjecture. But we're looking around. It's important to pay attention, Liberty.

[00:34:20] And for Josh's point that the mark of the beast and its system doesn't have to necessarily be technology based. I wanted to get to a little bit of the history on the significance of the hand and the forehead, which is where the Bible says that the mark will be placed as basically a symbol of faith and worship of the Antichrist, the enemy.

[00:34:45] And the significance of that was that in in Hebrew tradition, the forehead represented ideology and the hand represented our works based from that ideology. And so from a symbolic perspective in Revelations, you know, what what John is saying when he's writing this letter is that people will have adopted a false doctrine and a false ideology and be actively faithful to that and serving and worshiping that.

[00:35:13] And so I wanted to just say that note, Liberty, I'd love to get your perspective on on this. And, you know, what we're seeing in the world around us, which is is really an increase in what I would say, one. We're still headed towards a lot of one world government when you look at President Trump and his initiatives. And, you know, it's really expanding a lot of collaboration between these countries. It's important to pay attention.

[00:35:38] Absolutely. And, you know, I'm learning a lot even just from participating in the roundtable today because end times and revelation is not something that I have delved into a whole lot other than just, you know, reading my Bible throughout my life. So I think it's interesting. I don't think I'm going to plan on getting any computer chips in my head or forehead just because I don't really want to.

[00:36:04] But I think it is interesting and important to look at the biblical context and the historical context and other, you know, analysis of what the Mark of the Beast might actually turn out to be. I will say and if anybody doesn't like this, then I will blame Chelsea because you brought us here with a conversation, Chelsea. But I'll go there.

[00:36:26] You know, if we are looking at figures in current or especially American politics, like you said, who are making big changes, big changes to our government. We're seeing changes globally. And we want to, like you said, be discerning, make sure that we're not being deceived. Then I think it's good to look at Elon Musk and look at some of the things that he's doing and some of the symbolism there.

[00:36:52] But I also think that we really need to, as Christians, be careful with the relationship that we have with the president of the United States. And so I don't think Trump is the Antichrist. I'm just putting that out there. But he has said a lot of blasphemous things as well of, you know, comparing himself to the chosen one, to the, you know, comparing his courtroom trials to the passion of the Christ. Last year in 2024, he's produced the USA Bible.

[00:37:20] And so and I think that in terms of just religious verbiage in general, he does seem to be a little I don't think he's come out and professed Christian faith, but he seems to be a little bit more cozy with evangelicals, as we've talked about.

[00:37:38] And and you've seen people you have seen literal false prophets who are saying that they are prophesying things about Trump and about American politics that I think we can look back and say were blatantly not true and did not come to pass. But people are falling for this and this idea of a savior. So and again, I'm not at all saying that anybody who votes for Trump or supports his policies at all is, you know, falling into this.

[00:38:03] But this is where we need to be careful, because I think when you have that kind of Christian tone or vernacular attached to it, then I think that people are more likely to be deceived because they feel like they are going along with what they already believe in. And and anybody who says that they are the only savior, whether that's Musk saving humanity by taking us all to Mars or Trump saving America, you know, with his policies and executive orders,

[00:38:30] we need to be careful of and say, no, you're not. And there's not like if anybody is ever trying to claim that power, then we we need to be very careful of that. So that's that's my final thought, I guess, on all of this and the figures that we see before us today. Liberty, that's a good word of caution is just for all of us to constantly really the best way to not be deceived. Josh is to know scripture. Right. And to know the word and what it says.

[00:38:58] The Bible also says, you know, those who profess Christ, that's how you test the spirit is who professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, not just that he exists or his doctrine is nice and loving, but really professes and say says that Jesus Jesus is king. And then another way is, as I mentioned, to know scripture, but also to look at the fruit of of people around us, even in our world.

[00:39:22] Are they bearing fruit of love, joy, goodness, pace, patience and peace are gentleness? And are they bearing other types of fruit? You know, that's that's a great way for us to discern to have discernment for those around us. But number one is to know scripture, which is what the show is about today is having Josh and you and just bringing forth that scripture. What does the Bible say? Things are and are not. But and then, you know, I'd love to get your final thoughts, Josh.

[00:39:52] But when we're looking at these world stage, the Bible does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. And when we think of the end times, whether or not Jesus is coming back today, 10 years from now or hundreds of years from now, he is returning. And it's incumbent upon us to say, you know, we should with urgency get right with the Lord.

[00:40:17] And that means, you know, repenting where we need to repent, turning our families towards the Christ, glorifying him in our daily lives, in our communities, in our churches and our schools. The purpose of knowing this, you know, Revelation says whoever reads these words will be blessed. It's because there's it should create or generate a desire in us for holiness and to pursue the Lord. And that's that's where I wanted to to round out my portion of the discussion. Josh, thoughts?

[00:40:47] Yeah. Amen. I mean, all that. Just a big amen to it. I think your point about knowing the Bible is very important. Remember in Luke 10, when Martha was cumbered about serving and Mary was sitting at his feet learning from him. And he said she chose the better part. There's one thing that's meaningful. There's one thing we have to do as Christians, and it is know the Bible, know the teachings of Christ, know inside, outside, backwards and forwards. And so I think this is really my passion.

[00:41:16] And I think it's very important. It does help us be balanced. It helps us as Liberty just did. Look at even a figure like Donald Trump, who does a lot of really good things for the cause of Christianity, but also say, okay, but I don't agree with this and that because it doesn't fit with Scripture. And I think that's a wonderful thing.

[00:41:36] I also wanted to say really quickly that I met a man on – I have an interview with him on my channel called – named Dr. Peter Goeman from the Shepherd's Seminary. And he wrote a book that's really easy to read, and it's on artificial intelligence. And it goes through the pitfalls of it and how it can be used really effectively by Christians. And I think it would just be good. It's like $2 to buy on Kindle. It's called Artificial Intelligence and the Christian by Peter Goeman.

[00:42:05] I highly recommend that book. I think it would be great for folks to grab it and read it. I appreciate you saying that resource because if you're as technologically challenged as I am – I'm not saying you are, but I am very technologically challenged, you know, it's a lot for me to look at AI and, you know, it's in our phones, it's in our computers, it's in our maps. I mean, it's in social media, our messages, our photos.

[00:42:31] Everything is utilizing it as a tool, and it is that. It is a tool. But to understand really where it's headed, where it's going, I certainly always have a political mind towards it. It's really deregulated as kind of the new frontier. It's not only deregulated, it's unregulated. And what that means is it's developing quicker than society is able to adjust or accommodate for, you know, perhaps risk there. So just something to keep our eyes on. Don't go anywhere.

[00:43:00] We have a full hour next where we're going to break down some international world war news in just a little bit. So don't go anywhere. The Bible tells us not to worry. And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry. God gives us a next step. He says we need to pray.

[00:43:28] But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult. And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation. Each week, you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

[00:43:53] We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to pray for America? Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe. Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner.

[00:44:20] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View will continue after this.