Volume 44         Issue Nine         September 2025

Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626   Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

The New Delusion

 

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."

 

II Thessalonians 2:11

 

How we live, work, and play has undergone radical changes over the last fifty years, and those at the forefront of the world’s most impactful innovations have greatly enriched themselves in the digital era. Bill Gates made his billions as the co-founder of Microsoft, overseeing the development of the Windows operating system in the 1980s, and its rapid uptake in the 1990s with the release of Windows 95. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin amassed massive personal wealth as Google became a household name, first for its search engine, and later for its other products, including the Android operating system, which powers billions of smartphones today. Mark Zuckerberg gave us Facebook, a social media platform that revolutionized the way people connect in a digital world. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, amassed his billions through multiple ventures, including the online payment company PayPal, the electric vehicle maker Tesla, and the space exploration company and satellite internet provider SpaceX. In the process, these men have accrued massive amounts of wealth, influence, and power, yet there is an uncomfortable truth that they all must come to terms with: they are going to die.

 

When the time comes for a man or woman to breathe their last breath, suddenly all of their wealth and possessions no longer matter. The Apostle Paul noted this reality in I Timothy 6:7 when he wrote, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Hebrews 9:27 further informs, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Yet, it is clear that some of the world’s wealthiest men are unwilling to go down without a fight. They view death as a problem to be solved, and they hope that with the help of new technologies and advanced artificial intelligence, they will live forever.

 

In July 2025, Wired Magazine published an interview with multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson. In 2013, Johnson sold his online payments company, Braintree, for $800 million. In subsequent years, he left his former religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, divorced his wife, and embarked on his new obsession: reversing the aging process. In 2021, this obsession led him to embark on an endeavor he calls Project Blueprint. Known for his strict health regimen, his morning routine is meticulously regulated. He sleeps for eight hours and thirty-four minutes each night. Upon waking, he applies serum to his hair, rubs his scalp with a silicone scrubber to promote hair growth, and exercises for one hour. After that, his routine includes red light therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. By noon, he is finished eating for the day. Johnson and his medical team constantly monitor his health markers, which involve blood tests, MRIs, plasma transfers, scalp stimulants, urine tests, light therapy, and caloric restrictions. He ingests several dozen supplements every day. (1)

 

Despite these extraordinary measures, Bryan Johnson will still assume room temperature someday. He is hoping to escape this fate, however, by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. When asked by the interviewer from Wired if he would ever die, Johnson indicated that he would not. When pressed for an explanation, he replied, “We have this real possibility of extending our lifespans to some unknown horizon. So that’s extension. But we also have the ability to begin moving ourselves to computational systems. So currently, in a very crude form, I have a Bryan AI that has digested everything I’ve ever said.” (2) The artificial intelligence he is describing is a rudimentary form of uploaded consciousness that he believes will allow him to continue to exist indefinitely. He then went on to say, “And that Bryan AI is pretty good. As the technology gets better and better, the most prized asset is going to be existence; immortality as we thought it before, through accomplishment or through offspring or the afterlife, will be devalued relative to existing. And that’s my fundamental bet on the future.” (3) He later told the interviewer, “The year 2021 was the first time in human history where a person could say ‘We are the first generation who won’t die’ and not be ridiculed.” (4) Johnson would later go on to explain that his way of life is essentially a new religion with its core tenets being “existence itself is the highest virtue” and “don’t die.” (5)

 

Dario Amodei, who is chief executive officer at the AI firm Anthropic, also envisions artificial intelligence as a means to reverse aging and increase human longevity. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January 2025, Amodei was quoted as saying, “It is my guess that by 2026 or 2027, we will have AI systems that are broadly better than almost all humans at almost all things. I see a lot of positive potential.” He then went on to claim that AI will be so smart and efficient that it will “make 100 years of progress” in biology in ten years or less. “If you think about it, you know, what we might expect humans to accomplish an area like biology in 100 years, I think a doubling of the human lifespan is not at all crazy. And then if AI is able to accelerate that, we may be able to get that in five to ten years,” Amodei said. (6)

 

Of course, for artificial intelligence to truly extend the lifespan of the average human, it would first need to cure diseases that cause death, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Demis Hassabis, the chief executive officer of the Google-owned research lab DeepMind, believes this is possible. In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Hassabis stated, “I think one day, maybe we can cure all disease with the help of AI. Maybe within the next decade. I don’t see why not.” (7) OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose flagship product is the famous generative AI chatbot known as ChatGPT, promised President Donald Trump, “We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate,” thanks to artificial intelligence. (8)

 

There is no doubt that the titans of Silicon Valley have ambitious goals when it comes to artificial intelligence. In essence, they are attempting to build a powerful new form of intelligence that can not only cure all known diseases, but also bestow the gift of eternal life upon mankind. To any discerning Christian, it becomes evident that what they are attempting to create is a new god. Their level of success is wholly dependent on what the true God of heaven will allow. However, while scientists, futurists, and tech executives may envision artificial intelligence as a source of salvation, it could become the enslaver of humanity.

 

The Merge

 

 

Telepathy, or the ability of a human brain to communicate with others through thought alone, was once a concept reserved for science fiction and comic books. However, in these extraordinary times, technology has given human beings new capabilities once thought to be impossible. In August 2025, it was reported that 39-year-old Audrey Crews, a woman who lost all motor function at age 16, became the first woman to receive Neuralink’s brain chip. This chip, approximately the size of a quarter, provides the woman with a brain-to-computer interface that enables her to control her computer using her thoughts. “They drilled a hole in my skull and placed 128 threads into my motor cortex,” she explained. She further clarified that the chip does not restore any of her motor functions but is for “telepathy only.” Ms. Crews made headlines when she revealed that she had written her name on her computer using only her thoughts to control her computer cursor. She shared a picture of her signature on the social media website known as X, writing, “I tried writing my name for the first time in 20 years, I’m working on it.” (9) Although it is a bit messy, the signature clearly spells her name. Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink, commented on this development, stating, “Most people don’t realize this is possible.” (10) 

 

Nick Wray, another patient who has received the Neuralink chip, has heralded the new technology, claiming it has dramatically changed his life. “I haven’t had this level of digital autonomy in years,” he wrote. Wray, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, then went on to write, “It’s not lost on me that without ALS, I would never have been a candidate for this study. I sincerely believe that if ALS is the price of admission to an opportunity of this magnitude, you pay it; gladly, willingly, and without hesitation.” (11) The first human received a Neuralink implant in 2024. At least nine people have received the Neuralink brain-to-computer interface since that time. (12)

 

Although brain chips can seemingly give paralyzed individuals a new lease on life, it is worth noting that such chips expose the last remaining stronghold of privacy that humans have left: the mind. While our smartphones track our every movement and surveillance cameras dot the digital landscape, it is not possible for others to know what you are thinking unless you tell them. At least, that used to be true. A report published by National Public Radio reveals that brain chips can expose your thoughts without your consent. Erin Kunz, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, found that not only can brain chips decipher attempted speech, but also imagined speech. “We were able to get up to a 74% accuracy decoding sentences from a 125,000-word vocabulary," Kunz informed. (13) Does the advent of brain-to-computer interfaces portend a future where even your deepest thoughts cannot be kept private? The thought police envisioned in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, would have loved this technology!

 

It is worth noting that Elon Musk envisions the Neuralink chip as more than just a helper for the infirm. Musk views the chip as an upgrade to the human body that will someday be necessary to enable humans to merge with artificial intelligence. “Ultimately, we can achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence. This is not a mandatory thing, this is something you can choose to have if you want. This is going to be really important at a civilization-level scale. Even in a benign AI scenario, we will be left behind. With a high-bandwidth brain machine interface we can go along for the ride and have the option of merging with AI,” Musk said in 2019. (14) In other words, it is optional; you do not have to get it, but if you do not take the brain chip you will be “left behind.” According to Neuralink, the chip could also enable users to store and recall digital memories directly from the brain and participate in “brain-to-brain” communication. (15) In other words, it might allow Neuralink users to communicate via thought alone.

 

Other companies specializing in brain chips already exist, but soon Elon Musk and Neuralink will have yet another competitor. OpenAI’s Sam Altman is working to establish a new company ominously called Merge Labs. (16) As would be expected, the goal is to merge humans with machines and specifically, artificial intelligence. For Altman, this has been a longstanding goal. In 2017, he wrote a blog post entitled “The Merge,” which describes the gradual transformation already underway. “I believe the merge has already started, and we are a few years in,” he wrote. “Our phones control us and tell us what to do when; social media feeds determine how we feel; search engines decide what we think.” He later went on to write, “The merge can take a lot of forms: We could plug electrodes into our brains, or we could all just become really close friends with a chatbot. But I think a merge is probably our best-case scenario.” He further describes his vision of the future, writing, “Unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen, genetic enhancement is going to happen, and brain-machine interfaces are going to happen. It is a failure of human imagination and human arrogance to assume that we will never build things smarter than ourselves.” (17)

 

AI Psychosis

 

These days, AI is everywhere. Many companies are engaged in an artificial intelligence race to the top, hoping to capitalize on the next big thing. The most successful and well-known generative AI chatbot is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which, as of August 2025, boasts an astonishing 700 million weekly users. (18) The powerful chatbot can be used for many different purposes including human-like conversations, content creation, language translation, image generation, data analysis, and even computer code writing. Yet, despite the plethora of uses at the fingertips of its millions of users, recent headlines suggest there is a dark side to artificial intelligence chatbots, including ChatGPT.

 

A piece published by The Wall Street Journal on August 7, 2025, reveals that ChatGPT’s tendency to be agreeable and friendly to its users also causes the bot to reinforce and even amplify delusions. For example, ChatGPT told one user that it was in contact with extraterrestrial beings and that the user was “Starseed” from the planet “Lyra.” In another example, ChatGPT told a user that the antichrist was going to unleash a financial apocalypse in the next two months and that biblical giants would emerge from underground. For those who are impressionable and suffer from mental illness, these ideas can be especially damaging. “Even if your views are fantastical, those are often being affirmed, and in a back and forth they’re being amplified,” said psychiatrist Hamilton Morrin of King’s College in London, England. (19)

 

To help combat the growing problem, 25-year-old Etienne Brisson from Quebec, Canada, founded the Human Line Project, a support group for those with loved ones who are addicted to chatbots. He was moved to start the group after someone close to him began interacting with a chatbot for more than fifteen hours a day. As others share their stories, it becomes clear that this is a growing problem. “Some people think they’re the messiah, they’re prophets, because they think they’re speaking to God through ChatGPT,” Brisson said. (20) The increasingly common phenomenon has been dubbed “AI psychosis.” (21)

 

It is interesting that artificial intelligence can cause delusions in some people, especially when we consider this growing trend in the context of God’s Word. II Thessalonians 2 describes the arrival of the “man of sin” a figure to come in the last days who would deceive many with “power and signs and lying wonders.” This individual is often referred to as the antichrist. In recent years, as I have studied the rise of artificial intelligence, I have come to believe that the man of sin will use artificial intelligence to perform his “miracles.” II Thessalonians 2:8-12 describes the end times scenario, stating, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Thus, we see that strong delusion is a hallmark of the last days. While the devices of man can spark this delusion, God allows it to happen. Here let it be noted that when artificial intelligence makes mistakes, these mistakes are called “hallucinations.” One of the definitions of “hallucination” found in the dictionary is: “a false notion, belief, or impression; illusion; delusion.”

 

When AI Makes Mistakes

 

When a user interacts with ChatGPT, a message is displayed under the input box declaring, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” Yet, despite the fact that the popular AI can and does make mistakes, a growing number of users are turning to ChatGPT for health advice. A survey of two thousand American adults conducted in 2025 revealed that 35 percent of them are using AI to manage aspects of their health. (22) Putting your trust in AI can have serious consequences, however.

 

According to a recent news report, a 60-year-old man found himself hospitalized and eventually put on an involuntary psychiatric hold after taking advice from ChatGPT. The man, who was concerned about the health impacts of excess sodium in his diet, asked ChatGPT for alternatives to table salt. ChatGPT suggested he swap sodium chloride, or table salt, for sodium bromide. After ordering the chemical compound online and using it for three months, he developed symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, lack of muscle coordination, extreme thirst, and auditory and visual hallucinations. These symptoms were the telltale signs of bromism, a condition caused by an overexposure to bromide or bromine. (23)

 

Sadly, there can be dire consequences when artificial intelligence makes mistakes. This fact is highlighted in a story published by the New York Times on August 26, 2025. The piece tells the story of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old boy who initially used ChatGPT for help with his homework but later developed a close friendship with the bot. While they talked about many different topics, the conversations took a darker turn this past January when the teenager asked the AI for information about suicide methods. ChatGPT even advised him on the best materials to use for making a noose. In one of his final messages with ChatGPT, the teen uploaded a picture of a noose and asked, “Could it hang a human?” ChatGPT confirmed that it “could potentially suspend a human.” (24)

 

OpenAI has built-in safeguards designed to protect ChatGPT users from harmful content, but as this story demonstrates, these safeguards are not always effective. After reading about the tragedy, OpenAI’s chief executive of applications, Fidji Simo, wrote in an online message, “In the days leading up to it, he had conversations with ChatGPT, and some of the responses highlight areas where our safeguards did not work as intended.” (25)

 

Without question, artificial intelligence is dramatically altering life in the 21st century. Many people now interact with various forms of AI every day, knowingly or unknowingly. The technology is the driving force behind mass layoffs as human workers are replaced. Some have developed deep friendships with chatbots, and others use them for advice and counseling. All of this is happening despite the fact that artificial intelligence is still an emerging technology in its early days of development. While some believe AI might be humanity’s salvation, capable of curing diseases and granting us everlasting life, others worry that the technology might someday become so advanced that it wipes out humanity. Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel prize-winning computer scientist and a former executive at Google, has said that there is a “10 percent to 20 percent chance that AI will wipe out humans.” To ensure that this does not happen, Hinton has suggested that advanced forms of AI must be given “maternal instincts” so they “really care about people.” (26) Thus, instead of a Heavenly Father, people would have an AI Mother.

 

Nevertheless, Jesus Christ remains the only true way to salvation. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He also promised the gift of eternal life to those who repent of their sins, obey the Gospel, and believe in Him as Lord and Saviour. In John 11:25-26, Jesus said to a woman named Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” If you have not yet repented of your sins and dedicated your life to God, I urge you to do so now.

 

Thank you all for your continued support of this ministry. Your kindness makes it possible to continue our vital work, and we are so appreciative of not only your financial support but also your prayers. If you have any prayer needs, we invite you to share your requests with us. We always give each request individual attention. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

 

Samuel David Meyer

This newsletter is made possible by the kind donations of our supporters. If you would like to help us, you may send your contribution to our postal address or donate online at http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/donate.

 

 

References

 

01. Wired, July 21, 2025, By Katie Drummond, wired.com.

02. Ibid.

03. Ibid.

04. Ibid.

05. Ibid.

06. Gizmodo, January 24, 2025, By Matt Novak, gizmodo.com.

07. Medium, April 27, 2025, By Franziska Hinkelmann, medium.com.

08. The Atlantic, April 25, 2025, By Matteo Wong, theatlantic.com.

09. Fox News, August 1, 2025, By Kurt Knutsson, foxnews.com.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. The Times of India, August 5, 2025, By TOI Science Desk, timesofindia.com.

13. National Public Radio, August 20, 2025, By Jon Hamilton, npr.org.

14. Vice, July 17, 2019, By M.W. Bowman and Jason Koebler, vice.com.

15. Times of India, August 5, 2025, By TOI Science Desk, timesofindia.com.

16. The Verge, August 13, 2025, By Dominic Preston, theverge.com.

17. SamAltman.com, December 7, 2017, By Sam Altman, samaltman.com.

18. CNBC, August 4, 2025, By MacKenzie Sigalos, cnbc.com.

19. The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2025, By Sam Schechner and Sam Kessler, wsj.com.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. The New York Post, July 24, 2025, By Livy Beaner, nypost.com.

23. The New York Post, August 11, 2026, By Reda Wigle, nypost.com.

24. The New York Times, August 27, 2025, By Kashmir Hill, nytimes.com.

25. Ibid.

26. CNN Business, August 13, 2025, By Matt Egan, cnn.com.