Should you switch from Windows to something else?

[biscuit1953]

Microsoft Unveils Creepy AI-Powered Windows that Tracks Everything You Do

Microsoft has announced a new line of AI-enhanced Windows PCs, aiming to revolutionize the way users interact with their devices by integrating the Copilot AI assistant into the Windows operating system. The creepy system will take constant screenshots of your activity to track your every move.

www.breitbart.com

I know many Christians reject the teaching of the coming Antichrist and a one world government. Even so, why would anyone willingly give up any semblance of privacy? Do Covenant theologians believe the world will be won to Christ by the preaching of the gospel? I know Spurgeon clearly taught God is not through with physical Israel so exactly how does this mesh with those who spiritualize the prophecies relating to that? This is an honest question.

 

[abcaines]

I think we're seeing more and more things that give us insight as to how things will play out during the tribulation. Take for instance the way the COVID vaccine was rolled out: For the public's safety, you had to take it in order to remain employed. I personally believe that gave great insight as to how the mark of the beast is going to be touted and how an unbelieving world will be swayed to receive it. Our governments are straying further from protecting citizens and towards dominance of their lives. This AI thing is likely another tool in their arsenal to bring that to pass. We get lulled into accepting all of these technologies and next thing you know, the prince of this world has dominion over us.

FWIW this thing looks like it's going to be installed on certain hardware platforms that are designed for this tool. Not being a fan of the Microsoft corporation, I try to minimize my dependence on anything Microsoft puts out... Yes, I run Windows 10 on my IBM Think Pad but that's the extent of my Microsoft investment. I'm typing this on an Android based OS; I'm a huge fan of Duck Duck Go.

Whenever a cashier asks, "Do you have our rewards card?" I say, "No. I just have money."

I'm not a "prepper" yet but hopefully, in this I'm still a bit harder to track.

 

[Ransom]

Windows is a tool, not the Antichrist. Use it if it is fit for its intended purpose and if you don't feel your privacy is compromised by its reporting/recording features. Otherwise, switch to Linux or something else that serves your needs.

 

[biscuit1953]

Windows is a tool, not the Antichrist. Use it if it is fit for its intended purpose and if you don't feel your privacy is compromised by its reporting/recording features. Otherwise, switch to Linux or something else that serves your needs.

Do you believe the world will be converted by the preaching of the gospel that will bring in the Millennial Kindgom or is it symbolic? Do you believe Jesus will personally come back after the battle of Armageddon to set up His kingdom by force? Do you believe Armageddon is a symbolic event? Just trying to understand the spectrum of beliefs.

 

[Ransom]

Do you believe the world will be converted by the preaching of the gospel that will bring in the Millennial Kindgom or is it symbolic? Do you believe Jesus will personally come back after the battle of Armageddon to set up His kingdom by force? Do you believe Armageddon is a symbolic event? Just trying to understand the spectrum of beliefs.

I could give the wackiest possible answers to those questions, and it still would not lend credence to the idea that Windows fulfills Bible prophecy.

 

[DanielJ]

Microsoft says this will all happen locally; that is, on the device, not in the cloud or Microsoft's servers. Do I trust them? Well, I certainly think it would be easy enough to people to check this claim, so I doubt they would make it if false.

 

[biscuit1953]

I could give the wackiest possible answers to those questions, and it still would not lend credence to the idea that Windows fulfills Bible prophecy.

Is it whacky to believe that there will be an Antichrist that will require a mark in order to buy or sell? Is is whacky to believe that in the last days of the Church society will grow worse and worse culminating in the personal return or Christ to set up His kingdom? I'm not asking trick questions. I truly don't understand how prophecy can be interpreted symbolically.

 

[DanielJ]

Is it whacky to believe that there will be an Antichrist that will require a mark in order to buy or sell? Is is whacky to believe that in the last days of the Church society will grow worse and worse culminating in the personal return or Christ to set up His kingdom? I'm not asking trick questions. I truly don't understand how prophecy can be interpreted symbolically.

Biscuit, most prophecy is (and always has been) symbolic. You can see this pretty clearly in the way that the prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled. Even in Genesis 3 when God says to the serpent: "He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel".

As regards the mark of the beast, I doubt this means an physical mark. In the Bible marks can be literal imprints but more often metaphorical identifications, for separation or protection. Believers are marked by the Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22) in this way.

 

[abcaines]

I don't think Microsoft is at present linking up with the antichrist. What I am seeing is technology and philosophy intertwined that could bring about the prophesies we read about. I never once said that the COVID vaccine is related to the mark of the beast, I think what we're seeing with that is the mindset or the marketing that will bring it about, namely, the "public good" mantra which accompanies all such governmental overreach. Likewise, I don't see Microsoft as being the vehicle that will usher I antichrist, rather, it's the technology that is in place that allows tracking and the public gullibility for a "better experience" which is another mantra for overreach.

What will "the mark" be? I don't want to speculate. It will be as much a spiritual/philosophical as a physical thing. The book of Revelation describes it in completely physical terms which is why I do not chalk it up to strict symbology or other spiritual things.

 

[biscuit1953]

Biscuit, most prophecy is (and always has been) symbolic. You can see this pretty clearly in the way that the prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled. Even in Genesis 3 when God says to the serpent: "He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel".

As regards the mark of the beast, I doubt this means an physical mark. In the Bible marks can be literal imprints but more often metaphorical identifications, for separation or protection. Believers are marked by the Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22) in this way.

The bruising of the head and heel in Genesis 3 is certainly metaphorical but quite literal when it comes to the cruicifixion and the eventual doom of Satan. The prophecies concerning the Babylonian Captivity and numerous others were always fulfilled literally. When God promised to regather the Jews in their land where they will never be driven out again was not fulfilled until 1948. How do you differ with Spurgeon when he says this about the book of Zechariah?
"This vision and prophecy graciously reveal the future history of Jerusalem. We may spiritualize it and say Jerusalem signifies the church, but we should not forget the literal meaning of the words. The Jewish people and their royal city will remain the center of the manifestations of divine glory. The nations of the earth will be joined to the Lord, a suburban population in more than her former splendor; the Jews will be restored to their own land; and Messiah will reign as a prince of the house of David."
I don't understand the logic of rejecting a literal kingdom. Do you believe the kingdom Revelation 20 talks about is symbolical and that the kingdom will come about by the Church converting the world to Christ by preaching the gospel? It looks to me like John Gill, Charles Spurgeon and others in the 19th century lean towards what John MacArthur and many other modern day scholars teach. There will always be differences in interpretation but to interpret scripture symbolically where there seems to be no need for it is confusing.

 

[Ransom]

Is it whacky to believe that there will be an Antichrist that will require a mark in order to buy or sell? Is is whacky to believe that in the last days of the Church society will grow worse and worse culminating in the personal return or Christ to set up His kingdom? I'm not asking trick questions. I truly don't understand how prophecy can be interpreted symbolically.

You linked legitimate privacy concerns in Windows with the coming of the Antichrist. That is not an easily defended opinion. And when challenged on it, you changed the subject to assert easily defended, but obvious, claims about the last days.

Look up the motte-and-bailey fallacy, and learn how not to use it.

 

[biscuit1953]

You linked legitimate privacy concerns in Windows with the coming of the Antichrist. That is not an easily defended opinion. And when challenged on it, you changed the subject to assert easily defended, but obvious, claims about the last days.

Look up the motte-and-bailey fallacy, and learn how not to use it.

I connected the coming Antichrist and the mark of the beast with technology that was unheard of when I was growing up. I agree with abcaine's comment. What I really want to understand is how do you think the church age will end. Will it come about with the world being converted through the gospel or with world conditions continuing to devolve with the only hope being Jesus personally returning to earth to set up a kingdom and bringing about 1,000 years of peace until the final battle when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire? I am being sincere about understanding how you understand the end times being fulfilled.

 

[Ransom]

What I really want to understand is how do you think the church age will end.

No, you didn't even have that in mind when you started the thread.

 

[Ekklesian]

What I really want to understand is how do you think the church age will end. Will it come about with the world being converted through the gospel or with world conditions continuing to devolve with the only hope being Jesus personally returning to earth to set up a kingdom and bringing about 1,000 years of peace until the final battle when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire? I am being sincere about understanding how you understand the end times being fulfilled.

Not all of the Reformed persuasion are Amillennial (a misnomer of the position in my humble opinion). One must take the epistles to the Revelation, not the other way around. As far as the literal (by your meaning of the word, 'literal') event prophesied in the NT that must occur before the Day of the Lord, is the falling away, and the revelation of the son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The apostacy will be on a scale never before seen. Almost total. Jesus Himself wondered if He would find faith in the earth when He returns, Luke 18:8

This corresponds with the end of the Thousand Years in Revelation and the loosing of Satan. And since Revelation is best understood when not read as a linear 'history', so to speak, it also corresponds to Revelation 13. There is not one beast, but two working in tandem, and so the 'man of sin' is best understood as a system, or a power, but unlike anything seen before the binding of Satan, and they will have power of Satan to make war with the saints. The devils won't be subject like they were in Luke 10:17. (Notice Christ's response and how it sounds like Revelation 12:3).

The Reformers, with good reason, began to conclude, that Rome was the whore, was Babylon, and was the Antichrist.

But Peter said that even in his day there were antichrists in the earth. These events symbolized in Revelation have played out in microcosm all over the earth age after age.

We're given another picture of the end of the world, and that is the Ark. As it was in the days of Noah, life went on pretty sweetly. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage,and they despised and rejected Noe and his family, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

In microcosm, in the days of Lot, the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

And so, God has His elect from every nation and every age of the earth, and when the last of them enter the Ark, that is, enters into union with Christ, then the Way will be shut, and judgement will rain from Heaven.

 

[Ekklesian]

But about taking the epistles to Revelation, and your thinking that ethno-Israel (as someone else once put it) being restored as the head of all nations: Paul told us in a fairl straitforward manner that

he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.​

​

Meaning, quite simply, that those of faith, jew or gentile outwardly, are the real Jews. Anyone else is just a wolf in sheeps' clothing.

And so Revelation 2:9:

I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.​

​

Spurgeon wasn't right about everything.

 

[Ekklesian]

I know many Christians reject the teaching of the coming Antichrist and a one world government.

You know no such thing.

 

[biscuit1953]

No, you didn't even have that in mind when you started the thread.

"Do Covenant theologians believe the world will be won to Christ by the preaching of the gospel? I know Spurgeon clearly taught God is not through with physical Israel so exactly how does this mesh with those who spiritualize the prophecies relating to that?" I'm sorry but I did want to know how your understanding meshed with other views.

 

[biscuit1953]

Not all of the Reformed persuasion are Amillennial (a misnomer of the position in my humble opinion). One must take the epistles to the Revelation, not the other way around. As far as the literal (by your meaning of the word, 'literal') event prophesied in the NT that must occur before the Day of the Lord, is the falling away, and the revelation of the son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The apostacy will be on a scale never before seen. Almost total. Jesus Himself wondered if He would find faith in the earth when He returns, Luke 18:8

This corresponds with the end of the Thousand Years in Revelation and the loosing of Satan. And since Revelation is best understood when not read as a linear 'history', so to speak, it also corresponds to Revelation 13. There is not one beast, but two working in tandem, and so the 'man of sin' is best understood as a system, or a power, but unlike anything seen before the binding of Satan, and they will have power of Satan to make war with the saints. The devils won't be subject like they were in Luke 10:17. (Notice Christ's response and how it sounds like Revelation 12:3).

The Reformers, with good reason, began to conclude, that Rome was the whore, was Babylon, and was the Antichrist.

But Peter said that even in his day there were antichrists in the earth. These events symbolized in Revelation have played out in microcosm all over the earth age after age.

We're given another picture of the end of the world, and that is the Ark. As it was in the days of Noah, life went on pretty sweetly. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage,and they despised and rejected Noe and his family, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

In microcosm, in the days of Lot, the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

And so, God has His elect from every nation and every age of the earth, and when the last of them enter the Ark, that is, enters into union with Christ, then the Way will be shut, and judgement will rain from Heaven.

Thank you for that explanation.

 

[Ekklesian]

My saying above that Revelation isn't a linear history is NOT saying that it is not systematic. The prophecy is best read as Progressive Parallelism. Most that take this approach see Revelation as divided into seven parallel passages, each describing the history of the church in the earth from it's birth to it's ultimate victory, from differing persepectives, each revealing greater glories of the church.

here explain breifly.

 

[biscuit1953]

My saying above that Revelation isn't a linear history is NOT saying that it is not systematic. The prophecy is best read as Progressive Parallelism. Most that take this approach see Revelation as divided into seven parallel passages, each describing the history of the church in the earth from it's birth to it's ultimate victory, from differing persepectives, each revealing greater glories of the church.

here explain breifly.

I was really confused with the different aspects of Covenant theology when it comes to prophecy. You at least made it a little clearer on your beliefs even though I still don't agree with it.