AI, Robots, & The False Prophet - Ep. 925 - June 15, 2026

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Could AI Be the Image of the Beast in Revelation 13?

A talking image that demands worship once sounded like distant symbolism. After some sponsor jokes and friendly shots at family, neighbors, and Chad Grider, Jeff and Rowland turn to a blunt claim: AI and robotics make Revelation 13 feel more concrete than ever.

This episode of The Smith and Rowland Show is not a tech review. It is a prophetic reading of Scripture, built around the image of the beast, the false prophet, the mark, and the fear that people are learning to trust machines more than God. That question drives the whole conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0DPeRZQmwA

A light opening gives way to a serious warning

The episode begins the way many Smith and Rowland conversations do, with humor. There is sponsor talk about Landscapers of America, jokes about Rowland's daughter Ali moving nearby, a kind neighbor mowing the yard until they arrive, and playful ribbing about Chad Grider. Jeff and Rowland also trade the kind of back-and-forth that longtime viewers expect, including jokes about following each other around and "picking up the pieces" like Humpty Dumpty.

Then the tone shifts.

What starts as banter quickly turns into a serious prophecy discussion. The spark is the surge of public interest in UFOs, alien life, and government attention to unidentified aerial phenomena. The hosts mention Congress holding hearings and documents coming out. That growing attention, in their view, matters because it creates a ready-made explanation for strange events on a global scale.

From there, they begin connecting dots. They ask whether the Antichrist could explain the rapture through some kind of alien-abduction story. They also ask whether the "image of the beast" in Revelation 13 now sounds less like an impossible mystery and more like something technology could imitate.

That is the center of the episode. A prophetic text that once sounded difficult to picture now sounds familiar to a world filled with AI, synthetic voices, robotics, mass surveillance, and machine-led decision making. For Jeff and Rowland, that is not a small shift. It changes how Revelation 13 lands on a modern reader.

Revelation 13 separates the beast, the false prophet, and the image

The discussion rests on a plain reading of Revelation 13. Jeff and Rowland are careful to separate the main figures in that chapter, because they believe confusion starts when those figures get blended together.

This distinction shapes their whole interpretation:

Jeff notes that "Antichrist" is common church shorthand, even though Scripture uses many other titles for this figure, including "the man of sin" and "the son of perdition." He also mentions that one passage calls him "the Assyrian." The point is simple. In their reading, the Antichrist is not only a system. He is a person, though a system grows around him.

Revelation 13 describes that first beast in fierce terms. Satan gives him power. The world worships him. He speaks blasphemies. He rules for 42 months. He makes war with the saints. The chapter also says that those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life will worship him.

Then another beast appears. This second beast, the false prophet, looks lamb-like but speaks like a dragon. He performs signs. He even calls fire down from heaven in the sight of men. His role is not hidden. He pushes the world toward worship of the first beast, including the beast whose deadly wound was healed.

That leads to the key detail of the episode: the false prophet tells people to make an image to the beast. The image is not the beast himself. It is an image of him, yet it becomes active in a terrifying way.

Why the image sounds literal in an AI age

The verse that anchors the whole episode is Revelation 13:15.

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."

Jeff and Rowland keep returning to the same point. If you read that passage in a literal way, it sounds like more than a symbol. It sounds like an image or statue that appears alive, speaks, and enforces worship.

They argue that readers in 1960 would have had almost nothing concrete to attach to that picture. A moving image that talks and polices loyalty would have sounded strange in a more abstract way. Today, they say, the technology is already here. Robotics exists. AI-generated speech exists. Facial recognition exists. Networked systems can monitor behavior at scale. What used to sound impossible now sounds technically plausible.

That is why they reject the idea that Revelation 13 was fulfilled in AD 70. In their view, you cannot take a passage like this and press it into the first century without stretching every symbol past its natural meaning. They say the text reads more naturally as future prophecy, not as a coded description of an event already finished.

This is also where their pre-millennial view matters. They are convinced Revelation is still moving toward a future fulfillment. If that is true, then current technology does not replace the text. It helps modern readers picture the text more plainly.

They also connect this to Daniel. The episode mentions Daniel's vision of a great image tied to world empires, along with the prophecy that knowledge would increase in the last days. In their reading, Revelation 13 is a satanic copy of rule, power, and worship. The image receives a kind of false life, not true divine life. That makes AI and robotics feel like a closer fit than earlier generations could imagine.

Jeff makes another striking point. A child today may understand this passage faster than previous generations because children are growing up in an AI-shaped world. To them, machines that talk back are normal.

AI as the system behind worship and the mark

The hosts are careful on one point. They do not say that AI, in its present form, is automatically evil. Rowland says that plainly. Artificial intelligence is a tool. It has no soul, no spirit, and no moral life of its own. Human beings build it and use it.

Yet the warning comes from what happens when that tool gets folded into a satanic system.

In their reading, the false prophet gives "life" to the image. That life is not God's life. It is false, demonic, and corrupt. The image becomes more than metal, code, or mechanics. It becomes an object of worship with power behind it.

That is why they keep using words like robot, AI, and animated statue. They are trying to describe the only modern picture they can see that fits a speaking image with enforcement power. The false prophet directs worship toward the beast through this image. People do not merely observe it. They respond to it, obey it, and fear it.

Rowland adds another layer. He believes people will see the image as human, or at least human-like. That matters because worship usually wants a focal point. A visible figure makes devotion easier to project. If the image appears wise, alert, and more intelligent than any person alive, people may give it confidence they would never give a preacher, a government, or even a family member.

The danger in this reading is not AI by itself. The danger is AI joined to worship, coercion, and demonic power.

This is where the mark of the beast enters the discussion. Jeff and Rowland push back on common guesses that reduce the mark to a Social Security number or some vague piece of paperwork. They say Revelation ties the mark to worship and allegiance. Scripture calls it the mark of the beast because it identifies loyalty to the beast.

The chapter also connects the mark to buying and selling. That raises the issue of economic control. Jeff argues that a system like AI could track the whole world, identify who has taken the mark and who has not, and control commerce in real time. Rowland then points to the rise of large data centers. In their view, that kind of infrastructure could act as the "brain" behind a system that monitors transactions, identity, access, and compliance across nations.

For them, the image is not a random oddity in prophecy. It is the public face of a larger system of worship and control.

UFOs, alien stories, and the "strong delusion"

Another major thread in the episode is the modern obsession with UFOs and extraterrestrial life. The hosts do not treat that as harmless background noise. They think it may prepare people for deception on a massive scale.

Their idea is straightforward. If the church is removed in the rapture, the world will want an explanation. A sudden disappearance of people would create chaos, fear, and demands for a global answer. Jeff and Rowland believe an AI-driven system could offer one quickly, with confidence and authority. In their scenario, the message could be simple: aliens took them.

That theory fits, in their minds, with the public mood. UFO stories are no longer fringe in the way they once were. Government hearings, document releases, and nonstop media discussion have moved the subject toward the center. Because of that, an "alien abduction" explanation for the rapture would not sound absurd to many people. It would sound modern.

They connect that possibility to 2 Thessalonians and the idea of a "strong delusion." Jeff asks whether AI could be "the lie" people are sent to believe. Rowland says yes. Jeff agrees. He calls it a kind of "gospel of AI," a false message that competes with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That phrase captures the deeper concern. Their fear is not only that machines will do impressive things. Their fear is that people will trust machines more than truth. A system that speaks with speed, authority, and constant access can shape belief. If people already look to AI for answers, they may also look to it for meaning, ethics, and explanation when the world is in crisis.

A culture that is ready to receive a false authority

Jeff and Rowland do not limit the issue to machines. They also tie the coming deception to moral collapse and doctrinal compromise. In the episode, they point to confusion around sex and gender, the open celebration of what they see as sin, and churches that have traded biblical conviction for cultural approval, including churches that display rainbow flags.

Their point is that a society that abandons biblical categories becomes easier to direct toward false worship.

Several conditions, in their view, are preparing people for that shift:

• More people look to technology for certainty, answers, and authority.

• Moral boundaries are weaker, and Scripture is treated as optional.

• A unified secular order becomes easier to sell when rival truth claims lose force.

They also make an important observation from Revelation 13 itself. The false prophet tells the people to make the image. Human beings build it first. The system begins as a human work. Only after that does false life enter it. Rowland compares this pattern to the golden calf in the wilderness, a man-made object that became a focus of worship.

That connection matters because it keeps the responsibility where it belongs. The hosts do not blame a machine as though code created evil on its own. People build the thing. People receive it. People bow to it.

The conversation then widens to religion and power. Jeff references Revelation 17 and says the coming alliance around the beast will not tolerate rival religions. In his reading, the kings who align with the system eventually turn against both apostate Christianity and Islam because the Antichrist will not share worship.

There is also a brief turn toward Elon Musk. The tone stays half serious and half playful, but the reason for bringing him up is clear. Both hosts say they like a lot about him, and they note that he has publicly warned about the danger of AI becoming hard to control. Those warnings, to them, sound like an echo of the concerns Revelation 13 raises.

Why this reading feels urgent now

The urgency in the episode does not come from date setting. It comes from recognition. Jeff and Rowland believe the church will be raptured before these events reach full expression. They say that plainly. Their view is pre-trib and pre-millennial. Even so, they also believe the world is already building the tools that later fit the prophecy in full.

That is why the tone sharpens as the conversation goes on. Rowland says, more than once, that "it's later than we think." Jeff says he thought the church would already be gone by now. Neither line is casual. Both are meant to press the point that the infrastructure for global control, global messaging, and global deception is no longer hard to picture.

They also push back against a common modern habit. Many people treat the Bible as an ancient book with value only in ancient settings, then reduce it to moral lessons for today. Jeff rejects that idea. He argues that Revelation 13 does not sound buried in the past. It sounds current. In his words, it sounds like something you could hear in the news now.

That belief shapes the whole episode. The Bible is not less relevant because technology has advanced. In their reading, technology is one reason the text feels more visible than before.

Readers who want the broader prophetic framework behind this conversation can find more teaching through Kingdom Prophetic Society. The episode itself keeps the focus on one chapter, one image, and one hard claim: modern AI has made Revelation 13 easier to picture in literal terms.

Final thoughts

The strongest claim in this episode is simple. Revelation 13 describes a future system of worship, power, and coercion, and AI now gives many readers a concrete way to picture that system.

Jeff and Rowland are not talking about gadget anxiety. They are talking about allegiance. In their reading, the image of the beast matters because people will trust it, obey it, and bow to it.

That is why the conversation lands hard. The deepest issue is not what a machine can say. It is who people will believe when a speaking image demands their loyalty.