DAILY PODCAST WITH STEVE HICKS
Something's Happening Here
Ever look at the events surrounding you and wonder. "What's happening?" Us too! Come join us as we explore what's happening here. A daily podcast event.
SEASON 2 PODCASTS
I was asked recently how it is that I determine the movements of God in my life. I answered that I don’t believe in coincidence, and therefore when I see strange repetitions and alleged coincidences in my life, I typically attribute them to the Lord. Prayerfully, of course, but with the general position that it takes greater faith to believe in dumb, meaningless chance occurrence than it does to believe that my loving Savior is trying to direct me. So I pay attention to these shmoincidences, so to speak, and often try to discern what God is doing within them., and we start today by investigating this concept of coincidence from a Biblical perspective. This week’s format will be a little different than usual, friends, but that’s okay, right? Because you watch everyday anyway, so you’ll follow along just fine.
We recently learned through the release of the Durham Report what many of us have suspected for a long time now: that the American federal government has been lying to us for seven years, using the media as its bullhorn, to cover its own corrupt, inept, and potentially illegal actions. Put on your prophecy hats today, and keep them on all week, as we use this moment in time to help us understand the book of Revelation.
Today on Something’s Happening Here we examine some of the fallout and commentary surrounding the release of the Durham Report and – SURPRISE! – the report looks different depending on your pre-existing worldview. What the talking heads, pundits, and columnists don’t realize, however, is that they’re playing a game as old as time, mimicking the behaviors that led to the War in Heaven, from which all evil has followed. The good news is that once we understand this behavior, we can also understand how to short-circuit it so we don’t fall victim. Want to be less like the devil and more like the Lord today, friends?
The Durham report ultimately pins the FBI’s failures on the political bias of the various actors involved. In other words, had there not already been a sense of division within the government – a pre-existing sense of who are the good guys and the bad guys – then none of the chaos that the Report outlines would have had to happen. It’s almost like the state of division itself carries demonic power, willing to hollow out and destroy all that it touches. It shouldn’t surprise you, then, to realize that the solution is precisely the opposite – and Bible prophecy gives us 144,000 reasons why.
Over the past few years, supporters of various political figures have called for the imprisonment of Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden. Desiring the criminal downfall of your political enemies seem like the new norm these days, yet neither Clinton, nor Trump, nor Biden have gone to jail. In fact, shockingly few political actors on any side ever face consequences for their actions. The injustice of it all can seem overwhelming, but believers know there is a day of perfect justice coming soon! We can fool and bribe and intimidate and avoid man’s justice, but nothing and no one escapes God’s justice. On today’s show we study Revelation 20 and the day when the universe is put back into perfect order once again.
As we’ve seen throughout the week, everyone seems to be taking away from the Durham Report whatever it is they want to take away from it. Depending on to whom you listen, the report is both an explosive bombshell that will dismantle a disgraced FBI, and also a giant nothingburger and waste of taxpayers’ time and money. Knowledge is malleable, and all the more so with the advent of A.I.! Parts of the Bible have already been rewritten by A.I. to better fit someone’s worldview; why not rewrite the Durham Report to make it officially say whatever we want it to say? When nothing means nothing because a computer can just rewrite it at any point, how can we stay safe?
“The Empty Tomb Redux”
Today we begin by defining the concept of a post-Christian society, but we let Bible prophecy guide us as to where such a problem would lead. To hopefully no one’s surprise, the Bible tells a different story than the world does, with a surprise twist that most of the world won’t see coming.
From electric cars to cricket flour, the world today seems obsessed with sustainable living, always looking for a solution to the problem of dwindling resources. Many of these proposed solutions come with problems of their own, but the spiritual problems might be even worse. How do we envision a future of scarcity? From Soylent Green to A Modest Proposal (also the tagline of today’s show), our minds always seem to treat people as expendable, and use death as a solution to problems of life on earth. Surely life isn’t imitating art, right? Or is it? Welcome to Something’s Happening Here.
Would it make sense to you to replace your spouse with a totally different person, but continue to use your spouse’s name and treat the new person as if he or she were the old one? At a minimum, I think it’s safe to say your marriage would be over. You might be living in some sort of fantasy about your new situation, but it’s definitely not your marriage. Well as ridiculous as that sounds, that’s precisely what many churches – what most people, in fact – have done with God. It is rare to find worship of the God described in Scripture, even while His Name is on everyone’s lips. But it’s no laughing matter, friends, because terrible things happen when we worship a false god.
Evil regimes of the past (and present) have required the same thing to come into power that the final evil regime in the future will need as well: a scapegoat, an enemy, an Emmanuel Goldstein, if you will. So we should be watchful of efforts today to belittle, dehumanize, and “otherize” any group for any reason. Yet on this week’s show we’ve seen several examples of our society doing just that! What does Scripture say is coming, and how are God’s people to act in the face of it? Put on your prophecy hats today, friends!
Soren Kierkegaard once said, “A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.” How did he see our day so clearly? We’re closing the week by discussing Artificial Intelligence again – because the stakes are high, so of course no one is paying attention. Send in the clowns, but grab your Bibles while you do it.
The American government has a long history of pushing the boundaries of our Constitutional freedoms, but the advent of the supercomputer in everyone’s pocket has turned this problem up to 11. But as angry as you might be that your phone is probably recording you right now, on this show we aim to peek into the spiritual world and learn why these issues are important to God. Say Hi to your friendly neighborhood spook before you put your phone away for the night, and cheer up! Christ is coming soon, and the techno state is evidence.
Growing up, we were told that everyone would get his or her “15 minutes of fame” at some point in life. Little did we realize that some day strangers would amass storehouses of data on every one of us, and know us better than we know ourselves! But longing to be known by someone has always been foolish, because the Bible tells us that the spiritual world has been watching – and recording! – life on earth since the beginning. So if the whole universe is watching everything you do whether you like it or not, then toward what audience do you aim your life and actions each day? And further – why is that among the most important questions in these last days?
Digital technology has brought the problem of the surveillance state to a whole new level, but the problem was here under inferior technologies too. So what, then, is the real reason that this surveillance monster keeps rearing its ugly head, decade after decade? Turns out it’s a problem of the human heart, and the only real cure is the Lord Jesus Christ. The surveillance state couldn’t exist if everyone lived according to one simple Biblical principle, so today we’re going to find out what it is, and by the grace of God learn to live by it ourselves. Ready for a change today?
It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you, right? But perhaps it’s really as it says in the movie Strange Days: it’s not whether you’re paranoid; it’s whether you’re paranoid enough. Well, like it or not, this techno-surveillance state isn’t going away on this side of Heaven. It is an essential component in the story of Revelation 13 – the story that ends with 666 and the mark of the beast. So since we must live with this techno-state and cannot avoid it, then it is imperative that we understand it through the lens of prophecy and the gospel. Put on your prophecy hats today, friends, and grab your Bibles.
Once again we’re discussing the problem of A.I. – artificial intelligence. I promise, we didn’t intend to keep banging this one drum, but we believe it is potentially too great a problem to ignore. Today we look at some specific threats that it poses to us, and how the world is responding. But no matter how great the problem becomes – even if the problem is prophecy-level bad – we know the answer is the God of the Scriptures, the One who knew this problem was coming and gave us what we need to identify it ahead of time.
On today’s show we begin with an overview of the instability that seems to be permeating and destroying everything in life, and the best explanation the world has to offer about it. We hope you’re not surprised to know that the Bible has much more satisfying answers.
It’s easy to find someone to blame for everything that’s going wrong – it’s the Democrats, it’s the Republicans, it’s the environmentalists, it’s the greedy CEOs, whatever – but we know that the real cause of the chaos in society today is spiritual in nature. On today’s show we look to God’s law and the book of Revelation to determine the real problem at hand; the root problem from which all the other problems come. But, careful! In the process, we might just reveal something about our own hearts that we need to surrender to Jesus. It might be a frustrating one today, friends, but we also might just see Jesus in the midst of it.
When we first talked about Artificial Intelligence during Season One, we all suspected it would be a topic that we would have to revisit eventually. Did we realize it would be part of the first episode of Season Two? The world seems to be getting swallowed by A.I. left and right, so quickly that we hardly have to imagine the consequences it will bring, because we can see them already. Love it or hate it, A.I. is a destabilizing force in our world today, and the Bible shows us one simple yet crystal clear reason why. Thanks for joining today’s discussion, and be sure to watch our previous episode about A.I. from Season One, called Imitation of Life.
No discussion about the unstable and unsettled nature of life today would be complete without discussing the economy. The current mess of inflation and government intervention has left us in the worst economy in a generation or more; but on Something’s Happening Here, we don’t complain and condemn, we look for Bible answers that point us to Jesus Christ. Where could all this economic chaos be leading? All that and more on today’s show.
The 21st century began with a short-lived television series called Disinformation, wherein the very premise was to present alleged news stories that may or may not be true. It was plainly stated that some stories were true and some were not, and the show never specified which was which. It served to demonstrate just how easy it was for the media to manipulate information so that the line between fact and fiction is indistinguishable. Quite the harbinger of things to come, wasn’t it? How in the world can we navigate a world where we cannot even agree on basic facts, or even what constitutes a fact? We need some rock solid truth to stand on, and we know that rock is Jesus Christ.
SEASON 1 PODCASTS
Looking for more? See our podcasts from season one.