The Tree of Knowledge Replanted

Peter

Good morning, Your Honor. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I’ve shown you that Israel was born May 14, 1948. That the first computer was born June 21, 1948. The Cloud, also in June. An iron beast now disguised as a Charmin commercial. Each of these is at the core of the Reborn Tree of Knowledge. But all of this is much more than a fascinating coincidence or random chance.

One night I started pulling on a thread. Website after website. Almanac page after almanac page. I thought — what if I just looked up every major event of 1948? Seemed simplistic. Then again — I’m simplistic. And I happen to know that Jesus wanted everyone to be able to understand prophecy without three theology degrees. So I kept pulling. That night was the seed of this trial.

Special Master Wright

I understand your point, counsellor. I know you were excited. But we don’t need your personal journey here.

Peter

Yes, Your Honor. There’s a passage some of you may have heard your entire lives. I’ve read it myself — probably a hundred times — in forty years of teaching Bible prophecy. I thought I understood it.

Peter

Now — for forty years, when prophecy students read that verse, we thought: airplanes. Space travel. The internet. Knowledge increasing. Sure. Fine. But there is a phrase buried in that verse. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

I am not a Hebrew scholar. My Hebrew begins and ends with shalom and mazel tov. And I’m not entirely sure I’m pronouncing those correctly. But I did what any first-year seminary student does. I looked it up in Strong’s Concordance. The most widely used Hebrew and Greek reference in the history of Bible study.

He nods to the Bailiff who is smiling and somehow has a sense of where this is going.

Your Honor, members of the jury — I’ve asked the Bailiff to hand each of you the relevant pages. Because the source books together require 27-inch biceps.

The Bailiff moves along the jury box, placing a slim folder in front of each juror. A copy goes to the Special Master as well. He opens it without comment, adjusting his reading glasses. He does not look up.

Peter

Because the original Hebrew does not use just the word knowledge. It uses a very specific phrase. Ha is “the.” The phrase is — THE knowledge. Ha-da’at.

Peter walks slowly back to his podium. Looks to the Special Master. The Special Master returns his gaze with arched eyebrows. He studied at Hebrew University, Peter knows. He knows what it says.

I’m hoping you’ll be curious about what those seven occurrences are. Because they change our entire understanding of Bible prophecy in the last days. They reveal something that none of us saw coming. So without further ado — I give you the first.

Peter pauses. He moves slowly toward the jury.

Peter

We know what happened next. The serpent told Eve that if she took from that tree, her eyes would be opened. That she would be like God. That she would have THE knowledge. She took it. Adam took it. And in one of the most devastating moments in all of Scripture, God Himself confirmed it. The man, He said, has now become like one of us.

The fall of man. Because they reached for THE knowledge. And God had to act. He escorted them out of the garden.

Peter lets that land.

But here is what I want you to notice. The tree stayed. The knowledge stayed. God wasn’t finished with it.

Because the next time ha-da’at appears in Scripture — we have left the garden entirely. Centuries have passed. And God reaches down and gives THE knowledge to a craftsman. Not to a king. Not to a prophet. To a man who works with his hands. To build something for the glory of God.

Peter pauses again. The room is very quiet.

Peter

The fifth and sixth occurrences — same verse. Hosea 4:6. God speaks to His own people.

Peter pauses. He walks back toward his notes.

Peter

And then. Four hundred years of silence. No prophet. No word from God. And then an angel appears to an old man in Babylon and dictates a prophecy so overwhelming that the man faints, lies sick for days, and says plainly — I don’t understand a word of it.

Peter faces the jury.

And in that prophecy — the seventh and final time ha-da’at appears in all of the Old Testament — the angel says:

Peter

Seven occurrences. One word. One thread. From the garden to the fall. From the Temple craftsman to the prophet. From God’s definition of knowing Him to His people’s rejection of it. And then sealed — hidden — until a generation that would finally understand what THE knowledge meant.

He turns to face them directly.

We are that generation. And THE knowledge is increasing exactly as the angel said it would. Not in libraries. Not in universities. In a worldwide web of iron. Fed by nuclear reactors. Processing twenty quintillion calculations per second.

Now — the angel didn’t just say ha-da’at shall increase. He used a specific word for increase.

Peter

Daniel 12:4 — same word. Same root. Strong’s H7235. Not increase like a pay raise. Not increase like a rising tide. Multiply — like the stars of the heaven. Like the sand on the seashore. That is the word the angel used. THE knowledge shall multiply like the sand on the seashore.

Special Master Wright

You’re asking me to follow a single word through seven verses across two thousand years of Scripture and land on artificial intelligence.

A pause. He glances down at the open folder in front of him. Then back at Peter.

That’s quite a journey.

Peter

It took Daniel by surprise too, Your Honor. He didn’t understand a word of it. He just wrote it down. Which, honestly, is how I felt the first hundred times I read this passage.

The angel told Daniel to seal it. Because the world it described didn’t exist yet. Not for Jeremiah. Not for the Apostles. Not for the Reformers. Not even for me — ten years ago, standing in front of a television camera doing what I thought was a pretty good job of explaining Bible prophecy. I couldn’t see it. Because I was looking for knowledge to increase. My knowledge. Your knowledge. Human knowledge. I’m not so sure mine is increasing. Actually, I know it isn’t. My kids will confirm that.

A few jurors smile.

And that’s worth one final thought. Is my knowledge increasing as the stars of the heaven and the sand on the seashore? Can I do 20,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second? But something else can. Something coming alive that most still think is a machine. Every search you run. Every message you send. Every purchase. Every location. AI is capturing all of it. Compiling it. All of it being vacuumed up and organized into something that knows you. Not just facts about you.

Peter looks directly at the jury. Not performing. Just stating.

It knows you by name.

A long beat. Somewhere in the gallery, a chair shifts.

As surely as the serpent knew Adam and Eve by name — AI knows yours. And it is learning more about you every single day. Every one of us in this room.

The final battle is the tale of two trees. Israel — God’s fig tree. Born May 14, 1948. And the tree of knowledge — the digital mind, the World Wide Web — and I mean, give me a break with that name. Someone sat in a meeting, said “World Wide Web” out loud, and everyone just nodded. As if they knew exactly what they were naming. Born the same year. From the same ground. Both of them growing. One toward the Kingdom. One toward something else.

But there is one wall he cannot cut through.

Peter

“By weakness and defeat He won a glorious crown — brought all his foes beneath his feet by being trodden down.”

For anyone in the gallery or anyone reading this transcript — today is the Day of Salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

You’re going to hear more about artificial intelligence. But whatever it is or whatever it becomes is headed for a lake of fire. This is the beginning of the proof that I will give you. But it can be meaningless. The Pharisees in Jesus’ days on earth saw the miracles. Tried and had him killed. The disciples walked with Christ for three years. They saw every miracle. Peter even walked on water. Yet on the eve of His crucifixion, they all ran away.

But in the end, after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter — as he sat before fish on hot coals — Lovest thou me more than these? Walking on water didn’t do it for Peter. It was when he was in his own garden of Gethsemane, after he denied his Lord.

Another moment passes.

Special Master Wright

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we’ll end it for the day. And I urge you — look up what this counsellor has said. Because if I’m following him correctly, it simply cannot be true.

A pause. He looks down at the open folder still in front of him. He has not closed it.

I will not be checking in on it further.

He straightens his papers. He looks at the gallery.

My wife and I are leaving on a pre-scheduled vacation. Hearing Two will resume upon our return.

A beat.

We’re going to a film festival. I am looking very much forward to it.

A beat.

And I am hoping she will share her popcorn.

He looks at the folder. He does not close it.

Bailiff

All rise.

And forty-three more to come.

End of Prophetic Fulfillment 6  ·  End of Hearing One

Closing Note to the Jury follows.