A Foundation That Cannot be Shaken

A counter-image for the Machine

By now, we’ve all heard too much about the revelatory Apple ad, “Crush.” I promised myself that I wasn’t going to write about it, noting how many other writers have covered the ground quite well (here, here and here). I’m not going to link to the ad, as that’s what they want. It’s criti-hype at its finest. Negative attention for the sake of attention (and therefore, sales).

However, there is something that I want to say instead. Something, or rather Someone, that I want to point to instead.

First, we need to deal summarily with Apple. The “Crush” ad was the Spirit of the Machine. We could all feel its arrogance and animosity coming through that ad. We could feel its intent to destroy us—we humans who are sub-creators, made in the Creative image of God. That’s why so many of us reacted. The ad laid bare the enemy’s destructive intent towards humanity.

This enemy has many names and one of them is the Destroyer, Abbadon.¹ He wants to kill, steal and destroy. We’re told, “The enemy goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”² Lions, as we know, like to conceal themselves, stalk their prey, and then pounce. As Charles Baudelaire famously said, «…la plus belle des ruses du Diable est de vous persuader qu’il n’existe pas! » “The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist!” That’s how he’s handled Western culture for a good several hundred years. Let them think I don’t exist, while I sneak up and prepare to destroy. And now we see that he has.

Just like a lion, as the enemy becomes more desperate in his hunt, he’s forced to reveal himself to his prey more. So that’s good. Perhaps we can determine from this ad that the forces of darkness are becoming more desperate.

The image the ad created was intentional, whether Apple’s ad executives knew it or not. “They” are not playing benign anymore. When I say that, I’m not even sure who “they” really are, outside of principalities and powers.

Sure, Apple executives can apologize all they want. But now we know what they believe is coming. Or at least, what something that is influencing them wants to have happen. This is as anti-human of an ad as I’ve seen. They’re telling us that our time is over and the time of the Machine has come. We don’t have a choice. The age of the human is done. Crushed. We’re on unstable foundations now with this Machine demi-god.

We were right. There is something off with that company. But it’s not just Apple. It’s the whole Machine construct. Unstable ground.

The feeling behind the Crush ad reminded me of the feeling I’d had looking at another image. Perhaps you’ve seen it.

This is the “Moloch of Totalitarianism” statue at the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery just outside of St. Petersburg in Russia. The statue commemorates the victims of political repression who were shot or died in the city's prisons between 1937 and 1954.

When I see that image, I think, The Machine. That is the perfect image for the Machine. It’s a hard-to-take-your-eyes-off-of image of a Nephilim-like Machine apparently simultaneously raping and ingesting a human being. As such, it is worth more than a thousand words on the experience of living under a totalitarian regime. That is the power of art. It bypasses the mind and meets the spirit head-on. It’s an image designed to reveal the unseen realities operating during that era of political oppression. The statue puts words to how the citizens of Russia felt during that oppression. It’s a reminder of what the experience of living under totalitarianism feels like.

Why did the “Crush” ad come out? For the same reason. To tell us what the unseen realities of the Machine Age will feel like. To create a visceral experience of the power of the Machine, in order to make us cower at the feet of what “they” believe is coming. An image so powerful that we will conform to its likeness.

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A Defeated Foe

But I don’t want to keep looking at the enemy and his images. Why? Because he’s a megalomaniac. He craves attention. He is criti-hype. Whatever it takes to get attention, he’ll do it. He’s the narcissist of narcissists: the father of narcissists. The OG narcissist. That was, after all, Satan’s downfall. He wanted to be worshipped in the place of God. In fact, he actually wanted God to worship him. That’s in part what Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness was about. “Just bow down and worship me, and I’ll give you all the kingdoms of this world. You can skip the suffering bit. I’ll make it easy for you.”³

Slippery, eh? Especially when you understand that, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the enemy is now a defeated foe. His days are numbered. We’re in a mopping up battle now, like the fighting that happened between V-Day and D-Day in the second World War. The decisive battle was fought 2,000 years ago on a Roman cross. Jesus Christ now holds the keys to death and hell—something we’ll get to in a minute. It’s now the job of the sons and daughters of God to reveal what the Kingdom of God is that Jesus established 2,000 years ago.

The enemy is still using every trick he can to convince us he’s winning. Perhaps this is his thinking: “Can’t get them to believe I’m not real? Then I’ll get them completely focused on me, believing instead how big and powerful and scary I am. How I will crush them. Damned if you do believe in the devil, damned if you don’t.”

So, the most powerful thing you can do is to believe the enemy is real, but ignore him and worship God instead. The enemy hates that. It’s been driving him insane for however many thousands of years humans have been doing it.

Oh well. Sucks to be him.

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A Counter-Image

But here’s the thing. We have a counter-image to this powerful, Apple-provided image of the Machine, the Moloch, the Destroyer. In fact, we have a number of counter-images. I’ll start with just one.

In the Biblical book of Revelation (which, as a prophetic book, exists for humanity’s strengthening, encouragement and comfort)⁴ we’re given a counter-image to the image of false gods—which is, in short, what the Machine is, as is becoming more and more evident.

It’s the image of “someone like a son of man”—someone with power, authority and dominion. Someone who is Himself a foundation that cannot be shaken.

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”⁵

Revelation is a much-misunderstood book. My purpose here is not to get into different interpretations of it or say that the one I’m about to present is the best. But this one is helpful for strengthening, encouraging and comforting. That’s why I’m using it. I’ll be relying here largely on the work of Darrell Johnson in Discipleship on the Edge and highly recommend the entire book, which I was privileged to hear him preach as a sermon series years ago before it became a book.

Johnson says that the purpose of the book of Revelation is two-fold: to set the present moment in the light of the unseen realities of the future. Secondly, to set the present moment in the light of the invisible realities of the present.

In other words, the purpose of the book is to unveil that which we cannot easily see—which is what the Greek word that is the title of the book of Revelation (apokalypsis) means. It will pull back the veil on that which we cannot see—especially if we’ve been believing that there is no spiritual realm at work, intersecting with the material one we exist in day by day.

Things Are Not as They Seem

Here’s how Johnson says it:

“The fundamental conviction of apocalyptic literature is that “things are not as they seem”; there is more to reality than meets the unaided eyes or ears; there is more to the present historical moment than we can deduce. And apocalyptic writing seeks to unveil that unseen reality of the present, to pull back the curtain on the present so that we can see what is really going on.”⁶

I’m suggesting that the unseen reality of the present looks like this: while we’re being offered a Machine kingdom with unstable foundations, there exists another Kingdom with a foundation that cannot be shaken. The Kingdom of God stands on a solid footing.

What strikes me in this passage is that the image of the glorified Son of Man (Jesus Christ) has feet of hot, glowing bronze. To understand why this is important, Johnson says, we need to go back just a bit to another prophetic book called Daniel.

In the book of Daniel, the King of Babylon (named Nebuchadnezzar) has a vision of a huge statue that represents all of the human kingdoms of ancient history. It is made in layers of different types of materials, each representing a different ancient kingdom. The key point here is that the feet of the statue described in Daniel are made of a mixture of iron and clay—brittle and soon to fall to pieces. This is a mixture that cannot bear the weight of those kingdoms, Johnson says. All human kingdoms are guaranteed to collapse. That’s the message to Nebuchadnezzar, and to us.

As an example of this, Johnson continues, “It was inevitable that the Soviet Union should crumble. It was founded upon a lie. Any society that eliminates the living Lord from its common life is founded on a lie, and it is only a matter of time until it falls.”⁷ Something similar could be said of the current foundations of Western societies.

The lies of the Machine kingdom we are being sold are many—including eliminating God from common life. Yet, perhaps the most all-encompassing lie of the Machine is that we can create better than God can. We can create a perfect world with our machine intelligences. The catch is that we have to serve the Machine in order for this to happen. Become subservient to it. Give up our human nature made in the image of God and take on the image of the Machine instead. Very much like the “Crush” ad shows us.

(By now, readers familiar with the book of Revelation are probably starting to hear resonance between the Machine and the first Beast. Hold that thought.)

That Cannot Be Shaken

In opposition to this, the Son of Man has “feet of burnished bronze: strong, firm, steady feet. He kingdom rests on feet that endure forever.”

Not only are they solid, but like bronze glowing in a furnace, the image we’re given of the Son of Man also “suggests that wherever Jesus Christ walks he can overcome any opposition… and he burns away any evil.”⁸

His is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Its foundations are as solid as they are true. This is encouraging, comforting and strengthening. We can stand firm in this Kingdom, knowing we’re on solid ground.

In fact, each part of this striking image of the Son of Man we’re given in Revelation has a message for us, Johnson explains. He elaborates on each portion in his book, and I recommend reading it. But here is his summary (formatting is mine):

Johnson concludes: “And standing in our midst, He is saying, “Stop being afraid. I was dead, but look! I am alive forevermore. And I hold the keys of death.”

“Jesus has stolen the chief weapon evil uses to enforce its rule,” he continues. “Jesus has stolen the weapon of fear. …All fear is firmly rooted in the fear of death. The fear of criticism, the fear of rejection, the fear of financial loss, the fear of pain—they are all, at rock bottom, the fear of death.”⁹

And Jesus Christ holds the keys of death. He has overcome its power. We don’t need to fear death or anything else related to not bowing down to the Machine: criticism, rejection, financial loss, pain, etc. because death is in His hands alone. This is comfort indeed. Things are not as they seem. The unseen realities of the present and future overpower the other dark, anti-human images with which we’re being presented.

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Out of Thin Air

Still think the “Crush” images are just for fun, just to draw attention to sell stuff? Think there really isn’t anything spiritual going on behind the scenes?

I was surprised to see that in technology writer

David Mattin

’s most recent piece, The Singularity is Now, he argues for a new religion to support this Machine Age, as he calls it—although he could have said Machine kingdom. I was surprised, because I didn’t realize he’d go in for the religious aspect of it. But here’s his line of thought:

“I’ve said that in the coming post-human era — really still more of a human era after all — the fundamental challenge will be for People of the Machine and People of the Earth to live well together. 

“What that demands, in the end, is a new account of ourselves and our ultimate relationship to the world we inhabit.

“Those who see fusion with technology as a route to infinite, all-knowing transcendence must be able to answer two questions. What, in the end, are they transcending towards? And why? On the other hand, those who seek to remain resolutely human, to lean back into our embodied and organic selves, must be able to explain: what is so important, so valuable, about the human anyway?

“On both sides this requires a renewed vision of what we humans really are. Of our purpose here, and our ultimate relationship to the cosmos we find ourselves in.”

A “renewed vision of what humans really are” is something that I tried to supply in my earlier piece, “Why the Machine Hates Embodiment.” “Renewed,” because the church at large may need reminding almost as much as the culture does.

However, apparently believing that humans can now create a better religion than these old, outdated ones, Mattin continues:

“The old religions once supplied such an account. For many inhabitants of modernity, the scientific revolution dismantled it. Now we must build anew. What we must make is nothing less than a religion of the future. A religion that can accommodate the impossible-yet-real process that is the Singularity” (emphasis mine).

Well, that escalated quickly.

Whether he knows it or not, Mattin is arguing that he wants a new Beast (false religion) to serve the first Beast (false power), a.k.a. the Machine.¹⁰ I point this out just in case you thought I was making this all up or getting overexcited, or blaming too much on the spiritual realm. The world is beginning to call for this—a new religion to support the false kingdom of the Machine.

In fact, in 2015, Anthony Levandowski, the co-founder of Google’s self-driving car program, created such a religion that would worship an “AI Godhead,” calling it “The Way of the Future.” He folded his non-profit in 2021, however. Apparently, it’s not so easy to create a religion out of thin air after all.

We’re being presented with two different visions of the future. Two images that represent two very different kingdoms. Fortunately, we’ve already been given a counter-image that outweighs all other images and idols. Keep your eyes on that Image. It’s the only One with a stable foundation.

Your voice is needed, and we’d love to hear it in the comments below. However, if you choose to abandon the voice of love in your comments, remember that you are abandoning all of your beneficial power.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe, alone having the ability to create change for the better. Indeed, it is the only force that ever has.

1. Bible, Revelation 9:11 He is called Abaddon in Hebrew, literally meaning "destruction" and Apollyon in Greek, literally meaning "one who destroys." Both names can be summarized as meaning “destroyer.”

2. Bible, 1 Peter 5:8.

3. Bible, Matthew 4:1-11.

4. Bible, 1 Corinthians 14:1-3.

5. Bible, Revelation 1:12-18.

6. Darrell Johnson, Discipleship on the Edge, p. 19.

7. Ibid, p.42

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid, pp. 42-45.

10. These two are additional images from the book of Revelation that deserve more explanation than I can succinctly give here. The first Beast represents false power and the second represents false religion.