And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. Luke 2:1
Since the days before the Caesars, men have dreamed of controlling the world through the abuse of power. Looking back, we can see all the various empires and dynasties that have risen and fell over the last 4,000 years and how they attempted to consolidate their power over the lands and people they held. What hampered mankind then, was the lack of technology to implement their totalitarian desires. They did not have the ability to be everywhere at once, so they had to rely on other people (ie…governors, generals, vassal kings) to do their bidding. But men are fallible, and ultimately, time, pride and corruption sank every regime that has come and gone.
But thanks to the vast improvements in technology today; the Internet, Biometrics, UPCs, drones, satellites and multi-platform surveillance equipment; our current leaders enjoy an unprecedented ability to see and hear everything that is going on all at the same time. In other words, we now have the ability to get our eyes and ears on practically any place or anyone on the planet. So the technology to control mankind is not what is hampering us at the present moment.
What’s holding us up is global disunity.
Microcosm: Conditioning
If you look at the current crop of leaders today, we see incompetence and hypocrisy from both parties and from all levels of leadership. We see lots of people talking, and few people doing. Granted, our Constitutional Republic was designed in such a way that it almost mandated gridlock, but that was to prevent any one part of the government from becoming too powerful. After all, the Founders fought the Revolutionary War to get out from under the oppressive thumb of a king. They knew all too well that power corrupts. But what was meant to help preserve our liberties has become, due to the corrupted society in which it manages, a hindrance to progress. To many people, our system has become the problem.
People are clamoring for quick fixes to increasingly complex problems, whether it is our multi-trillion dollar national debt to natural disasters, terrorism and biological threats, ethnic strife and economic disparity. The gridlocked designed system cannot adequately handle the problems in real-time any more to be effective for anyone. And if a problem is answered, it almost always disenfranchises one segment of our society. That leads to them protesting, protesting leads to bad press, which is why leaders almost always try and stay in the middle of the road with soft coated, easy to swallow (but hard to believe) answers.
What the American people see today is that political and governmental leaders do not say what they mean. Rather, they see the hypocrisy in “Do what I say, not as I do” mentality. I believe, that along with our societal conditioning (a propensity to accept greater and more extreme violence and bloodshed in our entertainment for instance) we also have political conditionings. We have come to embrace the idea that all politicians lie, and in choosing them, we just pick the lesser of two evils.
How refreshing the Antichrist will be when he arrives. He won’t be like what the world is used to. Think about it though, if he is alive today (and I believe he is) then he is under the same incompetent system we are. He will be liked, because he will be sick of all the hypocrisy and will speak what he considers to be, the truth…and that will cause people to follow him with a zealousness not seen since Adolph Hitler. Remember, many prominent American businesses and leaders were equally enthralled with Adolph before he went off the deep end.
Macrocosm: Global Structure
Over the last 100 years, leaders first sought to answer the question of global disunity with the doomed League of Nations at the end of World War I. I say doomed because it put too much leeway in any political processes for it to be effective. At the end of World War II, the United States pressed for a better global system and it was called the United Nations (UN). Along with that, as the real winners of WWII, the US decided then to divide the world up into regional combatant commands.
This is the same model I believe the Antichrist will utilize when he steps into power. He will not have the time to rebuild everything from scratch so I believe he will take what was successful in nations and systems from around the world, and bring them together in either a revived Roman Empire via the European Union (EU), the Mediterranean Union (MU), or both. Through Europe, he will have the NATO infrastructure already in place for a military. I’ve previously written about renewed efforts by the EU to beef up their military defenses for land, air, and naval forces. If the US were on the verge of collapsing economically, it would not take a rocket surgeon to see that we could stay afloat temporarily by selling off our massive armament stockpiles to friendly nations…i.e.…the EU.
In the US alone, vast resources are currently being laid up in underground bunker complexes that span for miles and miles under the Ozarks, Appalachians, and Rocky Mountains. Initiatives like the Treaty of the Sea and Agenda 21 are being pushed relentlessly so that our Constitution can be marginalized and bypassed (and ultimately set aside altogether) in order to pursue a true global alliance. Those that have the money and the means are hedging their bets against our current financial fiat system by storing up food, water, technology, precious metals and minerals for when our system does collapse. European leaders also have their hidey-holes as do the Chinese, Saudis, and other power-brokers across the globe. The storm they see and are preparing for is the collapse of the US dollar. The storm they don’t see coming is that God will break back into humanity to retrieve His bride the Church.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thess 4:16-5:3
At the present, skeptics mockingly laugh off the idea of an Antichrist, revived “Roman Empire”, one-world government, etc as tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. Given the current circumstances, they would be correct. Most nations of the world including the US are not prepared to fall under the leadership of just one man or one system.
But one need only step back and look at the direction and speed in which we have move towards, in achieving a global government within just the last 100 years. Men of state like Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Rockefeller, Paul Volcker and many others, along with organizations like the Council of Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers, make no secret that their ultimate goal is a one-world system. These globalists think they are doing God’s good work by creating one system. They think that in having just one system, we could end war, famines, economic disparity, etc. Real power is rapidly being consolidated from the national level to the supra-national level through economic means (corporate conglomerates) and political organizations like the United Nations (UN). Real power is going from the many to the few. These power brokers are able to see what the masses do not, in that a storm is on the horizon primarily because they are the ones creating the storm.
But for the skeptics and scoffers out there, let’s ask the question for arguments sake.
Question: What could cause the whole world to subjugate their national/ political/ financial autonomies to that of a global one?
Answer: The Perfect Crisis
Other than a massive extra-terrestrial encounter or a giant asteroid hitting the earth, (neither of which is mentioned in the Bible as leading up to the Day of the Lord) the only other ‘perfect crisis’ that would affect the whole earth is the Rapture. When it does happen, Jesus stated that the world would be as it was in the days of Noah and Lot when sudden calamity strikes them. After the Church is removed at the Rapture, and the Holy Spirit’s ministry of restraint is removed from the earth, a rider on the white horse will arrive (2 Thess 2:6-9). I believe he is already serving in some manner that would make him an expert in a certain arena (scientist, military leader, or politician for a specific nation) that receives the limelight just after the Rapture. When the right time occurs, circumstances will be as such to catapult this man to the forefront…much like President Obama’s rise from obscurity to President was almost overnight to become the most powerful leader on the planet.
And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
The Rapture will shake the world in such a way that there will be NO denying that something supernatural has just occurred. But maybe what the “strong delusion” really is…is a denial that something supernatural just happened. In today’s society, people have been conditioned for over a 100 years to believe that God doesn’t exist, that we evolved from monkeys, and that our whole existence is chalked up to a random explosion billions of years ago at the Big Bang. People have been lied too, cheated, and defrauded so many times over, that we increasingly “wax cold” and have become skeptical about everything.
Even within the “Christian” community today, churches are quickly departing from a literal understanding of creation and Old Testament events that the Bible state actually happened…to explanations that are more in line with today’s politically correct mindset. Have you watched the History Channel’s “The Bible” series? The Rapture is a punch line in jokes from Glenn Beck to Bill Maher. No one of any real political or societal influence takes the Rapture seriously.
Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4
We’ve witnessed enough catastrophes in our own day to know the exact order of how things will transpire afterwards: Shock then fear, then disbelief, followed by media spin, and then ultimately acceptance of whatever the state-controlled message is propagated. First people will ask if the Rapture happened, which will cause great fear that the Bible really was true. Then thanks to the relentless, godless media propaganda machine, denial will be reinforced with the plethora of stories ranging from aliens to Maitreya. So much confusion and competing stories will flood the market place of ideas, that people will just relent and accept whatever is fed to them.
Satan is currently held at bay so as long as The Church remains on this earth. And it’s not that we as Christians are so righteous and perfect that we are able to do this, but because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit man is able to influence our surroundings. Remove Christians, and nations quickly start to fall apart. Don’t believe me? Compare today’s America with that of our nation 50 years ago.
To be continued…