Info Wars & the Rapture
But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Daniel 12:4
Over the past 3,000 years, we have seen how new technologies (i.e., Revolutions in Military Affairs, or RMAs) could not only change the course of a battle, but also the destiny of an empire. The sling shot, the armored chariot, the phalanx, the bow and arrow, catapults, gunpowder, manned flight, and the atom bomb are just a few of these RMAs which have repeatedly shaped the course of history. The 21st-century is also promising to add to the already long list of deadly achievements man has arrived at, with artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology, unmanned air/ground/sea systems, biometric technologies, sonic/acoustic weapons, energy-directed weapons, and so forth.
While the nature of war (why we fight) rarely changes, the character (how we fight) is always marching toward greater methods of devastation and destruction. That got me thinking about the final battle we see in Scripture at our Lord’s return…the battle of Armageddon. So is the rapid modernization we see today, simply a byproduct of Moore’s Law (the doubling of technology), or is there a more nefarious reason why things in research and defense industry (and technology in general) have gotten so weird?
Which brings us to the speed at which knowledge is accumulating. For most of human history, technological achievements moved slowly. However, starting in the late 19th-century, things began to change very rapidly. Granted, this largely depended on the specific fields of study per se, as the old saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats. According to the website industrytap.com, the author notes the following,
Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours. (Link)
Beginning with the first industrial revolution (circa 1780s), mankind began to harness power through steam and water. The second industrial revolution (circa 1870s), introduced the assembly line, mass production, and the harnessing of electricity. It was here also that we see the birth of the automobile and manned flight. The third industrial revolution (circa 1970s), allowed for electronics, computers, and automation to process increasingly larger amounts of information in shorter periods of time. The fourth industrial revolution (circa present day) saw the introduction of cyber physical systems, the internet of things, quantum technology, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, digital networks, etc.
This last revolution vastly multiplied man’s ability to harness enormous amounts of information in a fraction of time and space. If usable and qualified information equals intelligence, then intelligence drives operations and operations drives logistics. What this means is that the more we find out, the more we act in accordance with that knowledge. That knowledge equals action, which equals our need to resource said action. This means that the speed at which we receive and process information is intricately linked to our economic situation.
The production for war materials (guns, bullets, bombs, tanks, etc.) had been kicked into overdrive at the outset of the second industrial revolution, which heralded a pre-World War I European arms race. Once mankind learned how to mass-produce war materials (via assembly line), nations quickly raced to amass large amounts of weapons and ammunition. This has been the mainstay for the past 120 years or more. As new technologies emerged (submarines, planes, atom bombs, etc.), nations quickly raced to out produce each other in order to maintain some type of militaristic edge. But as fate would have it, the knowledge used to produce this powerful technology quickly proliferated to less ethically constrained nations. Furthermore, the more advanced the weapons, the more advanced our technology became we used to either control or offset our enemies weapons. However, arms races cost money, and for the last seventy-years, the United States was able to out-produce friend and foe alike.
The problem we are running into with our current world order is that our geopolitical and economic systems are still largely tied to a 20th-century model, and this is not conducive to the scenario the Bible lays out. This means that the United States role at the top of the geopolitical pyramid is problematic to both Satan’s agenda and to what the Bible says will come to pass. [Perhaps explains the supernatural hatred towards Trump and his MAGA campaign] Something has to give in order for the current world order to be reimaged into the coming new world order called The Beast.
Assessment
Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Revelation 13:1
The Bible states that a final kingdom is coming, and it is not the United States. Or at the very least, it is not the US in its current configuration. This beast begins after some crisis removes the US as the current world leader. It then forms a global government that controls all the economies of the world first, and then the politics second, and lastly the world’s militaries. The mother of all Hegelian-dialectic scenarios.
The Apostle John in his first epistle, notes that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ, is antichrist (1 John 1:22). He goes on to note that many even in his day, many were antichrist. However, he also notes that there is a particular man, who is the Antichrist (1 John 2:18). We do not know who this man is, but we can be reasonably assured, that he is alive today somewhere in the world. He seemingly comes out of one of the provinces that Alexander the Great had given over to his generals upon his death (Daniel 8:8-14). Could this be where the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) finally comes into play?
When this crisis happens, he (the Antichrist) takes advantage of the situation and begins to take charge. He seemingly has all the answers to the problems, and more importantly, he has the full backing of Satan (Luke 4:6, 2 Thess. 2:9). His solution will be to get the world (broken into ten regions after the Rapture) to give him all their authority and create a singular system to govern all life on planet earth.
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Revelation 6:1-2
Moreover, because we are in the digital age, and our economies are already largely tied together through cyber networks, an economic coup d’état is easier today, than it ever has been. Because so much has already been prepared and readied for a one-currency system all based upon the US dollar today, all it will take is a little nudge to get the nations lined up. If the US Dollar crashes, it will drag every other currency down with it. Out of the ashes, a financial phoenix will arise, probably some form of quantum-based, crypto-currency. This currency then will be directly linked with party affiliation and biometrics.
This is very much the same as how for example, the 2001 Patriot Act came to be. The Patriot Act (or the core of it) was written both before (1995 Omnibus Counterterrorism Act) and after the Oklahoma City bombing (1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act). Once 9/11 happened, there was enough political consensus and raw emotion to simply add in the additional intelligence sharing and collecting measures to make it broad sweeping in scope. This has since been renewed in four-year intervals often adding to the original provision. What could not be done by the government (Constitutional constraints aside) was simply handed to private businesses such as cell phone companies, social media, or internet companies to hold on behalf of the government for later collection.
All that to say this…when this final government comes into being, it may not be this grand sweeping entrance on to the global stage as many are led to believe. This world government is already here, and has been coming in stages for quite some time. What the Rapture does in terms of geopolitical effects, is gives mankind that final nudge to abandon nationalism forever. The creeping Orwellian antiterrorism measures we have seen expanded over the last few decades could not have passed, were it not for the devastating terrorist attacks of Oklahoma and 9/11. Again, crisis proves the perfect catalyst for rapid change. So where are we today in terms of seeing this final government coming into being?
- The world’s economies must be fragile and easily unbalanced due to emerging technologies and massive debt. Check
- The world’s economies must be interwoven to the point that should one fall (i.e., the United States), the rest would also collapse. Check.
- There needs to exist some structure/system (the Internet) that all the countries could be controlled through. Check
- There needs to be some sort of crisis that both frightens and unites the world leadership into ceding their autonomy into a collective economic/political system. Pending
However, creating an all-powerful and overarching global government would still be a daunting, nigh impossible task, were it not for our technological advancements. The world would need an Internet system and computers powerful enough to blanket the entire earth. Although we do not see it today, the process for free global internet has already begun, albeit, it also is being done in stages. The justification seems altruistic enough (providing free internet access to those around the world who either don’t have it, or can’t afford it). But like everything else, what begins as something for mankind, will quickly become something that is used against mankind.
Furthermore, with quantum computing and cloud technology coming into the fray more and more each day, this final government system will not only have the global reach, but the power to process massive amounts of information effortlessly and limitlessly. This will not only be used for tying all of the world’s economies together, but will also be used for global surveillance, biometrics, military and political messages and campaigns, artificial intelligence, and information warfare, simultaneously. The race is on amongst tech companies (IBM, Google, D-Wave, and Rigetti) to see who will gain quantum supremacy first. But not just amongst private industries, but nations:
The European Commission is preparing the ground for the launch in 2018 of a €1 billion flagship initiative on quantum technologies, which can put Europe at the forefront of the second quantum revolution, bringing transformative advances to science, industry and society. The flagship initiative is expected to turn Europe’s excellent research results in areas like quantum secure communication, quantum sensing and quantum simulation and computing into concrete technological opportunities that can be taken up by industry. (Source)
In terms of national unity, the EU leads the world in their efforts to achieve quantum supremacy and even have a quantum manifesto. However, it is not just the 1B euros they are dropping on this quantum bet, but also the 80B euros have invested in technological growth and research in their project Horizon 2020. They are determined to lead, and I believe that what John sees in Revelation 13’s imagery, is this manifestation of a revived Roman Empire coming on the heels of a major crisis such as the Rapture, aided by this new quantum technology breakthrough. When this breakthrough happens, it will absolutely revolutionize how people live on earth. In fact, it will be so groundbreaking in terms of its power and scope, the world will say…who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? (Rev. 13:4)
Nevertheless, all in its appointed time.
What John also sees, is global government being displayed as having seven heads and ten crowns. It will be arrayed with subordinate commands that function at the regional levels. Below them will be the nation-states, who all of which, are subordinate to the Beast. However, at a certain point in time, all of that government’s power and authority will be concentrated into the hands of just one man, the Antichrist, largely aided by another man, the False Prophet.
So how do we get from where we are today, to where the Bible says we will be in such a short period of time?
The answer?
In stages.
The final nudge into this system will come after the crisis of the Rapture.
If necessity is the mother of all inventions, then necessity rooted in the mother of all crisis‘s, invents this final governmental system.
However, change like that is exceedingly painful (i.e., replacing dying empires), and nations at the top will not go quietly into the night. This means two things are certain on our horizon, the Rapture of the Church, and total war.
The Rapture of the Church (the Blessed Hope) will decimate the United States, and to lesser degrees, the rest of the world. When Christ removes His Church from the earth, it will force a change to the current world order. Since we can know without any hesitation that the Bible teaches a pre-Tribulation Rapture, this means that that change to the world order will happen immediately after. This also means that total war is on the horizon, because nations less effected will jockey to fill the vacuum left by the world’s undisputed superpower. The EU will win that race to fill the vacuum, by way of the heavy investments in technology today. That fits exactly what the Bible says will happen here in the not-too-distant future.