These Prophetic Times – Article 1 – (11-06-2022)

Because of the period we are living in, there is a heightened interest in the end times among many Christians. Although we should not major on this, it is still something to keep in mind as we deal with life from here on out. There are some Scriptures which give us insight into what would be happening in the days that we are now going through, and of course what has been Biblically foretold has either happened, is happening, or will happen. Here are just a few examples from the Word of God describing this present age and the lead-up to its end:

Matthew 24:3-14:  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5:  But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4:  Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

For those of you who think the Rapture will be during or after the Tribulation, please note that Matthew 24:15-31 covers the time period from the Rapture to the return of Jesus Christ with us His saints after the Tribulation ends (Matthew 24:31); in other words, the seven-year Tribulation period. The Lord says that the end (of the age) will come in Matthew 24:14. We can infer from the words of Jesus that the time leading up to the Rapture will grow more and more evil in general and more and more hostile to Christians in particular. This we see happening all over the earth. Building upon this theme as we set the Scriptural foundation for this article, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 points out the characteristics of people who live in these last days. There is a particular word I want to call your attention to in that passage.

The pastor and New Testament Greek Scholar Rick Renner in his book, Last Days Survival Guide, points out the fact that in the Greek the word for “last” in describing the last days is eschatos (ESS-khat-oss). It is where we derive the word eschatology from, the study of last things. Eschatos means the farthest or final point in place or time. In fact, in the ancient Mediterranean world it was a nautical term describing the end point of a sea journey, the final port to which a ship on a voyage would sail. This means that what the term “last days” in 2 Timothy 3 means is the very last of the last days, the final days of the age. [1] We can see easily the rampant evil in people as described in that passage, so we know that we have, in fact, arrived in these final days. We are living on the edge of the Church Age!

The 2 Thessalonians Scripture above describes a huge falling away from the faith before the “man of sin, son of perdition” is revealed. What do we see happening in the Church? We have several branches of Christianity and thousands of denominations plus a number of nondenominational churches. Among this plethora of sectarianism are increasing varieties and volumes of false teachings, right up to the embracing of homosexuality and abortion. More and more Christians are believing that Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, the Bible is not completely trustworthy, and that there is no literal hell. Progressive Christianity incorporates such Marxist ideologies as Critical Race Theory. There seems to be a degree of weaponization of relationships between men and women just as there is out in the world. Bad Bible translations abound. Watered-down preaching is all over the place. In the wake of covid, a lot of believers no longer attend church, and some have left the faith altogether. On and on it goes. It seems that the great falling away has begun. And who is this “man of sin”? The Antichrist. In Revelation 13 you will find described the Antichrist (the first beast) as well as his kingdom, and that he is empowered by the dragon (Satan). The second beast, out of the earth, is the false prophet, and he will do the bidding of Satan and the Antichrist. It appears that while the Antichrist will have a particular kingdom as his base, his influence will be spread far and wide even to the point of forcing people to take his mark or be executed (Revelation 13:15, 20:4). Judging from the 2 Thessalonians passage, this man will be revealed perhaps even before the Rapture, and it is this pre-Rapture timeframe we are interested in because, as you can see, we are living in it.

For the Antichrist to have global reach, there will of necessity be infrastructure to act as a vehicle for the spread and power of his dominion. This implies a world government. Technology is a necessity also for this world government to be operated. The fact that no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast implies two things: A particular emblem of his empire or his religion and, perhaps, a global currency. Realistically, the global currency would have to come first, pointing to an emblem as the beast’s mark. Currently there are almost 200 countries in the world. Each one has its own history, traditions, et cetera. There are blocs of nations such as the European Union, for example, but this is a far cry from a global government. In order for all these sovereign states to come together under one governing body there would have to be something to pull them together, something dramatic such as a series of worldwide crises. The seeds of this setup have already been planted, and the first of these wicked entities have begun to sprout up from the soil of longtime national sovereignty.

Because the subject of current prophetic happenings is so broad, it will take a series of articles to cover the details. What I am presenting now is a list of things that comprise the “seeds” I referred to above. In future articles I will break these down in relation to the setup for the future as well as discuss any updates, and the list below is subject to change as things become more clear and as more events happen. Here is the list of current happenings which have import on what is to come:

1. The rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence), including robots and computing systems. This includes the new and extremely powerful quantum computer technology. Such advances can have a number of conceivable impacts, such as taking the jobs of large numbers of people and inspiring new religions as well as infiltrating old ones. The First Church of Artificial Intelligence is an example of such a new religion, and robots such as SanTO and Bless U-2 have been used by some Christians. In October 2017, the extremely advanced robot Sophia became the first such device in the world to be granted citizenship in a country, in this case Saudi Arabia. Robots and other technological “workers” do not need time off, vacations, pay, et cetera.
2. Facial recognition technology has become very powerful, its greatest current application being seen in Communist China. However, such technology exists all over the world and is a formidable surveillance tool in the hands of any government, especially in a technological totalitarian regime.
3. The spread of the climate change and green energy agendas, being embraced even by Israel, the Vatican, and perhaps some in Saudi Arabia, ironically the world’s largest producer of oil. I personally believe that the climate is changing, but is doing so naturally. After all, climate is cyclic. A climate change “crisis” is being used as a driver to bring the world together, likely towards a global government. Early tests of green energy such as those in Europe are already having decidedly negative impacts, such as in Denmark where farmers are struggling due to the government’s crackdown on nitrogen emissions from fertilizer. Also, because livestock are considered a huge producer of the greenhouse gas methane (think belching and flatus), there is a push from such bodies as the World Economic Forum to produce synthetic meat and to eat bugs. As a matter of fact, in the Netherlands, school children are being fed mealworms and insects. [2] In Europe there is a serious gas shortage. While this seems to be caused by Russia’s war with Ukraine, it also exposes the limitations of green energy.

I may yet be proven wrong, but in my opinion, the green energy agenda is just one elaborate ruse. While private fossil fuel companies are being curtailed or put out of business, a possible power grab is going on. Those who are behind the globalist push are too intelligent not to know that green energy is impractical as a substitute for fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Countries such as China continue to use such regular energy sources. Also, despite the Saudis’ seeming friendliness toward green energy, can anyone seriously believe they would let go of or greatly cut back their extremely profitable oil industry? A future global government may well hold the reins of the fossil fuel and nuclear energy industries, perhaps placing the oversight of them into a select handful of countries or else dealing with it all themselves.

4. The Roman Catholic Church’s friendliness toward Islam. While they may not believe that Islam is a substitute for Christianity, the fact that they even think the Muslims “profess to hold the faith of Abraham” (Catechism 841) is disturbing. The militant, martial characteristics of Islam make it as much of a political system as it is a religion, and if there is any faith where the fundamentalist adherents crave global domination, it is Islam. It is extremely likely that Islam will be the key player in the Tribulation with the mark of the beast being the Islamic creed: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” In Arabic this creed is the Shahada, and the calligraphic Arabic writing of it looks eerily similar to the NT Greek letters used to denote “666” in Revelation: chi, rho, and an old Greek letter called stigma. If you ever study Islamic eschatology, you will find that their end times leader, the Mahdi, shares a great number of characteristics with the Bible’s Antichrist.
5. Numerous Islamic nations showing friendliness to Israel. This is already happening. Despite these friendly overtures, there is a well-known hadith (collected traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, based on his sayings and actions [3]) which, against the backdrop of the Islamic teaching that Jesus is a Muslim, states that their “Jesus” will “break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax.” [4] The Jizya tax is levied upon Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims in Muslim countries. The “break the cross” reference here is to the Muslim Jesus ending Christianity, and the “pigs” here are interpreted as being the Jews. “Kill the pigs” is not very friendly, is it?
6. The World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and various other entities engaging in the Great Reset, working towards a New World Order. The UN has been in existence since 1945, in the wake of World War II, and nearly every nation on earth is a member of this global governance and peacekeeping body. Its Sustainable Development Goals drip with globalism (see Here). Even a brief perusal of the WEF website will show the obvious global orientation of this entity, created in 1971 by Klaus Schwab and headquartered in Switzerland.
7. The reduction of America’s greatness in order to bring her into line with the Great Reset and the New World Order. Between such big players as George Soros, Bill Gates, and the WEF and such complicit people as the progressive, Socialism-oriented members of the American government, this is in progress and will take a major effort to stop.
8. China’s ongoing rise as the ultimate surveillance state. Whether this nation ever becomes a world superpower is thought to be questionable by some. The heavy-handedness of the Communist government is undercutting China’s success and driving away some of its citizens. However, the possibility cannot be dismissed. Whether or not China achieves superpower status, the resulting products developed with its supreme technological prowess could be made to serve the globalists and not just China proper.
9. As referenced above, the UN’s drive to implement its Sustainable Development Goals, a key part of its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This was rolled out in 2015. We’re about halfway to 2030 now, so the time is advancing.
10. The goals of everyone having identification as well as the push for a global currency. The UN desires this worldwide ID, and there have been proponents for sometime now for a global currency. These days the concept of cryptocurrencies is a big deal. If currency were to become digital and especially if there was only one, controlled by a global government, the amount of control such a government could exercise over people is frightening. Already there are nations such as China which have social credit scores. Missteps online—speaking in any way that the Communist government does not approve of—can have many consequences, including the inability to access one’s money. When we see firings, the operation of cancel culture, and other such things here in the United States, we are seeing a prototype if not a staging run of a type of social credit score, and there is a movement afoot to make America a cashless society. The implications are ominous, especially when envisioned on a global scale. One interesting video on the subject as it pertains to America can be found on YouTube by Perry Stone, Is This Being Done on Purpose?  Also of interest in America’s desire to move to a digital-type currency is the September 18, 2022, Gateway Pundit article, Biden Regime Moves Forward with US Central Bank Digital Currency So They Can Ban, Censor and Shut Down Accounts of Boisterous Conservatives and Starve Them Out – (here). In addition, see Here for the World Economic Forum’s vision of digital currency on a global scale.
11. The Temple Institute’s moves toward building the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Preparations are being made for this. There is also the existence of the new Jewish Sanhedrin. In ancient Israel the Sanhedrin was the governing counsel of the Jews, having its origin in the days of Moses (Exodus 18:13-26). It was the final authority in matters of Jewish law. There were 71 people on this council. As for the new Sanhedrin, there are those who envision it as a key player in bringing about unity in the world. For more details, please view the 20-minute Koinonia House video on YouTube titled, The New Sanhedrin: The Catalyst for Global Unity? by Ron Matsen – (Here).
12. The rise of occultic activities everywhere. These include the use of symbols from old pagan religions such as the Baal Arch replica, for example, which was paraded through various places such as New York City and Washington, D.C. in recent years. Activities such as those held at the Birmingham, England 2022 Commonwealth Opening Ceremony and at the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland in 2016 were filled with occult elements – (see Here & Here). The New Age Movement has been big, and is even wending its way into some churches. For instance, attempts have been made to Christianize yoga, a practice so inextricably rooted in Hinduism that it is unredeemable. Satanism, witchcraft, Wicca, the use of Ouija boards, horoscopes, the use of psychics, and many other such practices, items, and people are increasing in popularity in many places.
13. Emphasis on UFO activity and the possibility of aliens. In a nutshell: Jesus Christ came in the form of a man to redeem humans—like to like sacrifice. A loving God cannot ignore beings bound in sin. His love has to provide a way out. However, what the Lord did was a once-for-all sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 7:26-27). He is not going to be visiting planets all over the galaxy and the universe appearing in the form of various alien races to be crucified or otherwise sacrificed over and over again because there are no lost, hellbound alien races to compel Him to do so, therefore the so-called “aliens” people have seen are actually demons in disguise. We know from the Bible that angels can take the form of people (Genesis 18:1-8; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Fallen angels as well as demons, the evil spirits of angel-human hybrids, also have the ability to take other forms. Ex-occultists, for instance, will tell you that the deceased loved ones and pets people conjure up during seances are actually demons masquerading as those conjured. They can take the form of alien beings, too, from virtually human in appearance to completely bizarre insectoid and reptilian forms, as ex-New Agers can attest. The strange maneuvers that UFO craft can do are not physically possible in our universe of three dimensions plus time. Only a multidimensional vessel can do what they do, and spirit beings are multidimensional, so they created these strange ships as well. It is highly likely that these “UFOs” and “aliens” have a role to play in these end times. What that role is remains to be seen.
14. A desire by the powers that be for population control. This does not only mean the use of contraceptives. It does not even mean only abortion. Not content to stop at killing the unborn, there are those who would also like to see others die—the elderly, the deformed, the mentally handicapped, the sick, or people who do not conform to the globalists’ agenda. Think about this: The U. S. Food and Drug Administration and other government organizations are supposed to protect consumers. How is it, then, that so many foods filled with sugar, sodium, and various preservatives are approved by them for consumption, even for the very young, such as cereal for children, knowing that these things are bad for your health? Then comes Big Pharma, making petroleum-company-sized profits on the medicines they dispense to the sick, including those whose illnesses are in various degrees attributable to the consumption of these same approved foods filled with all sorts of unhealthy stuff. And what is with the CDC, Big Tech, and the government itself pushing covid vaccines so hard and hiding the real statistics on the number of people sickened or killed by covid vaccines’ side effects? What about the fact that COVID-19 was produced in a lab and in all likelihood intentionally released, with the lack of accountability for the perpetrators? You will not hear much, if anything, about all this on the front end of the green energy/climate change agenda for obvious reasons, but you can bet it is real, that there are those in power who want to kill off many multiplied millions of people “for the greater good.” With the technology that now exists and the wickedness of people in these last days, this idea is not the farfetched ravings of a fevered conspiracy theorist, but instead is part of the plan by the elite.
15. The cooperation of such groups as the Freemasons, the Bilderbergs, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, and others, in addition to the compromised government officials all over the world, not just in America, to bring about the New World Order. Big Tech and Big Business are in on it, too, and the mainstream media is complicit in covering for the globalists while demonizing Christians, other conservatives, “climate deniers,” and anybody else who stands in the way of their agenda.

As despicable as the NWO is, it has to come to pass. There must be a means for the Antichrist to have the great level of domination he will exercise as described in the Bible, and this is a way for it to happen. The technology is there to forge a truly global community and government. It can be said that the United Nations and its many branches are a prototype for this worldwide government. More must be put into the infrastructure of this developing apparatus in order for it to be fully functional. Perhaps the elements of such a ghastly empire, such as drones, surveillance cameras, military and police might to put teeth to this monstrosity, the mainstream media propaganda program, the politicization and weaponization of medicine, the exercise of cancel culture, and other things we see going on in the world today are collectively serving as a shakedown to work the bugs out of the system before it is all hammered together. And of course, the use of a religion would help the cause of globalization. There have been proposals for a global religion, perhaps combining the characteristics of the world’s major religious systems, but this is not the most likely outcome. Keep an eye on the Islamic nations and the Roman Catholic Church in particular regarding this component of the last days.

Yes, we are living in the time of the end, on the edge of the Church Age. As the sun sets on this phase of human history we must, as Christians, be more committed than ever to our faith, reading the Bible and praying daily, staying in intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ. We should also pray for, edify, and encourage one another. It is of course vital that we reach out to the lost, for they will be left behind in the crucible of anguish that the world will become during the seven-year Tribulation. Even before the Rapture and the subsequent Tribulation things are going to get worse on this earth. Be ready. If you are a superficial Christian then what is coming will sweep you away. Rooted and grounded in the faith, you will endure to the end.

[1]  Rick Renner, Last Days Survival Guide, Copyright 2020 by Rick Renner. Published by Harrison House. Chapter 1, pages 7-10.

[2]  The Gateway Pundit, It Begins…Schools in the Netherlands Serve Mealworms and Insects to Children to Save Planet from Global Warming, October 15, 2022. Retrieved 10/15/2022.

[3]  Wikipedia article, “Hadith.” Retrieved 10/17/2022.

[4]  Wikipedia article, “Islamic eschatology.” Retrieved 10/17/2022.*

*Also see https://sunnah.com>bukhari:2476, “Sahih al-Bukhari 2476 – Oppressions.”