bible_study/Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 2/S2E9: Technology of the Tribulation.md

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Todd: Hey, Todd here. And you’re listening to the Prophecy Pros podcast on the Edifi Podcast Network. Today, we’re going to talk about a really interesting and relevant topic. It’s about technology in the end times and what we’re seeing develop before us today.

Jeff: Okay Todd, so a lot of things are happening out there in the world right now, a lot of technology, a lot of innovation going on, even a lot of inventions. We think that the last century was the century for inventions, but more things are happening all the time and they relate to Bible prophecy and really what’s going to happen in the end-times as revelation begins to unfold. So we’ll tackle some of those things today because you and I both, we get a lot of questions about people asking us about the mark of the beast and about artificial intelligence and all these things, and how do they currently affect our lives and how might they affect the lives of those who are living in that actual last generation during the tribulation. And so it causes people to kind of want to back off right now from sometimes technology, it’s kind of like when our grandparents saw the car, something, or great-grandparents saw the car being invented and there’s like, we got to keep horses, we can’t do the car, that kind of thing. So I want to strike a balance there and have an intelligent response to that.

Todd: Yeah, that’s great. I remember reading an old newspaper article when the steam engine train was being developed and people were freaking out, talking about the breakneck speed of 30 miles an hour, and they were worried about your skin falling off and I’m exaggerating, but the article was something along those lines that it really freaked people out. And we see some really interesting things developing in our day. Some potentially scary things, but that’s why it’s important to study Bible prophecy and see what scripture says, because number one, we can know from the timing of certain events, whether we have to even be concerned about something or not. And also even though that the Bible doesn’t mention, hey, look for this specific technology as the tribulation nears, we can just use logic and study scripture and say, wow, these are some components that are lining up that could be whether it’s the mark of the beast or the weapons that are used in the tribulation period or that kind of thing.

So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re going to talk about some specific technologies and we’re not technology gurus beyond doing what we have to do for our careers. At least I’m not, but we studied enough of it in the books we’ve written and in the talks we’ve given that we’ve had to look at some current events and current technologies and answer people’s questions about how it lines up with Bible prophecy and that sort of thing.

Jeff: Yeah. So as we look at Revelation and obviously when people read Revelation, they try to imagine how could this happen. How could these things take place? Well, let’s just begin in Revelation six, with the first seal judgment. The Bible says that a fourth of the earth, as a result of the wars that are going to take place with famine, with pestilence and disease, and that type of thing are going to be wiped off the planet of the earth. And if that happened today, tie that will be close to 2 billion people being killed. So what’s going on technologically from a warfare standpoint that could potentially relate to that? What are we seeing here?

Todd: Well, obviously, there’s been an explosion of technology just the past 100 years with travel and everything else, and also nuclear weaponry. And even recently, you and I were just talking about an article that we saw about Elon Musk and Space X, him helping the military of America develop a new weapon that carries an immense payload and can deliver it within an hour. And I’m sure that’s in response to Russia and China working on the same kind of thing. So it’s almost like the nuclear buildup that the world saw in the fifties, that’s really on steroids right now with hypersonic weapons and that kind of thing. All of which makes the things that we read in the Book of Revelation possible, which was not possible even a 100 or 200 years ago.

Jeff: That’s so true. You think about it, how things are going to, I mean, Jesus talked about these things, these events being like birth pangs and of course, contractions for a woman that they began, but they become greater in intensity and frequency as it leads up to the birth. And so, I mean, how could these wars happened so rapidly? Well, a possibility would be something like a super sonic weapon that could reach across the world. And of course, if we end up having a technology, they’re going to have it too eventually. So that’s kind of how these things happen. And that also kind of plays into, people have asked about the role of America in Bible prophecy, what happens to us afterwards. And I mean, there’s a lot of speculation and we don’t know exactly, but we’re not mentioned specifically in prophecy. And that could be as a result of not only the rapture, but of what happens to us militarily after that as well. So, there’s military options that are out there on the table right now. It’s not something you wake up in the morning and think about, when you think about the tribulation or whatever. But what are some other things that are out there right now that are happening?

Todd: You know, really interesting this year, and of course people have been paying hyper close attention to it is different technologies related around things that could become part of the mark of the beast. You know, when you read that in Revelation 13, the beast out of the sea, and it talks about the beast out of the earth, which, just to cut it short, that’s basically talking about the false prophet who helps institute this mark of the beast for the antichrist. And when we read that, when you carefully study it, there are a few things that have to be in place for that to occur. One is a cashless system, for sure. You would suspect some kind of massive database centers that can house all this. Some kind of means to track it all digitally and also something, some kind of mark technology, whether it’s, when you read that word, it’s kind of like the mark is on the skin so it seems like some kind of a tattoo kind of thing versus a chip under the skin.

But even right now, we’re seeing quantum dot tattoos that literally are tattoos, but also convey digital data. And what’s weird is, all the emerging technology you see, it’s eerily similar to the mark of the beast. It scans your forehead or your hand, even Amazon recently had a recent thing come out. You wrote about that in a book we have coming out, Jeff, about this hand scanner that they have. And so that’s a long-winded answer, but basically we’re seeing all kinds of technologies that could play into what the eventual mark of the beast is going to look like.

Jeff: Well, and then go back to the whole military motif. Speaking of missiles, I mean, they have, one of my sons was in charge of a missile program in the military at one point. And when you track missiles, you can know where they’re going based on their trajectory. So you can pretty much pinpoint their ending point based upon where they’re going right now. While we look at what’s happening with technology in this and we see that, as you said, a cashless society, that’s where the world is moving towards. And it begins with the whole idea that, well, first of all, it begins with convenience, obviously. I mean, you don’t want to dig around in your pocket for quarters when you can just do a credit card, but it goes beyond that. Now with COVID, COVID has accelerated that because now with the coronavirus, money is technically dirty, it can carry these diseases and it travels around.

That’s been the talk for many years about how dirty money is, but at the same time, because we’re introducing at the same time, new options, technologically, in terms of buying and selling, then it just rapidly accelerates that process. So, we went from money to credit cards to the chip in the card kind of thing and it’s really moving towards that way. I read a statistic about a month ago, where it says that nine out of 10 millennials use digital payment options for 90% of their transactions. So it’s like the generation coming up is not even, they’re not writing checks, they’re hardly ever carrying cash anymore. So cash is just something that’s just gradually going off. I think 40, 41 to 48% of all transactions in America right now are digital transactions. So we’re moving that way.

Now that in itself, Todd, is not an evil thing, it’s not something that’s necessarily satanic. However, it is something that easily syncs with, I think, what the antichrist is going to capitalize on. And of course you mentioned the smart tattoos and they’ve got living tattoos that they’re like genetically programmed living cells that respond to your skin, graph on tattoos that are these wearable tattoos, that monitor things like heart rate, body responses, some of these things can communicate to your phone as well. So if there was some sort of, like say nanotech tattoo that measure the activity of your muscles, your nerve cells, that could even be used as well to, depending on, are you a worshiper of the beast, are you a true follower and your heart rate going up while you’re saying this kind of thing, almost like a lie detector kind of thing, who knows?

It’s interesting. There are some researchers at Harvard and MIT who have an epidermal tattoo, basically it’s what it is, but it measures things like glucose levels and dehydration, stuff like that. And all this stuff, interesting how a lot of this technology, a lot of the stuff that comes in that threatens to control our lives, all begins in medicine. It begins with technology in the science, “scientific field” and it’s justified, used that way, but it’s interesting. They’re calling their project, the Dermal Abyss.

Todd: Wow.

Jeff: Just thought, Whoa, that is just, that’s too close for comfort, but as you mentioned, the Amazon biometric scanning thing, and they’re calling it Amazon One, they’re already getting ready to test it now up in Seattle. So all that to say, we don’t know what the mark of the beast is going to be, but it makes sense that would be something that would be easily applied and something that people could just for convenience sake, for protection in terms of people not stealing your bank card, that kind of thing.

So there’s many, many reasons why I think it will be something like that. But, I do believe, as you mentioned, Todd, it’s going to be on the hand, the Bible uses the Greek word epi, which means on, and the word charagma, mark, the word for mark there is a word that was used for the image on a coin or for sometimes just a regular tattoo. Sometimes soldiers would tattoo themselves with the insignia or the name of their commanding officer, someone they were in subjection to.

Todd: Wow.

Jeff: How interesting is that.

Todd: That fits.

Jeff: It totally fits. So we don’t know what it’s going to be, but certainly technology is pointing that way, is leaning that way. And however that ends up playing out, we do know it’s going to happen.

Todd: And along with that too, another technology that kind of integrates with the same thing is DNA manipulation. Like even now I was reading a couple of articles yesterday about some of the COVID vaccines that they’re trying to develop. In the past all vaccines have been, you take basically in layman’s terms, you take dead virus, put it in somebody or semi, weakened virus, put it in somebody and then their body builds up immunity to it. Well, now, from what I’m reading is for the first time, some of the potential vaccines are actually using the CRISPR technology where you literally can change a person’s DNA. And so that, to me, that’s a little telling as well, because, and this is somewhat speculation, but I think it lines up as well. We notice in Revelation, whoever gets the mark of the beast later on gets these sores all over their body, only those who got the mark of the beast.

Now, of course, that could just be God’s judgment. Hey, you took the mark, here’s your punishment, but it is possible that it’s also some kind of DNA malfunction. It could be perhaps with the mark of the beast, part of the selling point is, hey, this will make you stronger, better beyond your current humanity. That’s, we’re seeing a big push for that now, transhumanism and people integrating all kinds of technology and weird biometric stuff with their bodies. So if that trend continues, then there could, I believe also be some kind of a DNA component. And there’s a few other verses and aspects of scripture that kind of line up with that in the end-times as well.

Jeff: That’s one reason why a lot of Christians are very hesitant about any sort of vaccine that is going to be proposed. And that’s not necessarily means it’s going to be like a DNA altering thing, but it’s out there. Another thing that we should mention, because I’ve been approached about this too, because I actually saw this on a program, a “Christian” program, that people are speculating that the antichrist will obtain Satan’s actual DNA and he’ll use that to replicate that DNA and to make it a mandatory vaccine so that when you get the mark of the beast, it’s going to be this vaccine that you’re getting actually Satan’s DNA. Now how in the world you would get an angelic being’s DNA when he’s a spiritual creature, I don’t know how that works, but it’s just kind of wild speculations like that we need to reject, but not be naive about the other as well.

Todd: Yeah, and that’s a caution, Jeff and I always want to share is, and we try to point out when we are speculating a little bit or looking at trends, beyond everything else we say, please make sure what you believe lines up with scripture and is tested by scripture.

Jeff: Absolutely.

Todd: Even the timing, one encouraging thing of, and this comes into studying the timing of the rapture and that kind of thing. One of my daughter’s friends, when COVID first hit, was reading all these real speculative articles about, oh, we’re about to take the Mark of the beast and all this stuff. And she was really, really scared. So my daughter came to me kind of nervous was like, “Is this something we should worry about?” I could see the concern in her eyes. And I was like, “No.” We know that from scripture that doesn’t happen to the midpoint. We’ll be long gone by then. So whatever we’re seeing now, we don’t have to fear. Should we be informed? Yes. Should we learn as much as we can about a vaccine before we take it? Sure.

So there’s considerations there, but all that just to say, yeah, please, anytime you come across something that’s super extreme or super speculative and states it as a fact, automatically that should put up some red flags where, all right, let me go see what the Bible actually says about that. If it does not square with scripture, throw it out.

Jeff: Yep. Absolutely.

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Jeff: I was thinking earlier, just in this whole discussion taught about how the Bible says that Jesus says that Satan is the rule of the world. Paul said, he’s the God of this world. And scripture paints him as the Prince of the power of the air. So, I mean, even when Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world, Jesus didn’t say you can’t do that, you don’t own them. No, he rejected the offer, but he recognized Satan’s legitimate ownership because he is the God of the world. All that to say is that Satan is going to manipulate everything regarding technology and advancements in weaponry, everything that he can do to bring to bear his agenda for planet earth as well. And I think that it’s important for us to not be afraid of technology, but like you said, be discerning and be informed.

Yes, we drive on the roads. That’s advancements, transportation technology. We use modern devices, our phones and things like that. And I think Christians should take advantage of every single option that they have to use technology for the glory of God, for the enjoyment of themselves and family. There’s nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, just know that when we get to Revelation, then a lot of these technological advances I think are going to bear into play. At the same time, Todd, there’s going to be a renewal of an age of supernatural miracles and occurrences and in divine judgments of God. And I definitely don’t, and I know you don’t either, don’t want to try to explain away the things in Revelation by just saying they’re going to be technological things. There are divine supernatural things that cannot be explained by technology. But it brings me to a verse over in Matthew 24, that you, you quoted here earlier about what would happen if God just kind of like removed himself from the Book of Revelation and just let humanity go at it. What would happen then?

Todd: Yeah, I mean it literally Matthew 24:22 says, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.” So yeah, God puts a limit on the timeframe, otherwise there’d be nobody left to save. We would literally, in that future seven year tribulation period, we would literally destroy all of humanity. And that’s an important verse to point out because some people act as if you’re tough enough, you can get through the tribulation or the first three and a half years of the tribulation isn’t that bad. No, it is hell on earth. The worst thing you can imagine, we literally will be destroying ourselves. And like you said, supernatural judgements from God, all kinds of supernatural demonic activity happening with the locus from the abyss and the 200 million demonic horsemen. I mean, it’s going to be crazier than any Chronicles of Narnia or Avengers movie you’ve ever seen, but it’s going to be horrifically real.

Jeff: Absolutely. And because we’re in this age where there’s a quantum flow of technology and it’s just happening in milliseconds, I don’t understand how you can Zoom with someone in the Philippines or in China or whatever and it’s in real time, that blows my mind. But that also plays into Revelation as well, because as you think about how in the world, first of all, how is every eye going to see Jesus? Revelation 1:7. That could be purely supernatural, or it could be a combination of supernatural. And the fact that guess what, when something on the earth happens like this, it goes live to Twitter. And in a matter literally of minutes, every single person knows about it that has access to technology. But with this flow of information that we have right now, we think about how people know more, but they know less. We’ve got more access to information, but we’re not any really any smarter.

And so you would think that we would be, from a humanistic standpoint, the continuing to elevate humanity in terms of understanding, but a recent study among high school students, they ask what Sodom and Gomorrah was, they were, “Aren’t they’re husband and wife?” They’re husband and wife, well, you might be closer than you think on that one. But then they ask is Joan of Arc? And they said, “Wasn’t that Noah’s wife?”

Todd: Wow.

Jeff: And so, I mean, there’s a lot of information out there, but people aren’t necessarily availing themselves of it. And so in terms of speculation, even concerning the technology that what we’re talking about right now, we just want to encourage people to, first of all, exercise caution whenever you’re reading articles and clickbait things that relate to the end-times. Go back to the scripture and study people who have established platforms in the area of Bible prophecy. And just because it’s a popular book, just because it’s a popular speaker or podcaster doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going according to scripture. So we just want to be real careful about that. And we do too. Todd and I, we do a lot of research. We check ourselves, we sometimes check ourselves with other people say, Hey, what do you think about this and get feedback. So we want to make sure, even as we discuss this, that we’re staying on course, or we’re not getting out into the rough.

Todd: Yeah. So true. So true and just a wise way to do it. And honestly, the only reason we even highlight it is because of all the other sign trends that we see. Israel being a nation again. We wouldn’t even be talking about this, if there wasn’t other main, thoroughly biblical clear indicators that the Lord’s preparing the way for the end-times. And I’m going to point out there too, is another reason we ha we highlighted is, prophecy doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When you look at when Christ came the first time, it was in the fullness of time, and that had to do with everything. Everything was prepared just right. The Roman road system, the timing he came and the cultural conditions and all that. So God, doesn’t just typically he could, he’s God, he can do whatever he wants. But typically from how we’ve seen him work is, there’s two types of time, that Kronos time and that Kairos time, the appointed times and the chronological times. God uses the chronology of natural time and natural developments to intersect with his preordained plan.

So just to piggyback off what you were saying with Zoom and the whole world seeing Jesus come, we also read about something similar in Revelation 11, with the two witnesses when they’re killed. It says every eye will see them. How does that happen? Like you said, yeah, they could have some kind of worldwide vision where everybody sees it, but more than likely it has to do with the technology of the day. And we’re seeing some things, there’s an article I read today. It says Space X is manufacturing 120 Starlink internet satellites per month. And I think this year, they are launching 19 of them into space. So basically what they’re trying to do is make a global internet that is accessible literally everywhere on the globe.

So if you’re familiar with China’s credit system, how they it’s like big brother on steroids, you can’t do anything without them watching and knowing what you’re doing from throwing a cigarette butt on the ground to jaywalking, they know what you do. So you can only imagine if, envision a world where the rapture’s happened, war breaks out, it’s craziness, some strong man rises to power and controls everything to bring order out of chaos. Of course, he’s going to harness any technology he has at the time and extend it globally if he’s able. And that’s kind of what we see when we read scripture.

Jeff: Well, and if that’s true and if Satan through the antichrist ends up having some sort of control or management over the internet, meaning just the air basically in terms of broadcast. And I’ve never had this thought until just this moment. The antichrist is going to gather on the battlefield and gather the armies of the world. It says to make war against him who sits on the horse, against Jesus Christ. And really the diluting influence that is ultimately in Satan himself. He still thinks, even after he tries one more time in Revelation 12 to overcome heaven, he still thinks he can beat God. If that’s true and if the antichrist is somehow in charge of the internet and social media, all the other stuff, then he would want cameras to be there. He would want this to be broadcast to the world, to see the final defeat of that Galilean carpenter that thinks he can take me out. And so, Todd, that really could be a scenario that he is in charge of that and that he really wants the world to see it.

Todd: Yeah. That’s a great point, man. That’s pretty profound. Again, in his pride and his self-delusion, he thinks he’s literally going to be God and will convince millions of people and armies to think that they could do the same. So yeah, absolutely. Talk about delusion. Matter of fact, Jeff and I have a resource called the top 10 questions about the end-times that you guys can pick up and we answer some of those questions and it’s a really small booklet, inexpensive as well. You can buy them in bulk, give them away. It’s almost like a thick track, so to speak, that answers some of the key questions that people have about the end-times and our hope is that that little booklet gets in the hands of small group leaders, pastors, really anybody who, right now, more than any time I can think of, Jeff, people are asking them the big questions about, are we in the end-times? Are we heading for the end-times? What should I expect? What should I do practically right now? So this little booklet helps answer those questions.

Jeff: Todd, it really does. And I’ll just tell you, just from a practical standpoint, my 20 let’s see, how old is my son? He’s 27 years old. Him and his wife, they work with young life and so they are working with high school students and that type of thing. And he was up here this past weekend for a family event and I put two books in his hand. I said, you need this little booklet here called the Quick Reference Guide to the End Times to talk about some of the questions that your students, your high school boys, high school girls are going to ask you about what’s going on. And then I gave them another book called the Non-Prophet’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare. You definitely need to have this to take your kids through this, to help them with spiritual warfare by Todd Hampson.So anyway, these are just practical tools and that’s the great thing about it. I mean, the books that we’re writing contain a lot of theology and a lot of truth, hundreds and hundreds of scriptures to back up what we’re writing about, but in the end, it’s transferable. That’s the great thing about it, Todd, is these books are very transferable and you can put them in the hands of someone, even someone who may not be that familiar with Bible prophecy. And it’ll be a great way for them to dip their toe in the water.

Todd: Yeah. We’re really trying to put handles on this topic for the everyday Christian. We know there’s a lot of great books out there by fantastic people that are way smarter than I am, but we really want the average everyday person to be able to have confidence that what we’re giving them, what we’re talking about, what we’re writing about in books that they can take it to the bank and verify it in scripture, and also share it with other people because we do believe there’s kind of a grassroots effort right now, or grassroots movement, so to speak, where people are really asking these big questions about all the things that we’ve studied about for years.

Jeff: Well, Hey, I hope that’s been encouragement to you guys. Just kind of taking a thumbnail sketch of what’s going on technologically speaking, and how it relates to the end-times, and want to encourage you to go to ProphecyProspodcast.com, and you can check out other episodes that are there on your podcast app. Subscribe to this podcast that way you’ll get notifications about when a new podcast is released. And we’ve got some incredible guests that we’re interviewing during the season and we really want you guys to take advantage of that. Also, feel free to send your questions to us. Todd and I get emails all the time, every week, sometimes every day questions that people are sending us and we get to those as soon as we can. So be patient because we’re kind of working our way through list here, but we want to answer your questions.

We want to encourage you and point you to some great resources. And also, Todd, I just want to say this real quick that you and I are a part of sponsoring a prophecy conference that is going to be held in Branson, Missouri in April of 2021. And we are very, very excited about this thing. It’s going to be up there. Branson’s incredible place, but we’re calling it the Ozark Mountain Prophecy Summit. And it’s going to be April 15th through the 17th, through the 18th rather. And joining Todd, myself, we’re going to be Dr. David Reagan, Billy Crone and Gary Stearman. It’s just going to be an all-star cast. We’re going to hit some great topics and Branson is a fantastic place to bring your family. There’s incredible excursions we’re going to take. We’re going to go to the sight and sound theater and see the play Jesus, which is going to be amazing. So anyway, check that out. The Ozarkmountainprophecysummit.com. I think is the website there, but you can get more information about that there.

Todd: And just think about how everyone’s been cooped up. That’s going to be a perfect time for people to get out and finally go do something and it’s going to be an amazing event. It’s going to be a just incredible time where we’re speaking, but we’re also having a lot of one-on-one time with people and hanging out with people. So it’s really going to be a special time. So we encourage everybody to check that out. We’d love to see you there. It’d be fantastic.Jeff: Well, once again, thanks a lot from myself and from Todd. Prophecy Pros podcast here at bringing this to you each week, because we want to give you confidence and courage and hope in this perilous world that we’re living in right now. So God bless you. And thanks for listening.

Todd: Thank you so much for listening. We’re really excited you found us. Make sure to subscribe if you have not done so already. And if you liked what you heard, please let us know by leaving a review, that does us a huge favor and helps us out a lot. For more resources or to ask questions or find more about our ministries go to prophecyprospodcast.com. And a major thank you, major shout out to Harvest House Publishers for helping us with this podcast.