Is it possible that the current state of our
scientific achievements will play a role in some of
the events that the Bible tells us are to occur as
we reach the end of this age? Are we now at a unique
point in time where our technology has made possible
things which could have never occurred before? Let's
take a look at a passage from the book of Daniel:
Daniel 12:4, 8-9 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the
words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased . . . . And I heard,
but I understood not:
then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of
these things? And he
said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed
up and sealed till
the time of the end.
In 605 B.C. among the first exiles of Judea to
Babylon were four
young gifted men. Their Hebrew names were Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah and were given the Babylonian names of
Belteshazzar, Shadrach,
Meshsch, and Abednego respectively. Though these
four soon became known
to King Nebuchadnezzar for their intelligence and
wisdom, Daniel
excelled them all, especially since God gave him
special knowledge
concerning the interpretation of visions and dreams.
Among his many
visions were those regarding kingdoms that would
rise and fall right up
until the end of this age. Yet despite these gifts,
he himself readily
admitted his own unease in not being able to
understand all that God had
given him to see. But as the time of the culmination
of history neared,
not only would the meaning of Daniel's words but all
of prophecy
would become ever more clear.
Even from our Twenty-First Century perspective,
we are far from
having all the answers, but I believe we are now at
a point where we are
beginning to have tantalizing glimpses of what is
soon to come.
In the commentary which follows, let us examine some
of the things
revealed in prophecy which have for the first time
in human
history become literally possible due to the current
state of our
technology. Please understand that I offer only
possibilities and I hope
you will be open to other scenarios.
RAPID TRANSIT
"Many shall run to and fro." So it says in our
opening
passage. After the expulsion from Eden of our
original parents, humans
have been on the move. However, up until a couple
centuries ago, this
was limited to the speed of our own feet, that of
the beast upon which
we rode (or which pulled our chariot or wagon,) or
how fast our boat could be
rowed or pushed by the winds. With the invention of
the steam engine, we
could build water craft and trains capable of much
greater sustained
speeds. The advent of the internal combustion engine
led to the
invention of modern automobiles, ships, and aircraft
which could take us
farther and faster still. As if this was not enough,
rocket science has
sent our human and robotic emissaries off the earth
entirely - something
we will examine a bit closer later.
THE PROLIFERATION OF INFORMATION
Let's look at the next phrase that "knowledge shall
be
increased. Certainly our present time is not called
"The Information
Age" for nothing. We have far surpassed any other
era of human
civilization in the acquisition and availability of
knowledge. Our communication initially
limited to word of mouth, the advent of writing
allowed information to
be recorded and stored for both distant places and
times. Yet for most
of human history messages still had to be physically
conveyed from one
place to another, or in such limited "broadcast"
forms as smoke signals,
drums, etc. This all vastly changed with the invention of the
telegraph
in the 19th Century which allowed the virtual
instantaneous transmission
of information across vast distances. With the
advent of radio, it soon
became possible to send signals anywhere without
wires. It is from these
beginnings that our modern communications systems
have developed.
Because information can now be transmitted and
received so easily and
quickly to virtually any place on the planet - and
even out into space
and back - it has gone hand in hand with many other
advancements.
As we can see, in both travel and information,
Daniel's words have
already been literally fulfilled. But can we find
other passages which
suggest the level of technology that would be
present in the world in
the "latter days?" I believe that there is.
From Matthew's version of the Olivet Discourse we
have:
Matthew 24:14 [Jesus said to his disciples] And this
gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all
nations; and then shall the end come. [Here and in
the following
passages, bracketed sections are added.]
Since the beginning of the church (Acts, chapter 2),
followers of Jesus have gone to the ends of the
earth to deliver the
story of his life and his teachings. When the gospel
message first began
to be written down, it became possible for the
accounts of Jesus' life
to be delivered to people far and wide. Those who
had never met the Lord
could read for themselves the words of either those
who had personally
known him, or their close associates.
Still, the production of books in those times was a
labor-intensive process. These were actually
hand-written scrolls of
papyrus or parchment. (The codex, or form of book
with covers and pages,
was a later development.) This effort and expense
kept them from being
available to the general population, which in many
cases couldn't read
them anyway. Even so, we have today over 5000
ancient copies of the New
Testament books, either in whole or in part, dating
back to the Second
Century A.D. giving it an amazing pedigree.
With the invention of Johann Gutenberg's
movable-type
printing press in the mid-1400's, it became possible
for the first time
to mass-produce books and bring the prices per copy
down to the range of
more people. However, because he could not repay the
loan he had taken
out to set up his operation, it was foreclosed upon
by the lender. But
before that happened,his shop had produced its only
major work - the now
famous Gutenberg Bible.
Today for the price of a few dollars, one can get a
hardcopy
Bible for his or her own, not to mention all its
electronic incarnations
that are available. With a satellite link, small
computer, a power
source, a CD player or the Internet, one can
literally view the Bible
and hear it preached from virtually anywhere in the
world. Once again,
we see literally fulfilled Jesus' words from Olivet.
(Note: This is not
to minimize the preaching of the gospel by the angel
during the
Tribulation in Revelation 14:6-7. God certainly
doesn't NEED our
technology to accomplish his ends. However the Two
Witnesses of
Revelation 11:3-4 may very well reach the world via
modern media. We'll
examine them in greater detail later.)
WARFARE ON AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE
Luke 21:9-10 [Jesus said] But when ye shall hear of
wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these
things must first come
to pass; but the end is not by and by. then said he
unto them, Nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom.
The reports of wars and conflicts do not require the
need for instant communication, yet the fact that it
is now possible to
see and hear the many conflicts around the world in
real time certainly
increases their impact on the general public. If a
picture is worth a
thousand words, how much more so are moving
pictures? Of course, if
subjected to a constant barrage of these and other
distressing events, a
kind of "emotional anesthesia" can begin to set in.
After a while, the
shock wears off and even the most grotesque types of
news can fade into
the background noise of our lives. (In fact, Paul's
perspective on human
behavior [Romans 1:20-32] as the end approaches is
startling in its
accuracy as we see an "anything goes" attitude
becoming increasingly
prevalent in our modern world.)
Our technology has also changed the very nature and
scope of war
itself. Where combat was once primarily a one-on-one
"in your face"
affair, our science is turning it into something
increasingly impersonal
and yet more deadly. With advanced electronics,
missiles can find their
own ways to their targets, tanks can plot their own
positions and those
of the enemy . . .. and the list goes on.
Of course, the biggest specter haunting the human
race are
the huge stockpiles of WMD's, notably those of
nuclear armaments. For
the very first time in human history, we have the
capability to put an
end to ourselves and most of the life on the earth's
surface.
There is a particularly unsettling prophecy that
Zechariah made
some 2500 years ago:
Zechariah 14:12 And this shall be the plague
wherewith the
Lord will smite all the people that have fought
against Jerusalem; their
flesh shall consume away while they stand on their
feet, and their eyes
shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue
shall consume away
in their mouth.
Since this has never happened before, it must be an
event
yet to come - perhaps even part of the events which
conclude Armageddon.
Yes, it is quite possible that God will unleash a
punishment like this
upon the nations which stood against Israel by his
own power, such as
was the case in Sodom and Gomorrah. But possibly he
will use the
"materials at hand" and turn the aggressors' nuclear
weapons back upon
themselves. Though we don't know exactly how or when
this prophecy will
be fulfilled, we know for sure that it will be.
The next passage is from Revelation, penned by John
at the
end of the First Century A.D. and concerns several
of the Trumpet
Judgments:
Revelation 8:8-9 And the second angel sounded, and
as it were a great
mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea:
and a third part of
the sea became blood; and a third part of the
creatures which were in
the sea, and had life, died; and a third part of the
ships were
destroyed.
Revelation 8:10-11 And the third angel sounded, and
there fell a great
star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it
fell upon the
fountains of waters; and the name of the star is
called Wormwood; and a
third part of the waters became wormwood; and many
men died of the
waters, because they were made bitter.
Revelation 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and a
third part of the sun
was smitten, and a third part of the moon, and a
third part of the
stars; so as the third part of them was darkened,
and the day shone not
for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Revelation 8:8-9 sounds very much like what would
happen
should an asteroid, large meteorite or comet collide
with us. As it hits
the atmosphere it would certainly burn intensely
from friction before
impact. It appears that this object will land in the
sea and cause major
devastation not only to ocean life but to any
unfortunate ships near to
"ground zero." Those vessels even in distant regions
could very well be
destroyed by the tsunami-like waves such a
catastrophe could cause.
The next judgment is qualitatively different. Here
we have a
"great star" falling from the sky instead of a
mountain. It is even
given the name "Wormwood" and its falling causes
freshwater supplies to
become "bitter."
Following this, we see what appears to be a
reduction in the amount of
light given by the sun, moon, and stars.
When we consider that the term "Wormwood" is "chornobyl"
in
Ukrainian (from which came "Chernobyl" - the reactor
which suffered a
catastrophic failure), and that a hydrogen bomb
operates on exactly the
same nuclear fusion reaction that powers our sun and
all other main
sequence stars. It can in a real sense literally be
considered a tiny
"falling star." That such devices can cause
incredible amounts of smoke
and dust to be projected up into the atmosphere
which would obscure sun,
moon, and starlight is common knowledge. We now know
that the things
John saw are absolutely and literally possible.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SPACE PROGRAM
The American and Soviet space programs of the
mid-Twentieth
Century in competition with each other made some
truly amazing
technological strides. Because of them, I think a
case can be made that
these leaps into space and the discoveries made to
achieve them have
affected virtually every aspect of our modern lives
since the 1950's.
From the development of exotic materials, the
miniaturization of
electronics to reduce payload weight, the
encirclement of the planet
with satellites which not only provide worldwide
instantaneous
communications but also peer both outward into the
vast reaches of the
universe and downward as watchful eyes on our
weather, climate, and,
yes, even each other, our space programs have indeed
shaped much of our
modern lives, one way or another.
Referring back to the Two Witnesses briefly
mentioned
before, it appears that the world will hear their
preaching, watch as
they are assassinated and then lie unburied in the
streets for three
days only to be resurrected and lifted into heaven
AS IT ALL HAPPENS! It
seems equally likely that the Antichrist will
likewise use this
capability as well to spread his dark and deceptive
message to all
mankind in those last grim years as well. All this
has become possible
due to the invention of the communications satellite
in the 1960's -
something I myself watched happen!
Added to this technological mix are the computer and
data systems that have become an integral part of
the fabric of our
lives. In the realm of finances alone, electronics
are now fundamental.
We've all seen in the industrial world an increasing
evolution away from
physical currency to that of electronic banking and
transactions. It
appears that even credit and charge cards are a
passing phase to be
replaced by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
devices which even now
can be reduced to the size of a grain of rice and
injected under the
skin and scanned remotely.
Also consider that if paper and coin money one day
disappear,
so will the anonymity of everyone's financial
doings. The reason is
obvious. Every electronic transaction generates a
record somewhere of
time of purchase, place of purchase, what was
purchased, and . . . WHO
made the purchase! Should this "E-Banking" become
the only game in town,
imagine the power one would have if they could
arbitrarily "exclude"
someone from the system!
I'm sure by now most of you can see where I'm going
with this -
right to Revelation 13:11-18 where the Antichrist
gains control of the
world's economic systems. The thing is, virtually
NOTHING NEW NEED BE
INVENTED to make this a reality!
THE GREAT SPACE REVERSAL
In a seeming paradox, the rush of technology which
surges
forward with such speed is no longer mirrored in the
space programs that
were so important in its advance. After the United
States had beaten the
Soviet Union in the race to the moon, public
excitement and support
rapidly waned. In fact, despite still existent and
the rising of new
space programs in other nations, we earth folks have
no longer have the
capability of sending people any farther into space
than we had in the
1960's! And the United States may even lose this
ability if the shuttle
program ends this year since there is no replacement
for it.
I've personally pondered this apparent contradiction
for a
long time when it struck me that to the best of my
knowledge, there is
absolutely no mention of anyone escaping the
Tribulation period (except,
of course, by God's direct intervention at the
Rapture) or the Second
Coming of Christ by being able 'to ride it out" for
seven years
somewhere off in space.
All those grandiose visions of self-sustaining
colonies beyond
the shores of Earth proposed by futurists and
scientists decades ago
have never been realized. In my opinion, with the
time that remains and
the present state of the world, they never will - at
least not in this
age. (During the Millennium and the age which
follows, all bets are off,
however!)
CLOSING THOUGHTS
In view of the topics we've explored today, I'm
convinced
that our modern technology will play a major role in
the times that are
soon to come. But one thing we should remember is
that God's Word has
been steadfast and unmovable across the centuries.
How and where each of
us ends up depends on whether he or she will fasten
themselves to the
things of this world which are passing away, or on
the things of God
which will never fail. The Psalmist once said:
Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my path.
For
those who accept the wisdom of this verse, the Bible
can provide the Lamp and Light that will one day
take us safely home!
