Daniel {12:4} 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.

“Many shall run to and fro.”

            As we saw in the last article, the speed at which information can travel from one place to another has grown exponentially from Daniel’s time until now. The time it takes to physically get from one place to another has also greatly decreased, however it is still not as fast as the speed at which data can be transmitted (the Star Trek Transporter is still science fiction, after all) but it is still a huge leap above that which was possible to Daniel and his contemporaries. Back then, traveling to the next village might take the better part of a day, maybe more. Crossing continents or seas took months, or even years. One can now fly across the U.S. in five hours, a journey that took six months to the westward-bound settlers of the early 1800’s. The International Space Station circles the entire planet in an hour and a half! We’ve come a long way particularly in the past two centuries, running “to and fro,” faster than anyone could possibly imagined two and a half thousand years ago when Daniel wrote the prophetic book that bears his name.

“Knowledge will be increased.”

            I think it’s safe to say the Twentieth Century was the largest age of discovery the human race has ever known in almost every field of knowledge. Einstein gave us a look at the universe, energy, and matter in a whole new way. Edwin Hubble discovered that our Milky Way Galaxy was not the only one, but merely one of billions of “island universes” spread out across billions of light years of space. The biological sciences have delved into the genetic instruction sets which control how life operates and has begun manipulating it to alter its characteristics. Medical science, despite its continuing inability to cure the major and persistent life-threatening diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and ALS, still has come up with amazing surgical procedures which have restored sight, repaired damaged hearts, and reattached severed limbs.

In about a century, the field of electronics has expanded from the era of vacuum tubes to semiconductors, a technology which has made possible not only the reach of humanity into space, but also moved into our driveways and homes residing in devices and machinery we now take totally for granted.

Computing technology has advanced almost beyond belief. Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor, described a doubling every year in the number of components per integrated circuit back in 1965, and then revised this estimate to every two years. That’s still very impressive. This has become commonly known as “Moore’s Law.”

The “brains” or CPU’s of computers, their memories, and their assorted peripherals have made full use of these advances allowing devices that you can easily carry around with you perform wonders whole rooms full of machinery couldn’t have approached only a few decades ago. For example, my first PC didn’t even have a hard drive, running only on 1.44 megabyte floppies. A couple years later I upgraded it with a “huge” 20 megabyte hard drive which set me back over $100. New PC’s have hard drives capable of storing multiple terabytes of information. (1 terabyte = 1000 gigabytes = 1,000,000 megabytes!) As we further explore “Prophetic Tech,” we’ll be seeing just how this all figures in making the Bible prophecies of the comprehensive control that the Antichrist will have over Earth’s population literally achievable.

            In the realm of the physics, scientists have come to understand much about the nature of matter and energy, this knowledge in a very real sense becoming a double-edged sword. It’s safe to say that our technological grasp has far exceeded our wisdom to use it consistently to better ourselves. We can, for example, use the atom to produce electrical power to make our lives easier or use it to construct bombs capable of sending our civilization back to the Stone Age . . . or worse!

Certainly one can find many more examples of ways our knowledge has increased besides these few examples, but there is one main underlying principle for this to be possible – the ability to both store and transmit this knowledge. We looked at this somewhat in the previous article, but a review at this time seems appropriate.

We do not know how long the human race has had language, but I think it’s safe to say it’s been a very long time. By it one person could communicate his or her ideas to another individual or group. Probably the first kinds of information shared were such topics as where the edible plants and animals were and how to get them. Language also allowed humans to work together in teams to do these things and was the means of passing on their experiences to their kids.

Along with this was the sharing of new technology. Now we might not think a rock or a stick is very sophisticated, but when it comes to the multiplying the ability over just using one’s hands and feet alone to dispatch an animal and bring it back to the camp cooking fire (another early huge milestone of technology), it became a very big deal! The human with the rock or the stick will be a lot more successful than one that lacks either.  It probably didn’t take very long to figure out how to modify these first tools to make them more effective. A simple stick became a spear. A rock was modified to give it sharp edges, and, no doubt in flashes of Paleolithic genius, came the idea to combine these inventions to make spears with stone points and to create cutting tools with handles. These skills could be easily passed on via language to the next generations, who in time would add their own knowledge to the verbal archive.

The problem with this type of information transmission, though, is that it required direct contact from person to person, or person to group. There was also the problem of “data fade.” It was not a big problem with making tools and weapons because the verbal information was supplemented by a practical demonstration. The artifacts themselves became their own “hard copies!”

But when it came to accounts such as the history of the tribe or group, the oral accounts, despite the best efforts to maintain their fidelity, they could change over the years. The events and even the names of the participants could within relatively few generations become unrecognizable.

Enter into the picture a way to record things in a permanent manner and a revolutionary new way to store and transmit knowledge began. Starting with basic drawings and paintings on cave walls or the faces of stone outcrops, someone finally figured out ways to do it quicker with the development of writing. The Egyptians created hieroglyphs, a combination of images and symbols. The Sumerians developed cuneiform, true writing where specific symbols represented a spoken language, numbers, pretty much any information one wanted to preserve. As a testament to the effectiveness and lasting power of these technologies, archeologists are still collecting and reading these ancient messages to this very day. The development of papyrus and parchment scrolls, culminating in codex form (bound, multi-leaf books with which we are familiar) made the records more readily portable and easier to distribute over wide areas. The printing press was a giant leap toward this end and until the advent of electrical forms of data transmission back in the early 1800’s, the printed word was the fastest and most reliable game in town.

So enter the telegraph. With this device, messages could for the first time be sent at virtually the speed of light to any place its wires were run. They still had to be deciphered and recorded by hand by a human, but for the first time the speed of communication was no longer dependent on how fast a person could walk, or how quickly his or her animal could gallop, or how long it took a ship or train go from Point A to Point B. In a relatively short time, the range of electrical communications would extend not only across a continent, but across oceans.

Our unique time and place in history.

            If one looks back across the course of human history, can anyone point to a time remotely similar to ours? True, there have been great civilizations of antiquity whose secrets still elude us, but none of them have reached the level of knowledge, nor the ease of widely disseminating it that we currently possess. A very long time ago, King Solomon wrote:

Ecclesiastes {1:9} The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.

             I think the wise old monarch might change his mind if he could see the things that exist today. If this is indeed the unique time and place that I think it is another passage from the Bible comes to mind as to what might be just up ahead. This time the speaker is Jesus Christ himself:

Matthew {24:21-22} For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

            This you might recognize as coming from Jesus’ last address in public to his disciples a few days before his arrest. We are talking about what has come to be known as the Olivet Discourse, so named because the Mount of Olives was the place he gave it. He spoke of a time so dire and terrible that if allowed to continue, the human race would not survive it, not even the elect. Over the course of history we have seen numerous tragic and terrible events hard to imagine, but they will all pale when compared to the time Jesus told his followers would surely come at the end of this age, something revealed in stark detail in the Book of Revelation. The question now is just how close might we be to this time right now.

The Modern Media

            One of the capabilities our current level of technology gives us is something mentioned in the last article – the ability to experience in real time events in audio and video that are happening half a world away. Shortly before starting this article a disgusting and cowardly attack in Paris by Muslim extremists purportedly working for ISIS resulted in the deaths of over 120 innocent people hit the airwaves here in America on the evening news. Just days ago, two Muslim extremists fired on people at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California. Who can forget that on September 11, 2001, the world watched the twin trade towers collapse into smoking rubble as the result once again of Muslim hatred directed at a free nation? We saw it all on our television sets within minutes. The reach and power of the modern communications systems is unprecedented.

If it were used only to provide unbiased news coverage, that would be impressive enough, but we have also seen it manipulated to sway the masses more often than once. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini used it to seize power in Iran in 1979 and to preach hate against the western democracies, the U.S. in particular, holding our diplomats hostage for over a year. Before and after him have been others, but the greatest manipulator of them all was Adolf Hitler.

Even today as one watches films of his speeches and the mesmerizing affect this man had on the German people is chilling. It is difficult not to believe that this power flowed from Satan himself. I have always believed that as powerful as the devil is, he does not have the ability to look into the future or else he would have already seen that his plan to become displace God was doomed to failure from the very start. Because of this limitation, I believe he has throughout history always had someone “waiting in the wings,” a latent antichrist, prepared to step into the role of the final Antichrist. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Khomeini, and all the despots we have seen in our history books and have encountered in the news certainly qualify as would-be antichrists. One of these days, you can be sure that someone will rise from obscurity and fulfill the role of the last ruler who will bring the human race to the very edge of extinction. I would not be surprised if the “man of sin” is alive right now. If the hour is as late as all the signs indicate, he is already an adult being groomed for the job.

Another common denominator which all historical dictators exploited were conditions of public unrest and turmoil. Hitler exploited the ravaged economy of post- World War 2 Germany, Khomeini the misery caused by Shah Reza Pahlavi’s personal excesses while he oppressed and impoverished his people. If you look across history, you’ll find this often to be the case.

But as bad as these situations were, they were limited in scope. Though admittedly, a large amount of territory can be involved, the tyrants of the past and present have never taken over the entire planet. In the Twentieth Century, the fascists of Europe and imperialists of Japan had free nations to oppose and finally defeat them militarily. The Soviet Union was essentially bankrupted in the late 1980’s. Now imagine a world in which there are no such countering forces. This is precisely what the Bible tells us the case will be near the end of this age:

Daniel {7:23} Thus he* said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.  * A heavenly messenger, the exact nature of whom is not known.

There are many details in both the Old and New Testament concerning about the ruler of this global dictatorship. Here are just a few:

Daniel {7:24-25} And the ten horns out of this kingdom [are] ten kings [that] shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

2 Thessalonians {2:3-4} Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come,] except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; {2:4} Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 

Revelation {13:1-2} And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Revelation {6:2} And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.   

Many who study Bible Prophecy believe the reference in the last passage to the man who sits on the white horse with the bow, but lacking arrows, suggests that this ruler will not achieve his initial prominence militarily. A much earlier passage from Daniel appears to support this supposition:

Daniel {11:32} And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits. ] 

We learn that this man will be a great orator, but those few people who do come to believe in Jesus post-Rapture will not be taken in by his “flatteries.” Most of the world certainly will. Even now in the secular world people no longer have a problem with politicians who habitually lie. Even worse, people have no qualms about attending any number of church denominations where the doctrine of  “political correctness” and “anything goes” has overwhelmingly been accepted in the place of what the Bible teaches regarding God’s intent on such things as human sexuality to be within a committed heterosexual relationship only, Jesus as the only means of salvation, and the reality that there will be a day of judgment and that hell is a very real destination for those who have rejected God – and specifically for those of the church age, those who have refused  Jesus’ offer of himself for their sins. Paul said as much would be the case almost 2000 years ago:

2 Timothy {4:3 – 4} For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

This makes a situation already ripe today for the ultimate deceiver known as Satan to put his man in place by completely peaceful means. But once that happens and the Antichrist’s grip on power becomes established, any and all means, including force, will be applied to maintain it. It will ultimately lead to the worse war in human history at Armageddon, a conflict so terrible that it will require divine intervention to stop it in the bodily return of Jesus Christ to Earth, accompanied by all the saints (believers) who have ever lived.

Revelation {19:19-21} And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which [sword] proceeded out of his* mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. *Jesus (See Revelation 19:11-16)

But we are getting somewhat ahead of ourselves. We have to look further at how humanity will get to this terrible state. Next time, we’ll look at more ways this future world despot might exploit the technology of our “knowledge will be increased” age to bring the world to its knees before him.

*Public Domain Source of Bible Quotations *

All Bible references are from http://www.davince.com/bible and are copied intact from that

source.

If you are reading this, odds are that not only do you have more than a passing acquaintance with the Bible, but that you also take it seriously. Odds also are that it makes you a growing anomaly in the Christian world as it exists today. Indeed, in much of the modern church here in the United States, it might even make you unwelcome. That’s not the case here because I know Terry James does take God’s Word as, well, God’s Word along with everything that follows along with such a belief.

Though I have never met Terry in person, I feel that over the many years we have corresponded, that I have gained a loyal friend. From my first contact with him via Rapture Ready, he has gone out of his way to encourage me in my study of the Bible, especially in the realm of Bible Prophecy, and has graciously provided me a venue to share my thoughts by way of various articles I’d written on this subject over nearly ten years for Rapture Ready. Now, he has invited me to once again share some of my thoughts on his new website and I am singularly honored to participate. Thank you very much, Terry. I will try very hard to rise to the occasion! So, that being said, let’s begin from a passage first from the Book of Revelation: (Note: Asterisks have been inserted to further explain the text as needed. Please see notation at the end of this article regarding the source for King James Bible passages used here.)

Revelation {11:3-12} And I will give [power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a  thousand two hundred [and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

A much earlier passage found in Zechariah may be referring to these mysterious figures as well:

Zechariah {4:11-14} Then answered I*, and said unto him**, What [are] these two olive trees upon the right [side] of the candlestick and upon the left [side] thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What [be these] two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden [oil] out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these [be?] And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These [are] the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth. * Zechariah      ** an angel

Exactly who these two witnesses are continues to be a source of speculation, but three possibilities top the list.  They are Enoch, Elijah, and Moses. The first two are unique in that they never died but were taken directly off the earth by God:

Genesis {5:24} And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him.

2 Kings {2:11-12} And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, [there appeared] a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw [it,] and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

As for Moses, the Bible tells us that he died after seeing the Promised Land and after commissioning Joshua to take over as leader of the Israelites after their forty year journey from Egypt:

Deuteronomy {34:1-6} And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that [is] over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This [is] the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see [it] with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he* buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. *Joshua (Hoshea)

Though Moses did die while Enoch and Elijah did not, he does in fact show up again in person with Elijah during the Transfiguration:

Matthew {17:1-3} And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias* talking with him. *Elijah

Additionally, there are also accounts concerning Elijah in which he called down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:36-38, 2 Kings 1:1-15) making him a particularly strong candidate.

Perhaps the idea that the witnesses will represent the “Law and the Prophets” also gives a nod once again to Elijah, being a prophet, and to Moses, the giver of the Law. Or it may be two other people entirely. Nevertheless, what we do know is that they will appear, withstand all manner of attacks from their enemies, until the final one the Antichrist unleashes on them  kills them – something the world will celebrate. But the jubilation will be short-lived as they are miraculously resurrected.

With this background now established, let’s take a look at what happens after they are killed and think about what it suggests:

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

Not only do these witnesses get killed, but it seems very clear that the entire world knows about it just about in real time. This is nothing out of the ordinary in the Twenty-first Century, but one must remember that when the book of Revelation was written in the end of the First, the speed that news could be transmitted was limited by how fast one (or his or her animal) could walk, or cross by ship to a distant shore. And yet John sees the whole world instantly knowing what has happened and celebrating their demise. But the party doesn’t last very long because in the same manner it sees these once-dead men resurrected and bodily taken into heaven:

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

The closest thing to instant communication that existed for centuries was restricted to such primitive forms as smoke signals, drum beats, signal fires, or the sounding of various types of horns such as your basic shofars or more technically refined trumpets. Out of sight or out of earshot meant that one was out of luck. It has really only been within the last 200 years that anything resembling actual long-range instantaneous communication has existed, the first being the telegraph perfected by Samuel B. Morse and Alfred Vail in 1837. This in itself required advances in the use, storage and generation of electricity, which up until the 19^th Century was little more than a curiosity.

Two decades and a year later the first trans-Atlantic cable was laid between Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Valenica, Ireland, but it failed in three weeks. A replacement was laid in1866. (Only in 1956 would a telephone transmission finally cross the Atlantic Ocean to Europe via cable.)

A huge development in the field of communications would follow Marconi’s successful wireless telegraph system in December 1901 from St. John’s Newfoundland to Cornwall, England. No longer was it necessary to run a physical connection between sender and receiver, and from this point on radio technology exploded across the globe. Using shortwave radio, it became possible even for amateur radio operators to communicate across the planet, marking the first time in human history that instant communication not only became possible, but commonplace.

With the advent of television and the space program, sophisticated communication satellites beginning with Telstar 1 in 1962 provided the means not only to transmit audio, but video as well in real-time. With the advent of the Information Age of the past few decades, the ease an accessibility of more and more people to instant communication has exploded. Now we take it all pretty much for granted – unless, of course, something prevents our devices from working!

What fascinates me personally about all of this is that for the Revelation passage above to become literally possible, all of the technological progress above had to take place first. It’s taken about 1900 years for that to happen, but here we are. We see from John’s description that what will transpire will no doubt be seen and heard by virtually the entire world – as it happens – and I have no doubt will be replayed over and over again on the global news media and Internet sites, all of them most likely under the direct control of the future world despot we have come to know as the Antichrist. I can certainly understand him splashing what he thinks is his victory over the two witnesses all over the media to further exalt himself on the world stage but that the resurrection of these two (the last thing he would want displayed) also manages to hit the airwaves shows it to be something so completely sudden and unexpected he does not have time to censor it.

As we can see, we have reached a point where our current state of technological development has made everything we’ve read about the world witnessing the events of Revelation 11:3-12 in actual time completely and literally possible for the first time in human history. It has been my personal belief that the Antichrist will not only use the supernatural abilities given to him by Satan himself, but will avail himself of the “tools at hand” to increasingly tighten his grip on a turbulent planet that will initially receive him with open arms. Next time, we’ll look at another facet of modern technology which will help him take over the world.

*Public Domain Source of Bible Quotations *

All Bible references are from http://www.davince.com/bible and are copied intact from that source.