The Mark of the Beast – Part 1
The Mark of the Beast – Part 1
Deception
By Pete Garcia
If you’ve ever watched a Glenn Beck show, you’ve probably more often than not seen him at his ever-present blackboard, connecting the dots between players and agencies interwoven in an insidious socialist-progressive agenda to bring the US down from within.
That’s kind of how the next three articles will attempt to do, in a less grandiose fashion of course as we apply his methodology of untangling the web of deceit that has been over-laid on humanity to the material at hand.
If I may add one additional allusion, in the movie “The Matrix”, the main character ‘Neo’, played by Keanu Reeves wakes up or is woken up from reality, only to realize that what he thought was reality is the façade and the reality is much, much worse.
Most people go through this life thinking that this is all there is, or that if it can’t be put into a test tube and scrutinized six ways to Sunday by a team of scientists, it doesn’t exist.
But we (bible believing Christians) know that there is more to this life than what we see around us. We know that there is a God, and there are echelons of angelic and demonic beings that move in and out of this world unseen by the human eye. We know and trust that belief because the bible has not only validated itself, over and over through validation by history, archeology, and prophecy but because no man (or men) could have come up with a bible on their own. If they could have, they would have.
In the bible, the God-Man we know as Jesus Christ spoke concerning the end times that above all, deception would be great. So great in fact, that ‘even the elect’ would be deceived if it was possible. That is God saying that, not me.
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” – (Matthew 24:4)
So, in light of the fact that none of us can peek into the future, we have to trust God’s word and take heed to the various warnings issued by Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, and John as given them by the Holy Spirit. So we go with what we know and make the best reasonable explanations that we can.
One thing to consider though is that prior to the age of global communications and instant newsfeeds, the whole world couldn’t be deceived. Too many people were disconnected from other parts of the world, so the majority of people would not know what deception was going on regardless of where it happened unless it specifically happened to them.
We know (to the best of our ability) that the Beast is the governmental/political system headed by the Antichrist that takes control during the Tribulation. We currently live in the ‘age of information’ and believe this to be the same age in which our Lord will return for a whole host of reasons.
The information age (and the rapidity in which knowledge doubles), is almost entirely reliant on the ability to process information through the use of computers and the internet. Adding to that, think about the current administration and their over-arching agenda too:
A. Blanket the entire US with free WI-FI
B. Cement governmental control over who uses it, what they’ve seen, and what they can see
Globalists seek to place the entire planet on the electronic grid. With the use of low orbiting satellites, and taking advantage of the newly freed-up ‘white space’ from television’s frequency waves (since we’ve gone digital), this is a very achievable agenda. The initial plan was called ‘WiMAX’ but that fell through to ‘LightSquared’. Regardless of what plan actually succeeds, the plans are in the works to get everyone on board and ‘on the grid’.
Remember a simple idea here, in that no matter what freebies are offered, or what promised legislation will fix, increased control is the outcome of whatever plan is put forward. Wi-Fi may be offered as free, but it will come at the cost of your anonymity.
Artificial Intelligence
Now, think for a moment about the gigantic Google Corporation. They have been working on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system for years now based on the studies that track all the trends, typed searches, information, street-views, maps, etc for the entire world. Google has more information at its disposal than all the libraries in the world combined.
The owners of Google preempted public panic by declaring the AI known as ‘CADIE’ as an April fool’s joke, but just imagine, if this thing “became” (maybe with a little supernatural help) self-aware and began taking over the global grid. Most of our public utilities and energy sources are controlled electronically already, but maybe “Sky Net” (Terminator movies) wasn’t that far off the mark after all?
It seems silly, even fantastical for the most hardened skeptics out there, but it is not impossible. Considering that 20 years ago, the idea of holding a computer/phone /GPS/gaming device in the palm of your hand seemed ludicrous, yet, here we are today. Most accredited universities have within their Computer Science departments, active programs for the creation of Artificial Intelligence. At some point, in the not too distant future, man is going to cross that technological threshold between fantasy and reality and launch a system that is ‘self-aware’. Scary thought!
Nephilim
Many bible scholars attribute the statements Jesus made to end times of being similar to Noah’s day (Matt 24:37-38, Luke 17:26-27) as veiled references to the return of the Nephilim (Hebrew for “Fallen Ones”).
The supernatural has largely been hidden from man since biblical times, but here in the last 60 years or so, mankind has been an eyewitness to increasingly strange goings-on in the sky and on the ground. The supernatural activity appears to be ramping up, and although widely accepted as plausible, no 100% verifiable proof has ever been substantiated. It is through movies and television that mankind has been desensitized to the mysterious. Just like with horror movies, man has been given an increasingly larger, violent, and realistic version of the same monsters over and over. What scared audiences 30 years ago, makes today’s audience’s chuckle.
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” – Matthew 24:23-24
Common themes amongst both horror and science fiction shows are alien invasions and global destruction events. They have to keep topping the previous shows and movies so they are portrayed in more graphic and over the top sensationalistic ways to keep audiences coming back. This will have either one of two effects when fantasy does become reality:
– Either man will be mesmerized at what they see (awestruck)
– The deception will be subtle (acceptance of new normal)
I think the latter of the two is Satan’s preferred method, but considering the fact that Satan will realize he has but a short time, he will pull out all the stops. And this time, God will allow him to. Although we can only speculate as to what type of events will happen that aren’t mentioned specifically in the Bible, we know what Satan has done in the past.
God destroyed the world once because of the great wickedness and violence upon the face of the earth. Out of that (or maybe because of it), an unholy union between fallen angels and mankind created a hybrid race of creatures that were neither men nor angels. Only Noah was found ‘perfect in his generations’.
Many believe this to be a reference not to Noah’s moral righteousness, but to his genetic purity. So it is interesting that Jesus said that no flesh would survive if He did not cut short those days (Matthew 24:22). If God destroyed the world leaving only eight persons at the Flood, are we to not only consider weapons of mass destruction but also technology, like before the Flood, which seeks to annihilate what it is to be human?
Weird Science
Mankind is currently involved in cross breeding animal-human hybrids. Man is constantly trying to push the boundaries between the biological and the technological. There is coming a point when man will cross that line of no-return and this may in fact be the avenue in which man does it.
Whenever modern man broke through other ‘impossible’ barriers that people said couldn’t be done… it was done. And between man’s desire to live forever through artificial means (trans-humanism and singularity) and AI’s ability to solve seemingly unsolvable problems, it will be a Babel-like moment when God will have to step in and intervene, yet again.
“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do…” – Genesis 11:6
If mankind was capable of doing this many thousands of years ago, why does it seem unlikely that we couldn’t achieve this again today in the Age of Information?
God dispersed man and changed languages to avoid them coming together in unison outside of His will and His time schedule. Yet, we are at that same point today through the use of the internet and rapid technological breakthroughs. Knowledge builds upon previously discovered knowledge, so at the rate at which it is doubling and tripling, the time it takes to get there quickly diminishes.
Replace ‘magic’ with technology, and add in some demonic influence and what you have is a recipe for evil incarnate perpetuated by mass mediums to large swaths of people. Man’s propensity for evil will have the modern capability to quickly incorporate and disseminate large sums of information and application to a much larger audience today than ever before.
Remove God’s hand of restraint from the world and the potential for wickedness will explode onto the world as not been seen since those doomed Antediluvian peoples of old.