We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by a literal, futurist reading of the Bible.

We are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news. There is a lot of sensationalism surrounding unfulfilled Bible prophecy, and we don’t want to add to it.

We’re not saying the things we report are the definite fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect to be happening in build-up to the future seven year Great Tribulation.

One thing is clear from reading the Revelation: The government of the Great Tribulation will be totalitarian. The world leader we commonly call the antichrist will establish a surveillance society in which no one will be able to transact any business without being connected to a global system of commerce.

Let’s talk surveillance. One article I read reported the following about China:

In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a police officer wearing facial recognition glasses spotted a heroin smuggler at a train station.

In Qingdao, cameras powered by artificial intelligence helped the police snatch two dozen criminal suspects in the midst of a big annual beer festival.

In Wuhu, a fugitive murder suspect was identified by a camera as he bought food from a street vendor.

With millions of cameras and billions of lines of code, China is building a high-tech authoritarian future. Beijing is embracing technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence to identify and track 1.4 billion people. It wants to assemble a vast and unprecedented national surveillance system, with crucial help from its thriving technology industry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html

France has begun to employ AI drones to spy on citizens:

AI software learned how to spot pools on aerial images of nine French departments during a trial run last year, which were then cross-checked with land registry databases.

Since pools boost property values, they usually lead to higher property and residency taxes – unless the owner neglects to notify tax authorities.

Private pool sales had already been booming in France before the Covid pandemic, which saw a surge in installations as millions of employees began working from home more often.

In the nine test departments, the software detected more than 20,000 pools, which led to the collection of some 10 million euros in tax revenue last year.
The DGFiP public finances authority said the program would now be rolled out nationwide, potentially leading to 40 million euros in new levies in 2023.

It could also eventually be used to find undeclared home extensions, patios or gazebos, which are also used to factor property taxes, the authority said.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220829-france-taxman-deploys-ai-spy-to-spot-hidden-swimming-pools

Another article:

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ has announced his own nightmarish endeavor: a doorbell which can identify you by your scent, skin texture, fingerprints, eyes, voice, walk, and more. 

While Amazon acquired the doorbell camera company Ring in 2018 – which originally functioned as a standard doorbell and security camera – it has recently registered 17 new patents for the service. Based on the patents, the service may soon be able to identify “suspicious” people by recognizing numerous details about them using biometric-recognition softwares.

The patents depict a system where every Ring product in a neighborhood is synced together, so that they can work together to create composite images of “suspicious” people and can lock all neighborhood doors if one is spotted. 

One patent in particular mentions a “neighborhood alert system”, where users can send photos and videos to other neighbors when something annoying or nerve wracking occurs – prompting surrounding doorbell cameras to start recording. From this, the app will piece together “a series of ‘storyboard’ images for activity taking place across the fields of view of multiple cameras.”

https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/55089/1/amazon-s-dystopian-surveillance-cameras-can-identify-you-by-skin-and-scent

One more:

Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in “undesirable social behavior,” adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fueling privacy concerns.

From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/06/dystopian-world-singapore-patrol-robots-stoke-fears-of-surveillance-state

We are witnessing the stage-setting for the seven year Great Tribulation that is described in the last book of the Bible. We will not, however, be on Earth during that terrible Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

The resurrection and rapture of the church are imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Jesus will come, in the clouds, and raise the dead believers of the Church Age. He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies. We will join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!