We focus on Bible prophecy each week for about five-minutes, calling it a “Prophecy Update.”
I was thinking about the apostle Peter. I think he would have done prophecy updates.
Seriously. A lot of what he wrote in his two biblical letters is about fulfilled and future prophecy. It seems that he and Jude belonged to a book club, and that they read The Book of Enoch. It’s a non-canonical book, mostly prophetic, that both Peter and Jude quote from in their letters.
Approximately 25% of the Bible is prophetic, with somewhere around 500 prophecies regarding the Last Days that are yet to be fulfilled.
We ought to be able to identify trends in the world that are to be expected in light of those prophecies.
By far, the most well-known prophecy of the Last Days is the dreaded Mark of the Beast, described in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Whatever it turns out to be, no one without the “mark” will be able to buy or sell anything. The ruler most popularly called “the Antichrist” will exercise absolute control over his citizens.
That kind of control will require eliminating personal privacy on a large and invasive scale. Thus you’d expect a trend in the direction of governments invading your privacy.
I read an article titled, FBI plotting to keep DNA of ENTIRE population on file to create ‘nation of suspects.’
Excerpts:
President Donald Trump has signed the Rapid DNA Act into law which means the police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime.
The law, which was signed in 2017 and comes into effect this year, will require several states to connect Rapid DNA machines to Codis – the national DNA database controlled by the FBI.
[This is] expected to become as routine a process as taking fingerprints.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/758713/fbi-dna-file-rapid-dna-act-donald-trump-rutherford-institute-john-whitehead
An article posted on AZCentral.com was titled, You may soon have to give your DNA to the state.
Excerpts:
Arizona could soon be one of the first states to maintain a massive statewide DNA database.
And if the proposed legislation passes, many people – from parent school volunteers and teachers to real estate agents and foster parents – will have no choice but to give up their DNA.
Under Senate Bill 1475… DNA must be collected from anyone who has to be fingerprinted by the state for a job, to volunteer in certain positions or for a myriad of other reasons.
… The proposed bill is one step away from requiring DNA from anyone who wants a driver’s license.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2019/02/19/arizona-bill-would-create-massive-statewide-dna-database/2873930002/
The New York Times ran a chilling article titled, China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise.
Excerpts:
The authorities called it a free health check. Tahir Imin had his doubts.
They drew blood from the 38-year-old Muslim, scanned his face, recorded his voice and took his fingerprints. They didn’t bother to check his heart or kidneys, and they rebuffed his request to see the results.
Mr. Imin was one of millions of people caught up in a vast Chinese campaign of surveillance and oppression. To give it teeth, the Chinese authorities are collecting DNA – and they got unlikely corporate and academic help from the United States to do it.
China wants to make the country’s Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, more subservient to the Communist Party. It has detained up to a million people in what China calls “re-education” camps.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/business/china-xinjiang-uighur-dna-thermo-fisher.html
There are many other ways in which privacy is being assaulted – including all the ways in which we willingly give it up for the sake of convenience. It’s what you’d expect from reading prophecy.
As believers, we expect that Jesus could return at any moment.
Jesus promised He’d return to rapture His church – which entails the resurrection of the dead in Christ of the Church Age, then the translation from earth to Heaven of all living believers.
Just as Enoch was removed from the earth in a rapture prior to the global flood, so will we be removed from the earth prior to the global Great Tribulation.
It is presented in the Bible as an imminent (any-moment) event.
Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up. Ready or not, Jesus is coming!