These are exciting times for believers in Christ who are interested in Bible prophecy. Many things that are suggested by unfulfilled, future prophecies seem to be trending like never before.
We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to discuss some of those things. We are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news and information.
We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect from reading the Bible literally.
People ask, “Does COVID19 have anything to do with Bible prophecy?” My answer is, “No, not directly.” By that I mean it is not one of the plagues we read about in the Revelation.
Indirectly, however, COVID19 has a lot to do with Bible prophecy in that it is accelerating several prominent End Times predictions.
✏ It is accelerating a cashless society. The most famous End Times prophecy is that people will buy and sell using their hand or head. No cash. The pandemic has definitely prepared the entire world to go cashless. The latest article I read was titled, Another consequence of Covid: a world without cash. The author writes,
Not wanting to touch anything is having a dramatic impact on consumer habits. Amid the coronavirus crisis, Americans are abandoning cash almost entirely in favor of “tap and go” transactions and have finally embraced contactless and digital payment methods after years of reluctance. Fewer and fewer adults use printed or minted US currency at all any more. Now that consumers are used to it, there is no going back.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/consumers-abandon-cash-altogether-because-of-covid.html
✏ COVID19 is accelerating the acceptance of biometrics in our daily life. The prophecy of a cashless society involves something on your hand or forehead that can authenticate your identity and make transactions. This seemed farfetched, even if the technology was available. Certainly this kind of thing would be voluntary. But COVID19 has changed all that on account of Contact Tracing.
It identifies persons who may have come into contact with an infected person. Once they report it, all the people they have come into contact with are notified, and told to quarantine. This can only work if everyone is somehow linked by technology that knows our every move. A year ago this kind of invasion of privacy would have been dismissed. Now people are clamoring for it, in the hopes of staying healthy. Many tracking apps are available, but they fall short in that they give you the right to opt-in or opt-out. The only true contact tracing must involve biometrics that leave you no choice.
✏ COVID19 is accelerating global government. In past updates, we have shown you that the United Nations and the World Economic Forum are openly stating that they want to take advantage of the pandemic to change the way nations operate. They are calling for nothing less than a one-world government. We know from reading the Book of Daniel and from the Revelation that the Great Tribulation will feature global government. I don’t want to belabor the point, but none of us – even if we supported it – would have thought globalism was in our near future.
✏ COVID19 is accelerating authoritarian leadership. Our Governor, for example, has independently issued authoritarian mandates every Californian is expected to follow. One article noted,
As the California Legislature remains sidelined during the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom has been governing the nation’s most populous state essentially on his own, issuing an unprecedented number of executive orders. Newsom has used his executive authority to shut down businesses, move local elections to vote-by-mail, accelerate spending on homeless shelters, alter court proceedings, and provide benefits for essential workers. He’s signed 32 orders since March 4, when the state announced its first official death from the virus.
(By November, the number of executive orders he has signed was 52).
“His powers are essentially, virtually, without limit,” said Steve Merksamer, a Sacramento political consultant who was chief of staff to former Governor George Deukmejian. “The only real limitation, besides the Constitution, is common sense.”
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/04/22/newsom-executive-orders-test-constitutional-bounds-and-legislative-goodwill-1279094
Of course, the ultimate authoritarian leader is coming, and will be revealed half-way into the Great Tribulation.
While we are on the subject of authoritarianism, we could also cite the prevalence of selective media censorship of free speech. The big social media sites are shutting-down anything they deem inappropriate. Regardless your politics, did you ever imagine twitter permanently shutting down @realDonaldTrump? Last year, twitter held to its permanent ban of Laura Loomer despite her winning the Republican primary in a long-shot bid for Florida’s 21st Congressional District. “The account owner you referenced was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the twitter rules, and we do not plan to reverse that enforcement action,” the company said in a statement at the time.
This is just the kind of stuff that you would expect from a literal, futurist reading of unfulfilled Bible prophecy.
We believe the resurrection and rapture of the church is imminent. It isn’t “soon.” It is right now.
It could happen any moment. Nothing needs to happen before it can occur. It will definitely happen before the Tribulation.
Jesus will return in the clouds. He will raise the dead in Christ. He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies.
We will all 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!