Amidst the COVID 19 restrictions and hopes for a brighter future, many people are wondering how long the pandemic will last and what the “new normal” will be like. While our current circumstances may be unpleasant they are not unprecedented nor are we living in the Great Tribulation predicted in the Bible for the last days. However, we need to have the situational awareness to ascertain that there are many signs and events taking place in the world today that indicate we are indeed living in the end times.
Today we are witnesses to the fact that the nation of Israel exists and the Jews have returned to the promised land. The papacy is promoting a single world religion that includes Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all who seek to worship the Creator, by faithfully following their respective paths. The current promotion of a new world order or “Great Reset” represents a philosophical paradigm shift towards increasing societal tolerance of authoritarian precepts under the guise of health and safety. In North America and Europe there is widespread apostasy while the Christian Church in China , Iran and Africa is growing exponentially.
While we are not living in the Great Tribulation yet, our time of testing will soon be upon us. Today, we are observing the incremental erosion and vilification of individual rights and freedoms and the covert assault on democracy by the deep state that will eventually culminate in a totalitarian global government. Society’s values and immorality are aligned with biblical predictions of the last days. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Its as if Paul saw an hour of our current news, sports and entertainment on TV.
We all wish for things to return to the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic was allowed to cripple the world economy and subjugate humanity under draconian measures, however it is very plausible that we will never experience that level of freedom again. Civilization is being preconditioned to accept more government surveillance, universal digital identification for all citizens, a digital global currency and the end of nationalism. Everyone wants to see good triumph over evil however, the Bible warns that evil must have its moments in the spotlight.
Big brother is more than a complex or a collective of factors on different levels precipitating an environment for government surveillance, regulation and control. It is much more totalitarian than that. With the elite ruling class entertaining the notion of a new world order, a one world government and one world currency, there is grave potential for abuse of a system that places control of the entire world in the hands of a few privileged individuals, families or corporations. In fact, it is easily plausible that one person can commandeer this power structure and seize control of every detail of running the planet. The Bible foretells of this usurping of our rights and freedoms as one man is destined to rule the world.
The apostle Paul describes him as the man of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4), the prophet Daniel calls him a king (Daniel 7:24-25), John the disciple labeled him the antichrist (1 John 2:18), and in the book of Revelation he is portrayed as a beast (Revelation 13). The antichrist is more than an essence or spirit. While the spirit of antichrist was already at work in the apostle Paul’s day, the persona or personal manifestation of antichrist in the man of lawlessness is a distinctly identifiable fulfillment of the abomination that causes desolation spoken of by Daniel and Jesus Christ which will take place in the last days.
He will facilitate a seven year peace accord between Israel and her neighborhood adversaries which he will dishonor at its midpoint by setting up a statue of himself and demanding to be worshipped as a god. Those who refuse to worship him will be killed. He will also mark every person with his number that will permit them to buy and sell, forcing those who refuse, to resort to the black market and bartering, or starve. “He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. He will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him,” Daniel 9:27. “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Revelation 13:16-17.
As human history moves toward the end of the age, we are about to enter a period when the battle being fought between good and evil in the spiritual realms will spill over into our physical realm and encompass all of mankind as the conclusion of the confrontation nears. This period of global trouble will intensify to incredible proportions as civilization, the climate, the earth and all of creation become unstable in anticipation of the end that has been decreed. The cataclysmic culmination of the abuse and exploitation of our world and each other is about to rapidly accelerate toward the climax of history during the Great Tribulation and the return of Jesus Christ to make his victory complete.
The gospel of Luke records Jesus saying, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21:28. Today our situational awareness should be on full alert as things can progress very quickly along the prophetic timeline. COVID 19 is a case in point where the world economy screeched to a halt in a matter of a few days. Is COVID 19 biblical? Alone it is insignificant in the context of Bible predictions however, it is part of a greater scheme that is indeed the fulfillment of prophecy.
