Revelation 13:11-18

 

The Beast out of the Earth

 

In our previous study, we looked at the Rise of the Antichrist, focusing our attention on Revelation 13:1-10. In chapter 12, we read of a war that will take place in heaven, and Satan, the loser of the fight, will be cast down to Earth. Knowing that his time will be short, Satan will work through a leader, commonly called the Antichrist or the Beast from the sea (13:1), as well as a false religious leader called the False Prophet (Revelation 19:20), forming a trinity of evil to manifest his power on Earth. In this study, we look more closely at what the False Prophet will do during the last seven years of this age. This False Prophet will be a religious figure and perform miraculous signs and force people to worship the first Beast, the Antichrist. Just like John the Baptist pointed away from himself to the Lord Jesus, this false prophet will point to the Antichrist and Satan to be worshiped (Revelation 13:4). He will come on the world scene looking to all intents and purposes as a lamb-like person (v. 11), but inwardly he has the dragon, Satan, dominating his life.

 

This false religious leader will do two things, which will cause true Christians (saints) to rebel against the authority of these two men:

 

11Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the Earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12It exercised all the authority of the first Beast on its behalf, and made the Earth and its inhabitants worship the first Beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the Earth in full view of the people. 14Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first Beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the Earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the Beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived (Revelation 13:11-14). 

 

1) He will set up an Antichrist image that speaks and demands worship, threatening death to those who refuse (Revelation 13:14-15). We are not told where this image is set up in this passage, but perhaps, it ties in with Jesus’ warning to the saints that, “when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then…there will be great distress” (Matthew 24:15, also v.21). (The KJV uses the word tribulation, and the NIV uses the word distress). 2 Thessalonians 2 also mentions this same time, when Paul the Apostle said that the Antichrist would “exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2Thessalonians 2:4).

 

2) He will force everyone to comply with his demand to worship an image of the Antichrist and Satan and to take a mark signifying allegiance to their regime. We will focus most of our time on what this Mark will be.

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The Mark of the Beast

 

15The second Beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first Beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16It 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, 17so 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. 18This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666 (Revelation 13:15-18).

 

In the original text of the Scriptures, the Hebrew and Greek letters of the alphabet are associated with numbers. This is similar to the Latin Alphabet where V is five, X is 10, L is 50, and C is 100. One will be able to take the name of a person suspected to be the Antichrist and translate his name into Greek or Hebrew and calculate if his name comes to 666. There is much that can be researched into numbers of names, but it is beyond our scope in this study. Our focus is more on what the mark will be.

 

There is never a time in history when the whole world was ever in a situation when nothing could be bought or sold without using cash. With the use of credit cards and bank accounts with computers, we are in a time when buying and selling can be facilitated entirely without paper money. Just about everything you buy in the stores now has an RFID tag (Radio Frequency Identification) that records and tracks every bit of information about the product from production to the home. This small tag is on the wrapping or printed on the product. The information on each tiny chip, some as small as the period at the end of a sentence on this page, has a little antenna read by electromagnetic energy beamed to it from a reader device.

 

It is different from barcode technology. The reader device allows the item to be remotely identified as each chip has its unique number. With barcode technology, every can of Coca Cola, for instance, has the same UPC or barcode number (a can of Coke in Toronto has the same number as a can of Coke from Cincinnati), but now, with RFID technology, each can of Coke has a unique ID number. All buying and selling will be digital, with each product bought linked to people, their ID, home address, telephone number, etc. Everything about them will go to a central hub and track their buying habits.

 

The second way it's different from a barcode is that these chips can be read from a distance, right through your clothes, wallet, backpack, or purse, without your knowledge or consent, by anybody with the right reader device. In a way, it gives strangers the ability to spy on you, i.e., to identify both you and the things you're wearing and carrying. Imagine walking through a doorway and having a hidden reader device identify the books in your briefcase and the brand of your underwear. Not only will everything have its own chip, but plans are nearly complete for every person to have a chip embedded under the skin that can be read at the point of sale. Below are two YouTube video links of commercials that illustrate how a chip like this can work.

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Fujitsu’s Store of the Future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdML1IEw3tI&feature=youtu.be

 

How Alibaba got Consumers to Love Grocery Shopping: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbYNJZ9iJ4&feature=youtu.be

 

The commercials above show how RFID is changing shopping. At first, mobile phones will be used to transfer money to the grocery store, followed by everyone having a chip in one’s hand passed over a reader device, bank details read, and digital money transferred.

 

This idea sounds terrific to some because if a person is suspected of being a terrorist, his every move and everything he buys can be tracked. There will come a time when, if a person does not have a chip embedded in his skin in the future, he will not be allowed to buy or sell. We believe that, without one’s health information that will be on the chip, it is likely that a person will not get past the door into the grocery store in a health crisis. IBM has even developed a device named the "person tracking unit" that can zero in on your RFID tagged products and use them to watch you like a hawk. Many people who don't read the Bible are already warning others of the loss of privacy and freedom at our doorstep.

 

Reader devices will be placed on major roads tracking the tag in every car produced. Some major highways in Chicago, Miami, and other cities already have reader devices that take money out of your bank account when you go through a place on the toll road. For a certain amount of money, you can watch your teen's speed and location while he or she is using your car. They won’t be able to hide their location. There are good reasons that this technology will be useful and helpful. Many people will welcome a personal chip embedded in their skin, especially when it comes to people’s stealing your identification data.

 

With terrorism a significant concern, some will argue that having such a chip mandatory for everyone would be in the majority's best interest, claiming that it is for the safety or the common good of the people, thus making it worth sacrificing privacy and freedom. It is said that the Royal family of England have chips embedded somewhere in their skin so that, if they are kidnapped and held for ransom, they can be easily found via satellite. Think of the advantages for the military. If a US fighter pilot were downed over enemy territory, his location could be seen on a map via a satellite-tracking unit. Think of the benefits for clothing stores: security chips can be attached to products, and clothing items would not be stolen; a remote reader device would be set off near an exit. Everything on planet Earth will be tracked via RFID. There will come a time when nothing will be bought or sold except that it has the stamp of ownership on it to Antichrist’s world kingdom. Taking the Mark of the Beast will be equal to selling your soul to the Antichrist. There will be a commitment along with the Mark to worship Antichrist’s image:

 

If anyone worships the Beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Revelation 14:9-10).

 

Click on this link to a video to see some of the things happening in our world:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWgUTrvRlA4

 

We are living in a world that is changing fast, and not always for the better. Jesus said: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). We live at a point in time when we need to be intimately acquainted with Christ and to practice our obedience to His voice and walk by faith.

 

When it comes to new technology, are you an early, mid, or late adopter? How do you respond to new technology?

 

The Advance of Technology

 

Talking about how many technological inventions have been created, Charles H. Duell, the director of the U.S. Patent Office, was once quoted as saying, "Everything that can be invented has been invented."1 Can you believe he said that in the year 1899? Then, there was Robert Milliken, Nobel Prize winner in physics, who said in 1923, "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."2 Another was Lord Kelvin, president of England's Royal Society (a scientific organization); he noted in 1885, "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."

 

The speed of technological change in the last days is something that was spoken about 2,500 years ago by the prophet Daniel:

 

3And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased (Daniel 12:3-4 KJV).

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Some time ago, I was invited to go with a friend to shoot some shotguns at clay targets, or skeet’s, as most people know them. It took a bit of time getting used to shooting at them because I kept shooting at the target as I saw it. The problem was that the skeet wasn’t standing still when I fired my shotgun; it was moving through the air at quite a speed. I learned that I had to fire ahead of the target to be able to shoot it down. When companies on the cutting edge of technology are planning a new device, such as the Apple iPhone, for example (just how many of these will they come up with?), Apple has to think five or six years ahead when they start planning where technology will be when they want the iPhone 20 to come out onto the market. Why? Because there is no point in starting to design an iPhone based on where technology is right now. It would be like my shooting at those skeets and missing the target. They have to consider Moore's law, or else they will be pitifully behind the goal when they put it on the market.

 

Moore's law—what is it? Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel Corp, writing in his 1965 paper about the pace of technology change, said that the number of transistors one can put on a microchip double about every eighteen months to two years. In 1970 just over one thousand transistors could be put on a chip, whereas, in January 1995, the Digital Alpha 21164 microprocessor, held to be the most remarkable technological breakthrough ever, had 9.3 million transistors. Six years later, a microprocessor contained more than 40 million transistors. As I write in 2020, it is reported that the Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine, made by artificial intelligence company Cerebras Systems, is the largest semiconductor chip ever built with a Central Processing Unit or CPU having 1.2 trillion transistors.4 Technology is changing at an exponential rate.

 

The Approaching Singularity

 

Some time ago, I came across an article in Time magazine about the coming Singularity. Some of you may not be familiar with the term Singularity as it relates to technology, so let me explain. Lev Grossman, the person who wrote the article, was sharing the thoughts of Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist, inventor, futurist, and also a director of engineering at Google. Kurzweil wrote a book called The Singularity is Near. I quote from Lev Grossman’s Time article:

 

Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, minds, and civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but also imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization, as we know it, is about 35 years away. Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster –faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing. True? True.

 

So if computers are getting so much faster, so incredibly fast, there might conceivably come a moment when they are capable of something comparable to human intelligence, artificial intelligence, or what is known as artilect. All that horsepower could be put in the service of emulating whatever it is our brains are doing when they create consciousness — not just doing arithmetic very quickly or composing piano music but also driving cars, writing books, making ethical decisions, appreciating fancy paintings, making witty observations at cocktail parties.

 

If you can swallow that idea, and Kurzweil and many other brilliant people can, then all bets are off. From that point on, there's no reason to think computers would stop getting more powerful. They would keep on developing until they were far more intelligent than we are. Their development rate would also continue to increase because they would take over their own development from their slower-thinking human creators. Imagine a computer scientist that was itself a super-intelligent computer. It would work incredibly quickly. It could draw on vast amounts of data effortlessly. It wouldn't even take breaks to play online games.

 

It's impossible to predict the behavior of this smarter-than-human intelligence with which (with whom?) we might one day share the planet because if you could, you'd be as smart as they would be. But there are a lot of theories about it. Maybe, we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical capabilities. Maybe, artificial intelligence will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely. Perhaps, we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. The one thing all these theories have in common is the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011. This transformation has a name: The Singularity.

 

The difficult thing to keep sight of when you're talking about the Singularity is that even though it sounds like science fiction, it isn't, no more than a weather forecast is science fiction. It's not a fringe idea; it's a serious hypothesis about the future of life on Earth.5

 

Now, by quoting a magazine article such as this, I am not in any way saying that I would agree with or support such ideas. Frankly, the view of a new and "improved" humanity ("humanity 2.0") as some people refer to it, makes me shudder. However, I also believe that we should be aware of what some people are proposing and working towards. Someone who does not see or acknowledge humanity's spiritual component may view our species' transformation only as a positive thing. The idea presents many ethical and moral dilemmas, which are being voiced by church leaders and even those in the scientific community who have ethical misgivings about such advances. You may think, "God will never let it happen." I am not sure how far it will be allowed to proceed; however, there are many things about which we could say the same thing if we were to be able to go back in time and view our present world from a worldview lens, of say, just a mere 200 years ago.

 

Technology has already made advances in science and medicine possible. What concerns, if any, do you have about this type of technology? Where do you think it could be heading?

 

Ray Kurzweil, in his book, The Singularity is Near, says:

 

"The impending Singularity in our future is a period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed…The key idea underlying the impending Singularity is that the rate of change of human-created technology is accelerating and its powers are expanding at an exponential pace. Exponential growth is deceptive. It starts almost imperceptibly and then explodes with unexpected fury."6

 

Then, there are also knowledge explosions in the exploration of DNA. Begun formally in 1990 and with a budget granted that was more than that spent on getting to the moon and back, the Human Genome Project was an effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy. It projected to take fifteen years, but because of the rapid technological advances, the project was finished two years early in 2003. What is a Genome? And why is it essential to our future? A genome is the entire DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection, and sometimes, how it behaves.7 We can now genetically modify food and have been doing it for some time.

 

Along with changing structures at the genetic level and building things with nanotechnology, many other technologies are coming together. When the Singularity arrives, sometime between 2030 and 2045, we are about to enter that era when, like Tom Horn, the writer of the book Forbidden Gates says:

 

…the trend toward smaller and smaller technologies will yield greater-than-human machine intelligence. That sort of super-intelligence will increase not by self-replication but by building other agents with even greater intelligence than itself, which will, in turn, build more superior agents. The result will be an "intelligence explosion" so fast and so vast that the laws and certainties we are familiar with will no longer apply. That event-horizon is called the Singularity. Our version 1.0 natural bodies are frail and subject to a myriad of failure models. The Singularity will allow us to transcend these limitations…we will gain power over our fates. Our mortality will be in our own hands, and the nonbiological portion of our intelligence will be trillions of trillions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence.

 

We are now in the early stages of this transition. The acceleration of change is causing a paradigm shift [a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions]…as well as the exponential growth of the capacity of information technology is both beginning to reach the “knee of the curve,” which is the stage at which an exponential trend becomes noticeable. Shortly after this stage, the movement becomes explosive. Soon, our technology's growth rates—which will be indistinguishable from ourselves—will be so steep as to appear nearly vertical. The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post Singularity, between human and machine.8

 

Trans Humanism—the Future Homo Sapiens 2.0

 

The new field of technology that is happening right now in our lifetime is Trans-humanism. Trans-humanism is a cultural phenomenon. It is the effort to change the human species to be what some would like it to be: Homo Sapiens 2.0. It is humanity re-designing humanity, and there are many brilliant minds today working toward this end. Some would consider it to be a vast improvement to our present human state with all its limitations. Again, I am not saying that I agree with this in any way. However, serious thought is being spent on this idea (and billions of dollars of money spent by governments and the private sector in various countries).

 

Technological Singularity brings with it the ability to combine our natural biological bodies with machines. Scientists can now merge DNA from animals to humans and human DNA to animals with the mapping out of DNA. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency here in the USA, has been given billions of dollars to research the altering of soldiers' genetic code, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human. Soldiers that will be modified into Homo Sapiens 2.0 will function as a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end. They will be mutations that will revolutionize the current order of battle and guarantee operational dominance across the whole range of potential U.S. military employments.9

 

Our technology labs are now working on advanced gene therapy, which can provide cheetah or gorilla quality muscles in people enabling them to run forty-five miles per hour or five to ten times the strength of an average human.10 There is also talk of merging eagle DNA with human DNA to enable future snipers to see much better than regular humans. John Horgan, a former senior writer for Scientific American, states that DARPA "is already investigating the possibilities of cyborg warriors downloading complex fighting procedures directly into their brains, like the heroes of the Matrix. DARPA is interested in the development of techniques that can survey and possibly manipulate the mental processes of potential enemies by recording signals from the brains of enemy personnel at a distance, to read their minds and to control them."11

 

If you could access such technology, what would you change about yourself?

 

How will this affect us as Christians?

 

The fast-approaching Singularity will bring with it another terrifying development that, I believe, is mentioned in the Book of Revelation:

 

16It 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, 17so 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. 18This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666 (Revelation 13:16-18).

 

On September 12, 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts was questioned at his confirmation hearing, and then-Senator Joe Biden was interviewing him on the "Micro-Chip." Senator Biden tells John Roberts: "And we'll be faced with equally consequential decisions in the twenty-first century. Can a microscopic tag be implanted in a person's body to track his every movement? There's an actual discussion about that. You will rule on that — mark my words — before your tenure is over." The micro-chipping of citizens is part of Obamacare! Chief Justice John Roberts ruled on this, just as Joe Biden said he would. The Obama Health care bill under Class II (Paragraph 1, Section B) specifically includes ‘‘(ii) a class II device that is implantable.” YouTube link below:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3eER_zO1tQ

 

I always wondered why Scripture was so emphatic about the significance of this “mark of the beast," and why would it be in two places, head or hand? God has seen the end from the beginning. He exists outside of time and knows the future thoroughly, and He has shared what will happen with His people in the Word of God. Whatever this Mark is, it causes a separation among the people of the Earth. It's like Elijah issuing his challenge on top of Mount Carmel with the people of Israel: “21Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).

 

God says that those who take this Mark will suffer torment. They will be punished with the full strength of God’s fury:

 

9A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the Beast and its image and receives its Mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the Beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the Mark of its name.” 12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus (Revelation 14:9-12).

 

What is this Mark? I believe it's not just that we will align ourselves against God by taking it; indeed, we are not to worship the Antichrist or Satan, but it may be more than what we know today as an RFID chip embedded in people’s hands. I think it is also mentioned to be in the head because many will choose to have a Brain-Computer Interface chip in their head to enhance their brainpower many millions of times over. We cannot be dogmatic about such possibilities; only when the time comes will we have light to know exactly what the Mark is, but let’s try and get our head around this new technology.

 

With Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) technology, a person will access information via the Internet through thought alone. Advancements in technology going on even now indicate that this is just a matter of time, but it could happen in the 2020-30 timeframe. Does this sound crazy? You might not be aware that Elon Musk has a company called Neuralink and has already developed a machine to implant a BCI chip into people's skulls. I have included a footnote to a YouTube link to help you understand what Elon Musk and Neuralink are doing.12 There is also another link to Elon Musk’s plan to merge humans with Artificial Intelligence.13

 

These brain chips will allow consumers to control a host of new electronic and communication gadgets through neural commands. Developers at Toyota and the University of Utah are also working on brain transmitters, which they hope will contribute to building a global “hive mind,” a “borgification” of humanity, to use a Star Trek analogy. What on Earth is a hive mind? It is the concept that many people share their knowledge or opinions, producing collective intelligence and uncritical conformity. Of course, there will be a Queen Bee of this hive who will shape this collective intelligence, and this writer believes that person to be the one the Bible calls the Antichrist.

 

Will the Antichrist use brain interface technology? How do you think this technology will affect people's free will, personal freedom, and faith?

 

If these things are possible, what will this type of advancement mean to what humanity will achieve? For example, someday, the parents of a thirteen-year-old may have to face the day when their son or daughter comes home from school and asks to become “Trans-human." The Brain-Computer Interface will enable them to access the Google data banks, the hive mind, or whatever it will be called then— (perhaps the Beast?). If they go ahead and have the implant, their son or daughter will instantly know any historical question, geographical question, or any question thrown at them. They will have access to artificial intelligence, perhaps accessing it wirelessly via the Internet with brain interfacing chip technology.

 

Imagine going for a job interview and being asked if you have the Brain-Computer Interfacing technology that allows you to think thousands of times faster than others. Only those with the chip will rise to the top of the corporate ladder. Those who are not connected with the chip in this way will be left out “in the cold.” They will not be part of Humanity 2.0. They will be left behind in intelligence and opportunities available to them. Life will be considerably harder for anyone who chooses not to be a part of this development, which will seem only advantageous at first.

 

However, (and whenever this happens), as I stated before, there will come along with the Mark, the command to worship. There will be a choice that people will be forced to make (If you want to be part of the in-crowd) that will cause them to align themselves with the Anti-Christ and with his world system. I do not believe that people will be in any doubt at that point as to the significance of this decision. If indeed, it is connected to this idea of becoming Trans-Human, it is evident that a person will automatically be surrendering something of his or her humanity. It will change what it means for us to be human. Free thought will be challenged. Those who take the Mark of the Beast will upload into a system from which they can pull data, but it would also cause them to opt into a system that can influence and even control them. Isn’t that what the enemy of our souls has sought to do from the beginning?

 

When Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden, the temptation was to be “as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The temptation was to eat from the tree of knowledge. This will likely be a vast tree of knowledge available to all who plug into it. The desire, as some have openly stated, is to "transcend our humanity.” In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, we see a prophecy that the Anti-Christ will enter the temple of God and proclaim himself as a god. He wants to achieve god status, to be "as a god." There has been a lot of talk in the scientific community and even in popular films, such as Avatar and Transcendence, and books about what it means to be human. The temptation will be to leave Homo Sapiens 1.0 behind:

 

When Satan approached Eve in the Garden of Eden, he said to the woman:

 

...For God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tn4P7IBqoQ

 

If the clip's link is not working, go to YouTube and put in the search box, Most People Don’t Even Know What’s Coming. 23 mins.

 

Do you see any correlation between this passage and the idea of humanity 2.0? In what ways is this temptation similar?

 

This is the temptation that Satan has offered man, i.e., to be as gods, to transcend our humanity and be more than human with Satan’s being god over humanity:

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How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of dawn! You have been cast down to the Earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly' (Isaiah 14: 12-14).

 

We see this same thought presented as a temptation when Jesus went into the desert to fast. Satan came and took Christ to a very high mountain. As He looked down from the mountain, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "If you will bow down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9). His aim has always been the same: to transcend the state he has been given and worshiped as God himself. In the same way, he is tempting humankind to transcend our humanity and create a super-human race.

 

Satan never gave away anything for free, and I don't think this ability to be Homo Sapiens 2.0 will be free. It will cost people their souls. As with many things that become available, it could be that, at first, only the elites, the rich, and those with influence will either be able to afford this or will be allowed to be augmented into Humanity 2.0. Those who reject the Mark or are not connected to the Beast system will be shut out. Those who are in but refuse to "worship" any time will have their switch shut down, and they will die. The Scripture says, “so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed (Revelation 13:15).

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Once a person is connected to it, they will be forced to worship the one that will gain control over the whole world. i.e., the Antichrist. Another thing to remember is that Scripture tells us of a time when some people on the Earth will not be able to die, even though they will want death:

 

In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them (Revelation 9:6).

 

Doesn't that sound weird? I know I am stretching your minds here, but those who take the Mark of the Beast may have the opportunity to upload their consciousness into the hive mind or some supercomputer. At that point, they will no longer be biologic beings; they have become Trans-human or Humanity 2.0. All information about everyone that takes this upgrade to their humanity will be on this hive artilect (artificial intellect). I believe that this “hive intellect” will be at the disposal of the Antichrist, giving him supreme power to be like a god; thus, they that take the Mark will become his slaves and have to worship him.

 

For homework, take a look at the video that I have provided a link to below:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmaczzTUR5M

 

I found the above links by searching on YouTube with the words Transhumanism.

 

When we consider all these things, it is easy to become anxious or afraid. However, Paul gives some good advice to the Thessalonians when he tells them:

 

"But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled, putting on faith and love, as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet" (1 Thessalonians 5:4-8).

 

These words are excellent advice for us today. We should not be asleep but be aware of the times in which we live and look forward to the time when Christ returns. Until then, we put on faith, hope, and love. He has also promised us that He will be with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). If you have never entrusted your life to Christ and turned from your sin, today is a good day to do that. The Lord is as near as a prayer. He will not force His way into your life. God has given you the gift of free will, and the door to welcome Him into your life is on your side. Call on the Lord Jesus Christ and sincerely ask Him to fill your life with His love and grace. He stands waiting.

 

Father, I have messed up time and again with my life. I come to You today, seeking Your forgiveness for what I have done wrong (my sin). I understand that You sent your Son to pay the penalty that I brought on myself. I believe that Christ died for me, and, as a result, His sacrifice of Himself is the just payment for my sin. Help me from now on to live for You. I receive Your gift of mercy and grace today. Amen.

 

For further study via YouTube, you might want to search for: Trans-humanism Part 1/Mark of the Beast: The Ultimate Agenda. Keep in mind that it was posted online in 2013. Here’s the link:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwh4ShZA5Tg

 

Keith Thomas

Email: keiththomas7@gmail.com

Website: www.groupbiblestudy.com

 

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright Ó 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.Ô Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights are reserved worldwide.

 

 

 

1 https://patentlyo.com/patent/2011/01/tracing-the-quote-everything-that-can-be-invented-has-been-invented.html

2 https://www.greenbiz.com/article/quote-sept-23-2010-robert-millikan-nobel-laureate-physics-1923

3 https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13556-10-impossibilities-conquered-by-science/

4 https://appuals.com/largest-processor-ever-built-packs-1-2-trillion-transistors-leaves-top-end-intel-and-amd-cpus-and-gpus-behind/.

5 http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2048299,00.html.

6 Ray Kurzweil. The Singularity is Near. Penguin Books, pages 7-8.

7 http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/about.shtml.

8 Tom and Nita Horn. Forbidden Gates. Defender Publishing Group, page 131.

9 Chris Floyd. "Monsters, Inc: The Pentagon Plan to Create Mutant Super-Soldiers." CounterPunch (1/13/03).

10 http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/07/3-billion-super-soldier-program-10.html.

11 Tom and Nita Horn. Forbidden Gates. Published by Defender Publishing Group, Crane, Missouri, page 215-16.

12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jOjh6lwp9w&list=FLxEG-SJj6MLejcSt9m5NeRA&index=22

13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGYT-glICA