The Bible tells us that a time will come when commerce—the act of buying and selling—can be controlled worldwide. This facility will actually be invoked at one point during the Great Tribulation period: “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17).
This is an oft-referenced verse, infamously misquoted and misinterpreted by Christians and unbelievers alike. It is the source of countless vain speculations about the identity of the “mark” and the “number.” However, the most critical error concerns the identity of who it is that actually brings in these controls. It is not the first beast with 7 heads, which is of the lineage that gives rise to the physical Antichrist.
Rather, it is the second beast (which emerges from the earth and has two horns like a lamb—Revelation 13:11) that brings in commercial controls. This latter beast is commonly linked with the False Prophet, who is also mentioned in Revelation 16:13 (cf. 19:20; 20:10).
I have always thought it telling that it would be a religious figure that ends up being the world’s last “economic guru.” A strange coincidence … that economics and religion would be in union? No.
Political economics is the world’s greatest religion. As such, it is only fitting that a deceiving religious figure would preach and enforce such a final type of “prosperity gospel” to the entire world. Indeed, the value proposition of the False Prophet at that time may sound like this: “Take the number that is religiously endorsed from this preacher’s pulpit, and you will have prosperity.”
At that time there will be such a crisis that people will likely respond as they did to Joseph in the third year of the famine: “[…] Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh” (Genesis 47:19).
Why Global Systems Are Needed
Money is the designated medium of Mammon. Its strategic significance in the cosmology of mankind is more than just being the chief temptation that qualifies “the love of money” as being “the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Crucially, “money systems” also play a strategic eschatological role, as can no other form of earthly or spiritual rule. Why is this the case? There could be a number of reasons. But, very likely, a main one is that Satan and his hierarchy of fallen angels do not have the power of omnipresence as does God. Therefore, an inventive counter tactic is needed. Here, a global commercial and monetary system offers the next most potent control mechanism.
Though Satan’s powers may have been curtailed during the Church Age, the spirit of the Antichrist has been busy. “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Many antichrists have been at work, inevitably coaxing the world to its globalized, humanist state. Its endpoint is already in view. The supporting technologies, the global organizational structure is nearly complete; the concentration of financial command nodes far advanced. Only one thing remains: The global imperative to pull it all together … the imperative of global “political economic policy.”
Concentration of Financial Control
Following, a few trends are outlined, which will provide the reader with some anecdotal evidence of how rapidly economic and monetary systems are converging and centralizing. We could cite countless more examples; however, here we only point to three of its telltale signs.
- Concentration of Companies. The 10 biggest companies in the world (measured by market value) account for 18.8% of total world company value. Ponder this, as it is unprecedented. Only 10 companies account for approximately one/fifth of total global value of $716 trillion as of March 13, 2026.
- Global investable assets are estimated to total between $250 to $300 trillion (equities, bonds, real estate, and alternatives). Institutional investors (pension funds, mutual funds, ETFs, insurers, sovereign wealth funds) collectively own 70 to 80% of US equities, and 40 to 50% globally. To further illustrate the high level of concentration, consider that just three money managers account for as much as 20% ownership of US stocks.
- Worldwide wealth concentration continues to increase to the highest levels in modern financial history. One report estimates that 0.01% of the population has three times the wealth of the bottom 50% of the world’s population. The EU World Inequality Report paints a picture of an economic order tilted toward a tiny, ultra-wealthy minority.
Everywhere one peers, the forces of centralization can be observed, whether in North America or globally. Today, perhaps less than 10,000 people control the world’s money flows. Some have estimated a far smaller number … as low as 600. The signs of centralization are everywhere. A very small number of people can manipulate or control the world’s political/economic agenda.
Global Systems Affect Cares of Entire World
As the global gyrations of financial markets attest, never before has the entire financial world behaved so much as one monolithic culture, as is evident today in global capital markets. This is a direct, though not exclusive, result of the late-stage globalized commercial systems.
Putting it all together, we crucially now recognize that the economic, financial, and psychological conditions of global markets have come to the point where a viral, media-generated chain can impact the sentiment of the entire world very rapidly.
Globally interconnected commercial and communications systems, such as already observed today, demonstrate the powers of control that the False Prophet will one day exercise. Revelation 18:17 says, “In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!” Could this be a connection to the fragile financial markets that we see today?
As the Bible says, the spirit of the Antichrist has been active these past 2,000 years, despite the fact that Satan did indeed lose some of his powers and freedoms. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given to indwell the members of the Church, Christ’s very body on Earth. Once this body has been removed—and along with it also the indwelling restrainer (the “Paraclete”)—the “beast” representing mankind’s complicit kingdoms, which has been obedient to the “spirit of the Antichrist,” will be superseded by “The Beast”—this being Satan himself in the form of a man, the 8th king (Revelation 17:8).
The saints will not witness the Antichrist’s arrival. As the Bible says, only “the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come” (Revelation 17:8b). This is consistent with the expectation that the Church will first be removed. The Beast will not come out of the Abyss until this “restrainer” is first withdrawn.
In the meantime, Satan and his hierarchy of fallen angels have been busy transforming the minds of mankind to accept humanism and globalism. They now await the opportune use of the global web of financial and economic systems that achieves the next best alternative to “omnipresence” and worldwide power.
Points to Ponder
The day is very near when it will be possible for a global authority to completely control commerce worldwide. Already, it is technically impossible to live without money or a bank account. People that have attempted this must still rely on the charity and handouts of those that do have monetary income and bank accounts.
While the technology and global systems stand prepared for this eventuality, the global “political” power structure is not yet in place. For example, such large organizations as the Bank of International Settlements, the World Bank, etc., have not yet had their levers of power given to a central authority. That development first awaits the emergence of the 10 kings. These final steps and events will happen very suddenly … once their time has arrived.
Christians today, as everyone else, are already entrapped in a global financial system. While we enjoy its conveniences, we also suffer under the many materialistic temptations that the spirit behind these worldly systems incessantly proposes. Someday, these systems will be turned against the Tribulation Saints.
Today, pre-Rapture saints are implored to enter a different kind of transaction. “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Revelation 3:18). Those are the words of Christ to the 7th and last church, which exists even now just prior to His return. It is not an impulse purchase, an approach so widely promoted in our culture today. The gratification is not instant but eternal. The Apostles knew the cost of “gold refined by fire.”
“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).
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Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.
Do you have questions or other perspectives? You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com.