We live in an unprecedented age. What we may think to be norms for the world are surely not. Seen from the perspective of the human timeline on earth, what is being witnessed currently is a period of terminal acceleration applying to a very small sliver of time. This is playing out through many trends and developments.

A sudden burst in world population growth, the industrial revolution, the Age of Oil, and the surges stemming from the eruption of the Age of Global Capital are just some of the major manifestations. All have contributed to a virtual maelstrom of change and so-called technological “progress” of mankind. Unfortunately, it has also fed the flames of the humanist ego.

Is “acceleration” then the main characteristic that defines the unprecedentedness of our world today? It is surely a defining one, but is definitely not the most significant nor pivotal sign. The most crucial aspect of all these trends and shifts is the underlying change in beliefs, values and the worldview of mankind. This is the true “ground zero” that gives rise to mankind’s voluntary fulfillment of last-days Bible prophecy. These shifts all involve “beliefs” and “faith,” and therefore really fall under the definition of religion. In this sense, global mankind—the world—has experienced a massive conversion of religion (belief and faith) in this last-day period like no other in human history. In the process, it has adopted a colossal load of faulty and potentially deadly dogma.

Indeed, it is this change in human “beliefs” that is the common thread that defines our selection of the 12 “endtime fuses” of this series.

4. Globalism

A Strange World of Global Gods

Were a king or ruler of a large nation of twenty-five hundred years ago to come back to life and visit our modern world, he would surely be completely bewildered. Seeing the world today, our ancient king would be amazed that the entire world is so geographically expansive, and moreover, comprised of so many cooperating nations.

For example, he would likely not have known about the existence of the continents of North and South America. But most of all, our ancient king would be astounded that there could be some 240 nations and territories around the entire world that have all surrendered their individual gods and aspects of their sovereignty to the common god of modernity and globalism.

Globalism is a concept that had not yet been invented in their day. In fact, the term “globalism” is relatively new even today. It was a word coined only as recent as the 1940s.

In earlier times, the mightiness of a nation was seen to be a direct reflection of the power of their god(s). Geopolitics then was a competition of the pagan gods. There are a number of accounts in the Old Testament that reflect this perspective. For example, when Sennacherib, King of Assyria, was besieging Jerusalem, he was expressly attacking Israel’s God in the view that his god was more powerful.

He said to King Hezekiah, “Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?” (Isaiah 37:12-13).

Also, we see that David was indignant about the taunts from Goliath for the very reason that he “[…] defied the armies of the living God” (1 Samuel 17:36). Goliath had literally said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel!” (verse 10). The name Israel, after all, is commonly believed to mean “prevailing with God.” In response, David confirmed that it was the God of Israel that was going to bring about the defeat of both Goliath and the Philistines, saying, “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel” (verse 46).

To lose a battle was an embarrassment for the Hebrews, because the Living God was seen by the pagan nations to be weaker than their gods. Joshua, after the defeat by the people of Ai, lamented, “The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this […] What then will you do for your own great name?” (Joshua 7:9).

Today, few nations would take the view that their “gods” are being repudiated, were they to lose their sovereignty. This perception may still apply to Muslim nations, which would directly equate the supremacy of Allah as being confirmed through the conversion of the entire world of “infidels” to Islam. For the most part, nations today have given up their identities with their past gods and have traded them in for the new gods of globalism (including globalization), science and monetarism. We have always seen the three false gods mentioned in Daniel 11:36-39 as representing these main materialistic beliefs of the last-day world.

The rulership of these last days, represented by the Antichrist, shows “no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all.” The three gods that will be honored during that time would be the “god of fortresses,” the “unknown god” and a “foreign god.” Who are these gods? It makes for an interesting study (one that was published here more than a decade ago). It is the “foreign god” mentioned in Daniel 11:39 that we think represents the rise of globalism and its parallel dissolution of the sovereign powers of individual nations. In our view (this being an opinion, not fact), this aspect of globalism is represented by the statement, “He will attack the mightiest fortresses with the help of a foreign god” (verse 39).

The Strange Power of Globalism

The Bible gives clear evidence that not only would the world globalize, but also that this worldwide power arrangement was considered a strange concept in earlier times. For example, Daniel presents this perspective. When he provided the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, he spoke of a future kingdom that would be comprised of “mixed peoples,” some of them strong, some weak. He said to the King of Babylon, “[…] this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle” (Daniel 2:41-42).

Just what kind of power could be based on a structure where “people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay” (Daniel 2:43)? To the mind of Nebuchadnezzar’s day, this would have been considered a strange and confusing kingdom. In his era, peoples and nations were mostly single races (for example, as we would still consider Japan today). Power alliances were not uncommon, but certainly not with nations that were considered “weak” or “brittle.” Multiculturalism did not really exist then either.

It is only in this last century or so that the world has adopted globalism. Nations may or may not participate at times, though it has become increasingly onerous to be a non-aligned state existing outside of this global arrangement. Even though there are many issues and vested interests that will divide nations, a global rulership of “globalism” is nevertheless still intermediated through various transnational organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), NATO, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and others. Other economics-oriented transnational organizations such as the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others seek to maintain coordinated “global rulership” in complementary realms.

It indeed is a bewildering and strange power structure. Power is vague … yet very powerful. Globalism’s source of power cannot be easily identified, yet it is more powerful than any single imperial power ever before.

Global power has many forms. We can categorize them into two broad types—Hard Power and Soft Power. Soft Power includes various forms of world influence. Here can be numbered memberships on world transnational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund or NATO (and a host of many others), or influence upon world culture. Hard Power, by comparison, is more direct and can include such factors as military might, the size of world trade in goods and services, a country’s relative population size, and so on.

Globalism Foretold

The Bible clearly does prophesy that globalism will take place in the last days. God pronounces his last-day judgments upon all the nations collectively, as they are all engaged in rebelliousness; together, they are pursuing similar ideologies, and together rise up against Israel. All the nations of the world are shown unified in these ways. The Lord God says to them collectively, “Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter” (Isaiah 34:1-2).

From Bible prophecy, we can also deduce that the world would have forums such as the United Nations and means of rapid communication (seen today in the form of global media networks and telecommunications systems) that would facilitate a world opinion and consensus. Such things as the “global consensus” of key countries represent “power” in the world. Indeed, the world itself has become a political podium, the actions of most individual nations postured for a global audience. Yes, the “global village” is getting smaller by virtue of becoming more connected financially and economically (this being globalization, which we will discuss in Part IV).

When Balaam prophesied, “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Numbers 23:9, KJV), this presumed that the world—“the nations” collectively—was united in not “reckoning” Israel. That requires globalism during this time. Without a doubt, that state of affairs exists today.

Points to Ponder

Satan and his hierarchy of fallen angels have been busy transforming the minds—the new and unified global beliefs—of mankind to accept humanism and globalism as the new hope. The times today are similar to Babel. The world’s late state of globalism mirrors the sentiment of those ancient times when “[…] they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:4). Humanistic globalism is counter to the will of God, as evidenced by His supernatural intervention at Babel, causing people to disperse and confounding their “heavenward” efforts with different languages.

While globalism occurs and persists into the Tribulation period, the world in fact does move to a post-globalism state … a second phase of globalism. We rely on Biblical proof for this statement. The “global parliament of man,” as Alfred Tennyson called it,1 will not rule the world in the end. Broad globalism is not the last state. There are yet two regimes that come thereafter—first minilateralism, and then autocracy. The former is represented by the 10 kings that will rule for a short time, and the latter is the form of global government in which the political power is held by a single, self-appointed ruler (Antichrist).

However, before a 10-nation coalition can rule the world, it will require that the distribution of power in the world become more level between leading nations than it is at the present time. Whatever the make-up of this allied group of 10 nations that will assume world power, it must collectively be able to overcome any superpower. Otherwise, it could not exist uncontested. This development is called “multipolarism” and is already well underway. We can only speculate as to what will be the implications for the future of America.

Even the National Intelligence Council (this being an American institution) has a similar opinion. We quote from its recent report, Global Trends: “The world of 2030 will be radically transformed from our world today. By 2030, no country—whether the US, China, or any other large country—will be a hegemonic power. The empowerment of individuals and diffusion of power among states and from states to informal networks will have a dramatic impact, largely reversing the historic rise of the West since 1750 […].”2

Indeed, we can conclude that the advent of globalism and its prophesied shifts, yet to occur in the future will involve much geopolitical volatility. It indeed represents one of the “burning fuses” of the end times, holding the potential for explosive impact.

 

1 Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 1846
2 “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” National Intelligence Council (http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends) Accessed February 4, 2013

We continue with our list of 12 burning fuses. These represent significant endtime trends that may be defined by their rapidity and explosiveness. These are notable even more so in our day, where many of the enormous technological shifts of the past century are fizzling out. For example, the speed of travel, after accelerating from horse and buggy speeds to the jet, has not advanced in 5 decades. The impact of antibiotics is near its zenith of conquering the germ. Global communication and interconnectedness is near its maximum practical impact (though possibly still becoming cheaper). Very likely, advances in agricultural productivity are slowing … and so on.

But is this also true of the future impact of technology in general? Aren’t the limits of technology boundless? Just as people may have underestimated the advances of technology a century ago, would it not be reasonable to trust in the ingenuity of mankind to drive further technological leaps?

Yes and no. We firstly say no, as the ingenuity of mankind is not without limit. Only God Himself is infinite. But we also answer yes, as there is at least one more technological development that has the potential to impact the souls of humanity.

3. The Final Prophesied Impact of Technology

We venture the opinion that technology has at least one more role to play in the prophetic timeline of the world. In fact, it is connected to one other endtime fuse that we have already reviewed in Part I—Post-Familialism. More and more people are choosing to remain single, and this is in part linked to the increase of self-love and narcissism.

What is narcissism? Borrowing a definition from World of Psychology, this is a trait evidenced by “egotistical preoccupation with self, personal preferences, aspirations, needs, success, and how he/she is perceived by others.”1 Readers will agree that such inclinations are anti-social and evidence a lack love for others. This is the last prophetically-significant frontier of technology, we think … the facilitation of “self.” And, it is having a rapid impact.

The “Self” Enabled Through Technology?

The most pivotal technological developments over the past several decades, as everyone will know, have been the internet and the personal cell phone. The adoption of these two consumer services has been more rapid than any other new technology ever before. Crucially, these two developments have lately converged into one leading edge—the smart phone. The conversion to internet-connected cell phones (basically, that’s what smartphones are) is even more rapid, exceeding the adoption rate of the basic cell phone.

This is significant, as it opens the gateway to the ultimate “dotage upon the individual” (the self), though within a centrally controlled, global nexus of connections. We will explain why.

Consider these statistics: While it required over 30 years for the telephone to penetrate one-quarter of North American households, the internet achieved the same penetration level in less than 7 years. Similarly, the adoption of the cell phone was also quick, requiring only 13 years from the time of invention. Consider that 419 million mobile cell phone devices (which include smartphones) were sold worldwide in the 3rd quarter of 2012. At an annualized pace, that represents one phone for a little more than 4 people in the world! (The global population is 7.0 billion presently.)

Within this cell phone demand explosion in recent years, has been a sub-trend to buy smartphones. Hundreds of millions of these devices are being sold. In the period cited earlier, 172 million of mobile devices sold were smartphones—for example, the Apple iPhone or the Android, among others brands.

But why should the advance of these communication and media devices be more significant than any other? The key difference (besides the speed of adoption) is that the internet-enabled smartphone is a personal item. These are designed for the voice communication and internet usage of the individual human. TVs and a land-based internet connection, on the other hand, tend to be a household purchase (at least, that was the case originally).

Readers may be wondering why these developments are so prophetically noteworthy. Where is the connection to the Bible? Just where do we find any mention of an end-time burst of personal mobile devices in the Bible? Is this an evil technology that should not be used? Let’s first turn to the Bible before we return to our further examination of this end-time “burning fuse.”

The Bible on Self

Apostle Paul wrote this to Timothy: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves […], unholy, without love, […] without self-control, […] not lovers of the good, […] conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Paul is clearly speaking of the last days. An identifying characteristic of that time he says will be people preoccupied with the “self.” By definition, such people must be worldly. Why?

Despite the fact that many so-called Christian ministries today cater to the “self,” the Bible never endorses this emphasis. Actually, the Bible counsels the exact opposite. We are to “deny” ourselves. Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). It could not be any clearer: Whoever wants to be a disciple of Christ must therefore deny “themselves” and be selfless.

To be self-seeking has consequences both for individuals and societies, according to the Bible. Paul says that “[…] for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Romans 2:8). Moreover, a focus on self does not align with the duty to love. “Love is patient […] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 5).

A preoccupation with the “self “is not godly; and moreover, a mass emphasis of the self would indeed be a condition witnessed in the last days. And if this is so, we can further know that it will represent an age that will be corrupted by deceitful desires. Why? Again, because the Bible tell us so. Paul says: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). Therefore, a last-day world of ungodly people still mastered by their “old selves,” will surely lead to a loveless and deceitful consumer culture and society of the self.

But just how could the preoccupation with the self, gain such reinforcement and enabling in a world with billions and billions of people? Technology provides the means.

Technology Glorifying the Self

Consider these developments of the internet. Today, online tracking systems have the ability to build a personal profile about you. All your online activity is tracked. (Nothing you do online is secret!) With this information, these systems make inferences about your likes, tastes and views. Doing so, they can then target advertisements to you specifically that are likely to attract your response. This is called “social graphing.”

In addition, these systems can predetermine what information you will want to see when you are browsing the web. Says Omar Tawakoll, founder of BlueKai (a firm whose clients track more than 80 percent of the U.S. online population): “Hyper-targeted ads will follow us to TVs and cellphones.”

The new breakthrough is this: Today, everything is about you. Ads are now targeted to you specifically—the you that is the one and only me, myself and I.

Even if one is not using the internet to shop, but rather to search for information, even here “personalization” is becoming the norm.Says one observer: “Courtesy of technology, we can now receive all our information from people who agree with us—which is exactly what human beings want. And, the new economics of media makes it extremely profitable for information-providers to pander to what we want to hear.”2

This is disturbing as it means that the internet is becoming a controlled system, pre-screening what it will allow you to see. However, what’s even more significant, is that all these technologies cater to the likes and proclivities of the individual. It all feeds a trend of individualism … the world of me … the single.

The social media revolution is a companion trend. What is meant by social media? We here refer to such services as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others, that achieve their connectivity and platform over the internet. With these services, everyone can individually be on display and on show to the world.

Taking license with William Shakespeare’s phrase from the play As You Like It, today, “All the world of me is a stage.”

The worldwide connectivity of the internet is said to open up a range of consumer options and information. It is argued therefore, that the internet represents the welcome unshackling of the individual, ushering in maximum freedom. Actually, it is likely to be the complete opposite.

The Good or Evil of Technology

No doubt, readers may think that we see nothing of value in the many new technologies of our day. Not at all. The internet and the cell phone offer great convenience. We even wonder if one could survive without them, though they have barely been 20 years in existence. [This article was partially researched through the internet.] Technology in and of itself, is not evil. That would only be possible through the agency of human action and motives. It is up to the individual to decide for what purposes they will use any technology … good or bad.

Nonetheless, an awareness of the potential side-effects of technology is urgent. All the conveniences of technology come with a price—a trade-off. We quote here an excerpt from an earlier book, The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free (now out of print):

The successful advance of technology has opened mankind up to tremendous spiritual seduction, both subtle and direct, even though science is not evil in and of itself […]. Hardly anyone reading this [article] will not have succumbed to its comfortable inventions in one way or another. Some will have swallowed the whole hook, line and sinker, flatly rejecting the existence of God. These people instead choose instead to place their full faith in the present and future promises of technology and the intelligence of the human brain. Though this group is rapidly increasing in size over past decades, they are still small in number. Most of us would reject their conclusion as being much too extreme and stark. It’s too obviously wrong. It is for that reason that the subtle seductions of [science and technology] are much more dangerous. We are not aware of […] these seductions [as they] do not confront us in terms of black and white trade-offs. They stake their advances in tiny steps of convenience and novelty. Though we still consciously believe in the existence of God, sub-consciously He has become very small. We have allowed our faith in technology to whittle Him down. Now God is only the weatherman or the God of random chance. We need to better understand how the advances of technology impact our faith.

[…] they pose the same proposal to our souls: To trade a higher vulnerability to worldliness for new convenience; to opt for increased exposure to a godless world in return for higher material comfort. […] We must see that all the conveniences and pleasures offered by new technology come with a price. In some ways ‘high-tech’ is no exception to the adage, ‘There’s no free lunch.’ Every improvement comes with a new vulnerability in spiritual terms.

Thoughts to Ponder

What we are witnessing today is the proliferation of personal connectivity devices. Why is this significant? It provides two-way communication and information within a globally interconnected and controlled system, that facilitates the emphasis of self. This is a development foreseen by the Bible. Ultimately, it actually becomes an instrument of bondage to the “self,” and also centralized control of the entirety of humanity.

Now, everyone in the world can be on their own stage; to have their most personal wants and lusts catered to; enjoying the ultimate in individual customization to their interests and beliefs. We dare state that this is the emerging end-time world of the self … the celebration of the individual … the single life. The consequences of these choices are already destabilizing societies in a number of insidious ways.

Quoting Joel Kotkin, “Traditional values have almost without exception been rooted in kinship relations. The new emerging social ethos endorses more secular values that prioritize individual personal socioeconomic success as well as the personal quest for greater fulfillment.”3

We can indeed benefit from the new inventions of science and technology, yet not allow them to affect our focus upon the Lord, nor to abandon a Biblical worldview. We must constantly fend off subtle and luring inroads into our minds and the fleshly proposals to our wants, if we are to stand separate from the deceits of a last-day world.

But most of all, we rejoice in the fact that we have a personal Lord. He knows each of our needs, tendencies, vulnerabilities, wants, weaknesses and talents on an individual basis. There can be no higher personal care nor purer love and motive for relationship with each of us (individually) than through Jesus Christ. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). We can “log-on” with Him at any time through prayer. The Holy Spirit is the only infallible interconnection with the entire Body of Christ. Technology can only provide a cheap and deceiving substitute if we are not aware.
1 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/04/how-to-spot-a-narcissist/
2 Steven Strauss, America: Drifting Towards the End of the Republic, With an Entertained Citizenry, Huffington Post, July 4, 2012
3 Joel Kotkin,  www.newgeography.com, 10/10/2012. Accessed Jan. 19, 2013.http://www.newgeography.com/content/003133-the-rise-post-familialism-humanitys-future