The Bible says that there will be wars in the last days. Jesus Christ named signs of that time: He said the following:

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8, KJV).

All three accounts of the Olivet Discourse or portions thereof (found in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21) confirm the future occurrence of earthquakes, wars, rumors of war, pestilences, and nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

We observe that war-related events figure very prominently. But why should there be two such signs involving inter-country (or -tribal) strife? Both “hear[ing] of wars and rumors of wars” and “nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” are mentioned. We proposed our answer to this question in the article “Fulfilled: Rumors of War Rising” (see MCM magazine December 2011—available in the Archive at midnightcall.com). In short, these signs take place at a different time … the large rise in “hearing” and “rumors of wars” occurs before the start of the Tribulation period; the “nation against nation” in the first half of that latter period.

There indeed is strife all around the world, and therefore, in this age of burgeoning global communication, the “rumors” and “hearings” of war have literally exploded. As such, we would definitely recognize today’s events as already fulfilling this “sign of the times” that was mentioned by Jesus Christ. How long this condition will continue to unfold or worsen, we cannot know.

But, what of the next stage, which will encompass “nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”? This is to occur in the period called the “beginning of sorrows.” How will that time be recognized? Haven’t there always been wars in the world? Haven’t nations always been rising up against each other? Whether between nomadic tribes or prominent nation states, strife seems to have been a permanent part of mankind’s condition.

Obviously, for “nations and kingdoms rising up against each other” to be a “sign,” this occurrence must be of an enormous scale. For Christ to mention this as an endtime sign, it must be a condition of strife the world has never witnessed before. As these wars will occur after the Rapture, they really should not concern us, apart from an interest in Scriptural prophecy.

The connection that we want to pursue is the economic aspect of war. It has not been unusual to have trade sanctions applied against nations … cutting off of supply lines or export opportunities. Such policies are really a form of war. The recent actions of NATO member countries and others against Russia, in response to their actions in the Crimea, is a recent example of this type of war.

Interestingly, not only have wars usually involved economic sanctions; they have also had a close relationship to conditions of overindebtedness.

Debt and Monetary Wars

Earlier this year, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released an update of its 2010 and 2012 reports on global debt trends, titled “Debt and (Not Much) Deleveraging.” It confirms some rather disappointing facts. Now, 7 years after the start of the Global Financial Crisis, debt continues to rise around the world in aggregate. And, overall debt around the globe is predicted to continue to rise (measured as a ratio to GDP). Quoting McKinsey, “From 2007 through to the second quarter of 2014, global debt grew by $57 trillion (USD), raising the ratio of global debt to GDP by 17 percentage points.”

Viewed over several thousand years of economic history, over-indebtedness always played a role in the downfall of great nations and empires. Whether the ancient Mesopotamian or Roman powers, and even the late British Empire, their power ebbed away with their economic decline.

What is different in our day is that national economies have become inextricably intertwined through globalization. And, overindebtedness today is a global condition applying not to just one or more countries, but rather almost all of them.

There are virtually countless policy bodies at the international level today (spanning from the World Bank to the Bank of International Settlements) that coordinate monetary and economy policies. We today are dealing with a global economic monolith.

Though increasingly unified, the world still consists of several hundred or so individual nation states. While they may be interconnected in various ways, they nonetheless are sovereign with their own vested interests. They compete in the amoral arena of global geopolitics. They may be aggressors in military terms, or through global policy forums or with their economic and monetary policies.

Monetary Salvos

Most certainly, we are today seeing an increase in “wars” in the form of monetary and currency wars. Indeed, these have been a facet of geopolitics for many centuries in one form or another, greater or lesser. Again, what is different at this late state of affairs is that such actions are playing out on a global scale.

The individual actions of national central banks have been unprecedented. Consider that Japan, early on, unleashed enormous “monetary effluent” upon the world. This had a sizable impact. The U.S. Federal Reserve has embarked on new “unorthodox” monetary policies in recent years.

Lately, the European Central Bank has joined the fray, its monetary interventions setting new heights of aggressiveness. This contributed to the fall of the euro (the common currency of the 17 European nations) against the USD; the steepest and most rapid in the euro’s history. This may only be a temporary trend. Other currencies including the U.S. dollar, in turn, are all vulnerable to large movements both up and down, in this present age of monetary wars.

Consider that earlier this year, the Swiss National Bank (once thought to be the most solid currency in the world) changed its currency support policy. As a result, over the course of one day, the Swiss Franc soared against the euro by as much as 40%.

Such an extreme reaction of currency markets in the case of the Swiss Franc would seem impossible. Nevertheless, it did occur. It should be seen as a sign of the scale of today’s monetary wars. These monetary policy battles are an aspect of “nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” and it is a state of affairs that is intensifying.

Why does the Bible mention both “nations” and “kingdoms” in this Olivet prophecy? It cannot be without significance. Obviously, there is something that distinguishes them. The Greek word used for “nations” is ethnos. This would refer to different people groups. For example, Daniel several times applies actions and prophecies to “people, nations and languages” (for example, see Daniel 3:7, 29; 4:1; 5:19 … etc.).

While the world ethnos is usually synonymous with “pagan” to the Jew, as this prophecy clearly points to different ethnos rising against each other, the intent here is to convey the notion of different nations.

The word “kingdom,” in contrast, has a broader meaning. It refers to a state of rulership that is not limited to the idea of “peoples.” It can be any arrangement of rule, including today’s modern convention of global policy bodies, for example, or country associations (i.e. NATO).

Foreshadowing Tremors

Monetary policies around the world at this point in history are bizarre and desperate. The Guardians of the Mammon Temple (central bankers) have engineered negative interest rates (both in real and nominal terms). Presently, as much as two-thirds of the European sovereign bond markets have negative interest-rate yields, even as overall debt is still continuing to rise. This is also the case for Japan.

We may have seen nothing yet, as conditions are likely to become much more desperate. As the Bible tells us, that period of time where the rise of nation against nation will become so heated as to merit this condition itself as a “sign of the times,” is yet ahead. Economic and monetary policies play a role in these geopolitical tensions. In that sense, the “monetary wars” that are tremoring today may very well be a foreshadowing.

While virtually no one had predicted that the world would fall into a state of negative interest rates, this state of affairs could well continue for some time and could yet become much worse. We fully expect a decline into rampant “money finance” policies (a virulent form of immoral money printing) by all of the major central banks in the world at some point.

It represents a whirlwind of deceptive trends and developments, underneath of which will lie a desperate and immoral redistribution of wealth. We expect little opposition to these last ditch attempts, because financial asset values will likely keep climbing deceptively. This is the surest way to divert attention from the real underlying destruction. All of this may take a number of years to play out.

Conclusions

Earlier, we had mentioned that overindebtedness had been a common precondition to the downfall of great nations and empires in past history. An additional characteristic of these cases was that war (the military kind) usually contributed to the rise of debt. This certainly was a contributing factor in Britain’s demise, and also the reason why America’s debt surged in the 1940s as a consequence of the costs of WWII.

There are some key differences that apply to the current global debt surge (and also applying to the U.S.), besides the fact that it is of a global dimension. For the first time, the debt rise was not the consequence of physical wars. This is significant. Following such wars, economies would recover quite rapidly. This usually was attributable to a population surge (i.e. “baby boom” as took place in North America following WWII); significant gains in technology as a result of the war; and plenty of available labor as the soldiers returned home.

None of this is in prospect today. The debt bubble today is due to a monetary-type war, not a physical, military type one. The world’s populace today is caught up in “self-love” and the love of money. As apostle Paul prophesied, “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” (2 Timothy 3:1-3).

Such attitudes as are prophesied would not cause a post-war baby boom. Directly contrary, populations are aging today (for example, Japan today has more people over the age of 65 than there are children). That suggests that the world’s overindebtedness problems will not be easily resolved, if ever.

Likely, the ultimate fall-out of these unwise policies will be quite terrible, capturing an even larger percentage of societies as the economically oppressed. However, there is only so long that “Ponzi” type policies can continue. These conditions of “war” stand to worsen in the Tribulation period. There will be a final catastrophic outcome at some point, coincident with God finally revealing His judgment of an ungodly world.

We cannot know when these events will ultimately play out. God says that He will give mankind over to their perversions. In other words, He will allow them to reap what they sow. Even more than that, He will enable spirits to hasten perversion even further. “[…] They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).

As such, it is impossible to estimate the ultimate peak of perversion and deception that will occur in the world.

As the Bible says, for Christians, it is not necessary to know the dates and times that apply to either the start or unfolding of the Tribulation Period, or anything else pertaining to the last days (1 Thessalonians 5:1).

We are to stand ready, unswayed by the world, “[…] but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-9).

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Some years ago in 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama published an essay entitled The End of History. It had a large impact. He had concluded that democracy and free market capitalism had won the world’s ideological and political economic debates. The correctness of this new human plateau was so self-evident and so widely endorsed, that no more debate or theoretical advancement was possible. Therefore, the end of history.

Of course, Mr. Fukuyama will have been guilty of hyperbole. Although his thesis triggered thought-provoking perspectives, it today is clear that no such common agreement exists (i.e., consider the actions of countries such as Russia, China, Arab nations and others).

We want to use a bit of hyperbole to make another thought-provoking claim: The world could be facing the End of Technology.

What do we mean by this?

There may be no more new major technological innovations that will either enable or change the course of mankind and its beliefs.

Certainly, there can be no doubt that researchers and laboratories will continue in their work. The patent offices of the world will continue to grant them by the hundreds of thousands every year. Our societies will continue to be inundated by innovative and novel new consumer products, services, apps and service platforms. Scientists can be expected to discover new things about the universe and the natural sciences.

However, the key question is this: Will any of these inventions “radically” change humanity in its beliefs, mental health and earthly confidence? To humanists, this question will surely seem as blasphemy seen from their religious belief system. How could it not be possible that humanity will continue to advance and evolve … to perhaps extend the lifespan of human beings to 150 years and more … to even reach the point of singularity, where human biology is merged with technology and mankind “evolves” to a form that does not even require a physical body.

Others see the developments of new technology as being potentially worrisome. The World Economic Forum, in its recent Global Risks 2015 report, specifically cites emerging biotechnologies as a major risk to be monitored. It says: “Emerging technologies hold great and unprecedented opportunities […]. A range of currently emerging technologies could have […] profound implications for mankind’s future […].”

The WEF goes on to say: “The establishment of new fundamental capabilities, as is happening for example with synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, is especially associated with risks that cannot be fully assessed in the laboratory. Once the genie is out of the bottle, the possibility exists of undesirable applications or effects that could not be anticipated at the time of invention. Some of these risks could be existential—that is, endangering the future of human life.”

Summing up WEF’s perspective, technology could eventually wipe out mankind if there are not sufficient guidelines. In other words, technology could be the end of mankind. Obviously, humanist philosophers themselves remain divided in their views. Some are optimistic, viewing technology as the enabler of human evolution; others the end of human life on earth. We see here that there is no consensus about the future roles of technology.

However, a Biblical worldview and a literal understanding of prophecy lead us to conclude that we indeed are near the end of any new technologies being required to fulfill the Bible’s pre-millennial prophecies. From that point of view, the End of Technology may already be in sight. Just what was the last major technology that needed to be in place?

What Has Technology Done for You Lately?

Without a doubt, the world has experienced a unique period of technological development over the last 150 to 200 years or so. In this small sliver of time, seen from the cosmological timeline of the earthbound human, an explosion of change took place. No one can deny that a massive acceleration occurred in virtually every field and faculty. Science, technology, as well as the Reformation, were at its root.

However, it is debatable whether the pace of change with respect to foundational new discoveries is beginning to fizzle out. For example, the speed of travel for mankind has not advanced in 5 decades. The combustion engine, which all of a sudden made short work of the buggy whip at the turn of the 20th century, is no longer making vehicles go faster. The speed of automobiles has remained the same for many decades (perhaps with the exception of travel on Los Angeles freeways, with its many traffic jams).

Bacterial infections were conquered through the discovery of penicillin and other antibiotics. Believe it or not, penicillin was only made available to a mass market as late as the early 1940s. The impact of antibiotics appears to be already past its zenith of conquering the germ. Also, global telecommunications is near its maximum practical impact (though becoming cheaper). Our long-distance conversations can hardly increase. Very likely, advances in agricultural and industrial productivity are slowing … and so on.

We ask this question: Just what technologies must yet emerge so that pre-millennial Bible prophecy can be fulfilled? Nuclear power sufficient to blow up the entire habitations of mankind already exists. Globalism and a global community of mankind already exist, attributable in part to telecommunications technologies. Flight was invented a little more than a century ago (i.e., fulfilling Isaiah 60:8). What is missing?

Prophecy and Technology

Timothy tells us: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves […] of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1, 4).

According to Paul, the world will be typified by people who are centered upon themselves … pursuing their individual wants. They love themselves uppermost. They therefore will have fallen into a trap. Only God can love us fully and perfectly. People who are lured to the notion that they can love themselves better than God, face unhappiness. No doubt, this trend is linked to the rapid rise of depression—what the World Health Organization has observed to be an epidemic. Sadly, it is seen as a disease, not at all as a spiritual malady.

At the same time that selfishness and narcissism become rampant, the world becomes more bewildering and anxiety-filled. “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35).

So, any technology that serves to enable the “love of self”; and to spread information that leads to the magnification of the “anxieties of life”; and centralizes influence and personal monitoring, therefore, is likely to play a prophecy-enabling role.

The Selfie and the Smartphone

Our inquiry on this topic (End of Technology) and several recent developments prompt us to again comment on the phenomena of the smartphone and to alert of its significance. Firstly, the accelerating sales trend of these devices has been eye-catching. Secondly, a high profile article published by the Economist magazine (“Planet of the Phones,” March 3, 2015) outlines this incredible boom and ponders its implications. And, thirdly, the value of Apple Corporation, the maker of i-Phones (the best-selling smartphones in the world), has been rapidly appreciating.

Recently, the stock market valued the Apple company at over $700 billion. Some investment analysts speculate that it is likely to become the first company in history to be valued at more than one trillion (USD). Apple is the most profitable large company in existence on the planet today. Its cash hoard totaled $178 billion at its recent quarter-end.

Imagine that Apple’s biggest challenge is to figure out what to do with its cash hoard. Its cash holdings amount to greater than 10% of all corporate cash holdings in the U.S., and continue to pile up at the rate of $50 billion per year.

The advances of technology are usually driven by money. But that is an entirely different topic.

Back to the Smartphone. Many people enjoy its conveniences; few realize its revolutionizing impact. It has proven to be the fastest adopted technology of all time. As the Economist puts it, “They have become the fastest-selling gadgets in history.”

The Last Technology—the Smartphone

In an earlier column series (“12 Endtime Fuses Burning Alight”), we ventured the opinion that “[…] technology has at least one more role to play in the prophetic timeline of the world. […] The most pivotal technological developments over the past several decades, as everyone will know, have been the internet and the personal cell phone. […] Crucially, these two developments have lately converged into one leading edge—the smart phone.”

That was the significant development—the merging of the cell phone with a web-enabling interconnection.

Why was this significant? This merging opens the gateway to the ultimate “dotage upon the individual” (the self), though within a centrally controlled, global nexus of connections. The smartphone is a personal device. And thus, it becomes the direct channel between the world and the individual’s personal world. The technology coming into existence allows a mass personalization through a complete monitoring of your needs, likes and identifications.

A technology therefore is in process which will know you personally. It controls the information flow to you, and therefore also has the capability of monopolizing the availability of information.

Quoting the Economist article further, “Today about half the adult population owns a smartphone; by 2020, 80% will. Smartphones have also penetrated every aspect of daily life. The average American is buried in one for over two hours every day. […] The phone takes the processing power of yesterday’s supercomputers—even the most basic model has access to more number-crunching capacity than NASA had when it put men on the Moon in 1969—and applies it to ordinary human interactions. […] There are 2 billion people around the world using smartphones that have an internet connection and a touchscreen or something similar as an interface. By the end of the decade that number looks set to double to just over 4 billion.”

Points to Ponder

The Smartphone is transforming our world. It will have an enormous impact. For example, says the Economist: “Teenagers, whose time on phones dwarfs that of their elders, are developing a social life in which face-to-face and digital forms of contact are used interchangeably and often simultaneously.” The younger generation is growing up with an entirely different sense of relationship. They are becoming self-centered, interconnected islands. Everyone is on a mini-stage of their own to the entire world—the Facebook page or some other social medium.

New studies are revealing other concerns: According to a study conducted by the University of Waterloo,1 use of new communication technologies such as the Smartphone is causing a loss in thinking skills. Attention spans are becoming shorter and intellectual laziness is being observed.

Quoting from the survey, “[…] involving 660 participants, the researchers examined various measures including cognitive style ranging from intuitive to analytical, plus verbal and numeracy skills. Then they looked at the participants’ smartphone habits. The study, from researchers at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers […] frequently use their device’s search engine rather than their own brainpower. Smartphones allow them to be even lazier than they would otherwise be.” According to Gordon Pennycock, a co-lead of the study, research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence.

The world makes its choices. Mankind can use its technologies for good or bad. However, technology uniquely is a double-edged sword. The conveniences it offers all come with a price … a vulnerability of some kind. It may be a dependence, a loss of independence and self-reliance, or a rising vulnerability to widening controls and monitoring. Technology (and knowledge of true science, for that matter) always moves forward. Its advances do not reverse.

For the Christian, the progression of science and technology presents additional challenges. While on the one hand, enjoying the conveniences that technologies offer, we must be alert to the increasing vulnerabilities. Here, these also may take the form of temptations. And, we must not lose an attitude of reliance upon God.

In the case of the advance of the world-capturing Smartphone and other technologies, we see the world chooses to become increasingly smug and proud. Worldliness and ungodliness find ever bigger and more effective pulpits and distribution channels. The ‘self’ becomes more venerated … and destructive. Who can stand firm?

Says the Psalmist: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm” (Psalm 20:7-8).

The New Testament several times encourages one to stand firm. Paul advises believers, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14).

The flock is also encouraged that God helps in this task; for, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

“[…] Stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near” (James 5:8).

1 Accessed March 7, 2015: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150305110546.htm