Original subtitles

>>[music]

>>Hello! I'm Nathan Jones, Internet Evangelist here

at Lamb & Lion Ministries, and your host. How do we know the

end times are upon us and that Jesus Christ is returning soon?

One of the surest ways we can know is through the incredible

end times sign of technology. God has revealed in the Bible

that when certain centuries-old prophecies concerning future

technology, especially those technologies that greatly

increase knowledge and travel, become a part of everyday life,

then the final days of this age leading up to Christ's

Millennial Kingdom will have at last come upon us. The long-ago

prophesied technologies that we today now take for granted prove

that Jesus is returning soon. Let's explore just nine of the

end times signs related to technology foretold in the

Bible. All of this and more, coming up!

>>[music]

Before we take a look into this jaw-dropping end times sign, let

me first ask you a question. How do you feel personally about

technology? Do you love technology, and so consider

yourself a technophile, or hate it, and are proud of the label

technophobe? Or, are you just floating in blissful ambivalence

somewhere in the middle of the love-to-hate technology scale?

>>[music]

For those who dislike technology, or at least keep a

wary eye upon it, you probably have some very good reasons for

why you feel the way you do. When struggling to operate the

latest and greatest gizmo, maybe the experience of merely turning

it on leaves you feeling frustrated. We've all felt

frustrated using some new piece of tech, and also felt so much

better after hurling the device against the wall. Maybe the nerd

factor keeps you at a distance. You avoid Best Buys at all cost,

worried that upon entering you'll be transformed into the

next Steve Urkel. Who would ever want to end up as a social

stigma in suspenders? Or, maybe you fear that technology will

eventually become so advanced that it will evolve, and once it

reaches self-awareness, will seek to destroy all of humanity

with an army of glowing-eyed, Schwarzenegger-like Terminators.

Why take the chance of our own creations rebelling against us

just as we have been doing with God? Or, maybe in the process of

assimilating all of this tech into our lives, and even into

our bodies, we worry that we will lose our humanity and

become more Borg than organism. For those who love technology, I

believe the real reason that we have created so many new devices

is because we like to find creative ways to torment our

pets. It's true! Who hasn't turned on their vacuum cleaner

and received a good laugh out of watching the dog bolt for cover?

Or, gotten some kind of demented glee out of watching their cat

frantically chase the penlight's beam zigzagging around the

carpet? Or, chuckled as your fish took a ride up the bubble

stream glugging out of the tank's treasure chest? Or, taken

your wiener dog scuba diving? Well, maybe not that. With all

of our human ingenuity, you'd think we'd at least use our

creativity for more constructive purposes, but alas, for all our

creative genius we humans tend to misuse our ingenuity more

than we use it. We create many of our new technologies in the

name of convenience, but in the end, they often end up making us

look quite silly. Who in a public bathroom hasn't waved

their dripping hands in front of an automatic dispenser and had

the device mock us by refusing to eject a paper towel? Or,

cursed your leaf blower for blowing leaves from one side of

your yard back to the same spot again? Or, spent every Christmas

Eve untangling a Gordian knot forged out of those little

blinking tree lights? Or, had your smart phone's autocorrect

wish your spouse, "Happy birthday, dead husband"? Or,

when mounting lasers to the heads of sharks? Well, maybe not

the last one either, but you get the point. Rooms full of

corporate gadget makers have long been belly laughing at our

expense. Where do I personally fall on the love-to-hate

technology scale? I made it through college on a typewriter,

even though a fully-equipped computer lab lay at my disposal.

But, then, I got over my reticence and devoted my early

career to being a Web developer and designer. And, now as an

Internet and television evangelist, I've embraced the

tremendous benefits of our modern-day communications

technology because it provides unlimited possibilities in

sharing the Gospel with the world. I may not be the first in

line to shell out obscene amounts of money for the latest

iPhone, but then, neither am I the last. A simple Appalachian

cabin would suit me fine, just as long as a wireless connection

to my Netflix account was readily available. I'd imagine

most of us fall along that point on the scale.

>>[music]

>>Before moving any further into our look

at how today's technology heralds the end times, we

first need to define terms, because you are going

to hear the word "technology" a whole lot here. The

Greek word tekhnologia provides the root for where we get our

English word "technology," meaning "the systematic

treatment of art and skill." The Science Dictionary clarifies

Aristotle's nebulous definition with "the use of scientific

knowledge to solve practical problems." But, is science

absolutely necessary to solve our problems? Maybe technology

is more about "the practical application of knowledge."

That's a pretty good definition. Or, how about this one? "The sum

of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with

material objects of their civilization." I believe these

curious definitions tend to beat around the bush, and so I'm

going to give you my own definition of what technology

is: "Applying what you know to fix problems and make stuff."

Technology, therefore, is not just the gizmos and gadgets we

make, but the technical skills and creativity it initially

takes to invent and forge these tools.

>>[music]

>>So, technology does what again?

It fixes problems and it makes stuff.

For those who dislike technology, fixing problems and

making stuff isn't so bad, right? Right, because I am now

going to prove that technology can certainly be a good thing.

After all, do you know where knowledge and the wisdom to

properly wield technology actually comes from? It

originates directly from God Almighty. Job once asked, "Can

anyone teach God knowledge?" The obvious answer is no; no one can

teach an all-knowing God. Job later referred to God as, "Him

who is perfect in knowledge." That means that God is,

absolute, flawless, and perfect. He is the ultimate in knowing

all things. He even knows all things down to the tiniest

minutia, such as the number of hairs on each of our heads. The

prophet Isaiah also asked such similar rhetorical questions:

>>[music]

>>"With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed

Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him

knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?" Nobody!

God is the Author and the Creator. All that ever was to be

known, is known, or will be known has been authored by God.

To have real knowledge then means to know what God already

knows. You can understand then why the Apostle Paul cried out:

>>"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge

of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past

finding out!" >>That means that everything that mankind has ever

known has originated from God. That also means that when we

finally get to Heaven and live with our omniscient Savior

forever and ever, we will also continually learn forever and

ever. We will never catch up to what God already knows because

what He knows is infinite. Isn't that exciting? Christians will

have an eternity of learning and growing ahead of us.

>>[music]

>>Not only is God the source of knowledge, but He is also the

keeper of knowledge. The Proverbs reveal that: >>"The

eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge." >>In other words,

God protects knowledge as if it were a commodity. Paul explained

the reason as, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of

wisdom and knowledge." God sees both wisdom and knowledge as

actual treasure. And, He doles out those treasures as He sees

fit, keeping the keys to certain scientific breakthroughs hidden

until He wants mankind to at last discover them. Bear in mind

that wisdom, like technology, is simply the practical application

of knowledge. Therefore, God as the keeper of wisdom is,

therefore, also the keeper of technology.

>>[music]

>>God may be the source and the keeper of knowledge,

but He's also generous in sharing what He knows.

God then becomes the provider of knowledge,

and so therefore technology. That means

that all those technologies that mankind has invented and taken

credit for, well, it can be argued that they in truth came

from the very mind of God, the Provider, when He saw fit to

release that knowledge. The Proverbs teach that: >>"For the

Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and

understanding." >>When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen, but

every time God talks, we learn something eternal. That's why

it's so important that we read God's Word. The author of

Ecclesiastes wrote: >>"For God gives wisdom and knowledge and

joy to a man who is good in His sight." >>And, how are we good

in His sight? How do we please God? By doing His will for,

"Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His

commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

That the all-knowing God of the universe is the source, keeper,

and provider of all knowledge is, to quote Donald Trump:

>>Sometimes they say huge. >>It's so huge, in fact, that I

must stop for a second and point this out again, for I'm going to

keep making the argument that the technology that we have

today was given to us by God only when He saw fit to give it

to us. Former President Obama once accused our nation's

companies saying: >>"You didn't build that. Somebody else made

that happen." >>He meant that without government's help, our

companies could never have ever made the widgets and services

that they make. Obama was wrong about the government part, but

he would have been correct if he had attributed the production of

our technology to God. God provided the knowledge and

inspiration to produce certain technologies at key times He had

designated, all because He is the provider of knowledge. The

prophet Daniel added to this vital point with: >>"He gives

wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have

understanding." >>Here we learn that God gives even more

knowledge, and the wisdom to apply that knowledge, to those

who know how to utilize knowledge. And, if you happen to

be knowledgeable and wise, it's because the Holy Spirit has made

you that way. Paul added: >>"For to one is given the word

of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge

through the same Spirit." >>God made us each with a certain

level of knowledge, skills, and wisdom; and we apply each of

those to fixing our problems and making stuff.

>>[music]

>>Did you know that God has made certain promises concerning

knowledge? Young Timothy learned from his mentor, Paul, that when

it comes to the knowledge about salvation that God, "desires all

men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Who

does God want to have the knowledge of the truth of

salvation and so be saved? All of mankind! Every one of us.

Whether people accept that saving knowledge or not, well,

that's up to them. But, when it comes to the knowledge

concerning salvation, God provides that freely. Titus

learned from Paul that the hope of eternal life in God, who

cannot lie, was actually promised before time began. God

promised the knowledge about salvation before the beginning

of time, and long before mankind had ever sinned.

>>[music]

>>We'd agree that there are many smart people out there who

clearly have a good amount of knowledge. And, we'd agree that

there are just as many people out there who clearly are

lacking in knowledge. What happens when people lack

knowledge? Proverbs tells us: >>"The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is

understanding." >>If you have no knowledge of the Holy One, what

do you really have? Well, nothing! Without a respect for

God, to seek Him and to learn about Him, our manmade knowledge

becomes absolutely worthless. This verse is an emphatic

declaration that the first step to attaining true knowledge must

begin with accepting the fact there is a God, if we are to

really know anything at all. If we don't first begin our quest

for attaining knowledge by acknowledging there is a God and

follow that by identifying Him as the God of the Bible, then we

end up with the opposite of knowledge, which is ignorance.

Take for instance Paul's warning to Timothy to: >>"Guard what

was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle

babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called

knowledge." >>So, there's godly knowledge, and then there's

mankind's knowledge. Mankind's knowledge is rarely built upon

God's knowledge, and so it ends up being, in reality, not even

knowledge at all. Mankind's knowledge, apart from God's

knowledge, is false and worthless. So-called knowledge

apart from God turns geniuses into ignoramuses. Ignorance has

consequences. God through the prophet Hosea bemoaned: >>"My

people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." >>Without knowing

Jesus Christ as our Savior, we die unforgiven of our sins and

face an eternal punishment for our rebellion against God in

Hell. Not knowing the source and provider of knowledge,

especially when it comes to the knowledge concerning salvation,

is literally killing us in this life and ultimately in Hell in

the next life.

>>[music]

>>Does knowledge have a destiny?

The Bible tells us so, and it's two-fold. First: >>"Whether

there is knowledge, it will vanish away." >>That manmade

earthly knowledge that we're so keen on stoking, which puffs up

so many egos and leads so many people astray from the saving

knowledge of Jesus Christ, well, it will all end, and someday

soon. And, second, that manmade earthly knowledge that we put so

much stock into, it will ultimately be replaced with:

>>"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory

of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." >>God's knowledge is

all that matters, for manmade knowledge will be replaced

totally, universally, and forever by the wonderful truth

of God - the source, the keeper, the provider of knowledge. And

that brings us back to my initial question: How do you

feel personally about technology? After all, now that

you know that God is the source and provider of all true

knowledge, and that knowing Him is the ultimate application of

that knowledge, ergo wisdom, then is using His knowledge to

create technology inherently a bad thing? I would argue that

since God Himself is the Creator who made His children in His

image to also be creators, and that He doles out knowledge as

He sees fit for the purpose of leading mankind to invent new

technologies, then technology is inherently good. After all,

don't we all have the need from time to time to fix our problems

and make stuff? When mankind shivered out there in the wild

in the cold of night, they figured out how to make a fire,

then control the fire, then safely bring the fire indoors.

When their legs grew weary from walking and saddle-sore from

riding, they invented the wheel and buggy, and later the monster

truck. When the heavy earthen pots became too burdensome to

carry back and forth from the well, they designed irrigation

systems, mastered glass blowing and created light-weight

pitchers, and eventually the thermos. When people got tired

of burning their hands over an open fire while cooking their

latest kill, they invented the charcoal grill and invited all

their friends over for a BBQ. And, when their backsides grew

red and raw from using pinecones in the outhouses, the Chinese,

God bless them, invented toilet paper. Who can really argue with

these technologies? These technologies, and so many more

like them, fix mankind's problems. So, technology, good

or bad? I'd conclude that technology is inherently good,

but with this caveat, in the wrong hands technology can

certainly can be misused.

>>[music]

>>When I was a kid back in the 1980s,

I faced some very serious dilemmas. The tough

decisions I was forced to make affected my life so monumentally

that, should I have ended up making the wrong choices, they

would have forever sent me down the dark path of social

obscurity. VHS or Betamax? Kodak 35mm film or Polaroid camera?

Sony Walkman or Sound Burger 33 1/3 RPM record player? Slide

deck or overhead projector? Commodore 64 or Apple Macintosh?

Nintendo NES or Sega Master System? Transformers or Gobots?

As you can see, the 80s were a minefield of new technologies in

which to navigate. Choose wrongly, and you may end up like

Donovan from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Unless you're a toddler playing with your mother's Android, you

have enough history to look back and see that technology has

changed a lot, a whole lot, over the last few decades. Let's not

even talk in decades, but in just years. The child attaining

adulthood today can with a shudder look back to 2002 when

there was no Wikipedia, no Gmail, no social media like

Facebook and Twitter, no cloud computing, no tablets, no smart

phones, and certainly no high-speed Internet

connectivity. Remember the sound a modem made when connecting a

surfer to the World Wide Web? >>[connecting to the modem

sounds] >>Well, ask a ten year old that question today and they

couldn't even tell you. Even Bob Dylan couldn't have imagined how

much things would be changing when way back in the stone ages

of 1963 he sang, "The Times They Are A-changin'." Times

a-changin' wasn't always the way things were, though. For

thousands of years of human history, life remained pretty

much the same. Sure, every 300 years or so the world eked out a

technological innovation that revolutionized the world, moving

humanity from say the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. But, for the

most part, limitations in travel left most inventions cordoned

off to a tiny corner of the world. But, then, AD 1454

finally arrived, and the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg

released the very first mobile, reusable type press, kind of

like an antique photocopier. At last knowledge could be mass

copied onto paper and be distributed far and wide. The

age of the printed book revolutionized the world, and

Gutenberg started with the fount of all knowledge, the Bible.

It'd be hundreds of years later before other monumental

inventions transformed society: Eli Whitney and the cotton gin.

Thomas Newcomen and the steam engine. Samuel Morse and the

telegraph. Thomas Edison and the light bulb. Alexander Graham

Bell and the telephone. Alexander Fleming and antibiotic

penicillin. Guglielmo Marconi and the radio. Philo Taylor

Farnsworth and the television. William Shockley and team the

transistor, and Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce the microchip. Were

you surprised to learn from your history classes that the most

world-changing technologies were invented in the last 150 years

or so? And, as we got closer to our own day and age, how each

technological discovery came about faster and faster and

faster, and how each grew more and more and more powerful, as

one invention was built on top of another on top of another?

This increasingly rapid acceleration of technological

discovery has been called the exponential curve. Our

technology has been experiencing an exponential growth as one

discovery builds upon another at an increasingly faster and

faster pace. Let's just look at the exponential curve of

computers, for instance. The old joke is, "How do you know when

your computer is obsolete?" The answer, "When you take it out of

the box." Well, that's not too far from the truth, though.

Computer companies tend to double computer processing

speeds every 18 months. Known as Moore's Law, this is just one

manifestation of the greater trend in how all technological

change happens to be occurring at an exponential rate. By 2023,

computers are expected to possess the processing speed

equivalent to the human brain. By 2045, in a mere quarter of a

century, Moore's Law predicts we will possess computers with the

computational ability equivalent to the entire human race! The

exponential curve is not just limited to computers. Other

technologies in biomedicine, space science, chemical

engineering, human engineering, and all the other sciences have

been climbing faster and steeper up their own exponential curves

with each and every passing day. It's expected that in the next

five years the world's technology will be 32 times more

advanced than it is today. It's also been estimated that 65% of

today's kindergarteners, once they finally graduate from

college, will ultimately end up working in completely new jobs

that, at this time, don't yet even exist. This exponential

curve in all areas of technology reminds me of another

exponential curve, one Jesus described in the Bible. The

Apostles once asked Jesus: >>"What will be the sign of your

coming, and of the end of the age?" >>Jesus answered by

providing ten signs to look out for that would reveal to us when

His second advent would be upon us. A marked increase in false

prophets and false messiah, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes,

famines, plagues, fearful events, signs in the sky, the

persecution of Christians, and the world's focus on Jerusalem

would encompass the first nine signs, with the tenth sign

involving the unnatural disasters that will directly

precede the Messiah's return. Jesus added that these signs

would increase in frequency and intensity, much like a woman's

birth pains, the closer we came to His return. Exponential

curves become, in and of themselves, their own sign that

marks the advent of the Messiah's return to this earth.

>>[music]

>>How does the intersection of the two

exponential curves, the end times signs curve and the

technology curve, indicate that Jesus Christ is returning soon?

Before we dive deep into answering that question, I want

to back it up a bit and confront a general misconception. Let's

take a moment to look at those technologies historically found

in the Bible, particularly way back in the very beginnings of

the Old Testament. Since we're looking at God's Word for the

answers to where technology is going, we first need to bust a

myth. Men like famed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson have scoffed

that, "God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance."

Atheists like him claim that the Bible is merely a "religious

book" filled with primitive people tromping around in the

mud and hating science. As we take a look into the Bible,

we'll see that's certainly not the case. The Bible is just full

of science. Let's, like H.G. Wells, hop into our time machine

and travel back to the age before the Flood. Let's look at

the era between the Creation, say 4000 BC, and 2348 BC when

Creation Scientists have calculated the Flood to have

occurred. This era covers some 1,652 years. Let's explore some

of the various technologies that early man used to fix their

problems and make stuff. >>"Then the Lord God took the man and

put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it." >>Even before

the fall of mankind, Adam and Eve were working the land.

Horticulture, botany, farming, and all the agrarian sciences

were being discovered and new technologies and tools invented

to handle agricultural work. And, we're talking about just

two people figuring all of this out. Our ancient parents must

have been incredibly intelligent people! >>"And they sowed fig

leaves together and made themselves coverings." >>As soon

as Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were walking

around in the buff, they ran off behind a tree and sewed some

clothes together. They didn't just lick and stick a bunch of

leaves all over themselves. They had at least already invented

the needle and the thread. They knew how to make textiles.

>>"So, He drove out the man and He placed cherubim at the east

of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every

way to guard the way to the Tree of Life." >>Even before Adam and

Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, weaponry like

swords already existed in the heavenly realm. Genesis records

that two angels flashed a flaming sword back and forth to

prevent mankind from accessing the Tree of Life. The first

couple had observed Heaven's arsenal before needing to learn

how to construct their own weaponry to ward off the

velociraptors. >>"Now Abel was a keep of sheep, but Cain was a

tiller of the ground." >>How did Abel shear his sheep? He had

to invent the clipper and the comb. And, did Cain dig with his

hands? No, he invented tools such as hoes, and rakes, and

sickles and other farm implementations. Cain wouldn't

have been able to farm very well without these tools. Even as

early as the second generation, humanity had developed tools.

>>"And he, Cain, built a city." >>After Cain had killed his

brother and was ordered by God to wander the earth, Cain went

right ahead and disobeyed God by building an entire city. Sure,

there may once have been people living in caves, but cavemen?

No! The earliest of peoples possessed the ability to build

buildings. >>"Tubal-cain an instructor of every craftsman in

bronze and iron." >>All the way back to the earliest chapters in

Genesis, mankind possessed the technology to mine metals,

refine the ores in furnaces, utilize measuring devices, and

work with blacksmith's tools. They constructed pickaxes, and

drills and chisels in order to mine the earth. >>"Make yourself

an ark of gopher wood." >>Noah was asked to build a boat, and

not just any boat, probably the most massive boat the world up

to that point had ever seen. Sure, the task took him one

hundred years or so to accomplish, but it still takes a

lot of technology to build a boat. Noah knew how to cut,

fell, and shape wood. He had the ability to measure lengths with

various measuring devices. He needed a crane. And, did Noah

even know how to sail? He would have needed some knowledge about

yachting. The ability to build and master ships was already in

existence by Noah's day. >>"And Noah began to be a famer, and he

planted a vineyard, then he drank of the wine." >>Almost as

soon as Noah got out of the ark, what did he do? He cultivated

vines, constructed vats, fermented grapes, and then got

passed-out drunk. Noah had earlier mastered how to distill

alcohol. People have long been searching for a stiff drink.

Even in those early days, back when people were starting all

over again after the Flood, Noah's descendants still had

problems that needed fixing and so they continued to make stuff.

>>"And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to

embalm his father. So, the physicians embalmed Israel."

>>Ancient Egypt had medical personnel who were proficient in

various plant remedies, chemistry, and healing

treatments. They even knew how to preserve dead bodies against

the dry desert elements. Egyptians were master doctors at

the time. Even some of today's medical methodology originated

back in those ancient lands. >>"And he took off their chariot

wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty." >>This very

first mention of the wheel in the Bible shows that ancient

people relied on this vital bit of technology to travel and

transport cargo. Ancient people weren't just exhausting

themselves from pushing pallets about but used wheel technology

to increase their productivity and get themselves home from

work faster in time for dinner. >>"Then the Lord said to Moses,

'Write this for a memorial in the book.'" >>By Moses' day,

people had already long mastered verbal and written languages,

recording words on clay tablets and antique forms of paper. Adam

actually had already invented language back when God had

commanded him to name everything. So, no, ancient

people didn't go around grunting and saying "Oog!" Language has

been around since the very beginning, and the written

language for thousands of years. Even today, writing continues to

be an advanced skill. >>"So, you shall speak to all who are

gifted artisans. And He has filled him with the spirit of

God in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge in all manner of

workmanship." >>These passages tell us the story of the

construction of the Tabernacle, which became the most ornate

tent ever seen in early Israel. Tent-making involves all sorts

of skills in weaving and design work, metallurgy, and textiles.

Here again, God who is the source of all knowledge,

provided His people with the skills and abilities to craft

such a magnificent pavilion. >> "Praise Him with the sound of

the trumpet! Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with

the timbrel and dance! Praise Him with stringed instruments

and flutes!" >>Have you ever learned how to play a musical

instrument? Just think about how complicated most musical

instruments are. They involve a combination of all sorts of

craftsman's skills, artistically implemented, in order to

construct a musical instrument. Plus, music is a language all of

its own, and a mathematically complicated one at that. So,

this whole belief that ancient man started off as a bunch of

uneducated, grunting primitives who pulled their women along by

their hair and lived in dank caves is pure nonsense.

Mankind's ability to combine intellect and knowledge in order

to discover and invent new technologies that would fix

their problems and make stuff has been around ever since God

first created Adam and Eve. After all, God is the source of

all of mankind's knowledge, which He shared with our ancient

ancestors.

>>[music]

>>Let's at last take a look at where the

technological exponential curve is leading us. Let's look at the

signs of technology revealed in the Bible that point to the fact

that we are now living in the end times and which indicate

that Jesus will soon return. The following are, I believe, nine

of the most prominent signs of technology. The first sign is

the sign of knowledge. Not only does this sign stand out

particularly as the most revealing out of all the

technological signs, but it also provides the foundation that the

others in this list build upon. We find the source text for this

prophecy in the book of Daniel. >>"But you, Daniel, shut up the

words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall

run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" >>Daniel had

been listening across many chapters to an angel pronouncing

a mind-blowing message from God. Through the angel, God revealed

the rise and the fall of great empires, leading eventually to a

global empire led by a world ruler whom the Apostle John

would later call the Antichrist. Of course, all these great

empires were still future from Daniel's perspective, so he was

quite perplexed over all he was hearing. Rubbing his forehead in

confusion, he asked the angel for an explanation. To his

dismay, no luck! The angel basically told Daniel that he

could never understand these prophecies because too much

needed to happen first. This would include a great increase

in mankind's knowledge which would mark the "time of the

end," or end times. Only those living in the end times and who

were "wise" would at last understand these prophecies and

recognize that the exponential increase in knowledge heralded

the soon return of the Messiah. Have you ever considered that

just a hundred years ago all that most people learned

throughout their entire lifetime equaled to one Sunday edition of

the New York Times? Our ability today to practically consume

that same amount of data on a daily basis shows just how far

mankind's knowledge has increased in so short an amount

of time. What technologies have helped us facilitate the advent

of this massive explosion in the growth of knowledge? You

probably answered "computers," and you'd be absolutely correct.

Not only has the exponential curve in all areas of computer

technology increased our knowledge to stupendous levels,

but computers have aided in all the major scientific discoveries

of our day. We don't need to cram all of those facts into our

brains anymore either, for the ability to easily store and

access data means we can continue to learn like we've

never learned before in all of human history. Today's

exponential increase in knowledge points to the fact

that Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>Notice in that same prophecy the angel

told Daniel that, besides a great

increase in knowledge, "many shall run to and fro." This

tremendous increase in travel would also occur in the same

context, that being the end times. God was revealing that

once people began to run to and fro, both farther and faster,

that those final years before Christ returned to set up His

Millennial Kingdom were finally upon us. Stop and think how

people traveled a single century ago. Most roads weren't even

paved yet and were traveled along by horse-drawn wagons.

Look at this video of San Francisco taken way back in

1906. You see far more horses than horseless carriages! People

rarely, if ever, left their hometowns. Animal domestication

and the early beginnings of decent roads, then bicycles,

balloons, boats, and simple automobiles were developing

technologies, but not widely received. Since the early part

of the twentieth century, mankind went on to invent

airplanes and jets, and we've even left the Earth's atmosphere

in rockets and space shuttles. It used to take months for

people to travel by boat overseas, but now we travel that

same distance abroad in mere hours. In today's world, people

are always on the move, just as the angel prophesied to Daniel.

Today's exponential increase in travel points to the fact that

Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

The third sign involves those technologies

which will make the Mark of the Beast the

terror of the world. The book of Revelation

forewarns: >>"He also forced everyone to receive a mark on

his right hand or his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell

except he had the mark." >>Let me provide you with a little

context here concerning the Mark of the Beast. A seven-year

Tribulation time period is coming when God will be pouring

out His wrath upon the world, just as He did during the days

of the Flood. Revelation reveals that at the mid-point of the

Tribulation, the Antichrist and his False Prophet will set up a

system of commerce whereby a person cannot buy or sell unless

they have sworn allegiance to the Antichrist. They do so by

writing his name or the number 666 on their right hand or

forehead. What kinds of technologies would be required

to control the world's commerce? The Apostle John could visibly

read the name and the number etched on the people who had

sworn their allegiance to the Antichrist, so some kind of

tattooing is certainly involved. Magnetic inks can store a

person's personal, financial, and health information; and then

digital readers would scan the ink in order to authorize

whether that person is allowed to buy or sell. Maybe a RFID

microchip is also involved, embedded in a rice-sized glass

case underneath the readable mark. Global commerce also needs

a way to collect all that countless terabytes of

information, and so would require the constructing of

giant data centers in order to store a planetary population

full of data. That data would need to move lightning-fast

using high speed Internet connectivity, complex ecommerce

systems, wireless networks, billion-dollar satellites, and

so on. The closest system we have today to the Mark of the

Beast is China's social credit score, which has already been

instituted in their more populated cities. The Chinese

government has positioned millions of cameras everywhere

in order to spy on their citizens. Computer algorithms

then rate the citizen's allegiance to the government,

granting benefits to those who are more loyal and restrictions

on those the computer deems as not being patriotic enough. Just

imagine that horribly restrictive system instituted on

a global scale! All of these ecommerce technologies, which

make today's buying and selling so much easier, are actually all

coming together so that the Antichrist can control all of

the world's commerce, and thereby control all of the

people under his rule. A lot of fear surrounds taking the Mark

of the Beast, and rightly so, for those who take it God says

will have lost their hope of becoming saved. But, we today

should have no fear of accidently taking the Mark, for

it will not be instituted until half-way through the

Tribulation, well after the Church has been raptured up to

Heaven. Therefore, don't sweat chips and barcodes and credit

cards. They have nothing to do with the Mark of the Beast...

yet. Today's global ecommerce network points to the fact that

Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>Sign number four is

actually a wonderful sign, for it's a positive one. This sign

prophesies that the entire world will be evangelized in the end

times. >>"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the

whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end

will come." >>God wants the Church to preach the Good News

of His salvation to the entire world, and so He's provided us

with powerful communication tools for sharing the Gospel.

Today's exponential curve in communications technology has

played a vital role in reaching more of the world for Christ

than has ever been reached in the previous nineteen centuries.

Technologies such as cameras and microphones, televisions and

tablets, smart phones and cell towers, communications networks

and satellites, the Internet and the airwaves, big media and

social media they all work together to form the largest

pulpit the world has ever known. And while all these breathtaking

technologies are leading people to Christ by the thousands each

day, the entire world, as Jesus referred to it, will not all

hear the Gospel before the Rapture happens. That blessing

awaits the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation.

Communications technologies will continue to spread the Gospel to

the post-Rapture world. In addition, God will send forth

144,000 Jewish evangelists, the Two Witnesses, and even the

Gospel Angel to preach throughout the whole world.

Every person on the planet will be evangelized by the end of the

Tribulation. God will leave no person without a chance to

choose His Son and so be saved. Today's communication

technologies point to the fact that Jesus Christ is returning

soon.

>>[music]

>>The fifth sign involves the living image of the

Antichrist. >>"And he performed great and miraculous signs, even

causing fire to come down. He was given power to give breath

to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak."

Revelation reveals that during the Tribulation the Antichrist

will order his False Prophet to set up an image of himself in

the newly built Jewish Temple and order the world to worship

him as if he were God. This is the same scenario all over again

when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar set up a statue

of himself and ordered everybody to worship it. Daniel tells of

how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused and so were

thrown into a fiery furnace. This is all going to happen

again during the Tribulation, but instead of chucking people

into ovens, the False Prophet will rain down fire and

incinerate those people who refuse to worship the

Antichrist. How will the False Prophet make fire fall down from

the sky and consume people? Assuming there's nothing

supernatural going on, let's look at the technologies

involved in producing pyrotechnics. Maybe John was

referring to jets or drones dropping bombs and other

incendiary weapons. And, satellite-based weapon systems,

such as missile or laser systems, could simply zap people

from high up in orbit. Remember that the Antichrist must use

technology because he is a counterfeit. His False Prophet

will not be a real miracle maker, and so will use today's

military technology to destroy people with just the touch of a

button. What's so peculiar about the story of this image is that

John reveals that it was given life. Nebuchadnezzar's statue

didn't get up and walk around and sing and dance and all that;

it didn't even move. But, the image of the Antichrist will

appear to be alive! Assuming there's nothing supernatural

involved in making the illusion of a living statue, such as the

demonic possession of an object, statues after all still cannot

move. They lack the proper joints and musculature. What

kinds of technology could the False Prophet use then to make

an image move? John may have been the very first person to

watch television. The Antichrist's image may appear at

regular intervals on a person's TV set or mobile device, and

once broadcast, everyone is expected to fall down and

worship his image. Or, the image may involve robotic and

artificial intelligence, AI technologies. How about a fully

functional hologram? Japan especially has been hard at work

developing both robotics and holographic technologies. Why,

for years now, one of Japan's biggest pop stars has been

Hatsune Miku who is a fully interactive hologram that sings

in live concerts. With the proper Alexa-like technology,

the Antichrist's living image, be it robot or hologram, could

fully interact with his adoring acolytes. Today's weapons and

robotic technologies point to the fact that Jesus Christ is

returning soon.

>>[music]

>>The sixth sign of technology that

points to the fact that we are living in the end times involves

a great population explosion. Revelation reveals: >>"Then the

sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates,

and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from

the east might be prepared." >>Prepare the way for what?

>>"The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million.

I heard their number." >>And, what happens to this army?

>>"And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and

blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles."

>>In context, as the Tribulation winds mercifully to a close, the

Antichrist's empire begins to crumble due to a number of

rebellions led by various sub-rulers. Just as the

Antichrist squashes a rebellion in Africa, he must turn his

loyal forces north to deal with a rebellion coming from the

East. Both armies meet in the Valley of Armageddon located in

northern Israel. While these armies are busy slaughtering

each other, they will see Jesus and his armies returning out of

the heavens and unite against Him. The King of Kings will

easily defeat the world's armies just by speaking. The blood from

the vanquished armies will flow as high as a horse's head for a

staggering 180 miles! By the end of the Tribulation, most of the

world's population will have been wiped out, and still these

prophesied Kings of the East can amass a 200-million-man army.

This prophecy must have just blown John's mind, for in his

first century day, there were only 200 million people living

on the whole earth. How then does the human population get so

large that, despite the massive death toll of the Tribulation,

the East can assemble such a staggeringly large army? How do

we have the billions that we now have today? The answer:

medicine. As each successive generation produces more and

more people, aided by medicines that greatly reduce infant

mortality and keep people healthier and allow us to live

longer, we've reached a massive global population numbering

nearly eight billion people. China and India have been able

to mount a 200 million soldier army ever since the 1960s, and

so could easily do so during the Tribulation. The exponential

curve strikes again! Today's medical technologies point to

the fact that Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>The seventh sign of technology involves

the inevitable release of the world's

nuclear arsenal. Both the Old and New Testaments

describe the destruction of much of the world by a series of

nuclear cataclysms. >>"Then behold, at eventide, trouble!

And before the morning, he is no more." >>In context, Isaiah and

Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of the oldest city

on the planet, Damascus, by Israel suddenly and in just one

night. How do you destroy an entire city in just one night?

Israel will have to use a nuclear bomb. >>"Men's hearts

failing them from fear and the expectation of those things

which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens

will be shaken." >>In this verse Jesus prophesied that the

horrors unleashed during the Tribulation will actually cause

heart attacks. >>"The sky receded like a scroll, rolling

up, and every mountain and island was removed from its

place." >>Revelation adds that "the kings of the earth, the

great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,

every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and

in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and

rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on

the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of

His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" The Sixth Seal

Judgment uncannily describes what a nuclear blast looks like,

and how the people will hide in caves to escape all the

destruction and radiation these bombs will rain down upon them.

>>"The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled

with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the

trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up."

>>The First Trumpet Judgment describes yet another cataclysm

that sounds very much nuclear in nature. >>"By these three

plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and the

smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths."

>>During the Sixth Trumpet Judgment, demonic creatures will

be let loose to incinerate millions with their nuclear

fire-like breath. >>"And this shall be the plague with which

the Lord will strike all the people who fought against

Jerusalem: their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on

their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and

their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths." >>Zechariah

describes what will happen to the Antichrist's armies upon the

Messiah's return. No nukes may be involved, but the weapon of

the Messiah's own words will produce the same effect as the

setting off of a nuclear bomb. Many of God's judgments during

the Tribulation sound like a first century man's attempt to

explain a nuclear holocaust. Many believe that the two atomic

bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II

have been the only atomic weapons released, but no, in the

last 70-plus years over 2,500 nuclear warheads have been set

off in testing. Nine countries have stockpiled an estimated

15,000 nuclear weapons, with 1,800 always standing at alert

and prepped for immediate launch. The fact that the world

hasn't already annihilated itself in a nuclear holocaust

proves that God's restraining hand is holding mankind's worst

destructive proclivities at bay. But, that time will end when

God's restraining influence will be taken away, along with the

Church, at the Rapture. During the first year or so after the

Tribulation begins, half of the world's population will perish.

A nuclear holocaust is indeed about to be unleashed upon this

world, and one day soon. The technologies involved in the

making of nuclear weapons are among the most complex

technologies ever developed. Heavy metal mining and

refinement, nuclear containment, nuclear plants, submarines and

silos for delivery, missiles for deployment, all these

super-duper advanced technologies have been in

development for decades. The world sleeps blissfully unaware

of the constant threat of nuclear self-annihilation.

Today's nuclear technologies point to the fact that Jesus

Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>The eighth sign of technology involves

our cutting-edge space science

technologies, particularly the International Space Station or

the ISS, that we utilize in our attempt to explore outer space.

The source verse reads: >>"How you are fallen from heaven, O

Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground,

you who weakened the nations!" >>Other translations of this

Isaiah passage render Lucifer's name as the Morning Star. During

the Tribulation, Satan - the Morning Star - will possess and

be worshiped through the Antichrist. Because the earth

will face utter annihilation due to God's 21 judgments as

described in Revelation, I've often wondered where Satan and

the Antichrist would feel safe and able to rule unimpeded,

insulated from all the disasters ravaging the planet. As the

International Space Station orbits over the earth, it can

best be viewed from the ground during the mornings and looks

like a bright star sailing slowly across the heavens.

That's lead the ISS to be nicknamed, the Morning Star. How

would one escape a world that is being annihilated, to sit safely

from on high, in order to rule over the world? Most likely from

high up in the orbit. The eighth sign of technology I

consider a tentative sign, though. I have no biblical proof

that the Antichrist will rule from up in orbit. But, with the

space station costing somewhere between 150 billion and half a

trillion dollars, the ISS must have more of a long-term purpose

than just seeing how earthworms float. Today's space science

technologies point to the fact that

Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>The ninth and final sign of technology in this

list actually has to do with technology's limitations. Have

you ever considered that our technology has limits? It does!

For one, supplies of rare earth metals are running dangerously

low. Did you know that the computer, tablet, and smart

phone, that are surely an arm's length away from you, are made

out of rare earth metals? The metals used to make these

advanced technologies, those technologies that we've become

so dependent on, can only be found in certain places, and the

supplies are quickly dwindling. Nearly 95% of these metals can

only be found in hostile countries such as China and

Afghanistan. Unless alternatives can be synthesized, our ability

to build laptops, cell phones, TV's, you name it, is quickly

going to disappear. Once the limited amounts of these rare

earth metals run out, so will much of today's technology.

Also, are there limits to how far our technology will take us

into outer space? It appears, according to the Bible, not very

far. The prophet Zechariah prophesied that all the nations

of the earth will be gathered against Jerusalem in the last

days. >>"All the nations of the earth are gathered against her."

>>Once Jesus returns, He will defeat the armies of the

Antichrist gathered around the city of Jerusalem. And once

these armies are destroyed, Jesus will then send His angels

to collect every single person and gather them together for

what's called the Sheep-Goat Judgment. Since all the remnants

of the nations will stand before Jesus Christ and be judged, that

means there cannot be people living on space stations, and

lunar colonies, and Martian colonies, and extra-earth

settlements, or safely tucked away on spaceships traveling

beyond our solar system. The gathering of every human being

against Jesus at Armageddon, and then again at the Sheep-Goat

Judgment, means that humanity will still be confined to the

earth. Our optimistic hope of settling outer space will not be

happening, at least in this age, according to these limits set in

the Bible. Technology during the Tribulation will have also

reached its limit. If four prophesied catastrophic

earthquakes shake the world apart, what will happen to all

the mountains? They will be leveled. What happens to cell

towers during earthquakes? They fall over. What happens when

solar flares burn the sky? The radiation destroys the

satellites and interferes with communications. What happens

when the oceans are filled with blood and dead sea creatures

clog the waters? Ships can't bring oil and goods to port, and

so distribution channels are disrupted. I could go on and on

with disaster scenarios, but you know that even in the tamest of

rain storms our power companies struggle to keep the lights on.

Now, imagine the whole world ravaged by endless natural,

manmade, and divine disasters. That's why I believe that by the

end of the Tribulation most of our technology, mankind's last

crutch and our own Tower of Babel, will be rendered useless.

The prophets indicated that by the end of the Tribulation, the

survivors will be out fighting with bows and arrows and horses

again. Certainly, there must still be tanks and other

technological weapons of war that I'm sure the Antichrist

will protect. But still, God appears to eliminate much of the

world's technology so that by the end of the Tribulation

desperate people are left with nothing to kill each other with

but primitive weaponry. Knowledge, travel, the Mark of

the Beast, evangelism, the image of the Antichrist, a great

population explosion, nuclear weapons, space science, and now

the limitations of our technology, they all today point

to the fact that Jesus Christ is returning soon.

>>[music]

>>I hope I've made my case that the sign of technology, which

is merely one of many categories of end times signs, points to

the fact that Jesus Christ is returning soon. Knowing this

wonderful day will inevitably arrive, how then should we apply

this truth to our own lives? Is there an App for that? First,

when you have at last accepted the fact that the Lord could

return at any moment, and by looking through the filter of

the Bible at all these wondrous yet fearful events playing out

before us, you will begin to recognize the times in which we

are living. You will be comforted knowing that God's got

it all under control, that He has a great big plan in place,

and that God's children play a vital role in that plan. Life,

therefore, isn't meaningless, but purposeful. Christians are

called to serve God in these dark times, so serve Him with

all our unique talents, gifts, time, money, and experience.

For those of you who haven't yet accepted Jesus Christ as your

Savior, but now recognize that we are living in the end times,

the realization should act like an alarm clock buzzing you awake

to the fact that the world doesn't have much time left to

it. We are all living on borrowed time. Therefore,

embrace the fact that God loved the world so much that He gave

His one and only Son, and that whosoever believes in Him should

not perish, but have eternal life. Respond to the Holy

Spirit's leading, praying from your heart in faith and

repentance something like: "Dear, Jesus, please forgive me

of my sins and be my Lord and Savior." And, He will do just

that. Jesus Christ will free you of the guilt of your sins and

transform you into a brand new person. He will also grant you

the blessed hope of knowing that, one day soon, Jesus is

coming to take you up to Heaven to live with our Heavenly Father

forever. Our Lord, our Savior, the one who loves us so much and

who calls us His children, He has an eternal plan for your

life. Embrace it! Don't live another minute without having

accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. And, second,

knowing that our Savior will be returning soon, consider how you

can utilize all of the great technologies that God has given

us to evangelize the world for Jesus Christ. After all, did you

know that as of 2018, 88% of the people in the United States

access the Internet? China's Internet access has quickly

grown from 10% to 54% of the population in just a decade.

Overall, you can now reach out to 55% of the entire world

through the Internet, and that number is climbing up an

exponential curve as well. Even language barriers may be a thing

of the past, as translation software continues to improve.

That means over half of the world is now available at your

fingertips. So, go, get online! And, share the Good News about

Jesus Christ and His soon return.

>>[music]