Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXVII--Coming Soon: Things that Seem So Absurd, Part 3)
On the horizon looms “things not seen as yet,” and they are preparing to sound. The book of Revelation speaks of the image of the beast to which all men will be forced to bow, worship, and obey. Is there something in the wings?Audio Options: | MP3 |
Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXVII--Coming Soon: Things that Seem So Absurd, Part 3)
Jesus said in Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” The question might sound facetious, but is it?
When the disciples feared for their lives on a stormy sea, they awoke Christ. Mark 4:40:
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
He said, “How is it that ye have no faith?” Jesus expected His followers to calm the storms when needed.
Matthew 14:26-31:
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Jesus said to Peter, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Jesus expects His followers to walk on water when needed.
John 14:12-13:
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” Jesus expects His followers to do the miraculous works that He did—and even greater.
In order to participate in this kind of faith, I must strive to walk in holiness and love, and live in Hebrews 11:6:
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
This kind of marvelous faith is found in Christ Jesus—in believing upon His name. It begins here and grows as we seek His face and stand upon His promises. Jesus Christ expects our expectations to be big—very big.
Have you yet to believe upon this Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul? Have you been born-again? Romans 10:10:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Are you ready to believe and to be freed of all of sin’s empty bondage? You can do it today. Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Revelation 16:16-20:
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
GOD SAID, II Thessalonians 2:8:
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
GOD SAID, Malachi 4:1-3:
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
MAN SAID: The Bible passages written thousands of years ago can’t be true! If they’re true, then there’s a God—but, of course, that can’t be true.
Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature article 765 that will once again certify the absolute inerrancy of God’s Holy Bible—miracles and all. These features are archived here in text and streaming audio to support the power of the children of God and for the purpose of opening up a saving dialogue with the lost sons and daughters of Adam. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. Thank you for coming. May God reward you and your house with Light and Truth.
GodSaidManSaid employs a four-part proof text to establish the inerrancy of God’s Holy Word found in the majority-text. One of the four platforms is prophecy. Prophecy establishes the supernatural nature of the Bible. Thousands of years before the event occurs, God foretells of it—not vague, foggy predictions, but a precise framing of coming events, albiet pronouncements ever so strange and bizarre—predictions for which only He who knows the end from the beginning could correctly declare. When written, many of the Biblical prophecies were relegated, both then and by today’s anti-Christs, to the category of “wild-eyed fanaticism,” but today’s science is painting another picture.
The underlying theme of this series is “things not seen as yet.” Hebrews 11:7:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid series “Coming Soon: Things that Seem So Absurd:”
Regularly on GodSaidManSaid, we cite strange, even bizarre, pronouncements made by the Bible thousands of years ago—claims roundly criticized by carnal academia—that today have not only entered the realm of scientific consideration, but even very real possibility. Does it seem reasonable to you that Creator God would have inside knowledge concerning the wisdom of His handiwork? Should one be surprised that His Words, given unto us in His Holy Bible, would reveal classic insights into the very makeup of all that’s living and dead, of all that’s spiritual and physical, of all that’s invisible and visible?
Consider a few Biblical pronouncements once thought of as wild-eyed exaggerations embraced by Christian zealots:
- The Bible states that one father (Adam) and one mother (Eve) are the parents of the entire human race. Evolution’s original position was that mankind had no specific origin, but simply popped up all over the globe. That is until the field of microbiology established that all humans alive today are the children of Y-Chromosome Adam and mtDNA Eve—one father, one mother.
- The Word of God teaches that Adam and Eve were created immortal but, because of their fall from grace, the law of sin and death began to reign over them and all their progeny. Today, the once-ridiculed word immortality has entered the medical lexicon as futuristic possibility.
- Before the Flood in the days of Noah, the Bible’s average lifespan was 911 years. How foolish it sounded, but today, the field of gerontology—the scientific study of old age—is toying with the idea of 1,000 years.
- Adam is the first to be anesthetized when Eve was created from his rib. Genesis 2:21-22:
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Can you see some similarities to today’s concept of cloning?
God lists a “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 11, God’s faith champions of old, who stood in faith in the face of utter contradiction. Verse 7 speaks of Noah:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Noah believed God’s Word to him concerning strange and bizarre “things not seen as yet.” He believed God’s Word that man’s average lifespan of 911 years would only top out at 120 years in the future—something science knows as the Hayflick Effect. Noah believed God concerning a strange thing called rain. The first record of rain begins during the first day of the first 40 days and 40 nights Noah and his family were in the Ark during the global flood. Prior to the days of Noah, Genesis 2:5-6 reads:
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
According to Christian geology, islands and mountain ranges were formed during the flood of Noah as tectonic plates crashed into one another, a result of the breaking-up of the great fountains of the deep in combination with the devastating weight of torrential rains, winds, and waves. Noah believed God concerning “things not seen as yet,” but surely seen they are: all over the earth.
Jesus said at His returning it would be as it was in the days of Noah and “things not seen as yet” will come to pass. [End of quotes]
Thus far under the “strange and bizarre” column, we addressed:
• Israel restored as a nation in 1948 after being expunged from the world’s geography for millennia.
• As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be at Christ’s return.
• The great taking-up of the church to meet Christ in the clouds, DNA, and the dead.
• The great taking-up and science fiction’s alternative “mothership.” When the great taking-up occurs, a huge human evacuation will happen and explanations will be required. Consider this excerpt from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XVIII):”
The other day, while driving down the road listening to the radio, an "expert" on the subject of panspermia and "spaceship abduction" was being interviewed. He mentioned one of the leaders in the antichrist movement who recently postulated that, at a time in the near future, a global spaceship abduction of about 20,000,000 people would occur. This group of people was being removed because they were guilty of breaking the Earth''s harmony. This individual actually used the phrase "twinkling of an eye." Consider I Corinthians 15:51-52:
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Additional Points Discussed:
• Mountain-making and the undoing of them. Every wall falls down flat and islands disappear.
• Major fault lines directly under the Mount of Olives.
• Monster tsunamis, waves raging, and heart attacks.
• At Christ’s return at Armageddon, the heavens roll back like a scroll—and science theorizes that space can be torn.
• Global commerce, 666, and a chip in every forehead or right hand.
• A chip and one device to cure all disease.
• A new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven 1500 miles cubical and space cities.
On the horizon looms “things not seen as yet,” and they are preparing to sound. The book of Revelation speaks of the image of the beast to which all men will be forced to bow, worship, and obey. Is there something in the wings? The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXI—The Image of the Beast):”
The world is addicted to the internet and this addiction is growing. If you are in the business world, what would you do without the internet? Many businesses would simply fold up and the rest would be set back about 20 years, when the workplace was slower and more costly. And it’s more than just the business community. People are chained to their digital devices, and smartphones are leading the charge. Smartphone owners robotically respond to their every prompt. Consider the addictive hold that social media like Facebook has on the population at large.
An individual’s connectedness to the internet has opened up a vast data industry all about you—everything about you. If knowledge is power—and it is, then all knowledge is all power—even eternal life.
Jennifer Golbeck, Ph.D., published a feature in the September/October 2014 issue of Psychology Today. Several excerpts follow:
On my local Washington, D.C. streets, I am constantly watched. The city government alone has hundreds of traffic and surveillance cameras. And then there are the cameras in parks, office buildings, ATM lobbies, and, of course, around every federal building and landmark. On an average day, my image is captured by well over 100 cameras.
When I’m online and using social media, a wealth of information about my interests and routines is collected behind the scenes. I employ an add-on on my browser that blocks companies from tracking my searches and visits. In just one recent month, it reported blocking nearly 16,000 separate attempts to access my data online.
I’m monitored offline, too. Anytime I use a reward card at a supermarket, department store, or other retail outlet, my purchase is recorded, and the data either sold to other marketers or used to predict my future purchases and guide me to make them in that store. Department store tracking based on purchase records can even conclude that a woman is pregnant and roughly when she is due.
My own devices report on me. I carry an iPhone, which tracks and records my every movement. This will help me find my phone if I ever lose it (I haven’t yet), but it also provides Apple with a treasure trove of data about my daily habits.
Data on any call I place or email I send may be collected by the National Security Agency. Recent reports have revealed that the federal intelligence arm may be collecting metadata on phone and Internet traffic—when Americans communicate and with whom, if not the actual content of those communications. As Barton Gellman, Pulitzer Prize-winning intelligence reporter for the Washington Post, said during a recent panel discussion, it’s not that the NSA knows everything about everyone, but that “it wants to be able to know anything about anybody.”
There’s no question our privacy has been eroded with the help of technology. There’s also little question that those most responsible aren’t much inclined to retreat. As Scott McNealy, cofounder of Sun Microsystems, famously said: “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”
Modern surveillance does have some clear benefits. Cameras in public spaces help the authorities detect crime and catch perpetrators, though they catch us in the dragnet as well. Cell phone tracking and networked late-model cars allow us to be found if we become lost or injured, and mapping apps are incredibly useful for directing us to where we want to go. These features save lives—but all of them constantly transmit our location and generate a precisely detailed record of our movements. [End of quotes]
J. Lanier, in the November 2013 issue of Scientific American, had this to say in the feature titled, “How Should We Think about Privacy:”
The point of this thought experiment, which has a long pedigree in science fiction, is that computing and statistics could effectively simulate mind control. It is arguable that a regime of cloud-driven recommendation engines in ever-more intimate portable devices could get us part of the way in the next few years to the mind-control scenario just described.
With enough data and computation, it is possible to extrapolate the future of a security, the behavior of a person, or really any smoothly varying phenomenon in the world—for a time.
Similarly, when selling a system that gathers information about citizens, a government agency—or more likely, a private contractor serving an agency—might make colorful claims about catching criminals or terrorists before they strike by observing and analyzing the entire world. The terminology of such programs (“Total Information Awareness,” for instance) reveals a desire for a God-like, all-seeing perch. [End of quote]
Keep in mind that if knowledge is power, then all knowledge is all power—even eternal life. Watch as today’s all-knowing technology keeps nipping at heavenly places. The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature Another Way and the Rapture of the Nerds:
The headline in the June 23, 2014 issue of Time magazine, written by Jessica Roy, reads, “Rapture of the Nerds.” The subhead reads, “A new religion promises immortality—as a data file.” Several paragraphs follow:
In the backyard of a cottage overlooking the water here, about 75 miles southeast of Orlando, two poles with metal slats shaped like rib cages jut out from the ground. Indistinguishable from heat lamps or fancy light fixtures, they’re actually satellite dishes, but not the kind for TV. They dispatch “mindfiles,” the memories, thoughts, and feelings of people who wish to create digital copies of themselves and fling them into space with the belief that they’ll eventually reach some benevolent alien species. Welcome to the future. Hope you don’t mind E.T. leafing through your diary.
The beach house, backyard, and memory satellites are managed by 31-year-old Gabriel Rothblatt, a leader of Terasem, a new sort of religion that seeks answers to very old kinds of questions with an abiding faith in the transformative power of technology. Gabriel’s parents, Bina and Martine Rothblatt founded Terasem a decade ago, naming it after a futuristic religion in Octavia Butler’s 1993 sci-fi novel Parable of the Sower. (Martine knows a thing or two about satellites: she started Sirius XM radio in 1990, when she was living as a man named Martin.)
“For us, God is in the making by our collective efforts to make technology ever more omnipresent, omnipotent, and ethical,” Martine says. “When we can joyfully experience techno-immortality, then God is complete.”
Although one of Terasem’s core tenets is “God is technological,” Gabriel insists that it’s not to be taken literally. Instead, it’s meant to convey the notion that the way you envision God directly influences your life. But when the possibilities you see in future technology—like omnipotence and the ability to resurrect the dead—resemble those that mainstream religions ascribe to God, it’s less of a leap to suggest that technology becomes religion and God becomes a computer. [End of quote]
Don’t think that what you’ve just read is just a kook fringe. An entire field of study is emerging called Transhumanism. The May 2014 issue of Popular Science had a multi-page feature titled, “The Master Code.” They were writing about neuroscientist Randal Koene and his quest to emulate the human brain. Several excerpts follow:
Koene had come to explain to the assembled crowd how to live forever. “As a species, we really only inhabit a small sliver of time and space,” Koene said when he took the stage. “We want a species that can be effective and influential and creative in a much larger sphere”
Koene’s solution was straightforward: He planned to upload his brain to a computer. By mapping the brain, reducing its activity to computations, and reproducing those computations in code, Koene argued, humans could live indefinitely, emulated by silicon. “When I say emulation, you should think of it, for example, in the same sense as emulating a Macintosh on a PC,” he said. “It’s kind of like platform-independent code.” [End of quote]
What is now emerging as a new science/digital god, is turning into a stranglehold.
When Apostle John describes the prophetic vision in the book of Revelation, chapter 13, it’s critical to remember, when attempting to understand the prophecy, that at that time, there were no such things as electricity, audio recordings, television, digital imaging, the computer, the internet, and all of the modern technologies we know today. In Revelation 13:1, John speaks of a beast with seven heads and ten horns. In verse three, one of the heads is wounded unto death, but was healed. This is speculation, but the supposition of this feature is that the beast wounded unto death and given life is an all-seeing, all-knowing, digital internet product that is fully forming now. The wound unto death that was healed could have been the Snowden-NSA scandal that reverberated around the earth, causing major concerns from the general population to the earth’s heads of governments. The world was appalled! The U.S. has the ability to listen to virtually every phone conversation and read every email on this earth. Knowledge is power. Or the wound could be inflicted by terrorists successfully striking major world electrical power grids that would bring the world to a halt.
Revelation 13:11-15:
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
The Apostle sees the other beast who arises giving power, giving an image and giving a voice to the beast that was wounded and survived. And all were made to worship and obey the image of the beast.
The digital god is arising with destruction in its wings. This all-seeing, all-knowing beast also has a mark—an identifier—a logo—by which all commerce on the earth will be transacted. Without the mark, you will not be able to buy or sell. Surely Bible prophecies are being fulfilled in the now and future fulfillments once thought “strange and bizarre” are now ever so possible. Bible believers are lining up at the departure gate. If you’ve ever run the race, it’s time to run it now. Allow me to reiterate. Listen to verse 15 again:
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Imagine a painting of a person’s head. Remember that at the time of John’s prophecy, motion pictures and audio recordings did not exist. The second beast had the power to make the image of the first beast, “whose deadly wound was healed,” come to life—living motion and speech. The apostle prophesies of “things not seen as yet.” Today, the possibilities are apparent everywhere. [End of quotes]
One colossal event is eminent and that is the returning of Jesus Christ at the dreaded battle of Armageddon. The Bible declares that the heavens will roll back like a scroll and the King of Glory (note: glory is light) will return with His saints and destroy the wicked armies of the antichrist with “the brightness of His coming.” II Thessalonians 2:8:
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Jesus Christ is known as the bright and morning star. Revelation 22:16:
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
The earth’s response to Christ’s returning at the Mount of Olives will be a devastating, globe-changing earthquake: Rocks will turn molten like wax under His feet (Micah 1:3-4, Nahum 1:5) and this will be the end to all those who fight against Him. Zechariah 14:12:
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
The redeemed that return with Christ will discern between the wicked and the good—and they will most literally tread upon the dead who have been reduced to ashes as a result of Christ’s return. Malachi 4:1-3:
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
Today’s nuclear bombs can have such an effect and some speculate that these prophecies could be fulfilled by such a means. Jesus Christ said His return will be like it was in the days of Noah—man’s hand was not found in that judgment and it will not be needed here.
Hebrews 11:7:
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
“As it was in the days of Noah.”
GOD SAID, Revelation 16:16-20:
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
GOD SAID, II Thessalonians 2:8:
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
GOD SAID, Malachi 4:1-3:
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
MAN SAID: The Bible passages written thousands of years ago can’t be true! If they’re true, then there’s a God—but, of course, that can’t be true.
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
GodSaidManSaid, “Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XVIII)”
GodSaidManSaid, “Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXI—The Image of the Beast)”
GodSaidManSaid, “Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXVII—Things that Seem So Absurd, Part 1)”
Additional Audios
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXVIII -- Word Changing and 666 Are Ready for Prime Time)
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday Series
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXIX)—The Chip Comes Knocking at Your Door)
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXVII -- 666)
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XLIX -- Wormwood Updated)
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXI -- The Image of the Beast)
- Eternal Punishment and Hell
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXIX) -- Four Blood Moons
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update XXXV)—Figs and Wormwood
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update LIV--Has the Tribulation Begun?)
- Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update LXIII--The Red Heifer is On the Ground)
Power Verse
1 Samuel 15:22 (KJV)
And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.