I'd like to take some time this evening and catch up a little bit on some of the tech that points to the second coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We're not looking for tech, we're not looking for, you know, death and destruction, we're not even looking for the Antichrist, we're looking to and for Jesus Christ. He's the one. Especially as the church, if you're part of the church, the really the thing we're looking for is the rapture of the church. And man, what a glorious day that's going to be, there's so many problems that I deal with today that'll be answered at that very moment.
I'll have no more problems once the rapture of the church happens, thank the Lord for that. But until then, we are instructed to look at the signs of the times, and we're not going to be children of the darkness, Paul told us there in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, but we're children of the day, children of the light, not like the world that's in darkness. They think they know what's going on, but they're walking around in darkness. But we get to be children of the light, and we, Paul says kind of rhetorically, we don't even have to talk about this, because you guys know, Paul says, the times and the seasons. Well, how will we know the times and seasons? To be watchmen, to be watching what's going on, and the Bible tells us over and over, Jesus told us over and over to watch and be ready.
So that's what these monthly prophecy updates are about, and you know, there's a lot of things to watch. I'm thankful for some of the Bible prophecy people out there that do them daily, or every other day, or, because you really can, you know, be watching about so much what's going on around the world. But these once a monthers are kind of more of a high level, just kind of, let's just keep our eyes on what's going on, and talk about what the scriptures say. One of the things I think that's kind of fun about the Bible is, especially when it comes to prophecy, there's implication of technology. And you know, you think, well, how can the Bible imply tech, when there weren't computers or technology, really, per se? I mean, there was kind of versions of technology back in the first century, but we wouldn't really even call it tech. But how does that apply, biblically speaking? Well, I think there's implications in things like, I remember, you know, I remember when in Vietnam we started broadcasting from the battlefield, and we started seeing same day video footage, you know, of the war and the conflict over there in Vietnam, and that was kind of a big deal.
You know, before that, like in World War II, I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember those days, but remember the reels, you'd go see a movie, you know, at the movie theater. But before the movie played, then they'd show the reels, and there were guys filming, you know, some of the things, you know, on Midway Island and stuff like that, and they'd get like weeks later, like it was weeks later, they'd get the information. I remember though, I remember the whole Blackhawk down thing and all that. I remember Geraldo Rivera and some of the guys broadcasting in real time, like streaming in real time, them going in and, you know, and I think that what was kind of cool about that for us Bible prophecy people, I know that seems weird probably if you're 25 years old or less, you're like, what are you talking about, Brett? But we would read the book of Revelation when it talks about the two witnesses, and how all the world would see them killed all at one time. They would see that with their very eyes in real time.
And, you know, but before 1960, we all, how is that possible, like how is the world going to see all together these two witnesses that'll be killed, and when they come back three days later and say we're back, and, you know, like how's the world going to see that all at one time? Well, now it's easy. You know, people are live streaming with their phones, for crying out loud, like it's not even CNN or, you know, the people that are on the big news organization now, it's just people pulling out their phones and putting it on Instagram, live Instagram or live Facebook or live whatever. And so that's an example of how technology answers the questions that we have that the Bible sort of puts out there. And so there's a lot of tech implied in the Bible, and it's kind of fun to see, you know, what we can see that makes some of these seemingly impossible things in Bible prophecy suddenly become very possible, and actually more than doable even today.
I'll show you a few of those things. But when it comes to technology, you know, Daniel the prophet, I like what he started out, you know, in Daniel chapter 1, you know, just being a young guy and receiving some good things as a young man. But at the end of his book, he says, you know, the Lord spoke to Daniel at the very end of this very intriguing prophecy, he says, but thou Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
I believe the sealing up of Daniel, why would God seal up the book of Daniel? Because it really wasn't for his time period. Most of what Daniel received, he had no idea, remember, Daniel would hear a word and a prophecy that had to do with the last days and end times, and Daniel just he was astonished and didn't understand what he heard. Does anybody remember when he didn't understand what did he do? Anybody remember? Bam, that's it.
He went about the king's business. That's what when you read the Bible and you don't understand the Bible, like, man, I don't understand. So again, no problema. Just go and serve the King of kings and Lord of lords and do the business of the Lord. And guess what? The Lord will show you in time the things that we don't understand right now.
I love how the Bible works like little time bombs that go off, you know, and, and the more you read the Bible, you kind of go, wow, I don't understand that. But then you just keep reading because eventually maybe 10 years from now, you go, boom, you'll read one other passage and it'll totally connect the dots for you. Or even in prophecy, what's going on in the world, those little time bombs kind of go off too.
So Daniel was to seal up the words of his book, because it'd be a long time before the end. But when would it be unsealed is the idea, even to the time of the end, many will run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. And the word increase there in the Hebrews is kind of like an exponential curve. Knowledge will increase exponentially is the idea there. And boy, we've seen that if you've ever studied about science and invention, and even words that we create because of things we're inventing in real time, like science and knowledge has just spiked in these, in these modern times, compared to the old days, how long it took for things to change.
So knowledge will be increased and people run to and fro. It was Sir Isaac Newton, who was a Bible reader and believer in God. He understood by reading, you know, the original Hebrew of this text, that men would have to travel to run to and fro the ideas of back and forth on the earth.
But in a short amount of time is kind of, you get that from the implication. And so Voltaire said, I forget what the speed, maybe you guys might remember, but he said something like, men will have to travel speeds up to 50 miles per hour to be able to run to and fro what the Hebrew is saying. And Voltaire, who was a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, you know, atheist, not a, not a nice guy, Voltaire, who also said the Bible would be extinct before he was even dead.
But Voltaire mocked Sir Isaac Newton saying, people can't go 50 miles an hour. That's ridiculous. Everybody knows your heart stops at 35 miles per hour. Like he, he made a commentary on what Isaac Newton said, but I'll tell you whether you're Voltaire or Sir Isaac Newton, it's always a win to believe the Bible. Go with the Bible.
And by the way, even Voltaire's studies and learning of gravity and all that had to do with his biblical research as much as his scientific research. I loved it when Discover Magazine, Discover Magazine dubbed Sir Isaac Newton top scientist ever. I love that because if you know, he, along with other Christians who happened to be scientists came up with a scientific method, which we've thrown out the window, by the way, these modern days.
And some of the most important scientific discoveries came from Bible believing believers in God. So, but that's one thing to and fro over the earth, but, but, but the key there is knowledge shall be increased. And that's something that we're seeing.
And we're watching the world use the technology and science differently than what you'd hope. Romans chapter 1 talks about this, it says, wherefore God gave them, the people are rebellious and what have you, sinful, gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever and ever. The idea who changed the truth of God into a lie. One of the things that is done in the name of science today, and I'm going to say in relative modern day, you know, science and Christianity used to have no conflict back in the old days. It wasn't until fairly modern days where, you know, people sort of said, well, you have to either, either believe in science or you have to believe in, you know, Christianity, but you can't believe in both. What a ridiculous false dilemma that is.
I think if you start with the premise of Christianity and the Bible, you're on good ground. But science only continues to prove that God is creator, but people'd rather worship the creation rather than the creator. And so they, they, they were willing to change the truth into a lie. And that's why science fails us so much in so many ways.
People are in denial about things that are true. So they'll kind of make stuff up as they go. And it gets pretty ugly. Science has suffered in the last, I'm going to say from the 1950s particularly and forward, maybe earlier than that, but really suffered since the whole, you know, evolutionary, you know, exchange of truth for a lie. When that all happened along, you know, with origins and creation and all that stuff.
That's when science really started taking hits. Now we're claiming all kinds of crazy stuff that's not true, but they call it science. And you either believe in science or you believe in, you know, crazy unicorns and stuff like that. It's so sad because we've, we've checked out, well, anyway, you know, it reminds me of what Paul told young Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, 20, oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so-called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith.
Grace be with thee. Amen. One of the things we'll see in the last days is the attempt of humanity to come up with technology that the hope is to eliminate our need for God.
We'll solve our own problems. We've created the problem of climate change. And so we are the ones who have to fix climate change and God has nothing to do with it. And so we arrogantly, and by the way, was it last month we did climate change or was it two months? I don't remember.
Last one, we talked about climate change. If you're interested in that one, last prophecy update of September, that's a kind of an important one. But it's where we've exchanged the truth for a lie. And as it turns out, the Bible tells us what's gonna happen in the last days and when the earth's gonna be done away with and destroyed ultimately. Like the Bible tells us exactly what's gonna happen and I love that.
But humanity and our arrogance says, no, God has nothing to do with it. We have to change the trajectory of our planet. And so we come up with harebrained ideas like windmills and stuff, thinking that we're gonna power the planet with that stuff, even though it's killing all the birds and ruining the planet. Don't you love the solar panel fields as you drive by, you're in a beautiful area, all of a sudden, ugly solar panel fields, it's like those are the ugliest things you ever did see. You know those solar panel fields over here by 205 and I-5? They built those hoping to sort of power all the lights in that area and it was sort of a test thing. And I talked to one of the engineers of the whole thing and he said, yeah, it was kind of a failure.
I guess it powers the lights for like 15 minutes or something. It only lasts for a short time and then they have to flip on the normal electricity again. But they've got a half a mile or whatever of solar panels there that kind of ruined the trees and everything around there.
But have you ever noticed, striving to better, oft we mar what's well? That's climate change, people. In fact, climate change seems to be ruining the world. But anyway, that's last month.
And it's all part of this science, falsely so called, that Paul warned about. So it stands to reason that the signs of the times, some of the signs of the times does have to in fact do with science and technology and invention. And one of the things that we see as you read the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation, you see that the Antichrist, this coming world leader, one of the things he's going to be into is technology. And he's even gonna worship a component of technology that we're gonna talk about a little bit. You know, who's he gonna worship? Who's Antichrist gonna worship? Some people are like, well, Satan. Not really.
He's actually gonna worship something else that's related to technology and we'll talk about that. Could it be that the coming Antichrist will use technology to win the world over? How is this guy gonna win the whole world over hook, line and sinker and say, oh, that's our leader. That's the guy we want. The Bible implies that he's gonna be a great orator.
He's gonna have the, you know, the ability to speak and, you know, get crowds to gather around him and love him. He's gonna have the diplomacy and the talents and giftings, probably the likability of a Ronald Reagan or Ike Eisenhower, kind of, you know, people are gonna love him. But one of the things he's also gonna employ is technology in the last days and we see that in the Bible. Again, more implied than actually directly spoken because can you imagine being the Apostle John trying to explain technology in the year, you know, 2023 or whatever, that'd be hard enough even explaining it in 2023.
But that's what the Bible does attempt to do and we'll see that. So we're gonna see tech in the Bible prophecy, tech in the economy, tech in the military and then also tech that's gonna be employed in spirituality. Let's take a look at those three just tonight. There's probably more we could talk about. But the first thing I wanna kind of talk about is tech in the economy and, man, we could talk about all kinds of, you know, the central bank digital currencies and Bitcoin and we've done a lot on some of that stuff even before. But one of the most significant and obvious biblical signs of Christ's return is the control of money, not just locally but globally.
That's gonna be one of the major things that's gonna be a sign of the times is who controls the money. Now, as it turns out, in some ways you might argue the United States is kind of the controller of money and the reason is because our, you know, dollars are still kind of the money that still kind of is the global currency. And as long as our dollar does that, we've been going along for years just happy as clams in a certain way. But one thing that you should know is when the American dollar ceases to be that, you know, currency that is accepted, everything's gonna get a lot more expensive for you and me.
And there's a reason, you know, when I traveled the world when I was younger, I spent a lot more time traveling around but, you know, you go to Africa and it was $9 a gallon for gas back in 1992, you know, $9 a gallon. And so, you know, most of the African people don't drive cars. The wealthy ones drove, you know, little mopeds and they'd fill up their gas tank but conserve it and pedal most of the places they go because it was $9 a gallon. But a lot of people around the world have been paying huge amounts for dollars for gas because they aren't sold and traded in their currency, so they have to pay the taxes and stuff.
So, really, that's kind of a big deal. The dollar controls the global currency. That's why, by the way, China and Russia are trying to diminish the dollar. And there's all… We've even talked about some of those attempts that are happening even right now. But Revelation, the book of Revelation, talks about one of the things Antichrist is gonna do and be a part of is multifaceted sort of coming like a phoenix out of the ashes is Babylon.
And, you know, Babylon the Great has fallen, has fallen, as it goes there in Revelation 17 and 18, talking about components of the Antichrist's sort of kingdom that he's gonna have. So Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is perhaps, and again, if you're interested, you might wanna go to our Revelation studies or listen to chapter 17, 18 because it talks about first in chapter 17 economic, pardon me, religious Babylon, and then chapter 18 talks about economic Babylon. And, you know, this idea of the Antichrist sort of, you know, it's speaking of kind of a city, but maybe more importantly a system, both probably. Is it literal Babylon or is it another location? There's people that debate that. If it's a literal Babylon, like raising up a Babylon out of the dust in the country out of Iraq, you know, that's probably not gonna happen in the near future, because Babylon still exists. You know, Nebuchadnezzar built up Babylon with his grandpa's help and stuff.
But do you remember when Saddam Hussein was in power before we hung him for all of his things that he did? He was trying to rebuild Babylon, and he considered himself Nebuchadnezzar. And so he was rebuilding Babylon. Some of our Atheist Creeker soldiers that were there in Iraq were sending me pictures, we're in Babylon, and they were showing me pictures of the palaces that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding.
And some of us were wondering, is this kind of the rebuilding of Babylon? But when he died, so did the plans to literally raise Babylon up again. So the question is, was there gonna be a literal Babylon or is it more of a figurative Babylon? Some people said New York City is Babylon. People tried to connect economic Babylon with the 9-11 event. Do you guys remember that? And they said, Babylon has fallen, in an hour it's fallen. And people were like, wow, Wall Street, the economic Babylon.
Do I believe that's what happened? No, because that's gonna happen during the tribulation period. So whatever Babylon is, and we can sit and talk about that for hours, but Babylon's both probably a city, but it's gonna be the new Babylon run by Antichrist. And part of that's gonna be this economic component to Babylon. But in Revelation 18, it announces the downfall of the commercial Babylon or economic Babylon. Antichrist's gonna build a great empire of financial prowess, but it's gonna come to a cataclysmic end during the tribulation period when Christ comes. So it's God who's gonna destroy economic Babylon, it says there.
The references to Babylon's future fall is spoken of in that chapter. Let me just show you some of the highlights. We're not gonna go over the, you kind of have to go over the whole chapter to get the full meal deal. But in Revelation 18, verse 3, speaking of economic Babylon during the tribulation, Antichrist is in power. What's gonna happen? It says, for all nations have drunk of the wine of wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. So it seems that this coming world leader, one of the things that the Antichrist is gonna do is bring certain prosperity and wealth to parts of the world and some people in the world.
He's not gonna be eating of the delicacies and waxing powerful through that, but a lot of people will. He's gonna bring a certain financial success, perhaps either before the tribulation or at the first part of the tribulation. Some people used to say, well, how could things change so much? Like if the rapture happens tomorrow, how could the economy change? Did anybody notice how quickly the economy changed just a couple years ago? I mean, blame it on whatever you want, coronavirus or the change in leadership, but the economy has changed. Milk is more expensive today by far than it was a couple years ago, and gas is almost twice what it was a couple years ago.
The economies can change pretty quickly, but this coming world leader, Antichrist, one of the things he's gonna do is bring a pseudo sort of success in what the Bible calls economic or commercial Babylon, but it's coming down. In fact, if you keep reading verse four in that same chapter, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, I thought we were gonna be in heaven during the tribulation. Who are the people that have to come out of economic Babylon in the tribulation period? The tribulation saints, correct? Which can include Jewish people and anybody who accepts Christ and does not take the mark of the beast. So the voice from heaven's gonna say, come out of that economic system, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. One of the things when people say, I think I might've taken the mark of the beast, why? I got the vaccine.
Well, that's not the mark of the beast, and that was ridiculous to even think that. When people take the mark of the beast in the tribulation period, you're gonna know it's more than just a way to buy or sell. You're gonna know you're aligning, you're pledging sort of an allegiance to this coming world leader. So I don't think anybody's gonna just accidentally take the mark of the beast and go, oops, I didn't mean to do that. It's gonna be clear that you're making a clear cognitive decision to reject the Lord and to really fall in line with this coming world leader, Antichrist. It's gonna be deliberate decision that people will make.
And so that's why I hear the Lord saying, come out of that system, because that system is gonna lead you to align yourself more than just an economic alliance, but a whole religious and signing your soul over kind of thing. It goes on in Revelation 18, verse 11, later in that same chapter, and the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore. The fall of this economic empire is gonna be toward the end of the tribulation period, and people are gonna think, what are we gonna do now? Economic Babylon is fallen. Verse 17 of the same chapter, for in one hour, so great riches has come to naught, and every ship master and all the companies in ships and sailors, as many as trade by sea stood afar off and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, what city is like unto this great city? That's why people tried to connect it to 9-11, they said, well, man, there's an economic Wall Street downtown New York City, they tried to make those comparisons. It was an interesting comparison, and sometimes you wonder if some of these are foreshadows of coming attractions, but that is not Babylon's fall, 9-11 was not that. It's got a lot of other things that should have checked boxes on that it didn't.
And then finally, Revelation 13, verse 67, and he'll cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand. Now, this is, by the way, I should have said something about this, rewind from Revelation chapter 17, go back to chapter 13, earlier, before the fall of Babylon, what was one of the things that he did? This is where he caused both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. The King James is one of the only translations that uses those words, the preposition in, and I think that's interesting, because all the newer translations of the NIV, the nearly inspired version, no, just kidding, joke, joke, if you like the NIV, it's great. But in is a better word, if you look at it.
The word is interesting for you that were there last weekend, the Greek word there is epi, does that sound familiar? The word is upon. Now there is a Greek word that is the equivalent of on, so the word upon is different than the word on. If you write something on something versus writing upon something, well, but that's just King James language, no, no, no, no, the word epi is the word upon as translated in English, but what does the word upon, epi, mean when you talk about anything in the Bible related to the Holy Spirit? Well, if the Holy Spirit comes upon you, did they just write it on the surface of your skin? No, what does the Holy Spirit, when it comes upon you, what might you, what other words would you use to describe that? In, but filling, like filling you to the full, that's why we call it being filled with the Holy Spirit, because the coming upon of the Holy Spirit is when the Spirit works in you and through you. When Samson did great feats of strength, the Bible says the Spirit came upon Samson, so that's the word epi, the third relationship with the Holy Spirit, in, with, and upon.
We talked about that last weekend, but this idea of the Holy Spirit, if you're talking about this, this is kind of sort of the antithesis of the Holy Spirit. When you take the mark of the beast, you're taking it in, and it's more of a, something in your forehead, in your hand, which makes sense. I think the newer translators kind of thought, maybe had a preconceived notion that it'd be a mark like written on your hand, or a barcode stamped on your forehead, like you prophecy people from 1980, you guys remember that, when they were talking about, they're gonna put a UBC code symbol, and they'll scan your head when you go through Safeway, get your groceries, but that technology is kind of laughable now, the idea of that. So the idea is, you know, the whole idea of the mark is gonna be something in your hand or forehead, which starts to get to some of the tech today. You know, it's almost laughable, I remember when we used to try to say, how are they gonna do that, you know, and like the UBC code thing I just talked about.
Well today there's any number of 10 or 20 ways the mark of the beast could come to fruition, and maybe it'll be a combination of several of those things. Have you ever wondered, why does the Bible give the option of your right hand or your forehead, what's the deal with that option, who cares, or why wouldn't they make it more universal, you know, you're gonna think a mark on your right hand, so let's just make it all the same. Well it's interesting because there's actual technology that explains perhaps why it'll be one of the two options. Let me just share with you, like back in July of this summer, CNBC, Amazon to launch pay by palm technology at all the whole paycheck stores, I mean Whole Foods stores by the year end. I'm not a big Whole Foods fan, I walk in there and they all look at me with disgust, and I don't know why, probably because I'm not a vegan, but anyway, I like ribeye steaks, and if you get a Whole Foods steak, it's like a little paper thin little steak and might not even be real, so I don't know why they don't like me there, but it doesn't surprise me that Amazon, you know, launching in their Whole Foods stores by year end, and it's already in place. I don't know if you guys have seen this, check this out.
So Amazon's bringing the pay by palm system to all of its Whole Foods stores, and probably coming to a lot of other stores as well. It's a biometric technology that lets users enter and pay for items at stores by just, you know, waving your hand. You know, it's gotten easier with your credit card, just kind of wave it over the, you know, the wireless little thingy, but now you don't even need your credit card, you just wave your hand over. Shoppers first have to connect their palm to a stored credit card somewhere, but they don't have to bring their credit card.
After that, they just pay by waving their hand over the kiosk. Now this is interesting because it uses your fingerprints or handprints on all the lines and nobody has the same, you know, but the thing about this technology, we all think, oh, mark of the beast, you know, but the thing about this technology, it's not in your hand, so, but it is fascinating that they're trying to make buying and selling sort of a deal that basically is foolproof and you don't get things stolen. If you, with this system, if somebody, you know, forgets their credit card, no big deal. What if somebody steals your credit card? Well, it doesn't matter because a lot of things are going to be based on your handprint.
It'd be a little suspicious if you go through the grocery store line with somebody's hand and you scan it holding, it's like, it's a little gangrene there, a little rigor mortis set in, suspicious, or if you took someone's head and scanned that. So, anyway, so it might be interesting what's happening in WorldCoin. Are you guys familiar with what's going on with WorldCoin? They're wanting to do more of the forehead thing, you know, because you're saying, well, what about the forehead? It's not just the right hand.
What about the forehead? Well, have you guys seen even this, in August, WorldCoin expanded its operations to basically sign up world users. Check this out. Basically, WorldCoin is going to expand its, you know, global aim to use its iris scanning, so you're using the iris of your eye, identify a verifying technology, a senior manager of the company talked to Reuters and the co-founder of OpenAI. Basically, the CEO, Sam Altman, WorldCoin is requiring users to give their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID. In some countries, and this is why it shows some of the third world countries, scanning their irises, they have these little eyeballs that are set up in places in Africa and stuff, where it scans your eyeball, and if you do that today, you'll get $50 right there in your account.
They pay you 50 bucks just to go get your eyeball scanned. So, you know, these people in third world countries, by the millions, are going even to get on to WorldCoin's digital ID, free cryptocurrency as part of a plan to create and identify a financial network that's going to be global. WorldCoin's website mentions various possible applications, including distinguishing humans from artificial intelligence, enabling global democratic processes, like voting and stuff like that. They'll say it will be airtight.
They're showing a potential path to a universal basic income to all people all over the world, although these outcomes are not guaranteed, of course. The CEO said, we founded WorldCoin with the ambition of creating a new identity and financial network owned by everyone. If successful, we believe WorldCoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online, while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI funded UBI, which is that universal basic income.
So this eyeball thing is kind of interesting, because WorldCoin, one of their goals is say, we need to level out income and equality all over the world, and people should get money just for no reason, just the fact that they're a person, they should get money. Where do you think they're going to get the money to fund all the world that doesn't have money? That's kind of an interesting thing. But WorldCoin basically is trying to come up with the world ID, where laws will allow digital currency to be received just for being a human person. After visiting an orb, the biometric sphere, verification device, you automatically start with $50 in your bank account.
Now, this is interesting, because one of the questions we've had for a lot of years as Bible prophecy people, who in the world would take the mark of the beast? Why would you ever take the mark of the beast? Well, if there's an incentive, like you'll suddenly have money in your account, it's amazing what people will do to have money just instantly put into your account. I'm not saying this is taking the mark of the beast, but this actually shows you how people are willing to scan their iris eyeball and say, cool, $50. By the millions, they're doing that right now. They said, the CEO went on, WorldCoin is an attempt at global scale alignment. The journey will be challenging, the outcome is uncertain, but finding new ways to broadly share the coming technology of prosperity is critical.
It's a critical challenge of our time. We hope you'll join us, underlying tone, you'll join us or else. In fact, Alex Blania, CEO of WorldCoin says that in a global form of ideas coming, whether you like it or not, that's what he actually went on record saying. So, this is in your forehead kind of thing, some people suggest, it's moving that direction. But not having to carry a wallet or losing your money or losing your credit card or having credit cards stolen and stuff, they're going to solve all those problems because they'll just use your biometrics.
Now, maybe it's something, maybe it is just a tattoo on your arm, we'll talk about that in a second. Maybe it is your iris scan or your palm print. Or could it be something that more like what Elon Musk is working on, Neuralink. We've been talking about that for quite a few months now on Prophecy Updates.
But there's a few things that did happen, even today, let's see, wait, what is today? Friday. Earlier this week, Elon finally got his FDA approval that he's been wanting. There's a lot of talk about the monkeys that had died in his testing. And so people are like, what, you can use humans now? Well, he got approval to do work on independent review board to watch and to begin recruitment for his first human trials.
But they have to be implants for patients that are paralyzed. Because they believe this little, you know, Neuralink that ties into your brain will be able to communicate with other computers, or which would also lead to things like robotics. So like, if you're paralyzed from the neck down, you'll be able to move your arms and legs because your brain will be connected to the sort of the robotics that control. And that's, that's kind of what they're wanting to do. So he received FDA approval to start that process.
And you know, it looks like something out of a movie, like the Iron Man, you know, has this little connection that sort of goes in there and has the goo and all that stuff. Well, this is the little Neuralink that they plug into your brain. And you know, this guy set it up, Elon Musk is really excited that he got approval. And so you'll see that now it's going to take about six months, they're saying, pardon me, six years, I should say, to, to see the testing with people that are paralyzed. And we'll see how many participants actually volunteer. Any volunteers here for that? That doesn't seem like something, who knows, if you can't walk or move, you might be more willing to try something like this.
So what is this Neuralink? It's a brain chip startup that wants to use your brain, brain and control computers. Peter Thiel, co founder of PayPal, and Plantier and technologies, big tech data, analytics and stuff. Also funded some of this, not not Elon Musk's only, he's not the only one funding this. But he recently Musk just got tons of money, in addition to his own, to keep working on this. So kind of interesting, something to follow, Neuralink is going to be able to control to or be linked to a computer.
What does that have to do with end times, the the mark of the beast may it may have something to that. But talk about being connected, interconnectivity. When you read the book of Revelation, there's going to be sort of this idea of connectivity, and also worshiping the image of a beast, that is something we'll talk about here in a few minutes. But basically, it's something to be watching.
Now, it's either Neuralink or something like that. There's so many technologies, a few, oh, maybe a couple years ago, now as I was talking about the quantum dot tattoo, do you guys remember that? I'll remind you this little picture of back when they were talking about making a tattoo that with these little microscopic crystals that are, you know, quantum dots, as they call them. They were talking about making a combo where you get this little thing, it would come in the form of like an adhesive sticker that would go on your skin. And you know, this picture, it makes those little spears like giant, but they would be almost too small to even see, but you'd stick it on your skin.
And it would give you, they were trying to do a combination of vaccine. And then at the same time, leaving a quantum dot tattoo on you. Once you stuck that on you, those quantum dots would be embedded in your skin. And what are quantum dots? Well, they're basically a way to record information.
These quantum dots would be used for that. So we talked about invisible quantum dots could be used to vaccinate kids, and also mark them as vaccinated. You no longer need your vaccination passport to get to certain countries in the world and stuff like that.
So it's basically a covert way to embed record of vaccination using quantum dot technology. Also, it would be a system of tracking, you'd be able to know who's vaccinated, who's not without any real major process to know that. It's an invisible tattoo. But the idea of these miniscule quantum dots, they're tiny semiconducting crystals that reflect light, and they glow under infrared light. The pattern, the vaccine gets delivered into the skin.
Those microneedles are dissolvable. So you put it on and then they dissolve and basically you're good to go. But the reason I bring this up again is because there was a Nobel Prize awarded. You can look this up. One Russian guy and these other guys, they've been warming the idea to using quantum dots for so many other things. But one of the things that these guys got the 2023 Nobel Prize for in chemistry was the quantum dot crystals.
They basically found that your TV screens, like the QLED screens, benefit from these little microscopic and little quantum dots, along with bioimaging, producing photons for quantum communication, making better and cheaper solar cells. Quantum dots, if they make them and put them in smaller containers, they become, I think, more blue. And then they can change the colors of these quantum dots. And this technology is kind of shocking, what the potential is. So that's something also to watch as far as the mark of the beast and other technology with imaging and tracking people and information. Quantum dots are kind of an up and coming thing that's worth watching.
By the way, I don't know if you can see this, but the quantum dot, if a soccer ball is represented of how big the earth is, a quantum dot, you know, the size ratio of a quantum dot to a soccer ball is about the same as a football or a soccer ball to the earth. So they're tiny. Quantum dots are tiny.
I hope you can kind of sense, like if you see a soccer ball rolling on the earth, that's how big a quantum dot would be on a soccer ball. So kind of interesting, this technology, but there's a reason these guys, even though most of us can't really figure out what a quantum dot is, it was worth winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry 2023. Kind of interesting. So they're forming up to the idea of a world ID, whether it's quantum dot or other things, you know, a contributing argument for the mark of the beast is that it's going to be more safe. You're going to be vaccinated, which makes you feel safer, right? That's interesting watching what's happening with vaccine and seeing what's going to come, you know, with they're trying to push this next round. It's kind of shocking how messy that whole thing is.
But they're going to argue safety. They're going to be able to keep record of you. The reason that you will want to get the mark of the beast, well, you will not be able to buy or sell. That's something that is going to be a little bit of a shocker. I remember 20, 30 years ago, whatever, just get a garden, get some chickens, you know, be survivalist if you have to do that.
But even that's going to be really hard. If you can't buy or sell anything, you're going to be in kind of trouble in the tribulation period. Now, again, this is one of the wonderful things about being a Christian who knows Jesus as our savior. I believe we're going to be taken out before that mark of the beast is employed. But we're going to see the things that lead up to that. And I think this quantum dot technology is one of the things that's going to enable the mark of the beast.
Security is going to be one of the things they're going to argue safety, kids won't be kidnapped because they'll have trackable chips or mics or marks on their bodies, or, you know, they're going to, it's going to be easier to keep track of people. By the way, have you seen how bad, I know it's all the videos of them, you know, smashing grabs and stuff. But did you know how bad shoplifting has become today? Oh, Brett, what are you talking about shoplifting? Well, it's a big deal. In fact, maybe you saw last week Target, Walmart and other large chains have cited multiple reasons for store closures. But the probably the number one reason is the rising crime and violence.
Home Depot, Lowe's, Dollar Tree, Dick's Sporting Goods and Ulta have all raised concerns about disappearing inventory. They call it shrink is what they call that as a third term is shrink. And the shrink and the stuff disappears. And you guys have seen in the last 10 years where people can just walk in and start taking stuff and nobody stops them.
But are you guys noticing an uptick in some of the store people stopping people now? They're like, we're going to, we're going to get you like people are done. They're tired. Did you hear, I think it was Trump who said last week at some speech, I think in California somewhere that man, if I get elected, you know, if you get a TV and you're running out, we'll shoot you in the back.
That's what he said. It's like, that didn't fly. That didn't fly very good with some people, but, but he said it nonetheless, because it is actually a big problem. According to its last annual survey involving 177 retail brands, including Target, Home Depot and all those shrink was responsible for, check this out, $112 billion in losses in 2022. That's a 19.4% spike from the $93 billion reported in 21. And it's on the same trajectory in 2023 to beat 2022.
So it's on the huge exponential upswing, this idea of people ripping off stores and whether it's people smash and grab or even employee theft. That's a problem too. Employees will pocket stuff and walk out the building. And the operational processing errors, that all climbed up 29 and 27% respectively. Washington compost. I mean, the Washington post said, is there a shoplifting crisis? What do you need to know about retail crime? Interesting article in that we have a crisis that, that I think people see it as it's a crisis because they're smashing windows and stealing stuff, but it's actually more than that.
It's actually, believe it or not, some of these mob smashing grabs are way more high tech than you might think. You think, well, who are all these kids that show up at the same time and smash into a Target and steal TVs and stuff like that. And why are they hauling out a bunch of deodorant? And like, have you ever noticed what they steal? It's a little weird sometimes what they steal. I've noticed that. I'm like, why are they stealing that? Like, if you're going to steal something, well, as it turns out, it's organized crime.
And these people will take all their stuff to a warehouse where they'll sell it on Amazon a little more of a, you know, even a little higher than it would be at Target because supply chain issues make people just kind of say, well, we'll get it wherever we can. And if we can find, you know, your deodorant on Amazon, do you ever wonder if you're buying your stuff on Amazon from somebody who smashed and grabbed? The chances are you have, according to those that study this. Most prolific shoplifters are likely organized, according to the National Retail Federation, as part of a coordinated effort to steal items and then illegally resell them online through such sites as Amazon, eBay, OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, Walmart Marketplace. Those are all places where this organized crime is making millions of dollars on selling stolen goods. Kind of shocking. So you know, again, these are just more reasons why scanning and marking and identifying and surveillance and security, they want to, you know, you go into Walmart now and places, you know, where a lot of the more stolen items that are hot on Amazon, I guess, they're locked up in these little plastic boxes.
And some stores now in certain towns are just big lockers, you walk there, you can't grab anything, you have to get the store person to unlock the little cabinet and get your toothpaste and then like, it's getting a little weird. And the reason it's kind of on the radars of end time stuff is, when you're talking $117 billion, it's causing a bit of a ripple in a lot of security issues and economy and what have you. So that's one thing. Watch the tech when it comes to the mark of the beast, the economy, buying and selling.
We're seeing a lot of crazy stuff in the world today in that. Number two on the list of tech observations, tech in the military. And boy, there's two kind of ways you could go with this one. You could talk about advanced weaponry, which I always like kind of talking about that stuff. And we have done that, even in fairly recent times.
But one thing we need to remember is, there's this kind of a mysterious thing spoken of about the Antichrist and what he's going to worship. In Daniel chapter 11, which is, if you know Daniel 11, it's quite an amazing prophecy because it sort of talks about the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes, you know, in 170 BC. But eventually sort of, it's like Daniel's prophecy, his gaze goes just beyond the Solution and Ptolemy conflict. And then his gaze goes all the way to the end of the world and he starts talking about this coming Antichrist world leader, who's typified or pictured by Antiochus of the Old Testament.
Kind of an interesting thing there. But one of the things, when you start, you realize, by the end of Daniel's prophecy, you're not talking about anybody in history, you're talking about somebody in the future. This is one such passage. The coming king, leader, Antichrist, is who this is talking about in Daniel 11, 36. He says, the king shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvelous things.
Remember I told you he's an orator and he's able to speak, this is one of those places out of many we read about that of him, speak marvelous things against the God of gods. That's one thing Antichrist will do, speak against the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of Christianity. He'll speak against that God and shall prosper. Now the word prosper there, by the way, is an interesting Hebrew word that has to do with dark, evil, cultism kind of stuff, when it says prosper. And shall prosper till indignation be accomplished, for that is determined that shall be done.
So what's this guy gonna do? He's gonna do according to his will, he's gonna exalt himself, but if you keep reading verse 37, it goes on, neither shall he regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all. Now pause here, verse 37, there's so many things about the Antichrist that people speculate about this. When it says he shall not regard the God of his fathers, some of us believe that the Antichrist could be, shockingly, a Jew. You say, well, how could that be? Well, it's kind of funny because the Jews are gonna be hated by this coming Antichrist.
How could he be a Jew? But there's been quite a few Jews in history that have not loved the Jews. We could talk about that, but the reason some people believe he's a Jew is this is an idiom that really the Jews use when they say he will not regard the God of his fathers. That's a Jewish idiom of the God of his fathers. Isaac and Jacob's the idea there. You know, I wouldn't die on that battlefield, but some people make that argument. When it says, nor will he have the desire of women, there's two things that possibly means.
Some people, he's gonna be homosexual because he won't have the desire of women. I'm not sure that's what that means. It could be.
I mean, it would not be a shock to see a world leader who's gay today. That's like happens to every other person now, so that's not even a big deal today. But more likely, this again is an idiom of the Jews. Does anybody know, if you're a Jewish person in the Old Testament, particularly, or the New for that matter, but if you're a Jew and you say, what is the desire of women? Anybody know what that is? Somebody says, huh? Childbirth? Yes, but specifically about which child? The Messiah.
See, the Jews would say, no, it's not that he's a gay guy, it's that the desire of women would be that they would be the one that would give birth to the Messiah. That would be the desire of women. And so it also became an idiom saying the desire of women is the Messiah. That's a way of saying the Messiah, the desire of women. So there's two arguments, either he's a gay guy who doesn't like women, or he could care less about the Messiah, Jesus, which I think both could be true.
But if I had to die on the battlefield and say I'm gonna stand on one, I'd say it was probably the idiom, just like the God of the fathers being of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also the idiom of the Jews, the desire of women would be the Messiah would come. Mary got that. We know that. She was the one who was blessed among women, if you remember that whole thing.
Nor regard any God. He's gonna be a sort of atheist, but he's gonna, like most atheists, who do atheists really worship, anybody? Themselves. Yeah, their own brain, their own intellect, we don't believe in God, you know, and they're proud of that.
Well, this is gonna be kind of his, he's gonna magnify himself above all. But in his estate, verse 38, he shall honor the God of forces. Right there, that's kind of a key right there. A God whom his fathers knew not, he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things.
What's gonna be his big deal? What's he gonna worship? Like old Bob Dylan said, you're gonna have to serve somebody. It might be the devil, it might be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, that's true of even Antichrist, even though he's gonna say I don't have any regard of any gods, and I worship myself as God. That's true, but it's still gonna get down to him being a worshiper of forces. Some of your Bibles in Daniel 11, if you look in that chapter in your Bible, in the sideline there, it'll say, or munitions. The word forces could be also munitions.
Antichrist will not recognize any person as God, but in place of worshiping God, he will place material things, which will enable him to have weapons, forces, munitions, increase his power militarily, which would also empower him politically. It's similar to the modern concept of the God of War, which is a personification of the desire to sort of wage war. And that's what he's gonna be into.
He's gonna be into waging war, and he's gonna war against a lot of nations. But if you know your book of Daniel, the little horn's gonna come up and pluck out three other horns and he's gonna be that of weapons and power and authority, and he's gonna make war against the saints of the tribulation period. So the idea of weaponry is kind of a deal. And I believe the technology that the book of Revelation requires is kind of interesting when you do a careful read of the book of Revelation and what antichrist is gonna do. And so when it comes to technology and war, I do believe it plays a role in Bible prophecy.
Did you see, there were two kind of interestingly ominous events this last week that Bible prophecy people probably set up and take notice. Did you notice the first event is this picture is from this last week. This is Russian school children practicing putting on gas masks as part of a nuclear exercise.
Did you hear about Russia's nationwide nuclear attack exercise across 11 time zones in preparation for a potential nuclear war? And it was scheduled to take place I think October 3rd, a couple days ago. And basically it was a rehearsal if the West became the nuclear aggressor. Now you say, but Brett, doesn't that mean most of, if the West tried to pummel Russia with their nuclear attack, doesn't that make pretty much everybody die? Did you know that Russia has more than 16,000 nuclear shelters? And some of them can hold vast numbers of people. And this goes all the way back to the Cold War era, but the Russians, they built these nuclear shelters like crazy, 16,000 of those shelters and large ones to say the least.
Here in the United States, does anybody know how many public nuclear shelters we have? One. Good news for you, it's up in Seattle. So it's just a little get on I-5. Did you know, this is a true story, you can look this up.
Did you know the one nuclear shelter we have is under I-5 in Seattle? It's kind of funny. Everybody knows that. So send a nuclear bomb there and ba-da-bing.
But here in the United States, we only have one, which is, and it can hold only 200 people, by the way. That's kind of interesting. Is Russia approaching a point of no return that could lead Europe and possibly the United States of America into a nuclear war? One thing that Russia has proven, I would say, in this last year is it's not as powerful as we all thought it was in conventional warfare.
The fact that they are struggling with Ukraine, if you know, like, before the Ukrainian conflict, Russia was like, it was China, Russia, and the United States, and we're the superpowers of the world. Ukraine was way down on the list of almost toward the bottom as far as capable conventional warfare capabilities. Now, it's true, the world, a lot of nations have thrown weapons in their direction, and I'm not arguing for or against, I'm against war, you know, and it's sad what's happening with people in Russia-Ukrainian conflict. We have Russians in our church, we have Ukrainians in our church, and when I hear them all speak, I realize, oh, they're just like the United States. The Russians are corrupt, the Ukrainians are corrupt, and the United States is corrupt. You know, it's because of the corruption of humanity we see what's going on over there, and it's really sad to see.
But with Russia kind of showing their cards, like, Putin didn't, I think, you know, the big question is, why hasn't Putin, you know, just pummeled the Ukrainian, you know, nation? Some are saying he can't, he just doesn't have the power, which now he risks looking weak, and some people are saying, what a joke, but do you think Putin likes being considered a joke? Is there a reason why they are ramping up their nuclear threats? So I told you, you know, two ominous events, you know, that were going to happen this week. The first one was Russia's huge nationwide, 16,000, you know, chambers that the people all went and did this whole big exercise. So the United States, we did something, too. What did we do? Your iPhone went, ehh. So that you can feel better, here's what's going to happen is your iPhone will go, ehh, and then you'll dissolve into a vapor.
You'll be just a pink mist, maybe not even that. But, you know, what was it, 11, 18 on Wednesday, was it Wednesday? Yeah, your phone made a little noise. But it's interesting because you wonder, why are we doing this? You know, why are we doing this, you know, national test of the emergency broadcast system? It just makes one wonder, is there something we should be worried about? Well, if you hear the threats coming from Russia, while Russia's conventional military power has been sort of shown as not that great, Business Insider just even this week reminds us, oh, there's that test. But Business Insider Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States is directly at war with Moscow as the White House continues to pledge weapons to Ukraine. So, you know, we all think, oh, no, we're just supporting the Ukrainians.
But the Russians are making it the narrative, no, no, you're
2023-10-14