Antichrist will easily co-opt today's technology for the prophesied purposes

It is very easy for me to see how the antichrist will control the world. He is prophesied to be a man who will come in peace uttering flatteries, (Daniel 8:25, Daniel 11:32) but instead will reveal his evil at the Abomination of Desolation. He is called the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3) because he will be the embodiment of all that is most thoroughly evil.

EPrata photo

We are born depraved. Every person is born with evil in them as our sin nature controls us. But not all of us do the worst evil that can be done. There are some nice people who try to do good in philanthropy or by religious works. Rocker Bono is known as the former and 'Mother' Theresa was known as the latter. This is not to say that they don't or didn't have a heart of evil, only that unconverted people with a sin nature CAN do good, it's just not the kind of good that Jesus accepts as good. (Romans 3:10-12; Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 53:1-3). Hitler was an example of how far along the 'evil spectrum' a man can go, but even Hitler didn't come near to plumbing to the bottom of the evil that a man can do. The antichrist will be that man. This surprises many to think there can be a worse man than Hitler, but it is no surprise to Jesus, for He knows what is in a man. (John 2:25)

The coming antichrist will rule every aspect of the left behind people's lives. In the geo-political realm, he will

rule the whole world, all peoples, nations, tongues, tribes.(Daniel 2:40, Revelation 13:7-8). The only nation that is prophesied to escape the antichrist's hand will be Jordan. (Daniel 11:41). It is no coincidence that this is where Jesus urged the people to run when the Abomination of Desolation occurs and where the remnant will be personally protected during the Tribulation. It will be the location of the conversion of Israel. (Matthew 24:16, Isaiah 63:1, Revelation 12:6, Zechariah 12:10).

The antichrist will perform evil upon evil. His second in command in this unholy trinity will be the false prophet, who will cause all to have a mark on their hand or forehead which will be a mark of worship to the antichrist, identifying the person as allied with him (allied with evil). Without this mark no one may buy or sell. In other words, worship the antichrist or you may not participate in any way in the economy. It will be worship or die.

In the economic realm, by his henchman the False Prophet, antichrist will rule all people's buying and selling, as mentioned previously. (Revelation 13:16-17). They will control the economy.

Glen Benton, metal musician

In the religious realm, he will rule also. He wants to be worshiped and his goal is to exalt himself. After the six-day creation was completed, Satan influenced the holy angels to come to his side. A third of them did. (Hebrews 12:22). Then after God made man, satan came right down and turned their eyes away from God and Adam and Eve disobeyed. They were cursed and ejected from the garden. This has been satan's desire for a long time- to oppose God and to corrupt man. (Isaiah 14:13-14).

For millennia, people have wondered HOW the antichrist could possibly control the entire world. It seemed well-nigh impossible for one man to be able to keep track of the entire population's economic purchases, religious worship, and political movements. It was the cause for marveling and many discussions, I am sure.

Even in my lifetime it seemed impossible to us with finite minds and no understanding of God's plan. I was born in 1960 and by 1983 I was married. That was back before video machines replayed movies in your home. Before widespread Cable TV. Even at that, cable tv wasn't 24 hours. Before GPS. It was prior to cell phones, webcams, the internet. Even the simple bar code was fairly new. I wasn't saved then but if I had been I'd be one of those wondering heartily just how all that is prophesied will come together.

God is always working. Even long ago, He was causing inventions to be made that would inexorably bring the unbelieving human race under subjection of one man at the end of time, and who would employ the technology of the era to continue that subjection until his appointed days came about.

In 1991 my husband and I bought a sailboat and we moved onto it and determined to sail the east coast of the US, and cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. There, we planned to laze about, see the sights, and live intimately connected with the earth. My anticipation was the latter but my husband's overarching goal was to escape government intrusion.

Intracoastal , Hollywood, FL, by kimb0lene flickr CC

Even in the early '90s, the rules and regulations for daily living via zoning, vehicular laws, taxes etc tortured his libertarian heart. So we decided to get away from it all and cut loose from regular living and craft a lifestyle that would be apart from government rules and prying as much as possible.

Ha ha.

Little did we know in our innocent and naive hearts that government tentacles had been busy extending invisibly into areas we knew not. For example, we didn't know that the Atlantic coastal waters and the inside Intracoastal Waterway were heavily trafficked and monitored. We expected the Coast Guard. We did not expect that the Coast Guard could approach and board without probable cause and with impunity. Unlike motorists where law enforcement needs a valid reason and/or permission to search your vehicle, it is not the case with Coast Guard. (At least, at that time.) They come aboard, inspect for safety gear, and can and did search for drugs (Ah, that old War on Drugs was going full force in the post Miami Vice '90s).

Also, we did not expect that every bridge tender to record the name and home port of each vessel traveling under its spans.

For example, here is the Bridge of Lions at the port of St. Augustine. When a sailboat wants to go under the bridge and if the span is lower than the boat's mast, you call the bridge tender and request he lifts the span to allow passage. This, of course, halts car traffic on the bridge. When you pass under the tender's booth, much like a highway tollbooth, he writes down the name of your boat and the port identified on the stern.

Kristee Booth, Wiki CC photo

If we had thought about it at all, we would have understood from the get-go that the coastal waters and Intracoastal Waterway has to have separation of traffic much like roadways. There are cargo ships, Navy ships, pleasure craft, fishing fleets, Coast Guard, marina harbormasters, yacht races, locks, bridges, canals, rules of the road, and much more. Because it is so busy, of course it would all be managed.

Another trip we took was in a VW camper van across the country. This was in 1994. We were interested in exploring the desert. Neither of us had been west of the Mississippi and we were specifically looking forward to exploring the desert. We had a vague notion of finding a warm place to buy a small plot of land and build a desert shack. The expanses of West Texas entranced us. It was so empty! Maybe this would be the place we could set up a home apart from so much spying, from government and neighbors, my husband said. He was truly born in the wrong time. I believe in former days he would have made a great schooner captain or an inventive Mountain Man.

Anyway, we kept seeing this weird dirigible hovering over the desert byways. We learned that its name was Fat Albert and it was a government spy craft.

EPrata photo

This is the official write up on it:
"The Tethered Aerostat Radar System is a balloon-borne radar. The primary aerostat mission is to provide radar data in support of other federal agencies involved in the nation's drug interdiction program. One aerostat, located at Cudjoe Key, Fla., transmits TV Marti, which sends American television signals into Cuba for the U.S. Information Agency. The air drug interdiction program consists of land-based aerostat radar detection balloons along the U.S. southern border and in the Carribbean..."

What happened was the balloons went up in FL first to monitor drug traffic by air and sea, but the smugglers simply shifted their air routes west and flew over Mexico and then landed in the United States Southwest. So the program shifted west to follow them. The write-up states plainly that the Marti transmissions were a failure and the balloons were a semi-failure, due to expense, necessity to remain tethered, and bad weather. But the government kept trying and spying, bless their hearts.

Of course we are into the second decade of the new millennium now and we know that the government spying that used to look outward for enemies and drug traffickers now looks inward to track friendly, unsuspecting citizens and their activities, not just enemies.

The National Security Agency collects over 2 million private citizens' messages a day in 'untargeted sweeps'. Highway webcameras are ubiquitous. There is a street cam on every ATM and bank, and on traffic lights and most businesses. The government can track a person with a cell phone and the phone need not be on an active call, or even turned on for that matter. As this story below illustrates, continuing societal immorality extends to citizens using technology to spy on citizens more frequently than not.

Marcus Thomas, former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, said in a recent story in The Washington Post that the FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years. (source). Thsi same story reported how a teen aged classmate had been spying on Miss Teen USA by using her webcam. The activation of the unsuspecting girl's webcam hadn't triggered the light that alerted her that the camera was in use.

We can see how Jesus's prophecy in Matthew 10:21 will easily come true, if laptop spying can occur between citizen-to-citizen. Even family members will spy and tell. "Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death."

All this to say that in my lifetime, visible technology has leaped forward to such a degree that envisioning the antichrist's stranglehold on all peoples at end of the end is now easy to do. That the people using technology have been revealed to have regularly used it for nefarious purposes shows us how easily a depraved man's heart can and does turn what was meant for citizen good will be used instead to oppress them.

As for the antichrist's and false prophet's stranglehold on religion, in looking at this one picture it is easy to see how the world's religions will cave easily and be absorbed into one. Most is it is false now anyway.

As Pastor JD Hall said of this photo as he tweeted it, "Photo of a female Methodist pastor anointing a Catholic Cardinal. So much #fail in one photo."

HuffPo

The Huffington Post reports, "Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley surprised many people when he asked Rev. Robertson, a pastor in the United Methodist Church, to anoint his forehead with consecrated water in an ecumenical baptism reaffirmation ritual at Sudbury United Methodist Church, reports The Patriot Ledger. "

To see where we are headed, read the bible. It contains already-ordained future history. To see how close we are to that future, look back. In my case, I didn't have to look back too distantly to see how far we have come in being subject to technological and governmental strangleholds and how the tares have flooded the faith. Only 30 years. What does the next 30 years portend? The next 5years? The next one year? I shudder to think.

However, the grace and promise of Jesus is that His Bride is not appointed to wrath. We who are already in the Bride will not be here to be forcibly subjugated to the antichrist, nor forced to starve when we are forbidden to participate in the economy. We will be in heaven dining with our Groom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! That is a sure thing.

If you do not know Jesus and are worried about the way the world is going, you are right to be afraid. It will end in a horror that Jesus Himself shuddered to relate to the disciples. (Matthew 24:21-22). It will be Hitler's Holocaust on steroids, a never-ending shop of horrors and literally hell on earth. (Revelation 9:2-3). Billions will die. And then after the Great White Throne Judgment they will die again, forever, in hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:38).

Flickr CC by stonehouse_  "jayme and i wrote this in the wet pavement.
apparently it had been cleaned when jayme when back later though.
the heathens will never be..."

You can avoid all that by repenting of your sins and appealing to Jesus for forgiveness. Because He absorbed God's wrath on the cross for our sins, died, and rose again, He is able to forgive, and your wrath will be transferred from your account to His. He paid your sin-debt! He is magnificent and holy, loving and gracious. He is waiting for you to recognize you are a sinner and fall to His feet. He will forgive you, lift you, conform you to His likeness (holy and good) and welcome you to blessed heaven when it is your turn to be called home. All this awaits the repentant sinner!

"...Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 14b-15).