In Peter's second epistle, he warns of the destruction that false prophets and teachers will bring to many. He likens them to brute beasts who are ruled purely by their lusts. He also notes a stark warning by saying they were Reckless, self-centered, they speak abusively of angelic majesties without trembling, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a demeaning judgment against them before the Lord. 2 Peter 2:4-11 NASB
The phrase "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" highlights a timeless truth: angels, who are far more intelligent and powerful than humans, even they avoid certain dangers at all costs understanding full well the eternal ramifications while mortal humans often charge in without a care in the world. In Peter's epistle, this idea is echoed, summarizing how false teachers who introduce destructive heresies lead many souls to eternal damnation and will face even worse fates themselves. While true in the theological/spiritual sense, this is also true regarding the artificial modifications (via science & technologies) that man increasingly involves himself with concerning removing the naturalistic protective barriers set forth by God at creation.
In retrospect, we can see microcosms of this with the subsequent rising and falling of the ages and empires of mankind. In the Classical Age (800BC-476AD), the rise of pagan mythologies, false religions, and secret societies marked the leading (and bleeding) edges of these dangerous trends which almost always precipitated societal collapse. Whereas paganism, with its post-modernistic philosophical attributes, shrouded the world in darkness and violence, the rise of Christendom across the Roman Empire marked a shift in the affairs of mankind. Even still, true Christianity continued to be brutalized by the Roman Catholic system (merging of political and religious power) and would not unleash its full potential until the time of the Reformation.
Here in the 21st century, scholars and the elite mock the antiquated ways of our predecessors but are no less obsessed with not only the height of our achievements but also the potential those heights might endear to us. This time, we are not relying on religion or magic to unlock the veil to the other side, but on science and technology. It is here where men proudly march toward that Tower of Babel moment where divine judgment smashes down against defiant men.
Now all the earth used the same language and the same words. And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.”
Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:1-9 NASB (my highlights)
Point of clarification, we aren't simply marching toward that moment, we have already arrived, again, at this Tower of Babel moment. This is where nothing has now become impossible for us to achieve because we have overcome the divine barriers of language and culture God put in place. Like those false prophets and teachers promoting damnable heresies, we too are quickly and foolishly, opening as many Pandora's Boxes as possible with no regard as to whether we should, but only if we can.
Whether it's CERN, DARPA, Google, IBM, Lockheed Martin, etc., each is racing to advance some type of incredibly dangerous technology whilst seemingly convinced that we can handle whatever happens on the other side of a breakthrough. This level of hubris is identified in certain circles as the "God-Complex" where one does things that are solely in the realm of our Creator.
Granted, humans have been trying to play God since the Garden of Eden, but while the Noahic Flood (1,656 years after the Garden) reduced the total number of humans on the earth to eight, the Global Dispersion at Babel (200 years or so after the Flood) would serve as a more long-term solution to stifling civilizational growth by adding in a requisite number of complications and barriers to global unification. As pointed out in Genesis 11, although God already knew what was happening, it is recorded for our benefit to show the dangers of fallen men becoming united as one.
Furthermore, while both the flood and the dispersion were judgments, both served as a form of divine restraint to prevent mankind from accumulating and acting on said knowledge too quickly.
Nevertheless, it seems we are there again.
Makes one wonder why so many disparate things are all converging at around the same time Israel and Jerusalem have been rebirthed as a nation (between 1917-1967), which just so happens to coincide with mankind's understanding growing exponentially by leaps and bounds across all fields of study.
Theory of Relativity (1905 & 1915) - Einstein's theories transformed our understanding of space, time, and gravity.
Penicillin (1928) - Fleming's discovery revolutionized medicine and introduced modern antibiotics.
Structure of DNA (1953) - Watson, Crick, and Franklin's work unveiled the double helix, founding modern genetics.
Quantum Mechanics (1920s-1930s) - Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger's theories changed our understanding of atomic processes.
Higgs Boson (1964-2012) - Predicted by Higgs, confirmed in 2012, it explained particle mass and completed the Standard Model.
Theory of Plate Tectonics (1960s) - Explained Earth's plate movements, revolutionizing geology and natural disaster understanding.
The Manhattan Project (1940s) - Developed nuclear weapons, ending WWII and starting the nuclear age with significant impacts.
Discovery of Insulin (1921) - Banting and Best's discovery made diabetes a manageable condition.
Polio Vaccine (1950s) - Salk's vaccine nearly eradicated polio, preventing widespread paralysis and death.
The Internet (1960s-1990s) - Its creation transformed communication, commerce, and information sharing.
While none of these are inherently evil in and of themselves, they will be used by Satan to devastating effect in creating the final Beast kingdom. Now consider where we are now just a few decades later.
CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing (2012) - Revolutionized genetics and medicine with precise gene editing capabilities.
Higgs Boson Discovery (2012) - Confirmed particle mass theory, supporting the Standard Model of physics.
Gravitational Waves Detection (2015) - LIGO's observation validated Einstein's theory and opened new cosmic exploration methods.
Human Microbiome Project (2008-2012) - Mapped the microbiome, revealing its crucial role in human health.
Advances in Quantum Computing (Ongoing) - Developments promise exponentially faster computing capabilities.
Interstellar Object Oumuamua (2017) - Provided unique insights into objects from beyond our solar system.
Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy (2010s) - Significantly improved cancer survival rates through advanced treatments.
Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning (2010s) - Transformed various fields with advanced algorithms and AI.
Mapping of the Human Epigenome (2010s) - Enhanced understanding of gene regulation and its impact on health and disease.
Given this leapfrogging in technological advancements and information processing, why else do we see the sudden surge in the paranormal? Why else do we see unidentified flying objects littering our skies? Why else are the nations of the world almost uniformly coming against a nation the size of New Jersey? Why else are the masses being swept up by doctrines of devils, not merely as a footnote, but as the defining spirit of our age (i.e., zeitgeist)? Why else are our multi-billion dollar companies, which once worshipped at the altar of the almighty dollar, now engaging in actions so contrary to their financial well-being that they willingly jeopardize their success to promote an absurd agenda destined to bring about their downfall?
These phenomena reflect the dangerous merging of the exponential and compounding nature of information processing contributing to scientific breakthroughs that lead to new information happening concurrently with the massive resurgence of paganism worldwide. It is because, with the rebirth of the nation of Israel as foretold in Holy Scripture, Satan knows his time is running short, and is doing everything he can to thwart the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy.
Now, when we think of paganism, most would likely get the mental picture of a person in a robe chanting around a fire or some devotee bowing before a stone statue. Not necessarily. At its core, paganism is post-modernism, which orbits around the central idea that truth is subjective. As Charlie Kirk once put it (referring to paganism), Many gods equal many moralities. Note this from author John Daniel Davidson in his book, Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come:
The new paganism will not necessarily come with the outward trappings of the old, but will be no less pagan for that. It will be defined, as it always was, by the belief that nothing is true, everything is permitted. And that belief will produce, as it always has, a world defined almost entirely by power: the strong subjugating or discarding the weak, and the weak doing what they must to survive. That's why nearly all pagan civilizations, especially the most "advanced" ones, were slave empires. The more advanced they were, the more brutal and violent they became.
The same thing will eventually happen in our time. The lionization of abortion, the rise of transgenderism, the normalization of euthanasia, the destruction of the family, the sexualization of children and mainstreaming of pedophilia, and the emergence of a materialist supernaturalism as a substitute for traditional religion are all happening right now as a result of Chiristianity's decline. We should understand all of these things as signs of paganism's return, remembering that paganism was not just the ritual embodiment of sincere religious belief, but an entire sociopolitical order. The mystery cults of pagan Rome and Babylon were not just theatrical or fanciful expressions of polytheistic urges in the populace, they were mechanisms of social control. There was, of course, spiritual---demonic---power behind that pagan order.
This order achieved its fullest expression in Rome, which eventually elevated emperors to the status of deities, embracing the diabolical idea that man himself creates the gods and therefore can become one. It is no accident that the worship of the Roman emperor as a god emerged at more or less the exact same historical moment as the Incarnation. Christianity, which proclaimed that God had become man, burst forth into a social world that was everywhere adopting the worship of a man-god, and its coming heralded the end of that world.
If I could paraphrase a well-known quote from the late Mark Twain, it would be this: history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. Paganism hasn't just returned in an obvious way; it never really left. It goes through periods of dormancy, waiting to resurface like a new pandemic when the time is right. In the modern age, to catch a glimpse of the paganistic 'utopian' world that today's elites promise us through initiatives like the Great Reset and Agenda 2030, one need only study Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to compare the utopian world they promised, versus the dystopian world they left behind.
Conclusion
So where am I going with these seemingly disparate ideas?
Well, as in the rest of the prophetic signs we see converging upon the world today both in frequency and intensity, we are seeing the bullish return of paganism attempting to supplant Christianity everywhere and in everything. Whether it's attempting to legitimize infanticide, corrupt the biblical concept of marriage, redefine gender, normalize the supernatural hatred of Jews and Israel (Anti-Semitism), and so on, everything is under assault.
It just so happens that at the same time, the world is being deluged with paganism, we are also achieving scientific breakthroughs in every spectrum of knowledge not seen since the days before the Flood. This is all happening concurrently as the world order is attempting to shake off the old and reintroduce the new...which is also old.
Satan is attempting to revert the global political structure back to the structure of its greatest pagan empire of all time, Rome. But not Classical Age Rome with chariots and swords, but the new Rome with Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing. Instead of worshipping Caesar with a pinch of salt and lip service; man will be forced to worship the Antichrist under pain of death, by way of a new form of technological enslavement. No longer will the currency of the world be paid in the form of silver and gold, but with one's very soul.
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the presence of people. And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause all who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Rev. 13:11-18
This author believes that the Mark of the Beast (MOTB) we read about in Revelation 13, will not just be some new pragmatic technology designed solely for its efficiency and security used as an alternative to traditional identification or commerce, but as an "everything" device. Granted, convenience has long been the standard flag bearer for the past forty years, but convenience is not the be-all, end-all. Convenience has simply been the mechanism to condition society to get us to the stage where the MOTB would be readily accepted. Furthermore, the Mark will also not be something Chinese or Russian hackers can reverse engineer and market for themselves.
Rather, the MOTB will represent the very pinnacle of the merger between the Luciferian, scientific, and technological fields each contributing to the total enslavement of mankind. It will be their Magnum Opus; their great achievement merged with the most wicked and vile doctrines of devils ever conceived. Once implanted, it cannot be removed or undone. It cannot be altered, tweaked, or modified. Given the trajectory in the realm of genetic modifications, it appears this technology does something to the human genome. While we can't say specifically what exact technology it will come in the form of, it will condemn the bearer to eternal damnation because it will fundamentally change man into something other than human. And just as Christ did not come to die for the angels or any other non-human entities, Christ put on flesh and became a Man, to die for the souls of mankind.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 1 John 1:7
Thus, it is not God's harshness that condemns those to eternal damnation. It is Satan and his fallen hosts who deceive mankind into thinking they can become like God, thus fundamentally changing man into something like they are, irredeemable. Moreover, we see God's love toward mankind expressed in the judgments and repeated warnings throughout the 70th Week for mankind to repent and not take the MOTB. Just as Satan is conditioning the world today through various schemes and maneuvers for man to take the mark, Scripture is replete with warnings for us not to give into the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We are to be washed by the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) to prevent our desires from leading us down that path to damnation.
While we now are in the world, we are not to be of the world. We do not look for things on earth to solve our problems but to God. We are but pilgrims, passing through a world destined for destruction trying our best to warn those around us of what is coming (1 Peter 2:11). We are ambassadors behind enemy lines trying to liberate by example those still enslaved to sin and destined for destruction (2 Cor 5:20). We are to understand the times in which we live, to allow God to guide us and help us guide others as to what we should be doing with the time that remains (1 Chron 12:32). Why else would God put so much effort into telling us what will happen, rather than what has happened? Why so much emphasis on prophecy? This author believes that when Scripture finds its fulfillment prophetically, our hearts and minds will be reassured of the veracity and validity of God's word (John 13:19). It will (or should) also awaken us to the reality that this world, and the things thereof, are quickly passing away (1 John 2:17).
In realizing that we have circled back to a time were mankind is foolishly rushing into things where angels fear to tread (playing God), and are aggressively promoting ideas (and ideologies) that guarantee swift destruction, and with devastatingly dangerous technology that once unleashed, cannot be contained, we should understand the times in which we live, and ready ourselves for the soon coming of the Lord.
Therefore, the belief in the imminent return of Christ inspires believers in this present age to live holy lives, to evangelize, and to look forward to His coming with eager anticipation. His coming is the blessed hope, not to the world, but to the church. The doctrine of the blessed hope (which is Christ's physical return to the sky for His bride to take us to be where He is), encourages us to live in purity and keep a loose grip on the things of this world at all times, knowing that Jesus could return at any moment. This doctrine motivates us to be heavenly-minded while remaining busy with the work our Lord has given us at hand. It reminds us that this world, our troubles, and even the prophecies themselves, have a shelf-life and will not continue indefinitely.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Philippians 3:20-21