Mark of the Beast Foreshadows

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program. Merry Christmas to everyone. What a great and joyous time this is as we come to celebrate and acknowledge the birth of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My name is Brian Thomas. So glad to be with you as again today we are honoring our Lord and I'm excited because had it not been for God choosing to take on the form of a man and come to this earth and die for our sins, we would all be headed for eternal damnation. And so we celebrate and we thank and we praise and worship our great Lord for his sacrifice.

And before he could die, he had to be born as a human. And so, again, this is a time in which we acknowledge and we celebrate the birth of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But, you know, folks, there's something that I want to share with you as I was thinking about what type of message to give for Christmas, I'm going to come at it with somewhat of a different angle because the gospel is about Jesus Christ coming in his first advent to die for our sins so that we might have the opportunity for eternal life. And that is where a lot of people sort of end the gospel message with the fact that he died and was resurrected and he went to heaven. But the gospel continues in the fact that our Lord is coming back again. He is coming to this earth and he promised us he would do so in the second advent.

So I want to talk about that today. One of the most popular verses that we hear this time of year is in the book of Isaiah chapter nine. Isaiah chapter nine verses six and seven reads, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice. From that time for even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. So, again, we hear this quite often during this time of Christmas because we focus on the A clause of the passage in which it talks about a child is born unto us a son is given.

But as you heard, it also speaks of the government will be upon his shoulder. And, folks, that is yet to come. That is going to be fulfilled when our Lord comes back to set up his millennial kingdom. And so that is what I want to talk about today as we celebrate the first advent. I want us to also look forward to the second advent.

And I truly believe we are living in that season of the second advent. I think it is upon us because Jesus said that we should be able to discern the times. He said in Matthew Chapter 16, verses one through three, then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing him, asked that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red.

And in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and threatening hypocrites. You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times, just as it was at the first coming of Christ. There were many who did not discern the signs that he was truly the Messiah. And we see a repeat of history today because the time that we are living in. Jesus warned us of what to look for concerning his second coming. And yet we see throughout the world, even in the church, sadly, there are many who are not discerning that we are living in that time that our Lord said to be watchful and to be ready for his second coming. So there are many, many things that are pointing to the second advent.

And I want to share some of those with you on today. In light of that, I want to share with you a clip from Mark Henry. He's discussing this event, this COP 27 event with Michelle Bachman. As in previous years, this fall's United Nations Climate Change Conference will focus on developing policies, social momentum and political action aimed at combating climate change. COP 27, however, is also taking a strange turn toward the spiritual.

Over the weekend of November 12th through 13th, few official discussions or activities are planned at COP 27. This provides a major moment when the attention of media and participants can be turned to inter-religious climate messaging and a transformative vision. On Sunday, November 13th, religious leaders will return to Mount Sinai, a mountain whose memory and meaning loom large as a place of revelation in the collective consciousness of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and others.

It is a site for turning to God and receiving God's message. The Bible describes there that the law of God was given to Moses, the moral law of God. That's one of the key elements of a world view.

How you got here. That's creation and then meaning and purpose and then morality. Where does morality come from? Well, the Ten Commandments and then, of course, destiny. And so it's one of those key places in our Christian faith. The morality of God, the decisions of right and wrong are found and summed up in those Ten Commandments. And here now, COP 27, we find world leaders going to Mount Sinai. This is an act of blasphemy. Michelle, tell us what you've gleaned on this whole subject.

This is absolutely shocking. This was the climate change conference that President Biden went to attend two days after the American election in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. This is connected to the Sinai area. And there's a historical site in Sinai called Mount Sinai. Whether it actually was the actual Mount Sinai or not is controversial. But a hundred supposedly interfaith leaders climbed up Mount Sinai.

This was totally blaspheme. They climbed up to receive Ten Commandments. And it wasn't a recreation of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God. These were the Ten Commandments of climate change. Their message is that every world religion can keep their religion, but they need to make sure they all observe these Ten Commandments of climate change. This was rolling out the one world religion that, again, the Bible talks about.

So again, that was Mark Henry. He was interviewing Michelle Bachman on the COP 27 event in which all of these world leaders are coming together to discuss climate change. And at this event, they came up with what they are calling the new Ten Commandments. They are trying to change the ways in which we are to be morally governed by, which God has already given the Ten Commandments. But yet they are giving what they say are new commandments. And what Michelle Bachman is speaking of in which the Bible speaks of this is in the 17th chapter of Revelation, in which it talks about a one world religion.

The Bible calls it the great harlot or the prostitute. And folks, we see it playing out right before our eyes in which the world leaders are coming together and they are really developing a religion centered around climate change. But I don't want to spend too much time on this because I want to move on to another topic that also I say is pointing to the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is a man by the name of Yuval Noah Harari. He is an Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also the best selling author of Sapiens, a brief history of humankind.

So I want to share some clips for you of some things that Yuval Noah Harari is saying that really should grab your attention if you are a Bible believing Christian. And COVID is critical because this is what convinces people to accept, to legitimize total biometric surveillance. If we want to stop this epidemic, we need not just to monitor people, we need to monitor what's happening under their skin. What we have seen so far, it's corporations and governments collecting data about where we go, who we meet, what movies we watch. The next phase is the surveillance going under our skin.

The privileged access now belongs to corporations like Google. They can have access to things happening ultimately inside my body and brain, which I don't know about. There is somebody out there, not just one, all kinds of corporations and governments that maybe not today, maybe in five years, 10 years, 20 years, they will have privileged access to what's happening inside me, more privileged than my access. They could understand what is happening in my brain better than I understand it. You don't have to give them permission.

I mean, in some countries, maybe you have no choice at all. But even in a democracy like the United States, a lot of the information that enables an external entity to hack you, nobody asks you whether you want to give it away or not. Now, at present, most of the data that is being collected on humans is still from the skin outwards. We haven't seen nothing yet. We are still just at the tip of this revolution because at present, whether it's Google and Facebook and Amazon or whether it's the government or whatever, they are trying to understand people mainly on the basis of what I search, what I buy, where I go, who I meet.

It's all external. The really big revolution, which is coming very quickly, will be when the AI revolution and machine learning and all that, the infotech revolution meets and merges with the biotech revolution and goes under the skin. So again, that is a man by the name of Yuval Noah Harari. He is an Israeli historian and again is a Bible believing Christian. When you hear these words, your ears should perk up because you heard him repeatedly say he wants to do things surveillance wise that goes under the skin.

And you may say, well, that sounds very familiar. If you have your Bibles, look over at the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verses 16 and 17 reads, He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sale except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Now, let me be clear, folks, I am not at all saying that what this man Harari is speaking of, that he is actually implementing the mark of the beast. I am not at all saying that for those out there who have received covid shots, that you have taken the mark of the beast.

That is not the case. But what I am saying is, could this be laying the foundation? Now, it's a theory. I'm going to admit that that is speculatory. I can't say with 100 percent certainty, but it should be something to make you think that this man is saying that, well, covid-19 brought in the opportunity for surveillance under the skin. And we see a lot of people who have been endorsing this.

And this this man Harari has caught a lot of traction here over the last few years. And it really should make you think again about what the Bible says is going to take place in the days leading up to the second coming of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These are some very interesting times that we are living in. But again, as we are celebrating the birth of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Merry Christmas to everyone. We are looking at the second Advent. We are looking forward to the second coming of our great Lord. We're going to pause for a short break, but please don't go away. Back with more on the other side. You are tuned into Discerning the Times.

Visit our website, LessonsToIsrael.com or write to us at Lessons to Israel, PO Box 266, Knightdale, North Carolina, 27545. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Once again, Merry Christmas to everyone.

I cannot say it enough. I love this time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I hear more and more as time goes on. There are those who profess to be Christians. They profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. And yet they feel that is wrong for us to celebrate Christmas. But I am one who celebrates the birth of our Lord and Savior today.

I'm not going to go into all the reasons as to why they argue that we should not and why I believe that we should. But I'm just saying here today that we believe in celebrating the birth of our great Lord Jesus Christ. He came to us as a child and he is going to return to us as the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

And so today we're looking at things that I believe are indicators that are pointing to the fact that the second advent of Jesus Christ is on the horizon. Now, let me be clear. I do not make predictions. The Bible makes it very clear. No man can know the day or the hour. So I am not predicting the date of our Lord's return. And if you ever hear someone make a prediction, immediately dismiss them because they're in violation of scripture. But what our Lord did say is that we can discern the times just as it was at his first advent. There were those who did not discern the times at a second advent. We as believers should be discerning of the times that we're living in and look at what the Bible said would be indicators of our Lord's soon return.

But sadly, there are so many who are oblivious. And Jesus said it would be like it was in the days of Noah concerning his second coming. So we're listening today to several troubling statements by a man by the name of Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian.

And he's speaking of things that really should catch our attention. So let's continue to listen to him as he is speaking about upgrading humans to gods. I think that within, say, 200 years, to give a conservative estimate, there won't be Homo sapiens on planet Earth. 200 years? 200 years. And I think this is a conservative estimate.

Wow. Maybe even 100 years. It's not that we'll destroy ourselves in some calamity. Much more likely, we will use advanced technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, direct brain-computer interfaces to upgrade Homo sapiens into different kinds of beings. Beings which are different from us, much more than we are different from Neanderthals. Beings which will have different bodies, different minds, different brains. I mean, the big products of the coming century will not be shoes or clothes or cars or weapons. The big products of the 21st century are going to be bodies and minds. So I think we are heading towards the upgrading of Homo sapiens into gods.

OK, folks, again, this should be troubling to you. Jesus said in the book of Matthew, chapter 24, in verse 37, he is speaking of the last days. And Jesus said, But as the days of Noah were, also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. So how was it in the days of Noah? Well, the Bible tells us there was great violence in the land. It says the thought of man was constantly wicked.

It was constantly evil. One of the other things that it states is that there were Nephilim in the land. The Book of Genesis, chapter six speaks of it, in which these fallen angels, which were demons, they came and had sexual intercourse with women on the earth and they created what we would call a hybrid race of people. And that is the reason that God had to destroy them through the flood, because they came in order to try to contaminate the bloodline so that Jesus would not be able to come to the earth as the Messiah, because Jesus had to come through by way of which he did not inherit the sin nature.

So he couldn't come through a lineage in which they had been produced through conception with fallen angels. And so that is what existed during the days of Noah. So could we be seeing today a similar thing taking place, but not by fallen angels, but what we see is known as transhumanism? Could this be a repeat of what is happening from Genesis chapter six?

Is that a sign or or is that an indicator or a characteristic of these last days? It's something to think about, folks. Again, I'm not saying that this is the case definitively, but it is something that should grab our attention because this man, Harari, believes that we can upgrade ourselves as humans into gods. And what he is speaking certainly sounds like the system of the Antichrist during the tribulation. Let's continue to listen to him as he speaks of how government can shape the will of people. Ideally, you have people forming up opinions and desires and then voting for a government that represents them.

But we know it works both way. The government has enormous power to shape the opinions and desires of the population. And this power only increases today with the new technologies of surveillance, mass surveillance and social media and so forth. So when the government can I mean, the government is not just responsive to the will of the people. It can shape the will of the people. And this really destabilizes the democratic system.

Also, you know, the media has an enormous role to play in this, that if the government has too much control over the media, then it's not like people are forming their own independent views about what's happening. We now have the power or at least not we, but some governments and corporations for the first time in history have the power to basically hack human beings. There is a lot of talk about hacking computers, hacking smartphones, hacking bank accounts. But the big story of our era is the ability to hack human beings. And by this I mean that if you have enough data and you have enough computing power, you can understand people better than they understand themselves. And then you can manipulate them in ways which were previously impossible. And in such a situation, the old democratic system stopped functioning.

We need to reinvent democracy for this new era in which humans are now hackable animals. You know, the whole idea that humans have, you know, this they they have this soul or spirit and they have free will and nobody knows what's happening inside me. So whatever I choose, whether in the election or whether in the supermarket, this is my free will.

That's over. So you heard Harari in his own words. He's saying free will is over. He says human beings are hackable animals. This is the type of thing that you read in the Bible of what the Antichrist is going to try to implement during the tribulation of human beings, not having the free will to worship the true God, but he is going to try to force them to worship him through his mark of the beast. And this man, Harari, is now believing that we can have a hybrid people walking the earth that are controlled partly by robotic computerized technology and then still have human flesh.

And again, remember I said in the book of Genesis, chapter six, it speaks of the Nephilim in which they were a hybrid race of people, part human and then part demonic. Harari continues to talk about human beings being hackable. Here to talk about our future, both the future of our species, Homo sapiens, and about your own personal future. And nobody really knows what the world would look like in 2050.

The only thing we know for sure is that it will be a very, very different world than today. And perhaps the most important thing to know about the future is that humans will soon be hackable animals, animals that can be hacked. There is a lot of talk these days about hacking computers and email accounts and smartphones and bank accounts, but we're actually entering the era in which it will be possible to hack human beings. Now, what does it mean to hack a human being? It means to create an algorithm that can understand you better than you understand yourself and can therefore predict your choices, manipulate your desires and make decisions on your behalf.

All right. So according to Harari, you can be hacked and you will not be able to make decisions yourself. But this technology, artificial intelligence, will make the decisions for you. And folks, if you hear this and you think, OK, this guy is just a quack, this is absurd.

Why are we even wasting time talking about it? Well, again, he has great influence and there are many world leaders who are buying into what he is saying. I want you to hear these world leaders in their own words, in what they feel about Harari. Just as God in the Bible designs and creates animals and plants and humans according to his wishes. Now we are learning how to design and create life. Yuval Harari thinks big for a living. Not so long ago, he was an obscure history professor, but his 2014 book Sapiens changed all that.

He explored the past, cramming one hundred and fifty thousand years of human history into 400 pages. Authority will shift, transforming himself into a literary phenomenon. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome once again, Yuval Noah Harari. Name dropped by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Barack Obama. The other book that I really enjoyed, a book by an Israeli author, Yuval Harari. His follow up book, Homo Deus, tackled the future, elevating Harari to a sort of digital visionary.

All right. So you heard it there being like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, who leads Facebook, Barack Obama, our former president. They are all on board with what this man wants to do.

The Book of Revelation, Chapter 17, verses one and two says, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Folks, this very well could be fulfillment of what the Bible speaks of in the Book of Revelation concerning this one world religion that is coming that is going to be driven and led by the Antichrist spirit of that time. We may see the foundation.

We may be witnessing the foundation taking place right here before our very eyes. But again, I share this with you not to take away the joy because we are celebrating the joy of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His first advent coming to the earth, being born through the Virgin Mary. And I believe we also should be eagerly anticipating the second advent of our Lord in which he comes back to rule and reign.

And he said he would come back and take us to be with him in heaven and then come back to rule and reign on his earthly kingdom. So let's be excited. Let's have joy. Peace to all as we again celebrate this great and wonderful Christmas season. So please come back and join us next week as we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen and Merry Christmas. Thank you for tuning in to deserting the times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Discerning the times is presented by blessings to Israel.