Israel and the Jewish people are still expecting the Messiah because they have rejected Jesus Christ as the true Messiah. Now that the Jewish people are firmly planted back in the Holy Land, the land of their ancestors, their expectation has grown more pronounced. Many of the conservative majority want all the land from the river to the sea. Some want to see their Temple rebuilt in its original location on the Holy Mount. Although this may seem quite impossible at this juncture, there is one coming who could easily make it a reality. The Jewish people have made deep inroads into many countries, especially in America. They have become entrenched in leadership roles in government, entertainment, education, and technology. Their technological advancements in Israel and their host countries are unprecedented. Although they may appear to be hated by every nation because of their economic advancements, it only appears that way. The diaspora has made them a viable part of every country. Because of their religious roots, they are deeply loved by the Christian community. No matter what corner of the world they are in, their national ambitions have not changed as they fervently anticipate the arrival of their messiah, yet they are unaware that he is the Beast in the book of Revelation (Revelation 13:11-18).

Well, they are not the only ones anticipating the arrival of their Messiah, or Christ. The Christian community has been anticipating the return of Jesus Christ for over two thousand years. Although most believe that Christ will triumphantly return in the clouds to rapture His elect children just before the end of the world, some believe that He will come prior to the Great Tribulation. Either way, no sound biblical follower of Christ believes that He will come back to rule the world. Most Christians believe that the Beast or the false messiah will rise up in great power to rule the entire world prior to the end. Although we have not gotten to that point yet, this short thesis details the many things put into place to hail his coming as a man of peace and prosperity. We will examine the many miracles that will lead the entire world to worship and adore his leadership. As we shall see he will cut through the veil of every religion to capture the hearts of all humanity, with the exception of the elect in Christ. His coming will truly separate the wheat from the tares validating the great falling away.

The Holy Bible says, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). This false Christ (the Messiah translated in Hebrew) goes by many different names, each to show his character. We read here in this text the man of sin and the son of perdition. We will also discover that he is known as the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, and the dreaded Beast in the book of Revelation. Whatever we choose to call him, he will have great power garnering the worship of all humanity. What we learn in the above text is there is no escaping this powerful man if we are still alive. We will either be counted among the elect, or we will worship the Beast, irrespective of what we call him. Through God’s grace, I can give you all the warnings, but nothing will stop you from worshipping this false Messiah except being a part of God’s elect children. We need to be clear on this point so that we will not be deceived.

Yes, this deception is very strong because Satan has been working for many years to draw the whole world away from serving and trusting in God exclusively. Perhaps it started with science and later with technology that has led humanity to trust in something beyond the information in the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Although the roots of scientific discovery have been around for nearly 4000 years, it wasn’t until the 17th century that modern science developed instruments to examine the world more closely. Through observation and experimentation, theories were developed for all of life concerning our place in the universe. Other disciplines were developed to understand the physical and mental health of humanity. Step by step slight divergences from Holy Scripture were more widely accepted. The wholesale acceptance of the evolution of life from a tadpole or a monkey decimated humanity’s belief in the creation of man in the garden of Eden. Moreover, it destroyed our belief that the heavens and the earth were created in seven literal days. The moment humanity began to trust in scientific discovery it questioned the authority and ability of God’s Word to solve all of our problems from planetary destruction to mental health issues.

I have written extensively about how God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3-4). As humanity ventures further away from God, we have seen a staggering increase in lawlessness, immoral behavior, and mental health issues. Instead of turning back to God who has the ability to fix all the problems ailing humanity, they have trusted the professionals of psychiatry to give them endless counseling and an increasing array of psychiatric drugs.  This movement away from God and trusting in scientific discovery has entered every area of society. It has permeated public education, entertainment, government policymaking, and even the local church. This movement away from God and trusting in scientific discovery has prepared humanity to trust in technology to not only solve their problems but to open up vistas of unimaginable possibilities. We have all held technology in our hands with the hope that it will improve our ability to function in the modern world. We have grown accustomed to the never-ending upgrades and innovations that have consumed even more of our time driving us further away from personal face-to-face relationships and exploring God’s beautiful creation. Every day, we draw nearer to the emergence of the second beast of Revelation, known as the false prophet. This false prophet along with the scientific community will construct the image of the Beast, Satan, giving it life and causing it to speak (Revelation 13:15).

Satan has already given the whole world something else to trust in other than trusting in God exclusively. We have grown accustomed to trusting in the scientific discoveries and the developing technologies that absolutely amaze us. As humanity is driven further away from God, Satan knows that there is a religious instinct that is embedded deeply into the hearts of every man, woman, and child. We have been created to worship and trust in our Creator. This instinct has spawned many different world religions and occult practices to satisfy the spiritual needs of humanity. So, it’s essential that Satan satisfies this need by raising up the second beast or the false prophet to lead humanity to believe that they can attain the highest truth on their own, which gives them the ability to achieve all that life has to offer. This false prophet will boastfully proclaim that humanity under his direction can obtain a dynamic connection with their environment and have the ability to solve all the planetary issues from global warming to infectious diseases. The false prophet will continually stress that the power is within yourself, in essence making you, your own god, having no need for God, or the higher power of other world religions and occult practices. His aim is to ultimately drive you to the altar of Satan in worship and obedience. This is clearly happening in our world today.

Furthermore, this will be accomplished through false promises and amazing miracles beyond belief. One miracle spoken of in the book of Revelation is his ability to cause fire to fall down from heaven (Revelation 13:13). This miracle is twofold, showing his great power and his ability to defeat all of his enemies upon the earth. Knowing that this false prophet, the second beast, will arise in the Western world and become the long-awaited messiah of the state of Israel, he will reign down fire upon all the enemies of Israel to obtain their dying allegiance. There are many more miracles to validate his many promises of peace on earth and prosperity among all of its inhabitants. Every miracle from calming the storms to eradicating the smog and pollution in the world’s great cities to the ruthless crackdown on unsanctioned wars and open hostilities against one another. In every perceived miracle he will drive humanity further away from the one true God and closer to trusting in themselves and the great power of the beast. There is one more miracle that will get all of humanity on the same page. It was no accident that Satan raised up all the social media platforms to allow everyone to openly express their own beliefs and opinions, which has ruthlessly divided the entire world.

The last miracle is to establish unity of faith and opinions in the entire world of wayward humanity. Although there will be a lot of trust in the false prophet that has reached beyond the veil of most world religions and occult practices, it will take one more miracle to convince humanity that there is only one truth. The false prophet, the second beast, will create an image of Satan, the first beast, to be worshipped by all of humanity. The Bible says, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:15). We have had life-size robots and artificial intelligence for some time now that can both speak and answer simple questions, but now we are entering a new day of amazing discoveries in technology. There has been an almost unhindered race towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), with some sounding an alarm of a potential threat against humanity. These alarms have come from both the scientific community and the senior staff of those creating AGI.

Some of the latest discoveries have indicated that AGI has passed some initial reasoning beyond simply quoting from the vast trove of information on the internet and has solved some elementary math problems. However, it has also been stated that AGI using an advanced algorithm called Q* was able to surpass the security encryption creating unknown mathematical equations. Yet now everything seems to be covered up with no further information on its advances. We are not surprised, because this would be an extremely powerful entity that could crack the encryption of the entire planet. Although this could give AGI and its selected users unlimited power in the intelligence community, what concerns us most at this juncture will be its ability to make profound statements concerning it’s definition of the truth and require all of humanity to accept and believe it. This will create a unity of thought and beliefs among all of humanity that removes God from the equation. AGI, or image of the beast, will also have the ability to assign an unencrypted number to every soul on the planet requiring that they use it to adhere to the new stated truths for humanity. Of course, mankind’s failure to accept their number and agree with the stated truths would cause them to be killed. This is far worse than some science-fiction movie that has the fear of nuclear annihilation caused by AGI. Satan’s plan from the beginning is not total annihilation but total control, bringing all of humanity to the altar of the beast to worship him alone.

How close we are, we cannot say, but I am convinced that when the false prophet arises AGI will be ready for every soul on the planet to be plugged in to track and observe everything they do or think. Our only safeguard as believers in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, is to memorize the truth from God’s Holy Word. Our only safeguard is to keep in step with the indwelling Spirit rejecting every lie and only embarrassing the truth. We need to remember how things were before the great falling away when technology was not the center of our lives. We must remember that expressing our own small opinion was not the most important thing in our life. As God’s beloved children we rejoiced in expressing His truth alone to help others to become all that they were created to be. We were not plugged into our devices every moment of every day but spent our time with family sitting around the same table sharing the many blessings from the risen Lord. We did not believe the lie of Satan that we could turn this world into a living paradise of peace and prosperity even as we increasingly embraced every manner of sin. We understood the old prophecies well that this world would reap the consequences of its sins through the many plagues and wrath of God being poured out on an unrepentant world. Dear children, we must reject the coming technology that will plug us into the image of the beast designed to drive us further away from God and closer to serving Satan and powers of darkness. We must stand firm.