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Milieu Members Paul McGuire and Troy Anderson
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:5)
What if the Antichrist isn’t a charismatic world leader who seduces humanity with his spellbinding, oratorical powers?
What if the Antichrist—whom the Apostle John described as the “image of the beast”—is a godlike artificial intelligence entity, or even a transhumanist combination of a genetically altered human enhanced with artificial intelligence, a “neural lace” connected to the cloud, and possessed by Lucifer himself?
After all, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:37, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
If God indeed destroyed the world in the Flood following the corruption of humanity’s DNA when fallen angels mated with women producing hybrids known as Nephilim (see Genesis 6–9), then couldn’t today’s transhumanism/AI movement involving genetic modification, cybernetic augmentation, digitization of consciousness, and other forms of human enhancement be a return to the “days of Noah”?
“As well as rebuilding Babel, emerging technoscience (especially genetic engineering) is seen as recreating the transgression of the Watchers {of Genesis 6 and Enoch 1}—creating hybrid beings by crossing ontological and species boundaries in contravention of divine law—a repetition of act that will lead to a repetition of sentence,” wrote Jonathan O’Donnell, a teaching fellow in the Department of Religion and Philosophies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, in his paper, “Secularizing Demons: Fundamentalist Navigations in Religion and Secularity,” from which this book, The Milieu, was inspired.
O’Donnell’s intriguing paper, the transhumanism movement, and the recent explosion in technological advances that is altering what it means to be human comes amid increasing concerns that what Google executive Ray Kurzweil calls the “Singularity”—the moment when computers achieve human-level intelligence—could spell the doom of mankind or at least its irrevocable transformation. “2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an A.I. will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence,” Kurzweil predicted. “I have set the date 2045 for the ‘Singularity’ which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion-fold by merging with the intelligence we have created.”[i]
As these dates approach, Tesla’s Elon Musk is warning that humanity only has a 5–10 percent chance of preventing killer robots from destroying mankind, and Silicon Valley self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski has created the “First Church of Artificial Intelligence,” laying the foundation for a new world religion and its AI savior.
As transhumanism and artificial intelligence are capturing the world’s imagination, perhaps it’s time to ask whether our traditional interpretation of the Bible’s end-time scenario should consider these dizzying technological advances—and what it means for our future as members of the human race.
Stranger Beasts
The exact explanation of the phrase—“image of the beast”—in Revelation 13:5 has been debated by biblical scholars for two thousand years.
The verse begins with the words, “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast.” The word “he” is referring to the False Prophet, who is also known as the second Beast.
The first Beast is the Antichrist, whom Satan indwells and who heads up the one-world government described in the book of Revelation.
“There is no doubt that the beast of the book of Revelation is the Antichrist that the apostles Paul and John describe in their epistles,” wrote Left Behind series coauthors Dr. Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson in The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy.
The world beast (Greek, theerion) means “wild animals,” and Revelation first mentions this being in 11:7, where he comes from the abyss and kills the two witnesses of the Lord who convict the world of its evil…. The beast comes from the nations (“the sea,” 13:1) and entices the world to follow after him (verse 3). The religious False Prophet who is also called “a beast” (verses 11–12), leads the world in worshipping the first beast and even makes an image of him (verse 15). He is identified by a mysterious number: 666 (verse 18; 16:2). The exact meaning of this number has escaped the many speculations of scholars. When the events of the Tribulation take place, and the beast comes on the scene, true Christians will probably be able to recognize him by some feature that is identified by 666…. John’s beast is not simply a force, nation, or power; the beast has all of the characteristics of personality. He is the other “horn,” or the “little horn” who comes out of the nations, as Daniel describes, who possesses “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts”—meaning he is worldly-wise and controls the nations by what he says (Daniel 7:8). This is the same beast John describes in Revelation. The Antichrist is called “the beast” approximately 32 times in the New Testament—and only in the Apocalypse…. The Apostle Paul mentions him in much detail in 2 Thessalonians 2 as the lawless one whose coming is energized “in accordance with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).[ii]
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The first Beast, or Antichrist, sets himself up to be worshipped as God by sitting on a throne in the Holy of Holies, which is in the rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and demands that he is worshipped as God.
The prophet Daniel records part of this in Daniel 9, where this event is predicted in the last days, or the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” Both the Apostle Paul and Christ refer to this as the “abomination of desolation,” which Daniel describes as the Antichrist sitting in the holy place during the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.”
A variety of significant matters surround this major prophetic event. First, we must remember that Satan, or Lucifer, is actively leading a rebellion against God with one-third of the angels, or fallen angels, along with all the people on planet earth who are following him, including all those who will ultimately choose to receive the mark of the Beast (possibly a microchip implant, biochip, nanochip or DNA-modified chip).
The False Prophet is responsible for administrating the false one-world religion and economic system that brings all this together. During the Antichrist and False Prophet’s reign of terror, no one will be able to “buy or sell,” or participate in the global economic system, unless they have publicly renounced Jesus as Lord and have professed worshipping the Antichrist as God.
It’s only after this profession that they will be able to receive the mark implant in their right hand or forehead, which will likely be integrated into their DNA, allowing them to “buy and sell.”
Many theologians believe the Antichrist will publicly come to power during the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period.
Prophecy scholars who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture argue that all true Christians will be supernaturally removed from the earth before the Antichrist is revealed and the Tribulation begins.
When the Antichrist rises to power and the False Prophet begins the one-world economic system and religion, anyone who refuses to renounce Christ as Lord and publicly pledge to worship the Antichrist as God will not be allowed to participate in the global economic system.
Sadly, the Bible tells us that the penalty for refusing the mark of the Beast will be having your head chopped off. Those Bible scholars who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture are convinced that when God promises His people in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 to “deliver us from the wrath to come” that they will be removed, or “snatched away,” from planet earth before the Antichrist is revealed and the mark of the Beast system goes into effect.
A Regime Change in Heaven?
Satan has been plotting a regime change in heaven ever since he became the temporary god of this world after tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God in the Garden of Eden. That’s when the Fall of Man began.
Satan’s plan from the beginning has been to remove God and set himself up in the throne room of God and be worshipped as God. Satan plans to raise up the False Prophet, who very well may be alive today, to initiate a supernatural and technological plan of deception that will powerfully deceive the world’s population into believing the Antichrist is God.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:14–15)
Satan will give the False Prophet the supernatural power of personal and mass deception by enabling him to perform great supernatural signs, including calling down fire from heaven in the sight of all men. In addition, the performance of these supernatural signs and wonders will powerfully deceive people on earth, including even “the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).
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It’s important to understand that these signs may be a combination of supernatural power and advanced technologies. For example, it’s been claimed that the government has holographic technologies that could cause people to witness some type of UFO invasion coming from the skies.
People involved in secret government programs have allegedly been responsible for creating purported alien encounters and people witnessing alien spacecraft. When I (Troy) was a reporter at the Nevada Appeal in the early 1990s, I recall a reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal telling me that his brother worked at Area 51 and they would fly experimental aircraft around Nevada, “buzzing” residents to trick them into thinking they were seeing UFOs.
The narrative of an invasion by UFOs from outer space is one that the government and Hollywood have carefully inserted into the public consciousness since H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel The War of the Worlds and Orson Welles’ radio drama, The War of the Worlds, in 1938 that created a public panic that earth had been invaded by extraterrestrials.
Since then, many global leaders have talked about how an alien invasion would be the fastest way to unify planet earth and bring in a one-world government. This includes American philosopher John Dewey, father of public education, and presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Countless movies have conveyed this idea, including Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The government, media, and Hollywood have spent decades softening up the public for such a scenario, as evidenced by a recent survey.
Derek P. Gilbert and Josh Peck noted in their excellent book, The Day the Earth Stands Still, that a National Geographic Channel study in 2012 found that 36 percent of Americans believe that UFOs exist, and the same percentage says they believe aliens have visited earth. In comparison, while 73 percent of American adults describe themselves as “Christian,” only 10 percent now have a biblical worldview, a Barna Group survey found. “In other words, doctrinally-sound, Bible-believing Christians are outnumbered in America by ET believers three to one,” Gilbert and Peck wrote.[iii]
Projects Blue Beam and Montauk
One of the purported government programs linked to this belief in recent decades, and depicted on many television programs, is known as Majestic 12. The Federal Bureau of Investigation describes Majestic 12 as “a secret committee created to exploit a recovery of an extra-terrestrial aircraft and cover-up this work from public examination.” However, the FBI notes that a US Air Force investigation determined that the famous document purporting to provide evidence for the existence of Majestic 12 is a “fake.”[iv]
Nevertheless, while the FBI discounts the existence of Majestic 12, New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen’s book Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America offers ample evidence about a secret government program that brought thousands of Nazi rocket, mind-control and genetic scientists to America following World War II. Interestingly, one of the most famous of these scientists, Wernher von Braun, became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and played a prominent role in America’s space exploration program, which has contributed to growing interest in whether intelligent life may exist on other planets.
Following a recent New York Times story revealing the existence of a $22 million program in the Pentagon that investigates UFOs, speculation grew on Twitter, Reddit, and other online forums about the possibility of a fake alien invasion to manipulate the public. “It’s tough to comprehensively explain the false flag myths without tumbling down rabbit holes, but most of them seem to stem from the writing of a prolific conspiracy theorist named Serge Monast. According to Wikipedia—the most reputable source I managed to find on the subject—Monast was a self-styled journalist from Quebec who wrote an influential paper in 1994 called ‘Project Blue Beam,’ which alleged that NASA and the United Nations are working together to simulate an invasion from space using holograms,” Aaron Mak wrote in a Slate article. “The world’s populace, apparently, will then abandon all religions and take this hologram to be a messiah, establishing a new worldwide religion that will serve as a string for nefarious puppet masters in the government to set up a global dictatorship called the New World Order.”[v]
Researchers have speculated that Project Blue Beam may involve technologies that could create a virtual reality scenario featuring a fake rapture or the Second Coming of Christ, or the appearance of Buddha or Muhammad in the skies in which millions of people would be convinced that it’s real.
Another intriguing government program that has captured public interest in recent years is the Montauk Project. This top-secret program allegedly involves mind-control and time-travel experiments. The Netflix series, Stranger Things, was originally titled “Project Montauk” after the covert government operation on Long Island that allegedly used runaway children as test subjects. Nazi scientists are rumored to have conducted mind-control and time-travel experiments at the facility to develop various weaponry and technologies.[vi]
If these technologies exist, Operation Blue Beam could theoretically generate giant holographic projections of anything from the Antichrist becoming God (“image of the beast”) to engineering a collective mass shift in consciousness where the people of planet earth believe they are becoming one and evolving into gods.
Many prophecy scholars believe the New World Order may attempt to use such technologies to overcome any resistance to or rejection of their global government. Some researchers claim this may involve scalar waves and electromagnetic radiation and wireless technologies that can purportedly transmit images and voices directly into the human brain. These investigators believe technologies could create various Christian and New Age images and sounds that could be heard by people throughout the world. These technologies could also be used by the Antichrist to communicate in direct and powerful ways to people.
“We know Jesus warned us that in the end times ‘fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven’ (Luke 21:11), and that these would be so dramatic that they will cause ‘upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken’ (25, 26). It will be a terrifying time unlike any other in human history, with widespread panic and evil,” Dr. Kevin Clarkson, host of the Prophecy in the News television show, wrote in an article in the ministry’s magazine. “It is not unreasonable to believe that ‘unidentified’ objects from the skies could be a key part of the great end-times delusion that will engulf the entire world and lead people into following Satan in a one-world belief system and religion. This will be demonic deception at its very worst, promising a false deliverance that is going to lead to final damnation. The effects of peer pressure, group-think, and masterful mass psychology will be manipulated by Satan’s leader to ensnare the masses.”[vii]
NEXT: A Deadly Wound
[i] Don Galeon and Christianna Reedy, “Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045,” Futurism, October 5, 2017, (https://futurism.com/kurzweil-claims-that-the-singularity-will-happen-by-2045).
[ii] Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2004), 44–45.
[iii] Derek P. Gilbert and Josh Peck, The Day the Earth Stands Still (Crane, MO: Defender, 2017), 1–2.
[iv] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Majestic12,” https://vault.fbi.gov/Majestic%2012.
[v] Aaron Mak, “How Conspiracy Theorists on Reddit Are Reacting to That New York Times UFO Story,” Slate, December 19, 2017, (http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/12/19/how_conspiracy_theorists_on_reddit_4chan_are_reacting_to_the_new_york_times.html).
[vi] Caroline Iggulden, “STRANGER THINGS HAPPENED From mind control, brainwashing and monsters—theories claim Stranger Things happened in REAL LIFE in a secret government project,” The Sun, October 21, 2017, (https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4734230/theories-stranger-things-happened-real-life).
[vii] Dr. Kevin Clarkson, “Kevin’s Corner,” Prophecy in the News, January 2018, 8.
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