I thought that ‘Existential’, that great prize-winning choice for the 2019 ‘Word of the Year’ was as cool as it got. I was clearly wrong. Today, the modern dictionary continues to evolve at a warp speed that would make even Trekkers and Klingons envious and ‘No’, I am not talking about normal words like hashtag, emoji, blog, Becky, even GOAT or second gentleman. Try decoding words like OK boomer, stonks, zhuzh, zhoosh, ambisextrous, hygge, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and that all new pandemical word — hodophobia. Can we even be sure what a word is anymore? Methinks (Shakespearean) the lexicographers have gone a bit mad!
All of this brings me to another word making its rounds in the news and on social media sites — the word ‘Reset’. Clearly not as nouveau as Sharent, as funny as Puggle, or as slick as Amirite (no, not Amorite), ‘The Great Reset’ was the name given to the June 2020 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, where an agenda item included the ‘reordering’ of a better society. Later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau picked up on this in his September 29 speech to the United Nations, saying …
“This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate
our pre-pandemic efforts, to reimagine economic systems that actually address global
challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change.” (November 15, 2020)
Suddenly, news outlets and social media platforms lit up brighter than a Chernobyl meltdown. Many saw the WEF initiatives as conspiratorial language and euphemistic doublespeak for the taking away of citizen rights, property and ultimately their liberty. Others replied that this was utter nonsense, conjured up by Neanderthal conspiracy theorists spending too much time watching reruns of the X-files. Heavens, even Christians got into the game, smacking down other believers and accusing them of being conspiracy theorists! Really!
Some analysts are speaking of a ‘before coronavirus’ (BC)
and an ‘after coronavirus’ (AC) era. I suspect they are fundamentally right.
So, what of it? Will Covid-19 lockdowns usher in a ‘Great Reset’? Does the combating of
‘inequality’ mean the death of capitalism and the embracing of socialist ideology? Are the elites in our world really working against our collective freedoms? Well, you can decide for yourself, but it does not help when the WEF runs ads saying, “You will own nothing and you will be happy.” I am tempted to cynically add “And the rich will own everything and be even happier”, but will resist — OK?
You can decide where you land, skid or spin out on this Orwellian-sounding subject, but I can assure you that there is a ‘Great-er Reset’ and it is neither the product of liberal hegemony, centrist dreaming or conservative values. Nor does its origins lie fundamentally with Klaus Schwab (Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2018), the founder of WEF . . . or any Davos (Switzerland) agenda around which the elite and powerful of the world gather to talk about ‘Us’ while drinking their champagne.
Someone once said that the meetings held annually by the
World Economic Forum in Davos, are where “billionaires
go to lecture millionaires on how ordinary people live.”
The Bible reports that the genesis of this ‘Great-er Reset’ really lies before human time ever
appeared, when evil announced its presence by rebelling against the Creator God and tried to set up an alternative kingdom (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28). Though now fallen (Luke 10:18), he is not yet deposed! Still, he is working on a coming tectonic shift . . . indeed, a reset so powerful it will affect how we live, work, and engage our world. It will touch our income, health, travel and every living family member. It will usher in indescribable bloodshed, unimagined torment and life-changing destinies. The ‘Great-er Reset’ is a spiritual reality . . . and though the ‘sophisticated’ will likely be dismissive, frankly, their opinions change nothing; nothing at all!
Approximately one-fourth of the Scriptures is of a prophetic nature, but not all prophecy is the same (foretelling vs forthtelling) any more than all fulfillment is the same. 1 Preterists, whether partial or hyper, will consign ‘future passages’ related to the eschaton to some obscure past, conjuring up symbolic pictures of first century conflicts in the passages which they prefer to read backwards. Disciples of Realized Eschatology will do likewise. Futurism is not their flavour of the month – ever!
While arguably there is room for some disagreement within Christianity regarding end-time events, I confess to my shame that I am reminded of the Apostle Paul, who warned against those who, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, teach falsely that “the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.” (2 Timothy 2:17-18)
Rejecting global governance, the 45 th President of the United States said to the 73 rd U.N. General Assembly,
"The future does not belong to globalists.”
He was dead wrong — this time!
(Tuesday, September 24, 2019)
The idea of a present human worldwide conspiracy being orchestrated by extremely powerful and influential groups to effect complete and total control over every human being on the planet might seem laughingly absurd to some. Still, the Bible does speak rather soberingly of an end- time, satanically crafted governmental system that will rise in coming days to challenge God as in the past. Your life might be vinyl now … but high-end audio is on is way.
Let me explain. Following the flood, the door to Noah’s Ark had hardly been opened on Mt.
Ararat when Genesis 9 tells us the sad story of Noah’s drunkenness and his son Ham’s
disrespectful actions. Ham’s descendants were not unlike him. One of them was a man called Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10) who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth, and one of the first centers of his kingdom was Babylon . . . in Shinar (v. 10). Nimrod was a rebel and the cities he founded were built on conquest.
Twice we are told in Genesis 10:9 that he was a “mighty hunter before the Lord”. In fact, it
became a proverb that whenever a person was arrogant and full of self-importance, he was
another ‘Nimrod’. Even though Nimrod’s name is not mentioned in Genesis 11, from Chapter 10 Nimrod was a force behind the movement to build a center on the flat plain of Shinar. Nimrod and his Band of Brothers had been instructed in Genesis 9:1 to scatter by “filling the earth” — (also Genesis 1:28) but in their ambition to establish a world empire they came together on the plain of Shinar to build “a tower with its top into the heavens”. (Genesis 11:4)
The beginning of that kingdom was Babel, where they hoped to institute two things: an imperial world government, and a new and idolatrous system of worship. In short, Babel was humanity’s attempt to short-circuit God’s purpose and Kingdom (Genesis 11:5), but it did not work. God confused the language (Genesis 11:9), the rogues out of necessity scattered, creating such tribal diversity and thinking that humankind was no longer inclined to unity — a unity clearly on display before Genesis 11.
With God’s unassailable ‘Rainbow’ Covenant (Genesis 9:13) still in place and the tower no
threat to God’s superiority, it is this divine solution (diversity) that allows God to conveniently use one tribe to judge another or restrain their evil . . . without having to destroy the entire race.
Think about it! God’s testimony after the Flood remains grave: “the intentions of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (8:21). Evidently nothing had changed. Shall God judge the entire planet yet again? By carefully outlining for us in Genesis 9:25-27 a postdiluvian history detailing Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth along with the subdivisions in Chapters 10 and 11, readers are told in clear tones that tribal diversity is: (a) a forced obedience to earlier divine directives, and (b) a grace thing — a reasonable solution to humanity’s lingering quest to globalize and reset itself into a single, unified world government.
Think of tribal diversity as “compartments in
the hull of a ship, damage to one compartment will not sink the entire ship”.
Dr. Thomas Ice
It is this diversity that currently restrains modern globalism, but it will not last! In the light of the New Testament, we cannot fail to see that the Old Testament Nimrod foreshadows the last great world-ruler, Antichrist.
1) Nimrod mean ‘the rebel’. One of the titles of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 is ‘the
Lawless one’;
2) Nimrod tried to establish a confederacy in open revolt to God, precisely what the
Antichrist intends to do (Dan. 11:36-37);
3) Three times ‘mighty’ is used to describe Nimrod. (Genesis 10:9) In 2 Thessalonians 2:9
Antichrist’s coming “is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders”;
4) Nimrod’s headquarters were in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10; 11:1) – a general
synonym for Babylonia. Joshua 7:21; Isaiah 11:11; and Zechariah 5:11 bear this out. In
the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist is clearly connected with ‘Mystery Babylon’.
(Revelation 17:3-5)
In the world and language of the Bible, Nimrod is the first tyrant on the earth oppressing others and using them for his own self interests. The Apostle John in a vision of the future writes in Revelation 17 – 18 that Babylon (a new Babel) will rise in the end-time and people will gather in rebellion against God’s kingdom one final time, led by one who shares the same qualities as Nimrod — the Bible identifies him as Antichrist.
The European Union’s headquarters parallels the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and uses the image of a woman on a beast, as does Revelation 17:3. Just a fluke, I guess!
Although the only places in Scripture where the precise name ‘Antichrist’ is used are 1 and 2
John, there are a host of important passages like Daniel 7, 8, 11; Matthew 24; 2 Thessalonians 2; and Revelation 13, 17 and 18 -- where Antichrist is referred to as a 7-headed beast, a little horn, a false Christ, that wicked one, and the man of sin. The figure himself forms a central component of Christian end-times scenarios, whether medieval or modern.
Acting as Satan’s chief agent on the earth through promises of peace, Antichrist, the ‘beast from the sea’ (Revelation 13:1-2) with the help of his own false prophet (13:11-12) will push to unify the nations to unite as one.
He will control the world economy, issuing a universally acceptable credit card of sorts since no one “could buy or sell unless they had the mark” (Revelation 13:17). There goes the death of shopping ladies!
He will tightly control the military, for as Revelation 13:4 rhetorically asks, “Who can wage war against it?”
He will control all religious worship (Revelation 13:8) and those opposing will ‘be killed’ (Revelation 13:15).
Globalization in our own day is the product of a satanic
re-initiative to work a coup d'état, a biblically unconstitutional seizure of God’s authority and power, to once again unite nations and reverse the Tower of Babel.
Visit the World Economic Forum site and listen to what the one percent of the one percent of the talking heads at the 2021 Davos Agenda are proposing to achieve by 2030 — a redesigning of social contracts, skills, jobs and investments that must advance shared goals such as equality and sustainability. The move will be away from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, which in plain English means private ownership of assets to be a thing of the past.
Decarbonization means restricting travel and intellectual property rights will disappear,
substituted by new rules determined and enforced by unelected elites. How deep the rabbit hole really goes, who knows, but why waste a good crisis, eh? No wonder Klaus Schwab gleefully pronounced “Government is back!” and “Every country . . . must participate, and every industry . . . must be transformed.” [in The Great Reset: Resetting the World.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset/]
Following in the best tradition of the Jesus Seminar critics, naysayers will poo-poo any talk of a coming age filled with distress, demons or ‘The Day of the Lord’. The more reflective will likely speculate over the nature of evil itself and query John’s weaponizing of Babylon in Revelation 17. Still others will dismiss out-of-hand any possibility that the Chinese Coronavirus could be a living facsimile... a kind of dry-run pre-view of the much greater and deadlier satanically driven goal of moving nations towards a liberty-sapping ‘last-days’ great-er reset. Again, such reactions change nothing. Scripture marches on towards fulfillment.
Encouraged by Jesus, we pray “Your Kingdom come,”
but c’mon, few have a clue as to what “Your will be done
on earth” means or will look like?
On February 4, 2021 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News (CBC) reported that
governments and organizations are considering requiring evidence of vaccination to obtain goods and services and fully participate in a re-opened world. It would take the form of an electronic ‘Immunity Passport’. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are among the number.
In Ontario, Provincial health minister Christine Elliott set the rabbits running when she pronounced such a requirement ‘essential’ — a kind of social act to protect others. But of course!
"That's going to be really important for people to have for travel purposes, perhaps for
work purposes, for going to theatres or cinemas, or any other places where people will
be in closer physical contact when we get through the worst of the pandemic.”
(Toronto Star, December 11, 2020)
Australian’s PM Scott Morrison, an Evangelical of Pentecostal persuasion, said he will ‘absolutely not’ join in the Great Reset. Wonder how long he will last politically?
Yes, I know that talk of a Great-er Reset sounds kooky and sinister. And yes, I am aware I am professing ideas out loud that breed apocalyptic cynicism, even within the Christian community to which I belong. It is what it is! Speaking of the preparatory coming of the Lord and the Man of Lawlessness, the Apostle Paul writes “For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11) Like something out of the repertoire of the great illusionist, David Copperfield, the world will be duped, big-time!
Satan’s presence on earth is real; his intentions are cruel and fatal. A violent rip in the fabric of space-time is coming. As they say, “The fix is in.” If all of this sounds like another conspiracy theory, a sage once said, “It’s not a conspiracy theory when they tell you exactly what they’re going to do.” We’ve been warned!
Is this the end of the world? Don’t think so. In my more spiritual moments though I sense the force of the devil’s grander scheme at work . . . and a sad trap it is. Encouragingly, Martin Luther knew the grim Prince well when he penned that great Battle Hymn of the Reformation:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! His doom is sure.
One little word shall fell him.
Jesus the Word (John 1:1) does that when we are trusting in Him. In the meantime, no report yet on what the 2020 Word of the Year will be. Wonder if ‘Reset’ is in the running.
“Only Saying...”
1 Critics speak of ‘failed’ prophecy, but forget that there has always been a contingent nature to predictive prophesy where God’s statements about the future can be conditional. Therefore, when God’s antecedent will (“Smarten up or you’re in real trouble.”) is obeyed, then God’s consequential will is annulled (eg. Jeremiah 18; Micah 3:12; 2 Kings 22:15-20; 23:29-30). This is not failed prophecy, but an understanding of contextualization’s importance in prophetic language.
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