The world stands in big trouble, that’s where the world stands. Hebrews 12:26 tells us that God will shake the earth before the coming of the Lord. I believe we see that happening all around us today. People are scared about the future, and they ought to be scared. We live in an unstable world. 2 Timothy 3:1 says that in the last days “terrible” times will come. Dangerous times.

When Jesus talked about the Last Days, he gave us this admonition. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Our Lord invites us to look at the circumstances in every generation and compare them to the detailed picture of events given in the Bible regarding the Last Days. In every generation for the last 2000 years, there would some degree of similarity. But as we approach the End Times, we will see the pieces fitting together rapidly. How close are we to the Second Coming? I have no idea, no inside knowledge, and no way to know if Jesus will come back today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now.

The one factor that I can’t get away from relates to the increasing amount of personal information controlled by the government and by large corporations. Think about your cell phone and your credit cards. Whoever controls the flow of information to those things controls your life. What if suddenly your credit cards were no good? What if your cell phone didn’t work? What if you lost all Internet access? Whoever controls the flow of information controls the economy and ultimately the whole world. For a long time people wondered about Revelation 13:16-18 with its “mark of the Beast” on the hand or on the forehead, and the warning that whoever does not have the “mark” could not buy or sell. Before this generation, that seemed like science fiction. But no longer. That leads me to think that the “Antichrist” may not be a political leader first and foremost but rather a vast corporation that controls the flow of information in the world. Just a theory, but one worth considering.