Increase in Knowledge
Prooftexts: Matthew 24, Daniel 12
An aficionado of biblical Endtimes Theology since an adolescent, I have always held a fascination for the following prophecies which concern some last-days events.
In Matthew 24:23 - 31, Jesus described His Second Coming as an event witnessed by all the nations of the earth:
"At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.
"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
"Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
In the eleventh chapter of Revelation, during the period after the rapture of the church known as the Great Tribulation, God will send two witnesses to minister to the Jewish nation. Scholars of the Bible have variously speculated that the two witnesses may be Moses and Elijah. The two witnesses are foretold to die in the hands of Antichrist and their death witnessed by men from every tribe, nation and language.
In this chapter of Revelation we read:
"'I (Jesus Christ) will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.'
"These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
"Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast (Antichrist) that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.
"The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
"But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on" (Revelation 11:3 - 12).
My fascination with these verses stemmed from my perplexity concerning the possibility of the whole earth's denizens' witnessing the Lord Jesus' coming in the clouds at the same time. Similarly how could it be possible for all the nations of the earth to witness the murder of the two witnesses of God, and then to gaze on the dead cadavers for three days? Is everyone alive during that time going to travel to Israel and become voyeuristic onlookers of this morbid event? Was the prophet John who penned the Revelation of the Lord being literal? Likewise, was Jesus Himself speaking in literal terms and not using allegory or hyberbole?
It wasn't until the dawning of the Computer Age that it all started to make sense, that the possibility of a literal understanding of these verses appeared less remote. It is also no coincidence that Daniel prophesied that during the time of the end, there would be an increase in knowledge:
"But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge" (Daniel 12:4).
I believe this is the time of the end according to the prophet, Daniel. This is the time of the increase of knowledge written about by Daniel thousands of years ago. Why has this increase in knowledge come about? The answer lies in the discovery of digital technology.
The onset of ICT due to the Computer Age has given us such technological wonders as the World Wide Web, Blackberry and the nano technology of the micro-handheld computer, so that we are able to access information (which leads to knowledge) on any topic at the touch of a finger. According to the President of Nokia Mobile phones, the new communications technologies and content services as well as the convergence of the Internet and mobile phone create freedom and possibilities as never seen before in the world. Add to this the barrage of information provided by the media on the Internet, radio and television on a daily basis, and we have become a people that rely on external digital and electronic sources of information to build our knowledge of the world around us. In addition, owing to continuing developments in technology we are also experiencing the convenience of rapid information access and the diversity of information available to us.
We have arrived at a brave new world of computer technology as never before has there been such an information overload that can be stored into a disk drive, some so tiny that we have a mobile library which we can carry around in the palm of our hand. Aside from these portable Internet libraries, the invention of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, means that we can be privy to an event happening anywhere in the world, and hear about or witness this event occurring in real time, usually without ever needing to get up from our armchairs. With just a click of the mouse, Internet search engines such as Google, Bing and Baidu offer thousands of search results on a person, place or event. What's more, the emergence of networking information technology makes it possible for us to disseminate an array of information speedily and easily simply by uploading it to live feeds or podcasts in social networking media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. This has fewer administrative policy, bureaucratic protocol and corporate sponsorship restrictions than satellite television (back in the 70s prophecy scholars taught that this medium was the channel of information for the last days) since it is operated 24/7 by end-users and not professionals.
Why then is increase in knowledge useful in understanding the prophecies of Jesus Christ and Daniel? What does it mean for us?
Daniel's prophecy was to have remained sealed up until the time of the end. As delineated in Scripture, it is during the time of the end that there would be a knowledge explosion, the likes of which we are experiencing in this Computer and ICT Age, and this knowledge explosion will expedite the fulfillment of God's many prophecies given in the books of Daniel, Matthew and Revelation. Now more than in any other decade, modern information and communications technology is assisting the Body of Christ in our understanding of the literal fulfillment of prophecies.
Which means that it is not impossible to envisage that every remaining person on earth left behind during the Great Tribulation will witness the two prophets of God slain by Antichrist and rejoicing at their murder, only to wonder at their resurrection by God, three and a half days later. Neither is it a stretch of the imagination to envision the whole world witnessing the Lord Jesus' Second Coming all at the same time.
Whether it is via YouTube or Twitter, or through video images captured on your mobile phone, or as the result of some new technology yet to be foisted upon us, no one will be left in the dark when these prophecies come to pass. Images will be caught on some existing newfangled invention, one way or another. Dotcom technology, with God as its CEO, will see to that.
