Modern Warfare: Apocalypse Edition, Vol. 1 & 2

By Pete Garcia  /  Rapture Ready

Vol. 1

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

― Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Ever since Cain raised up against his brother Abel in anger and with a murderous heart and struck him down, human blood has soaked the earth. In fact, warfare has been one of the oldest mainstays of human history. Where mankind has advanced technologically, he has always done so with how this new invention would benefit him in war. The 20th-century has been particularly bloody, perhaps more so than all of the rest of human history combined with estimates as high (or higher) than 200,000,000 deaths. Historical tacticians, and strategists such as Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Carl Von Clausewitz, were all students of warfare, and used it to shape their own destinies. However, even at their best, their geopolitical reach and hold was limited by the technologies of their day.

Modern military strategists have refined and codified our understanding of warfare to three organizational arenas: the strategic, the operational, and the tactical (more on this later). They also have defined the three domains militaries must fight and win in order to stay ahead of their enemies. These domains are land, sea, and air (respectively). In recent years, we have had to add cyberspace to the battlefield domains as technology has advanced and revealed it as major weakness to modernized nations. Adding to that, is the changing demography of the human landscape in the 21st-century, where our population has reached around 7.6-7.8 billion people. This has reshaped the battlefield because of urbanization and the rise of megacities around the globe. Because of this, we must also now contend with the subterranean domain. Lastly, President Trump recently announced the introduction for a space force, primarily, to contend with the growing threat in space.

However, according to the Bible, there is yet another domain which has largely been ignored by leaders today and that is the spiritualdomain. You see, humans are not the only sentient beings operating in our world.

Beyond Sight

 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

Regardless of what you believe, there is a growing governmental understanding and recognition of supernatural and unexplainable phenomena happening all around the world. Reputable military and civilian aviators, air traffic control, astronauts, as well as CCTV from the International Space Station, have proven without any doubt, that we are not alone. It has also shown us that these extraterrestrial (or extradimensional) beings, not only defy our laws of gravity and physics, but also are becoming bolder in their appearances and interactions with mankind.

Of course, we Christians already knew that.

The Bible has told us all along that humans are not alone. The Bible lists three orders of Beings in this universe: the Godhead, the Angelic realm, and Humans. Within the Godhead, we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All are different Persons, carry out different roles and responsibilities, but are the same substance, also being co-equal and co-eternal.

Then there is humankind. From the African Maasai, to the northern Europeans, from the Jewish people to the Arabs, Asians, Inuit’s, etc., there are many different kinds of people within the same human race. In terms of variety and types, the Angelic realm is no different. There are cherubim, seraphim, archangels, and probably many others that we are not told about. However, for the purposes of our discussion today, there are two primary categories, the Unfallen (or Holy) angels, and the Fallen (or wicked) angels.

As the Prophet Elisha points out in 2 Kings 6:16-18, the total number of angels is in the realm of the innumerable (probably in the hundreds of billions) who exist all around us. While angels are largely marketed to the world as cute, pondering babies flittering about with tiny wings, the reality is that angels are beings of immense power and intelligence who can move inter-dimensionally.

This means that they can enter our reality just as easily as they can the unseen realm. The Bible tells us that we (people) have often entertained angels unaware, since they can take on human form when necessary (Hebrews 13:2). They preceded man in the order of creation, and were present at the founding of the earth (Job 38:4-7).

The Unfallen

Although angels outnumbers humans by quite a bit, there are only a few named angels in the Bible. One that we know of is the Archangel Michael, who is tasked with, among other things, watching over the nation of Israel (Daniel 12:1). The only other unfallen named angel is Gabriel, and who has been instrumental in delivering crucial information to the likes of Daniel, Joseph, and Mary concerning prophetic events and the Incarnation of Christ. Holy angels are tasked with many different responsibilities, from being ministering servants to guardians and messengers; they largely operate undetected on this side of the veil. Jesus told Peter at His arrest that if He asked, the Father would provide more than twelve legions of angels (Matt. 26:51). Therefore, they are at God’s disposal to do whatever it is He asked them to do. Moreover, while we may be oblivious to their presence, we are often the beneficiaries of their actions.

The Fallen

Not all angels are holy and benevolent. Some are dark, violent, and extremely wicked. We are told in Scripture (Rev. 12:4) that a third fell with Lucifer when he rebelled before man was created. Since the total number of angels cannot be counted, neither could we count the third who fell. We assume that even just the third of the angels, still outnumbers mankind by a significant amount. As with the holy unfallen angels, there are only three (possibly) named fallen (evil) angels in Scripture, Lucifer (Satan), Abaddon (Apollyon), and Beelzebub (if he is a separate being apart from Satan).  As for the rest, although not personally named, Paul simply refers to them by rank and position…principalities…powers…rulers of the darkness of this age…spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). These beings are eternally damned, and have no hope of redemption. It should be safe to say that these fallen and unredeemable angelic beings do not have our best interests at heart.

The Battle in the Garden

It was in the garden that Lucifer launched the first salvo of war against our God. He deceived Eve into breaking the one rule God had given them through Adam, which was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which stood in the center of the Garden (Gen. 2:15-17). When God confronted the three (Adam, Eve, and the serpent Lucifer), He pronounced curses upon each of them, of which, one was aimed directly at Satan. There would come a day when the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman(Gen. 3:15) would do battle. In hindsight, we know that Satan would bite His heel through the death on the cross, but since neither death nor hell could hold Jesus, it was as inconsequential as a dog nipping at your heel (Rev. 1:18). However, this same death would crush Satan’s power and authority, by offering mankind something these fallen angels will never receive, redemption. Even though the cross was a fatal blow to Satan’s overall agenda, there will come a day when Christ literally defeats Satan (and all those in his employ) in an actual, physical battle.

Unfortunately, at present, we are still under old management.

God originally gave Adam the title deed to the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). However, when Adam broke God’s one rule, he became sinful and mortal, and inadvertently handed that deed over to Satan; and the earth has been under satanic management ever since (1st John 5:19). Thus, between the fall of Adam and Noah’s flood, Satan spent the better part of that 1,600 years trying to corrupt the entire human genome through angel (fallen) and human cross breeding (Gen. 6:1-4). This so that a Savior could not come from the seed of the woman and destroy him.

He came close.

By the time the flood came, only eight people survived.

Satan’s weapon of choice?

Genetic tampering.

God’s weapon of choice?

Water. Lots of it.

In terms of warfare, Satan went high-tech and God went low-tech.

It is interesting to me to see how technical Satan got right from the start; clearly, he was not messing around. Since creation, there has been two resets placed upon humanity as a whole, the first being Noah’s Flood, and the second, the Tower of Babel. At Babel, merely a century or so after the flood, humanity was again united in rebellion against God.

As the Ark rested on Mt. Ararat, God convened what we call the Noahic Covenant with Noah and his sons on behalf of humanity. Several important changes to the world order arose from this particular covenant (Gen. 9:1-17).

1. Mankind should be fruitful and multiply and fill the face of the earth
2. Mankind could eat whatever he wanted, so long as it did not have blood in it (this because people were presumed to be purely vegetarian before the flood)
3. If anyone takes another’s life, his or her life would be required.
4. The rainbow would be a perpetual reminder that God would never flood the earth again

And so instead of multiplying and filling the earth as they were instructed, they multiplied and congregated on the plains of Shinar (in what is today northern Iraq/Syria). They began building a large tower there for reasons we are not entirely sure of today, but speculation ranges from a means to escape a future flood, to trying to open a star gate. All we know for sure, is that they were attempting to build a great city there to “make a name for themselves” under the leadership of a great-grandson of Noah called Nimrod. Whatever reasons they had for building the tower, the important takeaway is that although not stated, it is a very reasonable assumption that Satan was instrumental in influencing Nimrod to disobey God by not filling the earth. For the purposes of our benefit, God goes down to see what is transpiring and makes a curious statement:

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Genesis 11:5-6

Up until this point in history, man’s greatest strength was in their ability to communicate with each other without barrier, because everyone shared the same language. What God was stating here was that there is nothing mankind cannot do when they are united. Therefore, God (out of His mercy) decides to act and separates mankind by both language and presumably race. What is also noteworthy is the fact that there are around 270 global flood stories, from vastly different cultures, still found around the world today. The only way that makes sense, is if everyone shared the same language and history before Babel.

The reason for these flood stories is not difficult to understand. When we turn to the history book of the universe, the Bible, we learn that Noah’s descendants stayed together for approximately 100 years, until God confused their languages at Babel (Genesis 11:1–9). As these people moved away from Babel, their descendants formed nations based primarily on the languages they shared in common. Through those languages, the story of the Flood was shared, until it became embedded in their cultural history. (Link)

Conclusion

Since the Babel incident, mankind struggled fruitlessly to overcome the barriers God put in place in Genesis 11:6, that is, until the 20th century. With both the British and the American’s dominating much of the past two-hundred years in global affairs, English has become the most commonly used language around the world for governance, business, entertainment, aviation, financial markets, etc. There really isn’t any place you can go anymore in the world where someone does not speak English. Furthermore, we now have the technology in our phones and other electronic devices that can automatically translate most languages so that communication is no longer remaining a divine barrier.

While military and other leaders do not consider the spiritual (or unseen) realm as a “legitimate” domain, they do not dismiss the possibility that other dimensions exist. The Bible explains in numerous places that the unseen realm is more real, and more permanent, than the realm we currently inhabit (2nd Cor. 4:18). This means that despite what anyone says, we have to contend with the spiritual nature of our existence on earth, which most assuredly includes the unseen spiritual warfare that is raging all around us.

At present, this unseen spiritual battle remains a campaign of influence (good vs. evil), but very soon, the supernatural world will come crashing back into the natural just after the Rapture of the Church. Like us, Satan is in the dark in terms of when exactly it (the Rapture) will occur. God’s overarching plan of the ages is fairly open and understandable, but there are still a few things the Father keeps close to the chest. The exact timing of the Rapture is one of them. When it happens, the Rapture will be like that proverbial thunderbolt that shocks the world into the perfect crisis when God removes His ambassadors (us) without warning, and leaves the world in crisis and ripe for deception. Then the unseen campaign of influence and spiritual warfare will take on a very physical manifestation, by way of the man we commonly refer to as the Antichrist. He will have all the backing and authority over the kingdoms of the earth, given to him by the one who currently holds it, Satan (Luke 4:5-6, 1st John 5:19, Rev. 13:7).

Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Revelation 6:1-2

https://www.raptureready.com/2018/08/28/modern-warfare-apocalypse-edition-vol-1-pete-garcia/

Vol. 2

Info Wars

But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Daniel 12:4

Over the past 3,000 years, we have seen how new technologies (i.e., Revolutions in Military Affairs, or RMAs) could not only change the course of a battle, but also the destiny of an empire. The sling shot, the armored chariot, the phalanx, the bow and arrow, catapults, gunpowder, manned flight, and the atom bomb are just a few of these RMAs which have repeatedly shaped the course of history. The 21st-century is also promising to add to the already long list of deadly achievements man has arrived at, with artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology, unmanned air/ground/sea systems, biometric technologies, sonic/acoustic weapons, energy-directed weapons, and so forth.

While the nature of war (why we fight) rarely changes, the character (how we fight) is always marching toward greater methods of devastation and destruction. That got me thinking about the final battle we see in Scripture at our Lord’s return…the battle of Armageddon. So is the rapid modernization we see today, simply a byproduct of Moore’s Law (the doubling of technology), or is there a more nefarious reason why things in research and defense industry (and technology in general) have gotten so weird?

Which brings us to the speed at which knowledge is accumulating. For most of human history, technological achievements moved slowly. However, starting in the late 19th-century, things began to change very rapidly. Granted, this largely depended on the specific fields of study per se, as the old saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats. According to the website industrytap.com, the author notes the following,

Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months.  According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours. (Link)

Beginning with the first industrial revolution (circa 1780s), mankind began to harness power through steam and water. The second industrial revolution (circa 1870s), introduced the assembly line, mass production, and the harnessing of electricity. It was here also that we see the birth of the automobile and manned flight. The third industrial revolution (circa 1970s), allowed for electronics, computers, and automation to process increasingly larger amounts of information in shorter periods of time. The fourth industrial revolution (circa present day) saw the introduction of cyber physical systems, the internet of things, quantum technology, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, digital networks, etc.

This last revolution vastly multiplied man’s ability to harness enormous amounts of information in a fraction of time and space. If usable and qualified information equals intelligence, then intelligence drives operations and operations drives logistics. What this means is that the more we find out, the more we act in accordance with that knowledge. That knowledge equals action, which equals our need to resource said action. This means that the speed at which we receive and process information is intricately linked to our economic situation.

The production for war materials (guns, bullets, bombs, tanks, etc.) had been kicked into overdrive at the outset of the second industrial revolution, which heralded a pre-World War I European arms race. Once mankind learned how to mass-produce war materials (via assembly line), nations quickly raced to amass large amounts of weapons and ammunition. This has been the mainstay for the past 120 years or more. As new technologies emerged (submarines, planes, atom bombs, etc.), nations quickly raced to out produce each other in order to maintain some type of militaristic edge. But as fate would have it, the knowledge used to produce this powerful technology quickly proliferated to less ethically constrained nations. Furthermore, the more advanced the weapons, the more advanced our technology became we used to either control or offset our enemies weapons. However, arms races cost money, and for the last seventy-years, the United States was able to out-produce friend and foe alike.

The problem we are running into with our current world order is that our geopolitical and economic systems are still largely tied to a 20th-century model, and this is not conducive to the scenario the Bible lays out. This means that the United States role at the top of the geopolitical pyramid is problematic to both Satan’s agenda and to what the Bible says will come to pass. [Perhaps explains the supernatural hatred towards Trump and his MAGA campaign] Something has to give in order for the current world order to be reimaged into the coming new world order called The Beast.

Assessment

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Revelation 13:1

The Bible states that a final kingdom is coming, and it is not the United States. Or at the very least, it is not the US in its current configuration. This beast begins after some crisis removes the US as the current world leader. It then forms a global government that controls all the economies of the world first, and then the politics second, and lastly the world’s militaries. The mother of all Hegelian-dialectic scenarios.

The Apostle John in his first epistle, notes that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ, is antichrist (1 John 1:22). He goes on to note that many even in his day, many were antichrist. However, he also notes that there is a particular man, who is the Antichrist (1 John 2:18). We do not know who this man is, but we can be reasonably assured, that he is alive today somewhere in the world. He seemingly comes out of one of the provinces that Alexander the Great had given over to his generals upon his death (Daniel 8:8-14). Could this be where the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) finally comes into play?

When this crisis happens, he (the Antichrist) takes advantage of the situation and begins to take charge. He seemingly has all the answers to the problems, and more importantly, he has the full backing of Satan (Luke 4:6, 2 Thess. 2:9). His solution will be to get the world (broken into ten regions after the Rapture) to give him all their authority and create a singular system to govern all life on planet earth.

Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Revelation 6:1-2

Moreover, because we are in the digital age, and our economies are already largely tied together through cyber networks, an economic coup d’état is easier today, than it ever has been. Because so much has already been prepared and readied for a one-currency system all based upon the US dollar today, all it will take is a little nudge to get the nations lined up. If the US Dollar crashes, it will drag every other currency down with it. Out of the ashes, a financial phoenix will arise, probably some form of quantum-based, crypto-currency. This currency then will be directly linked with party affiliation and biometrics.

This is very much the same as how for example, the 2001 Patriot Act came to be. The Patriot Act (or the core of it) was written both before (1995 Omnibus Counterterrorism Act) and after the Oklahoma City bombing (1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act). Once 9/11 happened, there was enough political consensus and raw emotion to simply add in the additional intelligence sharing and collecting measures to make it broad sweeping in scope. This has since been renewed in four-year intervals often adding to the original provision. What could not be done by the government (Constitutional constraints aside) was simply handed to private businesses such as cell phone companies, social media, or internet companies to hold on behalf of the government for later collection.

All that to say this…when this final government comes into being, it may not be this grand sweeping entrance on to the global stage as many are led to believe. This world government is already here, and has been coming in stages for quite some time. What the Rapture does in terms of geopolitical effects, is gives mankind that final nudge to abandon nationalism forever. The creeping Orwellian antiterrorism measures we have seen expanded over the last few decades could not have passed, were it not for the devastating terrorist attacks of Oklahoma and 9/11. Again, crisis proves the perfect catalyst for rapid change. So where are we today in terms of seeing this final government coming into being?

1. The world’s economies must be fragile and easily unbalanced due to emerging technologies and massive debt. Check
2. The world’s economies must be interwoven to the point that should one fall (i.e., the United States), the rest would also collapse. Check.
3. There needs to exist some structure/system (the Internet) that all the countries could be controlled through. Check
4. There needs to be some sort of crisis that both frightens and unites the world leadership into ceding their autonomy into a collective economic/political system. Pending

However, creating an all-powerful and overarching global government would still be a daunting, nigh impossible task, were it not for our technological advancements. The world would need an Internet system and computers powerful enough to blanket the entire earth. Although we do not see it today, the process for free global internet has already begun, albeit, it also is being done in stages. The justification seems altruistic enough (providing free internet access to those around the world who either don’t have it, or can’t afford it). But like everything else, what begins as something for mankind, will quickly become something that is used against mankind.

Furthermore, with quantum computing and cloud technology coming into the fray more and more each day, this final government system will not only have the global reach, but the power to process massive amounts of information effortlessly and limitlessly. This will not only be used for tying all of the world’s economies together, but will also be used for global surveillance, biometrics, military and political messages and campaigns, artificial intelligence, and information warfare, simultaneously. The race is on amongst tech companies (IBM, Google, D-Wave, and Rigetti) to see who will gain quantum supremacy first. But not just amongst private industries, but nations:

The European Commission is preparing the ground for the launch in 2018 of a €1 billion flagship initiative on quantum technologies, which can put Europe at the forefront of the second quantum revolution, bringing transformative advances to science, industry and society. The flagship initiative is expected to turn Europe’s excellent research results in areas like quantum secure communication, quantum sensing and quantum simulation and computing into concrete technological opportunities that can be taken up by industry. (Source)

In terms of national unity, the EU leads the world in their efforts to achieve quantum supremacy and even have a quantum manifesto. However, it is not just the 1B euros they are dropping on this quantum bet, but also the 80B euros have invested in technological growth and research in their project Horizon 2020. They are determined to lead, and I believe that what John sees in Revelation 13’s imagery, is this manifestation of a revived Roman Empire coming on the heels of a major crisis such as the Rapture, aided by this new quantum technology breakthrough. When this breakthrough happens, it will absolutely revolutionize how people live on earth. In fact, it will be so groundbreaking in terms of its power and scope, the world will say…who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? (Rev. 13:4)

Nevertheless, all in its appointed time.

What John also sees, is global government being displayed as having seven heads and ten crowns. It will be arrayed with subordinate commands that function at the regional levels. Below them will be the nation-states, who all of which, are subordinate to the Beast. However, at a certain point in time, all of that government’s power and authority will be concentrated into the hands of just one man, the Antichrist, largely aided by another man, the False Prophet.

So how do we get from where we are today, to where the Bible says we will be in such a short period of time?

The answer?

In stages.

The final nudge into this system will come after the crisis of the Rapture.

If necessity is the mother of all inventions, then necessity rooted in the mother of all crisis‘s, invents this final governmental system.

However, change like that is exceedingly painful (i.e., replacing dying empires), and nations at the top will not go quietly into the night. This means two things are certain on our horizon, the Rapture of the Church, and total war.

The Rapture of the Church (the Blessed Hope) will decimate the United States, and to lesser degrees, the rest of the world. When Christ removes His Church from the earth, it will force a change to the current world order. Since we can know without any hesitation that the Bible teaches a pre-Tribulation Rapture, this means that that change to the world order will happen immediately after. This also means that total war is on the horizon, because nations less effected will jockey to fill the vacuum left by the world’s undisputed superpower. The EU will win that race to fill the vacuum, by way of the heavy investments in technology today. That fits exactly what the Bible says will happen here in the not-too-distant future.

https://www.raptureready.com/2018/09/03/modern-warfare-apocalypse-edition-vol-2-pete-garcia/