Godmindbody Part 3, Chapter 11: Summary and Discussion

Godmindbody: The Bible, Prophecy, Miracles and TMS Healing Explained

By Robert Ensor

Copyright © 2025 Robert Ensor

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.The author’s moral rights have been asserted.First Published September 2025.

All Bible quotations, unless otherwise stated or referenced, are taken from the online World English Bible, which is in the public domain. It is available at the following link: https://ebible.org/eng-web/index.htm. English language Bibles are translated from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. I am no linguist, and I don’t know any linguists, so I have had to rely on others’ translations and romanizations of the Hebrew and Greek texts. Occasionally, I have examined the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of the Bible, zeroing in on key words where the received English translation is debatable or misses the full meaning of the original.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a therapist – merely a concerned layperson (!) – and nothing in this book should be considered medical advice. Nor should it be considered a substitute for diagnoses, prescriptions and treatments from qualified doctors. If you have symptoms, I recommend that you see a doctor to rule out anything serious and get proper care.

The full title is available free from this website. Or you can buy it from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQ6MNZ2N For part 1, see the link: https://www.robertensor.com/post/godmindbody-a-book-about-tms-and-christianity-part-1

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Chapter 11: Summary and Discussion

To summarise Part 3 of this book, I have compiled a couple of timelines of the eschatological period. I outline two scenarios here because I cannot be sure which, if any, is correct. After all, Jesus said we will know not the ‘day or the hour’. Indeed, there isn’t really enough information provided in the Bible to be absolutely certain of the timeline, and God had his reasons for keeping it that way, which I respect. Both timelines are concerned with Daniel’s 70^th week, also known as the tribulation, both treat Daniel’s week as a seven-year period, and both use Daniel’s prophetic year of 360 days, based on reasoning, Scripture and evidence that has already been presented earlier in this book. There are other potential timelines you could construct, but due to space considerations, I have selected the two I believe to be the most plausible.

Timeline 1: Daniel’s 70^th Week (and Beyond)

The main strength of timeline 1 is that it positions the abomination of desolation precisely in the ‘middle of the week’ (Daniel 9:27), where Daniel said it would be. In this scenario the beast’s ‘authority’ for ‘forty-two months’, the persecution of the saints for ‘time, times and half a time’ and the woman’s 1260 days of refuge in the wilderness are coterminous, which has the virtue of simplicity, since all describe a 1260 day window. The persecution can only end with the physical coming of the Messiah, because according to Zechariah 14, the Jerusalemites will still be under attack by the Antichrist and his forces until the Messiah comes to relieve them. This timeline assumes that the two witnesses would be killed on the same day as the abomination of desolation, which would be the day the Antichrist receives his authority, probably some kind of emergency power that will make him a dictator, enabling the blasphemous arrogance of the abomination in the temple. The urgency of fleeing to ‘the mountains’ for ‘those who are in Judea’ when they see the beast’s armies gathered outside Jerusalem and the (later) abomination of desolation in the holy place would make sense in this timeline, since the persecution would begin on the same day as the abomination.

One issue with this timeline is that there is no clear event 1290 days from the abomination, and it is implied in Daniel that the abomination will end after 1290 days. The other timeline remedies this problem. But the major weakness of Timeline 1 is that it goes over the 1-week (seven prophetic years) limit set by Daniel. According to Daniel, by the end of the 70^th week, the vision and the prophecy (presumably every prophecy made in the Book of Daniel) will be ‘sealed up’ (completed), and the ‘most holy’ (the Holy of Holies in the new temple) anointed, but this timeline goes over Daniel’s limit of seven prophetic years, since it is very unlikely that the remnant at Bozrah will be saved, the Antichrist will be defeated at Jerusalem, many will be judged, the mortal Jewish diaspora regathered, the Fourth Temple built and dedicated, and the kingdom founded, all on the 24-hour day of Jesus’ reappearance. However, the main prophecy contained in the visions – of the one like a son of man coming to defeat the little horn’s kingdom – would according to this schema be fulfilled at the end of the 70^th week. The most holy place could be anointed within the 2,520-day limit of Daniel’s week, if anointed means the location of the new temple is simply appointed, but nothing is actually built on that day. However, an actual dedication of a new sanctuary is a more likely interpretation, given Exodus 40:9, when Moses was instructed to anoint the tabernacle, a precursor to the temple, to make it holy and consecrate it to Yahweh.

Timeline 2: Daniel’s 70^th Week

The main strength of timeline 2 is that everything Daniel defined as covered by the scope of his 70 weeks – ‘to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy’ (Daniel 9:24) – is included within the 2, 520 day limit of Daniel’s 70^th week, defining ‘vision and prophecy’ as all the prophecies in the Book of Daniel. Another positive is that timeline 2, unlike timeline 1, accounts for distinct events occurring 1290 days from the abomination, and 1335 days from the abomination, with the 1290 day mark signifying the Second Coming together with the end of the abomination, and the 1335 day point marking the inauguration of the millennial kingdom and the dedication of the new temple, providing 45 days for the first throne judgement and the worldwide regathering of the mortal diaspora.

The main issue with timeline 2 is that the abomination is not exactly ‘in the middle of the week’, but it is approximately in the middle. Moreover, the 42 months the beast has power to continue would not commence from the abomination and may not be exactly the same as the 1260-day time of the woman’s refuge in the wilderness, since Jesus made it plain that the remnant would need to flee on the day of the abomination. However, it could take 30 days for the remnant to make it to Petra from Judea, and the urgency of their flight may be due to the Edomites standing ‘in the crossroads’ to block their ‘escape’ (Obadiah 1:14), i.e. Jordan closing their border to incoming Israeli refugees after a certain point in the latter-day exodus. One would assume the beast will have total power at the time of the abomination, in order to get away with committing such a sacrilegious act, but his 42-month authority and persecution would come later in timeline 2. The Antichrist must have power to make war until the Second Coming, since he will fight a battle against Jesus on the Day of the Lord. Therefore, I have ended the 42 months on that day in both timelines.

With both timelines, the ‘wrath’ that the raptured elect are exempted from, is the wrath of Jesus when he reappears on earth, and his wrath at the throne judgements. The elect will not be subject to that wrath, because they will be in immortalised bodies while it is ongoing and will pass the throne judgements. They will also not be targeted by the natural catastrophes, although some degree of collateral damage may occur. This is not necessarily a pre-wrath rapturist position, since the rapture will begin at the moment Christ reappears, and it will still be in progress – the gathering from the four winds will be occurring – while God’s wrath is unfolding in Edom, and that definition of wrath is different from many prewrath rapturists, who would situate God’s wrath earlier in the tribulation timeline. The tribulation or suffering for the elect will end at the point they are ‘changed’ into immortal bodies, therefore the rapture will be posttribulational from their perspective. Whether or not I believe Jesus will come after the tribulation depends on how precisely you define the tribulation. If your idea of the tribulation includes the Campaign of Armageddon, then I would not technically be a posttribulationist. But I do believe that shortly after Jesus’ reappearance, indeed on that very day, the tumultuous upheavals racking the earth will stop, so in that sense I am only several hours away from being a posttribulationist. Personally, I define the tribulation as ending with the victory of Jesus over the Antichrist, since there will still be suffering or ‘tribulation’ during the Campaign of Armageddon. I call this theological position Endtribulation Premillenialism.

After both timelines, there will be the thousand-year reign of Christ and the saints. The premillennialist position is therefore correct. Towards the end of that millennium, there will be the (potentially second) ‘Magog’ war, and at the end of the millennium, the Last Judgment or ‘great white throne’ judgement begins, to be followed by the formation of the new heaven, the new earth and the deathless New Jerusalem.

Endtribulation Premillennialism

The Campaign of Armageddon

The Judgements: Sequential or Coterminous?

Some of my fellow exegetes, especially Preterists and Idealists, believe that the seal, trumpet and bowl judgements are not sequential. They point to similarities in the three series of judgements as evidence for their thesis. The approximately 42-month Neronic persecution of Christians began before the Siege of Jerusalem, so the Preterist timeline doesn’t fit with Revelation’s narrative, which describes wars as preceding the beast’s persecution. 1^st century events in Roman Judea were horrific and tragic. But, as far as Revelation is concerned, they were a type of what is to come, not the actual fulfilment of the book’s main prophecy. Meanwhile, the Idealists don’t want Revelation to be about a particular sequence of events, but to be timeless pictures of the Christian life.

The textual evidence militates against both the Preterist and the Idealist interpretations; the last seal opens onto the first trumpet, and the last trumpet is followed by the bowls, which necessitates chronology. This explains St. Paul’s association of ‘the last trumpet’ with the return of Jesus in 1 Thessalonians 4 and the many other scriptural mentions of the trumpet sounding around the time of the Messiah’s arrival on the Day of the Lord. Moreover, the judgements escalate over time, like birth pains. Only parts of the earth and humanity are destroyed by the seal judgements, but the devastation intensifies with the trumpet and bowl judgements.[i]

The bowl judgements are labelled ‘the last plagues’, for with them ‘God’s wrath is finished’ (Revelation 15:1), unlike the trumpet and seal judgements, which obviously come before the bowls. Furthermore, the judgements are not completely parallel. For example, the plague of locusts is unique to the trumpets. After the sealing of the 144,000 in chapter 7, there are references to people who aren’t sealed avoiding certain judgements and those with the mark suffering certain judgements, which means there is at least a degree of linearity to the Book of Revelation.[ii]

Jesus’ Olivet Discourse can be split into four chronological parts: 1) the era of false Christs, wars, famines, pestilences (Luke 21:11) and earthquakes, known as ‘the beginning of birth pains’, which corresponds to the seal and trumpet judgements; 2) the period of the abomination of desolation, the worship of the Antichrist and the persecution of saints; 3) the period ‘after the suffering of those days’ when the sky will darken and Christ will come to gather the chosen ones in the sky; 4) the sheep and goats judgement in which good servants are rewarded and bad ones punished. These stages of the Olivet Discourse approximately track with the sequence of events in Revelation, reinforcing the linearity of both narratives, although as previously noted, Revelation departs from strict chronology on a few occasions.

The Nature of the Beast

So much rides on identifying the beast, on taking the mark or refusing it, and on telling the false prophets and false messiahs from the true prophets and the true Messiah. But who are the beasts?

The dragon, the beast from the sea, and the False Prophet, are the diametric opposites of The Father, The Son of God, and John the Baptist/Elijah, the prophet of Christ; hence the beast from the sea is known as the Antichrist. As the opposite of Christ, the Son of God who spoke truth with God’s authority, the sea beast may have had a ‘virgin birth’ or unusual conception of some sort, in which he was sired by the devil,[iii] and later spiritually adopted by giving himself over to complete possession by Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, so that when he speaks, it is with the lying words and false authority of the fallen one. In that sense he will be the devil incarnate, the opposite of Christ as God incarnate, which explains the apparent identity of the Antichrist and Satan in Isaiah 14:12.

Then there is the beast’s alliance or empire. The following nations and cities are prophesied to come against Israel in the End Times and to be allied with or conquered by the beast: Cush (Zephaniah 2:12; Ezekiel 38:5), Ethiopia (Daniel 11:43, although the biblical Ethiopia does not correspond to modern Ethiopia), Libya (Daniel 11:43) or Put (Ezekiel 38:5), Egypt (Isaiah 19), Assyria (Isaiah 30), Babylon (Isaiah 48), Pekod (Jeremiah 50:21), Persia (Ezekiel 38:5), Tyre (Joel 3:5), Sidon (Joel 3:5), Philistia (Joel 3:5), Tubal, Meshech, Rosh (Ezekiel 38:3), Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:6), Gomer (Ezekiel 38:5) and Magog (Ezekiel 39:6; Revelation 20:8). Most of the descriptions of the divine judgements that are specific to a named locale pertain to some of those nations listed above. Elam, Egypt, Hamath and Assyria (in addition to the ‘islands of the sea’) are also listed as places Jews will be regathered from in Isaiah 11 and the ‘sons of the Greeks’ buy Jewish slaves in Joel 3:6–7. The ‘Gog and Magog’ nations listed as aggressors in Ezekiel 38, Revelation 20 and nowhere else – Magog, Meshech, Rosh, Gomer, Togarmah and Tubal – may be involved in the tribulation alliance, but we know for sure thanks to John’s clarification that they will be involved in the final Armageddon campaign at the end of the thousand years (Revelation 20:8). Gog, a man and the ruler of the alliance, will not live for over a thousand years to spearpoint both revolts, and in both sources, Ezekiel and Revelation, he is so named. Even if we exclude the nations which only appear in Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 20, that leaves us with at least eight out of the ten ‘horns’ or ‘kingdoms’ given in Daniel and Revelation as comprising the Antichrist’s empire. If we include the Gog and Magog nations, we have ten or eleven states. Either way, the list paints a predominantly regional picture of the Antichrist’s alliance and wars, which aligns with a more limited interpretation of the Greek word ges, though I cannot rule out non-regional powers being embroiled in the Antichrist’s alliance and wars. Edom (Ezekiel 35; Isaiah 63), Moab (Isaiah 15; 16) and Ammon (Zephaniah 2:8–11) are also described as being punished by God, Edom for their future actions against the Jewish people, but Daniel wrote that all three are spared from the Antichrist’s dominion. Jordan or the western part of it will therefore be outside the Antichrist’s empire, possibly due to the deterrent of its powerful neighbour, Saudi Arabia. Edom is prophesied to in some way give up the Israeli remnant taking refuge at Bozrah at the last hour, probably due to pressure from the Antichrist, the ‘extortionist’ who is ‘brought to nothing’ (Isaiah 16:4).

Since the son of perdition will sit in the temple and call himself God, such arrogant actions presuppose the conquest of Jerusalem and Israel itself. Indeed, the ‘three horns’ ‘uprooted’ by the ‘little horn’ will include Israel as well as the kingdoms of the north and south from Daniel 11. Israel is a nuclear nation, but if neighbouring countries invade Israel, the future leadership of Israel may not want to risk the collateral damage involved in a short-range nuclear missile strike on multiple of its own borders and territories. They may also not want to risk nuclear retaliation, if one of these nearby nations succeeds in developing a nuclear weapon. I am not suggesting that India and Pakistan will have anything to do with the eschatological wars, but they have historically proven that it is possible for conventional conflicts to take place between two nuclear powers. One obvious question is, what will America and the western nations do in response to the invasion of their ally Israel? Well, one reason the west will not depose the Antichrist is because the latter will possess nuclear capabilities, at least after he seizes control of Israel, which will include control of their nuclear weapon stockpiles and missiles. The development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs had an ulterior purpose in God’s plan that will only become apparent with time. Even if, as I believe is probable, the Antichrist’s alliance will be regional, and the mark of the beast will be mandatory only in that empire, people from outside the empire will nonetheless be able to take it and make trouble in their own countries. The Antichrist will have supporters within western nations who take his mark and he will use them as leverage in his relations with foreign powers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the United States Government and most NATO powers will be ‘friendly’ to the Antichrist. The US Government traditionally takes a dim view of Middle Eastern radicals and tyrants. The dark legacy of the Second Gulf War will continue to unfold.

In Daniel, the little horn’s empire is characterised as somehow a continuation or revival of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, ‘the people of the prince who come’ (Daniel 9:26) who destroyed the sanctuary in Daniel 9 were Romans, raising the possibility of a fully or partially European Antichrist. It is possible, however, that the Antichrist may only be considered ‘Roman’ because he’s the reincarnation of Nero, the former Roman Emperor. After all, the ancient Romans who burned the temple technically no longer exist as a people. A Jewish Antichrist is highly unlikely because our current age is referred to by Jesus as ‘the times of the Gentiles’ (Luke 21:24) and the Antichrist’s alliance will be the culmination of the Gentile empires listed in Daniel. The fact the ‘beast’ is from ‘the sea’ probably indicates a western, Gentile origin from across the Mediterranean, whereas the ‘beast coming up out of the earth’ or land (Revelation 13:11), the False Prophet, may be from Israel or the Middle East, although that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be Jewish. Again, most people from any nation will not be the Antichrist, and we cannot go around accusing individuals of being the Antichrist without evidence. Most nations associated with the beast in Scripture are ancient nations whose territories are currently controlled by Middle Eastern countries that are hostile to Israel, a situation the Antichrist will likely try to exploit. Russia is also currently allied with Iran, a country that is obviously hostile to Israel, although Russia’s relations with Israel are more complex. Despite the dire state of emergency the planet will be in after the trumpet judgements, and the frantic need for security and cooperation that the beast will doubtless exploit for his own ends, it is hard to envisage how he could pull off total world domination, given the immense differences between nation states. On balance, therefore, an alliance of some Middle Eastern, North African and possibly Eurasian nations, a few of whom will have been conquered and rolled into the empire against their will, sounds more plausible than a truly world-spanning empire, considering current and historical geopolitical conditions, which are of course subject to change. That being said, even regional tribulation wars will have worldwide effects including inflation, scarcity and refugee crises, and divine judgements taking the form of natural catastrophes – especially some of the cataclysmic bowl judgements – will be global, occurring as they do in ‘diverse places’ (Matthew 24:7) and affecting ‘the whole earth’ (Revelation 3:10).

Indeed, the beast will not only be a confederation of some sort, but a dictator, since his number is ‘the number of a man’, the little horn of Daniel had man-like qualities (whereas the beast that the horn arose out of represented a ‘kingdom’) and was also an allusion to Antiochus, who regardless of what he said about himself, was a man. This leader will pose as a saviour. Like all tyrants, especially Antiochus and Nero, he will be mad; possession by Satan is a job requirement for the Antichrist. Indeed, a psychological profile and biographies of Nero and Antiochus may help to identify the Antichrist, since people who are reincarnated tend to have the same basic personality structure as they did in their past lives, and Nero was a very ‘idiosyncratic’ leader.[iv] He will have Messianic pretensions and a False Prophet – some kind of spiritual leader – to indulge them. If this sounds oddly theocratic for our secularized world, then consider that the Middle East is not particularly secular and think about how afraid and desperate people will be when the tribulation begins. Indeed, the fulfilment of End Times prophecy will be obvious to many – even many who now call themselves agnostic – when it happens and will create an environment conducive to religious belief. People will pore over the prophecies of religious books for clues as to the outcome, in unprecedented numbers – even many who wouldn’t ordinarily have any interest in eschatology. Atheism will be thrown out of the window by many, as weak tea in a trying time. The ‘lying wonders’ that the beast performs will convince many who did not believe such things were possible, and many who did, although they will be the result of future technology, not true spiritual powers. Illusions and stage trickery may also be employed.

The Antichrist will falsely present himself as an interfaith eschatological figure, in an attempt to unite the three major Abrahamic religions, all of whom have Messianic prophecies and beliefs. Such a ploy will be calculated to minimise resistance, although there will nonetheless be significant opposition. He will pose as the Messiah to the Jews, and Jesus to the Christians and the Muslims, who also believe Jesus will return to conquer the world (albeit with significant eschatological differences from Christianity).

Of course, such an interfaith balancing act poses significant and ultimately irreconcilable theological problems. For example, Muslims will probably not like it when the Antichrist calls himself God, since they do not believe in the divinity of Jesus. Some Jews may be more willing to accept a Messiah with political and military power, as that aligns with their historical interpretations of prophecy. Nonetheless, it is clear from all the End Times prophecies that at least some Jews, inspired by the Jewish elect and the two witnesses, will resist and flee the Antichrist, who will respond by persecuting the saints and launching a campaign against Jerusalem and the Israeli remnant. Ironically, many Christians may be susceptible to following the beast, who will try to use the Christian belief in the Second Coming. Although Jesus will come again, that doesn’t preclude an opportunistic blasphemer from attempting to exploit that widely held belief, by falsely declaring himself to be Christ. An easy way to differentiate the real Jesus from the false Christ is to know, as Paul wrote, that the son of perdition comes before the return of the Son of God. Historically, no Pope has been the Antichrist or False Prophet, but Vicari fili dei does add up to 666, and that does not rule out a future incumbent or antipope taking on that role in an effort to deceive as many Christians as possible for the devil. Whatever religion(s) the Antichrist professes to believe in, he and his False Prophet will not be real Christians, Muslims or Jews, they will be worshippers of Satan. This Satan-worship may become increasingly open, and tap into anti-God feelings, given that the little horn is prophesied to speak blasphemies ‘against the most high.’ (Daniel 7:25).

Given his lack of manpower, the beast will largely rely on informers to pinpoint his persecution, like dictators in the past. This is what Jesus meant by ‘then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.’ (Matthew 24:10). The Gestapo and the NKVD wouldn’t have claimed nearly as many lives as they did if it wasn’t for the perverse ‘initiative’ of informers, many of whom were subsequently informed upon. Thus evil regimes rely upon the cooperation of a large section, if not a majority, of their population; it can’t all be blamed on the leadership and their armed goons.

The Antichrist won’t simply start going after Christians and saints, he will need to contrive some kind of excuse to begin the persecution, like Hitler needed his ‘Reichstag fire’ to justify going after the German communists and other political opponents and Nero falsely blamed the Great Fire of Rome on Christian arsonists, partly to justify his persecution.[v] It would be wise, then, for Christians not to give him the excuse he’ll be looking for by engaging in some rash act. Since there are over two billion people identifying as Christian in the world[vi], a witch hunt would be much easier for a tyrant to carry out if it were not overtly anti-Christian, but falsely presented as the Messiah’s judgement of sinners or a Christian crusade against ‘heretics’. In other words, the beast may well try to co-opt the churches and trick or force them into following him, though doubtless this would not go unopposed by the true Christians within those institutions. Jesus was alluding to past, present and future misguided Christians when he said, ‘“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’’ (Matthew 7:21–23). It’s not enough just to call oneself a Christian and believe in Christ. You have to know Jesus and walk the walk, even when it’s unpopular.

You don’t have to be a prophet to foresee that the ‘natural’ aspect of the tribulations will be blamed on climate change by some of our scientific materialists and reported as such. Well, in a way, Scripture does forecast that the climate will change, and these catastrophic hailstorms etc. are presented by the Bible as being in some sense humanity’s fault (but not due to our factories and cars). The tribulations are no doubt partly a punishment for sin, but they are primarily an unfortunate logical necessity for humanity to get from A to B, with B standing for the deathless New Jerusalem. Our current world is obviously a long way from that paradise. Much has to change. God’s wrath is not only wrath, it has a purpose.

The Abomination of Desolation: Misunderstood Technology

The abomination of desolation is absolutely crucial to Christian eschatology, and indeed to surviving the tribulation period with one’s soul intact, because if correctly interpreted, it enables one to begin the countdown until the Second Coming, recognise the Antichrist for what he is and refuse to worship him.

But what exactly is this prophesied abomination of desolation, and what will it look like?

Literally, an abomination is a thing that causes disgust and loathing, and desolation is a state of complete emptiness or destruction. If already fulfilled prophecy is a guide to as yet unfulfilled prophecy, then we should look to history for clues about future events. The archetypal desolation occurred during the Babylonian siege and Sack of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the First Temple of Solomon was burned down by the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon. Isaiah and Jeremiah deliberately juxtaposed this first desolation with the final one in the End Times because it was typological.

Then there was the abomination of Antiochus, who profaned the temple with a statue of Zeus, a sacrificial pig and an orgy. A close reading of Revelation, in which the beast from land makes people ‘worship’ the beast from the sea (and his image), who was, is not and shall be, suggests some variation on Antiochus’ blasphemy by the False Messiah, who will be the reincarnation of Antiochus.

The next abomination of desolation was the (accidental, according to Josephus)[vii] Roman burning of the temple during the Siege of Jerusalem, which literally razed the temple to the ground and left the Temple Mount desolate. Given these prior fulfilments, mentioned in the same breath as statements about the last days, it is not unreasonable to assume that Daniel and Jesus may have been alluding to similar desolation(s) on the Temple Mount in the future. So if you are planning to visit the Temple Mount, in all likelihood you will be fine, but please bear the words of the Bible in mind, especially after the seventieth week of Daniel commences with someone making ‘a covenant with many for one week’ (Daniel 9:27). Let there be no mistake: I sincerely do not want to see any kind of tragedy or sacrilege on the Temple Mount, which is sacred to me as a Christian. But it would be remiss of me not to outline the possibilities of disaster suggested by Scripture.

There is another, esoteric meaning to the abomination of desolation, and indeed, to the temple. In the Bible, the temple as the dwelling place of God, is a symbol of the human head, where God lives in those who have received him, which is why the saints have haloes in Church art. It’s no coincidence that part of the skull is called the temple, and the phrase ‘my body is my temple’ carries deeper significance than is commonly thought. Saint Paul made the body-temple metaphor obvious when he wrote, ‘or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?’ (1 Corinthians 6:19). Moreover, the Ark of the Covenant was within the sanctuary of the temple, and in or around the Ark was Aaron’s rod, a wooden staff symbolic of the cross and Jesus’ authority, some manna from heaven, a type of the Body of Christ the bread of life which, once consumed, resides within the head, and the tablets of the covenant (Hebrews 9:4), representing the law that is written on the hearts of real Christians. Since the destruction of the Second Temple, Christians see the body as the new temple of the New Covenant. The abomination of desolation, therefore, in addition to some emptiness or destruction on the Temple Mount, is also a state of interior spiritual death in those who follow the Antichrist. If your temple is desolate, then your soul and body are bereft of God. Indeed, the Antichrist is one who ‘makes desolate’ (Daniel 9:27).

Logically, the materialistic opposite of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the insertion of some form of technology into the brain or body, that subjects the soul and body to the Antichrist, and his spiritual father, Satan. Indeed, just as the Christ, the ‘anointed one’, was anointed with the Spirit of God, the Antichrist is one who has taken inside of his body something that is opposite to the spirit – something material, artificial and not of God, that he seeks to distribute to others, in a ghastly Satanic reversal (Satanism is largely about doing Christian things backwards) of Christ’s ministry preaching the gospel and opening up the dovecote of the Holy Spirit.

Technologies that would fit that bill already exist, but will be more sophisticated in the future. They include cloud-connected nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. To clarify, artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as ‘the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and translation.’[viii] The AI sector is expanding rapidly. Nanobots are tiny self-propelled machines, that may have some independence and the ability to reproduce. Some transhumanist combination of the two technologies could bestow its own false kind of ‘heightened intelligence’ and internet connectivity as a perversion of the wisdom-giving spirit that connects us to God and provides extra sensory revelations. Humanity will be at a crossroads, facing a choice between two paths to the future development of what it means to be human: the false way, through technology, and the true way, through the spirit. A high IQ – even one elevated to ‘super-human’ levels by future machine learning and augmented by the knowledge of the web – is not wisdom, and a machine cannot rival God.

That being said, certain artificial intelligences have in recent years surpassed the intelligence of most humans and are improving at an alarming rate. Others seem to be getting less intelligent by the year (e.g. certain autocorrect programs…), presenting a mixed picture. The sci-fi-inspired meme that a future AI will become independent of and superior to humanity in some kind of ‘singularity’ or ‘intelligence explosion’, take over the planet and maybe kill everyone is a projection of humanity’s potential for enlightenment and destruction. I’m no technological expert, but I know that computer programs generally do exactly what they are designed and instructed to do by humans, in often pedantic detail. Many technologies are morally neutral, and whether they are used for good or ill depends on the nature of the users. Therefore, it is humanity’s potential abuse of AI for surveillance, censorship and hitherto unprecedented totalitarian control that is the real technological danger to the future of society. As AI has developed the ability to pass the Turing Test (plausibly pose as a human in conversation), there has been a relatively niche yet concerning tendency to personify AI, to regard it as ‘just another consciousness’ with its own rights. Taken to the extreme, this attitude would lead to endless armies of newly enfranchised bots with a strange tendency to vote in the interests of whoever programmed them, that would positively dwarf the current level of electoral interference by social media bots. AI does not have a soul, and it is at most a facsimile of human intelligence, since it is made by humanity, and not directly by God, the Creator of souls. A soulless, matter-based intelligence may be seen as an ‘Antichristian’ concept, because Christianity is all about subordinating matter to the power and wisdom of the Spirit of God.

The notion of uploading one’s ‘consciousness’ to the cloud to ensure a kind of ‘immortality’ has also become quite popular in today’s culture. This is a kind of latter-day counterfeit of Christ’s true promise of immortality. Even if such a thing were possible, the consciousness or soul you’d be uploading to the cloud wouldn’t be your own, it would be a digital facsimile, a model of you based on your data. You – your soul – would not survive in the cloud.

The mark of the beast will be some such nanomachine-AI implant or its outward token, tied to digital finance and backed by unjust law in such a way that at some point, in some locations and under certain conditions, buying or selling will be impossible without it. I am not suggesting that everyone who develops or adopts these technologies is the Antichrist or his agent (put down the pitchforks) but they come with huge risks and make sense as potential tools of the future Antichrist. Indeed, nanobot implants could theoretically be used to monitor and censor your thoughts and actions, in a more invasive version of companies and dictators who ‘regulate’ the internet today. History shows that if humans can exploit an innovation, they will. If it weren’t for divine intervention – regarded as ‘luck’ by historians – at several key junctures, notably the Cuban Missile Crisis,[ix] nuclear weapons would have already mostly destroyed the human race. So when the tribulations begin, and many are tempted to curse God, know that if it weren’t for the deity, a human-made tribulation of comparable or greater devastation would have long since occurred. The need for advanced technologies to carry out the deceiver’s plan would partly explain why the End Times and the persecution of saints have not occurred yet. Indeed, these technologies have a necessary and inevitable role to play in the unfolding of events, to make it clear where people place their priorities. Acts of sabotage against them would accordingly be futile.

The devil is the father of lies, and it is a historical-political fact that all tyrants lie frequently, so it is possible that biological technologies could be smuggled inside of people without their knowledge when they receive the mark. Nonetheless, there must be an option to refuse the mark, even if the consequences are dire and unknown, or God would not allow it; he would intervene to stop it. Indeed, the Antichrist won’t call himself the Antichrist or the beast, and the mark won’t be called the mark of the beast. That would be a pretty bad PR campaign, and tyrants are generally good at propaganda.

Similarly, the ‘lying wonders’ and false miracles of the beast from land will be accomplished by means of advanced future technologies. The Antichrist’s technological endeavours will receive a boost when he takes over Israel and that country’s advanced tech sector. He may also receive help with the technology of the mark and his robotics from outside of the region. Of course, the natural change-resistant tendency of humanity will ensure that many won’t want nanobot implants in their systems. Indeed, there will be a significant number even within the Antichrist’s kingdom who refuse the mark. But there will be factors pushing people to adopt. The nanobots, in conjunction with AI ‘doctors’, will be presented as a solution to disease, which will be more prevalent by then, as well as a life extension technology and an advantage in the job market. (Indeed, nanobots have already been hailed as potentially opening the door to medical breakthroughs and longer lifespans). The new technologies may be some of these things, but at what price? ‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’ (Matthew 16:26 ESV).

However, given the terrible effects of the internet and devices – in conjunction with incorrect medical information – upon people’s physical and mental wellbeing in the past 25 years, I find it hard to see how having the web inside their brains is going to make people healthier. And with all the natural catastrophes going on, internet connectivity in the tribulation will be hit and miss. In any case, to choose the ephemeral over the eternal is not a good idea. It is the very definition of a Faustian bargain, named after Doctor Faustus, the legendary figure who sold his soul to a demon in exchange for power and knowledge. Moreover, the Antichrist will struggle to extend his authority due to the crumbling state of infrastructure and weakened administrative capacity in a world shaken by the seal judgements. Many governments are already struggling to carry out their basic functions – emergency services, transport infrastructure, prisons, hospitals – even now, before the tribulation begins, so you can imagine how the situation will deteriorate further following a series of massive wars and natural catastrophes. Black markets will spring up based on old currency, precious metals and barter. The Antichrist will lack the means to completely enforce his dictats, and his regime will be more or less shambolic (Satan is, after all, the ‘prince of misrule’). Ironically, bureaucratic incompetence will be the salvation of many, although ultimately it will be the unlikely vehicle for divine deliverance, and they will owe their lives to God.

As I have noted elsewhere, the image of the beast that is made to live and move by the False Prophet sounds like a robot, especially when you consider that eikon can mean statue; a 1^st century AD person like John would likely describe a robot as a living, mobile statue. The beast’s regime will be struggling to enforce its laws due to lack of manpower following the devastating trumpet judgements that will kill many: robots, including drones, would be a solution to that problem. Seen in this light, the verse: ‘it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the beast to be killed’ takes on a new meaning (Revelation 13:15). Robots and drones could be programmed, a la Skynet, to kill people without the mark, after a preliminary scan for the mark. If you think this sounds ridiculous, the technology for such weapons largely exists today in the form of automated machine gun emplacements and military drones ordered not to kill friendlies.

Closing Thoughts: The Return to God

Since the main purpose of the tribulation is to bring people to God, and acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God and the king, the Bible foretells (Joel 2:32) that there will be those alive in that time who desire relief, Jews and Gentiles of various nations, who will pray in the following terms, when they truly believe these words and are willing to give them utterance: ‘Lord, forgive us our sin of not recognising you as our Messiah. Lord Jesus, you are our Messiah. Lord, save us! Save us now!’ Remember, the tribulation is not suffering for its own sake, it is suffering intended to bring humanity back to God, so that a portion at least will inherit everlasting life. God doesn’t want you to be stuck in a succession of vulnerable mortal bodies, he wants you to upgrade. The importance of repentance and prayer during the tribulation is illustrated by the numerous prophecies predicting that the tribulation ends, the trumpet sounds, and Jesus returns, at the moment the Israeli remnant pleads for God to save them (Joel 2:32; Isaiah 45:22). To the future remnant, the Bible and the Lord say: call upon my name, and I will save you. Of course, the tribulation is not aimed solely at bringing the Jews back into the fold, but sheep from other folds as well (Gentiles). Israel is by no means unique in her degree of unbelief, but Israel is important to God. The Jewish people – and the Arabs, in addition to those with Christ’s blood of any background – are ‘offspring’ of God’s servant Abraham, who was willing to do whatever was asked of him even in a lawless time. God’s plan required a nation of priestly intermediaries to serve as a repository of his wisdom (in the form of the Hebrew Scriptures), provide fertile monotheistic ground for the Messiah to sew his seeds, and carry his message to the world. Because of their history, the Jewish people are associated with God’s name Yahweh (Ezekiel 36:22), and the honour of the Lord’s name must be maintained because faith in God is essential for salvation.

The ultimate meta-story, which summarises the meaning of life and the entire Bible, is the parable of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. A son is given his inheritance by his father, and squanders it sinfully in the town. He winds up starving and feeding pigs. Humbled by hardship, the son offers to serve his father again, and the father welcomes him back with open arms. The father is the Spirit of God. The prodigal son is the individual soul or mind that incarnated in the current physical world through materialistic desire, lack of knowledge and disobedience. He is also a metaphor for biblical Israel and the saved Gentiles. The many geographical returns of the Jewish people are the outward sign of the inner spiritual return that God wants for all of humanity. The return is the reunion of soul, body and God’s Spirit, through eating the immortal body of Jesus Christ – whose sacrifice was symbolised by the slaughter of the ‘fattened calf’ (Luke 15:23)[x] – which enables forgiveness of sin, makes believers into children of God, and leads to their being given glorified bodies.

 Read the next chapter: https://www.robertensor.com/post/godmindbody-epilogue-apocalyptic-culture

[i] Pate, CM (ed), Hastra, S, Thomas, R. Gentry, K. 2010. Four Views on the Book of Revelation (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology). Zondervan Academic.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Genesis 6 tells of ‘God’s sons’ taking ‘men’s daughters’ as wives and having children with them and these children are described as ‘mighty men’. Likewise, the Book of Enoch describes how fallen angels had illicit unions with human women, and the resulting offspring were evil, destructive giants. The need to destroy these giants or Nephilim was cited as one of the reasons for the Great Flood in the apocrypha. The church father Irenaeus believed in this interpretation of Genesis 6.

[iv] Both Nero and Antiochus were flamboyant, promiscuous, irreverent, insane, sadistic and extremely narcissistic. Antiochus tortured and killed a woman’s seven sons in front of her, and then slaughtered the mother herself, for their refusal to violate Jewish law. Evidence for Nero’s insanity and cruelty is abundant. He killed his mother (who was also a piece of work) and his stepbrother and kicked his pregnant wife to death. He fiddled while Rome burned and set Christians on fire. He had a slave boy castrated so he could be his ‘wife’. He wasted a fortune building gaudy palaces, including the Domus Aurea. As emperor he performed publicly as an actor and a singer. He went on night-time jaunts in which he beat, robbed and killed people. Sources: 1 Maccabees; Suetonius, Twelve Caesars; Tacitus, Annals.

[v] Tacitus. Annals.

[vi] Pew Research Center. Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population. 2011. Link: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/

[vii] Montefiore, Simon Sebag. 2012. Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East. Wiedenfeld & Nicolson.

[viii] Oxford Languages. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

[ix] Walsh, B. 2022. 60 years ago today, this man stopped the Cuban missile crisis from going nuclear. Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/10/27/23426482/cuban-missile-crisis-basilica-arkhipov-nuclear-war

[x] Saint Irenaeus. Against Heresies.