Is a "New World Order" Closer Than We Think?

As historically eventful as the Japanese tsunami was, there is something of even greater historical importance. It was the first natural disaster in history to be broadcast in ‘real time’ (live) across the planet! After the quake, the 45 minute lapse before it reached the coast of Japan was enough time for camera crews to get in place. And the international alarm was sounded by cells, texts, and tweets.

The world is now connected in a way that was only imagined by science fiction authors: people to people; people to machines, machines to machines. We are a global community. We need to realize that we are now entangled with everything that happens—everywhere. Wireless technology, once a tool for communication [called ‘information sharing’] has become change agent for societies, e.g., Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya—can Yemen and Bahrain be far behind? Why do you suppose the first thing the Egyptian and Iranian governments did to combat their protest movements was to shut down the Internet? Intercontinental communication through hand-held devices is the greatest change catalyst this world has ever known.

We now have the communications technology, transportation, and the pro-globalization media necessary to usher in a one world government. (The United Nations and the World Trade Organization have already begun taking preliminary steps for its formation.) Will global recession, political destabilization in the Middle East, increased terrorism, and the desire for security induce people to give up their national sovereignty for global governance? Our 21st century crises transcend national boundaries and beg for international solutions. In the 1940’s, H.G. Wells predicted that wireless communications would result in a "new world order"—a “scientifically-coordinated world state and planned economy.” Does it not seem that the future described by H.G. Well is here?

Why is this important to us believers?—because the emergence of a one-world government will set the stage for apocalyptic events—“the day of the Lord.” The world is in a chaotic state of affairs—not by accident, but by God’s design. The prophet Haggai warned of a time of divine judgment and justice that will precede the “day of the Lord”: “In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth. I will shake the oceans and the dry land, too. I will shake all the nations…” (Hag 2:6-7). More than five centuries later, the author of Hebrews quoted Haggai, but with this promise: “This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left” (12:27). Let us all make sure we are invested in things that cannot be shaken, and let us pray that God will help us to discern the times in which we live (Mat. 16:3).