The End From the Beginning—Part 2—Foundational Episodes

The Old Testament ... is dominated by an essentially different form of typological thinking, namely, that of the eschatological correspondence between beginning and end. — Urzeit and Endzeit

Review and Introduction

Part 1 of this series examined the worship of science and technology and compared ancient "gods" of wood and stone with modern ones of metal and plastic. It also laid the Scriptural foundation for God's claim that He alone can tell the end from the beginning. Through the first Biblical narratives, He shows us what is happening now.

This installment will study some of these early stories and how they apply to future events. Noah, Nimrod, and Lot establish a particular pattern, along with typologies from Cain and Esau.

A screenshot of two articles that appeared together in an online publication.

Noah and Lot—Signs of the Times

We will begin our examples with Noah and Lot. The screenshot above is a recent capture of two headlines that appeared together in a secular Israeli news source called "The Times of Israel." Together, the headlines reference scenes from two biblical narratives involving Noah and Lot.

Notably, Noah and Lot are also linked in a conversation between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus' disciples asked Him what sign would mark His coming at the end of the age. His reply referenced two significant cultural periods: Noah and Lot. I have combined Matthew's and Luke's accounts of this scene to form a composite portrait of the conversation.

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
— Matthew 24:3

Then He said to the disciples ... as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted (agriculture), they built (industry), but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so, will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed?
— Luke 17:26-30

Together, the two examples of Noah and Lot form a complete understanding of the signs of the times.

Notably, Noah's day was marked by "marrying and giving in marriage." There is no mention of marriage in Lot's day. This contrasts intriguingly with today's culture, where people no longer marry or, when they do, do not stay married. Today's world is more defined by buying, selling, planting, and building. Commerce and trade in each of these "fields" are the name of the day. We will discuss more specific similarities and links to current events later in the article.

Noah—Nimrod—Lot

The Tower of Babel incident in Genesis chapter eleven, which serves as a literary apex for all three narratives, sits between the accounts of Noah and Lot. The Tower of Babel is significant in the broader context of these end-time events. After the flood, a type of creation reboot, God commanded Noah and his sons to replenish the earth.

And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to them,
`Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth ...

... as for you, be fruitful and multiply;
Bring forth abundantly in the earth
And multiply in it.

— Genesis 9:1,7

Noah's three sons responded in obedience.

... the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
— Genesis 9:19

By Genesis chapter ten, events had changed rapidly and dramatically. A king named Nimrod, Cush's son and Ham's grandson, had taken center stage. In Chapter Eleven, Nimrod gathered the populations into one place to build and "make a name for themselves," in opposition to God's command to fill the earth.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
— Genesis 11:4

The phrase "make a name for ourselves" sounds a bit like modern brand-building, and it's all about buying and selling, much like in the days of Lot.

From a timeline perspective, Noah's narrative represents the past judgment of human evil through a flood, and the Sodom and Gomorrah story foretells future judgments of human evil through fire.

... by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
— 2 Peter 3:5-7

The tower narrative at the center of the chart, and its depiction of human history, encompasses everything that happens between those two events. Humanity tries to save itself, deliver itself, and secure its own eternal life by accumulating knowledge. Each generation builds upon the bricks of the last.

"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." ~ Albert Camus

Nimrod the Mighty Man Hunter

Nimrod's name is rooted in definitions such as rebellious, willfully disobedient to authority, insubordinate, seditious incitement of discontent and resistance toward an established order, idolatrous opposition, defectors, and enemies of light. He portrays an end-time anti-Christ figure.

The following verse expands on this idea when viewed through original word meanings and captures a more concise view of the end narrative.

Nimrod: he began (used many times in connection with something profane or polluted) to be a mighty (used most commonly for a military leader; In some cases, a proud tyrant) one in the earth.

He was a mighty hunter (includes the idea of capturing, trapping, and snaring) before (in the face of; can mean against or in resistance to) the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
— Genesis 10:8-9

Nimrod appears to be a rebellious man of the flesh. He seeks to build a kingdom without God by hunting or snaring, or could we say "netting (internet)" and "webbing (World Wide Web)" his subjects.

Byron Tau uses this modern man-hunting theme in his book "Means of Control" to describe the data-collecting practices of U.S. special operators and intelligence agencies, using digital information from cameras, social media, and smartphones. He writes the following about how this came to be so easy.

"Ultimately, these kinds of special operations man-hunting missions would be revolutionized by one of the greatest cultural shifts of the twenty-first century: a sudden impulse to share everything about your life online."

Tau also describes a cloud storage entity called OpeniO as a "digital man-hunting and backgrounding tool" and a company called Babel Street. According to the AI Overview, the latter was part of the Burber Hunter Toolkit, "a collection of surveillance tools used to gather information and monitor publicly available information."

Like Nimrod and his kingdom, we are gathering and uniting globally with ulterior motives, in God's face and in active resistance against Him. This "in the face of ..." statement in Hebrew adds another layer of meaning to this scene.

“You shall have no other gods before Me (upon my face).
— Exodus 20:3

The literal rendering of "before me" is "upon my face," suggesting having idols before God's face in abject rebellion against Him.

Blatant rejection of God is a rampant ideology of the modern world and many of its leaders.

The following sections will illustrate the theme of "the flesh" with examples from the stories of Cain and Esau.

Cain gathers Abel to the field.
James Tissot
Brooklyn Museum

The Real Hunter-Gatherers: Flesh and the Field

The pattern of gathering souls for the selfish gain of personal profit and a name separate from God begins with Cain, a man of the "field" who, in a sense, snared or hunted his brother by gathering him to the field for a conversation.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
— Genesis 4:8

In Biblical typology, the field or flatland often represents the secular world without God.

Cain, whose name is rooted in the word "jealous," was envious that God accepted his brother's offering but not his own. God makes it abundantly clear to Cain that his offering would be acceptable if he did well.

So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
— Genesis 4:6-7

What differed in their offerings? And what did that mean?

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

— Genesis 4:3,4

Abel's offering consisted of the firstlings and included the fat, which was considered a supreme offering. Nothing is noted about Cain other than that he brought some produce. Abel's offering suggests that God was sincerely his Lord. Cain's gift indicates that his heart wasn't fully committed to the Lord. It seems he is distracted by his pursuits and greedy for gain. Such is characteristic of these times.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
— 1 Timothy 6:6-10

The book of Jude uses the metaphor of greedy Cain to describe end-time events.

Woe to them (those who deny Christ)! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
— Jude 11

Greedy gain is the present snare developing among us. We are assaulted, harassed, and violated by advertisements to buy, sell, and trade wherever we go. No place is sacred, not even your own home, where you can hide from it. The world's gathering system collects data from individuals to peddle its wares, creating a trap for something much bigger. The writer of Ecclesiastes appears to foresee this.

For mankind also does not know his time:
Like fish taken in a cruel net,
Like birds caught in a snare,
So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
When it falls suddenly upon them.

— Ecclesiastes 9:12

This isn't the last of Cain. Like Nimrod, he builds a city after being exiled to the East.

Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.
— Genesis 4:16-17

Along with city-building, the Bible records a list of technological, cultural, and possibly corporate farming developments after the fact. It also records the first instances of multiple marriages. Perhaps this relates to the "marrying and giving in marriage" statement Jesus refers to in His end-time discourse.

Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
— Genesis 4:19-22

In his book Studies in Genesis, M.A. Zimmerman offers a contemporary application of this scene. Keep in mind that he originally wrote the book in 1970 and revised it in 1979.

Cain, the fugitive, doesn't trust the mark which the Lord had set on him and now seeks to build his own defenses. Though our nation stamps upon its silver coins, "In God We Trust," yet its whole program, especially in emergencies, is designed to put every citizen's trust in our modern mobilized "walled cities," which it feverishly builds even at the price of national solvency. And by the very building of its so-called defenses, it grows haughty, defiant, materialistic, and invites its own material and moral collapse by the forces within its own bosom ... Such is the origin of the first and all subsequent world civilizations: It begins with going from the presence of the Lord; it occupies itself with building its own fleshly security and defenses against rising judgment; it aims to extol its own name in defiance of the Lord's Name ...The cultural development of this first civilization was very rapid ... The more rapid the progress in discoveries and inventions, the more rapid also the moral decline. Man's morality not only cannot keep pace with these new developments and gain mastery over them, but man is actually demoralized by them. Instead of becoming their master, man becomes a slave and a victim of the very machines his ingenuity created.

Pastor Bill Randle's Blog reiterates this in terms of technological developments.

The Cainite line was definitely what we could call worldly. They had launched out on their own, to create a civilization without God, or his input. Being men made in the Image of God, they utilized their mastery over creation through technology. But being fallen creatures, their use of technology and the arts could not compensate for the violence, hatred, and lust which raged in their hearts.

In his commentary on this scene, theologian Claus Westermann links Lamech's son's metallurgy to modern technological advances, as seen in the following quote.

"Demons lurked among humanity's technological advances."

Esau—Another Mighty Hunter

The description of Nimrod as a hunter is the first Biblical mention of the word "hunt." This first occurrence connects to its next appearance, which applies to Esau, who was understood to be a man of the "field." He represents our flesh (base needs and desires), which is the driving force behind the developing world system based on buying, selling, and trading.

... Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field.

— Genesis 13:25

Therefore, Esau's connection with hunting and the field reflects the flesh's unfaithful desires, along with its agendas, inventions, and techniques for satisfying its needs and wants outside of God's will. This kind of fulfillment comes at the expense of our relationship with God and others.

... lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
— Hebrews 12:14-16

Immediate satisfaction and self-interest are the developing themes in this Old Testament account of Esau, a man of the field who represents selfish humanity in the time of the end, in the field of the world.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
— 2 Timothy 3:1-4

The video above, produced by Kingdom Story Films, also portrays Esau as beast-like, noting that he is a man of the field, red like the ground from which both man and beast were formed, and hairy all over.

So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.
— Genesis 25:25

This parallels the serpent in Genesis 3, described as a beast of the field.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made ...’?”
— Genesis 3:1

Esau, therefore, hints at the end-time, selfish, greedy, global gatherer in the field of the world.

In the creation account, only vegetation and animals were described as being of the field, implying they were outside the sacred garden space. Adam was exiled from the garden to the field because of his greed in eating from the forbidden tree, rather than being satisfied with God's provision of every other tree.

... thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field ...

... the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

— Genesis 3:18,23

In Hebrew, the name Esau is rooted in the word "to make or do," emphasizing work and functionality. Its earliest uses in Genesis 1 are ascribed to God's creation of the atmosphere, two great lights, beasts of the earth, and humankind in the image of God, as well as His creation of everything in Genesis 2.

Notably, the first thing Adam and Eve made on their own was insufficient underwear to cover their shame. God, in turn, made them acceptable and enduring animal-skin coverings. Noah is the next human to make something. The ark was a successful, functional project because it was carried out in submission to God's command. Then, following Noah's narrative, comes the story of the Tower of Babel, where humankind makes a name for itself by building a tower. The early Genesis pattern reveals that when God creates something, it is both functional and fruitful. When humanity, not in submission to God, makes something, it lacks and is destined to malfunction and become dysfunctional.

The One World Trade Center, otherwise known as the Freedom Tower

Nimrod's One-World Commune

Back to Nimrod—the text does not tell us what Nimrod hunted, snared, or entrapped in Genesis chapter ten. However, given the negative context of the entire "Tower" narrative, capturing humans to gather them in one place is plausible.

Nimrod seeks to unite the world under his lordship, much like the emerging world system. Social media platforms strongly encourage subscribers to connect with as many people as possible to keep them engaged and connected in a global community.

Nimrod's possible purpose for his structural and cultural development project is to avoid accountability for any form of judgment. The Nimrod narrative occurs not long after the judgment of the flood. The prophet Micah used this phraseology to describe hunting men and associated it with worshipping strange gods.

The man has perished from the earth,
And there is no one upright among men.
They all lie in wait for blood;

Every man hunts his brother with a net ...
... For the statutes of Omri are kept;

All the works of Ahab's house are done;
And you walk in their counsels.

— Micah 7:2,16

Ellicott's commentary explains Omri's statutes related to idolatry, the critical employer of the developing snare.

Instead of diligently keeping the Lord's commandments, the people of Judah adopted the statutes of the house of Omri, the founder of the idolatrous dynasty of Ahab.

Traps and snares always include bait that entices the victim to walk into them voluntarily. Obsession with ourselves and everything, but God is at the core of this idolatrous trap.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
— Ephesians 5:15

In our time and place, Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" references Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and Huxley's observation that this advancing technological enslavement is perceived as voluntary.

"As he (Aldous Huxley) saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think."

The concept of unity in its worldly form hijacks God's original plan. Scottish theologian Lesslie Newbigin clarifies that unifying under the banner of human governing systems is a sidestep away from communing with God through the shed blood of His Son, who granted us forgiveness through His suffering and death for our sins.

"The very heart of the Biblical vision for the unity of humankind is that its center is not an imperial power but a slain lamb."

Human gathering at Babel

Nimrod's "Net" Results in Enslavement

Nimrod represents a type of anti-Christ. The modern interpretation of the gathering at the tower for the united purpose of creating a culture apart from God is reinterpreted electronically in the form of the present-day inter(net) or World Wide (Web).

Data collection via the internet on various devices is a means to ensnare humanity into an anti-God global humanistic program that will one day attempt to create its version of Eden minus God. Good and evil will be defined subjectively.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

— Judges 25:21

L. Daniel Hawk, in his book The Violence of the Biblical God, depicts the Nimrodic Babylonian system of human gathering as part of its humanistic program and prideful objectives.

... the human race bent on asserting its own identity and objectives apart from any relationship to the Creator. Unified humanity attempts to make a name for themselves ...

Manipulation and control will be the engines that drive this big machine. Exposure and enslavement will be the result. Humankind, driven by personal and private agendas and desires, follows willfully and blindly.

... when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
— Genesis 3:6

Both Babylon and Assyria were key adversaries that marked Israel's Old Testament "end-time" period of captivity. Eventually, the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Babylon conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah, both influenced by Nimrod's development projects.

And the beginning of his (Nimrod's) kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land, he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the principal city).
— Genesis 10

"The beginning" of Nimrod's kingdom is worded much like the Bible's first sentence.

"In the beginning."
— Genesis 1:1

This wording most likely intentionally links the two events to portray total anarchy against the Creator King of all things. This is confirmed by the principal god of these nations, Marodoch, whose name in Hebrew shares root letters with Nimrod. Marodoch, symbolized by a snake-dragon and associated with Mars, the god of war, required the blood of human victims to appease him. A snake-dragon, fittingly, symbolizes Nimrod. The iconic combination of a snake and a dragon links the Genesis snake and the dragon of Revelation.

He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
— Revelation 20:2

Another connection between the beginning and the Babel narrative appears in the phrase "Come, let us make ..." In Genesis chapter one, the phrase describes God creating humankind in His image.

"Let Us make man in Our image"
— Genesis 1:26

The Babel story uses it to describe humankind, making a society in its own image.

"Let us make a name for ourselves"
— Genesis 11:4

Once again, L. Daniel Hawk comments on this scene, drawing a similar connection to the Biblical beginning.

The project, in sum, aims to create a counterfeit Eden—a human society with a place of its own, but oriented toward its own ends rather than toward executing the mandate conferred by the sovereign of creation.

As we shall study later in this article, humankind, in abject defiance, will attempt to play God by creating machines in its own image.

Databricks

One more revealing link connects the tower to another Bible narrative and to current events.

Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

— Genesis 11:3

The first mention of bricks in the Bible is the one above. The text emphasizes that bricks were a human-made material—mortar (cement) is also human-made, as Scripture notes.

The phrase "bake them thoroughly" is significant to the Databricks data and AI management company's story, which promises salvation through data. They claim to bake their data-sharing solutions into vendor products, linking us to the baking bricks clause in the tower-building story.

... there are data-sharing solutions baked into vendor products, such as Oracle, AWS Redshift, or Snowflake ... Databricks natively integrates with Delta Sharing in our Unity Catalog, providing a streamlined experience for sharing data both within and across organizations.

The unity phrase in the quote above also links to the tower narrative.

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech ... let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth ... 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 11:1,4,6

God knew humanity's irretrievable potential for evil and eternal separation from Him. That is why He intervened.

The second mention of bricks in the Bible occurred when Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, enslaved the Hebrews for his kingdom-building development projects—notice also a mention of the field in this account.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
— Exodus 1:14

Regarding the tower, the first mention of bricks and mortar reveals humanity's futile attempt to build a kingdom apart from God. This scene points to bricks and mortar in Egypt that ultimately enslave God's people. Although the first mention doesn't directly cause the second, they connect along this line in both thought and theme.

Interestingly, "brick-and-mortar" is also a modern term for face-to-face business, building again on the theme of buying and selling.

According to The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, building a tower to live apart from God's ways and judgments represented "prideful and pretentious humanism." Babylon becomes "the prototype of all the prideful nations, cities, and empires that raise themselves against God."

Continuing with the Databricks story, a blog entry by Paul Barrett on the Databricks website builds on the theme of harnessing chaos by unifying. This contrasts with God's harnessing of chaos through separation.

Accelerating Data—driven Value for Retailers
A Unified View of Demand Planning in Chaotic Times

He makes interesting statements and proposals about visibility and a single version of truth.

"Retailers who will thrive in this ever-changing world will need to adopt a platform and strategy that provides total visibility, creating one version of the truth for their data. The solution will leverage internal data (e.g., from supply chain and trade), external data (e.g., consumption data, mobility, macroeconomic factors, brand sentiments, weather, COVID-19 cases) and advanced algorithms to forecast consumption. Retailers will be able to use this as their one point of truth – providing data that planners, data scientists and executives are looking for."

According to the documentary "The Creepy Line," data collection is described as the building blocks of information. These building blocks are used to construct profiles of individuals.

"It's gonna tell you thousands of things about a person over time."

"Naked and ashamed" revisits the Adam and Eve incident in a very modern way.

The video above is an advertisement for "Databricks." The following statements from the video articulate the Biblical tower's goal and strategy. Databricks boldly promises that this technology will save the world and solve all its problems.

"Data is big. But its potential is even bigger when combined with AI. Data holds the promise of curing diseases, saving lives, reversing climate change, and the way we live.
We believe the future depends on data and unlocking its limitless potential.
We're here to make that happen. Databricks is the data and AI Company.
We help data teams, engineers, analysts, and scientists work together to find value inside data and solve the world's problems. Because the challenges we face as businesses, as people, and as a planet aren't easy. They can't be solved in silence. They can't be solved by one person. We need all the data, all the science, all the brainpower. We need all hands on deck in one place on the only open unified platform (one world language) for data management, business analytics, and machine learning, and that changes everything. It expands our sense of what's possible. (now nothing will be impossible to them Gen. 11) It makes things simple. It turns weeks into minutes so data teams can innovate faster because that's how innovation should happen collaborative and fast.
So let's defy assumptions, break the mold, map every genome, cure every cancer, binge watch the cosmos, spelunk black holes, make every voice heard, hack every hacker, reverse global warming, count every voter, unlock gridlock, blow up every assumption, implode the impossible, capture the unicorn, split the atom, reinvent the wheel, remove all the friction, take more moonshots and land them.
"The heavens have become a part of man's world.' From now on, nothing stands between you and your data, you and the answers, because the power of data is the power of knowing. Now you know. (the forbidden tree)

That's quite a claim! God gave humanity vassal rulership over the earth's territory. Harnessing the heavens as humanity's portion through data interpretation, ownership, and control makes a rather arrogant statement. L. Daniel Hawk again connects this thought to Babel.

Babylon was one of the great cultural, political, and technological centers of the ancient world, and so serves as a fitting example of the original human impulse to take dominion over the earth ... Whereas Yahweh had made a garden for humanity's dwelling place, human beings now aspire to make a city for themselves ...

"We believe" is proudly and rebelliously proclaimed concerning the future salvation of humanity in the name of data processing. Faith in God is replaced by faith in collective humanity.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and its merging with humanity find an ancient interpretation in Genesis 6, just before the flood. The text's literary structure reveals more than meets the eye. The next portion of Scripture follows a chiastic arrangement. Parallel details on each side support the text's central theme.

And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, daughters were born to them.

A) Then the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose.

B) And Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not abide (contend) with humankind forever in that he also is (gone astray in error) flesh.

(center theme of lifespans cut short) And his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

B) The Nephilim (fallen ones) were upon the earth in those days, and also afterward,

A) when the sons of God went into the daughters of humankind, and they bore children to them.

— Genesis 6:1-4

The A's discuss the "Sons" of God, taking the daughters of men as wives, and children are born to them.

The B's discuss humankind's error and the presence of Nephilim (fallen ones, sometimes translated as giants) on the earth.

At the center is humankind's shortened lifespan.

Humanity's error and the presence of the fallen ones on the earth are linked.

There is considerable debate about whether the "Sons of God" are human or divine. Either way, their union with the daughters of men gives birth to a mutant-type species that emerges on Earth and can, to some degree, be visualized in a modern format, blending man and machine.

The blending of human and divine seems somewhat absurd from a modern perspective that idolizes human logic. However, this isn't so far-fetched when we consider the possibilities arising from technological attempts to design a new species, known as humanoids.

The whole human race is foolish (from the root word "burning" from knowledge!
The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
These idols have no breath (spirit) in them.
Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!

— Jeremiah 51:17-18

Gunther Plaut comments on the above passage concerning the "days of Noah connection in the following quote.

"Humans became giants, achieved renown in their time, and were heroes in their own eyes"

God's original plan was for humanity to merge with His Spirit, functioning in His likeness, power, and wisdom. (Genesis 1,2) In defiance, humankind has decided to become its own god in full-fledged mockery and hijack God's plan by creating beings in its own image. God breathed His life into Adam. Now, we are trying to breathe our life and essence into machines. In the beginning, God created us, and in a rebellious coup d'état fashion, humanity makes its own gods that function at our bidding.

This scene is depicted with cryptic imagery in the Book of Revelation. The term "beast" describes either a spirit, person, system, or all of the above in a type of unholy trinity. Once again, we see a hijacking and mimicry of God's original design.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

— Revelation 13:11-15

The present-day denial of God in favor of creating our own system that excludes Him is presented in a quote by Yuval Harari, an Israeli philosopher.

"History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods"

Aaron plays a type of Antichrist in the golden calf incident.
James Tissot
Brooklyn Museum

Back to Noah and Lot

Both Noah's and Lot's narratives on either side of the Tower mention eating and drinking. These could be referencing gluttony and intoxication of any kind, another epidemic characteristic of our culture.

Regarding intoxication, the New Testament Greek word for "sorcery" or "enchantment" is "pharmakeia." Does this word sound familiar? The pharmaceutical industry manufactures cauldrons of synthetic potions for almost every human ailment. "Big Pharma" is one of the most potent and lucrative industries in the world and is currently at the center of some profoundly troubling addiction-related crises connected to its products.

Also, in terms of data ownership and control, according to the "Return to Now" website, Big Pharma, in the name of "GlaxoSmithKline," has purchased "23andMe," the world's largest database of genetic code. A pharmaceutical company now owns all the DNA submitted to 23andMe. They can use your data for any reason and profit from it. You are the subject of exploitation in this deal.

This is an excellent example of Nimrod's net. Recalling that a trap is voluntarily walked into, we see that people are paying to give and expose their genetic code, which is essentially you, to a drug company that will profit from it, and who knows what happens to that information in the future. Regardless, once your code is sold, you can't get it back.

You have sold yourselves for nothing ...

— Isaiah 52:3

Returning to Noah, the first occurrence of the phrase "eat and drink" in the Old Testament refers to the children of Israel straying after other gods while Moses was with God on Mount Sinai. Notably, in this scene, they gather together, much as they do at the Tower, creating new things to worship.

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down (Think of Christ's promise to return) from the mountain, the people gathered together (Babel) to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us (make us a system that will provide and do everything for our future well-being and benefit); for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand (ancient economic terms), and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.
Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
— Exodus 1:1-5

The passage above explains why God and Moses are so upset. In this case, Aaron behaves more like an antichrist by gathering the people, asking for their gold, forming and fashioning a "god" from it, and, worst of all, calling the feast a feast of Yahweh.

A similar event occurs in Isaiah, where God accuses the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He again points to their refusal to come to Him, choosing other gods and reveling in their pleasures.

And in that day the Lord God of hosts
Called for weeping and for mourning,
For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

— Isaiah 22:12-13

It's been about 2,000-plus years since Christ rose. And much like the children of Israel, who "rose up" to play in Moses' absence, so it will be in these end times.

... scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning of creation.” For this, they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
— 2 Peter 3:3-7

As with the events of Noah and Lot, both water and fire are elements of judgment.

Noah and Lot's Roadside Warning

The Old Testament accounts of Noah and Lot provide insight into the state of affairs during their time and shed light on our own. In Noah's case, humans continually plot evil.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent (framework) of the thoughts (computations, fabrications, and invention) of his heart was only evil continually.

— Genesis 6:5

The Hebrew word for intent, yêtser (יצר), in the verse above refers to the intellectual framework of thought. The Hebrew word for thoughts, machshavot (מחשבת), is even more interesting from a technological perspective. Its definition includes ideas of computation, fabrication, and invention. The modern Hebrew word for computer is "Machshav (מחשב)," the same word used for "thoughts" in the verse above.

As humankind continually framed evil inventions in Noah's day, Lot's day was also marked by extreme wickedness. Remarkably, Genesis 13:13 mentions wickedness. The number thirteen in Scripture is often linked with rebellion.

Now the men of Sodom were extremely wicked sinners against Yahweh. (LEB)
— Genesis 13:13

The inhabitants' wickedness results in a cry of distress that God cannot ignore.

Then Yahweh said, “Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very serious, I will go down, and I will see. Have they done altogether according to its cry of distress which has come to me? If not, I will know.”
— Genesis 18:20-21

The tower event contains a similar phrase to the one above, potentially linking to why God visited the tower. Perhaps a cry of distress went up.

... the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
— Genesis 11:5

Noah and Lot symbolize escape from the tyranny of this distressing evil. Noah enters the Ark, and Lot flees from the wicked city. Each symbolizes salvation through Christ alone.

By faith Noah, having been warned about things not yet seen, out of reverence constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family, by which he pronounced sentence on the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
— Hebrews 11:7
When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
— Genesis 13:15
... and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
— 2 Peter 2:7

God calls out to all humankind through His prophets.

“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”

— 2 Corinthians 6:17-18

God patiently waits for all to respond to His call to repent and enter.

... when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, an ark was being constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through water.
— 1 Peter 3:17-19

In 2 Chronicles, God foretells that He will allow this to play out until there is no remedy.

And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
— 2 Chronicles 36:15-16

Peter's second epistle explains.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, as he lived among them day after day, was tormenting his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he was seeing and hearing), the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority.
— 2 Peter 2:4-10

Knowledge Proliferation - Adam ate the forbidden fruit. It took many generations for the current knowledge to evolve. As we moved away from "dark ages," the skies brightened, and finally, an explosion of knowledge and full clarity of all things. The age of technology has arrived
~ by Daniel Heller

It Began in the Garden

Noah's and Lot's roadside warning also recalls an ancient conversation about a serpent's invitation to embrace a godless system that ultimately led to eternal death. The modern technological version sounds remarkably similar to how Eve perceived the Forbidden Tree. She seemed to believe it promised prosperity and success through accumulating knowledge, much like we do today.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise (to have insight, prosper, and succeed), she took of its fruit and ate.

— Genesis 3:6

Based on the expanded definition of "wise" in the verse above, it is clear that Eve sought more than information from the forbidden tree. She was seeking an alternative path to prosperity and success.

A quote from the documentary "AI Race" mirrors Eve's quest for advancement through knowledge expressed in the language of intimacy.

"There really is only one strategy, and that is to embrace technology and to learn about it and to understand it as far as possible."

This one strategy in the above quote contrasts with the one way proclaimed by Christ.

Jesus said to him (Thomas, His disciple), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.
— John 14:6

The interpretation of the end from the beginning is depicted in Genesis chapter three, which includes a sinister lie and an invitation to sin.

No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.“In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
— Genesis 3:5-6

Jesus, being the way, alternatively, offers us eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 6:23

A Binary System: The Modern Version

Modern computers operate on binary code, which uses only two symbols, 0s and 1s, to represent vast amounts of information. This representation uses a base-2 number system rather than the more familiar base-10 system. In a base-2 system, each digit's place value is a power of two rather than a power of ten.

The base-2 system allows for only two expression options: on or off, true or false, and one or zero. This is the only option for instruction giving in terms of electrical transistors. Endless combinations of just these two symbols make complex computing possible.

Only two kingdoms exist: darkness and light. It's one or the other. It's true or false, yes or no, ones or zeros, good or evil, not good and evil, as did lie the tree. Even the system knows that.

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble.

— James 2:19

"The accuser of the brethren" (Great Dragon, Serpent of Old, Devil, Satan) is a prosecuting attorney who tolerates no middle ground. (Revelation 12) We must choose one side or the other.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

— Joshua 24:15

The above photo shows both ancient and modern computing mechanisms.

A Binary System: The Ancient Version

Similarly, the ancient cuneiform writing system consisted of only two symbols: a line and a wedge. This system could store a great deal of information and was frequently used in the ancient world to record business transactions and other essential details.

The phraseology of "yes" or "no" and "true or false" has sort of a judicial ring to it. All data analysis is somewhat accusatory in this respect. As it concerns human beings, this data-gathering and pattern-studying system could potentially be very revealing.

... Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
— Genesis 3:6-7

Artificial Intelligence will eventually learn to read us like a book. Algorithmic patterns recognize emotions on our faces and tensions in our voices. Biochemical changes occur when we think or feel things. It's all about exposure, and the book of Revelation reveals the sinister evil behind this.

... the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night ...
— Revelation 12:10

The Spiritual Component—Maxwell's Demon—Defying the Laws that Govern the Universe

In the documentary "Order and Disorder: The Forces that Drive the Universe," a discussion explores the possibility of creating a functional system by merely observing, gathering, and organizing information without relying on energy.

The narrator presents this prospect based on a theory Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell formulated in the mid-1800s. Maxwell sought to defy the second law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of entropy. Vocabulary.com explains that everything in the universe eventually moves from order to disorder, and entropy measures that change. Google Dictionary expresses it differently, reflecting the idea of Genesis 1:2.

Entropy is the degree of disorder or randomness in a system, and it reflects the gradual decline in the order of all things.

"The earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths."

— Genesis 1:2

Maxwell uses an imaginary demon to illustrate his theory.

“If we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being, whose attributes are as essentially finite as our own, would be able to do what is impossible to us."
— James Clerk Maxwell

I'm unsure whether Maxwell knew how close he came to quoting Scripture in this description, but it sounds remarkably like a passage from the Tower of Babel incident.

... now nothing will be restrained (off limits, inaccessible, impossible) from them, which they have imagined to do.
— Genesis 11:6

The pattern has not changed. Maxwell's presentation revisits the "garden" and "tower." A serpent-like being gathers humans at the tree in the garden and extracts information from them to orchestrate a mutinous takeover of an already-designed system. This evil plan excludes the only source of organizational energy, namely God. Likewise, at Babel, Nimrod gathers the people to form a system that undermines God's authority. The narrative opens with the unification of language, speech, and, by extension, information.

In his experiment, the demon studies how molecules behave in two compartments. He selectively allows the faster-moving ones to pass through a door he controls as soon as they approach it. The experiment fails.

Without energy, there is no way to create an independent, organized, functional system that doesn't naturally deconstruct. God makes this clear in the first chapter of Genesis. He alone brings order out of chaos and a functional system out of a decomposing, useless mass. The original plan was eternal until humankind allied with chaotic, random darkness, setting death, decomposition, and decay in motion in God's habitable structure. Separating energy from the system can result in nothing but disorder.

God makes it abundantly clear that no functional system can be created and sustained without the Creator. All our godless concoctions are doomed to fail, leaving us exposed and embarrassed by a system that studies and knows everything about us by analyzing our online activity patterns.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
— Genesis 3:7

This imagery shows that the serpent, Satan (adversary), devil, or evil one is not omnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscient. So how does he plan to hijack God's creation? By creating a system that collects and studies data on everything and everyone, then ruling and reigning over what God has made and arranged. For example, in the garden, he encourages them to volunteer to collect data. He begins by asking Eve questions. By the time we reach Babel, we realize it is a trap set by a "mighty hunter" in opposition to God, and, in the end, we stand outside the sacred space, naked and ashamed.

To attempt to violate the second law of thermodynamics is to ignore the first. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
— 1 Timothy 1:17

In the History Channel's "Alone" series, contestant Joel Van der Loon describes his most successful hunting techniques, which sound eerily similar to this tactic.

"Back in Africa, I learned from the Hazda that being an effective hunter is not about how well you shoot the bow. It's about how well you can pattern the movements of animals. When you know those animals' habits, it's just a matter of time before you get an arrow in.

*All sources for this series are available in the final part.