Countdown 2 Eternity

Voiceover: Welcome once again to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes, a weekly radio ministry from Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. Together, Tom and James examine current events and connect what's going on in our world to Bible prophecy. Let's lean in and listen.

James Kaddis: Well, hello my dear brothers and sisters. I want to welcome you to another episode of Countdown to Eternity, and boy do we have a doozy planned for you. This one's going to be fun.

Tom Hughes: Oh yeah. Bro, it's relevant. This is so relevant. Someone asked me a while back when I was on their program, they said, "What's the one sign that you would say points to us being in the last days?" I said, "Actually, I'll give you two signs." One of them is Israel and the Jew, of course. Then the other I said is technology.

Because as we watch Israel back in the land, the other thing that has to happen is we have to get to the place of the mark of the beast where no one can buy or sell unless they worship the image and the beast and receive the mark of his name. So we look at this and go, "Hey, wait a minute." This is interesting, James. There is so much to talk about here because there's never been a generation ever that could say that we live in an age where the mark of the beast could actually happen.

Not only could it happen, you know better than I do, all of the technology is here. It's just waiting to all fall under one umbrella, one governing authority, because you do have the different competing entities right now even with different nations and different tech companies that are doing different things. I find it absolutely remarkable.

Here's something else that's interesting. We happen to live at a time where there are super billionaires, even on the edge of being trillionaires, which technology would not advance to the place where it is without these super rich people. Government would never be able to do the research and development necessary for the AI technology being as advanced as it is, or quantum computing and all of these other things.

If it was just left up to the governments, they would screw it all up. So what happens is God is the one who's sovereign. He is the one who has created these people to pour in their billions of dollars to invent this technology in order to bring about His perfect timing of the mark of the beast. If people doubt that that's true, Revelation chapter 17 is very clear that ten kings give their power and authority to the beast.

A few verses later, the Bible says God put it in the heart of the ten kings to give their power and authority to the beast in order to bring about His prophetic purpose. God's in full control of these. Who knows? Maybe the ten kings are actually these ten technocrats or whatever they may be. As we look at things develop, listen, if we're not raptured soon, we're probably going to know who they are.

James Kaddis: It's so interesting how well the devil does this. I think that you hit it on the nose. There's a derivative that comes from what you just said, and that derivative is predicated on this idea that so many people are wrapped up in searching for the small details that they're forgetting about the major issues that are manifesting in front of them right now, and they're missing it.

They're missing the cues. They're missing the signs of the time. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this. He says you can look at the sky and you can tell when the weather's going to turn afoul, but yet you cannot discern the signs of the times? It's the same thing, and many of the things that you're talking about right now have become so obvious, so in front of our faces, yet the enemy is resorting to the tactic of getting people distracted by every little wind of doctrine, by every little thing, so they completely are missing the obvious that's in front of them.

You're right. We're seeing this. If you could just look at Israel alone, in and of itself you have a very reasonable framework for why we're in the end times. But look at what's happening. You talked about all the digital stuff. You've got global digital identification, oftentimes referred to as GDI. We just talked about mass surveillance. We talked about the global digital currency, the CBDCs, which are still super big.

What about artificial intelligence? Look at what people are doing with artificial intelligence. You want to talk about the spirit of Antichrist? Just talk to people like Yuval Harari. He'll show you how he can use AI to put into effect a replacement for God Himself. Or how about all of these global governance structures that are being created?

They're all coordinating things like finance and health and climate change, that big lie, security and trade mitigation strategies that they're using to try to get people away from independent investment. Think about what's happening there. You're a devil right now if you spend time on Wall Street. That's kind of the way they're making it. Or how about the whole idea of illegal aliens and everything that's going on there? All of those are crazy.

Then how about the rise in hostility towards biblical truth? And forget the rise in hostility towards biblical truth, what about the rise in hostility towards Jews? Anti-Semitism and Jew hatred. How about the fact that there are people that are depending on government more than they're depending on God? How about a generation that we have right now that's completely comfortable? We'll be like a fish out of water, flipping and flopping without it. They're completely comfortable with total connectivity. The spirit of Antichrist already exists everywhere.

Tom Hughes: This is everywhere, and people are so confused that they're easily manipulated. It's like there's something else kind of weird. If we look back six years, remember the big event six years ago? It's like this mass hypnosis went out and a lot of people just got hypnotized and you're kind of waiting for the next command to drop so they go into the next stage.

There's so much to talk about here. I love talking about Israel, but let's go to technology because we promised people last time that's what we would do today. Check this out, James. I don't know if you know the story. I wrote about it in my book Marking the Masses, which was published a few years ago. It's in the introduction. What I did is I interviewed my dad several years ago. I knew he was given... did I ever tell you about this interview?

James Kaddis: Bro, no. Share it. It's really good. This was the book that AI made the cover for?

Tom Hughes: It is. Marking the Masses. There it is. It's kind of scary because if you were to read that book today, you'd realize just how prophetic that book is. I want to do a sequel to it, but this one's still relevant, so why do a sequel? That's an AI-drawn cover from 2022.

James Kaddis: In 2022, that would have been a really big deal to have that cover drawn that way.

Tom Hughes: The book was based on this conversation I had with my dad. My dad would tell me the story over the years. He passed away this last December. He was 95. It was probably five or six years ago when I interviewed him. I turned on my phone and said, "Dad, I've got to ask you because I've got to get all of the names right."

In 1961, it was in Bel Air, California. My dad had gone to work for a company called Teledyne, which was big in the tech industry at the time. He worked for General Dynamics for a time, then Teledyne. My dad ended up working for them. It was a very small startup tech company. He ended up working for them because he had his master's degree in chemistry and they needed a metallurgist to come in and help develop the computer chip.

This is interesting about Israel. The transistor was invented in 1948. I know you and I had that conversation before. You look at that and go, "Hey, Israel's founded in 1948, and the transistor which becomes the computer chip was in 1948." Satan knows exactly what 1948 was when Israel became a nation. He knows even if pastors deny it. He knows.

My dad was brought into Teledyne. There were only five people in the company at the time. He was one of five. Because of his chemistry background, he helped develop the computer chip to make it smaller and smaller and smaller using whatever metals he had to do. He's a metallurgist too.

With that, he's invited to this gathering of some of the tech companies of the time, the bigwigs there. It was Henry Singleton, who was one of the co-founders of Teledyne. There was also George Kozmetsky, the other co-founder, Arthur Rock, and Claude T. Shannon. Claude T. Shannon was the father of information theory.

It was all these bigwigs at this party in Bel Air. You know exactly the area because you live in the valley down below. They would have been looking down at that area in 1961. It was just a company party. They looked down into the Los Angeles Valley, the basin down there. He said one of the men at the party comes up, puts his arm around him, and says, "Jim, you want to know something? One day..."

He could see all the lights of the basin. You can picture it. All the lights of all the homes of the basin, the cars, and everything. He says, "One day we're going to control every person." What he meant was through the things that you are working on. My dad knew that he wasn't thinking just Los Angeles; he was thinking the entire globe.

In 1963, my dad was offered this opportunity to move up to San Jose, which would have made my life completely different because I was born in '59. I would have been there at the beginning of what became Silicon Valley with all these people. But God had a different plan for me.

I look at this and think this was over 60 years ago that we know it has been officially in play to get it where we are today. It could not happen today without these people being these super billionaires, super rich, pouring everything they have, the Sam Altmans, the Peter Thiels, all of these different individuals pouring everything they have into the technology to control the masses of the world.

James Kaddis: It's crazy how the enemy just layered all of this. If you just think about this, just how the enemy layered it and how God just allowed it to happen, knowing that it would be the thing needed to kick off what we know would be happening in the last days.

If you just stop and meditate on this for just a second, it's way more real than people want to admit. This goes beyond conspiracy theories. This is real stuff. This is people who have the world basically at their fingertips and want more. They recognize that in order to get what they want, they have to eliminate God.

Tom Hughes: They have to become God, right? That takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden with the serpent and Eve. "Eve, did God really say that? I'm just asking questions, Eve. No, God knows that in the day you eat of the fruit, you won't surely die. No, Eve, He knows that you will be like God."

Yuval Noah Harari, you already quoted him. He comes up and what does he say? In all of the promises of technology, we've got to go here too. The promises of technology are saying with Neuralink or whatever it is, your cancer's going to be cured, this is going to be cured, you're going to be able to walk again, and you're going to be able to see again. Some of these things apparently are already happening.

Now with this, James, if we go down to Revelation chapter 9, where men will want to die, they will seek to die. For five months, they'll be tormented, but they will not be able to die. Is that Revelation chapter 9? All right, so with that, you've got to wonder because if technology is going to promise people you'll live forever and you won't surely die, will something happen with implants that are coming or whatever medical inventions by the technology come that cause bodies to be self-healing?

If they're about ready to die, they can't die, but they're in such great torment from that judgment that is happening in Revelation chapter 9 from these demonic creatures that sting them. You've got to wonder if all this is in play because that's the stuff they talk about.

James Kaddis: We talk about Revelation 9 quite a bit because there's this conflation between what are real demonic creatures and some manmade military and army. Even through some of this bad doctrine, it becomes a lot more palatable to view things the way that the world wants you to view them so that this stuff becomes a lot more understandable, discernible, and believable. It's becoming so obviously real, more real than it's ever been before.

Tom Hughes: Let me ask you this. Did you write your second book on Revelation yet?

James Kaddis: It's almost done.

Tom Hughes: You know what I think you should do then? I think you should do a third book. You know what I think you should do it on? If we're still here, because it's a lot of work. On technology.

James Kaddis: I'm going to heavily cover technology when I do my Daniel book. The Daniel book is coming next, but maybe I will do a technology book.

Tom Hughes: You've got everything going on.

James Kaddis: Most of the groundwork for Daniel's already been done, but it's coming probably February next year.

Tom Hughes: Fantastic.

James Kaddis: But the technology, maybe... now you've got me all distracted.

Tom Hughes: Sorry about that. I didn't mean to get you wound up like that. Let's go here. I want to talk about a couple of things. One of them is you mentioned the army, the 200 million man army, right? You and I have been talking about this until we're blue in the face. There is nowhere in the Bible that is even a hint at a 200 million Chinese army.

James Kaddis: 100%. I actually talk about it in that book when I go over Revelation chapter 9. People get so mad because it's been out there so long by people that we've known and trusted over the years. Hal Lindsey, God bless him. I know he's with the Lord now and he's contributed so greatly to people believing what the Bible teaches about the future. Thank God for all of his contributions like The Late Great Planet Earth and all these. But I think it got popularized by him.

Tom Hughes: It did. Speaking of The Late Great Planet Earth, that book was very instrumental in leading me to the place of wanting to know Jesus and getting saved. A lot of people could say that. But it doesn't mean everything is perfect in there. It's not the Bible. Chuck Smith also helped popularize the 200 million Chinese army, probably because he believed what Hal said about it, which made sense at the time.

From what I understand, there was a report that came out about that time where China said, "We can now have 200 million soldiers in our army." So that was taken as, "Aha, that means that." You need to be careful on newspaper exegesis. We've got to make sure...

James Kaddis: By the way, I released a video that is going to be a few days from this recording, but it's going to fall last week on Thursday. I released a video that teaches people how to understand Bible prophecy using the biblical precedent instead of getting carried away and coming to these crazy conclusions.

Tom Hughes: Amen. That's so necessary. We have to run everything through the grid of the Bible. You don't run the Bible through the news and let the news interpret the Bible. No, you interpret the world by the Bible, not the Bible by the world.

I'm going to throw something else out there because this is going to get people riled up. I believe that Babylon is the original Babylon. Babylon is Babylon. It's a literal location. This is the problem because you and I both get hit with stuff all the time saying, "No, it's New York" because they'll take things happening in New York and say, "Look what's happening there." Or Las Vegas, or Rome, or whatever.

It is a problem. I know people are going to get really mad at us for even saying this, but think it through. Every single Bible prophecy, you look at and people would say, "No, we can't see it happening, therefore you have to spiritualize it." Doggone it, people are doing the same thing with Babylon.

Every other prophecy came about so far just as the Bible said. Suddenly we're going to get to Babylon and go, "No, I just don't see it happening yet that the city's going to be built, therefore it's not literal." That's happened throughout the history of prophecy in the Bible.

James Kaddis: I know.

Tom Hughes: It's problematic. For people who are out there doing that, listen, be very careful because you're falling into that same trap just because you don't see it happening yet. None of these things... the same thing with the mark of the beast. People used to say, "Well, that was the Roman Empire back in 70 AD, that's when that happened." It's ridiculous, but that's the kind of stuff. So it leads people, and you spiritualize and allegorize, and the same thing is happening with the 200 million man army, Babylon. No, we don't see it, therefore it's not actually going to be fulfilled. Wait a minute. You've got to be very careful, which takes back to the video that you just recently made.

James Kaddis: I felt really strongly that I needed to make it because of all the crazy things that people are saying. You've got people saying that the rapture's going to happen at a certain time and then it doesn't, and then instead of apologizing and saying they messed up, they come to other conclusions. Or these guys that lie, literally lie, about a meeting with government officials concerning aliens.

Tom Hughes: I've got to ask you about that because when that first came out about five weeks ago, whenever it was, I read it and I just assumed that they really did have some meeting. I haven't followed it since then. So there never was a meeting?

James Kaddis: There were pastors that supposedly had a meeting with people that were not government officials that wanted to talk about aliens, but then somehow it turned into guys jumping in and going, "Oh no, it was with the government." Some people are even saying it was at the White House because of their affiliation with Paula White.

It was all a lie. All of it. The facts are really simple in this one, and what they shared was not the facts. They're not even taking responsibility for it.

Tom Hughes: That's the worst part about it. I've got another question for you. As we look, remember we did a podcast probably four years ago now and we were talking about UFOs? Because they're always in the news more and more and more. I believe there's massive deception in it, there's even confusion in it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of what is seen is even some type of weapons or aircraft that we just don't know about yet that are experimental.

James Kaddis: Undoubtedly, there's probably some of that going on.

Tom Hughes: We look at all these different dynamics that are taking place. What do you think's going to be, James, the explanation for the rapture when that takes place? I want to also say this. I'm not so sure when you look at the amount of people who are in the United States of America that say they are Christian. When they've been asked in Barna polls and so forth, you find out out of the ones that claim to be Christian, only something like 4% of them actually have a biblical worldview.

Then you find out only 2% of pastors will teach Bible prophecy in the United States. Not that our salvation is based upon our position on eschatology, but you really've got to wonder what is going on when the church doesn't get involved in preaching righteousness or they're too afraid to call out sin. They say they want to talk about Jesus, but what Jesus are you talking about if you don't let people know that they're sinners?

James Kaddis: Look, this comes from a society that we live in right now that is very built upon sensationalism. It's built upon anything that avoids the core issue. It's built upon a non-confrontational mindset that says, "I don't want to deal with the greatest issues going on in my heart, so I'm going to allow myself to be distracted with things that force me from looking at the core of the issue."

That's why we find ourselves in the middle of people who are believing things that are just completely insane. That's really where it's coming from. Not that I want to wax all philosophical on this thing, but there's biblical truth that drives this conclusion. I think that there's a lot of evidence that we can find biblically that says we would see this in the last days.

Tom Hughes: As I watch what's taking place and I start thinking about America and the state of the church in America... I've been all over the country and people come up to me everywhere I go and say they have a very difficult time finding a church that will even teach the Bible.

There's a very valid argument, and I know you believe it and it looks like Andy Woods has a book on it, that the apostasy of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is actually the rapture.

James Kaddis: 100%.

Tom Hughes: Even if somebody says like us, that well that's actually the rapture, there's still an apostasy in the last days because we know that 1 Timothy chapter 4 says the leaders will be given over in the churches to doctrines of demons, deceiving spirits, having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof, in 2 Timothy chapter 3.

We know this is the dynamic. Evil men and imposters will wax worse and worse. That's speaking of the leaders within the church. The people are raising up for themselves teachers who will itch their ears because they don't want to hear the truth. We see this, and what it appears to me, James, is we are definitely watching a departure from all that is true and right within the churches, not based on 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

James Kaddis: Bro, look at what happened with COVID.

Tom Hughes: That's a great point.

James Kaddis: It's probably one of the greatest... forgive me for saying this, how can anybody go to a church where your pastor shut it down? He demonstrated to you that he doesn't believe the things that he was preaching.

Tom Hughes: Absolutely.

James Kaddis: It goes back to what I said earlier. It may sound like a scatterbrained response and at the expense again of waxing philosophical. I'm going to have to say it. It goes back to the desire to not want to confront the issue at its core.

I'm probably going to get busted for saying this, but let me just say it. Who cares? So be it. Let the cards fall where they may. One of the most extensive evidences that exists of people behind the pulpit that are lazy are found in the world of Bible prophecy. It goes back to the core desire to sensationalize everything, not wanting to confront the core issue. I get real riled up about this because the mindset that exists today makes it so hard for us to do what we do every day. Am I fair?

Tom Hughes: I think you're spot on. It's a challenge that I have because in the Bible prophecy world, so much of it isn't Bible. It is sensationalism. It's about how many clicks I can get or how many views I can get. But to be accurate, you have to run everything through the Bible.

When you take it away from the Bible, you do go to the place of itching the ears and you end up with science fiction in many cases sold as Bible prophecy. For me, it's definitely costing me a lot of viewers and it's costing me a lot of support. But at the same time, I'm going to stand before the Lord one day and what am I going to do? Say, "Well, I just wanted a whole bunch of views therefore I decided to go with sensationalism" and get off track of the truth of Your word?

James Kaddis: Look at the guys in the Bible prophecy world, maybe with the exception of people like Jack Hibbs. Jack Hibbs is a Bible prophecy guy, don't get me wrong, but he kind of straddles a few different areas. So I don't even know if I would include him here.

Tom Hughes: There's some good guys. Brannon Howse.

James Kaddis: What I'm saying is look at the guys that are in Bible prophecy with massive audiences. That's why I brought up Jack Hibbs. I want to exclude him from this characteristic because he's probably one of the rare exceptions.

But dude, look at some of the guys with massive followings, the guys that have a million plus followers. Tell me, are they really substantive? I'm not trying to put anybody down or get anything weird, but really explore the theology and really explore the doctrine. Jack of all people is a pretty rare breed. You don't see a lot of guys like him. I'm going to exclude him from the category of people who have massive followings that just sensationalize everything, because he's not one of those guys. But there's lots of people that do that.

Tom Hughes: There are, and it's very problematic because Bible prophecy is based upon what the Bible says. Hence, when you get off that track, what do you end up with? You end up with a Babylon that's New York City. You end up with these predictions.

Here's one I know we're going to be dealing with later on in the summer. I know we are, because we have to deal with it every blessed year.

James Kaddis: I know.

Tom Hughes: Around every July or August, you start rolling around towards the coming Rosh Hashanah, Trumpets, and we come around to Yom Kippur. Then we have the predictions the rapture's going to happen this year. It goes into this category where James, this really grinds on people, but I'm just telling you out of my genuine heart, it's troubling.

I see it amongst many of my friends and colleagues that they take the fall feasts of Israel and say these point to the rapture of the church. They don't. Listen, that is a form of replacement theology. Because what you now say... and I know the majority of people who do that love Israel but they don't understand.

All of the spring feasts applied to Jesus and the Jew. Even Pentecost, it's Shavuot, right? It's a Jewish feast and at Pentecost, it was Jews who were coming into Christ, the first one. So they were feasts for Jesus with the Jew, God's festivals for His people Israel.

You come down to the spring and you suddenly say those don't apply to Israel, those apply to us, those apply to the church. Wait a minute. Has the church suddenly replaced Israel when it comes to these things? I'm very concerned about it and it really bothers some folks, but listen, I believe that the Lord calling us home is imminent. The rapture's imminent. It could happen at any time.

I don't look for the rapture on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. I hope every day that today we're going home. But if I'm still here, I'm going to be about the Lord's business and I can't get all wound up when it comes to the fall feast and say it's going to happen, we've got a 10-day window or a 20-day window, it's going to happen.

Then it doesn't happen, and what do you do? You're going to be depressed, you're going to have anxiety that's going to overtake you, and you're going to start thinking I'm going to be here for another 350 days. No, the Lord doesn't call us to live that way. We are always to be expectant and always to be ready. The Apostle Paul never said, "Hey, when Rosh Hashanah comes around..." The only thing he mentions is the trumpet, but people take the trumpet and go, "Aha, that's the fall."

No. I know some of my dear friends and colleagues get really upset when I say that, but we do have to be careful on what we say applies to us and what doesn't apply to Israel.

James Kaddis: Bro, that's heavy. That is so true. Oh my goodness. We're out of time, way out of time. Final word, how do we instruct people to steer clear of those traps?

Tom Hughes: You've just got to stay in the word. Everybody, you've got to hear us out. Actually, go to June 14th, Sunday night. Be there. James and I get to join. It's going to be 5:00 PM and we're going to work through these things.

But here's the problem. What's happened with the internet and social media is it's created this itching of the ears, and it's exciting. People get into rabbit holes and they go down them. You start searching this and you end up with every different type of theory that's down there, and they're not going to be good.

The Jesus that you see in those dark places is not the Jesus of the Bible. You'll see a Jesus; they all have them. It's not the correct Jesus and so it's very deceptive. The only time that the rabbit hole is not dark is when the rabbit comes out of the hole and sees the light.

If you're in those things and you're going down these things, they are as dangerous as playing with tarot cards, palm reading, and Ouija boards. They are meant to deceive. When you go in these places, you're in the devil's playground. Stick with the word.

The word even warns us the Antichrist, when he comes on the scene, he's going to know dark sayings. Those things that appear in those dark places. So be very careful of those places that you go that take you away from the Bible. There's always enough Bible in there to make you think it's Bible. Joel Osteen does that, but would you consider that Bible teaching?

James Kaddis: 100% bro. You are a million percent right. I think that that is such a critical place for us to leave our thinking with. I have to say this because I think it's so important. More than ever, we have to go back to those basics. More than ever, we have to go back and think through these things. We've got to put our minds and our hearts in a different place. We've got to force ourselves to the discipline of refocusing. Because if we don't, man, we're in serious trouble.

I don't know what else to do. We don't have anything else but that. Good word, good final word. With that said, I do sincerely hope you guys enjoyed watching this as much as we've enjoyed making it. We love you guys. Take the encouragement seriously. Christ could come at any moment. There's so much on the line. Let's look to Him and let's seek Him. We love you guys. God bless you. Bye-bye.

Voiceover: You're listening to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes online at countdowntoeternity.com. You can listen to this episode again right there at countdowntoeternity.com. I should also mention Tom Hughes is online at hopeforourtimes.com. Take a look at his available resources and some of the top stories at hopeforourtimes.com.

Pastor James has a new book called The Last Book. Revelation isn't a book of fear; it's a book of hope. The Last Book is a guide to Revelation, giving you what you need to know about Revelation, the rapture, and the end times. Learn what the Bible says about the days we're in and what God's promise is for believers in The Last Book by James Kaddis, available right now at countdowntoeternity.com or amazon.com.

If you'd like to support what we're doing at Countdown to Eternity, there's a place to give at countdowntoeternity.com then click the give tab. And then join us next time when the Countdown to Eternity continues. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.