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Origins of the “great reset”
The world is being shaken by massive changes in technology, politics, economics, environmental issues and culture, all reshaping our view of history and reality. These ideas are spreading around the world. The changes we are experiencing are like the shifting of the earth’s tectonic plates, creating a seismic movement of events on the world scene.
It’s tempting and calming to think this is normal, or that the world will return to normal. But already we are seeing ideas being embraced that aim toward a world far different from the familiar order that has prevailed since the end of World War II in 1945.
Some today are openly calling for a “great reset” of the world order. This terminology has been adopted by the World Economic Forum. Its founder, Klaus Schwab, published a book last year titled Covid-19: The Great Reset. While the book was written in 2020, six months into the pandemic, it forecast a post-pandemic world where nations work more closely to solve problems facing mankind.
The World Economic Forum annually hosts a meeting for elite leaders of business, government and culture in Davos, Switzerland. This meeting has always attracted attention and much suspicion from global conspiracy theorists who look at the gathering as a global summit of people plotting to take over the world.
It’s easy to dismiss such theories, and most should be dismissed. But the fact is, these leaders of business, media and government already run much of the world. They are the influencers, leaders and shapers of entertainment, education and media. They hold immense power, influence and wealth. And many of them are seeking to bring major change to the world.
The fact is, this group does exist, and those in it do think about ways to create a world that is quite different—more along the lines of a one-world political entity. The word transnational is used to describe the world many would like to see emerge in the future. A transnational world with fewer boundaries, less nationalism and a singular governmental structure is, in their mind, the path to equity, peace and brotherhood throughout the earth.
Transnationalism is nothing new. It’s been around for a long time. Since the end of World War II and the creation of the United Nations, the global transnational reset has been relentlessly moving forward. The World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Court of Justice at the Hague and many other global bodies have been formed to promote unity, peace and stability, preventing a return to the global warfare that ravaged the world twice in the 20th century.
Apart from Donald Trump, most United States presidents and their administrations in this period have been supportive of the transnational worldview to varying extents. The U.S. State Department has worked to foster close integration between American policy and the goals of the international community. President George H.W. Bush was a significant promoter of the global world order. His actions after the fall of the Iron Curtain and collapse of the Soviet Union set the stage for the global order we see today.
Reordering the world and how we live
What matters about the world’s richest, most powerful men is that they are interested in resetting the world and the way we live. What they say in this regard is significant. We should pay attention to that. With this in mind I read Mr. Schwab’s book, cowritten with economist Thierry Malleret. Covid-19: The Great Reset is vague, light and short on detailed plans for a “reset.” It’s not exactly a detailed manifesto for a global order to take over the world.
The lens through which this book, and others espousing the same idea, should be viewed is the fundamental understanding that the global elite are transnationalists with no national loyalty. They see nation-states and boundaries as obstacles that need to be removed.
In their view, national governments are relics of a bygone era needing to be swept away. Nation-states are convenient places where global operations like Coca-Cola, Amazon or Apple exist to serve the global community.
References to the “social contract” between the individual and the state argue that the state has failed to secure justice, equity and freedom for all peoples and races. Citing the Black Lives Matter movement and the sexual gender revolution as examples, the authors make a case that existing governments have not delivered on their promises and that they lack the ideas and policies to meet the challenges of revolt and demonstrations in the streets of America and other countries. Implied is the need for a new social contract but without specifics defining what that would be.
America’s time as world leader is up
One theme does come through very clearly in this book: America’s time as the leader of the world is coming to a close. One quote makes this point: “American power and prosperity have been built and reinforced by the global trust in the dollar and the willingness of customers abroad to hold it, most often in the form of US government bonds. This has enabled the US to borrow cheaply abroad and benefit from low interest rates at home, which in turn has allowed Americans to consume beyond their means.”
This was written just after the first wave of government money voted by Congress to address the economic fallout of responses to the pandemic. Since then trillions more have been handed out, ballooning America’s debt to nearly $30 trillion dollars.
Schwab and Malleret rightly point out that this is unsustainable. Governments and international banks trusting that America can make good on this debt have their limits. They conclude: “This unsustainable path will worsen in the post-pandemic, post-bailout era. This argument suggests that something major will therefore have to change, either through a much-reduced geopolitical role or higher taxation, or both, otherwise the rising deficit will reach a threshold beyond which non-US investors are unwilling to fund it.”
A fundamental idea underlying any “reset” would be the replacement of America in its role of global leadership. This book certainly envisions such a global future. And it’s a consistent feature in most efforts advocating a global reset.
To be clear, the United States does have many problems—all are serious, and any one of these could lead to a collapse in its current world role. One such example is soaring national debt. America is currently on an unprecedented spending binge that is unsustainable. Inflation is rising as a glut of cheap dollars chases fewer goods and services. The debt the United States is accumulating is being financed by other nations. A day of reckoning will come. The question is a matter of when.
Until that day comes, America still has the strongest economy in the world, along with the most powerful military. Its navy keeps the peace along the world sea lanes.
But currently America is bitterly divided politically and culturally. Decades of social drift have resulted in an entrenched ideology seeking to rewrite the social contract of America. Efforts to recast its founding as being solely on the basis of slavery and injustice have taken root. Teaching of critical race theory seeks to divide people, reshaping their views through the lenses of malicious race ideas.
A shift already underway
The idea of a great reset is already at work and well advanced in the United States. It’s just that other tags and terminology are used. If the ideas pushed in education, government and media take the nation to the desired result, within a few years the nation would be unrecognizable. This is not a conspiracy theory, but observation of reality that comes with a reading of the websites of the various organizations involved in this push to reset America.
Readers of Beyond Today should grasp what's going on. America is in a most critical moment, perhaps the most dangerous of its history. While still the leading nation in nearly every category, it is crippled by its own grave national sins while facing a changing world led by challengers who wish to overturn the present world order and take the lead. China is a leading contender while other countries like Russia meddle in critical ways that pose imminent dangers (like cyberhacking, which China is also accused of). Other regional powers such as Turkey and Iran seek to shape the future of the Middle East.
Current movers behind the idea of a great reset have their own end in mind, to shape a new global order. To counter U.S. influence, they lend support to China’s long-held goal of becoming the dominant world power, attaining its supposed rightful position as the superior culture. Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has a similar mission to shape a world in line with its historic culture and vision.
Our world is poised to see a change of power relationships in the coming years—perhaps the very near future. The Covid-19 pandemic will likely be seen as the initial opening into this new world. Historically, pandemics have reset the world order. The plaque that ravaged Constantinople in the mid-sixth century is such an example. Its impact determined the future of Europe and the Middle East in the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West.
What experts, leaders and those who seek to create a new world order do not know nor understand is the biblical worldview revealed in the Bible. The inspired Word of God lays out His plan through the ages—which includes not only the story of salvation but the map of world history from its beginning to its conclusion. A thorough understanding of what begins in Genesis and concludes in the book of Revelation brings the critical missing dimension of divinely guided history, otherwise known as prophecy.
Historians and political thinkers examine history and make predictions based on national power and observed patterns. Retrospective history easily sees the rise of Egypt, Rome, France, Russia, Great Britain and America as dominant powers. Many factors such as geography, technology, wisdom and technological advancement can explain the rise of great powers of the past. But this alone cannot account for why some rose to great heights and why others did not.
Why, for instance, in the fifth century, did not the nomadic Huns overrun all the old Roman Empire and the world see a long line of emperors descend from Atilla? Why, in the 15th century, did not China move from its Asian fortress to dominate European powers and spread its culture over far-flung lands? And who would have predicted at the beginning of the seventh century that a dominating world religion would come from the sands of Arabia to spread its influence over the former lands of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome?
History through another lens
Is there another lens by which to view history? There is. You are reading a source that looks to the Word of God, the Bible, to understand why the world operates as it does and why some nations are among the haves and others among the have nots.
There is purpose by which you can understand why empires have risen and fallen through the ages and why today’s world is on the verge of a reset beyond the imagination of those working hard to create one. The Bible shows why there is injustice, racism and failed governments that keep their people enslaved to systems that deprive them of freedom, adequate education, economic opportunity, proper health care and knowledge of right values. It also shows the source of a coming global reset unlike any planned or sought by the world’s elites.
The book of Revelation is Jesus Christ’s prophetic message to the modern world. As a commentary on spiritual, political and human affairs, it is accurate. It shows us a coming world superpower that for a brief period will dominate the world to create a time of peace and stability that will astonish everyone. This power is called in Scripture by the name Babylon the Great.
It will weave a deceptive web of seductive spirituality, economic prosperity and peace on the nations. The imagery of Revelation 17 shows a scarlet-clad woman astride a fantastic beast with multiple heads and horns. It is a picture of a combined church-state power that controls world events at the end of the age. World leaders have cooperated with this “woman,” a symbol of a world spiritual authority, to the point where they cannot see, speak, think or act with wisdom, prudence and truth. This is what is meant by committing “fornication” and being “drunk with the wine of her fornication” (verses 1-6).
Critical to our discussion on the great reset is what happens in verses 12-13: “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.”
Here is described a moment when world leaders give up their national sovereignty to a supranational government that will secure the world order in a moment of crisis that threatens to bring everything down. A leader with ideas and a plan will emerge at the front of this geopolitical alliance and offer a promising future to the world’s citizens. He will help them through these troublesome times. Life as everyone wants it will go on. This is the biblically prophesied great reset foretold through Jesus Christ.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and government response to it we have been watching and seeing the outlines of such a final world system taking shape. A careful analysis and understanding of what Scripture is saying can help us see the shape of the emerging new order.
Can we recognize what is happening?
The book of Revelation describes a moment when nations combine their power into a world system that achieves the age-old dream of “a tower that reaches to the heavens” (Genesis 11:4, New International Version). Technology promises not only a convenient, connected world but also the hope of extended life and possibly even immortality through medical technology. The ability to reach into space and extend human civilization seems nearer to reality.
World economic development has progressed, and the goods and services of the global community move unchecked across oceans and land bringing wealth to multinational companies and a rising standard of living for much of the world. Revelation 18 describes such a scene when it shows the goods shipped throughout the world under the guidance of the governing structure of this end-time Babylon. We see this even now. But what is described is something larger: “All who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance . . .” (verse 17).
The move to a more fully integrated global economy is pressing relentlessly forward. Most multinational companies no longer think of themselves as large national companies. They have offices around the globe employing people of all nationalities. Call centers service customers from India while virtual meetings involving employees on multiple continents are routine. To move to a global standard of currency exchange and governance would only be the next logical step.
Loyalty is increasingly to a global order espousing universal values claimed to apply to all people regardless of sexual or gender identity, race, ethnicity or national identity. Any distinction that does not match the evolving global norm is considered regressive, hateful and discriminatory.
Now we are seeing attitudes and values shaped to accept as normal the LGBTQ agenda. We also see this in the conditioning behind critical race theory. We see this in the reframing of national history. In America if enough young people of the next generation can be persuaded that the story of America is not worth saving, a significant goal is accomplished. It will then be easy to jettison the nation as exceptional and a blessing and instead embrace a different narrative as part of a global order promising liberty, justice and freedom for all to live and act as they determine—within, of course, newly approved bounds.
Don’t think it can’t happen
Does this sound impossible? It will never happen, you say? Then consider how quickly the world began accepting a pandemic lockdown in March 2020.
Within a matter of days schools closed, all but essential businesses shuttered, professional sports stopped and people were working in their homes on Zoom. No vote was taken, discussion ended as quickly as it began, and the new normal was the new normal.
The original “two weeks to flatten the curve” and no mask turned into a year and half (in some places more) of national dysfunction. By mid-summer 2020 many had had enough, and some states slowly reopened only to shut down again if a surge of cases erupted. It took until mid-2021 for much of the world to reopen to domestic travel, while much of the world remained closed to foreign travel. And there are now some calls to do it all over again.
Many have marveled at the nature of the global lockdown we’ve experienced and its impact on culture. Relationships were altered. All age groups showed a marked increase in anxiety. Drug abuse and overdose deaths skyrocketed. The impact of what happened will be years in understanding. Yet it all happened quickly, with a majority cooperating in the name of science, health safety and goodwill. Imagine a future calamity and the reaction.
As we saw, governments decreed and society complied—many to their own hurt. And we have certainly not seen the last of that. Events described in Revelation will happen through government decree. The entire world will be reset, and people will soon realize they are caught in a trap, a box canyon of tribulation when Satan realizes he has but a brief time to reign over the kingdoms of this world.
Revelation describes the end stages of the coming great reset—the rise of a coalition of nations into a system the Bible labels as “Babylon.” For a time all will seem well. While the world will praise this system and benefit by economic cooperation, it will reject the servants of God who witness against and resist coming under the mark of its authority.
We are living at a moment in history and prophecy like that of the age of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s messages went to the nations who were being rooted out and pulled down. The old order was being reset in a time of building and planting. Babylon rose to direct and set the pattern for a world order that has endured to the modern time.
We are seeing the leading edge of a final revival of this age-long system that stands in defiance of the purpose and plans of the living God. May we all have eyes to see what is happening today!
