The World Economic Forum—backed by influential leaders from all sectors of the globe—is planning for a Great Reset. That Reset will be presented in virtual meetings this coming week, as we established in the previous article.

We saw that WEF founder and executive chairman Prof. Klaus Schwab has encapsulated his lofty goals for the Reset as follows:

To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.

This is a scheme so grandiose as to remind students of Bible prophecy of the prediction of a future world ruler who “shall intend to change times and law” (Dan. 7:25).

But should it cause believers to consider such prophetic texts at all? And how should we as Bible-believing Christians react to such a global phenomenon? 

Your answer to the first question will largely depend upon the theological framework that undergirds it. I would suggest that there are two extremes to avoid, and we will tackle the first in this article. It is simply denial with regard to the importance of this issue.

Having come through 2020, with all of the extreme, unprecedented challenges and measures that we have experienced, we now have a large body of information by which we may evaluate trends that have been planned, discussed and manipulated—at least with regard to the Reset—for a very long time, by numerous people.

Still, some would tell us that it is folly to attempt to understand these issues through the lens of Biblical prophecy. Those who respond this way might be doing so honestly based on an understanding of eschatology that is different from my dispensational premillennialism.

I can relate to this, because I was raised in a Christian tradition that sees no relation at all between such events and the ultimate fulfillment of prophecy. Interestingly, that is one of the main reasons that I was drawn toward the segment of the Christian world where I now reside. I was fascinated by the teaching of competent, theologically sound and serious men who had the ability to apply the Bible to all aspects of life—including the prophetic future, on which a huge portion of inspired Scripture actually focuses.

Today, however, even many who come out of the movements that have historically held to the prophetic positions I embrace are most unenthusiastic regarding any attempt to trace the potential importance of something like the Great Reset.

There have just been too many false alarms, they tell us. Too much newspaper exegesis has been practiced—too many eschatological crimes committed. We’ve been asked to count the toes and horns of the beast (see Dan. 2:41-42; Rev. 13:1; 17:3) just one too many times! The weight of this load is, frankly, unforgiveable in their minds.

Of course, some of this criticism is understandable and justified. Bible prophecy was big business back in the 1970s. As such, it attracted charlatans and heretics—to say nothing of inviting lazy hermeneutics and allowing for slipshod theology.

But … wait a minute. That was a long time ago! How long must we bear these transgressions of our theological predecessors—who, in many cases, are only a shirttail relation to us?

At some point, this type of protest seems to descend into special pleading. After all, I did not invent either the Great Reset or the Biblical prophecies that seem to shed light upon the developments of our time. I am merely attempting to make good theological sense of it all.

We must also be willing to point out that “(turning) … away from the truth” (2 Tim. 4:4) is itself a mark of end-time apostasy. Extreme insensitivity to discerning the importance of contemporary trends in light of the future fulfillment of Bible prophecy may bring one dangerously close to the skepticism exhibited by those who cry, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4).

On the contrary, it is my hope that the seriousness of our circumstances might actually rouse some—especially those who once had theological stakes in our prophetic camp—from their last-days lethargy, and prompt within them a desire to gain an “understanding of the times” (1 Chron. 12:32).

We will take up the opposing danger in the next installment.