Transhumanism is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Many people have questions about this subject and how it relates to the Endtime.

The possibilities are endless. But so is the potential for abuse. Such technologies could transform the world as we now know it.

How would the world change if you could download a lifetime of learning directly into your brain in a matter of weeks? What about virtual reality? Scientists are seeking to create technologies where persons can exist in a virtual world similar to that of the movie, “The Matrix.”

Scientists may be “playing God” by manipulating the very thing that makes us who we are, as they are currently manipulating animal genes and human genes. The idea that you can modify genetic code before a person is born is becoming more and more realistic. Designer babies, genetically engineered to be super-smart, disease free, and physically fit, are the stuff of science fiction. But science fiction often predicts reality. In such a scenario, genetic editing could allow an elite group to create children who are naturally smarter, stronger, and healthier than everyone else in society.

Scientists say that such techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses. This advancement resulted in the legalization of the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.

Until a few years ago the word “transhumanism” was unheard of, until movies such as Avatar, Bicentennial Man, the Terminator, X-Men, and Transcendence and Vice arrived on the scene. Now many people have been awakened to the possibility of genetically or robotically modified humans.

Promises of ‘immortality’ and a disease-free life have led many individuals to long for the hope of artificial intelligence and what is known as singularity. It is essentially a merging of man and machine, the development of a ‘new species’ – a ‘borg’ of sorts as depicted in Star Trek.

One of the ultimate outworkings of technology and transhumanism is the 666 mark of the beast economic system prophesied in the Bible, where nobody can buy or sell without the mark in their right hand or in their forehead, possibly in the form of an RIFD Chip implant or some other new technology. Also, the creation of what the Bible in Revelation refers to as the “image of the beast” which is given life and able to speak. Could this possibly be some sort of android with artificial intelligence?

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he (the Antichrist’s false prophet) had power to do in the sight of the beast (Antichrist); saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.—Revelation 13:14-18

This account of the "image of the beast" reminds me of the Bible story in Daniel Chapter 3 where the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar made a massive golden image of himself that everybody needed to bow down to and worship, and if they didn’t, they would be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, believed in the Living God, and refused to bow down to this image. As a result, they were cast into the burning furnace, but even the fiery flames couldn’t touch them.

Under the banner of transhumanism and technology, the governments of the world are on a course toward enabling the Antichrist’s economic and political system—the very system the Bible warns against. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matthew 24:21-22).