Dear John and all:

We're aware of the belief, offered by Isaac Newton:

About the time of the End, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation in the midst of much clamor and opposition.

And as we know, up until the 20th century, prophecy was interpreted allegorically because the technology simply did not exist to support the belief that the things described by the prophets could be literal. After all, who could even conceive of any sort of system by which all the economic activity on the planet could be monitored and controlled by a single entity? That embedded chips or tattoos could be used? Or that an ICBM could even be built, much less be launched?

Now we see all these things, with even greater possibilities on the horizon. My question is, at what point does the technology described by the prophets become obsolete? For instance, the "flying scroll" in Zechariah 5:1-4 is believed by some to be a weapon - a missile. Hamas launches them into Israel on a regular basis. But at some point, rockets will become obsolete - perhaps because defenses will become more sophisticated, or perhaps because some aerodynamic design changes will replace the "flying scroll" configuration. We see new weapons and new designs all the time, and the rate of design change is also increasing. Similarly, embedded chips are now being deployed, but a chip in the hand (or forehead) might be rudimentary, compared to more sophisticated devices.

This suggests to me that technology itself could be a time-marker, and not only when things could start, but also perhaps when they must. Any thoughts?

Best,

Steve