Last Days Wealth Booms and Future Turnovers – Part 1

Everywhere people are chatting about AI (Artificial Intelligence). It appears to be all the rage … dominating the news media and Wall Street. Investors are scrambling to buy the stocks of companies that are offering AI-related services

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022—widely considered to be the launch point of AI—the value of America’s stock market has risen by $21 trillion. Just 10 firms—including Amazon, Broadcom, Nvidia—accounted for 55% of this rise.

Investment analysts are buzzing about the rising value of AI-related companies. It is the expectation that these new technologies will lead to profits that attracts investors. The stock market is so excited because many pundits believe that AI will transform the economy … some even venturing to forecast that this shift will be even bigger than that represented by the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s.

To illustrate, OpenAI (a major developer of models that support AI usage) has recently been estimated to be worth $500 billion. (It did not even exist 9 years ago.) Any company that has any involvement in AI in one way or another, will have experienced a run-up in their share values.

Why this rather sudden boom in AI? Before we attempt any further explanation, we must first understand the context.

As a rule, financial markets have always pursued profits. Down through the ages, the objective has been to accumulate wealth. While many people will never become wealthy, some do … and spectacularly so.

Every now and then, booms and busts play out. These are usually triggered by a new technology or invention that appears to promise enormous profits. Again, some people become very wealthy when this happens. Usually, great “wealth turnovers” can occur during these periods.

An academic study published in 2018, which examined 51 innovations from between 1825 and 2000, found that 37 (or 73%) were accompanied by bubbles.”1 As such, we see that booms and busts are quite normal. Over-optimistic investors first cause stock prices to soar. Then, they run for the hills as their expectations are met with disappointment. The boom then collapses.

Though stock prices may crash, what remains? The new technologies or innovations—the automobile, the telephone, railways, the smartphone, and now AI. Not to be overlooked is that large fortunes are made by a small number of investors. This contributes to a concentration of wealth. There are the super-wealthy, and the vast majority who struggle to pay their bills and may be deeply indebted.

To conclude, the AI boom is just the latest wave of technology hysteria and the quest for wealth. In this writer’s view, these technology bubbles are all part and parcel of a “last day” rush to digitize and network the entire planet. Not coincidentally, technology bubbles of the last three decades or so have been centered upon digital information management.

Satan and his cohorts (some of these very wealthy elites … see Daniel 11:39) have an urgent mandate and recognize that their time is short. In that sense, the current AI preoccupation is a continuation of previous technology booms (and busts) that occurred over past centuries. The most recent tech boom happened in the late 1990s and is known as the Dot Com Mania.

While the world is presently again witnessing a great boom in wealth, what does the Bible say about these booms and busts? Quite a bit. In fact, the Bible comments upon a number of great wealth turnovers that are all yet future.

Worldwide Wealth Collapse—When?

What will happen to today’s “bubblicious” wealth? In short, a portion of it will collapse and disappear. However, we must note that the Bible speaks of different kinds of wealth. Some of it will survive and is mentioned to play a role in the Millennial period (as we will show). Another type will completely disappear, never to reappear again.

Anyone surveying the course of the world’s debt-based financial systems today, will no doubt conclude that a massive collapse of the world’s financial system is inevitable at some point. No one can know exactly when this will happen. Mankind’s greed and selfish indiscipline alone assures that this will occur.

According to the Bible, we learn that a colossal destruction of the world’s economic systems will take place ... likely in the latter half of the 7-year Tribulation period.

Scripture clearly states that a time of wrath will come where God says He will bring down the pride of mankind. However, as part of this unfolding, there are possibly as many as six different judgments involving collapses or wealth overturns—all of them yet to occur in the future.

Isaiah sheds light on some of the different manifestations of the “day of the Lord” (referring to the Tribulation period, or possibly just the second half of this period). “The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel. The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear” (Isaiah 2:12-18).

Here we see that economies will be brought low (symbolized by trees … cedars and oaks), trading systems (ships) as well as individual nation states, greater or lesser (mountains and hills). A number of collapses are yet to take place inside this “day of the Lord.”

Here, in no particular order, are the separate judgments (or wealth turnovers) that all lie ahead for Israel and the world. We count at least five of these that are pre-Millennial, and one that takes place thereafter.

1. Wrath upon Israel/Jerusalem. Jerusalem is overcome, while the remnant escapes into the wilderness. While Israel may be a rather tranquil area of the world (in a relative sense) in the first half of the Tribulation, following a covenant with the Antichrist, anyone hoping to remain unscathed and safe from loss in the second half will be disappointed. When the Antichrist breaks the terms of his covenant with Israel (this to occur in the middle of the 7-year Tribulation period, according to a number of scholars), Jerusalem faces destruction and Israel flees.

2. Wrath upon All Mankind. This category includes judgments on individual nations, as well as globalism itself. Ultimately, this is completed at Armageddon, and in a short period of time thereafter. Not only does God “consume the whole earth” (Zephaniah 3:8), but Israel also plays a role in exacting judgment upon the nations and peoples that have persecuted her (Micah 4:13; Jeremiah 30:11).

3. Wrath upon the Great Whore. Revelation 17 reveals that Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Prostitutes, will be burned by fire. Whatever wealth this religious entity represented, as part of the grand ecumenical movement of religion and money, she will come to naught. “They [the 10 kings] will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17:16).

4 & 5. Wrath and Judgment upon Mammon/Commercialism. It is not generally well-understood that the judgments upon commercialism and the manmade pride that derives from these “Babel-like” systems, take more than one form. First, consider that there may be several stages in the collapse of Babylon the Great.

Also, Ezekiel mentions that a re-emergence of Tyre (or a type of Tyre) will occur at some point. Tyre was the center of a global trade system in the ancient world (600 to 500 BC), and can be seen to foreshadow a globalized trade system (globalization) of the last days. It was ultimately destroyed by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.

Ezekiel says that Tyre “will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth” (Isaiah 23:17). How this fate connects with the judgments of Babylon the Great is not entirely clear. There seem to be different judgments upon Mammon/Commercialism.

For example, in the case of Babylon the Great, its wealth is “never to be found again” (Revelation 18:21), while that of revived Tyre is only never to be hoarded again but is to “go to those who live before the LORD” (Isaiah 23:18). The Psalmist also refers to this event: “The city of Tyre will come with a gift, people of wealth will seek your favor” (Psalm 45:12). These are different results and therefore must refer to more than one judgment.

It appears to be separated into at least three judgments or events. We note that “death, mourning and famine” will overtake her in one day (Revelation 18:8). This is mentioned only once. Yet, sudden collapses and destruction of wealth are said to occur in “one hour” three separate times. Each of these involve three different groups of people (Revelation 18:10, 17, 19). While all of these three depictions could very well refer to the same event, the fact remains that these take place in one hour, while the overall process of the destruction of Babylon the Great takes place over a day. This suggests that the downfall cannot be reconciled in one event, but rather multiple events—perhaps as many as three.

Thoughts to Ponder

In Part 2, we will resume our review of the major wealth transfers that are cited in the Bible. There is one more great and final wealth overturn that occurs at the start of the Millennium period, which awaits our review.

ENDNOTE

1. Sorescu, Alina (2018). Two Centuries of Innovations and Stock Market Bubbles. Marketing Science. 37.10.1287/mksc.2018.1095.