comfort. We can learn about what is happening, and communicate with people all over the world instantly through the Internet on our computers, which just about everyone has!  Sporting events, news and entertainment are brought into our living rooms on 60” flat screen TV’s in stereo!  Diseases that used to kill hundreds of thousands are now curable or manageable through modern medical science. We have put men on the moon and have a “space station” orbiting the world. We can travel the the four corners of the globe in only hours at the speed of sound. I think many of us take these things for granted, especially those who are young and have no basis for comparison.
     For those of us who are old enough to remember, and I know I will be dating myself,  things were so much different just a few decades ago. We tend to forget how quickly things have changed. For instance, when I was a youngster growing up in Brooklyn during the 1950’s, cell phones were not even thought of. There was a comic strip called ‘Dick Tracy” where Dick, a detective, word a “wrist radio” to communicate with his headquarters.  We all know that was “science fiction” and could never really happen. Computers were another bit of “science fiction” that no one every thought would really happen, let alone be available to every household. TV’s had just been invented and our first set was a 10” Dumont B&W, with a screen so small you had to sit inches away to watch a show from one to the 4 or five local station that were available . . . sometimes!  People died from polio, whooping cough and other diseases that barely exist today, and if you lived to your 60’s, you were considered fortunate.
     Why the trip down memory lane?  Does this sudden increase in knowledge mean something?  To point out just how fast our knowledge has increased is such a short period of time, consider this!   I have read that man’s knowledge has increased more in the last 100 years, than it had in the previous thousands of years since the time of Abraham!  Isn’t that amazing? Back in biblical times man earned a living primarily by farming, hunting, bartering or through simple transactions exchanging goods or labor for the current currency type. Transportation was by walking or the use of animal power.  Communication was mostly the spoken word or limited written documentation. The only energy source was fire or primitive use of the sun. Travel was limited for the most part to how far you could walk, ride on horseback, and long distance travel relied on primitive boats. Very little of this changed from the time of Abraham until the last hundred years.  So why is this significent?
     The prophet Daniel shared an astounding prophecy that was relayed to him by the archangel Michael, recorded in Daniel 12:4  The timeline for the prophecy is clearly defined as “the time of the end”! He was told by Michael that at the “time of the end”  “many shall run to and fro”, and “knowledge shall increase”!   Man’s knowledge has always  increased at a slow, constant rate! But Michael indicates that something about man’s knowledge will will be significant and different at the “time of the end”! So what is different about the increase of knowledge at this point in human history! It has accelerated at a rate never before seen before!
   The second part of the prophecy is also worth noting: “many shall run to and fro”! Have YOU ever felt like you were “running to and fro”?? Running here, running there, got to get this done, have to do that, people to see, places to go . . .  It’s like being on a treadmill, right? I think we all feel that way. The pace of life has increased dramatically, keeping in step with the increase of knowledge. Modern technology, transportation and global communications has accelerated the scope and speed with which we must live live today, at a rate never before seen!
     I would assume that those living at the time of Daniel would or could have little understanding of what Michael was saying to Daniel.  As a matter of fact, I don’t think we could have comprehended it even a generation ago. Perhaps this is why he instructed Daniel “shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end”! In hind site, this prophecy takes on real meaning. And, knowledge continues to increase at an even faster rate today.  You buy a new computer or smart phone, and it is outdated and replaced by a newer, quicker model almost immediately. Just a few years ago, AIDS and cancer were almost always a death sentence.  Today they are curable and manageable diseases. Kids are learning things in first grade that were taught in high school only 50 years ago. It is almost as if man is on a race to know all that God knows; to be like God!
   So what does all of this mean to us today?  That is a compelling question!  As we view the prophetic events unfolding before us on the world stage almost daily, this prophecy of Daniel is but yet another strong piece of evidence that we are living at the ”time of the end”, and can expect the final events that precede the return of Messiah Jesus to planet earth to occur shortly.  Yet we focus on making money, having bigger better homes, fancier cars, bigger church’s, vacations, entertainment, fine clothes, when is short order all these things will pass away!
     Through out scripture, Moses, the prophets of Israel, the apostles and even Messiah himself, spoke much about “the Last Days”, not for our entertainment, but so that we, as Children of God, can watch, be aware and know the “times and the seasons”. Keep your eye on Israel; God’s prophetic timepiece! Those of us who are “in the world”, but not “of the world” need to be watching, praying and being about the Fathers business while time yet permits!

Ron Cusano
Shiloh Ministries