For followers of the science fiction television and movie series Star Trek, one of the most memorable and recurring antagonists is the Borg, a race of beings composed of organic and biomechatronic body parts linked together in a hive mind called "the Collective". In their goal to achieve perfection, the Borg travel through the galaxy extending their power and control by integrating the knowledge and technology of other alien species through a process called "assimilation," where individuals are forcibly injected with nanoparticles that alter their cellular DNA and transform them into drones for the Collective. Each Borg has no individual thoughts or will. They are in a group consciousness where all are constantly supervised, guided, and controlled.

"Life imitating art" describes something occurring in real life the same or similar to something depicted in a piece of art or fiction. An example of this can be seen in the World Economic Forum (WEF), an organization that is a major mover and shaker in world affairs today. It is described as an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Klaus Schwab, a German economist and mechanical engineer, founded this non-governmental organization (NGO) in Switzerland in 1971. The WEF is best-known for the annual conferences it holds in Davos, Switzerland that brings together hundreds of political and business leaders from around the world to discuss current international issues and challenges. It is one of the most important networks in the world for the globalist power elite, being funded by approximately 1,000 multinational corporations, private donors, and government contributions.

In 1992, Dr. Schwab began a parallel organization called the Global Leaders for Tomorrow school (the name later changed in 2004 to The Forum of Young Global Leaders). Applicants to this school are subjected to a very rigorous selection process. The more than 1,200 graduates include some of the most powerful presidents, prime ministers, senior government advisors, health bureaucrats, and wealthiest business leaders in the world.

In June 2020, at its 50th annual meeting, the WEF announced the launch of the Great Reset, an initiative to reimagine the world and transform the global economy. Part of this effort involves transhumanism -- the development of technologies that cross physical, digital, and biological worlds to improve human mental and physical capabilities. That is, to make disabilities, suffering, disease, aging and involuntary death a thing of the past. Dr. Schwab describes this in more detail in his 2016 book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. According to him, this revolution will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it.

In a January 10, 2016, television interview on the Swiss channel RTS, in response to the interviewer's question regarding when he thought implantable microchips would be implemented on humanity, he said:

"Certainly in the next 10 years. And at first we will implant them in our clothes. And then we could imagine that we will implant them in our brains, or in our skin."

In a book co-authored with Thierry Malleret in July 2020, COVID-19: The Great Reset, Dr. Schwab declared that the COVID-19 crisis represented an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine the world -- that is, to implement the Great Reset. This includes genetic engineering involving making people part synthetic and organic, incorporating them into the Internet of Bodies (IoB) (an evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT)), and merging them into a required global digital identification regime in order to participate in this reimagined world.

Klaus Schwab's top advisor and transhumanist, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, openly admits that the gathering of enormous amounts of data on individuals would enable global elites to build a digital dictatorship that tyrants of the past could only have imagined but did not yet have sufficient knowledge of biotechnology to implement.

Here are a few more ideas expressed by Dr. Harari that illustrate his worldview:

• "By hacking organisms elites may gain the power to re-engineer the future of life itself. Because once you can hack something, you can usually also engineer it."

• "For 4 billion years, nothing fundamental changed. Science is replacing evolution by natural selection with evolution by intelligent design. Not the intelligent design of some god above the clouds, but our intelligent design, and the intelligent design of our clouds -- the IBM cloud, the Microsoft cloud -- these are the new driving forces of evolution."

• "Humans are now hackable animals. The whole idea that humans have this soul or spirit and they have free will, and nobody knows what's happening inside me, so whatever I choose, whether in the election or whether in the supermarket, this is my free will -- that's over."

• "Surveillance is a key part of the plan for global totalitarian control. In 100 years, people will be able to look back and identify the COVID-19 pandemic as the moment when a new regime in surveillance took over -- especially surveillance under the skin."

• "Now humans are developing even bigger powers than ever before. We are really acquiring divine powers of creation and destruction. We are really operating humans into gods, acquiring the power to re-engineer life."

• "Fake news has been with us for thousands of years. Just think of the Bible."

• "All these stories about Jesus rising from the dead and being the Son of God -- this is fake news."

One of the slogans of this effort is "Build Back Better", a saying echoed by many political and business leaders around the world over the past few years. "Build Back Better" envisions a world where everyone is tied to a digital identification that links to a central bank programmable digital currency, electronic health records, travel, and a social credit score like the kind used in communist China today. This is a ranking assigned to individuals that determines access to society based on compliance with social and political dictates. In short, every facet of life would be controlled by those who manage this system.

But in order to "Build Back Better", the current world system must be dismantled, demolished, and destroyed. Disruptions and chaos are either designed or exploited by these global elites to bring about the Fourth Industrial Revolution described by Klaus Schwab, and there are many graduates of his Young Global Leaders school who are now in positions of great power, wealth, and influence around the world working to make this come to fruition.

Some may remember the 1999 science fiction action film called The Matrix. It depicts a future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, which an artificial intelligence (AI) created to distract humans while exploiting the bioelectric power of their bodies as an energy source.

Mark Zuckerberg, an alumnus of The Forum of Young Global Leaders, is the founder of Meta (formerly Facebook, Inc.). In another example of life imitating art, he is investing billions of dollars in the development of the Metaverse, a virtual world accessible through a special immersive headset that completely isolates a person from his immediate surroundings. This artificial world would allow people to escape the challenges of life to supposedly live the kind of fuller lives only the very wealthy experience in the real world. This, of course, comes at a great price. Those in this system would be so distracted in time that they may not realize their pacification, exploitation, and loss of freedom. They would be like the people of the church of Laodicea described in Revelation 3:17.

In an episode of television show Star Trek: The Next Generation, when Captain Picard was abducted by the Borg and assimilated into their Collective, he was saved from their system and restored to humanity after he was rescued by the U.S.S. Enterprise crew and the Borg nanoparticles controlling him removed from his body.

In The Matrix, protagonist Thomas Anderson was saved from the illusory world of the AI system and restored to humanity by Morpheus and his team when they unplugged him from the pod that imprisoned, controlled, and exploited him as an energy source.

Many of those belonging to international efforts such as those promoted by the WEF and its allies are reminiscent of the kings of the earth in Psalm 2 who conspire against the Lord Jesus Christ. They are blinded by the god of this world from seeing reality of "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). They seek to usurp His righteous rule by creating an artificial, dark reality where they think they can be the lords of life and death over a humanity they reimagine and recreate in their own image.

Captain Picard and Thomas Anderson illustrate the idea of something too strong and too evil from which to escape by themselves. They needed outside help to save them from a terrible fate. Likewise, the "collective" or "matrix" being constructed by the global elites of today is too powerful and evil to escape on our own. We need Someone from the outside far more powerful and willing to save us -- and that Someone is Jesus Christ.

Some of us may have come from religious traditions that, while not dismissing the resurrection of Jesus, diminished or distracted from its importance in favor of adhering to certain distinctive doctrines, or successively better law-keeping for salvation. This presented a false reality that obscured the fact that the resurrection provided the basis for the new birth -- our dead spirits being brought to eternal life.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Christians have traditionally gathered to worship the Lord, be exhorted in their faith in Him, and encourage one another on the first day of the week. Recognizing this day, especially Resurrection Day Sunday (Easter), was an expression of faith in the reality of the resurrection of Christ from the dead that glorious morning after paying in full the debt of sin on the cross and being buried in the grave (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). It was an appreciation of God's love in delivering them from the dark, artificial kingdoms of this world to the glorious reality of eternity in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:13-20)

Just as God overthrew and humiliated the gods of Egypt and delivered Israel from their captivity when they could not deliver themselves (Exodus 12:12), He will deliver us from the god of this world and his servants who seek to build an all-powerful false reality to enslave and destroy humanity. Through His death on the cross, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, making a public display of them, having triumphed over them (Colossians 2:9-15). He saved sinners who trust in Him from their captivity by canceling their unpayable sin debt on the cross. Because Jesus rose again from the dead, He is the only one who can deliver His people from the clutches of those seeking to create the Great Reset. Jesus in scoffing laughter will bring their plans to nothing and shatter their efforts with a rod of iron (Psalm 2:4-12; Revelation 11:16-18, 19:11-21).

As we live in the reality of Christ, we still live in a world corrupted by sin and run by wicked people that seek to distract and assimilate us into their "reality". It can often produce a stress on our lives that makes us very weary. But the apostle Paul encourages us not to despair, but to live in hope. Do not throw in the towel or drop out of the race. The struggle is more than worth it!

"The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." (Romans 8:16-25)

Along with the aches and pains, the degradation of strength, and the corruption our bodies experience over time in this world, all of nature undergoes a similar decay. There is nothing in the utopian transhumanist dream of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that can change this. It is a poor counterfeit that cannot deliver what it promises because of the sinful nature of man that ends only in death. The true and only remedy is the salvation secured through the bodily resurrection of Jesus. We look forward not to an artificial, imperfect body made by fallen man that cannot last, but to an eternal, perfect body created by God and granted as a gift to all who trust in Jesus.

"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord -- for we walk by faith, not by sight -- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." (2 Corinthians 5:1-9)

Though we groan within our earthly bodies, we have the guarantee of eternal life in Jesus as a present reality, even though we still see this through the eyes of faith.

At the heart of the gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15 is Jesus conquering death by rising from the grave. Because of this truth, those who believe in Him will experience a permanent upgrade:

"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, 'DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 15:51-58)

The new world order of suffering and death came through Adam's sin, but it was overcome by the Greatest Reset of Jesus dying on the cross for sinners and paying their debt in full (Romans 5).

The great reset has been thoroughly defeated by the Greatest Reset of Jesus rising from the dead. Because He is risen, the redemption of our bodies from mortality to immortality is certain, and along with creation we will experience the culmination of our longing to be with Jesus, our Redeemer, forever.