Foreshadows of 1984
Terry James
July 7, 2025
The apothegm “life often imitates art” has never been more applicable than when considering today’s headlines in the literary shadow of the novel 1984. And that maxim, upon considering that novel, shows, I think, just where at this late hour of the age this generation stands upon God’s prophetic timeline.
Many years ago I wrote a novel along the lines of Orwell’s fiction, all the while trying to stay within exactly how things are prophesied to unfold in God’s Word. That novel, Jacob’s Trouble 666, is still available, I think, on Amazon.
While my effort in writing the story of my protagonist, Jacob Zen, didn’t rise to the level of the brilliance in creativity and syntax of Orwell’s portrayal of his protagonist, Winston Smith, Jacob’s Trouble 666 did, like 1984, foreshadow, I’m confident, what we have long since begun to witness big time. That is, life is now imitating art, just as both Orwell’s novel and mine were intended to present.
George Orwell’s story now seems almost prescient in its conception. While mine didn’t anticipate as accurately how the world would be divided as the dictatorships developed to their present state.
By that I mean Jacob’s Trouble 666, although biblically centered, was, as is most of my writing, America-centric. Orwell’s fictional account of the coming global dictatorship was…well…global in scope.
Not only that, his was British-centric, which, as we will see below is important to examination of a current news item as relative to prophetic development, in my view.
A synopsis of 1984 novel provides futuristic geographical orientation for the reader.
1984 is set in a dystopian future where the world is divided into three superstates constantly at war: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The story unfolds in Airstrip One (formerly Great Britain), a province of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania, which is under the control of the Party led by the figurehead Big Brother.
Britain has, in the story, become the center of power for an all-controlling dictatorship. I don’t know to what extent George Orwell looked into Bible prophecy and the foretold coming Antichrist when forming his storyline. But I have to believe he at least was cursorily familiar with the book of Daniel, Revelation chapter 13 and beyond.
Whatever the case, the author, by accidental good fortune, highly intuitive reasoning, or through premonition provided by a muse on his shoulder, hit upon where such dictatorship might emerge to Antichrist-level control. And to astute observers of recent developments in Great Britain and the UK in general, things are trending swiftly toward change that is disturbing.
While Islamic influence is becoming overbearing in many areas of Britain –and European nations in general— the cultural degrading being foisted upon the society is nothing short of dystopian.
The following news indicates that movement into Orwell-like dystopia.
The UK government is considering a mandatory digital ID for all citizens and legal residents in the UK. And the NHS has plans to sequence and store the DNA of all babies born in England. We are fast approaching a dystopian digital surveillance state, similar to what China’s communist government has implemented.
The UK government is considering a proposal for a mandatory digital ID, known as the “BritCard,” which would require the entire population to download it and connect their birth records to the “One Login” system.
The BritCard scheme was proposed by the “think tank” Labour Together. Labour Together’s team is made up largely of former Labour MPs, former local government politicians, former civil servants and former politicians’ assistants. It is influential within the Labour Party and, currently, the Labour government under Keir Starmer.
Labour Together claims that, according to a poll they had conducted, 80% of Britons would support a digital identity card. We would like to know who they polled – their office staff?
“For a progressive society to work, it needs to be able to collectively agree who is allowed to join it. Because it will exclude those who cannot join it, it needs to give its members proof that they belong,” Labour Together said. “Progressive” doesn’t mean that society is improving or people’s lives are going to improve; it means that society is progressing towards the Globalists’ aims of totalitarianism…
Meanwhile, the Bank of England and HM Treasury are currently in the design phase for a potential digital pound, the UK’s central bank digital currency (“CBDC”), with an Academic Advisory Group supporting the process. In January 2025, the Bank of England announced plans for a “Digital Pound Lab” to enable “hands-on experimentation” as part of its preparation for a potential CBDC. (“Digital dystopia looms large in the UK,” by Rhoda Wilson, The Expose, June 26, 2025)
Those who watch (Mark 13:37)-who view all these goings-on-see the prophetic shadows creeping across the European landscape. Just as we are witnessing the peace efforts spreading across the Middle East-an effort that will ultimately bring the “peace that will destroy many,” we know the moving forward of the global, digital economic efforts will result in enslavement for that dystopian Tribulation world in which all will be forced to accept the mark and number in the worship of Antichrist, or face starvation or death by beheading.
While the actual year 1984 is long since in the past, George Orwell’s novel, 1984, is casting shadows into and over our time, it seems. But it is God’s infallible, Holy Word –His prophetic Word—from which those who seek to know where we are on Heaven’s timeline for the wrap-up of this great supernatural novel (the Greatest Story Ever Told) finds truth not fiction.
We have indeed been seeing “all these things begin to come to pass” for quite some time. And it is past time that we who name the Majestic Name of Jesus Christ be “looking up, for our Redeemer is drawing near!”
Here again is how to be rescued by that Redeemer before that time of satanic evil of the Tribulation begins.
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10: 9-10)
When I heard the words I sat a bit straighter in my chair while the president ended his uncharacteristically brief speech. He was reporting the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facility buried 300 feet below a mountainous terrain.
In ending his speech Mr. Trump thanked the pilots who flew the B2 bombers that released the “bunker buster” bombs. He thanked the Israeli military for their work in making it possible to fly to the targets in an uninhibited way. He then thanked God and followed that by what made me sit straighter in my chair.
The president of the United States said: “We love you, God.”
Never had I ever heard such words coming from a president of the United States. And it came from a man I have always supported yet have said he isn’t a godly man –but is “God’s man” for this time and place so near the end of this Church Age.
What does this statement mean? Is it a statement just for speechifying? Is it a comment of momentary elation over a spectacularly successful mission sent by this presidential administration? Is it made just to solidify and satisfy the president’s evangelical Christian base? Is it a genuine thanks to the God of Heaven made by a worldly man who has seen the light and now is a believer for salvation of his soul?
His statement of love for God did come from a tone of heartfelt gratitude.
Regardless of the reason for saying “We love you, God,” it is, in my view, a most significant, even profound, matter in this profoundly late prophetic hour.
Upon reflection of the statement and things going on that give evidence of God’s great hand in all things involved in not just Iran and the bombing of the nuclear facility, but in all matters surrounding this president, my thoughts immediately leaped to the Apostle Paul and his meeting with King Agrippa.
Paul was accused falsely of blasphemy, fomenting uprising and for crimes of sedition and with other charges. He claimed the right of a Roman citizen and was brought before King Agrippa.
The apostle laid out before the king how he had greatly persecuted Christians, but that Christ disrupted his journey on the road to Damascus. He told of Jesus’ words to him and all the rest. How he was thus converted to the Christian faith.
Festus, who brought him before the king, was incredulous. Here is the account.
And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. (Acts 24-29)
So, I am led in my spirit to wonder, based upon his being spared death in the assassination attempt, whether our president, in view of his “We love you, God,” prayer-like words stem from his conversion like the Apostle Paul’s, or to the “almost I am persuaded” words of near conversion like in the case of King Agrippa.
I prayerfully hope, of course, that it is the former rather than the latter of those possibilities that is the case.
But the real point in pursuing this line of thought with this commentary involves the number-one prophetic indicator of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. I mean, of course, the nation Israel.
A prominent Jewish writer presented for me a most interesting segway into my thinking regarding matters somewhat akin to the Apostle Paul’s meeting with King Agrippa. The writer offers a novelist’s perspective into the Jewish look at Bible prophecy. It fits within our theme *“*Almost persuaded.”
“The Bible is a story,” the Yeshiva University philosophy professor told a global audience Thursday evening. “It has a beginning, middle, and an end—and we are the characters writing its final chapters.”
[Rabbi Yosef Bronstein’s] thesis was unlike anything being said by other commentators: this isn’t about ancient prophecies coming true, but about understanding ourselves as active participants in a divine narrative that began with creation and is racing toward its climactic conclusion. By Sunday night, as President Trump announced Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated,” Rabbi Bronstein’s vision of real-time biblical storytelling seemed prophetic.
The author of “Engaging the Essence: The Torah Philosophy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe” wasn’t offering traditional religious commentary. Instead, he presented something far more compelling: a framework for understanding current events as the latest chapters in the ultimate story ever told.
“The Bible begins with Genesis—’In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’—and ends with the eschatological perfect world where God’s presence is revealed for all to see,” explained Rabbi Bronstein, who leads a rabbinical training center in Efrat and holds a PhD in Talmudic studies. “In between, you have an unfolding story where God is constantly trying to push the world forward from creation all the way to redemption.”…
Three days after his presentation, as Iran’s nuclear facilities lay in ruins and the world witnessed what seemed like divine intervention through human action, Rabbi Bronstein’s vision of participatory biblical narrative seemed less like literary theory and more like an instruction manual for understanding our times.
We aren’t just witnessing history—we’re writing the Bible’s final chapters. And the story, Rabbi Bronstein suggests, is approaching its long-awaited happy ending.(“We Are Characters in God’s Story” – Scholar Reveals How Israel’s War Writes the Bible’s Final Chapters, Elie Mischel, Biblical News Israel365 June 23, 2025)
This author, an orthodox rabbi, is persuaded that God’s story of humankind is right and true and he can see it developing to a “happy ending”. But he, along with all who are of belief held within Judaism, as well as all other belief systems not centered in Jesus Christ, are almost persuaded, just as was King Agrippa almost persuaded when Paul preached to him. Sadly, tragically, theirs, apart from coming to belief in God’s only way to salvation –His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ—is destined to end in eternal separation from God and heavenly bliss. It will, for these, not be a happy ending.
This is why it is vital that we who name that majestic, Holy Name witness as never before to those who need to come to Jesus, who is the only way, truth, and life that leads to the Heavenly Father and happiness in Heaven forever.
Here, again, is how to witness to those who are not yet persuaded.
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10: 9-10)