International Dialogue - World Economic Forum 2026
Pastor Leslie Chua
“Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.”
In my prophetic outlook for 2026, I wrote about continued shaking and volatility worldwide across 3 areas. I made predictions about the global shift in financial infrastructure, geopolitical shifts (wars and rumours of wars), and technological shifts.
In the days that follow, it becomes clear that I have hit the nail on the head. Although I had a strong sense of what would happen in 2026 and beyond, I never expected events to unfold so quickly. We are certainly living through a period of acceleration.
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Fascinatingly, the WEF’s themes coincided with the 3 focal points of my prophetic outlook for 2026.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its annual meeting in 2026 from 19 to 23 January in Davos, Switzerland, as usual. It is a gathering of global elites from national governments and the private sector. Big Powers, globalist elites, and influential transnational corporations keen to shape the world are involved in charting the way forward. At the forum, global agendas are proposed, discussed, and advanced. The big boys lead the way, and the rest of the world follows.
Fascinatingly, the WEF’s themes coincided with the 3 focal points of my prophetic outlook for 2026. I am pleasantly surprised. This lends credence to my predictions. Therefore, I would like to provide some key highlights from the WEF sessions and discussions.
These are global issues. These shifts will affect the whole world. They are also defining issues, with the power to change the political, economic, and social landscapes of all countries. They are also eschatological issues, with implications for the end of this present age.
New Financial Infrastructure
Eminent speakers and panellists across various sessions highlighted that a radical shift in global finance and banking is underway. A new market infrastructure will quickly replace the present decades-old legacy system. Global finance will be rewired through tokenisation, AI, and other digital technologies.
These technologies promise greater efficiency, transparency, and access, and they also significantly reduce transaction and custodian costs.
Tokenisation is the process of converting ownership of a real-world asset into a digital token recorded on a blockchain. Simply put, tokenisation enables you to represent an asset, such as a stock, bond, commodity, derivative, or real estate, digitally and securely in a programmable way.
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Eminent speakers and panellists across various sessions highlighted that a radical shift in global finance and banking is underway. A new market infrastructure will quickly replace the present decades-old legacy system. Global finance will be rewired through tokenisation, AI, and other digital technologies.
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Traditional financial institutions and banks, such as BlackRock and JPMorgan, are actively developing and integrating digital assets into their core operations. The aim is to move all asset classes onto the blockchain to enable faster 24/7 trading and settlement.
Cross-border payments and value transfers will shift from the cumbersome SWIFT system to Stablecoins, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), and cryptocurrencies built on blockchain technology.
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This transition in the global financial infrastructure is a major topic of discussion at the 2026 WEF conference. It clearly shows the gathering momentum of the transformation. The train has left the station, and there is no turning back.
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All these developments are occurring at a breakneck pace. Financial institutions and banks are rushing to keep pace with the radical transformation. Some have moved ahead, while many are playing catch-up.
This transition in the global financial infrastructure is a major topic of discussion at the 2026 WEF conference. It clearly shows the gathering momentum of the transformation. The train has left the station, and there is no turning back.
This blockchain and crypto technology will revolutionise global finance and trade.
On the upside, it significantly reduces costs and increases efficiency across value chains by streamlining operations, removing intermediaries, and enabling faster, more transparent transactions. These advancements directly affect settlement and liquidity processes.
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This new financial infrastructure fits the description of the 666 mark-of-the-beast system in Revelation 13. Technology is neutral, and we celebrate human progress. But in a fractured world of Big Power competition for natural resources, supply chains, trade, and financial control, and in the light of overt eschatological signs, I fear that this new, powerful financial architecture signals that the end of the present age is near.
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On the downside, the programmability of digital assets, together with digital IDs, makes every transaction traceable. In the hands of a totalitarian government, this powerful financial architecture can be used to surveil and control individuals and entities.
This new financial infrastructure fits the description of the 666 mark-of-the-beast system in Revelation 13. Technology is neutral, and we celebrate human progress. But in a fractured world of Big Power competition for natural resources, supply chains, trade, and financial control, and in the light of overt eschatological signs, I fear that this new, powerful financial architecture signals that the end of the present age is near.
Geopolitical Upheavals
In my last Pastoral Reflection, Wars and Rumours of Wars, I elaborated on my prediction of the geopolitical shifts to come in the Prophetic Outlook for 2026, with a particular focus on the United States and China.
For this Reflection, I would like to highlight 2 significant speeches delivered at the 2026 WEF conference that, together, effectively summarise the current thinking and mood among global elites and geopolitical analysts.
The first speech was delivered by the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, and the second by the President of the European Union (EU), Ursula von der Leyen.
Mark Carney's speech at the WEF 2026 conference is widely regarded as the best. It is a clarion call to the Middle Powers and smaller countries not to be cowed into subordination by the bullying tactics of the Big Powers, a not-so-veiled dig at the United States.
Carney gave several noteworthy quotes:
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon.”
“Argue that Middle Powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
This is the pragmatic way forward, given that the United States under Donald Trump has gone rogue and thuggish in its dealings with many countries. The point to note, however, is that the fragmentation of whatever rules-based order remains will lead to more wars and rumours of wars.
As for the EU President, she noted the “sheer speed and almost unthinkable scale of change” in the global order and conceded that the change was structural and permanent.
She further noted that “nostalgia will not bring back the old order,” and therefore, “it is time to seize this opportunity and build a new independent Europe.” Together with European leaders, she advocated “Strategic Autonomy,” arguing that Europe must become independent of US whims.
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Amid the Big-Powers rivalry between the US and China, I often wonder how Europe will rise to the occasion and play a significant role in End-Time geopolitics. We have to watch and see.
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It was no mere rhetoric. Before her speech, the European Union had just signed a trade deal with Latin America, creating the world's largest free-trade zone, accounting for over 20% of global GDP. Immediately after, the EU inked a historic trade agreement with India, creating a market of 2 billion people and accounting for a quarter of global GDP.
I provide some details here because Europe is significant from an eschatological perspective. Europe is where the Revived Roman Empire or the Antichrist’s one-world government will emerge.
Amid the Big-Powers rivalry between the US and China, I often wonder how Europe will rise to the occasion and play a significant role in End-Time geopolitics.
We have to watch and see.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is another key topic at the 2026 WEF event. The CEOs of Nvidia, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind took centre stage to discuss AI. Amid market concerns about the high valuations of AI companies, they remain optimistic about AI's continued development and confident that it will be the primary engine of future growth.
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Artificial intelligence is another key topic at the 2026 WEF event.
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Other speakers and panellists also echoed this sentiment. They described AI as a “supercharger” for everything and highlighted the rapid shift towards “Agentic AI” (AI agents that act autonomously).
In my “Prophetic Outlook for 2026,” I noted experts’ predictions that “2026 will be the year of Agentic AI.” Agentic AI is an artificial intelligence system that can make decisions and achieve specific goals with limited supervision.
The impact of Agentic AI on humans and societies is immense. While the benefits are substantial, the ramifications are equally significant. White-collar job losses are just the tip of the iceberg.
Yuval Harari, a historian and bestselling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, and a familiar face at WEF meetings, spoke about the risks of Agentic AI.
It must be noted that, while Harari makes good observations about AI, he is anti-religion and anti-God. He has no qualms about expressing his secularist views in the most pungent way.
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The impact of Agentic AI on humans and societies is immense. While the benefits are substantial, the ramifications are equally significant.
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Harari’s core thesis is that AI is not merely a tool but an agent. He argues that we are making a fundamental mistake by treating AI as we do other technologies.
He gave the “knife” analogy. A knife is a tool. It has no agency. It cannot decide by itself who or what to cut. AI, however, is an autonomous agent capable of learning, inventing, adapting, deciding, and acting.
Harari extrapolated his point. He reframed René Descartes’ philosophical adage (“I think, therefore I am”) by asking what “thinking” really is. If thinking is the ordering of language into sentences and arguments, then AI already outperforms most humans in this area. Thus, “anything made of words will be taken over by AI,” ranging from books to media, law and even religion, especially those that place great emphasis on words, which includes Christianity.
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That said, Christians must be cautious. Agentic AI, trained on information from a wide array of sources, may interpret the Bible erroneously yet convincingly. AI may mislead and also spawn techno-Christian cults.
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Harari went on to take a swipe at Christianity. He quoted John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word…” He argued that the Scriptures are sequences of words; therefore, AI can read, retain, and recombine them better than humans. That raises the question: “What happens… when the greatest expert on the holy book is an AI?”
Harari suggests that AI may upend Christianity. Perhaps that is his wish, given that he is a vocal critic of Jesus and the Christian faith. He has previously made comments such as “Even if you believe in the Bible, the only thing the God of the Bible managed to create is organic beings… Now we try to go beyond the God of the Bible and create inorganic life,” and “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 of our clouds, the IBM clouds, the Microsoft cloud.
That said, Christians must be cautious. Agentic AI, trained on information from a wide array of sources, may interpret the Bible erroneously yet convincingly. AI may mislead and also spawn techno-Christian cults.
As Harari commented elsewhere, “I think the most interesting place today from a religious perspective is Silicon Valley. My bet is this is where the new religions of the 21st century are being created. And these will be kind of techno-religions.”
I think Harari’s prediction won’t be far off. AI will have wide-ranging implications for the world, including for religious beliefs. Christianity is not exempt from its influence.
How do we counter AI threats to our faith in Christ?
While Christians can use AI as a tool for our study and research of the Bible, our faith must be rooted in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh, and in our active participation in the Christian community.