by Michael G. Mickey
(6-23-09)

Revelation 13:16-17: And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

In the above verse of Scripture, we see how the economic system of the prophesied Antichrist to come and his associate, the False Prophet, is going to work.

Everyone - yes, everyone - is going to have to receive a mark in their right hand or forehead in order to be able to buy and sell in the Tribulation Period to come. Precisely what this mark is going to consist of is uncertain, but, as I have extensively documented through the years, the current trend where economic transactions are concerned is taking us further and further away from physical currency in favor of making payment for goods and services electronically, either through credit/check cards or RFID-related payment mechanisms. This, potentially, is giving us a glimpse into the prophetic future, giving us insight into how something physically connected to the right hand or forehead (tattooed, implanted, or both) will be the only acceptable or, more likely, functional way to make financial transactions.

Can we see any evidence in the news of our world today that supports the theory of a mark as described in Revelation 13 becoming a reality, potentially in the not-too-distant future? Of course. The mark of the beast is guaranteed to become reality and any of us who're shopping in any manner today are, knowingly or unknowingly, contributing to its arrival by utilizing check cards, credit cards, RFID key fobs and the like.

Onto the latest news on this front...

Moving from the UPC to the EPC

I'll never forget the day my grandmother saw a UPC scanner utilized at a checkout line in my presence many, many years ago for the very first time. She told me something to the effect of, "Son, this is just the start of it. First they'll scan your groceries, later they'll scan your right hand or forehead. The mark of the beast is coming." If there was anything I knew concerning my grandmother, it was that when she spoke to me of things to come in the future as detailed in the Bible, I needed to pay attention. While she wasn't a learned woman by any means, there was one arena in life she had a strong grasp of - spiritual things. If I could show her what I'm writing about here today, she'd probably say, "I told you those bar codes and scanners were leading us somewhere!"

By now we're all familiar with the Universal Product Code (UPC) or bar code which is marked on practically everything we buy these days, but the times are changing. We're presently on the verge of stepping up to a higher level of eery mark of the beast-like technology, to the Electronic Product Code or EPC.

The following is an excerpt from Canada.com I fund to be fascinating:

"...despite being recognized by the Smithsonian as one of the great breakthrough technologies in history, with bar codes scanned more than 10 billion times a day, being of a certain age means cosmetic surgery is on the horizon.

Chief among the planned nips and tucks is the reinvention of UPCs as Electronic Product Codes (EPCs), which experts say are poised to become the new industry standard.

These Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which don't require direct scanning, would not only make checkout lines obsolete - you'd simply roll through a sensor station that assessed your cart's contents - but also turn your mobile phone into a personal cashier and tour guide.

``It's going to give us a running total, it can give us recipe information for a product or suggest a bottle of wine that could accompany that product, and we're going to walk right through the store without having to stop at the checkout because in our cellphone or other hand-held device, there's a chip that talks to our bank account and automatically deducts the money,'' says Phil Lempert, an industry analyst known as The Supermarket Guru.

With a UPC, all cans of Coke sold globally have the same code. An EPC tag adds a unique serial number into the mix so that individual cans all have their own ID. Under this system, there are enough possible combinations to uniquely tag every grain of sand in the world. [More...]

You buy a carton of Coca Cola and all 24 cans have a unique EPC number? Folks, that's a lot of numbers so imagine, if you will, how easy it would be, using technology that exists TODAY, for the global government of the Antichrist to mark every single person in the world as we see prophesied in Revelation 13.

Remember when people used to say, not long ago either, that a cashless society was simply impossible to attain? Those days are gone. Long gone!

Cash on the verge of extinction

The following is an excerpt from an article entitled 'Cash to become extinct as chips take off' (emphasis added mine):

CASH is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade.

Bank and credit union bosses say cash won't be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too.

They told The Advertiser's round table forum that cash and cards will be replaced by computer chips embedded in mobile phones, watches or other portable devices.

And...

Savings & Loans chief executive Greg Connor said the concept of the wallet would go.

"Whereas now we have a wallet and purse, it will be a chip in your phone or your watch or something like that as your access," he said.

Mr Evers said credit cards were on the way out as well.

To all those who chide me, stating that implantable microchips will not play a role in the coming mark of the beast? You may be right, but I don't see how anyone can look at the highlighted portions of the excerpt above and fail to consider the possibilty that the right hand or forehead is a "portable device" capable of carrying an implantable RFID microchip through which one could make financial transactions. It's not a tremendous stretch to hypothesize this is what the mark of the beast is going to consist of, at least in part, based on current technology, but will mankind accept such a thing? I certainly think so.

Selling the idea of microchip implants for financial, identification and medical purposes to people today, in this age when huge portions of the global population, particularly below the age of 30, have tattoos and piercings that serve no practical purpose, wouldn't be a significant problem if the Tribulation Period to come started tomorrow, in my opinion. This will be especially true when those who want to buy or sell must have whatever the mark of the beast will consist of to do so! Besides, by the time the Antichrist requires the mark of the beast to be accepted as a symbol of allegiance to him and his global dictatorship, the world will understand that those who do not bow to his every wish will be placing their lives at grave risk. (Revelation 13, verses 4, 7-8, and 15)

Again, I'm not stating with certainty that the RFID technology presently being used in various devices as described in the article linked above is going to evolve into the mark of the beast in the form of an implantable microchip. In contrast, what I am stating with absolute certainty is current financial technologies are carrying mankind toward the mark of the beast and, for those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the likelihood of acceptance of the mark in the prophetic future. It's as plain as the nose on your face, in my opinion.

Credit cards you don't have to swipe

The following is from an article entitled 'Credit Cards That Don't Require Swiping':

While your credit card still requires the old swipe through a card reader, businesses are testing technology that would let you make payments with nothing more than a wave or a tap -- and often don't require the presence of a card at all.

Trials of the technology conducted by banks and retailers suggest cardholder stomachs are the quickest route to contactless payment acceptance. Businesses are investigating radio-frequency identification or RFID, a technology that transmits payment information via electromagnetic waves, thereby eliminating the need for a card to be swiped. Instead, RFID payments let consumers make purchases just by waving or tapping RFID-enabled devices, such as mobile phones or credit cards, near a reader that picks up a radio frequency and then charges the consumer's account.

"Contactless" payments haven't yet caught on in the United States. In a March story, CreditCards.com reported that most stores with contactless readers are found in major metropolitan areas, but that RFID is spreading. Visa said that 20 retailers with 32,000 outlets now accept its payWave card, while MasterCard said its 37 million PayPass cards can be used at more than 130,000 locations worldwide.

Again, we see the convenience of RFID-enabled financial transactions emphasized in the above. Which would you rather do? Dig through your purse or wallet for $46.73, write out a check for $46.73 or wave an RFID-implanted credit card, cell phone or key fob over a scanner and hit the road? Folks, can you imagine how many Godless, gullible, post-rapture individuals would jump at the chance to be able to shop amidst the trials and troubles of the Tribulation Period by simply waving their hand over a scanner with the mark of the beast attached to it? They wouldn't even have to dig through their pockets to find a card! In times like those they'll be living in, it'll seem like a gift to experience anything that makes life even a little less stressful! Amen?

Here again, we see the RFID microchip as the future of financial transactions, at least in the short term AND the swiping of the hand over a scanner to make payments. Ever so subtly, what you're reading here is setting the stage for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy no matter what form the mark of the beast manifests itself as.

Japan: Proving ground for a cashless society?

The following excerpts come from a Times Online article entitled 'To fight deflation, abolish cash. Could Japan make reality of ‘science fiction’?'

With recovery elusive, a population doddering into old age and perhaps a decade of deflation in prospect, Japan may start mulling the most radical monetary policy of all — the abolition of cash.

Unorthodox, untried and, said one Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi strategist, “in the realms of economic science fiction”, the recommendation has nevertheless begun floating around Tokyo’s corridors of power and economists have described Japan as particularly suitable as a testing ground.

And...

In theory, many Japanese could easily make the leap into a cashless world. The country has six main competing cashless payment systems, many of them embedded into mobile phones. Including Oyster-type cards issued by public transport companies, industry sources estimate that there are about 120 million cashless payment chips sitting in Japan’s wallets and handbags, waiting to be swiped.

As we look at Bible prophecy, it isn't hard to envision our world moving away from cash in favor of something that will better lend itself to the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the mark of the beast. I believe the information provided above documents that process is well underway. What does that tell us? I don't know about any of you, but it tells me there has never been a time in human history when we need to be sounding the alert that Jesus Christ is coming soon as loudly as we need to be today! Everything is falling right into place! Amen?

Keep looking up! Our redemption draweth nigh!