Further down on my home page you will find a section titled End-Times Headlines. There you can read current news stories that I believe relate to biblical prophecies concerning events that God said will happen when He begins His judgment of the world. The subject matter of many of these news items revolve around one particular prophetic theme or another. On this page I will compile the stories that relate the prophecies that speak of a powerful centralized world government that will be under the control of an individual Christians call the Antichrist. The book of Revelation indicates that this evil man will control a global economic system thorugh which no one will be able to engage in monetary transactions without his consent: "16 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: 17 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. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." (Revelation 13:16-18) For the last two thousand years it would have been impossible for any government entity to monitor the buying and selling habits of individuals around the world. With the advent of the computer age and digital technology, that impossibility has been removed. As you will see in the following news stories, technology keeps advancing and governments are increasing their monitoring capabilities of their citizens in all areas of life. One day, just as the government forces people to pay taxes, a government will impose its economic system and power upon the citizens of the world and they will have to choose between following God or following this evil man.
[April 2, 2008] - FINGERPRINTING, BIOMETRICS, AND SPY DRONES IN THE NEWS - There have been many news stories recently that indicate governments are increasing their capabilities to someday dictate to humans the types of behaviors that they will consider acceptable.
According to the Washington Post, intelligence centers across America have gathered personal information on millions of U.S. citizens. (Centers Tap Into Personal Databases) The article states that some of the information obtained included unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports. This type of government oversight into an individual's personal data could obviously lead to potential abuse in the future.
The ACLU states that the Defense Department is using information that the FBI has gathered on some Americans. (ACLU: Military skirting law to spy) Some of the information obtained includes records of individual's Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies.
A Reuters news story reports that international passengers flying into New York will be identified by all ten of their fingerprints. (U.S. increases fingerprints IDs at airports) This of course implies that the government will keep an extensive database on people from all over the world.
Some companies are now requiring their employees to use fingerprint scanners to clock in and out of their jobs. (Fingerprint Scanners Help Companies Track Workers) These biometric devices can be used to monitor arrival and departure of their workers for the various tasks they may be assigned. In other words they could keep track of their employees' movements throughout the day.
Miami police have requested that they be allowed to use spy drones to fly over urban areas. The stated purpose is to help them fight crime which is an understandable desire on law enforcement's part. (Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami) Of course this would be added to the arsenal of many governments who already use street cameras in order to monitor their citizens in cities such as Washington D.C. which will begin using 5000 cameras to watch different activities in their city. (D.C. police set to monitor 5,000 cameras)
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips have been in use for several years now. They are used to track commercial products, passports, travel, animals and are even implanted in some human beings. (Radio-frequency identification) In Australia, RFID chips are placed in garbage cans in order to monitor the recycling habits of its population. (Bin Brother is watching you)
Individually, any of these methods of monitoring human activity could have beneficial aspects to it. However, when these technological advancements (along with many more that are on the way) are taken as a whole they can have a disturbing big-brother quality to them. From a biblical perspective just such a similar future society was prophesied in the Book of Revelation:
"16 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: 17 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. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." (Revelation 13:16-18)
The beast in this passage is the man whom Christians call the Antichrist. He is a future world leader who will be the most powerful person on earth. As these verses indicate, he will also be able to monitor the economic habits of the people of the world. From a technological point of view, such a capability would have been impossible for the last two thousand years. As you have just read in this article, technology keeps increasing and the buying and selling habits of any individual may come under the scrutiny of this evil leader in the very near future.
[March 29, 2008] - GOVERNMENT TO BE GIVEN NEW POWERS TO OVERSEE FINANCIAL MARKETS AMONG ECONOMIC TURMOIL - The Treasury Department wants the U.S. government to oversee financial markets because of the current economic situation. An article in the N.Y. Times states that the goal of this action is to be: "part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.(Treasury’s Plan Would Give Fed Wide New Power) Since the economy does seem to be in dire straits this could be a first step into further government control over every aspect of the economy. The article makes an interesting statement concerning this issue: "According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms." The Bible makes it clear that one day that a global-sized government will attempt to control economic habits of the entire world's population.
[January 13, 2008] - PRISONERS TO BE IMPLANTED WITH MICROCHIPS - According to the British newspaper "The Independent", authorities are going to implant microchips under the skin of prisoners in order to monitor them outside the confines of prison:
"Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails. Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals."
(Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs')
This of course plays into the end-times scenario which believes that one day a world government leader called the Antichrist will monitor the buying and selling habits of the population. The basis for this belief is found in Revelation 13:16-18:
"16 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: 17 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. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Critics of the proposed chip implantation procedure have issued a revealing warning:
"Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present system is 95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and carries more information about the host. The devices have been dubbed "spychips" by critics who warn that they would transmit data about the movements of other people without their knowledge."
"Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he could "clone" a chip. 'He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip's unique signal in a matter of seconds,' she said."
"One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit conversations. 'Some folks might foolishly discount all of these downsides and futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for criminals like rapists and murderers,' Ms McIntyre said. 'The rest of us could be next.' "
"THE REST OF US COULD BE NEXT". The Bible does not declare what the mark of the beast consists of, only that John saw the people receiving some type of mark in their hand or forehead. However, our modern economy is becoming more and more based upon digital money and transactions including those of a global economic nature. Therefore, this is a perfectly acceptable scenario as to how Revelation 13:16-18 may come about.