Marking the Beasty

Most people have heard of "the mark of the beast." I was telling my co-workers about the little chip we had the vet insert into our dog's neck in case she ever got lost, and the mark of the beast came right up.

It's a pretty popular subject these days, and I think that most unbelievers and a fair amount of Christians too, put the "mark of the beast" on a level with Nostradamus' prophecies, black cats crossing your path and maybe the Easter Bunny too. The term actually comes from the Bible though. It appears in a prophetical context in the Book of Revelation, and in a time future when the very engaging leader of a new internationally based governmental system will decide to put in place a policy which requires all persons to receive a "mark" on either their right hand, or upon their foreheads. This will be done in order to control whatever people will do and to be able to track their every movement. Even the most basic transactions that people will need to make will not be possible without this mark.

Lots of different suggestions have been made about precisely what this "mark" will be. I could be a numerical code, possibly having something to do with our individual DNA. It may be a tattoo-like mark of some sort like a grocery store barcode, or it could even be a little rice grain sized chip like the one they put in my dog's neck. Personally I think it will be a tattoo of some sort, a literal mark. It is not out of the realm of possibility these days that paint or ink can be engineered to contain readable information and interactive properties, not the least of which could be GPS capability. Revelation 16:2 talks about how everyone who has taken that mark will develop a foul and loathsome sore. Golly, I wonder where they will have that sore. I'm thinking it will be on their right hand or forehead, whichever place they receive that mark.

If people think that such a notion is nonsense, maybe they should think about what's happening right here in the U.S.A.. A measure called the Real I.D. Act was approved about two years ago that will compel states to, by 2008, make their driver's licenses meet federal antiterrorist standards. Non-compliant licenses or I.D. cards which don't meet federal standards would be rejected. The rejected card-holder would then be denied access to national parks, the ability to board an airplane and even entrance to some courthouses.

This was a Republican-backed measure, and one of the only eight Republicans who objected to the measure was Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. He said, "Supporters claim it is not a national I.D. because it is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. They will not be able to fly or to take a train."

That's a sobering thought. Has your state implemented a new program with intelligent, interactive technology to be integrated into your driver's license? Fortunately, on February 9th this year, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she was introducing legislation to delay the Real I.D. Act of 2005. Unfortunately, her press release said that her proposed measure would only provide states with a more reasonable time frame within which to comply with the federal standards laid out in the Real I.D. Act. The only caveat in her proposal would be to wave the requirements for Real I.D. compliance if a particular state is technologically or fiscally incapable of implementing the system. Fiscally, this could be a real challenge for many states. The estimated average cost as I understand it will be 11 billion dollars per state. Yikes.

This is just a forerunner of what is to come. There will most likely, in this climate of world-wide terrorism, be a national I.D. card. It will only be a "next step" to eventually make it a world-wide system, and the idea has some very attractive possibilities. If kids had implanted chips that were GPS capable, think of the implications of something like that. Your kid gets lost, you hone in on her and go get her. Your husband gets lost climbing on a mountain, the authorities can find him too. There are all sorts of positive applications for such a device, or for such a mark, and I'm sure that the future world leader will exploit absolutely every single one of them.

Unbelievers are often extremely curious about prophecy, especially this kind of prophecy. Find out why they are interested in such things. It can be a possible segue into an opportunity to bring the truth of the gospel to them.