The way we pay for things is about to descend into the realm of Revelations.
Tech behemoth Amazon has unveiled plans to transmit a customer’s credit card information with a simple swipe of their hand over specific scanner terminals.
Although still in early-stage development, the "non-contact biometric identification system" (essentially hand-scanning terminals that would produce a photo of a person's palm and then link it to their credit card) is in the works, with Visa, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Synchrony Financial eager to participate. That data would eventually be stored on Amazon’s cloud, giving the company leverage to charge more to advertisers based on the assumption they can predict customers’ purchases.
And while the move will likely be hailed as yet another shortcut in how consumers spend, it is sure to have its detractors, who view this brave new world as yet another step into a frightening future where privacy is nonexistent and Amazon rules all.
We’ve already seen blowback to ideas like this before. People are having rice-grain sized microchips implanted in their hand to speed up accessing a home, office or gym, and many have called them downright dystopian.
But some concerns over these new measurements go beyond simple earthly concerns of privacy and security.
The Mark of the Beast?
Some Christians, in fact, fear the End Times may be just around the bend, concerned such innovations might well be the very mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13:16-17.
The passage in the New International Version reads as follows:
"[The beast] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name."
In an August 2017 opinion piece for The Christian Post, co-founder of The Whosoevers Movement, Ryan Ries, first expounded on this notion.
"What if this mark is real? What if it is the sign the Antichrist requires for all people who want to sell or buy? What if the Bible is right?” he stressed, wondering if the imminent micro-chipping of a younger generation culturally groomed to embrace the mark - whether coaxed in by convenience or coerced out of fear, as in parents eager to locate their children at all times - meant churches needed to up the ante and radically alter how they approach ministry.
“With microchips implanted in humans (on their right hands or foreheads as Revelation foretells)... the millennial generation is being prepped to discard traditional norms and embrace the mark,” he fears. “The stage has been set. It could happen tomorrow.”
Further, if this technology progresses, we might all be forced to eventually accept the Mark, or risk being locked out of modern society. If this technology is needed to make purchases, or visit the doctor, or board a plane, it would be all but impossible to exist in day-to-day life without accepting this new technology into our lives (and bodies).
Embracing Technology
On the other hand, it's a curious thing, to see Evangelicals point to the workings of the Antichrist when biometric technology has already been used for years to do everything from reuniting lost pets and luggage to managing electronic tolling and warehouse inventory systems.
It is often said that technology is agnostic. There's a good reason for that.
Yes, it may be a strange Biblical coincidence. But in the end, having a credit card number or microchip inserted into your palm, or forehead, or iris, is no more or less evil than paying with cash. The larger concern may lie in the here and now, with questions of how companies will utilize your biometric information.
After all, the day Christian pastors figure out that their own parishioners will be able to donate to their churches with a simple wave of their right hand, this whole notion of the Mark of the Beast will likely become but a distant memory.
Either way, it can be frightening to think about. What are your thoughts? Is this the Mark of the Beast, or simply the mark of technological progression?
37 comments
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Lori Mongillo
The whole religious thing about the beast is BS. But CB may have a point. It is a scary thought that a chip may send and receive signals. And then there's the possibility that someone may cut off your hand so they can make a purchase in your name. I guess we'll just have to see how it all unfolds.
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Rev Hannah Grace
Lori - I had to respond because I think your comment was rational and calm, unlike a lot of people who seem to get all excited and sensational about things. Why worry about every new tech until we see what the benefits or drawbacks are. There may come a time when there is no choice in such matters, but for now, it is merely a possibility. I use my phone for many things but don't do banking or instant pay on it because that is my choice. But I do use my credit card on the scanner in shops. As long as we have choices about tech, then it is really up to the individual if they want to use the latest invention or not.
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Robert Edward Szekely
To make a device like that harder to exploit, it should be designed to look for a heartbeat and body temperature--calibrated specifically to the parameters of the individual user, to make them more difficult to duplicate if someone where to try to use the chip without it's owner's presence or consent.
Unconscious might work just as well as dead, without carrying the potentially greater severity of consequences of getting caught. If I'm a bad guy shopping online, and I just want to steal some of your credit to make a purchase, I don't necessarily need to kill you to access your embedded credit chip.
As I think I may have mentioned elsewhere on another blog here at ULC, technology is amoral: it is how applied that determines whether it is good or evil. Remember that Cain killed his brother with a stone: but that stones also built the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China.
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flugo
Bob, edzackly where in the Scriptures does it say 'Cain killed his brother with a stone'?!
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Daniel Gray
And you have proof that there is no "beast"? I highly doubt that, so all this is, is your own personal opinion.
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Thunder
Do you have proof there's no flying spagetti monster? No. You don't. Therefore all hail his noodley goodness!
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Daniel Gray
never said I did now did I? Your pitiful attempt at sarcasm fell flat. maybe you should take classes?
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Br'er George
Chill D! I'm with you! All I know is I fo' sho' ain't puttin' no shite like that in me!
I'll buy my doughnuts and what not with GOOD OLD FASHION DOLLAS SON! Til I die.
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Daniel Gray
I see that Thunderer didnt reply, guess he wanted to and thought better of it as he would have been made to look more silly then his post.
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Don Howard
Lori, Actually the whole religious thing is not Bull squat. It awesome actually for the person who knows what the biblical mandate on the Mark of the Beast is and means! The whole article and this tech points to the prophetic Word in the Bible written in the first century A.D by none other then John of Revelation the seer or Prophet. This tech prophecy as the article is alluding to for the Christian or Bible Scholar, its historicity and veracity based on Biblical Prophecy is quite remarkable, to say the least! Bible prophecy being fulfilled in our very eyes! For starters here is a verse from written 2000 years ago to the early churches: Revelation Chapter 13 starting at verse 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: 17And 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. 18Here 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. What is most amazing is (verse 17) And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.The pandemic shut down the whole world and we were all mandated by the powers to be ( I.E.) The Beast Power or those who control the Techs Amazon,Walmart or the Financial Systems,how we should or could Buy or Sell as if they knew they had control to mandate how to Buy or Sell or what time you could Buy or Sell or what you had to wear ( I.E. mask,social distancing ) to Buy or Sell even to this very moment as I write this post it is still enforced for whatever reason pandemic or no Pandemic, The Beast is rearing its Ugly Prophetic head as John the Revelator pointed out so Prophetically 2000 years ago. Setting my own prejudices aside, I would still have to believe or take close note to the near contemporary who was close to the situation and prediction John. One would have to believe the knowledge that John had when he wrote the Book of Revelation,it is worthy of note (two thousand years removed.) as the article and its writer so pointedly expressed!
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I don't care if it's right or wrong, if it helps Amazon I'm all for it! Amazon is my all time favorite store!!! I do almost all of my shopping with them, anymore. Although we don't worship our gods and goddesses in Wicca, like a woman in the bedroom, if we did I'd worship Amazon like a demi-god. Amazon has practically everything imaginable, and really low prices and other great services for members of Amazon Prime. I wouldn't care if they required us to have 666 tattooed on our hands. Trust me, it would be worth it.
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Minister Mike
Well, I must admit that Amazon is a cruel beast, but that isn't their mark. Amazon's mark is registered with the USPTO and other trademark offices around the world. A chip with one's credit card information is is the mark of the individual. 🤣
My concerns are completely temporal - I just don't , and won't, put my credit information out there to be grabbed by anyone interested in it. Any security system can be hacked.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
Please give examples of how Amazon is a beast. I thought beasts were mammals, like other critters.
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Minister Mike
Well, there ya' go, again, Carl. Thinking doesn't seem to be your long suit - does it? Check Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beast) for the definition of "beast". You'll find yourself adequately described in definition #2. Amazon meets definition #3's criteria.
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Minister Mike
Doh! I didn't read the article here or the one to which it is linked. After reading it, the facts are this:
There is no microchip involved in this. The technology is, basically, a camera that takes a photo of your hand.
The photo is then compared to another photo of your hand, previously provided by you, that is linked to your credit card. The technology isn't new, only the use to which it is being put. There are biometric scanners in daily use for security purposes already - even most phones can scan your finger print or eye or even face to be compared to an image you already put in your phone.But I still stand by my first post - Amazon is a cruel beast. And the fewer avenues to my financial and/or personal information available to thieves and other unsavory characters the better off I am.
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Don Howard
Minister Mike, All techs have microchip technology at the innovative development level as well as the end user consummation.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I cut up my credit cards and threw them in the trash a few years ago, so I guess I'm safe. I only have a debit card now, and don't want anything else. Amazon has never ripped me off, and I've made at least a thousand purchases with them over the years, for about as long as they've been in business. I'm a member of Amazon Prime, and have even started getting my groceries from them. If you have their app on your phone or computer, they already have your account information, and don't request anything when making purchases, unless you use a different account, and shipping address. I only ever use different addresses to send gifts to. I suppose they could starting to seey hand, but can't perceive how that would hurt anything. Maybe they'll make a movie with all of their pictures of hands, and my hand will be famous someday.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
It's just another silly subject for us to talk about, but I guess if we had anything better to do we'd be doing it . I'm going to switch back to my CNN app now, and check on the progress of the impeachment trial of that asshole president of ours.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I wonder if President Trumpelstiltskin has that song memorized that goes "I'm an asshole, I'm an asshole, I'm an asshole! He's also a major discredit to the Republican party, of which I am a staunch member. Never forget, it was a Republican president who wrote the emancipation proclamation, and freed the slaves, but I bet this fool would prefer the return of slavery, of blacks, and Mexicans,too. I've got a picture on my wall of Nelson Mandela, and next to it reads "No one was born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than it's opposite. ---Nelson Mandela
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flugo
'sea bee':
Your Mandela quote is faulty: '. . . . . love comes more naturally to the human heart . . . ' According to God's Word, mankind has a natural bent toward evil, sin and wickedness. . . . . NOT love. Jeremiah 17:9
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Chaplain Shawn
Mr. Elfstrom, did Lincoln really free the African Americans as you say? History shows 1964 was when they received rights that equal the Caucasian's rights. I am a firm believer in when you set a people free you give them the rights at that particular moment, not 104 or so years later. I guess that is me though, not everyone thinks the way I do.
Amazon is not forcing anyone to chip themselves. The Revelation verse is pure antichrist tyranny. The end times will not be about choices. It will be about global demonic tyranny. The antichrist and his father Satan makeup the dictatorship. The end times focus mainly on restoring Babylon on a global scale. The fate of those who stand against the dictatorship will result in death. Believe in hell or die. Revelation points out the true misogyny of evil. Plenty of women, men, children, and pregnant women will be killed by Satan's minions.
However, there will be justice. The true hero and Savior of the world restores peace, eventually destroys all evil, and creates a new heaven and earth. Here is a reminder from John Lennon. Some of the lyrics were changed to create a more coherent message.
"Imagine there's no hell It's easy if you try Only heaven above us Below us only ground
Imagine all the people Living for Babylon
Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no evil too
Imagine all the people Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us God's world we be as one
Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger Christ's intended brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us God's world will live as one
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Chaplain Shawn
I forgot the end quote " to Lennon's wonderful song.
Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons.
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Chaplain Shawn
Typo: Sorry God's world will be as one in line 5.
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Angel
No, but it is the beginning for is what to come. The mark of the beast will be similiar but from the government and used for everything, to pay, to get your paycheck, ss, medical, ect.
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Maurice Slaunwhite
By the way the universe did not create us God did. If you look in Genesis chapter at the very beginning of it this is what It says ( In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth ) It also says in the book of ( Revelation ) If any man Changes his words by adding or subtracting will have their name not added or will the said names will not be added in The book of life. It is Written. As far as it goes with the numbers of 666 this is the number of a man. This is also in the Book of Revelation and neither one of these can never be changed. The truth is written.
Minister Maurice
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Lionheart
It’s all unsubstantiated rubbish, but thank you anyway for your fallacious comment. Don’t believe everything you read. Especially when it’s centuries old handed down written fables, and fiction. Much like CNN, most if it is fake news. Amazingly the page numbering is correct though!
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Don Howard
Lionheart, Actually the whole religious thing is not Bull squat. It awesome actually for the person who knows what the biblical mandate on the Mark of the Beast is and means! The whole article and this tech points to the prophetic Word in the Bible written in the first century A.D by none other then John of Revelation the seer or Prophet. This tech prophecy as the article is alluding to for the Christian or Bible Scholar, its historicity and veracity based on Biblical Prophecy is quite remarkable, to say the least! Bible prophecy being fulfilled in our very eyes! For starters here is a verse from written 2000 years ago to the early churches: Revelation Chapter 13 starting at verse 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: 17And 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. 18Here 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. What is most amazing is (verse 17) And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.The pandemic shut down the whole world and we were all mandated by the powers to be ( I.E.) The Beast Power or those who control the Techs Amazon,Walmart or the Financial Systems,how we should or could Buy or Sell as if they knew they had control to mandate how to Buy or Sell or what time you could Buy or Sell or what you had to wear ( I.E. mask,social distancing ) to Buy or Sell even to this very moment as I write this post it is still enforced for whatever reason pandemic or no Pandemic, The Beast is rearing its Ugly Prophetic head as John the Revelator pointed out so Prophetically 2000 years ago. Setting my own prejudices aside, I would still have to believe or take close note to the near contemporary who was close to the situation and prediction John. One would have to believe the knowledge that John had when he wrote the Book of Revelation,it is worthy of note (two thousand years removed.) as the article and its writer so pointedly expressed!
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Lionheart
The author of the Book of Revelations is generally known to be someone called John, but there is much conjecture as to who that really was. It was known to have been written on the Isle of Patmos, well known for ........guess what? Shrooms, and still is to this day. Mushrooms are a wonderful hallucinatory drug so I have been led to believe, which possibly says a lot for that book. Just saying!
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Richard Lee Cornell
I like the way China has control of its citizens. Each person has a number usually they also have that number tied into the cheap cell phones. Cash has become out of fashion. You have credit that is tied to your meger bank account. That phone tells you if you can afford what you want to purchase, if you do and go over the funds you have you are in debit. That cell phone becomes part of your body. You can not misplace it, lose it, give it away, trash it. It will be with you until you die. It is tied in to the street camera that also watches you. That phone is always on so if the owner speaks badly of the State his voice is recorded. Amazon is a small minor player when it comes to watching its buyer and what the trend is. China has near 1.4 billion people that they watch over each day and know what each person buys.
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Richard Lee Cornell
Go to Mexico where its officials have a chip planted in them in case they get kidnapped. Every cell phone has a GPS tracking device in it. China has gotten rid of credit card thief's. China also has gotten rid of cash between drug dealers Any Chinese with coins or paper runs the risk of jail time.
There is huge exception to be taken with your phrase, "...but in the end, having a credit card number or microchip inserted into your.......is no more or less evil than paying with cash." That is WRONG! Obviously the writer does not know the technical details of these plans. The microchip - or whatever the tech object may be - will then be able to transmit signals to a tower and/or satellite which will then process the information. What many do not realize is that the chip has the ability to both receive and transmit signals. What if it was decided to either make the individual who has the embedded item ill or die? It would be very easy to then send a signal to the embedded chip which would carry out the instructions. Additionally, it would be easy to track every monetary transaction and store it in a cloud. What if the cloud was hacked? We have already seen the problems caused when credit card information is hacked, and when the platform for obamacare, Anthem, was hacked; millions had their identity stolen. So do your research before you think "..no more or less evil than paying with cash."
Good point. Cash has the benefit of being anonymous and private, whereas electronic forms of transacting with the exception of Monero and it's ilk, are inherently invasive of people's anonymity and privacy. But truthfully, this could just as easily be referring to cell-phones which record your location (due to cell-tower triangulation, gps, etc) constantly when turned on. The can't even function without doing so. This information in turn is a source of additional revenue to cell companies who will sell the exact details of your travels to anyone who pays them. Children growing up today have never known a time in their lives when they have had a right to anonymity and privacy. That's a sad state of affairs. If you told people that government or private corporations were going to install surveillance equipment in their homes, they riot in the street. But tell those same people they can play video games on it, and they'll camp outside the store in the dead of winter and pay a months wages to install it themselves, even taking it into the bathroom and bedroom voluntarily. Superstitious nonsense is the very least of our concerns in this day and age when we're faced with a reality like that.
PS. Revelations was about the Roman empire. It's old/fake news.
CB and Lori...well-thought and supported...this "advance" has nothing to do with helping mankind, and everything to do with money...while it is not the only one, Amazon is a cancer of society...I will not deal with Amazon, even if I have to spend a little bit more by going directly to companies...Peace,...Tom B
Respectfully... Some people seem jealous of the successes of others. Peace and prosperity, from planet Vulcan.
A chip that small has to be placed in an electromagnetic field to send or receive data: it's like a smartcard or NFC (near-field connection). For the truly paranoid, if embedded payment chipping does in fact become that commonplace, I'm sure that EM (electro-magnetic) shielded gloves will become popular accessories, as EM-shielded sleeves and wallets for smart-cards (included chip-embedded credit cards) have.
I, for one, can't even get cellphone service that consistent and reliable at present--and the antenna and transceiver in my phone are much larger than an embedded chip would be. Even VLSI technology tends to run up against molecular size limits. Do you really want a powerful EM signal subcutaneously radiating out from your body at all times? If so, you may want to see if your medical plan allows you to buy skin cancer exam and treatment chits at a discount in bulk.
As far as an embedded microchip embedded in flesh being exploited to harm the host, that would depend on a number of factors, including whether or not it was placed near a crucial nexus, what its capabilities are, and what its potential power output could be if overloaded. Yes, someone with a pacemaker that has wireless capability for monitoring vitals as well as for adjusting its operating parameters and uploading upgrades and patches could potentially be exploited to kill its host, but then consider that it's controlling a critical life-supporting organ: it's keeping a human heart beating, that can no longer beat stably on its own.
Cb, I like your comments. However, I believe that the writer is trying to say the the Microchip of new Techs implementation is the Beast of the Book of Revelation on steroids. Henceforth this sentence the writer points out " The larger concern may lie in the here and now, with questions of how companies will utilize your biometric information." The Beast Power of Financial conglomerates already have our info with cash as the writer and yourself so eloquently pointed out. The Beast power or governments have the tools and have had the tools without the Chip or Newest Techs for sometime now to freeze your accounts and spending with things like using in trade,Economic sanctions. Commercial and financial penalties have frequently been being applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. You pointed out " The microchip - or whatever the tech object may be - will then be able to transmit signals to a tower and/or satellite which will then process the information. What many do not realize is that the chip has the ability to both receive and transmit signals. What if it was decided to either make the individual who has the embedded item ill or die?" Good point, I think the writer as well as yourself left it open for more thought. Here was the Writers exit statement or interjection: "Either way, it can be frightening to think about. What are your thoughts? Is this the Mark of the Beast, or simply the mark of technological progression?"