Keith Phillips
During the last half of the reign of the Antichrist, the three-and-a-half-year period known as the Great Tribulation, those who refuse to worship him or accept his mark, or number, will not be able to buy or sell. We who worship God will be persecuted, but our faith in God will save us. At the end of this period, Jesus will come back to rescue us, destroy the Antichrist's worldwide economic, political and religious system, and set up His own kingdom here on Earth.
The technology needed to institute the mark of the Beast-technology unheard of only a few years ago-is rapidly developing. Consider the following:
Microchipped to Serve
At a time when conspiracy theories abound, perhaps no one is more outspoken than former TV sports commentator and spokesman for the British Green Party, David Icke, who has written 10 books supporting the same basic premise: The same few people, organizations and secret societies are taking over the world-and us. This Elite, according to Icke, creates the news and then pipes it to us. They engineer events and set the trends-wars, revolutions, terrorist attacks, assassinations, political and economic upheavals, international drug trafficking-then form our perception of those things through the media that they also control. They are masters of collective and individual mind control, and their aim is to master us!
In an interview with the Independent newspaper of South Africa (Jan. 19, 1998), Icke stated, "The secret government of the world is manipulating the human mind to accept a centralized global tyranny, as we speak. This tyranny is called the New World Order, and unless we wake up it will manifest as a world government; a world central bank, currency and army and a microchipped population linked to a global computer."
And we'd better wake up quick, because it's happening! Already pets are being microchipped, and human applications are either being discussed or are in the experimental stage-from microchipping preschoolers to thwart kidnappings and make it possible to track lost children, to microchipping parolees and inmates in "jail at home" programs.
Ultimately, Icke says, the plan includes the microchipping of all babies at birth. "The technology already exists, and all that remains is to persuade the public to accept it. One way this will be done is to highlight missing children stories, including the abduction of babies from maternity wards."
On the financial front, coins and banknotes are being phased out in favor of credit and smart cards. "Today if you go into a shop to buy anything and your credit card is refused by the computer, you can pay with cash," Icke explains. "What happens when there is no cash? If the computer refuses your card or microchip, you have no means to buy anything. We will then be robots in every sense of the word, an extension of a computer program."
Proponents of microchipping humans say there are other selling points: Passports could be done away with, and people could carry their medical records with them wherever they go, in case of accident. In the UK, people are already being microchipped with their medical records. "Even more frightening," Icke says, "is that the microchip can be used to modify [human] behavior."
Connecting Brain to Computer
According to an article in The Sunday Times (London, England, Nov. 7, 1997), the prospect of extending human intelligence by means of electronic implants in the brain has come two steps closer. Scientists have not only grown living nerves cells of a rat-cells that closely resemble their counterpart in humans-on a silicon chip, but have also transmitted electrical impulses along the nerves to trigger sensors within the chip.
"The findings are being hailed as a crucial first step in developing direct connections between computers and the brain. This will lead to silicon-based enhancements for the body, ranging from memory devices inside the head to 'bionic' eyes that allow blind people to see," states the Sunday Times article.
When asked about the latest research, Colin Humphreys, a professor at Cambridge University, said it raised the frightening prospect of one day being able to control people's minds through silicon chip implants.
Chip Implants to Track Workers
"Big Brother could soon be watching from the inside," another Sunday Times article (May 9, 1999) warns. "Several international companies are consulting scientists on ways of developing microchip implants for their workers to measure their timekeeping and track their whereabouts.
"The technology, which has been proven on pets and human volunteers, would enable firms to track staff all around a building or complex. The data could enable them to draw up estimates of workers' efficiency and productivity.
"The technology is likely to have a strong appeal to companies with high labor costs, for which small increases in staff productivity can have a big impact on profits. It is also relatively cheap-just a few [British] pounds for each person, according to Professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University.
"For a business the potential is obvious," the article quotes Warwick. "You can tell when people clock into work and when they leave the building. You would know at all times exactly where they were and who they were with."
Verse: "He [the False Prophet, top aide to the Antichrist, also known as the Beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:16-17).
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