“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on [in] their right hand or on [in] their foreheads, 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. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666”

Revelation 13:16–18

THIS PROPHECY is remarkable. Think about it: Nearly 2,000 years ago the apostle John, who prior to meeting Jesus had been a fisherman by trade and had been called an “uneducated and untrained” man (Acts 4:13), predicted that a global economic system will one day be instituted in which everyone will be forced to receive a number, without which they will not be able to buy or sell. Only in this era of computers and electronic commerce could this prophecy be fulfilled.

There are currently a number of methods commonly used for purchasing items. You can use cash, you can write a check, you can use a credit card, or you can use a debit card that instantly deducts the amount from your bank account and deposits it into the account of the merchant.

Smart cards take this several steps further. They have a tiny computer chip embedded in their plastic. These electronic marvels not only give you instant access to your bank account, but they can also contain (or access) your passport information, your medical records, driver’s license, photographs, biometrics, credit history, and other data. Hundreds of millions of smart cards are in use across Europe in the form of health cards, SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards (which turn your phone into a smart card),⁹⁵ and ePurse cards.

A parallel program is the biometric passport (AKA, epassport) which began being issued by many countries in 2006. Although not involving commerce, this does involve an attempt at fail-safe identification. Epassports not only contain your name and personal data in printed form, but an RFID chip embedded in the cover contains the same information in electronic form along with biometric information.

The ID Hurdle

Before cash, checks, and credit cards can be phased out completely, an absolutely foolproof identification system must be developed and implemented to prevent identity theft.

Retailers must be sure that the person presenting a card for a transaction is actually the owner of that card.

Various biometric ID systems have already been developed, like fingerprint and hand readers, retinal scanners, and face readers. But for a completely cashless society to work, there would have to be a standardization of the many competing systems, and the scanners would need to be installed at every shop and office, no matter how big or small, where goods or services are sold.

While highly accurate biometric scanners would be very costly to install everywhere they would be needed—not to mention the expensive infrastructure they would need to speedily access the databases where people’s biometric details are stored—microchips encased in plastic smart cards and the scanners to read them are a much more cost-efficient alternative.

Your Own Personal Microchip Implant

A cheap and workable solution would be to take a chip similar to those used in smart cards and place it under the skin of each man, woman, and child. It wouldn’t even have to store all your personal data, but just a unique identifier. All your data could be stored in gigantic networked databases and your identification code would access it. Once the chip is implanted, it could be read by an inexpensive scanner, similar in function to the ones that read bar codes in your local grocery store. You would then become your own smart card—and the very expensive problem of making sure that the owner of the card is who he says he is has been solved!

The chipping of people quietly began in the U.S., via Applied Digital Solutions’ VeriChip. In May 2002 the “historic chipping of the Jacobs family” took place. This family and several other volunteers had a chip with a unique identifier injected under their skin.⁹⁶ About two centimeters long, the glass encased chip was read by a handheld VeriChip scanner. The Jacobs family suffers from various ailments and the storage of their medical history provided the logic behind their volunteering to be the test cases.

VeriChip aggressively marketed their product.

VeriChip Corp. wants to get under the skin of 1.4 million U.S. servicemen and women. The company is hoping to convince the Pentagon to allow them to insert the chips, known as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips under the skin of the right arms of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen to enable them to scan an arm and obtain that person’s identity and medical history. The chips would replace the legendary metal dog tags that have been worn by U.S. military personnel since 1906.⁹⁷

Despite being given FDA approval for use in humans, due to a number of concerns, including a reported link between chips and malignant tumors in animals, the manufacture and marketing of VeriChips were discontinued in 2010. Nevertheless, research into sub-dermal RFID chips for humans continues.

A global cashless society is in the making. Fiber optics, satellites, and computer databases have the potential to control the world in a way that boggles the imagination. Many governments and private corporations worldwide are pursuing policies to eliminate cash and checks, while many other countries are testing various methods of doing business without physical currency. The hi-tech means of fulfilling the chilling vision the apostle John received nearly 2,000 years ago is here.

The Power Behind the Throne

The coming world leader will demand the world’s worship not merely because he has a severe ego problem.—He will be empowered or possessed by Satan himself. “The dragon [Satan] gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Revelation 13:2).

Satan has always wanted to be God. This is why he fell in the first place. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! … For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the highest throne. … I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ But instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest depths” (Isaiah 14:12–15 TLB).

Watch Out for 666!

What Satan is really after when he causes the Antichrist government to set up the coming global financial system is to gain control over the people of the world and to get them to bow down and worship him. This is why the Bible warns, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God. … [T]hey have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name” (Revelation 14:9–11).

The book of Revelation states six times that worshiping the Beast coupled with receiving his Mark leads to damnation. There is a link between the two, though at this point in time it is not clear exactly what that will be. At first glance, it would seem the Mark is simply an economic and identification system. Perhaps it is okay to accept the Mark as long as you don’t become a worshipper of the devil-man behind it. But is that too great a risk to take?

So when you see the world government arise and its leader demands your allegiance, your loyalty, and even your worship, don’t fall for it. Regardless of the economic incentives offered or the retribution that threatens those who refuse his Mark and number, give your love and worship to the true God, your Creator, who loves and cares for you, and who has promised that He will see you through the days ahead if you put your trust in Him. The Bible says, “The people who know their God will be strong” (Daniel 11:32).

(For more on this subject, see The Rise and Fall of the Antichrist, also from Aurora Production.)