These are exciting times for believers in Christ who are interested in Bible prophecy. Many things that are suggested by unfulfilled future prophecies seem to be trending like never before.
We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to discuss some of those things.
✎ We are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news and information.
✎ We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect from reading the Bible literally.
Believers and nonbelievers are not ignorant about the “Mark of the Beast.” It is introduced in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation. Here is what we are told: “… all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave… receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and… no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark…” (v16-17).
Strong’s Concordance notes that the word “forehead” comes from the root word, “face.”
John predicted this over 2000 years ago at a time when soldiers were getting paid with salt. He saw technology we take for granted.
Here are a few of the biometric advances that could easily fit John’s vision of the future.
The Mark on the right hand:
#1. Apple is considering tweaking the mechanical aspects of its proposed palm biometrics invention to include contactless sensors. The company received the original patent to its palm-based biometric authentication technology in 2019 and envisioned it for upcoming Apple Watches and other devices.
#2. According to biometricupdate.com, “Palmprint biometric authentication and identification is an attractive alternative to facial recognition technology that is proven to be more accurate, reliable and safe in our new, contactless world.”
The Mark on the forehead (face):
#1. Amazon is planning to join a growing list of major companies that are working to make facial recognition the authentication method of choice. The retailer has filed a patent claim for a method it hopes will enable customers to complete purchases using their faces rather than passwords. The Amazon application shows that the company is working on a system that allows users to capture photos of themselves on their phones or computers and then let Amazon use that as the basis for authentication for transactions. A transaction is authorized using an authentication process that prompts the user to perform an action in view of a camera or sensor. The process identifies the user and verifies that the user requesting the transaction is a living human being. The user is identified using image information which is processed utilizing facial recognition.
#2. US companies are currently using facial recognition for everything from fast food orders to trying on makeup to issuing life insurance policies, and more.
#3. Ford and Intel have teamed up on a project called Project Mobil, in which a dashboard camera uses facial recognition to identify the primary driver of a vehicle or other authorized drivers, such as family members. One use case could be blocking the car from starting if someone other than an authorized driver sits in the driver’s seat. This in-car facial recognition approach can also be used to personalize the driving experience for each driver, calibrating the car’s settings to whoever is driving – such as automatically adjusting the music volume, driver’s seat position, or even vehicle speed.
There are dozens of articles describing the current use of the kind of technology we have been expecting ever since Patmos.
None of this stuff is the Mark of the Beast. The Mark involves voluntarily swearing allegiance to the antichrist in order to be able to go on buying & selling.
You cannot deny that these are things you expect to be occurring in the End Times based upon a literal, futurist reading of the Bible.
We believe the resurrection and rapture of the church are imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it. It will definitely happen before the Great Tribulation.
Jesus will return in the clouds.
He will raise the dead in Christ.
He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies.
We will all join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.
Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!