Endtime Magazine Jan-Feb 2013 | Page 26

666 666–The Mark of the Beast. It’s the most famous prophecy in the Bible. Its message is crystal clear. A time is coming very soon when every person on earth will be required to have a mark or a number, without which he or she will not be permitted to buy or sell. In practical application, a national ID card or number will be required to hold a job. Of course, with no job, a person will have no money with which to buy and sell. One more condition of the prophecy is what makes it so ominous. Each person will have to “worship” the Antichrist and his world government in order to have his national ID card or number validated. Worshiping the Antichrist probably refers to some form of pledging allegiance. Without “pledging allegiance” to the Antichrist and his one-world government, the individual will be frozen out of the global economy. However, if any person does pledge allegiance to the Antichrist, the prophecy states the punishment will be eternal damnation. Revelation 14:9-11 says it this way: And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his 26 www.endtime.com JAN/FEB 2013 image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. The alarming thing is that almost every nation on earth either already has a national ID system set up or is in the process of setting one up right now. Many nations took significant steps toward establishing or enhancing their national ID systems during 2012. INDIA In 2010, India ordered 1.2 billion ID cards, one for each of its 1.2 billion citizens. The goal was to implement a nationwide program to register and assign a one-of-a-kind ID number to every Indian resident—some 1.2 billion people—by 2020 and to meet an interim goal of issuing 600 million IDs by 2014. By April 2012 India had enrolled 200 million people in its Unique ID program. Once the system is in place, people in India will be able to provide their 12-digit number, show fingerprints and iris scans, and immediately a central database will be able to authenticate that they are who they say they are. It is also projected that the national ID system will be used for opening bank accounts and then eventually for purchasing things electronically. SWEDEN In March of 2012, it was reported that more and more businesses in Sweden were moving away from accepting cash. There are towns where even banks no longer accept or dispense cash. Everything is being done electronically. Bills and coins now represent only 3 percent of Sweden’s economy. Sweden is almost a cashless society already. RUSSIA Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced in the spring of 2011 that Russia would launch a Universal Electronic Card (UEC) in 2012. This