The Mark of the Beast, here now!
By: D. James Heffner
Revelation is, of all the books in the Bible, the most controversial, interpreted, argued about, and fictionalized through books. One of the prime questions is, is it a book that only applied to the early Church or to a time yet to come? The opinions about its prophecies are as many as there is literature about their meaning. Modern authors have made fortunes writing about this book, an example of which is the Left Behind series. The discussion, examination and explaining of Revelation has been going on for thousands of years and most likely will for some time to come. In this article I’m only looking at one specific element, the Mark of the Beast.
St. John’s Revelation has become one of the most popular books in the Bible. A popular saying is, “Timing is everything” and in the Book of Revelation this is the main consideration. For instance, there are those who believe St. John was referring to the situation of the church at the time he wrote Revelation on the island of Patmos. Exploiting St. John’s Revelation numerous Authors have written books claiming to know the meaning of its symbolisms and timing for the fulfillment of prophetic elements in Revelation. So far none of these Authors predictions have come true.
Revelation tells us there will be a Beast that “deceives those who inhabit the Earth” (Rev 14a), “Also he compels all (alike), both small and great, both the rich and the poor, both free and slave, to be marked with an inscription (stamped) on their right hands or on their foreheads. So that no one will have the power to buy or sell unless he bears the stamp (mark, inscription), that is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” (Rev 13: 16-17) The Amplified Bible. But, what exactly, is the Mark of the Beast? For centuries Scholars and Theologians have put forth all manner of ‘marks’ and identities for the Beast. So far none of these assertions have achieved reality. There is even a theory that the Beast was the Emperor Nero. If that’s the case then that part of Revelation is ‘over’, done with. But I don’t subscribe to that theory. I believe it is yet to come to pass.
Planet Earth continues to revolve around the Sun; days come and go as do the four Seasons - year after year. All the while the Church continues to look for the fulfillment of the Signs in Revelation. Every earthquake, plague, war and catastrophic event brings forth more ‘prophets’ declaring the time is here, or near. However, life goes on just like it did for the early Believers, who expected Jesus’ return at any moment. I don’t pretend to know the answers to ‘when will it happen’ or who the Beast is.
However, others have put forth their understandings of Revelation, so I too offer a ‘current event’ that I believe foreshadows the fulfillment of one of Revelation’s prophetic elements. In this case the Mark of the Beast. As I noted earlier, timing is everything, and the accepted interpretation is that the elements of Revelation point to future events. So if, as some believe, we are in the Last Hours of the Last Days we should be looking for the Mark of the Beast because it’s an essential element in the early stages of the power grab of the Antichrist. It’s safe to say the Future is here! It is also safe to say that Technology is one of today’s acknowledged source of ‘miracles’. In the last 100 years technological breakthroughs have profoundly changed the way humanity lives and interacts with the World. Although I can’t claim the following is the exact method to be used for the Mark of the Beast I think it offers a plausible means for it to come about – very soon.
Commerce in particular has become almost totally dependent upon technology – all across the world. Currency is almost becoming unnecessary and in Europe they did away with specific currencies for each country and now use the Euro as the method of exchange. The transactions of international money traders’ and banks are accomplished by electronic means. If you have a credit or debit card you can travel anywhere in the world and purchase anything you want with ease. It’s safe to say that this trend will continue to grow and commerce in all forms will be done by electronic means, no money necessary.
This invasive use of technology – especially electronic identification – is taking hold in many areas of our daily life: Medical care, Merchandise inventory, in Pets, Automobiles and also Law Enforcement. This is made possible by a small computer chip that is embedded in packages, pallets, pets, library books and yes, even people. It is known as a RFID which is a Radio-frequency identification tag. There are plans being made to incorporate these tags into gift certificates, admission tickets, and financial securities.
Tag is not a good word to describe these ‘chips’ but I guess the name comes from the game of Tag You’re It. The purpose of RFID is to keep track of things as they move about in world commerce. For instance, an automobile rental company will be able to know exactly where their rental car is at any time. Manufacturers use them for tracking the location and amount of products in transit. Retailers use them to create the inventory of goods on hand. Some states use them in driver’s licenses as a means of storage – for retrieval by law enforcement – of a persons driving record. The use of RFID chips, now found in: toll collection, public transit passes and passports, will only grow as more ways to use them are required by those who want to keep track of or know about almost anything in which these chips can be embedded – even people, which is becoming more popular every day.
A March 2008 news report on a national cable news channel reported that there are serious plans being made to have these chips placed in children at birth. Wow, what a great idea! If a child (or adult) is kidnapped or gets lost all authorities have to do is use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate them. But who wants to go around with a chip inside their body – they leave a bump and a scar and no one wants that.
That problem has been solved, according to an article in the February 2008 issue of Scientific American (pages 68 – 71), with the development of an extremely tiny chip. Current RFID chips measure 0.4 mm on a side and 0.06 mm thick. The new chip is only 0.05 mm by 0.005 mm thick. The article states that, “Almost invisible, this prototype has one sixty-fourth the area yet incorporates the same functions as the ‘larger’ chip. Its minuteness, which will allow it to be embedded in ordinary sheets of paper, heralds a new era in which almost anything can be discreetly tagged and read with a scanner that it need not touch.” It is also noted that, “…a good RFID tag does not have to be scanned manually or oriented (positioned) in a certain way to be readable.” And here’s the scary part, “…some people have even implanted the devices in their hands to allow easy access to home and computer.”
The designer of this minute chip is Mitsuo Usami of Hitachi’s Central Research Laboratory. In a demonstration for the author of the article in Scientific American Mitsuo held up a small vial of liquid, pointed to a swirl of particles inside it and smiled. The author stated, “They glitter like stardust in the afternoon sunlight.” Mitsuo enthusiastically proclaimed, “This is the smallest chip of its kind in the world.” However, according to the article, Hitachi’s main goal is for the new chip is use in anti-counterfeiting technology. This chip “operates simply and requires no batteries or power supply. When it is embedded in an item along with a small filamentlike strip (the antenna) it will respond to 2.45 gigahertz microwaves from a scanner by reflecting back a unique 128-bit ID number stored in its read only memory (ROM). The scanner then checks the number against a database – which can be anywhere in the world – to immediately authenticate the chip. Hitachi says the Chip can be used to identify ‘trillions of trillions’ of objects because the 128-bit architecture affords an almost infinite number of digit combinations: 1038. Under development, “officially called the Powder LSI chip, also stores a 128-bit identifier.”
LSI stands for “large-scale integrated.” Thus, a chip this small is perfect for use by the Beast to identify anyone anywhere – this means you. When scanned it will be “matched to a database entry (where) it will call up whatever information the user has assigned to the chip.” Each chip will have a “unique identity number that is conveyed (transmitted) to a server. Having received a valid number, the server would provide the various functions a person might want to use. The concept is similar to “cloud computing.”
The Internet is being looked at as a possible means of transmitting this id number anywhere, anytime to anyone – such as the Beast. For those unfamiliar with a ROM’s purpose in computing, information in it is unchangeable by the ‘end user’. However, information in a ROM can be changed by a software or data upgrade from the creator of the data/software, without action by the person or object in which the chip is embedded.
Such technology is not impossible or a ‘future thing’ as it’s in use right now as the article in Scientific American reveals. The means whereby the Beast can control who buys and sells exists now! “Also he compels all, both small and great, both rich and the poor, both free and slave, to be marked with an inscription on their right hands or on their foreheads. So that no one will have power to buy or sell unless he bears the mark, that is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16 to 17). So there you are, a possible means for the mark of the Beast – no batteries needed.
