Just Something To Think About...

When I was younger, and stronger, way before I got married and had to be responsible for myself as well as a family, I was studying The Bible and especially the prophesies about the end times. Now just mentioning that, many of you may decide to not read the rest of this post. That's okay. It's your right not to read it just as it is still my right to post it. But for all of those who do read it, this is something to be thinking about.

There is no doubt about it, most Christians agree, we are in those end times now. We have some division about how it is all going to play out. I think most Christians believe there will be a pre-tribulation gathering of believers (The Rapture) while others believe mid-trib or post-trib, while some Christians don't believe in this gathering at all.

But regardless of your beliefs about the Rapture, The Bible predicts a time when the world leaders, and especially one world leader, will require that anyone who wants to buy or sell anything including food, homes, clothing, cars, whatever, will have to have a certain "mark" in their right hand or forehead. Prior to this time of advanced technology, many of us did not really know what kind of mark that might be. I have heard many ideas over the years from some type of tattoo which may or may not be visible to the eye, may be like a bar code of some type, to the current idea that it will be some type of computer chip that is implanted. I remember thinking way back then that I was not going to ever get a credit card, never have anything to do with computers, never be involved with direct deposit or payments drawn automatically from my bank account, or do anything that even closely resembled this type of thing. I still do not have a credit card and hope never to have one. But I do have a debit card and I use it like a credit card. I still remember the first job I got that required my paycheck be direct deposited. I own two computers and use at least one of them every single day. But I have always been wary of the day when it would get closer to people being marked in any way for any purposes of identification, banking, buying and selling. It started innocently enough with pets being computer chipped in case they get lost. Then the first I heard of it in humans came shortly after 911 when people started allowing themselves to be computer chipped for emergency reasons.

Now before this gets any longer, I know many Christians are also concerned about this and hoping that before it happens, before we have to refuse to be marked in any way such as the Bible predicts. Today I was thinking, and knowing that we are really aware that all these things must happen that are predicted, we really don't know when or how. We don't know when there will be some type of regulation coming that will require us to be marked to receive our paychecks whether from our jobs, or retirement or whatever. We know it will happen, but we don't know when.

We do know that The Bible says this world leader will command the whole world to be marked. But have we thought about the possibility that only parts of the world will be marked leading up to that day? We don't know if this might happen prior to the Rapture. If it does...are we ready to refuse?

We vote. We talk. We say what we believe. Sometimes we don't because we fear the repercussions of speaking about our faith. Our world has become such that even in this country where religious freedom was born, Christians are not free. More and more our own religious freedoms are being stripped away. Are we prepared to look at our children and grandchildren and say NO to being marked so that we can feed them, put nice clothes on them, give them things they want in this material world, and even provide a safe shelter for them? Are we ready to refuse the mark if it comes at a time when we are still waiting for Jesus to come and take us home? Would we even know what was happening or are we becoming like the pigs in the story that tells how to capture wild pigs...put out the food, the bait and day by day as the pigs come and get more and more used to the surroundings, put up one wall...gradually putting up all the walls until the pigs look up and realize they've lost their freedom.

I'm not young and definitely not strong anymore. Everything I do is pretty much direct deposited or with my debit card except for a very few things. I would not survive. I have no land where I can plant my own fruits and vegetables or raise my own animals. I have no ability to travel to some place "safe". I admit it. I caved in. Over the years I let myself be wooed somewhat by the material things. I let myself be convinced that as long as I maintained control over what I was doing, I was okay. How do I know when and where to draw that line? Do any of us know? Are any of us ready?

Just something to think about.

Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.