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.
