The "mark of the beast", as seen in the biblical book of Revelation, is closer than most people realize. In fact, it is being fast-tracked by the powers that be in the United States. As I say this most of you may be thinking I'm referring to the de facto national ID card as embodied by the federally subsidized and standardized national drivers license. Others will have images of Digital Angel flash through their heads. Digital Angel is an RFID ( radio frequency identification) chip that has the government's stamp of approval for human implantation. It is about the size of a grain of rice and started its life as an implant for tracking and identifying your pet, a technology that somehow made the jump to humans. Many a preacher and armchair prophet have pointed to Digital Angel as the pre-curser of, if not the actual, mark of the beast. In the Daily WATCH, Volume 2 Issue 98, titled: CHARAGMA , you will find this theory refuted from biblical and historic evidence.
After reading CHARAGMA you may want to discard a connection between the mark and Digital Angel. I earnestly ask you to not be hasty. No, Digital Angel is not the mark of the beast, but as said in CHARAGMA, it is a conditioning agent that the shadow powers are using to prepare us for the real McCoy!
I want you to keep in mind the human tracking Digital Angel's introduction as a pet tracking technology as I expand upon the news that I am about to share with you.
In 2004 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a program that came in under the radar of most of the media. The program is called the NATIONAL ANIMAL ID SYSTEM (NAIS). The NAIS program's aim is to register all animals, domestic and those entering the USA, under a national identification database. Their stated purpose is to be able to reduce the time and obstacles to tracking diseases (both natural or introduced by terrorists) in animals before they spread to other animals or into the human food supply. Fair enough, considering the enormity of agribusiness in this country, it only stands to reason that there need to be further checks and balances added to contain any contagions that may bring harm to humans, animals and business. Indeed, it would seem fair, except that the USDA plans to bring EVERY animal into compliance. Not just the big cattle ranches or slaughterhouses, but you, me or anyone else who has a horse or a goat or produces meat, dairy, eggs or poultry for sale or for their own use!
The USDA states that the plan will be brought about in a series of phases that start out as voluntary (except some poor producers in Wisconsin who are told by their state "government" that it is mandatory) and scheduled to be completed in 2007 by making it mandatory. Every "producer", as livestock owners are referred to by the USDA, will be assigned a premises identification number. This number in the database identifies the producer's name, address, phone number and livestock information. The USDA says that privacy concerns are being taken into consideration, but they also say that the time for public dialogue ended back in 2004. So in other words, shut up and accept it!
The NAIS program calls for notification to the USDA and the tracking of every animal that leaves your premises and has a probability of "commingling" with other animals. And as if to rub salt into an open wound, the USDA says that each producer will share the burden of cost for this national ID system for animals.
As I stated above, this system is slated to become mandatory. The USDA expects that market forces will be instrumental in enforcing NAIS by excluding non-compliant producers from buying or selling their livestock!
Let's connect the dots. Digital Angel made it okay to track animals and then the government made Digital Angel legitimate to track people. The National Drivers License program makes it legitimate to create a national database of all drivers in the USA. NAIS makes it possible to track animals AND animal raisers! In this evolutionary dance the next logical step is to give each person an ID number that acts as a catch-all. Can we say Social Security number? What is there to stop Congress from taking some simple steps to using your SSN as your de facto identification? The social security number started out simply as a method to keep track of your income so that money would be set aside in proportion to it for your retirement. It has evolved since that time to be a tool used by many entities outside the Social Security Administration for tracking your income, identification, credit checks, etc. There is a fine line between what is now your social security number and a national identification number. Since it is used primarily for economic tracking it would be the logical candidate (or a derivative of the SSN) for a national identification number. The power to control the masses will be through economic manipulation, that is, controlling who buys and sells, who eats and who doesn't, according to whether you are cooperative or not. This is the direction the whole world is moving on every front as daily events drive us madly towards the mark of the beast.
Let me ask you, have you noticed all of the media hoopla over bird flu coming to America? Recently a doom and gloom made for TV movie depicted a "mutated" bird flu virus ravaging the USA. The government has made numerous references to bird flu and has begun stockpiling drugs in an attempt to prepare for what some in the media refer to as a probable pandemic. In our war on terror, natural catastrophes and diseases it stands to reason that the government will simply use the same reasoning they are using to justify tracking every animal and every farm, ranch and homestead. A national database will help FEMA to operate more efficiently when there are "potential" catastrophes like outbreaks of disease.
The line that divides tracking animal to animal diseases and simply tracking infected humans from place to place and who they had contact with in order to contain the disease before it spreads is becoming blurry indeed. Why do you think there was that rash of dictatorial legislation a few years back that gave police state powers to the government to quarantine people as they see fit, including the suspension of their constitutional rights!? Were they just farsighted and noble leaders looking out for our well being? In some cases I am convinced they were, but in many other cases I can't help but recall the Bible's admonition that there is no one who is righteous, not one!
Does all of this make your head spin? Sound preposterous? Do you always see the good in mankind or will you acknowledge the truth that if no one is righteous then all fall short of the glory of God. Simply put, even Jesus refused to be called good to make the point that no one is good except the Father.
Let's look at a nation who is several steps ahead of us on the slippery slope.
Look at Great Britain! The English are busily instituting a national ID card and are proud of it, even as large segments of their population have expressed disapproval and even contempt for it. John Bull's police departments have recently bragged that they track upwards of over 30 million vehicles a day! Now back here in the good old USA it was just reported that the Pentagon, in the name of national security, is collecting a database full of our phone call records. They are doing this purportedly not to listen in, but to see who has been talking to whom!
Yes, the time is perilously close when your identification number can be punched into the database in this country and all of your information, movements, purchases and communications will be revealed. But, this is not the mark of the beast so anticipated by Christians. The beast will most certainly make good use of such a system to control individual enemies, not unlike some politicians do now in the USA, but the main power of such a system is its efficiency in controlling masses of people and a world economy! This isn't done by tracking individual people within a system, it is done by making people conform to the system and its rules by taking the system's imposed identification or forgo the benefit of its "privileges" even to the point of not being able to buy or sell.
The modern world, up to today, has generally seen the power of the buyer dictate the actions of the seller, but today we are seeing, just as in most of history, the tide swing back to the point where the sellers are consolidating their power by manipulating the rule of law into their favor. Hence we will see more legislation benefiting big business at the expense of the individual. The day is fast approaching when a consumer boycott will have little effect on sellers. Sellers will have the power to control the actions of the buyers, there is much in the way of evidence to be seen of this today.
The appeal of the mark to the antichrist is not in tracking individuals, but in controlling his opposition via their purchasing power. By taking his mark as a sign of allegiance you will be allowed to participate in his system. That is, you will have the privilege to buy and sell in exchange for your allegiance. This is just as our brothers and sisters in Christ of the first several centuries were tested. If they denounced Christ and took vows to the emperor then they were issued a certificate that enabled them to enjoy all of the benefits of the Roman system, but if they didn't then they could lose their jobs, their homes and in some cases their lives.
Do you see? The independence of the individual is being crushed. It is being crushed to the point that few will even be able to feed themselves outside the system. We are less than a year away from government control over the family chicken, think about it.
Don't look for the mark of the beast's significance in its ability to be a privacy killer, that is a minor concern. The real significance of the mark of the beast is its ability to destroy freedom as it becomes a mark of servitude. By taking the mark you will have made yourself a subject of the antichrist's kingdom and will have willingly thrown away your citizenship in the kingdom of God! And on earth you will have helped to destroy freedom!
USDA NAIS Program: http://www.usda.gov/nais/