This link from my friend Jim. As ministers gathered in the House of Commons to debate the abolition of Britain's blasphemy laws, another motion was tabled by MPs calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England. Two former Bishops of the Church of England along with several other prominent public figures have supported the calls for the abolition of the blasphemy laws, which make it a criminal offence to blaspheme God in a public manner. Most recently, Christian organizations attempted to bring a prosecution against BBC Director Mark Thompson over the corporation's decision to broadcast the Jerry Springer Opera. The Jerry Springer Opera is a blasphemous production which portrays Jesus Christ as homosexual and God as a Creator who is no longer in control of His creation. The BBC received over 60,000 complaints about the show even before it was aired, but they still went ahead in broadcasting it. But a High Court Judge rejected the charge of blasphemy levelled at the BBC. The government has decided to postpone abolishing the blasphemy laws for the meantime, but will consider this following consultation with the mainstream denominations.

Quote: "The Prime Minister does "fully understand" the case made for abolition, his spokesman said, adding: "However, we do believe it is necessary to consult with the churches, particularly the Anglican church, before coming to a final decision, and that's what we are doing. advertisement "Subsequent to that, we will consider moving amendments in the House of Lords."

Personally I don't see the need for a blasphemy law. I don't think people should be punished for blaspheming their Creator. That is between them and God. Many men who were once blasphemers, such as John Bunyan and John Newton, were wonderfully saved. And the Lord Jesus said that "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men", and that "whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him", Matthew 12:31-32. But I do fear what might happen if organizations like the BBC were given a free-reign to produce whatever type of show they liked. In the same way, I don't think the Church of England should receive a special status from the government or the monarchy. I feel this may even be a hindrance to the work of the Church. But I do fear what might take its place if this was to be abolished. Last night MPs tabled a motion calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England. But it was the number of the motion that seemed to generate the most discussion rather than the proposal itself. The proposal to abolish the special status for the Church of England was tabled as motion number 666. 

Quote: "Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester and one of the signatories, said: "It is is incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number. "This number is supposed to be the mark of the Devil. It looks as though God or the Devil have been moving in mysterious ways. "What is even stranger is that this motion was tabled last night when MPs were debating blasphemy."

So if the government gets its way in disestablishing the Church of England and abolishing Britain's blasphemy laws, perhaps we can expect things in this country to go from bad to worse. But as the book of Daniel states, those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:32). We are living in dark days, but many people across the world are coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, often in countries where Christians are experiencing the greatest persecution. May the Lord help us to be bold witnesses for Him in these coming days.

Ecclesiastes 11:4
He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

Source Telegraph, Times Online

Next year will witness the spread of RFID applications into familiar, everyday settings, while consumer electronics, wireless technologies and security requirements will continue to benefit from the integration of RFID. These are just some of the predictions from AIM Global, the worldwide industry trade association and self-proclaimed authority on automatic identification and mobility solutions.

Practical RFID applications will find their way into familiar settings, including sporting events, the latest toys and food safety, according to the trade association. Next year's Beijing Olympics will see RFID applications being used to track marathon runners to ensure race time accuracy, watched by sports fans holding tickets authenticated by the same technology. This year's highly publicised recalls of contaminated foods and unsafe toys will push firms to use RFID to immediately track the origins of compromised items, halting the production of potentially harmful goods. 2008 will also witness the increasing integration of RFID into mobile devices and consumer electronics, providing consumers and business users with new and more convenient services. This technological marriage will result in multi-functional mobile devices that allow users to manage voice calls, email, text messages, multimedia, location-based information, personal finance accounts and many other aspects of everyday lives.

According to AIM Global, the convergence of RFID and other wireless technologies is now inevitable. As such the coming together of RFID, real-time locating systems technology, GPS, sensor and other wireless technologies will spur a "disappearance" of these acronyms as businesses and individuals become more accustomed to the benefits. 2008 will also see RFID addressing security vulnerabilities in the global supply chain. From transportation worker ID cards and border cards, to RFID-based electronic seals on cargo containers, RFID will increasingly be deployed in a bid to improve security without hampering international trade. Elsewhere in the supply chain, RFID will bring improvements to retail environments, allowing retailers to benefit from the cross-selling of related items and the ability to guarantee availability.

"These predictions showcase the priorities, segments and applications which enterprises can potentially leverage in the coming year to benefit their businesses," said Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global. "This forecast also provides strong anecdotal evidence regarding the ongoing evolution of the RFID industry, and how these changing dynamics are accelerating the development of beneficial consumer-oriented applications in many different environments."

Link from my friend Adam. Citizens of the United States of America, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean will soon be able to travel between their respective countries carrying only an RFID card as proof of identification. The new card, which is expected to be rolled out by next April, is proposed to help cut queues at border controls and provide increased security by enabling the cardholder to be screened by computer. It will also pave the way for the introduction of electronic passports the following year. The card holds no biometric details of its owner, but contains only a unique identification number, which correlates with a record held on a computer database. Because of this fact, it is able to broadcast its radio code a lot further than electronic passports, and is less likely to be useful to thieves.

Quote: "What it will look like? Much like a driver's license. It will have a photo of you and printed information similar to what is on a passport: name, date and place of birth, gender and the card's issuance and expiration dates. A computer chip will be embedded in it.
What will be on the computer chip, and how will it work? The chip will contain only one piece of data: what the State Department calls "a unique identifying number that has meaning only inside the secure CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] computer system." Border officials will use radio frequency identification, or RFID, scanners to "read" the chip at checkpoints, just as they do with chips on new passports. Unlike the chip on a passport booklet, which officials say has a range of 4 inches, the chip on a passport card will be readable from about 20 feet, said the State Department's Barrett. (Some critics contend that, with powerful enough equipment, the passport-booklet chip also can also be read from many feet away.)

According to the article, from January 31st the US government will start requiring proof of identification for US citizens wanting to cross state borders. Some US states are presently working on creating an RFID-enabled driving licence. The United Kingdom is working on its own RFID identification card scheme. Eventually governments around the world hope to move to solely to electronic means of personal identification. For the world it is a safer way of identifying people, but for Christians who believe that we are now living in the last days, it's a fundamental step towards the implementation of the Mark of the Beast. And as RFID becomes more and more commonplace, the idea of actually implanting these chips into the human body is now being seriously contemplated.

Quote: "Experiences of those who have experimented with embedded chips give some clues to how useful these could be for the masses. In one instance an American physician tried to study the medical legal, moral and privacy aspects of an embedded device. The implantation of a RFID chip in his upper right arm was a five minute painless procedure. There were no physical side effects like itching or changes in skin appearance. The implant enabled the physician to carry out routine functions without any hindrance and the chip was not detected by airport scanners or metal detectors, making live easy.

Of course there are problems to overcome. For this particular physician, his chip set off in-store alarms which operate on the same radio wavelength. The chips can also cause infections, and some research indicates that they may even cause cancerous tumours to form. There have also been reports that they are incompatible with MRI scanners, and there is a risk to those who have pace-makers fitted. Several US states have banned the compulsory implantation of humans with these chips, fearing the technology could be abused if companies decided to make it a requirement for employees to have them fitted. For example, security firms, banks and airports could all benefit from the technology. Some people are already demanding their children be fitted with the chips so as to prevent kidnappings, like that of Madeline McCann.

As we can see, we are now living in the days when the prophecy of the Mark of the Beast can be fulfilled. According to Scripture the False Prophet will be the one who will make the Mark compulsory (Revelation 13:6). And in the book of Revelation, accepting the Mark is also closely associated with the worship of the Beast. So I don't believe these electronic passports or VeriChips are the Mark of the Beast, but they may well be the prototype of it. The Bible strictly warns us that whoever accepts the Mark and worships the Antichrist will never have eternal life. You can look at that two different ways. Those that make a profession of salvation and yet accept the Mark were never genuinely saved to begin with. Or, those who are genuinely saved will never accept the Mark. Those who have accepted Christ for salvation are already sealed with God's Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), and we are identified with the Man who has the marks in His hands. No person on this earth or in heaven can ever take that away from us (John 10:28-29). Have you been sealed with God's Holy Spirit? Are you sealed unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), when Christ comes to the air for His Church? Trust in Jesus Christ for salvation today.

Revelation 14:9-12
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his 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. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Source LA Times, India Times

Nine NHS trusts in England have admitted losing patient records in a fresh case of wholesale data loss by government services, it has emerged. Hundreds of thousands of adults and children are thought to be affected by the breaches, which emerged as part of a government-wide data security review. The Department of Health says patients have been told and there is no evidence data has fallen into the wrong hands. It follows losses of millions of child benefit claimant and driver details.

'Scandal'

The DoH said the security breaches were being dealt with locally and it did not have details of how many patients were affected. It said investigations were under way and action would be taken against anyone who had failed to fulfil their responsibilities under data protection laws. Joyce Robins from the patient support group, Patient Care, says ministers cannot gloss over what she describes as yet another "scandal". She said: "Every week we hear of a new one. Health records can have anything from your ex-directory phone number to your HIV status. "I think it's the tip of the iceberg, actually, because there's such carelessness within the NHS and it's always impossible to hold anyone to account and find out who's actually done anything."

Archive records

The Sunday Mirror reports that one of the breaches was thought to involve the loss of names and addresses of 160,000 children by City and Hackney Primary Care Trust after a disc failed to arrive at an east London hospital. The details of what data has been lost by the other trusts have not been disclosed. The other trusts involved are Bolton Royal Hospital, Sutton and Merton PCT, Sefton Merseyside PCT, Mid-Essex Care Trust, Norfolk and Norwich and Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has reported two breaches meaning that 10 cases have occurred in total. The East and North Hertfordshire Trust reported a loss but has since found its missing data. One set of data, that reported lost by Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust, consisted of archive records relating to patients treated 40 years ago - none of whom is still alive.

Other incidents

NHS chief executive David Nicholson recently wrote to NHS managers reminding them of their responsibilities with regard to data handling. A DoH spokesperson said: "Since the recent heightened concern about data protection a small number of trusts (nine) have reported breaches of their own security rules. "There are strict guidelines and procedures for dealing with such breaches." Police are still searching for two computer discs containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of every child benefit claimant after it emerged they had been lost in the post by HM Revenue and Customs in November. Then on Monday it was revealed the details of three million learner drivers had also been lost after being sent to Iowa in America's mid-west.

This link from my friends Gary and Margie. The British government is developing an electronic identification system which will capable of being used anywhere in Europe, according to Dr Mireille Levy, Head of the Identity Management Standards at the Home Office Identity and Passport Service. Project Stork, which stands for Secure idenTity acrOss boRders acKnowledged, will establish identification standards between participating EU states, ahead of the launch of a British national identity card in 2010. According to the Home Office, an EU-wide identity card could permit a British politician to log into his Government Gateway at home, or allow a doctor to access patient records from another EU state. The idea of a global identification standard was first announced in this country by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said we had no option but to accept an electronic passport for it would soon be adopted around the world. The French Interior Ministry is already studying the implementation of a global identification system which will be brought in in three phases:- electronic passports, electronic identity cards and electronic visas.

Quote: "European ministers, as well as some non-European countries (e.g. Iceland), set themselves the political objective to reach mutual recognition and interoperability of electronic identities by the year 2010 in the Manchester Declaration adopted in November 2005. This declaration, however, also adopts the subsidiarity principle, leaving full autonomy to Member States as to what kind of electronic identity they issue. The STORK project is expected to help bridge the gap between the different eID systems currently in use, leading to a de facto standard for interoperability in eIDs. The deadline for this is 2010, when the EU’s European eID Management Framework comes into force. The UK’s Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is leading the pilot project, in close co-operation with the Government Gateway, the UK’s centralised registration service.

The UK government currently possesses the largest DNA database in the world, and plans to build on their biometric database through the compulsory fingerprinting of children beginning in 2010. The Labour government has come under intense criticism over its handling of the recent child benefit fiasco, in which the personal and financial records of half the British population were lost in the post by HM Customs. The opposition party is attacking the government's policy on national identification cards, stating they cannot be trusted with our personal details. But the issue at hand is much more serious than that. For as soon as you have a global identification system, a nation's security is no longer the sole domain of the state government. As we have seen with passenger flight records following the September 11th attacks, in the name of global security, other governments will have to share in this information. And the only way of "guaranteeing" that this information is not abused is to place it under the control of one central authority. The Scriptures state that such a global identification system will be brought in. Years ago I said that it would take some sort of global crisis to bring this in. This millennium has become characterized by the twin threats of global terrorism and global warming. Whether these threats are manufactured or not I don't know, but I do know that the world needs a common, external threat in order for the nations to unite under a global authority. And it seems both these threats will play a major part in the introduction of the Mark of the Beast. Inflated food prices from crop devastation coupled with the threat of terrorism will help convince people to forfeit their civil liberties in return for security.

Revelation 13:16-18
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: 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. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.

The Bible warns us that all these things must come to pass. Turn to Jesus Christ for salvation today.

Revelation 20:4
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Source The Register