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

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

Franco Frattini, the Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner for the European Union, has revealed a new raft of anti-terrorism measures that he hopes will help prevent another major terrorist attack from happening on European soil. The controversial plans are to be submitted for review at an upcoming EU summit, which include the biometric registration of all foreign nationals entering the European Union. A biometric identity card for EU immigrants was first proposed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. Passenger lists of all flights entering or leaving the EU would also be passed on to the intelligence agencies of member states, and would later be expanded to include flights within the European Union itself...   

Quote: "Non-EU nationals would be electronically registered with biometric identifiers under the plan, Frattini said at a meeting in Portugal of EU ministers in charge of policing. The register is "extremely necessary" in order to crack down on people who are granted permission to stay for a restricted time but melt away when the period expires, he said.

Controversial security measures such as the government's DNA database have already been slammed as discriminatory by British judges. The judge in question stated that he would rather the government obtained a record of everyone's DNA, rather than just a select few. And so it is for biometric ID cards for foreign nationals. As the article states, having a biometric record of people living outside the EU will not prevent terrorism committed by British citizens, as we saw in the Glasgow airport attack earlier in the year. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the governments would soon find themselves having to roll out the biometric registration to all their citizens. And that is the plan. The UK government already has plans for the compulsory fingerprinting of 500,000 children per year starting in 2010. The book of Revelation states that during the tribulation period, four world conditions would prevail... war, terrorism, famine and death. I find the second horseman of the apocalypse particularly intriguing considering the modern day scourge of Islamic terrorism...

Revelation 6:3-4 
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Peace taken from the earth... that they should kill "one another"... a "great sword"... Although this horseman won't ride until the tribulation period begins, I think these verses sum up pretty well the world we are now living in. There have always been wars, but global terrorism seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon. In the midst of all this chaos, the claim will be made that mankind must receive an identifying mark in their right hand or forehead, and pledge allegiance to the world peacemaker - the Antichrist. World governments are already making the claim that all people should receive identity cards to protect us from the threat of global terrorism. Many non-believers associate the Mark of the Beast with a world dictator and even Satan himself, and think they would never accept such a thing were it to come to pass. Sadly I believe this world dictator will be world peacemaker, and the case will easily be made for accepting his mark.

Revelation 13:8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (Antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Source International Herald Tribune, Expatica, Guardian

Here in America, we don't get a chance to really see that which is happening in our world. Our media has made it a point to keep any world events, especially those in the Middle East, watered down at best. And totally false at worse. However the signs of the times are becoming more and more apparent. For instance, over this past month Visa Corp. has launched a new commercial campaign promoting a cashless society. In the commercial, hundreds of people are lined up at various fast food kiosks in a mall type setting. Everyone is swiping their Visa card to pay for their purchases and everything is moving in rythme... until one person pulls out cash, at which point all movement is stalled and everyone lined up behind the cash user decides to leave and go to another fast food line where cash is not being used. It's obvious that the idea is, "if you use cash you're not only uncool, but you're behind the times and most importantly, becoming a hinderence to others". Even though this is just a commercial, it does a good job at showing what life is like here in America. Everything has to be done here and now at a moment's notice, and any kind of waiting is totally unacceptable. We are being primed to move to a cashless society, and though the mark may not be a card, it is certainly a precursor meant to condition the mind into naturally accepting it... Take the frog for example. Did you know that if you place a frog in a boiling pot of water it will jump out... and that should be a given... But if you take that same frog and place it in a pot that has luke warm water and then begin to heat it slowly.. the frog will not jump out and will boil to death. The times are at hand. Are you prepared for the coming of the King?