Do We Trust in Government Too Much?
I wanted to update my post from below ("It Really Is True") with another interesting article. This one is about using fingerprints as a method of identification and payment.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206424,00.html
The underlying idea behind what the Bible actually says about the mark of the beast in Revelation 13:16-17 is that people are willing to serve and worship the antichrist figure in order to survive. Biblically speaking, worship doesn't necessarily mean singing songs of praise to someone, but the Greek word latreuw means to prostrate yourself before someone. When we idolize money, we don't build a shrine to it or write songs about it, but rather we give it our allegiance, we choose to organize our lives around it, we do what it demands us to do. We prostrate ourselves before it, at least mentally, by willing to compromise more significant things (like relationships) in order to make money. We look to money to give us what we want. We say by our actions that money will make our lives satisfactory. This is disobedience of the First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me." We usually conflate (or, one could argue, confuse) this command with the second, which prohibits making an idol and worshipping it. We therefore usually talk about worshiping another god as "idolatry". For this blog entry I'll refer to the breaking of the first or second commandments as "idolatry".
Of course, an idol can be anything, other than God, that we think will bring us the life we want, satisfy us, provide us with purpose, etc. (A false conception of God, such as the prosperity gospel's deity, can also be an idol.) When we prostrate before something and require that it give us what we need in life, that's idolatry. When we expect that the government will just hand us everything that we need in order to have a happy life, that is idolatry.
In Revelation 13:16-17, people are willing to swear allegiance to the one world dictatorial government and to its dictator. They do this so that they can survive - they can buy and sell things. They look to the dictator and government as the one who saves them and provides for them. They are willing to play by the rules laid down by this government in order to participate in necessary commerce. They commit idolatry in order to get the money they want.
People scoff at the idea of a "mark of the beast". But is it really far-fetched to believe in a universal, government-mandated implant chip or biometric system for economic and identity "security" purposes, accepted by most people in order to participate in the commercial system? Not really. The technology is here or almost here. The attitude of demanding that the government provide X, Y and Z as a "right" so that we can be happy, is certainly here. The need for foolproof, hackproof identification is also here. The global economy is here (read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat). Really, all we're missing is a really evil dictator and a one-world government. OK, I admit that one might take some time. But almost certainly not as much time as we might think.
What do you think?
posted by Rob @ 9:29 AM
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