The Environment Is Set on the Mark of the Beast

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused many students of prophecy to wonder if world governments’ efforts to combat the virus will involve the implementation of the Mark of the Beast. If they’re going to make all the citizens of earth line up to get a vaccine, it would be convenient timing to also dispense a microchip implant that will link them up to the 666 financial system.

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire “philanthropist” Bill Gates has legally separated himself from his old company, but both entities are engaged in a mission that could work together. Gates is champing at the bit to implement his long-awaited mandatory vaccination agenda. And what better catalyst for making it happen than the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis?

Microsoft has created a device that could add a tracking code to a mass vaccination. It interacts with the pulse, temperature and brain waves of the human body in order to engage in the buying and selling of cryptocurrency. The ID2020 implant would interact with a computer network system. Oddly enough the publication number of this Microsoft patent is #W02020060606. WO? Could that stand for World Order? WO/2020/06/06/06.

News about Gates and a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus has been circulating for weeks on social media platforms. Gates got the ball rolling in mid March as he participated in a Reddit “AMA” (“Ask me anything”) Q&A, where he encouraged a “national tracking system” for the coronavirus and “some digital certificates to show who has recovered or been tested recently or, when we have a vaccine, who has received it.”

Scientific American reported in December that Gates had been funding efforts to create an invisible ink that could go into people’s skin to see who has been vaccinated. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology bioengineer said the ink could provide data that is useful in fighting disease around the world, noting, “If we don’t have good data, it’s really difficult to eradicate disease.”

A review by Media Matters stated that the conspiracy theory first seemed to gain traction around March 17 when a YouTube video about the virus “mischaracterized” Gates’ work to develop trackable vaccine data as “implanting everybody with a global ID,” and compared it to tattoos on Holocaust victims.

Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson recently claimed that Gates wants to use “vaccines to track people,” while Fox News host Laura Ingraham—who has met with Trump to discuss the coronavirus—tweeted that Gates and other “globalists” want to use the crisis to track people. Gates’ name appeared on protest signs meant to criticize Ohio’s social distancing order, while former Trump adviser Roger Stone accused Gates of wanting to “microchip” people.

Pro-Trump personalities and regular Trump White House guests “Diamond and Silk” have also pushed conspiracy theories about Gates, tweeting that the Microsoft founder was operating on a secretive “agenda” to “rule the world with vaccines,” and vowing not to take any coronavirus vaccine that Gates was involved with.

None of these reports about Gates will ever be reported positively by the liberal media, so few people know about his agenda. Since you would have to have an understanding of Bible prophecy to know the dangers of a vaccine that could be tracked, most people would think of it as a good idea.

Much of our modern technology could become very hazardous to our liberties if it was used by a despotic government. Apple and Google are working together on a Coronavirus Tracking App. Smart phones already ‘automatically exchange their identifier beacons with each other. If someone tests positive for the Coronavirus, the app can send a message to all smartphones that came in contact with that person. Apple and Google say the app is ‘voluntary’ in the beginning; it will not be voluntary after they build it into the operating system software.

The mark of the beast is no longer something of the future. I think China’s social credit system is a working model of the Number of the Beast. By the time the Antichrist comes along to make it official, the world openly embraces its financial enslavement.

“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” (Revelation 13:16-18).

— Todd

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The Pandemic and the Protests

President Trump and others have said something to the effect that damage done by the coronavirus to society, culture, and the economy might be more horrific than the damage to health done by the disease in America and around the world. By this, I infer that the statement means that by completely shutting down society, culture, and business, the resultant damage will be far worse than if the COVID-19 pandemic was handled like other severe outbreaks of history. Those, for the most part, eventually killed many, but life went on pretty much as normal, and the diseases became much less virulent when the so-called herd immunity kicked in.

The herd immunity is, as I take it, when the point is reached in the spread of disease that human immune systems biologically learn to resist whatever strain of virus or bacteria is involved.

A growing, uncharted-in-America side-effect of the present epidemic crisis is the psychological stress suffered around the country. This nation has never been locked down to any extent, except in rare instances and isolated places. The closest the US has come to this sort of restrictiveness, enforced by government, was during the Civil War when President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and restricted other areas of life that run counter to the Bill of Rights.

At that time of the nation being at war with itself, it was argued that locking down civil and other liberties would lead to dictatorship. Many historians now agree that, had it been a president other than Lincoln, with his great, personal character at the time, the unthinkable would possibly have eventuated. We might now be living under dictatorship.

Governments, once they have been allowed powers to control, rarely relinquish that power when things return to normal. As Lord Edward Acton said, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Or. as one geopolitical figure of our time, Henry Kissinger, has said: “Political power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”

We can all, if we’re honest, attest to the veracity of those statements. We can, I believe, get a hint of the truth in those words by what is happening around the nation in some areas with regard to governors and their draconian steps during this “crisis.”

The Michigan governor, for example, has forbidden many things of normal life by shutting the facilities where people normally go for essential services. At the same time, she is keeping abortion clinics, bars, and even places to buy lottery tickets open, calling them “essential services.”

Protests are ramping up around her capitol, as American citizens are demonstrating against what they perceive as tyranny. Apparently, she is on a power trip, as Lord Acton or Dr. Kissinger would say.

The president has said that he feels these protests are in many cases justified. The nation must begin opening up. This shutdown to prevent the virus spread can’t go on without irreparable damage to the economy, thus, to the people of America.

Agreed. It is un-American. It is antithesis to the nation’s principles of freedom. The shutdown must be brought to an end. To do otherwise brings a genuine threat from ideologies that would bring Machiavellian controls that “the prince that shall come” will one day use in his Antichrist dictatorship.

I received the following excerpt of an article in the American Thinker. The thoughts expressed present a solid case for suggesting that all of us seriously consider what this crisis might mean in total context for future national life as we’ve known it.

When societies lose their freedom, it is not ordinarily because autocrats or tyrants have forcibly taken it away. It is usually the result of the population willingly surrendering their freedom in return for protection against an external threat.  While the threat is oftentimes real, it is invariably exaggerated.

This is what we in the United States are experiencing.  The general public has been stampeded by the fear mongering in the media into demanding action from the politicians at both the state and federal level. The politicians respond and do not pause to ask whether these actions will work—just do something! They do not ask if the financial and societal cost to the nation is worth the unknown and perhaps nebulous return.

In its 244-year history the United States has weathered seven of the worst pandemics in world history without the hysteria and loss of liberty and freedom.  All indications reveal that the Coronavirus will be exponentially less life-threatening than any of these previous pandemics.

Is the Coronavirus pandemic serious enough to warrant putting much of the nation’s population into house imprisonment, or wreaking the economy for an indefinite period of time, or prohibiting worshipers from attending their churches, synagogues or mosques, or outlawing freedom of assembly and travel, or destroying businesses that have taken years to build up, or saddling future generations with unfathomable debt? The nation is choosing to plunge millions of people into depression, heart attacks, suicide and unbelievable distress, though they are not especially vulnerable and will only suffer mild symptoms or none at all.

This is what a police state is like.  It is a nation in which the government can issue orders and edicts or convey preferences with no legal authority. Yet, it appears the majority of the American people are willing to sacrifice their freedoms and way of life in order to empower such a potential police state in the guise of conquering a pandemic. Governments never give up power once attained. They only seek to normalize it and now they have in their toolbox the knowledge that the citizenry will meekly acquiesce to any national emergency being declared an existential crisis which requires government to unconstitutionally impose its will on the people. (Steve McCann, “How a Police State Is Formed,” American Thinker, https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/how_a_police_state_is_born.html)

Such a police state—and much, much worse—is coming, according to God’s prophetic Word. However, we have the right to defend against (and especially to protest against) such tyranny before that time of Antichrist, a time that will be beyond our control.

Accepting Christ for salvation assures that one will not face that ultimate dictatorship.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)

—Terry

 

The Great Locust Plague of 2020

The year 2020 has been such a disaster, it will likely take some time to figure out what made it such a train wreck. Unless we end with a global nuclear war, the coronavirus and the financial meltdown will dominate how people are remembering this year. There is a third calamity taking place in Africa that is currently a second-page news story, but it has my attention because of its Biblical connection.

A massive swarm of locusts has invaded at least eight countries (Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan). About a month ago, this cloud of insects was declared the worst plague of locusts in 70 years. It would appear we are headed toward breaking the record set during the time of Moses. However, I read in the Bible that the plague on Egyptians was promised by God to be a “…dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again” (Exodus 10:14, ESV).

This infestation of desert locusts first arrived in East Africa last June, feeding on hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and pastureland. They came from the uninhabited portion of the Arabian Peninsula which is normally bone dry. In 2018, two perfectly timed cyclones dumped heavy rains in this region, creating the ideal wet, sandy conditions the desert locusts require to breed.

Three generations of breeding occurred in nine months, causing locust numbers to increase by 8,000 times and forming the original source of the East Africa upsurge. Scientists say these devastating insects never left East Africa: in fact, favorable wet conditions due to above average rainfall this season mean they are likely to achieve two more generations of new breeding by June this year, increasing their population size up to 400 times.

Eventually, the desert is going to dry up, and the swarm of locusts will move inland. A typical swarm can consist of up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer. These insects move with the wind, and can migrate as far as 150 kilometers in one day. Even a tiny, one-square-kilometer locust swarm is capable of consuming the same amount of food in one day as approximately 35,000 people.

The coronavirus lockdown is harming the effort to combat the swarm. Some farmers in Abokat’s village near the Kenyan border bang metal pans, whistle or throw stones to try to drive the locusts away. But mostly they watch in frustration, largely barred by a coronavirus lockdown from gathering outside their homes.

From the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations: “Suppliers of motorized sprayers and pesticides are facing major challenges with limited air freight options to facilitate delivery,” Cyril Ferrand, FAO’s resilience team leader for East Africa, said on March 30. “Purchased orders were placed [a] few weeks ago and pesticides expected last week in Kenya have been delayed by 10 days.”

The coronavirus pandemic is just getting started in Africa. There have only been 562 reported deaths and nearly 11,000 COVID-19 cases, according to Al Jazeera, which are relatively low figures compared with other affected regions. As the number of cases spike, the locust invasion is going to be a low priority of governments and world organizations.

A year from now we will likely be writing articles about the Great Famine of 2021. East Africa already has 20 million severely food-insecure people, who barely eat enough to fill their stomachs each day. The region was recently devastated by conflict, droughts, and floods. With food lines forming in America from the lockdown, it’s going to be hard to draw attention to a crisis on the other side of the globe.

It is widely believed in the pre-tribulation rapture camp that we are only to see the birth pangs up until the rapture takes place, not the wrath. Since God is always trying to get man’s attention with calamity, I think what we are seeing is a shadow of what will unfold during the tribulation hour. The locusts in Moses time only ate plants, as do the locusts of today. The locusts of Revelation will prey upon people. I warn all salvation fence-sitters to repent now to avoid a far greater wrath to come.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.’ So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field…'” (Exodus 10:1-19, ESV).

“They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them” (Revelation 9:4-6, ESV).

— Todd

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“If” Is for Children

Reading through a news article today, the title of an old song sung by Roger Whittaker came to mind, and then the melody of it running through my head caused me to listen to it on YouTube.

“I Don’t Believe in ‘if’ Anymore” begins with a driving beat, telling all the fearsome things of war and trouble the youth of this world face—how they fight the battles to save their nations, etc. The song then gets into a haunting rendition of how the dreams of children are built on “if”.

But the lyrics and melody state that “if” is for children. “It’s an illusion,” the lyrics say. “If’s an illusion. If is for children, building daydreams.…I don’t believe in if any more…” the song goes on to conclude.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a grandfather’s heart for children. Some even think I, myself, am under an illusion by thinking that the Heavenly Father’s great plan in the Rapture is to include all children under the age of accountability—those who are too young to make the decision to accept or reject Christ for salvation.

But despite those who think I’m a bit too soft-hearted (and even some think, “soft headed”) in this regard have it wrong. In this case, I’m not thinking with my emotional heart, but with my belief that God’s Holy Word explains His Holy character.

The God who has given His love letter to mankind deals one on one with each person He has determined to be born into this fallen world. Salvation is an individual matter. It is not a corporate matter, in which He “grandfathers in” all who are born under a certain religious system or to a certain Christian parent or family and brings them into His heavenly family.

The only way we go into eternity to be in God’s heavenly presence following this earthly life is by accepting God’s Son and His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross. When we believe in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, then confess that belief with our mouths, we are instantaneously brought into God’s heavenly family forever (Romans 10: 9–10).

The Rapture is only for those who have made that simple commitment. Nonetheless, those who have never had the opportunity to believe, whether because of mental incapability or because they are too young to understand, will instantly go to Christ when He calls believers to Himself (Revelation 4: 1). Otherwise, God’s very character would be in question. His righteousness would be impeachable, and that is absolutely impossible.

So it was that I was cogitating a bit on all of this after reading some really depressing headlines, and I thought of that word: “if.”

What “if” the Rapture might, in large part, be about to take place for the sake of the children below the age of accountability of this world? Their suffering is unbelievably great in some parts of this increasingly evil sphere.

The news headlines can deflate the spirit of even the most optimistic. Some of them follow:

• New, Larger Wave of Locusts Threatens Millions in Africa

Weeks before the coronavirus spread through much of the world, parts of Africa were already threatened by another kind of plague, the biggest locust outbreak some countries had seen in seventy years. Now the second wave of the voracious insects, some twenty times the size of the first, is arriving.

• The Virus Vaccine Fetal-Tissue Question

It’s enough to make your head spin. In the midst of the worldwide deaths from the coronavirus, we find ourselves in the midst of another killing issue—that of abortion.

• Giant Asian Hornets That Can “Kill with a Single Sting” to Invade Virus-Stricken US—The US Sun

Giant Asian hornets that have begun to invade the coronavirus-stricken US may cost the economy millions of dollars a year.

• Awakening Volcanic Region in Iceland “Could Cause Disruption for Centuries”

There are other news headlines even more spirit-deflating. However, the above are some immediately surrounding the headline story that pushed my buttons on the “if” matter, in regard to children below the age of accountability. Here is that headline:

• Coronavirus: The Children Struggling to Survive India’s Lockdown

The sudden imposition of a twenty-one-day lockdown in India to stop the spread of the coronavirus has thrown the lives of millions of children into chaos. Tens of thousands are calling helplines daily while thousands are going to bed hungry as the country shuts down to battle the pandemic. With 472 million children, India has the largest child population in the world.

The number is staggering. There are more than 472 million children in India, alone! Many, the story tells, are totally on their own. Many are very young kids, having to find scraps of food when and where they can. These have little hope of salvation of their souls through the process given in Romans 10:9–10.

Some who confute my belief that these will go to Jesus when the Rapture takes place would say that these little ones will go to Him if they die under that age-of-accountability rubric. After all, millions have died in wars, and God hasn’t intervened. Thus they went to Him when they died.

The argument holds no spiritual water whatsoever with me. We are talking about two entirely different scenarios: physical death vs. spiritual separation forever.

We are talking about one thing more—the most important matter: the very character of God.

God has promised to keep believers from that hour of testing –the Tribulation that will follow the Rapture of the Church. These will not face that terrible time of God’s judgment and wrath.

Yet children don’t have the capability to “believe.”

The argument I’ve heard is that children below the age of accountability, like all other people, will have to come to the point that they can “believe.” If they don’t believe, they can’t be “saved.” They can die during the time following the Rapture and then go automatically to Heaven.

Nonsense, I say—and totally out of character for the God of our Bible.

If children of this young age go to be with God in Heaven when they die—and we know they do, as King David related upon the death of his and Bathsheba’s child—without first “believing,” why must the child first “believe” before being Raptured? David’s infant son never came to the point of “believing” for salvation.

Every child during the Age of Grace in this accountability category will go to Jesus at that glorious moment of Rapture.

“If” the children are too young to believe for their individual salvation, they will be rescued from the Tribulation storm that is coming. That rescue will include every child just conceived and those in the womb, including the millions on the very brink of being aborted.

People currently are in near-panic over fear generated by a microscopic virus. Just imagine, tragically, the “crisis” the disappearance of billions of children, even those yet unborn, will create for those left behind!

—Terry