Going through the news, the headline jumped at me in a startling jolt. Life does indeed imitate art—for certain when it comes to Bible prophecy.

“Whole Foods Ushering in Mark of the Beast with New Palm-Scanning Payment System”

The headline instantly took my thoughts to my first novel, which I started writing in about 1977 and was initially published much later, in 1999. Jacob’s Trouble 666 is the title, and it’s still available on Amazon.com in reprint.

The book was an attempt to portray through fiction what life might be like for the world and particularly for Jewish people during the earlier time in the Tribulation era. Even though the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) is about the last half of the Tribulation, my story covered basically the first half of the seven-year Tribulation period, following the Rapture. I envisioned—or tried to—the technologies as they might develop by the time that cruel moment of horror inflicts Antichrist rule upon the planet.

Here is a portion of that story written sometime around 1979, as I recall.

An old man shuffled tentatively into the checkout lane, avoiding the gaze of the checker. His broad head was bowed as if he sought to hide beneath the upturned collar of the ragged gray coat he wore. “You got an IN, mister?” Her question cut the air in a tone of disgust.

“Yes… Yes… See here.” The man let his eyes meet hers fleetingly while he pulled back the sleeve on his right arm and moved his hand to a position beneath the countertop Decode scanner, activating an ultraviolet light which made visible a bar code tattooed on the back of his hand. At the same time, the number appeared on the INRU screen:

5DD197920- J

Looking at the screen, the checker pushed a button, and data was added to the display.

5D019792O-J IN5DR – O – CREDIT LINE – D

“You don’t have any drawing rights, Jew! Take these and put them back where they belong!”

The little man shrunk deeper into the oversized coat, although he made a meek protest. “Please— but madam, I…”

“Just get these things back on the shelves, Jew!” She shoved the items roughly at him, cursing beneath her breath. Her outburst drew the attention of others in the Product Center and caused the controller to stiffen to alertness from his position near the exit.

While all eyes were on the frightened man, he moved from the counter and nervously replaced the foodstuffs on their various shelves. His face taking on the bloodless look of a man terminally ill, his only wish was to be gone from the Product Center.

“Are you Jew?” The controller collared him, snarling the question through clenched teeth.

“Answer me, old man!”

He slammed the smaller man hard against a nearby wall, then pushed his elbow into the captive’s throat. Unable to answer and growing dizzy because of pressure exerted on his windpipe, the man ceased to struggle against his powerful captor, who jerked and ripped at the overcoat, sending buttons flying when the coat tore open.

The controller pulled the coat apart, exposing a yellow, thread-stitched Star of David on the gray, tattered shirt.

“Why are you hiding this?” the angry policeman demanded, jabbing his finger into the center of the symbol. “You know it’s forbidden to conceal being Jew!”

Here’s the link to the novel.

https://www.amazon.com/Jacobs-Trouble-666-Terry-James-ebook/dp/B07JKDW3BV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jacobs+trouble+666&qid=1619794909&sr=8-1

The news item, then, as I say, jumped out and smacked my realization. We are at a point no doubt even past the technological development stage of the AI and other advancements which I tried to imagine back then. The following news item excerpt maybe will further enlighten.

Thanks to its acquisition by Amazon, Whole Foods Market is quickly morphing into the grocery store of the New World Order with a new cashless payment system that allows customers to wave their palm over a scanning machine in order to pay for their food.

Instead of having to hand over cash or a credit card, Whole Foods customers can simply wave their hand (and maybe soon their forehead?) through the machine and voila: purchase made.

According to an Amazon FAQ, the palm-scanning technology analyzes “the minute characteristics of your palm – both surface-area details like lines and ridges as well as subcutaneous features such as vein patterns” in order to identify a customer and allow for rapid purchase.

This biometric scanning tool is branded as a faster, easier alternative to paying with a credit card or cash.

The system is officially called Amazon One and it allows for Amazon Prime users to link their accounts and receive discounts and other promotions every time they opt to wave their palm through a kiosk at Whole Foods rather than pay with cash or a credit card… The ultimate goal is to completely phase out paper and coin currency and replace it with a cashless system. Amazon via Whole Foods is paving the way for this by testing out the new system at its Seattle locations. (“Whole Foods Ushering in Mark of the Beast with New Palm-Scanning Payment System,” NaturalNews.com, RR News  April 30, 2021)

Technology has caught up to and surpassed my imagination, it is obvious. Bible prophecy manifests for all who are willing to believe God’s truth that the Creator of all things knows the end from before the foundation of this now-fallen world. Life doesn’t really imitate art. Bible prophecy presents life in a story filled with truth only the God of Heaven can foretell.

The end-times electronic economic system of controlling the masses was written about by the Holy Spirit-inspired pen of John the Revelator on the Isle of Patmos.

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)

Let’s pay attention to developments all around us. It is only upon doing this that we can truly anticipate the call we who belong to Christ can expect to hear soon.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17) 

Recently, a well-known evangelist was saying on the TV program he and his wife host that a Great Awakening is coming. This is what I’ve heard over the months since the time the 2020 presidential election approached. “The Great Awakening is on its way” continues to be the declaration by many of the conservative ilk in the arena of government, politics, and the ideological arena of societal and cultural thought.

By this, these proponents of that belief, I infer, mean that the people of the world—particularly those of the United States—will awaken en masse to the evil the radical leftists of the world and nation are perpetrating.

This was the first time, however, that I heard a person I considered to be a truly believing Christian leader of his spiritual magnitude say that a Great Awakening is on the way. I must be fair and tell you that I didn’t listen to the program, so can’t say for certain what he meant by the term; I can only say that he and his wife had as their guest that morning Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. They were going to talk about Dr. Jeffress book involving Bible prophecy, so I presume the term the host used in his promotion means the same Great Awakening in general, as predicted by the secular proponents of the matters involved in that term. Whether the TV show host was referring to a geopolitical/cultural/societal awakening or one of a spiritual nature, I don’t know.

The fact is, though, that the term “the Great Awakening” is used more and more often in venues outside of mainstream media. The people favoring things proposed by the term look for there to be an uprising by the vast majority. These will, it is believed, grow in such resistance and opposition to the so-called “woke” movement and all attendant to that insanity that the evil it all represents will be forced back into the proverbial box that restrains such deviation from normalcy.

In the world of those who are Bible believers, I perceive a mindset that equates the term “Great Awakening” with the matter many believe is a coming, worldwide revival. These declare that before Christ’s return at Armageddon there will be a tremendous turning to God. In some cases, they declare that a great multitude of souls will be saved in this predicted revival movement.

Many among those who believe that we are seeing a “Great Awakening” in the spiritual sense thought that Donald Trump’s election and subsequent support for faith-based causes was the onset of this “revival.” The economy and many social and cultural changes were, it seemed, poised for things improving to the point that America would be made great again in the sense the Founding Fathers intended. We were to again become a “Christian” nation, as in America’s founding. We wanted to get back to thinking more of the good of everyone rather than the uplifting of the few who rule rather than govern.

That altruistic outlook was a noble one. That was something worthy of longing for, even though the nation has never been truly a “Christian” nation in the purest sense. There have always been the bad and ugly to go along with the good. But the Make America Great Again movement came to a jolting halt with the sudden appearance of COVID-19.

Suddenly, the globalist agenda continues to be on the rise. The insanity represented by the proposals and demands the radical left envisioned for America—which we thought could never be accepted by normal people—became the track the nation seems be following to its perhaps fatal detriment.

So it seems that whether considering the term “the Great Awakening” or the term “great end-times revival,” either’s trajectory is on track to eventuate as thought. The movement is in the opposite direction.

The way things are tracking, however, is in sync with Bible prophecy for the end of the age.

Again, for those who are new as readers of our commentaries, the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy is that before the Tribulation (the last seven years of this Age of Grace, or Church Age) arrives, Jesus Christ will call all believers to Himself in what is called the Rapture.  Paul the great apostle foretells this in 1 Corinthians 4:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Jesus first gave indication of this great event in John 14:1–3, and later gave the promise to us through John in Revelation 3:10.

Jesus, while on the Mount of Olives, just before His crucifixion, answered His disciples as to when He would return and the signs of His return. He gave a number of signals to look for, which we have covered many times.

He said that when we see these things (stage-setting signs) begin to come to pass we are to look up and lift up our heads for our redemption is drawing near.

We’ve given details over and over about the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week). It will be a terrible time, Jesus forewarned, such as never was before, nor will ever be again.

These issues and events are literally in every direction and are proliferating exponentially. We are not witnessing things that look as if we can anticipate a “Great Awakening.” Things don’t in any way appear that people, either the lost or believers in Christ, are turning en masse to God in complete repentance, obedience, or worship.

I wish I could report that I observe otherwise, but I cannot. Just as Paul foretold, evil men and seducers are getting worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The reprobate mindset prophesied by Paul in Romans 1:28 is front and center through our headlines.

All that said, there is good news, however. God the Father in Heaven and God the Holy Spirit, who is everywhere all the time, is at work restraining wickedness at every level throughout this evil sphere.  As bad as it seems, all is being prepared for God the Son—the Lord Jesus Christ—to make His appearance and put an end to the madness into which the world is devolving.

Heaven’s Great Awakening is just around the corner of Bible prophecy. For believers in Christ, that much-wished-for end-times revival is but one twinkling-of-an-eye moment away. The Rapture will bring for each and every child of God an awakening the likes of which is beyond fully knowing at this darkening, earthly moment.

Every believer of this Church Age who has died will, in that glorious moment, awaken to new life that is everlasting. Those who are alive at that instant will have all senses awaken to fantastic vistas that were beyond comprehension while in these earth-bound bodies.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)