Podcast host Joe Rogan, and Amazon’s cashless hand swipe technology in use.

I took the liberty of editing some of Mr. Hitchcock’s fine article. He cannot write anything without referencing the rapture and in as much as the rapture will most certainly occur prior to the coming Great Tribulation. This is a dangerous doctrine. For it gives many, most professing to be Christians a false hope of being spared persecution and suffering.

Here’s the thing, and it’s a very factual and actual thing — the Word of God is not definitive, clear on whether the Church is raptured prior to the Great Tribulation, or at the end of the Great Tribulation.

And if desiring to know more the Holy Bible reveals many more indications that the rapture of the Church will occur as the Great Tribulation ends with the Second and Final Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no reference or reason to believe from any Scripture that Jesus is coming back three times, as those adhering to the pre-tribulation rapture are so adamant will take place.

The Antichrist and his false prophet go to war with the saints. That’s in Scripture. Seek out that truth and hold it in your heart and mind. And John in the Revelation made to him sees a sea of people beyond the counting of a number, such as 144,000, that were slain during the Great Tribulation by the Antichrist.

This idea of being spared suffering and testing of faith is actually a heresy. An unsound doctrine. Propigated and adopted by millions over recent years compared to the length of Church history.

There is only one Day of the Lord.

Only one more return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have heard in the past pastors say that if the rapture does not occur before the Great Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist and his false prophet that they would lose their faith.

I ask, what kind of faith is that then? What depth of faith and belief do they possess in their hearts and minds? How fluent in the Word of God are they, and I say the same for anyone so adamant that there is going to be a rapture of believers BEFORE the Great Tribulation to spare them not only great suffering and troubles but to spare them the testing of their faith, of their willingness due to their faith and love of Christ and what He did — THE SUFFERING HE ENDURED FOR OUR SIN! — to endure trails, persecutions, suffering, pain and troubles — tribulation to come.

The Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself, sacrificed Himself in one of the most horrific, painful possible ways for a human being to die. Roman crucifixion. And make no mistake — while Jesus was and is fully truly God He also was fully truly a man. A human man. Feeling pain. Suffering.

If Jesus could come to earth, and show us His willingness to endure such pain and suffering even though He is God, in order to provide the way to forgiveness of our sin, redemption, salvation, and eternal life what then? Our life is more important than His? There is no understanding that one might have to lose their physical life, this fleeting temporal life to stand for the faith and to enter into eternal life. What, your life is so important you cannot endure great trials, testing of that faith, suffering, and tribulation? Persecutions? By evil?  For the faith? To gain the reward, to receive the crown of eternal life for fighting the good fight to the end and remaining strong in the faith.

Really?

A sea of people, beyond being able to be counted, all slain, all beheaded for enduring and not yielding to the world, not abandoning Christ or the Word of God will receive a special reward in heaven for their perseverance, for their standing firm in the faith in light of what the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the people of the world taking the name of the Beast in their flesh dole out to those believers.

Who among us enjoys suffering, pain, and persecution? None that I know of! But we are to keep the goal in sight, in mind, in our hearts at all times. Not loving this world or this life. Prepared to endure whatever may come to remain steadfast in the faith!

Who in God’s Word, as men or women of God, chosen of God, doing the Lord’s work did not suffer for such work? Name me one individual or group of individuals that were God’s chosen person or people at a certain time in history that did not endure incredible suffering, trials, persecutions, troubles, and tribulation!?

The softness and inability to cope, the escapism, the Great Softening of the faith and of individuals is more at work in the belief of a pre-tribulation rapture than as a result of anything found in Scripture to back up the assertion it is an absolute that there will be a carrying away in the clouds of all believers sparing them the Great Tribulation.

In a twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will first rise, and then the living believers to meet Jesus in the sky — upon His return as it is written in Revelation 19. 

Why isn’t that a popular belief?

Because it means having to make hard decisions, having to stand firmly in the faith in horrific suffering and troubles to come. To stand for Christ no matter what. No matter what.

Just as so many have done before us.

Weak, soft, scared people, those refusing to consider all the possibilities, those that haven’t spent enough time in the Word of God, in prayer, in deep meditation on God’s Word, those in love with the world and fearful of if their faith is real, or strong enough are the subscribers of a pre-tribulation rapture.

The end is swiftly approaching.

All things are designed and implemented to fit into the end. Such as what is written about in the article below. A fine article and that is why it is reprinted here — with some very minor editing — and instead of living in fear, continuing to remain soft, unprepared for what is and what is to come perhaps it would be much better to become equipped in the whole armour of God and make ready, be prepared for anything and everything to come to defend, contend for the faith and endure whatever suffering, trials, pain, troubles, and Great Tribulation to come knowing it is nothing, nothing compared to what awaits the true believer for eternity in heaven.

Read on…

Ken Pullen, Friday, September 15th, 2023

Biometric Technology And A Cashless Society: Why People Are Asking Questions About The Mark Of The Beast

August 29, 2023

By Mark Hitchcock

Reprinted from Harbinger’s Daily & Prophecy News Watch

Joe Rogan is a comedian, podcast host, and UFC commentator. His podcast, which I do not endorse with the rank language he often uses, has over 15 million subscribers. He’s a major influencer in our culture today and an unbeliever.

A couple of weeks ago, he had a guest named Duncan Trussell, who is a stand-up comic, writer, and actor. Surprisingly, they discussed for quite some time how a cashless society is a precursor to enforcing the mark of the beast.

During his program, Joe Rogan asks, “How long before we’re a cashless society?” Trussell responded:

“Hopefully, forever. It is so scary to imagine losing privacy completely because every transaction is in the public eye [and is] observable… This is where I get scared because it’s too similar to the mark of the beast. It’s too similar to exactly what [the Bible in the book of Revelation] says. You won’t be able to trade, you won’t be able to do anything unless you have the mark, unless you bear the mark.”

This response led Joe Rogan to say, “How’s the Mark of the Beast described in the Bible? I think we’re onto something here.”

Rogan then pulled up the Bible and read from Revelation 13:11-18, a section that describes the coming false prophet, a kind of second in command or the lieutenant of the coming Antichrist, who is going to make an image to him. The influential podcast host read this entire section live on his broadcast.

This is a well-known unbeliever talking at length about the mark of the beast, reading the book of Revelation, making this connection between a cashless society and the rise of the Antichrist.

On the heels of that conversation, the new “Amazon One” technology is about to go nationwide. A recent headline from CBS News reads, “Amazon releases new cashless ‘pay by palm’ technology that requires only a hand wave.”

This article discusses the use of biometric palm scanning technology, which again, is part of this cashless society that Joe Rogan was talking about:

Amazon is taking cashless payments to another level.

In a new rollout, the tech giant is giving customers another contactless way to pay for groceries — with their palms.

In a statement Thursday, Amazon announced that the palm recognition service, called Amazon One, will be used for payment, identification, loyalty membership, and entry at over 500 Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations across the nation by the end of the year.

Instead of pulling out a credit card or even a phone for Apple Pay, subscribing customers will simply have to hover their palms over an Amazon One device to pay.

For decades, Bible prophecy teachers have been saying that there is going to be a cashless society. The only way that the Antichrist can control the world economy is for there not to be cash. As long as there is, people can use cash to operate in a way that is undetected.

The article continues:

The technology is already available at 200 locations across 20 U.S. states including Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon and Mississippi…

Panera Bread, for example, has adopted the technology so that customers can simply wave their hands above the device in order to pull up their MyPanera loyalty account information and pay for their meals.

At Coors Field stadium in Colorado, customers trying to purchase alcoholic beverages can hover their palms over the Amazon One device to verify they are 21 or older.

It’s being used now in several different convenience stores. It’s being used at Hollywood casinos in Detroit. It’s also being used by many airport travel retailers.

Another article from LifeWire reports, “This means you won’t need your wallet, purse, or even your phone to complete transactions. You just need your palm.” Basically, this turns your hand into a personal credit card.

“How does this work?” the article goes on. “You pre-enroll via your Amazon account, using a credit or debit card. Next, you head over to an Amazon One palm-reading device to make a scan.”

Now, this is powerful. LifeWire says, “The algorithm matches unique elements of your palm with your account information… It doesn’t just use images of the palm to identify a person, but also incorporates the underlying vein structure. “

CBS went on to state:

A palm is the safest biometric to use because you cannot identify a person by it, Amazon said. The tech company assured customers that their palm data will not be shared with third parties, including “in response to government demands.”

Including “in response to government demands”? Well, in the future, this is going to be taken over by the Antichrist. He’s going to rule the world and rule this economy.

It’s important to understand that these technologies that we’re talking about here (Amazon One, different chip technologies, or biometrics) are not the mark of the beast, but they’re part of the infrastructure he will use to control the world economy. I think he will use these things alongside the mark of the beast. He will use every kind of technology he can to control, monitor, and surveil people’s lives and finances. When you control people’s money, you control their life.

All of this is part of the continued setup and setting the stage for the global economy and the Antichrist.

People want to know, what is the mark? In his podcast, while Joe Rogan is trying to understand what the Mark of the Beast is, somebody sends him a note telling him that the word “mark,” in the Greek, is the word “charagma.” He says it wrongly several times, trying to pronounce the Greek word before talking about the meaning.

Nine times in the New Testament, you have the word “charagma” used for this mark, eight of those times in the book of Revelation.

The only time it’s not in Revelation is in Act 17:29, which says: “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven [or etched] by art and man’s device.”

So, this mark of the Beast is going to be an etching, a tattoo, or a brand; whatever it is, it will be upon the right hand or the forehead of people during the tribulation period. It will be instituted at the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation when the Antichrist rules the world politically, economically, and religiously.

It says in Revelation chapter 13 that 666 is the number of a man, the number of his name. In both Greek and Hebrew, all the letters of the alphabet have a numerical value associated with them. When the Antichrist appears, his name will equal 666.

When people take the mark of the beast, they’ll literally be taking the name of the Antichrist on their right hand or forehead. It will be a pledge of allegiance, a loyalty oath to the Antichrist, that they now belong to him, but he owns them. If people don’t take the mark, they’re going to be shut out of the worldwide economy.

It’s all here, it’s all in place. One of these days the Antichrist will rise to world power as Scripture tells us, and the mark is going to engulf the whole world.

God didn’t tell us these things to scare us. He gave these things to us to prepare us. I hark back to what was said during Joe Rogan’s podcast, “It’s so scary.” Well, it’s not to make us anxious but to make us alert and aware.

And so for those of us who know the Lord, we see these things, and it foreshadows the fulfillment of prophecy, of the coming cashless society, and the mark of the beast. It’s a major signpost towards the soon coming of Jesus Christ. You and I need to make sure that we’re ready.