After I was first born again in May 1995 (and earlier in the 1980's) I read books by Barry Smith on Endtime theory's. One was called Post Script and it had a lasting effect on my appetitie for the end time teachings. I am not sure I agreed with all his prophetic insights, however, I have learned since reading this sort of material, to not throw the baby out with the bath water.
One thing I do remember though, is a friend of mine who was 'away' from Jesus at that time, had been to a seminar and was reading one of his books 'Final Notice' . She told me that she was making sure she would never take the mark of the beast, and was making every effort too: use cash as much as possible - as one day it will be difficult to buy anything without a bar code, grow her own veggies - as one day hybrids may mean we wont have the seeds to grow from scratch ourselves etc. At the time I thought, this is crazy to be so radical its just being awkward for awkwards sake.
However, when I read the book, I became curious and realised that she had a point on some issues, and so did Barry Smith.
This morning I read this BBC News Report on : NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION TRANSFORMS TRAVEL , and it brought to my remembrance the 'cashless society' and 'mark of the beast' theory in Barry Smiths books - written some 20 plus years ago. The BBC Report looks amazing, it even has a sort of Sci-Fi slant to it. However I paused to think; do we ever consider what the cost may be to need this technology to travel, buy groceries, with just a 'chip'? What if to aquire this 'superchip' the registration requirements changed over time? What if all our personal ID info was required inorder to get a chip? No more trips to Walmart, Safeway, no travel from country to country, etc. Could this not lead to serious abuses of privacy and ones rights if we are not prepared to release this 'private' infomration inorder to buy products using this 'system'. Infact what if one day we may not be able to buy products apart from technology such as this? How would we buy and sell or survive for that matter?
I for one will watch for signs of the development of this technology, I cant help but wonder if this became global technology, where this will lead us globally in 20 years time?
Oh well we have a veggie garden, 9 chickens so far. We may need a waterwell, and a dynamatic energy source or solar power - that's for free (when the sun shines in Washington State that is!)
A bit sobering really, many think guys like Barry Smith are total nuts; On the contrary, many also thought Jesus himself was possessed by a demon (this is stated in the bible), yet He was and is Truth.
FINAL THOUGHT
It is easy to brush away the things we do not understand as rubbish, but maybe instead of doing that, we should be asking for understanding of the times we are in, and the wisdom to apply that knowledge to our daily lives in the light of the Holy Spirit.
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