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The Prophetic Messenger - May/June 2011 - The Mark Of The Beast - Part II

The Prophetic Messenger


A Newsletter From Mysteries From The Word Of God Ministries
May/June 2011 - Volume 13/Issue 3

The Mark Of The Beast - Part II

16 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:17 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. 18 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

In this issue of The Prophetic Messenger, we will start looking at the technology that is being used to bring in the mark of the beast in a message titled “The Mark Of The Beast- Part II.”

1. Smart Technology Is Being Used To Bring Us Into the Mark Of The Beast

a) Cashless - We are seeing a huge push to get the consumer away from cash to a cashless or cash-free society. Here are some articles trying to move the people into a cash-free society. In an article titled “Future Vending Machines Will Link Thumbprints, Retina Scans, to Credit Card”(Note 1) it states

“Samsung's interactive touch-screen vending machine, also known as the Diji-Touch vending machine, is what Next Generation's model may look like. You may never lose a dollar to the vending machine again. Massachusetts-based Next Generation Vending and Food Service has begun testing cash-free, biometric technology, linking the customer’s thumbprint to his or her credit card, reports MyFoxNY.com. . . . The company could begin selling the machines in the Northeast and Pennsylvania sometime next year. . . . Next Generation also is trying out machines that use retinal scans to identify and charge customers for their vending machine purchases – but not in the United States -- yet.”

Before we go the next article we need to see this article talking about the number of mobile phones in the world. In an article titled “Mobile Phone Use Tops 5 Billion: Study”(Note 2)

“The number of mobile phones in use worldwide has exceeded 5 billion for the first time due to high demand in India and China, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has shown in a new study published on Thursday. The world's 5.0-billionth mobile phone subscription was recorded on July 8th, the company said in a statement, with the market having increased almost seven-fold in 10 years. ‘In the year 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users in China alone today,’ Ericsson said. The number of mobile subscriptions increases by two million a day, "largely thanks to emerging markets like India and China," it added. Since one person can have more than one mobile phone subscription, the 5.0 billion mark does not necessarily mean five billion people own a mobile phone. . . . According to the United Nations, the world's population is around 6.8 billion people.”

In the next article they have a video that is within the article titled “Your Phone Is Becoming Your Wallet.” The title of the article is “The End Of Credit Cards Is Coming”(Note 3) A quote from the article states

“Credit cards may soon be as outdated as vinyl records. (Remember those?) And this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins. You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card. ‘Your plastic card hasn't changed since the age of the vinyl records,’ said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network. ‘This is the chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and the vinyl records age to the digital age.’ While companies have been experimenting with contactless mobile payments for years, 2011 is expected to be the year the technology really takes off. That's because millions of phones capable of making contactless payments are expected to be shipped out in 2011. As a result, this pay-by-phone market is forecast to make up $22 billion in transactions by 2015, up from ‘practically none’ last year, according to research firm Aite Group. . . . Companies including Visa, MasterCard, Google, Bank of America, Citi and U.S. Bank are all testing contactless mobile payments, and many expect to roll out mobile wallets this year. ‘2011 is going to be a very exciting, very dynamic year when it comes to mobile payments because it's the Wild West again, with all these players positioning in various different ways to redefine the digital payments landscape,’ said Michael Upton, senior vice president of online and mobile banking at Bank of America, which expects to launch it own mobile wallet later this year. Meanwhile, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon joined forces with Discover and Barclays in November to form Isis and provide a rival to Visa and MasterCard. . . . The Isis mobile wallet will let consumers store multiple cards, make payments with the wave of their phone, check balances, receive coupons and use rewards points at the point of sale. But it may stretch beyond just the money in your wallet. Abbott sees the potential to include your insurance cards, driver's licenses, and other information typically found in a wallet. ‘[Payment] is where we're going to start, but where it goes is wide open to the innovation of other players who want to be involved," he said."
From this video and article we can see the impact of using mobile payments all over the world.

The next article shows how Wal-Mart the world’s largest retailer is planning to use smardcard technology in the future. In the article titled “Wal-Mart to Support Smartcard Payments”(Note 4) it states

“Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is reportedly planning on making all its payment terminals in the U.S. compliant with a smartcard-based credit card technology that is widely used around the world but isn't common in the U.S. . . . Storefront Backtalk quoted Jamie Henry, Wal-Mart's director of payment services, as saying the retailer was working on making all payment terminals in its domestic stores chip-and-PIN-capable. Henry was reported as having said that signature-based credit-card transactions had become a "waste of time" for Wal-Mart. Such a move by Wal-Mart would have widespread ripple effects. As the largest retailer in the world, a Wal-Mart decision to support chip-and-PIN could finally nudge card issuers, payment processors and other merchants to adopt the technology. . . . Chip-and-PIN systems use smartcards that have embedded microprocessors (or chips) rather than magnetic stripes to store cardholder data. To use the cards, cardholders usually have to enter personal identification numbers (or PINs) when making transactions.”

In closing, as we see the world moving toward a cashless society, we are one step closer to the mark of the beast.

b) Past Newsletters about the the Mark of The Beast - We have written a lot about this subject. Here are some of the titles of the past newsletters:

“How Technology Is Being Used To Bring In The Mark Of The Beast” January/February 1999
“Human Implant: Satan's Final Lie ” July/August 2002
“Ubiquitous Is Here - Part I” January/February 2004
“Ubiquitous Is Here - Part II” March/April 2004
“Ubiquitous Is Here - Part III” May/June 2004
Notes:
Note 1: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/08/11/2010-08-11_next_generation_of_vending_machines_may_use_thumprint_retinal_scan_to_pay_with_c.html
Note 2: http://www.thelocal.se/27818/20100716/
Note 3: http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/24/pf/end_of_credit_cards/?hpt=T2
Note 4: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177056/Wal_Mart_to_support_smartcard_payments

Coming Up In The Next Issue

The Mark Of The Beast - Part III. Read this article in the next issue of The Prophetic Messenger.

Memory Verses

As Christians if we want to live in victory and if we want to be able to share the Word Of God with others we must know the Word of God ourselves. Let's see what the Bible says about this. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119:11. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7. "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." John 8:31. We encourage you to put the following scriptures in your heart: James 1:12, Hosea 5:15, Matthew 16:24, Psalm 46:1, Hebrews 10:17, Luke 8:11, Psalm 34:8, Mark 8:23, Deuteronomy 4:24, Deuteronomy 22:9. Use only the Old King James version of the Holy Bible. (If you have any questions about this please see the book New Age Bible Versions, by G.A. Riplinger ©1993, ISBN 0-9635845-0-2.)

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