#595

And About That Mark Of Beast…

It’s Not Like We Didn’t See This Coming

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.(Rev 13:16-17, NKJV)

Even back in the Apostle John’s time, controlling the economy by restricting what people could buy and sell was a known thing. And really all throughout history such a concept has been seen as we learn in an article by Dr. Craig Keener:

The use of a mark to enforce national or empire-wide unity already had a long history known to John’s audience.

For example, Ptolemy IV Philopator, ruler of Egypt, required Jewish people in his realm to be enrolled in a census and to be branded with an ivy leaf, the symbol of Dionysus (3 Macc. 2:28–29).

And using a mark to be able to buy or sell has been used throughout history. Again, I refer to the same article by Keener to support this:

You could do little in commerce in the ancient world without handling such a “mark,” because allusions to the emperor’s divinity appeared on many coins and even shipping bills and other documents.

In fact, a mid-third-century emperor demanded certificates of sacrifice to the emperor to participate in commerce and escape prosecution; he likely sought to eradicate Christians.

Many Christians compromised by bribing officials or by using other practices; some preferred death and were accordingly executed.

Even in John’s day, however, one could not handle money without involvement in the imperial system.

But in our day, the way to control your money is much more sophisticated and much more controlling.

I Hate Acronyms (IHA)

While I am quite aware of the irony of that headline, the sentiment is still the same when it comes to what is called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It sounds so innocuous but as we know, the devil’s in the details. I now turn to an article I found on prohecywatch.com for the remainder of my lesson to show us just far down the mark of the beast rabbit hole our world has gone:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report recently that warns about the very serious privacy risks associated with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

According to the paper, entitled "Central Bank Digital Currency Data Use and Privacy Protection," any central bank can use its CBDC system to collect all sorts of private information about users. It could then turn that private information over to the authorities for mass surveillance and possibly persecution reasons.

As usual, the bogeyman of this digital currency is privacy:

"CBDC data allows for commercial exploitation while also raising the possibility of state surveillance," the IMF warns.

But before we talk about how much information this system will have about everyone, we need to talk about how it works:

The way CBDCs work is that every time a transaction is made, all sorts of private information is transferred and uploaded into the blockchain as proof. That information is then open game for government authorities and anyone else to exploit it for ulterior purposes.

"Central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a digital form of central bank money, may allow for a 'digital trail' - data - to be collected and stored," the paper explains.

"In contrast to cash, CBDC could be designed to potentially include a wealth of personal data, encapsulating transaction histories, user demographics, and behavioral patterns. Personal data could establish a link between counterparty identities and transactions."

Now, none of this is new and we allow for such information to be collected and used all the time and I’m talking about for decades. It’s not all bad, either:

The paper goes on to explain that there is economic value in CBDCs due to the data trail it creates. Data is considered an "infrastructural resource that can be used by an unlimited number of users and for an unlimited number of purposes as an input to produce goods and services."

"CBDC data could potentially be harvested by financial institutions that, in turn, could help develop data-driven businesses," the paper continues.

Sounds Good, Right?

Sure, but the information isn’t where the real danger lies. It’s how it can be used against us:

One of the greatest dangers that is not often talked about is it's programmable nature, meaning someone outside of your control will have the ability to turn it on and off, or program it in such a way that makes it applicable only at certain stores or for certain goods and services, not others. It's not just the monitoring of what is being bought and sold but the ability to control it on a mass scale almost instantly.

Now that sounds a lot like those verses in Revelation 13 doesn’t it. And it’s extremely close to becoming reality:

More than 98 percent of the world's central banks are preparing now to help unleash a new global cashless society once the time has come. All we need is one good economic disaster to push us over the edge and the general populace will be eager to sacrifice privacy for stability and convenience.

The article asks a very good question, one that again, could be used against us:

Should the general public have access to everyone's private spending habits?

It’s not like that hasn’t been available generically, but now a great deal of our behaviors is now available:

What kind of data is collected when using a CBDC, you might be wondering? Besides the payer's and payee's names and identities, there is also transaction data for both payer and payee as well as metadata about the merchant's name, location, and spending category.

Credit card companies already collect and store this type of information about users and their transactions, but central banks are not privy to it unless they pursue it with a warrant. CBDCs, on the other hand, are an open book for the money masters to track every single purchase that every user makes.

Now we begin to see just how much control can be lost with this digital currency system. Governments can now access anything they want at anytime because they will be the ones controlling this bank. Some even called this Biden’s money.

And About Those Details

The original article I’m citing gives us some of the ways this new control will try and “help” us:

Whatever the agenda of the central banks, CBDCs allow the money masters to collect and use data to achieve their policy objectives. Some of the use ideas presented in the IMF paper include:

• Reducing information asymmetries

• Assisting in support of financial inclusion

• Facilitating payment system interoperability

• Promoting innovation and market contestability

These seemingly benign terms should cause you to pause. When they talk about reducing information asymmetries they are basically saying that they want to take away the very underpinnings of capitalism. Granted businesses that keep information about how they do things can use it to manipulate markets, but some things are simply trade secrets that help businesses that are run well to be successful. And that assisting in support of financial inclusion sounds good and all, but those who make the decisions could also use this ability to pick and choose winners and losers according to their beliefs and punish that are say too conservative or have a different standard of what is moral and what it not. The concepts sounds good, but it is who implements things that is the issue.

Getting The Bigger Picture

If I wanted to put a one-world government in place I’d need to know all about the people in it. The CBDC systems can deliver that. Again, Revelation is looking more and more accurate:

CBDC data can also be used to produce more timely and up-to-date information about the state of the world at any given moment, as well as help policymakers develop better macroeconomic solutions to problems while remaining in regulatory compliance.

The problem, of course, is that anyone can access private data in CBDC systems. Unlike the current paradigm, everyone's private spending habits would become an open book in a CBDC system, allowing criminals and those with malintent to wreak havoc throughout society let alone a dictator in power of the government.

One person read the report and summed it up this way:

"Having read through the paper, the IMF is doing a whole lot of gaslighting, pretending to lay out 'all options' or something, when in reality they are outright telling us that the implementation of CBDCs will be a total loss of freedom and liberty," warns Winepress News' Jacob M. Thompson.

That whole “no man can buy or sell” concept to a tee. Thompson then tells us this:

"We know the IMF is gaslighting just based on some of the other draconian statements it has made over the last several years."

Some say that the book of Revelation is not about today or the future. I beg to differ. But I am not a merchant of fear either. This is a perfect time to trust God for all our needs. Which isn’t a new concept but one that is very much needed when all this tyrannical control is building.