Trending Toward A Cashless Society

 Trending Toward A Cashless Society: One Hundred Nations Now Exploring Central Bank Digital Currencies – By Mark Hitchcock - https://harbingersdaily.com/trending-toward-a-cashless-society-one-hundred-nations-now-exploring-central-bank-digital-currencies/ The Bible tells us that when the antichrist comes on the scene, he’s going to gain a foothold of global power. The beginning strategy of his power grab will be to first gaincontrol over the world economy. It’s a lot faster and easier to gain economic control with all the means that are available today than it is to achieve military and political power. Once you have that economic control, you control people’s lives, and you canthen take them over politically and militarily as well. According to Revelation chapter 13, the antichrist will have iron-fisted control over all buying and selling. Bible prophecy teachers for decades have said that a cashlesssociety will be required. What we see today developing in our world is a cashless society on steroids. Recently, a new entity was created called the FedNow Service. The FedNow Service is a portal created by the Federal Reserve, which permits financial institutions to exchangefunds digitally in real-time. The government website in early July stated: The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced that its new system for instant payments, the FedNow® Service, is now live. Banks and credit unions of all sizes can sign up anduse this tool to instantly transfer money for their customers, any time of the day, on any day of the year. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell [said,] “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a personto immediately receive a paycheck, or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid.” To start, 35 early-adopting banks and credit unions, as well as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, are ready with instant payments capabilitiesvia the FedNow Service. In addition, 16 service providers are ready to support payment processing for banks and credit unions. CoinDesk published an article recently that reads, “Federal Reserve’s ‘FedNow’ Launch Triggers Fresh Speculation Over Digital Dollar,” subheading, “While FedNow is currentlynot tied to any initiative for a digital U.S. dollar or the crypto space in general, experts warn that the system might end up as a precursor to the infrastructure for a central bank digital currency.” Immediately, the creators of the FedNow said this isn’t related to Central Bank digital currency (CBDC), but many experts are warning that’s exactly what it is. The CoinDesk author continued: The U.S. Federal Reserve denies that its new instant payments service, FedNow, is in any way tied to the digital asset space. But experts say the new system could lay the groundwork for the infrastructure needed for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the U.S. The FedNow project adopts a key goal of the digital asset industry: moving money around easily and quickly, and at any time of day or the week, even if banks are closed. FedNowwill operate 24 hours a day. “This is a payment system, not a digital token or a CBDC, but it is something that can be used to facilitate the creation of a CBDC,” said Jim Bianco, president of BiancoResearch. Dave Weisberger, CEO and co-founder of CoinRoutes, said this: “If FedNow does indeed become a programmable CBDC, then it could theoretically be used to block payments foritems the government doesn’t favor or to cut out people from the financial system who are seen as threatening in some way to governing authorities, aka, political opponents.” “In that situation, things could get dystopian very quickly,” Weisberger added. Of course, the “dystopian” government we know from Scripture is the rule and reign of the globalempire and economic system of the coming antichrist. “Officials at the Fed had been studying the potential for a government-issued digital currency,” CoinDesk further stated. On March 9th, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order that put into motion the machinery and the mechanism to develop a CBDC. In preparation for the G20 Summit, theBank of International Settlements published a report laying out the Central Bank’s efforts to prepare for a CBDC and all its benefits. This is moving forward at a dramatic speed. FedNow seems to be the infrastructure or platform that can easily be used when a central bank digital currency is brought online. At the same time that FedNow was emerging, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published principles of central bank digital currency interoperability. At a recent WEF event, economist Eswar Prasad bragged about how CBDC can be used to limit your purchases of whatever bureaucrats happen not to like—that’s where this is headed,and they’re not even hiding this. One hundred nations are now exploring CBDC. Twelve central banks have pilot programs for digital currencies, and the EU already has a “digital euro.” The problem with CBDCs is that they are programmable, traceable, expirable, and controllable by the government. For example, if a person goes to a gas station and they havea central bank digital currency, it can be determined how much money they are allowed to spend on gasoline. That’s how they will control the environmental agenda that we see taking place. There’s a pilot program in India for CBDC. Reuters reported, “The Reserve Bank of India is targeting one million transactions per day through the central bank digital currency(CBDC) by the end of this year.” China is doubling down on CBDC with the aim of controlling its population even more. There’s a revolution for retail payments in the country, whose government is demandingall retail spaces now accept digital currencies. The wider goal is the total elimination of all physical forms of currency. “In the future, commercial electronic payment tools may fully meet the needs of the digital economy and society and completely replace cash,” the Chinese central bank chiefsaid. The trend toward a cashless society, they say, is inexorable. All of this is a striking foreshadowing of what we read in Revelation 13. It’s just another flashing light thatthe coming of Christ is near. It’s also a very powerful confirmation and validation of the truth of the Bible. Think about John writing those words in Revelation, 2000 years ago, that no one can buy orsell in the world without the mark of the beast. During that time, the described scenario was impossible. It was even impossible 50 or 100 years ago, but it’s possible with the technology we see today. It’s just another validation of the inspiration of God’sWord, how trustworthy it is, and how we can believe it for all these prophecies that are yet unfulfilled. ----------------------------  How A Cashless Society Is a Precursor to Enforcing the Mark Of The Beast – Mark Hitchcock - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=6361 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'sa 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 societyis 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 becauseit'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 comingantichrist, 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 riseof 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 bypalm' 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 atover 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 therenot 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 informationand 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, thisturns 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 deviceto 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 identifya 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 withthird 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. Whenyou 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 theword "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 tribulationperiod. 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 valueassociated with them. When the antichrist appears, his name will equal 666. I'm sure you can look today and find all kinds of people whose names equals 666, but that's jumping the gun to do that; he's not going to be revealed until after the rapture. 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 loyaltyoath 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, and all that has to happen is the rapture. One of these days, the curtain of the in times will go up when the rapture takes place, and theantichrist will rise, 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'snot 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'sa major signpost towards the soon coming of Jesus Christ. You and I need to make sure that we're ready.