CASHLESS SOCIETY
Every Sunday we present a prophecy update. We show how news and trends in the world corroborate centuries-old prophecies you read in the Bible.
One of the most universally known prophecies in the Bible is the dreaded Mark of the Beast. The mark, on your hand or forehead, will be necessary in order to transact any business. You won’t be able to buy or sell anything without this mark. (See Revelation 13).
In the last decade or so we have watched with grim fascination as technology has developed what appears to be various means for this prophecy to become reality. Implantable microchips are just one such technology that has seen amazing advancements. It would be easy for a government to require its citizens to receive an injectable microchip as a means of identification and to conduct commerce.
The way we transact business is definitely moving towards a cashless society. On December 16th TelegraphUK.com posted an article titled, Cheques to be Abolished. ((http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/6826089/Cheques-are-to-be-abolished.html))
Excerpts:
The Payments Council Board has agreed to set a target date of 31st October 2018 to close the central cheque clearing system.
The Payments Council said that over the next nine years it will seek to promote and explain existing alternatives; and where innovation and new options are required to ensure that they are put in place.
It said that the payments industry has to rise to the challenge of finding easy-to-use efficient alternatives for these payments and to ensure that they are easily accessible and well understood by cheque users. The goal is to ensure that by 2018 there is no scenario where customers, individuals or businesses, still need to use a cheque.
No scenario by which you can use a cheque! In the UK they’re just going to mandate it.
What might replace cheques? On January 11th TelegraphUK.com posted an article titled, Is a Cashless Society on the Cards? ((http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6968143/Is-a-cashless-society-on-the-cards.html))
Excerpts:
Visa has been pioneering contactless payments, that allow swift purchases by waving the card over a reader and dispensing with a pin – making buying with a card even more effortless than with cash.
[Steve] Perry [executive vice-president of VISA Europe] believes 2010 will be the year contactless takes off, with the total number of cards in use rising from 5m to 15m. Barclaycard has already 1m customers on its “onepulse” card.
Visa’s new vision is to insert chips into mobile phones and do away with cards altogether. Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays’ global retail bank, already has a “onepulse” enabled phone and more prototypes are being trialled at Visa’s innovations suite. The difficulty is persuading mobile phone manufacturers to build a handset that can store a chip and antennae.
Jenkins believes contactless mobile phones are the future and will open the door to fully mobile banking. Soon enough, people will be receiving, making and managing their payments on mobile phones, he reckons. In Africa, six million people are already paying for goods on their mobiles, proving that electronic payment systems can be more reliable and secure than cash.
On January 4th the Australian.com posted this story: Cash Transactions on Their Way Out. ((http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cash-transactions-on-their-way-out/story-e6frg6nf-1225815744774))
Excerpts:
Signs are emerging that Australia is moving towards a cashless society, with the number of consumers making ATM cash withdrawals dropping to the lowest point in more than six years.
[According to analyst Mike Ebstein] ror the first time… figures showed a reduction in cash usage, indicating that “we are finally beginning to move towards a cashless society”.
The next step will be the use of contactless credit and debit cards. “We will start to see those happen this year,” Mr Ebstein said.
A cashless society in which all business is conducted electronically is exactly what you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy. It is exactly what you see happening all around the world.
These are the last days. The one prophetic event that needs no sign before it can occur is the return of Jesus to resurrect and rapture His church.
Get ready, stay ready, keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!
