We focus on Bible prophecy each week for about five-minutes, calling it a “Prophecy Update.”

With somewhere around 500 prophecies regarding the Last Days that are yet to be fulfilled, we ought to be able to identify trends in the world that are to be expected in light of those prophecies.

Whatever the dreaded Mark of the Beast turns out to be, it will involve total, authoritarian control over the lives of those who receive it. The folks in the future Great Tribulation who refuse to take the antichrist’s mark will be cut-off from buying or selling or participating in society in any way.

Movement towards that kind of control should be expected as a developing trend.

I’ve reported in previous Updates about the “social credit” system already in effect in China. A recent article summarized it this way:

China’s social credit system operates on a points system. If you are a law-abiding citizen who pays your dues in a timely manner, the government rewards you with welfare benefits, low interest rates on loans and more.

But criminals, delinquents, and those who are default on debts, as well as those indicted for bad behavior when traveling overseas will have lower social credit rankings and be marked as having a “delisted” status.

“Discredited” Chinese citizens face greater scrutiny from the public, meet tougher challenges when applying for new credit cards, getting bank loans and in more severe cases, may be blocked from buying airlines or train tickets, until they repay their outstanding debts and fines.

Before we decry China, the article points out the following:

Similar social credit systems have already been enforced in many other countries around the world. Examples include:

The US-based FICO credit system.

Japan enforces strict health requirements for its national health insurance, such as requiring people to see a dietitian and counsellor if their waistline exceeds certain limits.

French President Emanuel Macron has also called for a new law to ban so-called political extremists for life on social media accounts.

Sweden has taken it to new levels with a rice grain-sized microchip that can be implanted under the skin of one’s hand to replace the need for keys, credit cards and train tickets. It might sound shocking but over 4,000 Swedes have adopted the technology.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/china-social-credit-system-points-system-fico-schuba-11302770

These things are not the Mark of the Beast. They are precursors of what the Bible predicted would happen in the Great Tribulation when no amount of imagination could have postulated such an authoritarian government and economy.

As believers, we expect that Jesus could return at any moment.

Jesus promised He’d return to rapture His church – which entails the resurrection of the dead in Christ of the Church Age, then the translation from earth to Heaven of all living believers.

It is presented in the Bible as an imminent (any-moment) event.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up. Ready or not, Jesus is coming!