We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning during our regular services to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by a literal, futurist reading of the Bible. We haven’t included an Update in our live-streaming since COVID-19 hit. We’re “re-opening” the Update today.

We are careful to use mainstream sources for news. There is a lot of sensationalism surrounding unfulfilled Bible prophecy, and we don’t want to add to it.

We’re not saying the things we report are the definite fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect by holding a Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.

When I was saved, in 1979, futurists had already been talking about a way of transacting business, or of being identified, by the “mark” on the hand or forehead described in the Revelation.

It seemed impossible, even incredible, at the time. It seemed equally ridiculous in the decades that followed.

But now, today, we know it as biometrics, and its implementation is happening.

A May 8 article posted on biometricupdate.com was titled, Airports and biometrics providers work towards relaunch with contactless “new normal.”

Excerpts:

Melbourne-area Avalon Airport has expanded its partnership with Elenium Automation to implement the company’s full suite of biometrics and other technology for touchless self-service throughout the airport as part of its COVID-19 response.

Kiosks [will sense] head movements instead of touch-screens, while passport screening will be conducted by the traveller holding the document up, rather than inserting it in a machine. The full suite also includes voice recognition in multiple languages, developed in partnership with Amazon Web Services.
Elenium recently announced the deployment of technology that screens body temperature and heart and respiration rate for tests by Etihad Airlines.

Avalon Airport CEO Justin Giddings says the partnership shows how quickly COVID-19 mitigation methods can be put in place.

Economic pressures, safety and security concerns that now include health, and sustainability will be the major impact areas for the industry.

Heathrow Airport, meanwhile, has announced trials of facial recognition and thermal screening to detect people with COVID-19, among other technologies.

Technologies and processes that could eventually be the basis for a “Common International Standard” for health screening at international airports will be trialled, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye told the Transportation Committee of the UK’s House of Commons, according to an announcement by the airport.

Facial recognition thermal screening technology for accurate body temperature tracking will be reviewed in a test at Terminal 2 beginning in the next two weeks. The technology will be deployed at immigration checking areas, and expanded to departures, connections, and other areas if successful. Temperature checks are already required by some countries, and Heathrow will have to follow international standards in the implementation, the announcement notes.

Contact-free security screening hardware and UV sanitation will also be considered.

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202005/airports-and-biometrics-providers-work-towards-relaunch-with-contactless-new-normal

History has been written in advance. The Revelation is not an allegory; most of it is future prophecy. If COVID-19 has a part to play, it is that it moved us rapidly toward acceptance of a contactless, biometric world. The world of the future Great Tribulation.

People are afraid. The only effective remedy’ for fear is faith. Not just ‘faith’ in anything, or in anyone. Faith in Jesus Christ.
He alone has conquered death in order to give you eternal life by simply believing in Him.

God is longsuffering with nonbelievers, not willing that you perish for eternity. So He waits… And waits… And waits for more people to be saved.

His longsuffering won’t wait indefinitely. He promised to return to resurrect the dead in Christ, at which time He will also rapture living believers.

Then He will plunge the world into the Great Tribulation which, if you understand it correctly, is a time of grace in which God is still seeking the lost.

You don’t want to be left behind.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!