We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by a literal, futurist reading of the Bible. We anticipate that the remaining 500 or so end times prophecies will become history just as every previous prophecy.

We are careful to use recognized, reliable 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 a newspaper in the other.

The future Great Tribulation that will come upon the whole earth is described in chapters six through nineteen o the Revelation of Jesus Christ. A major feature of life in that seven-year period is that everyone will be identified by, and conduct business, using their hand or forehead. It sounds like biometrics. We therefore expect advances in the technology that could make this possible.

But how will the masses of humanity get on-board with invasive technology that all but eliminates privacy?

Enter COVID-19. One article I read this week is titled, How COVID-19 Is Shaping the Biometrics Industry.

Excerpts:

A few weeks on, COVID-19 has significantly altered how we live our daily lives and has greatly influenced the course of biometrics.

Governments all over the world have ramped up their measures to swiftly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help distribute aid and benefits to it citizens, Jamaica wants to fast-track the creation and implementation of a national identification system. In Poland, people returning to the country from abroad are required to download a biometric smartphone app, capable of recording their geolocation, and submitting selfies for biometric checks to show they have the device with them.

https://www.innovatrics.com/how-covid-19-is-shaping-the-biometrics-industry/

Another article was more dystopian, titled, COVID-19 Is Changing Our World – And Our Attitude To Technology And Privacy.

Excerpts:

Before the outbreak, Chinese citizens were subject to far more stringent levels of state surveillance, and technology-driven tracking measures than most of us in the West are used to. In the changing world we find ourselves living in now, that intrusion into day-to-day life has greatly intensified. 

Officials have deployed helmet-mounted cameras able to identify residents with raised body temperatures amongst crowds of people, and smartphone apps use machine learning to rate citizens using a color-coded scheme that awards them a “risk level” of red, yellow or green.

Drones armed with heat-sensing cameras, loudspeakers, and even “chemical spray jets” have been deployed to enforce the strict quarantine laws that can see citizens jailed for up to seven years for non-compliance. And residents have reported being unable to access their homes in locked-down apartment blocks when automated security measures determine that data suggests they pose too high a risk. 

Advocacy of measures that would often be termed “draconian” – particularly if they are happening in China or other nations with openly authoritarian rulership – is becoming more frequent.

In the UK, the government is using (so far, anonymized) individuals’ location data to measure how people are complying with mandates for isolation, self-quarantine, and social isolation. Aggregated data from phone providers is now being used to monitor public movement around London, and this could be used to understand peoples’ reactions to newly-imposed restrictions on public transport – as no-one really knows what the effects of this will be.

There is a danger that these changes and actions will lead to the establishment of a “new normal.” Once this outbreak is contained, and our lives have adapted to the measures needed to keep it so, there’s always going to be the danger of another outbreak on the horizon.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/03/23/covid-19-is-changing-our-world–as-well-as-our-attitude-to-technology-and-privacy-why-could-that-be-a-problem/#26fe9d26dc13

I really don’t see how anyone reading the Bible wouldn’t see we are rushing towards the Great Tribulation.

We believe the resurrection and rapture of the church is imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it. It will happen before the Tribulation.

Jesus will come, in the clouds, and raise the dead believers of the Church Age. He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies. We will join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.

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

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!