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 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.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the apostle John saw that one day the world would be united in a global system of commerce. That system would allow the Beast of the Revelation – the Antichrist – to eventually control the buying and selling of everyone under his authority.
From that prophecy, futurists like ourselves have long predicted that in the days leading up to the Great Tribulation, commerce would go cashless.
It’s happening. The world is going digital to replace cash. And it is happening rapidly on account of COVID19.
When we were only two months in to COVID19, McKinsey & Company said, “We have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around eight weeks.”
In March, the World Health Organization advised the public to use contactless technology where possible, to prevent the spread of the disease. Since then, retailers have begun refusing cash payments and a concern around sharing potentially ‘contaminated’ cash has grown. Meanwhile, in the midst of the pandemic China has launched a sovereign digital currency, the eRMB, anticipating cash will diminish even further.
In July an article was posted titled, COVID-19 is hastening a cash-free culture. People ‘don’t want to have to touch anything.’
Excerpts:
Cash was already being edged out in many countries as urban consumers paid increasingly with apps and cards for even the smallest purchases. But the coronavirus is accelerating a shift toward a cashless future, raising new calculations for merchants and enriching the digital payments industry.
Fears over transmission of the disease have compelled consumers to rethink how they shop and pay. Retailers and restaurants are favoring clicks over cash to reduce exposure for employees.
China’s central bank sterilized bank notes in regions affected by the virus. And governments from India to Kenya to Sweden, as well as the United Nations, are promoting cashless payments in the name of public health.
“We’re living through an amazing global social experiment that is forcing governments, businesses and consumers to rethink their operating models and norms for social interactions,” said Morten Jorgensen, director of RBR, based in London, a consulting firm specializing in banking technology, cards and payments.
https://www.courant.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-nyt-covid-19-cash-free-future-20200706-wgnhrr5merhx7n55cgdyagerv4-story.html
Here’s a quote from axios.com: “The coronavirus may have changed our buying and payment habits forever. Online shopping is through the roof, and consumers are rushing to get contactless credit and debit cards, which are tapped at a merchant terminal rather than inserted or swiped.”
An article in The NY Times predicted, “Our cash free future is getting closer.”
COVID19 is not one of the pestilences we read about in the Bible. Those occur during the Great Tribulation.
If it has a sinister, Satanic, spiritual purpose, it is that it is pushing the world population towards a global, digital biometric system. It is the kind of cashless system futurists have been predicting since the apostle John wrote the Revelation.
Something else that is resulting from the approach government has taken to fight COVID19.
According to Barna, in the next 18 months, 20% of the churches in the US will close their doors.
Many are predicting that the churches which do remain will suffer significant drops in attendance.
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!