These are exciting times for believers in Christ who are interested in Bible prophecy. Many things that are suggested by unfulfilled, future prophecies seem to be trending like never before.

We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to discuss some of those things.

✎ We are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news and information.
✎ We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy – only that they are the things you’d expect from reading the Bible literally.

In the future Great Tribulation, the world leader we know most commonly as the antichrist will exercise totalitarian control over his citizens. We are told that “All, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, [will] receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17).

It would seem that the apostle John was shown how what we call biometrics would be used to surveil and control the lives of those under antichrist’s reign.

You would expect that the nations of the world to be trending toward a surveillance state made possible by biometrics.

Thanks largely to the COVID19 pandemic, a biometric surveillance state is happening all around the globe.

I’ll highlight a few things I ran across this week.

Regarding COVID19 & Quarantine Enforcement:

✎ In Hong Kong, authorities are requiring the use of a bracelet and an app for all travelers. 
✎ The Home Quarantining app the Polish government requires involves mandatory check-ins.
✎ South Korea uses GPS to track locations to ensure against quarantine breach, sending alerts if people leave designated areas.
✎ Singapore requires people to report their location with photographic proof.
✎ Thailand is using an app and SIM cards for all travelers to enforce their quarantine.
✎ Ecuador is reportedly using GPS data on mobile phones. 
✎ India is stamping the hands of people arriving at airports to specify the duration of their quarantines, and deploying drones to monitor social distancing.
✎ In Serbia, the police and military monitor people in quarantine.
✎ Vietnam is using a network of informants.
✎ In Montenegro social media users have been been publicly naming patients.
✎ Greece is using drones to enforce lockdowns.

Regarding COVID19 & Telecommunications Data:

At least 27 countries are using data from cellphone companies to track the movements of their citizens, and at least 30 have developed smartphone apps for the public to download.

In Turkey the government is forcibly tracking people over 65, who are not allowed to leave their homes.

When the phone belonging to an American University student in Taiwan, who was subject to 14 days’ quarantine after returning from Europe, ran out of battery power, in less than hour he had received phone calls from four different local administrative units, a text message notifying him he would be arrested if he had broken quarantine, and a visit from two police officers.

In order to enforce mandatory 14-day quarantine orders, Kenyan authorities have been tracking mobile phones of people suspected to have COVID19. Police enforcement efforts have led to several deaths: three died of injuries from being beaten, one, a 13-year-old boy, was hit by a bullet.

COVID19 & Apps:

Citizens in China were required to install the Alipay Health Code app, fill in personal details, and then were issued with a QR code with one of three colors denoting quarantining status. The app reportedly shared location data with the police. 

In some cases, such as Indiana University, UMass Amherst, and the University of New Hampshire, universities are requiring students to make a blanket commitment to install unspecified tracking apps that the universities may specify in the future, leaving students potentially unable to protect their own privacy – despite the lack of strong evidence that these apps work to protect health.

https://privacyinternational.org/examples/tracking-global-response-covid-19

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 calls for legal identity for all by 2030. They mean digital identity. For example, an article posted on economist.com was titled, COVID19 spurs national plans to give citizens digital identities.

Another article was titled, Ready or not, biometric payment cards and immunity passports have arrived. The author noted that these developments have been accelerated by the current pandemic.

Surrender of privacy… Constant surveillance… Digital ID… Restricted movement and travel… Enforced compliance…

This is just the kind of stuff that we expect from a literal, futurist reading of unfulfilled Bible prophecy.

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

Jesus will return in the clouds. He will raise the dead in Christ. He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies.
We will all 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!