AXIOS has this story…. and of course, if you wish to get a large CHUNK of the population to enroll into a biometric landscape, make booze the lynchpin!
Move over, fake IDs: Biometric systems that can “read” a person’s face or palm image and determine if they’re too young for a beer are gaining traction at sports stadiums and liquor shops.
Why it matters: While these tools are handy for alcohol sellers — and can offer more privacy for consumers than handing over a driver’s license to a store clerk — they tap into fears about potential abuses of facial recognition systems.
Driving the news: Legislative proposals in New York and Washington state would let bars, restaurants and other purveyors of adult products verify a customer’s age through biometric data — like a finger or palm image, or a retinal or face scan.
The New York bill would require all biometric data to be encrypted and prohibit businesses from selling it to third parties.
“This is the new frontier of age verification,” state Sen. and bill sponsor James Skoufis told the New York Post. “It does advance the interests of convenience.”
Whole Foods (Amazon) making convenience an architype for the mark as well for a move to a cashless society:
…and that no one may be able to buy, or to sell, except he who is having [has] the mark, orthe name of the beast, orthe number of his name. (Revelation 19:17)
(THE MIRROR) The clip shows Piers approaching the front of the store after picking up a punnet of strawberries, where he announces: “I’m going to buy some strawberries, and I’m offering exactly the right amount of money” before placing coins on the help desk. Addressing members of staff, he then urges them to “take that money – £1.90 – and I will go outside”.
A person believed to be an ALDI worker then pleads with him not to leave and tells him “police are on their way” as he forcibly exits through the entrance gates, which can only be opened with a dedicated app. As he reiterates that he has “paid by legal tender”, a small group of Piers’ supporters then applaud and congratulate him when he walks out into the car park.
We are watching an increase of the “Mark of the Beast Technology” rapidly accelerate all over the world. In this report you will hear that Amazon is now rolling out to all their 500 stores across the country the “pay with your palm” system. In addition, Aldi stores will not allow you enter without a QR Code. World Coin wants to scan your eyes for a New “World ID” and FedNow is finally live! These headlines are STRONG indications that the Mark of the Beast is here, it only needs to be implemented.
Christine Lagarde: ” … above 1,000 euros, you cannot pay cash. If you do, you’re on the gray market. You take your risk. [If] you get caught, you are fined, or you go in jail.”
Tucker: “So you go to jail for spending your money if they don’t control it.”
“Indonesia has achieved… G20 countries have agreed to have this digital certificate using WHO standards, and we will suck it into the next World Assembly in Geneva as the revision to international health regulations. So hopefully, for the next pandemic, we can still see some movement of the people, some movement of the goods, and some movement of the economy.” (GATEWAY PUNDIT)
Humanism is man-centered philosophy. Man himself, not God’s glory, is the primary concern and our world’s problems can be solved by the intelligent effort of man. They gladly point to the United Nations [or: World Economic Forum; G20; CDC, or the like] to exemplify humanistic accomplishment. Any concept of faith is generally eschewed and supernatural revelation is rejected. They seek no higher source for moral values and do not normally believe in an afterlife. Colossians 1:12-29 clearly condemns their thinking. (See more at: TRUTH & TIDINGS | GOT QUESTIONS)
These three excerpts from the videos below are related in that the New World Order has simply been people in power who want no borders and power to decide for others how they should live and eat for the betterment of the world and their egos. Control of Elections, control of lives – bigger government… the wet dream of the Left throughout history. From Lycurgus (Sparta) to Soros/Schwab. The DNC is onboard for a borderless, “world worker” collective.
The son of famous atheist, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, notes the collective nature of Sparta and man’s search to be like God since the Garden (Genesis 3:1; 5 — “…did God really say…. For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Planning for mankind what man thinks is good/bad apart from God’s revelation.):
The Grecian city-state of Sparta and Plato’s descriptions of the supposedly perfect society in his Republic and in the Laws (a twelve-book series) have been the inspiration for utopian tyrants throughout history. Sparta was a collectivist, centrally planned city-state. Individuality was discouraged, and all were expected to live their lives in obedience to the dictates of the totalitarian leadership. Boys were raised from birth to be soldiers and not much more.
Sparta moved to utopian tyranny under the rule of Lycurgus, who imposed a series of laws on the Spartans around 800 BC. Lycurgus turned Sparta into a disciplined war machine, a country where freedom was nonexistent and where cultural creativity died. Regrettably, his influence over this nation-state lasted some five hundred years. Sparta eventually decayed from within, and outside invasions decimated its population.
Before Lycurgus imposed his draconian laws upon Spartan’s citizens, there had been art and creativity in the city-state’s culture; however, Lycurgus ordered all Spartans to disregard art (with the exception of some martial-style songs, music, and poetry). He taught them to distrust philosophy and to avoid excess in all things. Even their speech patterns were restricted to avoid pointless chatter, gossip, or too much speaking of any kind.
[….]
The historian Plutarch described how Lycurgus traveled to other parts of the known world to study various forms of government and cultures before returning to Sparta to implement his totalitarian plans. lie searched for a society based on virtue and a warrior ethos. Lycurgus then traveled to the Greek Oracle of Delphi (a priestess of the god Apollo) to obtain instructions from the “gods” on how to rule Sparta, or at least claimed that as his purpose.
According to Plutarch, the oracle taught Lycurgus that he himself was a “god” and confirmed his ruthless plans for governing Sparta as purposed by the gods.
With apparent “divine” approval through this mystical oracle, Lycurgus began to remake Sparta in the utopian image he imagined. Plutarch related how he first established a council of elders who would have an equal vote with the two kings who ruled Sparta at the time. According to Plutarch, “eight-and-twenty elders would lend the kings their support in the suppression of democracy, but would use the people to suppress any tendency to despotism.”
Long before Karl Marx, Lycurgus was the ideal collectivist and central planner. He believed that Sparta’s citizens were the property of the state and that they had no higher purpose than to obey the dictates of the rulers throughout their lives. The concept of individual liberty and of freedom of conscience and action soon became nonexistent in Sparta. The state rather than the family was the center of each person’s life.
Unlike Marx or Lenin, Lycurgus never produced an overall doctrine in writing for Sparta. Using this tactic, he could add to the rules or change them as he pleased, just as other despotic rulers over Sparta did who followed after his death.
As a good collectivist, Lycurgus hated wealth and private property, so he decided that wealthy landowners should be stripped of all their property so it could be given to the poor. He engaged in what current collectives describe as “redistributing” the wealth. In the twentieth century, Communists called this land-theft process “agrarian reform.” According to Plutarch, Lycurgus accomplished this without murder:
Lycurgus abolished all the mass of pride, envy, crime, and luxury which flowed from those old and more terrible evils of riches and poverty, by inducing all land-owners to offer their estates for redistribution, and prevailing upon them to live on equal terms one with another, and with equal incomes, striving only to surpass each other in courage and virtue, there being henceforth no social inequalities among them except such as praise or blame can create.
Lycurgus also hated the concept of money because it supposedly resulted in greed and avarice. His solution was to abolish the use of gold and silver money and to make iron money the only legal tender in his city-state. The iron money was so large that it had to be carried by a yoke of oxen. The destruction of the gold and silver standard also made it impossible for Sparta to effectively trade with other countries.
[….]
Lycurgus controlled every aspect of Spartan life. There were even precise regulations as to how a Spartan home could be roofed. The beams of each house had to be constructed with an axe, while the doors had to be built with a saw and no other tools.
[….]
Lycurgus was an advocate of infanticide, which became an institution in Sparta. Whenever a child was born, it was considered state property and, if a boy, he was destined to spend most of his life training or engaging in warfare against Sparta’s enemies. Thus, he had to be strong and indifferent to pain and privation. Babies that appeared to have defects or weakness at birth were eliminated, as they could not serve the Spartan state and thus had no value.
The manner of death of the unwanted babies was not as sterile as it is today at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Newborns were taken to a group of elders for examination. If those elders chose a child for disposal, it was taken to the top of a mountain cliff and thrown off, to be eaten by wild animals.
[….]
crops and services to the Spartan elites. To keep the Helots enslaved and in constant fear, Sparta’s leaders created a secret police much like the Soviet KGB or the Nazi Gestapo to terrorize them on a regular basis. This force was called the Krypteia.
…..Armageddon, if you haven’t read the Book of Revelation lately, is the place where the forces of evil gather for the final battle with the faithful (Revelation 16:16). The same Biblical book, which is the last book of the New Testament, presents the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (the final destruction of the world) in a terrifying vision that is often understood as referring to the end times. First there is “a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” The second horse is “bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword.” Then follows “a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand,” apparently for the rationing of food in a time of famine. Finally, there is “a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:1-8)
The four horses and four afflictions, conquest, war, famine, and pestilence, neatly encapsulate the administration of Joe Biden……
UPDATE (4-29-2022)
Here is more information from a CEO/producer of food typically the poorer people buy that are basic staples, like, beans and rice:
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue is a strong conservative. As the head of America’s largest Hispanic-owned food brand, Unanue supported Trump. Liberals didn’t like it — they even tried to boycott his business — but Unanue didn’t back down.
[….]
Goya Foods primarily serves lower-income people. Now, Goya Foods’ CEO is warning America that a “food crisis” is coming. When Unanue says a “food crisis,” he’s not talking about Wagyu beef. He’s talking about beans, rice, and the staples of a basic diet.
[….]
From the video:
Bob Unanue: “We are on the precipice of a global food crisis. God created humanity. Humanity has created every way to destroy itself — from nuclear to biological to chemical. But now we’ve waged a war — we’ve weaponized food. In the Ukraine — between the Ukraine and Russia — they represent 50% of the world’s production of fertilizer, 30% of wheat, 20% of corn, 2.5 million acres of sunflowers, other food and minerals…
“We’re going to have to tighten our belt and consume less. We’ve gone from oil independence to oil dependence. We’ve given up that position — to have our oil at cost… When we bring in stuff from — let’s say, Thailand — coconut water. We’re paying 10 times the freight we usually pay…
“The biggest component in food and anything is transportation. The transportation has skyrocketed because we’ve given up our independence. When you have an unbalance in the food production — in 2008, the price of grains tripled. Why? Because we were planting corn for ethanol instead of rice and grains and other things … When you have an imbalance in the world production — 50% of fertilizer — the farmers are paying double for fertilizer. They’re planting less. Their yields are gonna be less. Costs are gonna go up…
“It’s a very tight balance. And if we interrupt the food production, we will have a food crisis. Prices will go through the roof…”
THE COUNTER SIGNAL (see also TRUE NORTH) has this delightful update on Trudeau…. and yes, when Mislav Kolakusic is looking back, he is looking directly at Trudeau:
On March 23, PM Justin Trudeau was called a dictator in front of the entire European Union over his response to the Freedom Convoy.
Addressing both the European Parliament and Trudeau specifically, Member of the European Parliament Mislav Kolakusic proceeded to deliver Trudeau perhaps the most humiliating international thrashing of his political career.
Trudeau is going to come home from Europe VERY angry. He was just forced to sit and listen while he was labelled a “dictator,” in front of the entire European Union, one who “trampled women with horses,” and “blocks the bank accounts of single parents.” https://t.co/GiPU69MboEpic.twitter.com/83662XKyrb
“Freedom, the right to choose, the right to life, the right to health, the right to work for many of us are fundamental human rights for which millions of citizens of Europe and the world have laid down their lives,” Kolakusic began.
“…. Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months. We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes.”
“To you,” he continues, speaking to Trudeau, “these may be liberal methods; for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind. Rest assured that the citizens of the world, united, can stop any regime that wants to destroy the freedom of citizens, either by bombs or harmful pharmaceutical products.”
Kolakusic, having once lived under a Communist regime in Croatia, is more than likely only too familiar with authoritarian regimes, their consequences, and the grievances of everyday citizens. And like many who have survived Communist dictatorships, it is apparent that he shares the disdain over Trudeau’s use of Emergency Powers to target peaceful protesters who only wanted their rights back.
And indeed, Kolakusic isn’t the only MEP to suggest Trudeau is acting like a dictator.
“[Trudeau’s] exactly like a tyrant, like a dictator. He’s like Ceaușescu in Romania,” said Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes last month.
Another story that is related via THE COUNTER SIGNAL (a Canadian freedom blog) is one that entails the “Liberals” (the moniker sounds nice, but it has nothing ta do with classical liberalism) which starts out is a startling way by noting: “During a government-run event, the Liberals discussed using digital ID to hunt down the unvaccinated to get their shots in a future pandemic.”
Wow!
I think this falls under an “Eschatology Watch” banner.
(Classified under “Eschatology Watch”) Klaus Schwab is bringing you the great reset. And not only will it be great, it’ll be a fantastic reset! The folks at the World Economic Forum are busy helping protect you from climate change and disease. Yet some people still ask, is Klaus Schwab the most dangerous man in the World? Get the full picture along with everything they DON’T want you to know in this video!
A quote within a quote from an eye-opening article over at AMERICAN GREATNESS:
You look back and you see what’s going on and what happened, and that helps you see it’s not you, so there’s nothing wrong with half of America. There’s nothing wrong with those of us who are patriotic. There’s nothing wrong with those of us who believe in God. There’s nothing wrong with those of us who really admire the founders of the country, even though they were human beings and they had corrupt, horrible practices like slavery, but they had these amazing ideas. Many of them were very great and good men and women, Abigail and John Adams, Martha and George Washington. Strong, devoted people who risked their entire lives and fortunes to give us a free nation.
We need to know what happened. We are being oppressed by evil people. Nothing is by chance. We might as well be children being tormented and turned into helpless beings. We have to say to each other, “No more. No more helplessness. No more lamenting. No more complaining. No more saying, ‘What’s happening to us?’” It’s very clear what’s happening to us. It’s the age-old tendency for power to rise to the top and to abuse everybody again, only now it’s high-tech, and now they have these fake vaccines that are sort of high-tech, and so on. It’s the same old scaring the hell out of us by all the methods that Joe has been talking about so much and I’ve been talking about so much. We won’t name all those methods again, but they’re all calculated to cow us, and so we can look at this and not say, “What they’re doing is crazy.” No, it’s not crazy. It’s intentional, and purposeful and we must stand up to it.
Yeah, and I really want to help people replace the fear and confusion, like, “How could they do this?” The worst thing you can say to yourself is, “How could they do this? What are they doing to me?” I remember when the diaries of some of the people, the leaders in the Warsaw Ghetto . . . They weren’t really leaders. The leaders were fighting and dying in the streets against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, slowing down their progress and tying up large numbers of troops. The rabbis, the intellectuals, they were saying, “God, why have you done this to us? Why have you done-” What do you mean, “Why?” This is the history of the world. I mean, read the Bible. The first family, the one son kills the other over jealousy, lies to the father. This is the history of the world.
Stop lamenting, stop complaining. Be joyful, and I mean joyful. We won’t always be joyous – be joyful that you are in a moment of time when you can help turn the tide again the way our founders did. We really have an opportunity to get together, create our own institutions, fight back, take big risks. Do you know the founders of our country, each and every one who signed the Declaration of Independence, consciously knew that they had created King George’s hit list. Every single one of them knew that if the war was lost, they’d be sought out and hanged. King George promised it when he saw the list.
My emphasis about, it’s going to get worse. My emphasis is, that’s the plan. The plan always starts with one piece of oppression, two pieces. They work you up, like the proverbial frog in the hot water, which is probably not a true story, but that’s the metaphor, until you’re cooked, boiled, so it’s inevitable, folks. Don’t wait for it to end. Whoever’s behind Joe, whether it’s his wife, or Barack Obama. I don’t know why we don’t know. I don’t know who’s not looking hard in that area. I’m sure there’d be a way to find out who’s behind Joe, because it’s not Joe. There’s nothing inside of Joe much now, but this is the plan. It’s not going to just get better by itself, absolutely will not.
…and that no one may be able to buy, or to sell, except he who is having [has] the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 19:17)
to buy or to sell. Antichrist’s mark will allow people to engage in daily commerce, including the purchase of food and other necessities. Without the identifying mark, individuals will be cut off from the necessities of life. number of his name. The beast (Antichrist) will have a name inherent in a numbering system. It is not clear from the text exactly what this name and number system will be or what its significance will be. — John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Re 13:17.
Papyrus documents of the first and second centuries were frequently stamped with a seal known as charagma, the very word translated “mark” in this passage. These seals left the name of the ruling Emperor and the date inscribed on the document. Some may have included a likeness of the Emperor’s features as well. They were used as part of the paperwork in buying and selling. There is nothing here about the hand or the forehead. — Lewis Foster, Revelation: Unlocking the Scriptures for You, Standard Bible Studies (Cincinnati, OH: Standard, 1989), 195.
The mark of the beast relates to the purchase of food, and possibly employment. God’s people are not protected from this economic privation. — Robert James Utley, Hope in Hard Times – The Final Curtain: Revelation, vol. Volume 12, Study Guide Commentary Series (Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International, 2001), 98.
The purpose, (so that; Gk. hina) of the mark is that no-one should engage in trade without it. Could (dynētai) is stronger than ‘hinder’ or the like. It points to a total prohibition, which would make it impossible for people without the mark to buy even necessities like food. It is thus impossible for those who oppose the beast even to live. — Leon Morris, Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 20, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 167.
The mark may be, as in the case of the sealing of the saints in the forehead, not a visible mark, but symbolical of allegiance. — Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 584.
Architype
I got a QR code sent to me shortly after getting the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. A QR code is basically a natural extension of the conventional barcode, but can store up to 7089 digits or 4296 characters, including punctuation marks and special characters, the Code can equally encode words and phrases such as internet addresses. One thing to always keep in mind, especially when it comes to designing the Static QR Codes aesthetic is that the more data is added, the more the size increases and its structure becomes more complex.
SEE FOR INSTANCE THIS CODE:
Even when damaged, the QR Code’s structure data keys include duplications. It is thanks to these redundancies that allow up to 30% of the Code structure to take damage without affecting its readability on scanners.
So a “name” can literally be a part of this image. Or some number to support a world-wide edict.
A CBS reporter grilled White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients on vaccine QR codes during a press conference Thursday. This comes as more businesses across the nation began requiring proof of vaccination.
“Now that more entities are requiring more vaccines, is the administration reconsidering something like a QR code or a passport to help verify people’s vaccination status?” the reporter asked. “And if not, what are you doing to stop the proliferation of fake vaccine cards?”
“There are a number of ways people can demonstrate their vaccination status,” Zients replied. “Companies and organizations and the government are taking different approaches. We applaud this innovation.”
However, he was clear that the White House will not get involved in creating vaccination QR codes. “There will be no federal vaccination database,” Zients said. “As with all other vaccines the data gets held at the state and local level.”…..
The Left’s taste for totalitarianism is increasingly obvious. There have been calls from Leftists for the opponents of the still-unapproved vaccines to be shot (with a gun, not a hypodermic needle), or at the very least arrested and imprisoned, and on Thursday AP reported that Biden handlers had discussed “mandating vaccines for interstate travel,” but decided against doing so because “the administration worried that they would be too polarizing for the moment.” For the moment. That means we should watch for this particular trial balloon to be floated again after the establishment media has pounded the American people with fear propaganda for a few more months.
Even the fact that this idea has been broached should send chills down the spine of everyone who is aware of how totalitarian regimes work. Internal passports are one of their hallmarks, as they enable easy, centralized data collection about the population and its political leanings, along with ready knowledge of each individual’s whereabouts, which is always handy when the time comes for that knock on the door at 3 a.m. At a time when the Democratic leadership is doing everything it can to stir up hysteria about a fictional “insurrection” and talking about acting against a largely chimerical “white supremacist terrorism,” the idea of internal passports should be a matter of serious concern.
On December 27, 1932, the Soviet Union established the “Unified Passport System within the USSR,” severely restricting travel within the country and requiring Soviet citizens to carry passports for travel inside the workers’ paradise, so as to aid in “the removal of persons not engaged in industrial or other socially-useful work from towns and cleansing of towns from hiding kulaks, criminals and other antisocial elements.” “Kulaks” was the Stalin regime’s word for peasants they didn’t find sufficiently enthusiastic for the arrival of Communism; the internal passports were designed to aid in identifying and rooting out such undesirable elements and enemies of the regime.
Victor Davis Hanson recently pointed out that “once the delta variant arrived in force in early summer, earlier government assurances that the vaccinated were now free to resume a normal life lost credibility. Confused and mixed messages followed — simultaneously downplaying and exaggerating the efficacy of the vaccinations.” Yet in the face of this loss of credibility, Biden’s handlers have not eased off on their vaccination push, but have only intensified it. AP noted: “When the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. first began to slow, President Joe Biden backed incentives like million-dollar cash lotteries if that’s what it took to get shots in arms.” Yes, it’s a vaccine so safe, so effective, so widely trusted, that Biden’s handlers were willing to bribe Americans to get it.
The cash lotteries were the carrot; now comes the stick. “In just the past two weeks,” says AP: “Biden has forced millions of federal workers to attest to their vaccination status or face onerous new requirements. He’s met with business leaders at the White House to press them to do the same.” And that’s not remotely all. Biden’s handlers have also “taken steps toward mandating shots for people traveling into the U.S. from overseas.” Much more is coming, “including potential support for school districts imposing rules to prevent spread of the virus over the objection of Republican leaders.”
Yet again employing the Leftist tactic of accusing his enemies of what he is guilty of, Old Joe on Thursday politicized his vaccine push while claiming his foes were the ones doing so: “To the mayors, school superintendents, educators, local leaders, who are standing up to the governors politicizing mask protection for our kids: thank you. Thank God that we have heroes like you, and I stand with you all, and America should as well.”
AP’s Zeke Miller then gives us a paragraph about Old Joe’s strict constitutionalism and magnanimity, saying that “he has refrained from using all his powers to pressure Americans to get vaccinated. He’s held off, for instance, on proposals to require vaccinations for all air travelers or, for that matter, the federal workforce. The result is a precarious balancing act as Biden works to make life more uncomfortable for the unvaccinated without spurring a backlash in a deeply polarized country that would only undermine his public health goals…. Still, while more severe measures — such as mandating vaccines for interstate travel or changing how the federal government reimburses treatment for those who are unvaccinated and become ill with COVID-19 — have been discussed, the administration worried that they would be too polarizing for the moment.”
Wait a minute. He has “refrained from using all his powers”? What powers exactly has he declined to use? What section of the Constitution allows the president of the United States to require vaccinations for all air travelers or internal passports? What part of the Bill of Rights allows the president to take any measures whatsoever to “make life more uncomfortable for the unvaccinated”? If a pandemic justifies this level of federal overreach, what on earth would or could possibly prevent a tyrant from creating one in order to arrogate emergency powers to himself? Is the pandemic now the Left’s Reichstag fire excuse to destroy Americans’ freedom and crush dissent?……….
A friend posted an article that got my eschatological mind’s gears grinding again. Here is the article graphic of Newsweek’s cover:
My Comments, partly tongue-n-cheek, but not…. if that makes sense.
Doomsday?
CHECK.
Require proof of ID to buy and sell…..?
…..CHECK.
Sounds like a bit of stealth eschatology out in the world. I mean, when the Apostle John penned this, there was no real way to (a) catalog anyone en masse to “number” them. Nor (b) were there ways to curtail shopping for necessities for a large population.
Well, at least there isn’t technology for the world to view the Two Witnesses within days available to us (that an author in 90A.D. warned us about):
Those from the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and [h]will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who live on the earth. And after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.
I mean, that would take some small device that most people would own in the world, small enough for a pocket, or something most homes have, and shareable with those who don’t have one.
[Nervous] Lol.
It isn’t like the poorest of people living on our streets have them?
…Research shows that many homeless people have cell phones. In Karin M. Eyrich-Garg’s study of homeless people in Philadelphia, 44% of the adult participants already had their own cell phones. (Amongst those participants, 80% owned, 18% borrowed long-term, and 2% rented.)
In another study, 70.7% of homeless patients visiting emergency departments had cell phones, compared to 85.9% of people who were stably housed.
It isn’t like the cave dwelling peoples of places like Afghanistan have these devices!
“There is nobody in Ghana who is not using a mobile phone,” added Kadir, speaking to CNN on a late model Sony Ericsson that he ordered for around $220 from someone in Italy. “Even a shoe shiner has his own mobile phone,” he jokes. (Africans get upwardly mobile in cell phone boom)
In Afghanistan, Singh said, there is a direct link between communications infrastructure and development. As cell phones spring up in various areas that either didn’t have them before or where they were destroyed by the Taliban, he said, commerce has increased and people are using mobile phone messaging to move around the country and spread information about the movement of the insurgents. Currently, between 10 million and 12 million afghans have cell phones, he said. “Farmers are using cell phones to see what prices are in the market before making the trip into town. People are building confidence with local security forces. Cell phones really do transform areas (EDITOR”S NOTE: population in 2010, 29,185,507 | Fighting the Taliban, one text message at a time – Afghanistan [PDF])
Mmm… maybe that isn’t the best example either.
Oh well. It isn’t like we have a large set of moral busy bodies concerning themselves with what others do.
BIBLICAL COMMENTARRIES
The ENTIRE WORLD WILL WATCH (undoubtedly on the latest form of visual media) and glorify the Antichrist as the bodies of the dead prophets who have been killed begin to decay. — John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Re 11:9.
The death of the two prophets (v. 7) will set off a GLOBAL CELEBRATION among unbelievers who have hated their message of truth. — Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Re 11:9–10.
TV news services can broadcast the awe-inspiring drama. — James E. Rosscup, An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the Fuel to Flame Our Communication with God (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2008), 2772.
Remembering the reaction of Pharaoh to the plagues of Moses, one can easily imagine the frustration of the general public at finding their water turned to blood, conditions of worldwide drought, and the visitation of various other plagues. Doubtless, all of this is blamed, and with some accuracy, on the two witnesses since it is not readily discerned as a part of the overall judgment of God. However, equally probable is the possibility that the “torment” people experience is also due to the fact that these are “witnesses.” In other words, probably they did a great deal more than simply announce the inevitability of certain plagues on the earth. They were preachers of morality, witnesses of God and Christ, and harbingers of the coming of even more severe judgments of God in the days to follow. Again, recalling Exodus, the audacity of Moses to stand before Pharaoh and command him to let God’s people go and sacrifice to him in the wilderness was doubtless just as irritating as the plagues to Pharaoh. So it would be if these two witnesses opposed the worldviews, system of morality, and violation of the laws and purposes of God. This torment was simply too great and thus engendered the wrath of the beast.
Another interesting observation concerns the information that “men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies.” The fulfillment of such an anticipated event would be incredible and even unthinkable until modern times. Certainly there is no reason for anyone to doubt the prophet even in AD 95 since after all he is the prophet of a miracle-working God. BUT THAT WHICH WAS UNTHINKABLE IN AD 95 WITHOUT A MIRACLE OF GOD IS NO LONGER EVEN IMPROBABLE IN THE ERA OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATION. Hence, events that happen in faraway places are now almost instantly available around the globe to observers with the proper equipment. Too often interpreters of Revelation and of all apocalyptic/prophetic literature read modernity back into the text in a way totally unanticipated by the author and inevitably incorrectly. Here to read modernity into the text would certainly be anachronistic, but at the same time the text may render an understanding even more comprehensible to the contemporary era than it was to the recipients of John’s Apocalypse.
— Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 249.
The martyrdom of the witnesses (vv. 7–10). This comes only when they have finished their testimony. God’s obedient servants are immortal until their work is done. “The beast” (Antichrist) is now in power and wants to take over the temple; but he cannot succeed until the two witnesses are out of the way. God will permit him to slay them, for no one will be able to make war against “the beast” and win (Rev. 13:4).
The witnesses will not even be permitted decent burial (see Ps. 79:1–3). But even this indecency will be used by God to bear witness to mankind. NO DOUBT THE TV CAMERAS IN JERUSALEM WILL TRANSMIT THE SCENE TO PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD, AND THE NEWS ANALYSTS WILL DISCUSS ITS SIGNIFICANCE. The earth-dwellers will rejoice at their enemies’ removal and will celebrate a “satanic Christmas” by sending gifts to one another. It thus would appear that the power of the two witnesses will not be limited to Jerusalem, but that they will be able to cause things to happen in other parts of the world.
— Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 599.
Although THE EARTH rejoices that the testimony of the church is in the end apparently snuffed out, the temporary triumph of evil (“three and a half days”) will turn to heavenly vindication as the two witnesses (the people of God) are raised from the dead. — Robert B. Sloan, “The Revelation,” in Holman Concise Bible Commentary, ed. David S. Dockery (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 674.
BONUS COMMENTARY I LIKE
11:9–10 People Rejoice over the Witnesses’ Bodies
The Sight of the Righteous Vexes the Unrighteous. Tyconius: Since they do not allow their bodies to be gathered in a suitable place, they prevent a day for their memory to be indicated by a sacred celebration of the living.… It is no wonder that the earthly minded rejoice over the deaths of the righteous. For in addition to the plagues that beset the human race on account of the testaments of God, even the very sight of the righteous oppresses the unrighteous, as it is written, “Even the sight of him is a burden to us.” Not only does it oppress, it also causes him to melt away, and so the psalm says, “The sinner will see and be angry; he will gnash his teeth and melt away.”61 Commentary on the Apocalypse 11:9–10.
The Wicked Delight in the Death of God’s Witnesses. Oecumenius: And seeing the destruction of the witnesses, those from every nation who have been deceived by the antichrist will rejoice over them, as though their own king had conquered. That they exchange gifts is another indication of their glee and delight. It says, “Because the two prophets had been a torment to those living on the earth.” [The prophets] will not torment them with any physical torment, but spiritually by mocking and reproving them for their sins and by making utterly clear their deceit. Commentary on the Apocalypse 11:7–10.
The Impious Strive to Remove the Church from the World. Primasius: The intentions are expressed by which the impious strive to remove the church of Christ from the world, as the psalmist says, “Let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” And although they are unable to fulfill their desire, yet they make their evil intention known. Commentary on the Apocalypse 11:9.
Let Us Pray That God Reprove Us. Andrew of Caesarea: Those Jews and Gentiles, who once were overpowered by the false wonders of the antichrist and who had indelibly engrafted that abominable name upon their hearts, prohibited the holy bodies from being buried, and they rejoiced because they were free from the torments that [the prophets] gave for their correction. For they did not acknowledge that “the Lord reproves him whom he loves,” and that “he scourges every son whom he receives” and “by muzzle and bridle he will pull and tug at those who are not near to him.” And God works in this way so that they might turn from necessity into the straight way from which they turned aside when they were deceived. We must make petition of the Lord and pray, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes,”68 and “Turn us, O God of our salvation, that you do not enter into judgment with your servant.” “When we are judged by you, our beneficent master, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world”70 but may rather through a few torments escape an eternal punishment. Commentary on the Apocalypse, 11:9–10.
William C. Weinrich, ed., Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 164–165.
PROTECT LIBERTY
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?
Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom. pic.twitter.com/XrI2tjdAHW
The tough aspect of “Dispensationalism” made understandable. Part of the videos description:
I ask that you be respectful, humble, and Bible based in the comments. Teachers who approved this video do not personally hold to every view presented. Dr. Andy Woods endorsed it after it was posted. Lets put aside all comments about the rapture, Rev. 20 (1000 years), Ezekiel 40-48, and all other areas not necessary to the core of Dispensationalism. They don’t disprove Dispensationalism….
