- BY F. JACO VILJOEN
Is a future computer chip implant the “mark of the Beast” referenced in the book of Revelation?
High-tech innovation: The VeriChip, which was implanted for the first time in a family in Boca Raton, Fla., contains personal medical information that can be accessed by a specialized digital reader (May 10, 2002).
Source: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images
After an exhausting 18 hours in labor, a mother delivers a healthy baby. The parents are overwhelmed with emotion to see their firstborn come into the world. Nursing staff wheel the child into the newborn ward, with a smiling father following.
But his joyful expression suddenly changes into a distressed frown when a nurse takes a stainless steel syringe and inserts a microchip capsule into the child’s right hand. The healthcare worker quickly reassures the concerned father this is standard procedure…
This scenario depicts the much-discussed, often-feared, possible expanded use of radio-frequency identification (RFID). According to The Morning Call, developers claim, “This stuff is going to be everywhere” and “nobody has even thought of where this [technology] is going to be applied.”
RFID is an advanced identification process in which an individual or item is tagged with a specific ID number. Using radio waves, a computerized reader can scan a tag’s unique serial number and access any stored information.
The only place in the Bible the mark is mentioned is in the book of Revelation.
“And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17).
A chapter later, the mark is mentioned again: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark…the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God” (Rev. 14:9-10).
After reading this account, some conclude the mark is an implanted computer chip or a barcode tattooed on a recipient’s right hand or forehead. Others feel the Nazi swastika is the mark. Then there are those who think the Worldwide Web (or “www”) is the mark, with a few even considering it the H1N1 swine-flu virus.
Yet just one mark of the Beast is described in the Bible. Which is correct?