Would a microchip inserted under a persons skin be akin to receiving the mark of the beast?
Such a chip is an illustration of the advancement in technology that has occurred in the last 20 years, but it does not make it the mark of the beast. This may pave the way for the beast's last-day system, but Revelation 13 specifically connects the mark with the worship of the beast and the rejection of the Lord Jesus. We are not told just what the mark is other than it is tied in with the name or the number of the beast, as that which represents who he is and what he stands for. It is a means of causing the world to bow down to him as the supreme ruler who stands opposed to God.
The economic global system we see developing today will undoubtedly be the vehicle he will use to promote his worship and his control. It seems obvious that what we see today by way of the electronic advancements (the merging of companies into greater and greater conglomerates into huge international systems, etc.,) will also pave the way to this end-time world order. But even this in itself does not now constitute the system of the beast. Thus, the two thingselectronic advancement and the multinational development of commercewill simply be vehicles Satan will use. In and of themselves they are not evil. Satan is master distorter/perverter. He takes whatever might benefit man, like world trade, and seeks to use it for his own nefarious schemes and purposes.
Nationalism is the biblical model for today as opposed to internationalism, but only because it is a safeguard against the tower of Babel mentality. Internationalism makes it easier for the rise of and unlimited power of tyrants. International trade can actually benefit mankind, but Satan will twist it for his endsmaterialism, one-world system, and eventually, a one-world dictator.
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