[16] And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. [17] And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelations 13: 16-17
MILAN—Italians continue to protest the Green Pass and new legislation on inoculation requirements for schools and transit.
Beginning Friday, all individuals wishing to attend events, including restaurants indoors, must show proof of vaccination or rapid testing within 48hrs. pic.twitter.com/ibO82DbTzK
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) August 8, 2021
I’ve always wondered of that verse what makes the marks so wrong. Especially when you run across some of the Christians over the years who declare everything – even barcodes – as the Mark of the Beast. It always confused me – what about barcodes makes them evil? What sin is this?
(now let’s see who reads this far) THEN I read Lovely People.
https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html
And looked at China’s social credit system. It’s not that the mark itself is sinful – it’s the power and control that it is the end point of. Can the powers that be convince you to avoid God “for your own good”?
I’ve always wondered of that verse what makes the marks so wrong.
The “you must accept these marks or you are shunned” aspect. It’s not the Mark of the Beast if it isn’t barring you from buying and selling.*
Are you familiar with the line about “I have carved your name in the palm of my hands” where it indicates complete belonging? Likewise, the Ash Wednesday ashes-on-the-forehead symbolizes complete surrender, belonging.
So, translated from symbols, just like most of the other Bad Situations, it’s so bad because “if you do not bow and worship this idol then you will be punished, possibly to a very horrible death, and possibly with your entire family dragged along.”
Which is also why it gets connected to so many different things– there are a lot of ways to see just-genuflect-to-this-not-God-power-to-be-allowed-to-do-stuff in things.
From a quick look-around, the barcode thing isn’t actually about barcodes, it’s about ability to have a unique but impersonal identifier for each individual, more easily allowing dehumanization. IE, they correctly identified China’s Social Credit system before it was created.
The cancel culture in social media in America is already a form of social credit system.