RFID - Wave of the Future?

I predicted this a while ago.  Wish I could find the link.  First it would be for pets, and then for prisoners and Alzheimer’s patients, then the military and high-risk Executives and VIPs.  And all too soon, it would be Joe Average, all under the umbrella of safety, or security, or efficiency, or convenience.  And here it all is.

You can discount the Christian end-times prophecies as a bunch of mystic hooey and conspiracy theories, but they very clearly foretell a day when no one will be able to buy or sell without a unique (digital?) identifier.

It’s called boiling the frog slowly.  Incremental implementation until their use is so ubiquitous, so commonplace, that to try and oppose or resist makes you a fringe crackpot.  Perhaps even a subversive or an “extremist.”  An anti-government kook.  Terms already being used to try and disparage and delegitimize groups like the Tea Party activists.

It’s all very convenient. What amazing, space-age technology!  Your car will only unlock or start if it “senses” your unique digital signature.  Your ATM will only dispense money to your unique digital signal.  Your office can sense your arrival, and use preset light and heat settings based on your pre-programmed preferences.  Who wouldn’t want that?!

Just Prior to Implant

Until one day, it’s decided that biometric passports aren’t enough.  That perhaps the threat of domestic terrorism is so great that we “need” to be able to track citizens in real time.  Britain is already awash in CCTV monitors, and is leading the way in chipping everything from pets to garbage cans to people.  With an RFID implant they can track where you got on the train, when, and with who.  What you bought at the store, how much gas you used last week, and where you stop for coffee on the way to work.

RFID Injector - by ID-OLOGY

These chips might be able to make us more secure, more safe, more efficient.  However, that security will come with a heavy price in lost personal freedoms.  And if, one day, it comes about that not getting chipped gets you fined or arrested?  If you can’t buy food or gas without one?  Somehow, “I told you so” just won’t seem like enough.

You scoff.  “Wingnut,” you snort.

How about:  A National Health Care database. VeriChip implants which tie your unique biological “signature” into that database. You are required by law to have insurance.  Fined if you don’t.  Imprisoned if you don’t pay your fines.  All of this is on the table TODAY in the some form in the Health Care bills being debated in Congress. All for our own good, don’t you know?

“and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.”  (Rev 13:17, NASB)

What does it mean by the “number” of his name? See bolded items below. Eerily similar language to something written nearly 2,000 years ago.  Is it really such a stretch?

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US family gets health implants

US doctors have implanted chips into the arms of a Florida family containing their medical histories in a controversial new programme that doctors hope may one day become standard practice.

Chips to fight kidnapping

An US company is considering producing electronic implants that could be used to keep tabs on kidnap victims via satellite. riginally Applied Digital Solutions had intended to market its VeriChip to patients who wanted to keep their medical records under their skin.  But recently the firm has caved in to pressure to include tracking devices.

But some may see tracker chips as a positive development. After 11 September, many western governments have become paranoid about security and want to keep a closer eye on citizens with schemes such as national ID cards.  “You can’t get a better ID card than one you can put under your skin,” points out Mr Pearson. The technology necessary to locate a person geographically is not particularly sophisticated. It has been around for years in the chips that are implanted beneath the skin of pets.

Crackdown on dangerous dogs to make microchips compulsory for all

“Under the scheme a microchip the size of a grain of rice is injected under the skin of the dog between its shoulder blades. The chip contains a unique code number, the dog’s name, age, breed and health as well as the owner’s name, address and phone number. When the chip is “read” by a handheld scanner the code number is revealed and the details can be checked on a national database.

ID Card for Workers at Center of Immigration Plan

“Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.”

N. H. Reps Approve ‘Tracking Device’ Bill

“The bill in question is an amendment to the state’s Consumer Protection Act (RSA 358-A). If passed, it would require that all consumer goods or identification documents (such as driver’s licenses, credit cards or library cards) with an embedded “tracking device” to be labeled with a “universally accepted symbol” to denote the inclusion of the device.”

Tracking Prisoners in Jail With Biometrics: An Experiment in a Navy Brig

“Biometrics has been used previously to track the movement of staff, visitors, and prisoners in and out of correctional facilities. It has also been used to account for staff members in the event of a riot or other prison disturbance. This project represents the first use of biometrics to track prisoner movements within a prison or jail. It was designed to employ computer-based methods of tracking inmates to improve the efficiency of corrections specialists[1] and brig officials and to demonstrate how advanced technology can make corrections facilities safer.”

VeriChip Sells First Baby Protection System, in Talks with Military

“The company announced Aug. 24 that it has made the first sale of its infant protection, wander prevention and staff duress system to the Brampton Civic Hospital in Brampton, Ontario. Separately, the company confirmed a day earlier that it is in talks with the military to test its implantable chips in two branches of the military.

But VeriChip also has a separate patient identification system, VeriMed, which is used beneath the skin. Once the chip is implanted in the fatty part of a persons arm (or in the hand(!!!), as chip volunteers have done), it displays a 16-digit identifier when tapped by an RFID reader. The number accesses health information in a database that requires a username and password for admittance.”

RFID Chip Implants Planned for Alzheimer’s Patients

“Alzheimer’s Community Care Facility, in West Palm Beach Florida, intends to begin implanting radio frequency identification chips, RFID, in Alzheimer patients, despite the outcry of violation of privacy.

She believes the RFID chip, manufactured by VeriChip Corp, provides a valuable service that allows medical facilities to quickly and easily access medical information the patient often is not able to provide on their own.”

RFID Chip in Humans

“Every RFID tag is given an unique number, similar to an user identification number.”

Chip implant gets cash under your skin

Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, Fla., is hoping that Americans can be persuaded to implant RFID chips under their skin to identify themselves when going to a cash machine or in place of using a credit card.

RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which some manufacturers have managed to shrink to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting a unique ID code, typically a 64-bit identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values.

Barcelona clubbers get chipped

BBC Science producer Simon Morton goes clubbing in Barcelona with a microchip implanted in his arm to pay for drinks.

Implanting microchips that emit a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) into animals has been common practice in many countries around the world, with some looking to make it a legal requirement for domestic pet owners.

China First With Citizen RFID Implants

A press release issued by the Chinese government today announced the countrywide implementation of a new high-tech tracking initiative designed to “increase security and prosperity for all citizens of the People’s Republic of China.”

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There seems to be a definite trend towards giving every person a unique, digital identifier.  Now, what happens if you have to have a certain, SPECIFIC identifier to use ANY services or facilities?  What if you have to agree to have an RFID with someone elses ID, say perhaps, one that associates you with a certain charismatic leader?  Not so easy to discount now, is it?

You know what that is, right?  Idolatry.  Plain and simple.  Flocking to an image of a water stain on a concrete wall, stacking candles, incense and flowers all around, and then PRAYING TO THE IMAGE is idolatry.  I happen to think that praying to anyone but God is idolatry.  Praying to the Virgin Mary, praying to “the saints”, praying to your dear departed Uncle Chuck, all of these are putting someONE or someTHING before God.

God’s word clearly states: 

Exodus 20:3-4, “You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “

Judges 10:13,  Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you.

2 Kings 17:12, “They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

Praying to the Mother of Jesus and asking for her help or intercession is making her as God (”Mediatrix”).  Praying to Saint Peter or Saint Theresa or Saint Bob is putting a PERSON in the place where JESUS belongs.  And it is therefore idolatry.

And the question I have is….why?  Why pray to anyone but God?  The way has been opened for you, “the veil of the Tabernacle was torn in two” so that ALL might approach the throne of God! 

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a {mere} copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; …Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer {any} offering for sin.  Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,  (Heb 9-10)

Jesus tells us quite clearly in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. “  Not through Mary.  Not through Peter.  Only through CHRIST.

The again in John 14:13-14, Jesus tells us, “”Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do {it.}  ”

Jesus quite clearly not only gives us permission to go directly to Him, but requires us to go to Him and ONLY Him.  If you are praying to anyone, or anything else, you are praying to a false god.  An idol.  A substitution of the real thing.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as {we are, yet} without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Hbr 4:13-16 NASB)

And here’s there other thing.  Our God is an AWESOME God.  Our God is the one who spun together the entire universe.  Psalm 104 talks about his kind of God: 

“Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out heaven like a {tent} curtain.  He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind;  He makes the winds His messengers, Flaming fire His ministers. ”

Does this sound like the kind of God who would be content to manifest himself as a mildew stain an a basement wall, some calcification under a runoff spout, or an odd shape of woodgrain on a toilet door?!  Come ON. Seriously.  I think it’s safe to say that an image seen in some dusty, shadowy dampness in a culvert is NOT OF GOD.  Which really leaves only two other options, doesn’t it?  Either you are trying waaaay too hard to see something that’s not there, or, the image comes from somewhere else.  Somewhere, or someone.  Someone who would love nothing better than for you to be distracted, entranced, and preoccupied with all manner of flashy, showy spiritualistic other things than focusing exclusively on the one, true God.

I remember hearing a story once of some missionaries in, I believe it was Ethiopia, who were shown what was believed to be one of the original stones used in the ephod of Aaron as commanded by God, described in Exodus Chapt. 28:

And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, [like] the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.

 I had always pictured some kind of art class project with a name etched into the top like a pet rock or a paperweight.  However, the stone the pastor described was transparent, a deep blue color, and the stone had an image of a lion, for the tribe of Judah.  They were able to x-ray the stone, and came to discover that the image of the lion itself had a three-dimensional quality and was actually made up of Hebrew words, almost like a hologram!  This seems to jibe with the description given in Exodus.  The stones were made by “Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman.”  Cunning indeed!

Now, I admit I heard the story second or third hand, and I can’t find anything on the ol’ Internets to back it up, but that story has always really resonated with me.  If this is the kind of amazing detail that God’s people put into carving individual stones,  I can only imagine what God did when he “carved” out the 10 Commandments: 

But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away:  (2 Cor. 3:7)

I can’t imagine they were really just a couple of rough-hewn stone slabs with chisel marks.   They were so magnificent that they imbued power to the very countenance of Moses!  I suspect that these may very well have been what gave the ark of the Covenant its power once they were placed inside.  What I wouldn’t give to see those tablets, maybe get them in front of an MRI or mass-spectomoter!  When I look at Revelation 2:17 in light of the above story, it takes on a much greater level of significance:

and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

Imagine God creating a stone which only you can read.  Each stone unique, different, magnificent, and waaaaay high-tech.

So with all that in mind, how is it that so many people allow themselves to be mystified by a patch of frost, a discoloration of some concrete, or a scuff mark on a linoleum floor?  Folks, when God wants you to know that He’s there, trust me, you’ll know.  There’ll be no squinting, and turning your head this way and that, and if you shine the light just so, it sort of maybe kinda might look like Jesus when he’s asleep underwater…

“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.  (Matt. 24:30-31)

Doesn’t say anything about toast or mildew.  God does not do things halfway.  He is not a tame lion.   He’s got a flair for the dramatic.   He’s a God of burning pillars and parted seas, not potato chips and grilled cheese.

More even that the aspects of idolatry, and of diminishing the majesty of God, chasing after images and totems can lead you down a dangerous path, one which is based on deception.  If you are so quick to find solace in every “religious” icon you stumble across, if you are so ready and willing to believe that spirits are speaking to you through these manifestations, you set yourself up to be easily deceived by those claiming to speak for God, or AS God, but who are really agents of deception and betrayal.

“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many…Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” (Matt. 24)

Putting your faith in anyone, or anything except the Lord Jesus Christ denies the sovereignty of God and results in you serving and worshipping a creation, not the Creator.  Do not be misled!  Trust that God wants you to talk to HIM, revere and worship HIM, not a grease spot or a paint smear.

Yep, that pretty much sums up my soul right now.

Secondly, perhaps the single most illuminating (and disturbing) thing that I’ve realized is that I am resenting God.  Wha..?   Yup.  I am deep in the throes of a full-blown, resentful, pouty-lipped, widdle foot-stomping spiritual temper tantrum.  Probably have been for quite some time.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t what Jesus meant when He said we should become like little children in order to enter His Kingdom.

I find that I am resentful of Him forcing me to give up all my worldly pleasures and distractions.  I resent being told “No.”  I resent not getting to do things my way, when I want, how I want.  I resent being forced to stay and work on my marriage rather than being allowed to follow the path of so many today and harry off on some mid-life crisis to “find myself” and pretend I’m some carefree 20-something with nothing to worry about but ME, ME, MEEE! 

I’m like some petulant teenager who just can’t understaaaaaand why she can’t go to the Nine Inch Nails concert with her 23 year old “friend.”  But I WANT to!

And figure that should be enough, right? 

Sometimes, to be honest, I feel like stomping up the stairs, screaming “I HATE YOU!!!” at the top of my lungs, and slam my bedroom door with all the fury contained in my martyred and misunderstood little arms.

Forgetting, of course, that I stomped up the stairs of the home my parents have provided for me, to slam the door of the room they filled with furniture, and throw myself on my bed and listen to the Ipod they bought me, as I bemoan how they just never let me do anything, and they don’t really love me, or they’d let me do what I WANT.”

Sound familiar, at all?  How like children we must be in God’s eyes!

We are like those oh-so-worldly teenagers that we all know, and many have raised, those wizened old philosophers and sages who have the world figured out at 17, and with much rolling of eyes and dramatic sighs we wish our geeky, clueless parents would just get out of our way and let us do what we KNOW is right.  Or at least what feels good.  Or what our friends tell us is “cool.”  Or any combination of the three.

Only to discover, some ten years later, as we watch our own little crumb snatchers get all demanding and pissy when they can’t have what they want, when they want, and that would be RIGHT N-O-W!! just how much smarter our parents have suddenly become.

God is revealing to me one of the fundamental flaws of my character, and I am struggling to face all of the potential ramifications of it.  Despite a lifetime of faith, despite years of devout worship, study, and what I felt to be “devotion,” I’m still really just as much of a drama queen in many ways as anyone else in the world.

Despite “knowing” what God wants, I “kick against the goads,” fighting against God’s sovereignty, rationalizing, justifying, cajoling and bargaining in order to keep on doing this or that “one little thing.”  Problem is, God wants it all.  Heart, mind and soul.

It’s time to grow up, man up, and stop demanding that God see it MY way.

Because, despite of all I may want to convince myself, or however much I may try to hide from it, the simple reality is…yeah, He really IS the boss of me. 

He formed me in the womb, knew me before I was born, and created me for a purpose.  He is infinite in His wisdom, and like that wise and worldy parent, knows the dangers of rock concerts with over-age boyfriends and the many other dangers facing us out there in the world, dangers of which we are undoubtedly blissfully unaware.  We need, I need to trust Him, to know that He has a perfect plan for my life, and that the more I fight it, the only person I’m really making it hard on is myself.

I think this poster sums it up nicely:

Just be aware of the decision you are making when you set aside God’s word in favor of the teachings of another prophet, philosopher or sophist.

You deny the finished work of Christ, you deny the sufficiency and authority of God, and you make yourself the arbiter of “truth.” And, while that’s certainly a great job for anyone to have, I’m sorry to say that the position has already been filled.

It’s a simple reality, really:  You create the Universe, you get to make the rules.  So, until you can manage the former, don’t presume to attempt the latter.