Human microchipping, End Times and Dr. Phil

I was invited to the Dr. Phil show this week to speak about microchipping and the mark of the beast. I was nervous, but God was faithful.

Would you ever allow someone to put a microchip in your brain? How about in the back of your hand so that you can have the convenience of never having to use a credit card, or never losing your password, or your identity?

People have been having microchips put in dogs and cats for years. Over 10 million animals have already been chipped in the United Kingdom, and Japan is going to make chipping mandatory in animals in five years’ time.

Despite that, human microchipping is not so popular. Many states in the U.S. have already passed legislation forbidding employers to make it mandatory for their employees to be microchipped. Then there are those who say that there’s nothing to fear. “This is technological progress,” they say. 

Thousands in Sweden have already had a chip inserted in their hands, and they’ve stopped having to carry vaccine cards, keys, ID cards, and travel tickets.

But for most, human microchipping opens bigger privacy issues than having public cameras watch us or having our spending habits tracked. Having a chip inserted into our hand or brain is “hacking” into our body. 

Elon Musk says that a microchip insert could help to control areas of the brain of a paralyzed person, enabling them to surf the Internet with their thoughts. Or it could help someone with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Who could object to that? 

If most of us knew we were going to get Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, and there was a possibility that it could be stopped, we may consider an insert. But if we were to be chipped just for convenience, most would say, “No. Never.” Personal freedom is just too important. Especially to Americans.

However, we’ve recently been through a pandemic where we saw personal freedoms become a secondary issue. Being vaccinated for the good of all overrode the personal freedom of the individual. But there was a serious problem. Fake vaccine cards became a hot product on the black market. People could say they were vaccinated when they were not.

What if there was another even more serious outbreak, and the government made it mandatory to be chipped — to prove that we had been vaccinated? And, what if they said that if we didn’t have a vaccination chip, we couldn’t buy or sell? That’s a plausible scenario, in light of what we’ve all been through in recent years. And that brings us to the concern of most Christians. 

I remember 50 years ago hearing a Bible teacher say that the time would come when there would be such stress on the earth, that men’s hearts would fail them for fear. 

Arguably, we are living in those days — where the future is really scary for many. The threat of nuclear war has once again become a reality. There is terrorism and random mass shootings. We’ve got economic issues and climate change that experts say could cause worldwide starvation. 

The Bible says that during these perilous times, a charismatic leader would make it mandatory for everyone to receive a mark on the right hand or on their foreheads. And those who refused that mark could neither buy nor sell:

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17). 

Millions of Christians are convinced that that will soon happen. This is because we have seen the recent fulfillment of so many Bible prophecies. 

Only God knows the future, and He’s given us the future in the Bible. But how do we know that these are days that we will see the mark of the beast? Because of Jerusalem. 

The Scriptures prophesied that the time would come when Jerusalem became a “burdensome stone for all people” (Zechariah 12:3).

And it certainly is. For more than 70 years the tensions between Arabs and Jews over Jerusalem have been a continual pain in the neck for all people.

Besides that, Jesus said that the Jews would be scattered throughout the world, and then get Jerusalem back in the last days:

“And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24, Amplified Bible). 

After being scattered throughout the earth for 2,000 years, the Jews obtained Jerusalem in 1967, bringing into culmination all the signs at the end of the age. 

Have you ever watched a rerun of a game of football, knowing that your team won? It doesn’t matter how much the opposing side hoots and hollers when they score, you don’t get at all stressed because you know the outcome. You know that your team scores in the last five seconds. 

And as Christians watching life unfold, we don’t get stressed because we know the ending. We know that good eventually conquers evil. We know that God‘s kingdom is coming to earth and His will be done on this earth as it is in Heaven. We win. 

Prophecy shows the fingerprint of God all over the Bible, and the implication of that is breathtaking. In the Old Testament, we are told that God promised to destroy death. And in the New Testament, we are told how He did it. And prophecy gives credibility to that promise. The Bible is the Maker’s instruction book telling us how we can find everlasting life (that is, through the Gospel). And that’s what this blind and sinful world needs to hear.