Technology and biblical prophecy are butting heads over a computer chip. It’s a little larger a grain of rice and can be implanted beneath human skin to provide personal and medical information.
Some marvel about the wonders of such technology. Others believe it may represent the biblical warning about mark of the beast.
In December 2001, Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), a Florida-based technology development company, announced VeriChip, “a miniaturized, implantable identification device that can be used in a variety of medical, security and emergency applications.”
The company’s Web site referred to VeriChip as “tamper-proof.” The implantation process “can be performed in an outpatient, office setting, requiring only local anesthesia, a tiny incision and perhaps a small adhesive bandage,” the company said.
The Jacobs family, nicknamed the Chipsons, will be the first family implanted with VeriChip, according to Time.com.
CBN News reported that the Derrick Jacobs, the family’s 14-year-old son, said, “I think it’s just another step closer in the evolution of man and technology.”
The company and family await the Food and Drug Administration’s approval.
Time.com also reported that ADS signed an agreement to make its chips available in Brazil, where kidnapping is widespread.
Implanted sub-dermal microchips are considered “passive chips,” meaning they supply information scanned. Future “active chips” are expected to beam out information and could include a global positioning tracking feature, according to ABCNews.com.
Some conservative Christians reacted to the news of microchip implants with dire warnings about biblical prophecy.
Theologian Terry L. Cook linked the biochips, the Bible and global government. According to the Trentonian, he asked, “Will the New World Order fulfill Bible prophecy regarding a system of world government that will ultimately be led by the Antichrist?”
These Last Days Ministries (TLDM) confused VeriChip with the Digital Angel, another ADS product used to monitor seniors and children, calling it the “Mark of the Beast.”
TLDM claimed that when a 2000 ADS graphic was inverted “the line drawing of the angel forms a clear and distinct pattern resembling the number 666—the Number of the Beast from the Book of Revelations.”
“Was this design a deliberate act of sabotage or an unfortunate accident of design or a sign of the prophecy?” TLDM asked.
Citing passages from Revelation, ADS wrote TLDM rejecting the charge that VeriChip represents the mark of the beast. ADS also said that in an appearance on The 700 Club a theologian said VeriChip was not the mark of the beast.
