Biometric Transactions, End Times Financial Sign?

If you thought the emergence of palm payment technology was creepy, just wait for what is coming next! The purchasing power of facial recognition.

This form of technology has been highly successful in China and other Asian countries and Americans may soon be able to utilize it too.

Biometric transaction companies have been partnering with credit card companies like MasterCard and major financial institutions to usher in this newer means of “securing” payments, but at what cost?

JPMorgan Chase is one such institution.

In 2023, JPMorgan Chase joined with PopID, a biometrics technology company based out of the U.S. after running a few pilot programs. The financial giant says as early as 2025 it will be ready to begin rolling out a “biometric authentication system” at stores across America.

“Our technology can detect the difference between a photo or video and a real person,” says Prashant Sharma, JPMorgan’s executive director of biometrics and identity solutions, in an attempt to soothe any concerns American customers may have over any threats of being impersonated.

“People can steal your card, but they can’t steal your face or palm, and since biometric payments are in-store transactions, it’s very difficult for someone to impersonate someone else,” Sharma says.

On this issue, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning regarding the “increasing use of consumers’ biometric information and related technologies, including those powered by machine learning, raises significant consumer privacy and data security concerns and the potential for bias and discrimination.”

“In recent years, biometric surveillance has grown more sophisticated and pervasive, posing new threats to privacy and civil rights,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“Today’s policy statement makes clear that companies must comply with the law regardless of the technology they are using.”

As is clearly seen, one of the major concerns consumers face is that of the ever increasing risks posed by the collection and use of individual data.

We cannot highlight enough just how major of a threat to personal privacy this form of technology is as it could so easily be used by financial institutions who now have a track record of collaborating with governments to target specific groups.

An example of this is when Canadians came together in the nation’s capital of Ottawa, Canada to peacefully protest their government’s lockdowns during the global “pandemic”.

Several citizens taking part in what became known as the Freedom Convoy had their bank accounts frozen after the government used a piece of anti terrorism legislation against their own people!

The government stated that they were able to track individual’s transactions and wanted to “follow the money” in order to squash the protests. This was a severe breach of personal privacy and just goes to show us that it is indeed possible for governments to collude with private institutions like banks to persecute people for their beliefs.

A similar threat is presented to us through this new system of making biometric transactions as these technologies can identify and track consumers in specific locations. This point alone could expose a person’s sensitive information whether that be a certain kind of healthcare, their political ideology, what type of religious functions they attend, and the list could go on.

In addition to these threats on an individual level, companies and financial institutions which would collect the vast swaths of biometric data, could become massive targets.

Biometric payments are projected to soar over 100 percent between 2024 and 2028 according to Juniper Research. In addition to this, a PYMENTS survey has found that Gen Z is far more willing to let companies use their biometric data than older generations.

Perspective

Research shows 46% of Americans don’t worry about carrying cash whilst in October 2018, 29% of Americans say they never purchase products with cash, and another 52% say they only occasionally purchase with paper money.1 That means 86% of Americans are primarily paperless when it comes to their shopping.

Societies are slowly (and yet rapidly) becoming cashless which is a sign of the times we live in. And no, we don’t mean this is merely just another element that is adding to the “digital and information age” but this is a sign of the spiritual times we are living through.

What does this trend toward an electronic and cashless society have to do with Bible prophecy and the End Times?

Scripture reveals that the Antichrist will unite the world under one government—one united economy. Every person will be required to take a mark in order to buy or sell goods of any kind.

This mark could be an actual physical brand, but it could very easily be connected to the technological advances being made today.

Whilst concerns over privacy and freedoms abound, there is an even more disconcerting potential for this type of technology as it is a perfect weapon for a one world system or what some may call it, the New World Order.

The Word of God talks clearly that there will be one ruler who will govern every society, and it is likely that he will use the far reaching and ever expanding capacities of technology to accomplish his purposes (Revelation 13:16-17).

So what are we getting at?

Speaking to the intent of a matter is futile, what we can do, however, is speak to what we have been warned about in the Bible and look for signs of the end times and delve into the purpose of certain elements emerging within our collective societies.

One reality, this is the purpose of the collection of biometric data collection and use. This could also easily be said with regards to children globally being taught to believe there is no God in their education systems or how governments are seemingly demeaning their sovereignty and uniqueness of their own cultures!

Getting the people of the world to think, believe and act the same and then to control them is paramount to a one world system of governance.

Technological advances are paving the way for the fulfillment of end-time prophecy and are creating the perfect environment for the antichrist to emerge.

Centralized power will be necessary to obtain global control and how perfectly does this form of banking and purchasing technology fit into the plot of the antichrist to institute the mark of the Beast.

What is the mark of the Beast?

Those who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior before the Second Coming of Christ will be left behind in what the Bible calls the Tribulation. These persons will be forced to take the mark of the beast as discussed in Revelation 13:15-18, as well as Revelation 14:9, 11, 15:2, 16:2, 19:20, and 20:4.

This mark acts as a seal for the followers of the antichrist and the false prophet (the spokesperson for the antichrist). The false prophet (the second beast) is the one who causes people to take this mark. The mark will be placed in the hand or forehead and is not simply a card someone carries.

Knowing this, we can already see the acclimation process has begun! People can now scan their palms in a Whole Foods to pay for their groceries and isn’t it something that people will now be able to pay for goods by scanning their faces!

Palms of the hand and the forehead. Just as we were warned by God.

If it seems too far fetched to connect financial technology with the mark of the Beast, remember that prophecy was written with the words and from the context of human authors in their day.

When the apostle John wrote of a mark, he would have thought about a criminal or slave being branded as was customary in his day.

There are many good expositors which vary greatly on the precise nature the mark will take on, some say it will be a chip implanted into the head or palm, whilst others speculate it could be an ID care or barcode tattooed onto the skin.

Any of these things are possible, but at the same time they are all speculations.

The exact means of the mark of the beast is not the issue at hand with this article, however. What is, is the acclimation process and getting people accustomed to the very idea of using their biometrics.

At the end of the day, what we know is that the mark, in whatever form it takes on, will be able to control one’s ability to make purchases and the emergence of biometric payment systems may just be one more step towards the full implementation of the system the antichrist will require.

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