Posted on 05/05/2006 7:21:22 AM PDT by churchillbuff
Is the national ID card the next step toward the imposition of the biblical "mark of the beast" Christians believe will be required to buy and sell during the Last Days?
That's the contention of a growing group of believers who are working to turn back the approval of the Real ID Act by Congress last year. Public Law 109-13 requires the national ID portion of the plan go into effect by May 2008.
"There is a prophecy in the Bible that foretells a time when every person will be required to have a mark or a number, without which he or she will not be able to participate in the economy," states the Christian website NoNationalID.com. "The prophecy is 2,000 years old, but it has been impossible for it to come to pass until now. With the invention of the computer and the Internet, this prophecy of buying and selling, using a number, can now be implemented at any time. Has the time for the fulfillment of this prophecy arrived?"
The site asks visitors to sign an online petition vowing not to vote for any candidate who does not commit to repealing the Real ID Act.
The goal, states the site, which is sponsored by Endtime Ministries, is to get 100,000 signatures on the petition.
On the site is a link to purchase a DVD entitled "666 – How Close? Will the National ID Become the Mark of the Beast?"
Americans choosing not to carry a national ID, the site warns, will be prohibited from driving a car, boarding a plane, train or bus, entering any federal building, opening a bank account, or possibly from holding a job.
"This is probably our last chance to head off the mechanism before it is actually implemented as the mark," states the site in the FAQ section. "It truly may be now or never."
The Real ID Act requires states to participate in a federal data-sharing program when issuing driver's licenses, making those licenses de facto national ID cards.
Touted as a tool of the war on terrorism, the ID card provision of the law, which also includes border-security measures, has attracted the most negative attention.
After May 11, 2008, "a federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a State to any person unless the State is meeting the requirements" specified in the Real ID Act. While states can issue non-federal ID cards, they would not be accepted by the Transportation Security Administration for travel purposes, grounding those who don't carry federally approved cards.
The data required to be included in each card are, among other things, the person's full legal name, date of birth, gender, driver's license number, a digital photo, the person's address and machine-readable technology so the information can be ready easily by government or banking personnel.
Each state must agree to share the data on the cards with every other state.
Supporters of the law say it does not require a "national" ID card because each state issues its own cards, not the federal government. But detractors note the cards are virtual national IDs since the federal law has dictated what data must be included and that each state must share its database with the others.
The New Hampshire Senate yesterday voted to reject a bill to rebel against the Real ID system and not participate in a pilot program for which the state had been tapped. The state House of Representatives passed the measure last month, but the Senate instead voted to study the driver's license requirements.
U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is urging his home state to give Real ID a try, saying it's needed to keep terrorists and illegal aliens from entering the country.
According to the Manchester Union Leader, Gregg argues that New Hampshire residents will find it difficult to get on airplanes or enter federal buildings if New Hampshire doesn't embrace Real ID.
Groups opposed to the Real ID Act are making strange bedfellows, with Christians like those running NoNationalID.com fighting on the same side with the American Civil Liberties Union, which sponsors the website RealNightmare.org.
The ACLU site decries the fact that a motor vehicles department staff person will be required to ask for immigration-status papers from those applying for driver's licenses.
"REAL ID will inevitably cause discrimination against U.S. citizens who may 'look' or 'sound' foreign to a DMV bureaucrat," states the site. "REAL ID requires DMV employees to decide whether someone is a citizen or foreigner before issuing a driver's license. The law demands that DMV bureaucrats distinguish among citizens, permanent resident immigrants and other non-citizens in deciding who is eligible for a license and what type of license may be issued.
"Based on past experience when similar requirements were imposed on employers, widespread discrimination resulted against citizens who 'looked' or 'sounded' foreign."
The civil-liberties group also slams a requirement of the law that some immigrants be issued a temporary "tier-two" license that has a prominent expiration date.
U.S. governors also have come out against the law, saying it is a huge unfunded mandate imposed on the nation's states.
The National Conference of State Legislatures is equally opposed to the Real ID Act, saying, "Federal legislators and rule makers are negating state driver's license security efforts, imposing difficult-to-comply-with mandates and limiting their flexibility to address new concerns as they arise. In other words, decades of state experience is being substituted for a 'command and control regime' from a level of government that has no driver's license regulatory experience."
Endtime Ministries' Irvin Baxter, a radio host, believes the national ID is a precursor to the forced embedding of radio-frequency chips under the skin.
Baxter told the Concord, N.H., Monitor: "That's where we are headed right now. The prophecy states that you will have to receive a mark on your hand or in your forehead."
I don't see how you come up with Revelation being about ancient Rome. No where in ancient Rome was a dictator able to create a living image of himself to be worshiped and Revelation alludes to the ability for people all over the world to see the same thing, at the same time. Mass communication is assumed in Revelation, that certainly doesn't fit with your ancient Rome scenario.
I should have been more accurate and precise in my last reply . . . I agree that that mentality, style is far too present and common amongst a number of posters--too much so for my preference and comfort. I haven't tracked any one individual with any rigorousness about it. But my impression is that you are more right than I like to see. And it's more than a little annoying often enough.
You can be sure she would implement the mark ASAP once in office. She is so eager to be the last elected President she must virtually taste it on a daily basis.
On that note I would offer that a true ID is far more valuable and useful to the private sector than it is to the government.
- - -
I hope you didn't think President Ike was farting out both ends in his farwell speech when he warned soberly to beware the military/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.
Who do you think is gobbling up all the tax monies, windfall profits, . . . and some say the illegal drug monies to boot.
As I recall, The Beast.
I hope those who say Believers will be gone by then are right!
And in any case, I trust and hope that I'm walking intimately with God and certainly that He keeps me in the palm of His hand regardless.
That's anyone's only hope.
There was a man in Europe in the 30's and 40's who got elected to office that would have loved to have had you as his propaganda and Security Minister.
"Papers please!"
Isn't it fascinating that those who are best read and researched into such issues--most reality based--are considered the most looney by folks who have not looked into the facts and issues seriously.
Glad someone else is alert and watching, preparing.
and we are not as monitored as one may feel.
- - -
imho, yes and no.
Yes in terms of the amount of raw data stored at least temporarily. No in terms of people responsible for taking action scrutinizing all that MUCH MASS of data.
But the software assist agents are getting more sophisticated all the time. And acres of computers do a LOT of monitoring, nevertheless.
I haven't researched that question. I don't know. But no Mexicans seem to have much trouble coming and going more or less as they please. A chipped high level bureaucrat early adopter of the globalist agenda is likely to have his way smoothed considerably, I'd guess.
I think I understand.
It's probably already too late to do much about it. And, whatever was done would eventually fail. It is going to happen. It's only a matter of how soon.
The evidence is very abundant and some of it of very high quality.
This article is merely a drop in the bucket of evidence.
You may have a lot of faith in your denial of any problem on this score. That, too, will not stop the march of history in this matter.
In any case, you have been warned about what is coming. The rest is certainly up to you.
Prayers for my humility are actually quite welcome.
God has had a big project on that going on for some time, now.
Perhaps He would set one up for you. Should I ask Him in your behalf?
Alas, . . . hey . . . if my stridency offended, I'm sorry. I can get worked up about the issue--especially when some folks REALLLLLLLLLY sound totally uninformed and wholesale narrowly rigidly biased against what I consider to be super abundant evidence and clear logic.
I do realize that it's somewhat easy from some perspectives still, to cast aspersions on my sort of perspective on the topic.
Glad to read it.
The Greats of The Bible are said in The Bible to have longed for or enviously wished or some such that they could be born in our end times era.
Evidently they knew something we don't.
I'm ready for the first elevator UP whenever that is scheduled to be!
Banks and other PRIVATE SECTOR businesses/groups are NOT what the BoR is protectiong us against, although I have my issues with that privacy-violating as well.
The Constitution limits what GOVERNMENT can do. The National ID and all its extrapolations are violations of the BoR. So in this case its the government's usage of such technology that needs to be proscribed.
You're the one who uses the typical liberal straw-man argument. You've created a straw man and went after that instead of what I said.
I have no problem with isolationism. I said earlier I agree with a lot of what Buchanan says. Deal with it.
America first, last, always, and ONLY.
I never called you any names, I made observations.
You're the one who's adopted these labels by your own words and attitudes.
***The site asks visitors to sign an online petition vowing not to vote for any candidate who does not commit to repealing the Real ID Act.***
Never mind that the day will happen when God wants it to, not based on a petition drive.
Come Lord Jesus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.