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."
What happens when they don't need any mark or id?
What happens when a simple instant DNA or Biometric can identify the person instantly? no mark, no papers.
I agree it is 'out there', but the FDA in 2004 approved the implantation of RFID chips under the skin of humans. Instead of giving everyone ANOTHER ID card that can be lost or stolen, give them the luxury of simply waving their hand under a scanner for id purposes. No fumbling through the wallet or purse, no misplacing a card, and virtually impossible to steal.
There are high class country clubs around the world that already offer the chip as an option for entrance into the club.
It will be touted as a technological breakthrough for security, and identification. They will talk it up and people will line up.
All I got to say is watch that stock...
The new features on currency did not stop counterfeiters. Criminals who want handguns to committ crimes still get handguns.
Me, too!
I agree that some of them can be goofballs (don't even get me started on the idiotic Left Behind series), but why would you be more concerned about them than those who are actually in power?
That makes me wonder if officials at the top levels of government have tracking devices on them or in them in case of a terrorist attack and a hostage situation involving one of them who could be tortured into giving up information which could sacrifice our national security.
No, no, no. The biblical "mark of the beast" is an embedded finger bar code that allows you to shop and live. It can be turned off at CentComp with dire consequences. Other than that, it make commerce easier, originally assisted with stopping terrorism, and now (2070) is the best totalitarian control mechanism ever invented...
If you are an illegal alien, you can have a bank account, and buy a house without one.
I will offer folsk on this thread that an official REAL ID is the governments way of recognizing our individuality. We are all different and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact I pose that this is the very opposite of communism and socialism that seeks to establish that we are all the same.
There is no right not to be ID'd. To me that is a silly thing to even try to say. Everyone on this site has an ID that they were rquired to give up information to gain. I love that little tidbit because it exposes all those that argue against it as people that will do something and then cry about it all day long.
This ID form will not be used to target you for punishment due to race, creed, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference or anything of the kind. This ID will be used to make ordinary functions in society be orderly, organized, and far more efficient than it is today.
SOme say this is the same as Nazi antics. They intentionally miss the fact that the policy the germans employed was to weed out jews for extermination. That is not even close to the purpose of this ID today. I offer that is a very disingeuous argument put forward by people that want to argue something but cannot find a realistic current or valid argument to offer in its stead.
ID is a part of life in 2006 and there is no way to avoid that. It is time that we see this in the eyes of reality and understand that doing that ID ing in the most positive efficient way benefits us all.
The "Patriot" Act, the "real" ID act, HR 4437, etc, are globalists' dreams. These people had these laws in the works for years, but they couldn't pass it in Congress.
The globalists waited for the right "crisis" to emerge, and then they got all their hearts' desires. They were correct in assuming that the American people would become docile as sheep when facing a national security threat.
The true whackjobs are the ones for both of those threats to our constitutional republic and the guaranteed liberty she promises.
Ya know...the only way this could even be remotely applicable is if the United States government was itself the Antichrist, since the whole point of the "mark" is supposed to be an issue of allegiance...which kinda flies in the face of the typical personification of the Antichrist as being one individual.
I've had discussions with others in the security area years ago, IMO the best ID is one that everyone has an is unique -your fingerprint and your iris. They aren't easy to replicate and the technology to ID them has existed for over 30 years. No need for a high-tech gizmo under the skin when all that info can be stored in a centralized database.
Im not opposed to a better ID system but I never bought into the chip thing as a good security feature.
I share the same opinion.
I have not read Revelation in a LONG time, but doesn't it say something about the mark being on one's forehead or palm?
Actually, if you read some of the writings of the Founding Fathers, this is precisely the main reason the Second Amendment is in there.
Mark of the Beast is an "H" on the forehead.
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