Add this to the growing list of signs of the times: pay with your palm. Amazon.com recently rolled out a pilot program at two Panera Bread locations in greater St. Louis. They look to expand this pilot program to about 20 stores as they test this new payment option. Amazon is also testing it in a few Whole Foods locations in California.
Amazon.com calls its palm-paying option “Amazon One.” How does this system work? A unit about the size of a retail card reader uses contactless biometric technology to scan the palm of your hand to collect your payment and connect with your retail rewards.
Amazon marketers are selling its added convenience with messaging like, “No more wallets needed. All you need is yourself. Your unique palm cannot be used by anyone else.” They also tout a truly contactless payment option. Just hold your hand over the scanner and you are done.
How do they connect your palm to your bank account? You have to sign up using your Amazon account and then visit a location that has the Amazon One payment option to finish enrolling in person by scanning your palm. Once the system has registered your palm scan, you can use the palm scanner wherever it is available.
What is Amazon’s long-term goal with this system? According to the official website for this venture, one.amazon.com, “Our goal is to unlock your world by giving you the freedom to pay, enter and identify with nothing but your palm.” Do you see how this goes far beyond another payment option at retailers? If you want to enter certain places, you must scan your palm. If you are asked to verify your identity, you must scan your palm.
Whether they realize it, this fits right into Bible prophecy during the Great Tribulation period. Revelation 13:16-17 describes the one world economy under the Antichrist: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
The phrase “mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” receives a lot of attention. Over the last few years, many Bible prophecy teachers consider the little word “in” to refer to a microchip surgically inserted under the skin. While microchipping everyone certainly could happen down the road, the word translated “in” can also be translated “on” and “upon.” The King James Version translates this Greek word as “on” 196 times and as “in” 120 times.
We must keep in mind a very important principle of Bible interpretation. Simply because a word can mean something does not give us the right to read that meaning back into any passage of Scripture we desire. The English phrase “board meeting” can mean two or more people standing on a thin, flat piece of wood. However, we know that, with very rare exceptions, a “board meeting” refers to a formal gathering of directors of an organization. It has nothing to do with a thin, flat piece of wood.
It does not violate the context of Revelation 13:16 to understand “in” as “on.” Therefore, in maintaining faithful biblical application of this verse, the mark of the beast does not have to be a physically implanted device. Amazon’s palm pay technology requires no surgery or expensive medical devices, yet it carries out the same purpose as the chip technology.
Amazon is not alone in developing biometric payment systems. J.P. Morgan Payments is beginning a pilot program to test palm and facial recognition payment systems. They estimate global biometric payments to reach $5.8 trillion and 3 billion users by 2026, according to their research. In 2023, they will pilot the program in brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S., and potentially at the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix race. If all goes well, they will expand the pilot program in 2024. The technology is here to pay with your face or hand.
The Antichrist can take advantage of this kind of technology as he forces everyone to register their palm and facial recognition if they want to pay for anything, enter anywhere and verify their identity.
One of the great dangers of a cashless society is the loss of control. A cash-based economy still gives individuals control over their accounts. However, if all currency is digital and housed in a central bank, the authorities can limit how we access and use our currency. They will promise to never do that, but what happens when this control falls into the wrong hands?
Cash remains anonymous. Anything we buy and sell with cash cannot be easily tracked. However, everything is trackable with digital currency. Cash gives us the power to come and go anywhere we want and purchase anything we want. However, digital currency can restrict our freedoms immediately and immensely.
What happens when those like the World Economic Forum climate-control extremists decide we can no longer purchase gasoline with our digital currency? Our gas-powered equipment will instantly become scrap metal. What if a global lockdown hits, such as we experienced in 2020, and the authorities decide we must remain within a five-block radius of our home? They could digitally set a limit on any purchases we make to keep us from buying anything beyond our five-block radius or from entering any place beyond that radius.
Think of the kinds of things you must verify your identity to obtain: utilities, mortgages, loans, insurance, and education. What happens when someone doesn’t want to have their face or palm scan registered with the end-times central bank? They will not have access to any currency, so they will not be able to buy food, a place to live, seek medical care or access education.
Seeing these things take shape should encourage the church because we know we are getting close to seeing Jesus in the rapture. The church will not be here during the Antichrist’s rule. We will be with Jesus in heaven enjoying His presence and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-10).
If you are not saved, now is the time. Turn to Jesus in simple faith and receive His gift of salvation today. Contact our ministry to talk with someone if you have questions about how Jesus can save you from your sins.
Remember the words of Jesus found in Luke 21:28, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Open your eyes to what is happening in this world, but keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!
Watch for Josh Davis’ new book being released from SWRC this fall, Rise of the One-World Mind.
