On any normal day I spend about 5 minutes quickly browsing a couple of news sites to see what's going on in the world.  Every now and then though I find an article that really catches my interest.  This morning I was browsing the 'geek' posts on Slashdot and I came accross this rather interesting article on 'RFID, Sign of the (End) Times? '.  Being a Christian and a a geek I felt it was worth a read.  I thought it was an interesting enough read however what I really found interesting was the comments that followed the article from all the slashdot readers.

 

Although everyone has a different perspective I thought that I might just put my two cents worth in.  In reading the comments I found this became more about the book over Revelations and what is to come rather than about RFID tags.  So lets touch on both of these topics one at a time.

 

RFID tags.  For those of you who don't know RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification (tags) and these are small devices that emit a radio freqency that can be read by a RFID reader or other like device.  Could these devices be the 'Mark of the Beast' that is mentioned in the book of revelation?  Hard Fact, it's possible!  There is even one post that talks about how if these chips were placed under the skin there is a situation where they could casue the iritation and marking required for this to be the sign mentioned in the book.  My thoughts are that RFID tags are NOT the mark of the beast, if you beleive (and I do from a objective POV) in the Mark of the Beast that is mentioned in Revelations then RFID tags are more than likely one of the technologies that will go into making that technology that will be the mark of the beast.  In regards to the actualy topic of the article that started this, Should we be resiting RFID technolgoy, I think that we as a socitey in general need to be weary of any technology that potentialy takes away any of our freedoms that we currently take for granted.  As christians I beleive that we need to be carefull about what technology's we impliment into our daily lives.  Would I accept a chip in my body that allows me instant access to my $$$ without touching my credit card, flat out NO.  But in general technology can be of benifit to all of us and we should embrace technology and I just once again stress to both christan and non-christain think about the technology, not just the benifits but also the dis-advantage.

 

The Book of Revelation.  For as long as I have studied the bible (and I still have trouble getting studing it) the Book of Revelation has been a hotly contested bible.  It describes in images what will happen right before the return of Jesus (called the second coming),  It talkes about the rise of the anti-christ (the beast) and the events that will ocour as the anti-christ comes to power and subdues the world.  But the book is written in a very cryptic fashion and everyone has their own interpritation.  In the discussions following the article on Slashdot I noticed every comment from the POV that Matin Luther didn't feel that the book was not inspired by the holy spirit to the POV that Revelations was written as a cryptic book for early christians to communicate.  In my view the much discussed and disputed Book of Revelations is one of the MOST interesting books in the bible.  I have read Revelations a couple of times and I have also read referance books, novels and listened to various talks and what I beleive is that the Book of Revelation is inspired by the holy spirit, but that no one has yet truly figured out what it all means.  One novel interpretation that I love is the Left Behind series of books,  these books take a FICTIONAL look at what the book of revelation could look like.  Overall there is a lot of christan and religous lititruture out there that is not a part of the bible that I truly beleive that the holy spirit has been a part of.  Revelations is a part of the bible, if it wasn't I beleive that it would still have been inspired by the holy spirit. 

 

In brining both of these area's of Revelation and RFID's together everyone will ultimatly beleive what they want to beleive.  Are we living in 'End Times' where RFID's and the book of revelations will show us the mark of the beast.  In my view (and it is only my view) not yet.  But I do beleive that we are beginning to see the setup for a perioid in our history that 'could' facilitate all of these things ocouring, how long this will take is anyone's guess.  It is mentioned in Revelations and it was also mentioned in the comments from the Slashdot article that Only God (the father) knows the time that all of this is to be fullfilled and that we (as christians) should be ever vigilant in watching for Jesus's return.  So in closing I advise everyone to not just blindly accept or deny these things, but think about them, study the christain referances to these ocurs, talk about them with people you respect and always hold your own conviction on what you beleive. 

 

 

On Friday night Olivia and I ened up at our usual Friday night destination,  while we were there we saw one of the best short amimated films I have ever seen.  Check out cane-toad.com the film is about 30mb to download but well worth it!

After talking my dog for a long run last night I decided that I would crash in front of the TV for a while last night.  While surfing both the Free to Air channels and the Foxtel channels I couldn't help but notice the amount of reality TV shows that are pushing at us from every direction.  Shows such as 'Armish in the City','The Cut', 'Rockstar INXS','Survivor' (yes it's STILL going) and of course the ever contriversal 'Big Brother'.  There apears to be some type of reality TV show on all the time these days, and if there isn't one on then there is some type of advertisment pushing these reality shows onto us.  With so much exposure of reality TV being pushed down our throats is it possible that Reality TV is killing itself?