Joseph Herrin (03-21-2012)

THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Revelation 13:11, 16-17
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon… And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

In the book The Mark of the Beast I wrote of the spiritual substance of this subject. The church has almost universally focused on a physical fulfillment, while ignoring the more important spiritual understanding of what it is to bear the mark of the beast. I encourage those who are unfamiliar with the spiritual meaning to read the book.

I do want to spend a little space speaking of a physical fulfillment of the words of Revelation that are quoted above. I do believe an hour is coming soon when a worldwide monetary system will be in place. All transactions will be electronic. There will be a global cashless society. All transactions will be recorded on computers. These transactions will be tracked, and by this means society will be strictly controlled.

The Scriptures speak of a time when no one will be able to buy or sell without having received the mark of the beast. It matters not whether you are rich or poor, slave or free, this system will be all encompassing. If one does not embrace Babylon and its rulers they will be prevented from buying and selling. It would surprise many Christians to know how near the world is to having a global, electronic, cashless, financial system in place. The following article caught my attention yesterday.

Sweden moving towards cashless economy
(AP) STOCKHOLM – Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661. Now it’s come farther than most on the path toward getting rid of them.


“I can’t see why we should be printing bank notes at all anymore,” says Bjoern Ulvaeus, former member of 1970’s pop group ABBA, and a vocal proponent for a world without cash.


The contours of such a society are starting to take shape in this high-tech nation, frustrating those who prefer coins and bills over digital money.


In most Swedish cities, public buses don’t accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.


“There are towns where it isn’t at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash,” complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden’s National Pensioners’ Organization.


He says that’s a problem for elderly people in rural areas who don’t have credit cards or don’t know how to use them to withdraw cash.


The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshipers to make offerings.


“People came up to me several times and said they didn’t have cash but would still like to donate money,” Tyrberg says.


Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden’s economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world’s central banks…


The Swedish Bankers’ Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics.


The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 — the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down…


The prevalence of electronic transactions — and the digital trail they generate — also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.


“If people use more cards, they are less involved in shadow economy activities,” says Schneider, an expert on underground economies…
[Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57399610/sweden-moving-towards-cashless-economy/?tag=pop;stories]

The banks, and those who control them, also control the governments of this world system. The world has become one large global marketplace. It is the goal of the ruler of this fallen world system to control all commerce, and thereby to control all people.

What is considered the “shadow economy” today will be expanded to include any transaction that is not processed by the global financial system. If it cannot be tracked, taxed, and controlled, a transaction will be declared illegal. Already in America we are seeing great progress in establishing a controlled marketplace. The stated impetus behind such moves is most often declared to be benevolent. Untracked cash transactions are being cast into a unfavorable light. The association is continually made between crime and cash transactions. Pretty soon all who seek to avoid electronic sales and purchases will be considered criminals. Recently Louisiana passed a law limiting the use of cash in second hand and junk sales.

(NaturalNews)
If you buy or sell secondhand goods and live in the state of Louisiana, you can no longer use legal tender to complete such transactions. Ackel & Associates LLC (A&A), a professional law firm, explains that House Bill 195 of the 2011 Regular Session (Act 389), which was recently passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal, prohibits anyone who “buys, sells, trades or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property [from entering] into any cash transactions in payment for the purchase of [such items].”


Besides prohibiting the use of cash, the law also requires such “dealers” to collect personal information like name, address, driver’s license number, and license plate number from every single customer, and submit it to authorities. And the only acceptable form of payment in such situations is a personal check, money order, or electronic transfer, all of which must be carefully documented…
[Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/033882_Louisiana_cash.html]

As far back as 2006 National Public Radio ran a story about a restaurant in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C. that has stopped accepting cash.

Plastic Only: Cafe Refuses to Accept Cash
by Nazanin Rafsanjani

These days, you can buy almost anything with a credit or debit card. But Snap, a cafe in Washington, D.C.,’s Georgetown neighborhood is taking it one step further. Snap’s owner has decided to stop accepting cash.
[Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6246139]
(To read whole story click on link.)

No Cash

The policy of accepting no cash has since spread to many more businesses. Some readers may wonder whether it is legal for a business to refuse to accept cash for transactions. In most cases a business has the right to accept, or refuse, whatever form of payment they choose. You can read the legalese on this subject at the following link.


http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/legal-tender.aspx

You may also find the comments at the above link interesting. One reader posted the following.

Comment
In Maryland there is a new toll road called the Intercounty Connector (ICC). Cash is not accepted. in fact, there are no toll booths. The only way to pay is through the E-ZPass system. If you travel the road without an E-ZPass transponder, it will cost you the amount of the toll, plus a $3.00 “Notice of Toll Due” service charge. In order to use a transponder, you must “buy” it for $25.00 and Maryland charges a $1.50 per month account maintenance fee. So… If I use the ICC 4 times a year, it will cost me $25 for the transponder, plus $18.00 per year, plus the toll charges. To avoid paying the $18,00, it would cost me $12.00 a year in penalties, plus the cost of the toll…

In my travels across the nation the past few years I saw many toll roads that utilize the EZ Pass system. It is not difficult to imagine the control the government would have over people through a wider implementation of a digital toll system. Vehicles would be tracked and passage down roads could be restricted to government approved traffic.

EZ Pass
Civil liberties and privacy rights advocates have expressed concern about how the position data gathered through E-ZPass is used. As of August 2007, several states that employ E-ZPass have provided electronic toll information in response to court orders in civil cases, including divorces and other non-criminal matters.
Position data is collected by antennas at locations in addition to fee collection locations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ez_pass

A generation or two ago these developments would have been viewed as science fiction. The world is rapidly changing, and it is morphing into a form that is amenable to strict control over all financial transactions and movement of people. Over four years ago Apple Computer began refusing cash for iPhone purchases. This pattern is growing and will continue until no cash will be accepted at all.

Apple Will No Longer Accept Cash for iPhones
By Julie Kent. Published on 10/27/2007

Apple has decided to tighten up the requirements to purchase an iPhone following the news that 250,000 of the 1.4 million iPhones sold in Q4 were never activated and likely went to unlockers. Apple has decided that they will “no longer accept cash for iPhone purchases”, and individuals will only be allowed to buy two, paid for with a credit or debit card. Supposedly this is in an effort to “stop people from reselling them.”


Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, said that they are “requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers…”


Furthermore, one has to wonder what kind of company would refuse cold, hard cash. And, it also begs the question, how exactly are they going to be tracking the purchases? Will they be keeping credit card numbers on file, along with it a tally of iPhones purchased? Would one be able to buy two on one credit card, and then come back another day and buy two more on another card? Or, do they have technology that will pull you up by a Social Security number and reject you based on that and your purchase history?


You’ve been warned: Steve Jobs and Big Brother Apple are watching you.
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/3390

As Christians see this trend toward a cashless, strictly controlled society, they should spend time considering the direction of their own lives. Are you becoming more enmeshed with this global system? Are you acquiring more of this world’s goods, with associated demands for insurance, taxes, licenses, etc.? Or are you coming out of Babylon according to the leading of the Spirit? Are you trying to serve God and mammon?

A look at the life of Christ revealed that He owned nothing more than the clothes on His back. The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of God had nowhere to lay His head. A meal for Christ and the disciples often came from God the Father multiplying a few fish and loaves of bread to feed multitudes, or threshing grain in their hands as they walked through a wheat field. Undoubtedly, Christians will be led to accept a much humbler existence in coming days, but Yahweh will have a provision for those who trust and obey.

I have found the Father to be simplifying my life for years. I have had no debt since 1999. I do not own a home, other than the bus/RV the Father provided. There are no bills for water, electric, trash, or the myriad of things that go along with home ownership. There is a simplicity in surrendering to follow in the footsteps of the Lord.

I Corinthians 7:29-31
But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none…, those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

The form of this world is certainly changing. Christians will have to choose to let go of this world and its possessions in order to take hold of the kingdom of God. It is the will of the Father that an hour should come when only those who bear the mark of the beast should be able to traffic in the things of this world. This will purify the church of Christ. Only those who put Christ before the love of the world and the things in it will continue to walk by the Spirit in that hour. A great separation will occur between the carnal Christians and those who are true disciples. The end result will be a purified Bride ready for the Bridegroom’s return.

Come Quickly Lord Yahshua!

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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063