Good News October 2017 Broward

There’s an item in the news that caught my attention and made me wonder if Bible prophesy is possibly being fulfilled in our time. Having written a book al- most twenty years ago that compares the major views Christians hold on the return of Christ, I think we must be wary of “newspaper exege- sis.” Don’t read into every cur- rent event some aspect of the return of Christ. Nonetheless, the book of Revelation says this about “the beast of the earth,” a major helper to the beast, who is the Antichrist to come: “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their fore- heads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name” (Revelation 13:16-17). Then I read that for the first time inAmerican history, a com- pany out of Wisconsin is volun- tarily letting their employees have a microchip (the size of a grain of rice) implanted in their hands (in the skin between their thumb and forefinger), which will act as a credit card. So now, instead of paying for their break room snacks from a vending machine with a credit card or with their smart phone, the 50 or so em- ployees who have agreed to have this microchip implanted can pay by just putting their hand up to the scanner. This report comes from KSTP.com (ABC 5, Minneapolis-St. Paul, 7/22/17). The company involved, Three Square Market, is run by Todd Westby who said, "It's the next thing that's in- evitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it." History When John wrote the book of Revelation 2000 years ago, he would have had no idea of the kinds of devel- opments through the cen- turies, including this one that many think points to a means by which his prophecies could be fulfilled. On the other hand, we need to be cautious about apocalyptic alarmism. We were told Jesus would come back in 1988 and then 1994 and then 2012, and so on, and all such predictions have been proved wrong. World leaders from Mikhail Gor- bachev to Ronald Reagan have been falsely accused of being the antichrist. And mi- crochip fears have stoked prophetic speculations for years — but many biblical scholars note that Revelation is not pointing to some inad- vertently-adopted technology, but is speaking symbolically of those who cast their lot with the opponents of Christ for societal approval. Jesus Himself said that no man knows the hour of His return, but that we should be ready always. I am absolutely convinced that Jesus Christ is coming back one day, as historic ANALYSIS 32 october 2017 Good News • broward edition 4WVJ 5VQTTKPIU ,Õ̅JÃ̜ÀÀˆ˜}ÃÌi>“°Vœ“ 9LD 9HURQD EHG EDWK LQ 'HHU &UHHN &RXQWU\ &OXE #IPGU 5VQTTKPIU Ƃ}˜iÃJÃ̜ÀÀˆ˜}ÃÌi>“°Vœ“ YYY UVQTTKPIUVGCO EQO Is Bible Prophesy Being Fulfilled? Jerry Newcombe Good News (Continued on page 33) 6*745&#; 018'/$'4 6* È\Îä* ̜ ™\ää* Õ}ià Տˆ˜>ÀÞ] {Îx£ £Ó̅/iÀÀ>Vi ">Ž>˜` *>ÀŽ] ÎÎÎÎ{ ÜÜÜ° i>ÀÌÓ i>ÀÌ"ÕÌÀi>V…°œÀ} 9 4 /CTM ;QWT %CNGPFCTU 0QY HQT *GCTV *GCTV 1WVTGCEJoU 5KIPCVWTG #PPWCN 'XGPV ,QKP WU HQT C URGEKCN GXGPKPI VQ EGNGDTCVG C [GCT QH RTQXKFKPI *12' UJCTKPI .18' CPF TGUVQTKPI 274215' VQ VJG GNFGTN[ (QT VKEMGV CPF URQPUQTUJKR KPHQTOCVKQP ECNN QT GXGPV"JGCTV JGCTVQWVTGCEJ QTI 6KEMGVU CTG RGT RGTUQP