The push towards a cashless society has been in progress for some time. Initial aims were for an entirely cashless global economy by 2030, however, due to COVID-19 some big steps have recently been made in introducing cashless systems in many countries around the world to speed up this process.
For some time gradual changes have been made to encourage people to use electronic banking, EFTPOS machines, and other electronic platforms to make payments. As time progresses physical debit and credit cards are being overtaken by using smartphones and smart accessories to make electronic payments. There are many reasons given for why a cashless system would be advantageous: ease of use, reduced crime and tax-dodging, and to lower the costs involved in transporting, printing, and securing physical currency. There are also many disadvantages and concerns: security issues, loss of privacy due to complete surveillance and tracking of money transactions, issues if the digital systems have outages, and the ability to control peoples access to money.
The advent of COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst to speed up the transition to a cashless economy as many people and businesses are moving away from cash for fear that this will worsen virus transmission. This has come at the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) who, on March 9, 2020, released a statement encouraging people to use cashless, no-touch payment transactions to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread.
7 News released an update on 20th June 2020, announcing that, in the move toward a cashless system in Australia, the banks have achieved more in ten weeks than they planned to achieve in five years because of COVID-19. Of the four major banks in Australia 170 branches have closed and many are expected to remain closed. There were 28,000 ATMs in Australia but this number is expected to drop to around 15,000 due to the reduced number of cash payments. Since the pandemic hit cash transactions have dropped to less than ten per cent of all transactions. At this stage it is predicted that Australia will follow in the steps of Sweden and be completely cashless by 2022.
Similar changes are happening in most other countries around the world. Like Australia, other countries have taken on the advice of the WHO and are speeding up the move toward digital payment systems. China has destroyed much of its currency in a bid to reduce COVID-19 transmission, while they are also rolling out a pilot of a central bank digital currency. Digital payments have been mainstream in China for some time; even street beggars have been seen to carry QR codes so that passers-by can give them money. In an article from 27th March 2020, titled ‘Coronavirus could speed up introduction of a cashless society’, Small Caps author Danica Cullinane wrote that Small Caps had previously made the prediction “that governments would use the coronavirus pandemic to their advantage to start the transition to digital currencies among passing draconian laws on its citizens.” She also stated that, “Central banks in other nations including South Korea, Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Switzerland, as well as the European Union, have also been exploring the advantages of a digital currency.”
What does all of this have to do with Bible prophecy? Revelation 13:17 says,
“And that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
What better way to control buying and selling than by having an entirely digitalised banking system where our bank accounts can be completely controlled by a third party if reason enough is provided to give them this authority? While we can still work for cash and make cash payments control of buying and selling is more difficult, though not necessarily impossible, to control.
This is further evidence that Satan is preparing for the final crisis and that Jesus will soon return. Now is the time for us to be searching the scriptures and developing a relationship with our Saviour so that we are prepared to weather the storm.
For more information on the mark of the beast is please visit TheFinalCrisis.info home page and download The Final Crisis tract. To learn more about Bible Prophecy contact us for a free copy of the book ‘The Great Controversy’ which provides a thorough explanation of these important truths (available in Australia only).
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