It’s unlikely anyone will be easing parental duties by microchipping kids anytime soon — and it may never happen. When and if it does, there’s nothing in the current laws to suggest that it could ever be done on an involuntary basis. However, an expert opinion — that is, the opinion of an expert in RFID technology, not specifically in the field of microchipping humans — that is currently circulating has parents in fear. For some of these parents, the fear isn’t a loss of privacy, or a risk of a medical reaction to the device — it’s of the end times.
The book of Revelation warned of the “mark of the beast,” and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series made it a narrative and cinematic reality for millions of readers and viewers. Before and since, many have speculated about what exactly this “mark” might be — what it would look like, and how it would be made. A tattooed bar code, readable by a machine, was a popular theory for a while. Since microchipping animals has become common, however, some have speculated that this would be the mark.
In fact, a 2012 rumor warned that the Affordable Care Act would require microchipping of all patients, and set off an Anti-Christ scare. Snopes thoroughly debunked that — it was not about microchipping, but about registering medical devices such as pacemakers. There was another story later, a hoax that scared many , claiming the government was microchipping people via the ebola vaccine.
What about microchipping kids, though, in order to find lost children as easily as finding a lost dog? Well, according to 13 News Now , one expert thinks that it is coming soon. Stewart Lipoff, an electronics engineer and RFID expert, says microchipping humans with chips similar to those in electronic devices isn’t a reality yet, but he thinks it could be done soon.
In his hypothetical, doorways could be equipped with RFID readers, making it easy to track people — such as a kid who has been snatched.
Is it realistic, though? First, there would be medical consent and privacy issues for a kid that simply aren’t a part of microchipping a dog. Second, even Lipoff admits that these chips can’t currently be tracked in the way he’s describing.
Still, the notion has people worried, for religious reasons as well as medical and privacy-related ones. On Twitter, it’s easy to see that for many, this is the end the Bible predicted.
Tracking kids via Microchip ‘can’t be far off,’ says expert http://t.co/HyJdezE1Vv Neither Is Anti-Christ n Jesus Will Return To Rule All
— Great Danes ? (@bigBucksCo) May 9, 2015
Tracking kids via microchip ‘can’t be far off,’ says expert http://t.co/zThezV9YGw via @kens5 “Mark of the Beast” tech here-now! Read Rev 13
— Izzy (@izzyt84) May 8, 2015
Tracking kids via microchip ‘can’t be far off,’ says expert – *Rev. 13:16 #WakeUPAmerica !!! http://t.co/0tEuCLWB6A
— LaTisha (@LaTishaR11) May 8, 2015
The verse referenced above, via Bible Gateway is as follows.
“ 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 foreheads.”
There are numerous others — people who maintain that the Bible predicted microchipping kids, or that this proves the Anti-Christ will be coming soon, or that we are already in the end times.
Microchipping kids may soon be a technological possibility, but the fact is, it’s not likely to be medical reality in the foreseeable future, and even if there’s a point where it is allowed, there are numerous privacy and consent hurdles to jump before it can happen. If you’re hearing this particular “expert opinion” and reading the sign of the beast in it, take a deep breath — you probably have nothing to fear.
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