Bio-Hacking, Grinding, and the Mark of the Beast

On August 9th of this year, USA Today’s Jefferson Graham wrote,

“You will get chipped. It’s just a matter of time.”

I imagine many of you, especially those who are older, will respond to that statement, “Oh, no I will not!”  But before we go into a state of apoplexy over RFID chips being implanted under the skin in humans, we might want to take a couple of moments to learn more about what is going on in an industry that is growing now - and will likely explode in growth in the next 3-5 years.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
For those of you who do not know about the RFID industry - you might want to turn back the clock a few years to the Veterinary world announcing that you could put a chip in your pet to verify that the pet was yours.  Some, wrongly thought, this would allow a person to actually track their pet wherever it was going.  This is not true if the tag used was a “passive tag.”  That means that what was injected into your pet (which is about the size of a single grain of rice) does not have its own power supply (a battery of some sort).  Instead it meant that if someone found your dog and took it to a Veterinarian, the doctor could detect the chip with an RFID reader - which would transmit the information in the chip identifying the dog as your beloved Fido - along with how to contact you about your pet.  The news in the last 5-10 years has been that the RFID technology that has been used in animals was not able to be used in humans for various purposes.  At first the vast majority of these applications involved identification or something like a brief medical history showing a patient to have a certain type of medical condition that needs to be communicated quickly if there is a medical emergency involved.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BIO-HACKING?
What is happening today, that is very interesting, is that there are those who see a whole world of products that can be developed as a result of what we know and are learning from what are now the basic and rudimentary elements of RFID technology.  This is where the designation, “Grinder” comes into play.  Let me take a few steps back first - and define some words for you.

Bio-hacker - A bio-hacker is someone who endeavors to hack or use current technology in ways that will interface with the human body.

Grinder - A “Grinder” is a “do it yourself cyborg” who is seeking upgrading his or her body without waiting for the corporate or financial world to say it is Ok to do so.

There are now technologies that have been reworked (which is what is meant by “hacked”) so that we can move our hand in front of a locked door and have it unlock.  Similar reworked technologies can allow people to open and unlock a computer screen, start a car, or even use a scan of the chip in your hand to put your contact information into a phone.

When this kind of “chip” technology was introduced there was a strong reaction against it.  Some of that reaction was due to people being concerned about putting something electronic into their bodies - while others, myself included - were concerned about biblical prophecy about a mark that would one day be required to be able to buy or sell in our world.  But now such strong reactions have calmed somewhat so that more and more people are being chipped.  Noelle Chesley, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the following about the eventuality of being chipped in our world.

"It will happen to everybody . . . but not this year, and not in 2018. Maybe not my generation, but certainly that of my kids."

The idea of a chip the size of a grain of rice is gaining traction in our society.  Yet even the world “bio-hacking” causes concerns and red flags to go up in our minds.  “Are you saying that someone is going to be able to hack into my body - or my mind - and make me do things?”  At the moment such thoughts are merely the musings of movie and television writers.  But those who are attempting to do bio-hacking want to access the human body more and more to be able to interface electronics with the electrical systems (read nervous system here) of our bodies.

While many of these experiments are relatively harmless - there are those who have tried to implant things in their bodies who have wound up with terrible consequences.  One such grinder cut into her hand and later wound up in the emergency room with sepsis.  But if you are wondering how close we are to having a real Iron Man - or the ability to hack into our own bodies to make us “spidey-like” or to be a cyborg with superhuman strength - such things are still flights of science fiction fancy.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MARK OF THE BEAST?
Let me also be clear on another subject that will eventually be mentioned in regard to bio-hacking and the work of Grinders.  The rice-sized chip they implant in themselves is not the mark of the beast - just like the ones they put in pets do not make them “pets of the beast.”  The biblical passage about this in Revelation 13

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, 17  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. Revelation 13:16-17 (NASB)

As you can see the marks of the beast is something received on the right hand or forehead.  It is something that allows one to sell or to buy. But we learn in chapel 14 that there is also a component to receiving it that involves worshipping the image of the beast.  Since the antichrist and the beast have not even been identified yet -  since none of these technologies can be used currently as a form of payment as of now - we need to realize that this is not the mark of the beast.  Could it be some precursor to the kind of technology that will be used in that day?  Maybe, but please try to remember that when credit cards first came out - that some people in the prophecy community said that they were the mark of the beast.  What I am trying to say here is that we need to be wise and measured with our comments.  When we react with absolute rejection of these technologies and call them the mark of the beast - we often have to eat a whole lot of crow later when they do not wind up  as such.  With that being said - I would like to send up a warning flag on the whole idea of “grinding” and “bio-hacking.”

AMAL GRAAFSTRA, DANGEROUS THINGS, AND BIO-HACKING
I recently watched a Ted Talk done by Amal Graafstra, the owner and founder of a company called, “Dangerous Things.”  The talk was entitled, “Bio-hacking - The forefront of a new kind of human evolution.”  If that title made you raise an eyebrow - it made me raise one too.  Graafstra’s talk was fascinating, because it informed me as to what was truly happening in this area of study and inventive fervor.  Graafstra is an inventor/entrepreneur who is trying to ride the wave of interest in bio-hacking by providing products and services for those who want to be inventors in this field.  Dangerous Things may sound ominous, but it is just a marketing choice that enables Graafstra to have a name that is well known among grinders.  His Ted Talk made me aware of much that was happening in the world of bio-hacking.  Most of what he said was relatively innocuous, involving those who want to open doors, unlock computers, and even work of prototypes of implants in human ears that allow people to pick up sounds in similar ways that a bluetooth headset would allow someone to hear their cellphone or listen to music from it without the bother of an attached cord.  It was also interesting to learn that the work of implanting these devices has begun to shift from the medical field to the world of those who do piercings for a living.

SOOOO . . . WHY WRITE THIS ARTICLE IF THIS IS INNOCUOUS?
That is a good question.  Why am I writing this article and placing it in the “Prophecy/News Update” section of a website?  It is because of the statement by Graafstra that this is the next step of human evolution.  What I believe we are seeing is the beginnings of something that will have far darker applications in the future.  There are currently experiments taking place that are attempting to have humans be able to see in infrared with their physical eyes.  There are also others on the fringes of this movement who have as their desire then gradual movement toward cyborgs who are part human - part machine.  This is distrurbing to consider.  They dream of another step of evolution that will make a better human - by making it something eventually more and more inhuman.  Now let me say that we are nowhere near the production of some kind of human/machine hybrid the likes of a Terminator.

First of all - God was the One who created all life.  We did not evolve to become human beings, we were made by a Creator God Whose purposes cannot and will not be thwarted by the desire to make us superhuman in some perverted attempt to advance the world beyond its “human stage.” Our current humanity is not the latest step in a never-ending evolution to higher forms of being.  Our humanity is a gift from God and is the crowning work of creation.  The reason things are so messed up on this world is because mankind chose and continues to choose sin and selfishness rather than submission to God and His will.

Second of all, God’s purpose in making humanity was for us to be image bearers.  We were to be the ones who are made in the image of God - and who reflect that image to God’s glory.  His purpose since the fall of humanity into sin has been to redeem a people for Himself who will be transformed by the sanctifying work of the Spirit through the Word of God.  All this is so that we would once again bear His image to His glory.

REDEMPTION BY TECHNOLOGY OR CHRIS?
The attempt at some grotesque man/machine hybrid is only a modern attempt at another tower of Babel, so that we could make a name for ourselves.  The end of that road will not be pretty.  If by some technological advance a direct link can be made into the human brain, we can be assured that the apocalyptic visions that movie producers and science fiction writers have considered will be the end of men controlled by technology (or worse - controlled by other men who are operating that technology).  Do I mean by this come curse upon those who advance technology in our world?  No, this is not my purpose.  Electronics and technology will continue to advance in our world.  But when men postulate that such technology will solve our problems and create a brave new world where we will evolve beyond our current human limitations.  That is where I see little more than another feeble attempt to solve the problem of sin and selfishness by sinful and selfish means.  It will wind up as just another tower built into the heavens to glorify man rather than God.  May we not fall for the same lie yet again.  Instead may we look to Christ and the cross - the only instrument of our redemption and the only way to fulfill the plan that WILL prevail to the end.

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