Our office will be closed from 9/25 – 10/23. Any orders placed during this time will be shipped upon return by 11/1/23.
by Bill Perkins
Imagine a world where everything you do is individually monitored, scored, and kept in a big database. And your personal score determines your lifestyle — what you can purchase, your ability to travel, the interest rate you pay at the bank, even your ability to rent an apartment or buy a home or be approved for a car loan.
Everything you do, or don’t do, is monitored and scored. Your score also affects your family by causing your Internet to run more slowly, and keeping you (and/or your kids) from the best schools and the best jobs. A low score could even land you in jail!
So in this imaginary world you have to be careful to keep your social score above a certain level or you could pay big consequences. You can’t even get a driver’s license without a decent social score. So if you’re smart, you learn quickly what not to do.
Breaking the law in any way lowers your score. So will buying too much liquor in a month or using your Visa to purchase too many video games.
You also get lower scores for things like being late on a credit card payment or accessing a website that is in opposition to the ruling government party. Not to mention little things like jaywalking and smoking on trains.
Posting opinions on social media that are not politically correct or posting lewd remarks or pictures will, of course, lower your score. Even bad habits like eating too much, parking in a no-parking area, and driving over the speed limit (yes, that too) are tracked daily and tallied.
EVERYTHING is watched and monitored. Your life is scored on a day-by-day basis. And in this world, a low score can even get you arrested and jailed for nothing more than having a low social score. All to keep you in compliance with the government’s ideological framework.
Think this imaginary world I just described is absurd? Nope. Actually, this is what they are doing TODAY in China. Citizens there are 100% watched in order to be 100% controlled. The system now monitors over a billion people and by 2020 will cover/oversee all of China.
The Chinese government’s system evaluates and scores you between 300 and 850 points. In addition to education, legal, banking, and employment, the score also takes into account perceived trustworthiness, security, wealth, consumption, and social networking (i.e., your online behavior, having “undesirable” friends, and even what you click on to “LIKE”).
Due to low social scores, Chinese citizens are being “detained” (what we would call “arrested”). One man was chained to a chair for eight hours of interrogation for simply posting on Twitter… and Twitter is blocked in China!
To use Twitter in China, you have to have special software to circumvent the Chinese government ban. But even then, the Chinese government watches posts worldwide, and there are many reports of thousands of private Chinese Twitter accounts disappearing with no explanation.
When I say they’re watching everything, I mean everything. People have had their dogs taken away for their not being on a leash! When you get on a train, announcements are made to not misbehave or it will affect your social score. Of course you NEVER complain about the government.
China’s data-driven technology is growing in leaps and bounds. Referred to as Cyberspace Governance, China not only blocks certain data on the Internet but it also tracks what you do click on to determine what they will let you do, and not do. You may not even know you are clicking on a site that will lower your score.
The Chinese government is even tracking tourists crossing into China. The Border Police are now beginning to seize smart phones from the X-ray security machines, installing an app called BXAQ. This app collects all personal information including text messages, event calendars, phone contacts, and lists of people called as well as what apps you’re using.
They then check your data against a red-flag list of over 70,000 items. You’re denied entry if you have, for instance, obvious things like bomb-making instructions. But the forbidden list also includes books written in Arabic, books (or materials or documents) about (or by) certain Christian groups deemed controversial, and documents relating to the Dalai Lama. Quite subjective, don’t you think?
Cameras are everywhere as they’ve implemented the most sophisticated facial recognition system in the world. You can withdraw cash, check in at airports, and pay for goods using just your face. They not only read and verify individual faces, but also estimate age, ethnicity, and gender. But more importantly, they know where you are at all times.
There are 170 million cameras already in place, and 400 million more will be installed over the next three years. The system is so vast and accurate it’s locating wanted suspects in real time.
At any moment in time, this system can match every face on the street with an ID card as well as the path of your car. It can trace these movements back seven days, matching you up with your relatives and the people you’ve seen this week.
They’ve even begun using facial recognition to determine moods of people — are they angry or happy? What is their sexuality? Are they walking too fast? In short, they can arrest people they THINK will commit a crime.
Chinese officials say if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. But as the technology develops, so does the potential for abuse. All humans are sinful. Can you imagine a Democrat controlled American government in charge of deciding who gets dinged for what?
Using the social rating system the Chinese have already banned 15 million people from traveling, buying property, or sending their kids to private school. And there’s no reason to appeal if you get banned. You can appeal, but that just makes matters worse.
Since 2015, to put some teeth into the penalties, China has increased the number of police sixfold. Thousands of them have been equipped with face-scanning devices that can determine if you’re a fugitive IN REAL TIME. This iron-fist approach is what they’re using to control every single person in China.
China has virtually become a total surveillance state where residents have different levels of freedom based on ethnicity, religious practices, and social score. The database for individuals includes things like your job, if you have a passport, even if you pray.
When all the scores are tallied, you’re categorized into SAFE, REGULAR, or UNSAFE people. UNSAFE people are sent to study centers for political education. But these study centers are actually no more than prisons with walls, razor-wire barriers, and guard towers… you can’t get out until they think you have changed your mind, realigned your politics, etc.
So people are basically being imprisoned based on surveillance data. And you can’t even see your score or the data used to rate you. People are detained (arrested) and they have no idea where they’re going or how long they will be there.
Two out of every three drones used around the world are manufactured by government-controlled Chinese companies. And consensus is that some 75% of U.S. government security cameras are manufactured in China.
Australia is currently wrestling with the overwhelming number of Chinese cameras in their cities and even military bases. Australian officials have determined that Chinese cameras are in use in their Army Forces Command, Air Force Air Command, Navy Strategic Command, and Army Special Operations HQ.
They’re worried that China may actually be tapping the images and using the data to spy or even affect election results. The elephant-in-the-room concern is that Communist China can track Australia’s entire military operation!
The Department of Homeland Security in the United States has been screaming about all this for years. Finally, in a rare bipartisan moment in the politics of Washington DC, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, 2019, which prohibited cameras made by certain Chinese companies from being used in surveillance on U.S. soil. The reasoning was in part that China would be able to do surveillance in the U.S. as they suspect they’ve been doing in Australia.
The commonality of all this is that these cameras all use the Internet. Once online, the information is ripe for rip-off. And the cameras are made in a way that reprogramming can be done via the Internet. So what you determine to be safe today could be unsafe tomorrow.
This is just a foreshadowing of what’s ultimately coming to the United States. Conservatives/Christians are already being unfairly targeted. Problems with the IRS targeting conservative/Christian groups were uncovered and no one was held accountable. Imagine adding a social credit system like this used to shut up conservatives.
Again, this is happening today in China. How far away is this from the United States? Just recently Florida Democrat Congresswoman Frederica Wilson called for shutting down people who voice their opinion online saying, “We’re gonna shut them down.” Governmental surveillance used to control the population WILL come here too. And bummer for you if those who have control are not those whom you support.
Already there are social ratings beginning to be used in the United States. The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas is using a social media scoring system to provide perks to guests.
Twitter announced they are instituting a new social score for every user based on “influence.” And Virgin Airlines has announced they will use these scores to determine upgrades and even pricing. And Hoot Suite announced it will allow you to sort your Twitter list based on the influence of your Twitter social score.
Tommy Hilfiger has begun embedding smart chips in some of their lines that are connected to an app where you (and they) can track what you wear and where you wear it.
There have been four or five instances where a Compass advertisement was not approved because it didn’t meet Facebook’s advertising policies. There was nothing wrong with our ads, they just didn’t like what we were advertising! You can’t tell people the truth… like the fact they are going to either heaven or hell! That’s too cruel.
So most Believers easily see where this is going.
The Bible says there will come a day when everyone on the earth who wants to eat or buy products will have to be part of a worldwide system. And this all-encompassing system will be run by none other than Satan himself.
”And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 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.”
— Revelation 13:15–17
John, through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, did an admirable job describing a clear reference to today. He’d been given a glimpse into the future of people watching their TVs, smart phones, and/or tablets and had to put it in his own vernacular. The screens could easily be what he described above as the “image of the beast.”
One day, everyone will be controlled from one place. And the one who has control makes the rules. And the rule is simple… you either take the “Mark of the Beast” and get your food, or you don’t take it and likely starve.
The Chinese have a system in place today that, between facial recognition, social monitoring, and an iron-clad grip on banking transactions, can in fact be expanded to control every person in the world.
And if the Chinese can do this with 1.4 billion people, it’s not a stretch to see this eventually being implemented in the U.S., Europe, etc.
So, knowing where all this is heading, we’re definitely seeing the early stages of the worldwide system coming together. In 30AD people voluntarily worshiped Jesus when He was physically on earth for 3 1/2 years. There’s coming a post-Rapture day when Satan dons the fake-Jesus attire and forces people to worship him for 3 1/2 years.
Some will take the Mark of the Beast, eat temporarily, and later go to hell.
”…If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, … and he will be tormented … forever.”
— Revelation 14:9–11
Forever is a long time, and many will choose poorly. But some will shine:
“… behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;”
— Revelation 7:9
“…These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb….They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb … will guide them to …life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
— Revelation 7:14–17
“…I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
— Rev. 20:4
Clearly there are those who miss the Rapture and immediately know what just happened. They have the opportunity to be part of the greatest revival the earth has ever witnessed.(1)
Faced with the prospect of choosing temporary life with food or eternal life with no food, they choose wisely. Most will have to give up their earthly lives in order to have eternal life with Jesus. But certainly worth it.
“He is no fool who gives up what he can’t keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot.
Shalom!
BP
(1) https://compass.org/article-tribulation-evangelism-on-steroids-2/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/business/china-twitter-censorship-online.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4
https://www.pcmag.com/news/369368/china-is-installing-spyware-on-tourists-phones
https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/hilfiger-embeds-smart-chips-in-new-fashion-line
