"He [the False Prophet, top aide to the Antichrist or 'Beast'] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 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. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666" (Revelation 13:16-18).

Angel from Hell?

Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), a NASDAQ-traded technology company, has announced its acquisition of the patent rights to a miniature digital transceiver, which the company has nicknamed "Digital Angel®." Capable of both sending and receiving data, the device is designed to be implanted in humans.

More benevolent applications include providing a tamper-proof means of identification for credit and other purposes, locating lost persons and lost or stolen property, and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients.

When implanted in the body, the device is powered electromagnetically through the movement of muscles, and can be activated by either the wearer or the monitoring facility. Global positioning satellites will continuously track the transceiver's signals.

An ADS prospectus explains: "While a number of other tracking and monitoring technologies have been patented and marketed in the past, they are all unsuitable for the widespread tracking, recovery, and identification of people due to a variety of limitations, including unwieldy size, maintenance requirements, insufficient or inconvenient power-supply and activation difficulties. For the first time in the history of location and monitoring technology, Digital Angel® overcomes these limitations."

The company projects a global market for this technology in excess of $100 billion. To meet that projection, every human being on earth would need to get one of these implants. Maybe that's the idea.

In January 2000, ADS received the World Economic Forum's "Technology Pioneers Award" for its "contributions to worldwide economic development and social progress through technology advancements."

The World Economic Forum bills itself as an independent organization committed to improving the state of the world by "creating the foremost global partnerships of business, political, intellectual, and other leaders of society to define and discuss key issues on the global agenda."

One of the applications is credit verification (buying and selling). The technology is implantable. The plans are global. Sound familiar?

Whether the Digital Angel® turns out to be the "mark of the Beast" or merely a forerunner remains to be seen, but two things are certain: The mark of the Beast is coming soon, and its packaging and advertising campaign will be both appealing and persuasive. When it comes, don't you be among those who will be duped into taking it "in their right hand or on their forehead."