FedNow Goes Live, Paving Way to CBDCs

It’s getting really close and very real folks!  Carrying cash and saving cash in your gun safe for a “rainy day” may soon be impossible.  Every transaction you make, from a pack of gum to a box of shotgun shells, will be on record and available for data harvest.  “Who cares Dennis?  I use my Visa card for everything already, I have nothing to hide!”  I agree that I use electronic payment for 99.5% of my purchases all I buy is recorded.  But I do have a stash of cash for a rainy day, and I do like the idea of having some way to purchase something anonymously if (when?) the government turns on us.  But it’s coming and there is no way to stop it.  South Dakota and Florida might try and delay but that won’t work for very long. We will be told that cash is only good for drug pushers and addicts, child traffickers, prostitutes and drug cartels.  It has no further purpose in civilized society and is the main source of transmitting Covid and other nasty germs.

*****************

On June 29th, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that 57 firms have been certified to utilize its new instant payments system called “FedNow.” The Federal Reserve said 41 banks and 15 service providers would be “early adopters” after its late July launch. The Federal Reserve officially launched this “wonderful” new product, and FedNow is now live at 35 banks. Major banks, such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, are two of the early adopters, as is the U.S. Treasury.

What is FedNow?

FedNow is a new service that will immediately allow the transfer of funds. Everything will be run through the Federal Reserve so that each transaction will happen fast. Since this is the public’s first interaction with using the Fed directly, it will take some adjusting. So, if the Fed gives the public a little taste after they get a little taste, they’ll be all in and wanting more. Then, they can start incorporating the complete plan. That’s what this is all about.

The Federal Reserve claims this is the alternative to a CBDC — a Central Bank Digital Currency. But really, what this is is a stepping stone to a CBDC. Once the public gets more comfortable with the speed of FedNow and the system is accepted as the standard procedure, you’ll get a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Uniform Commercial Code

A few steps must be completed before a full-blown CBDC system can be launched successfully. This is where the Uniform Commercial Code comes into play. The Uniform Commercial Code is a set of rules governing commercial transactions to hold assets as collateral on loans and contracts. Lenders use the Uniform Commercial Code to prevent borrowers from selling the collateral or obtaining additional financing using that same collateral as security.

Lawmakers in Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, and New Hampshire have recently adopted laws that address digital assets; this is known as UCC Article 12. Eventually, all fifty states will have lawmakers looking at updating the Uniform Commercial Code to establish a foundation for a future Central Bank Digital Currency.

Central Bank Digital Currency

Central Bank Digital Currency is not really money. So, how will the commercial code deal with that? You can’t put Central Bank Digital Dollars in your pocket and walk out the door. That means Digital Dollars won’t be in your actual possession. Currently, digital money, like Bitcoin, is something you can put on a thumb drive. That’s something you can possess. But with digital currency, you won’t be able to do that. Central Bank Digital Dollars will not be something you can physically control. This is why lawmakers are updating the Uniform Commercial Code the way they are.

To make a payment, the sender and receiver must have bank accounts that are part of the FedNow network. Current payment platforms such as PayPal and Venmo are not directly deposited into a bank account. There is a processing window, so those funds could take a day or two before they are available. FedNow will eliminate that waiting period. Will that be enough incentive for this new structure to be accepted?

https://harbingersdaily.com/fednow-goes-live-paving-the-way-to-digital-currency/

State of the Nation: Debt, Addiction and Apostasy

 Things don't look real good for America from a God-fearing viewpoint.  I work one day per week with some teen boys who are addicts.  These 15-17 yr old boys tell me stories from their schools that would make a porn star/bartender blush.  And these are the future generation!  I've told lots of folks that I believe we won't build beds fast enough to house the drug addicts that are coming in the next 10 years.

I also think you are all very familiar with the debt that is crushing America.  Not only the trillions that the Government owes to somebody, but the personal debt that Americans have built up as inflation continues to ravage the middle and lower class.

And then of course we have the millions of people who call themselves "Christians" but celebrate the ordination of their gay, lesbian, transgender pastors, worship prosperity and believe that Christ came to make the rich, bounce around on the floors laughing and acting demon possessed yet claiming it's the work of the Holy Spirit and a myriad of other false teachings plaguing the church.

In all of human history, has there ever been a society more gluttonous than our own?  

We are addicted to sex, we are addicted to drugs, we are addicted to shopping, we are addicted to eating, we are addicted to entertainment, but our biggest addiction of all may be money.  

Even though we were handed the keys to the greatest economic machine the world has ever seen, it was never enough for us.  We always had to have more, and so we have run up the largest single mountain of debt in the entire history of the planet.  

If you can believe it, on Monday the size of the U.S. national debt crossed the 33 trillion dollar mark for the very first time...

The U.S. national debt topped $33 trillion for the first time ever on Monday, crossing a critical milestone at a time when government spending is already under scrutiny.

The national debt - which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors -- hit $33.04 trillion as of Monday afternoon, according to new data published by the Treasury Department. By comparison, just four decades ago, the national debt hovered around $907 billion.

I don't know if I even have the words to describe how reckless our leaders have become.

It took from the founding of our nation all the way up to 1980 for the national debt to reach one trillion dollars.

But now we have added a trillion dollars to the national debt in just three months.

And thanks to rising interest rates, interest payments on our debt are projected to increase at an exponential rate in the years ahead...

In fact, interest payments on the national debt are projected to be the fastest-growing part of the federal budget over the next three decades, according to the CRFB.

Payments are expected to triple from nearly $475 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a stunning $1.4 trillion in 2032. By 2053, the interest payments are projected to surge to $5.4 trillion. To put that into perspective, that will be more than the U.S. spends on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other mandatory and discretionary spending programs.

Of course we are far from alone.

At this point, total global debt exceeds 300 trillion dollars...

GLOBAL debt hit a record US$307 trillion in the second quarter of the year despite rising interest rates curbing bank credit, with markets such as the US and Japan driving the rise, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said on Tuesday (Sep 19).

The financial services trade group said in a report that global debt in US dollar terms had risen by US$10 trillion in the first half of 2023 and by US$100 trillion over the past decade.

It said the latest increase has lifted the global debt-to-GDP ratio for a second straight quarter to 336 per cent.

But we are by far the biggest offenders.

We are literally destroying the future for our children and our grandchildren.

As a nation, we are also deeply addicted to drugs.

Today, more Americans than ever before are addicted to legal and/or illegal drugs.

And more Americans than ever are dying from those addictions.

According to NPR, drug overdose deaths set a brand new record high last year...

Drug deaths nationwide hit a new record in 2022. 109,680 people died as the fentanyl crisis continued to deepen, according to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eight states saw drug deaths continue to surge by nine percent or more, with the greatest increases of 21 percent coming in Washington state and Wyoming.

Drug overdose deaths also set a brand new record high the year before that.

And the year before that.

You get the picture.

Our addiction to food is also killing many of us.

In fact, we are being told that the number of Americans that die from heart disease each year with obesity as a factor has actually "tripled" since 1999...

The number of Americans who died of heart disease with obesity as a factor has *tripled* since 1999.

Obesity now affects 42% of all Americans, and 20% of children.

Of course we are even more addicted to sex than we are to food.

Read it all here:  State Of The Nation: Debt, Addiction & Apostasy (prophecynewswatch.com)

It simply doesn't look good for obese, sex-addicted, drug addicted, debt-ridden, Godless America.  So it shouldn't surprise us to read that America isn't found anywhere in future prophecy.  Where did we go while all the nations of the world were gathering during the Great Tribulation?  Most likely, when Jesus came to take His bride, millions of Americans vanished and it brought a swift and sudden collapse to the military, the banking system and the confidence in our $33 trillion in debt.

Can I remind you that a trillion dollars is a stack of $100 bills stacked over 600 miles into the air?

Even Joe Rogan Can See the Mark of the Beast Coming

 The coming cashless society is almost upon us.  Once it is here the Bible says that eventually the Antichrist will take control of the entire system and make every person, who wants to access it, get a special mark on their right hand or forehead. Those who get it will be permanently banned from receiving salvation.  Of course this is all going to happen AFTER the rapture so I don't believe that followers of Christ TODAY will be put in the situation to have to choose.

But the fact that we are the first generation to have the technology to make this possible should be one more sign to us all that Jesus is near.  Even Joe Rogan sees it!

Joe Rogan is a comedian, podcast host, and UFC commentator. His podcast, which I do not endorse with the rank language he often uses, has over 15 million subscribers. He's a major influencer in our culture today and an unbeliever.

A couple of weeks ago, he had a guest named Duncan Trussell, who is a stand-up comic, writer, and actor. Surprisingly, they discussed for quite some time how a cashless society is a precursor to enforcing the mark of the beast.

During his program, Joe Rogan asks, "How long before we're a cashless society?" Trussell responded:

"Hopefully, forever. It is so scary to imagine losing privacy completely because every transaction is in the public eye and is observable... This is where I get scared because it's too similar to the mark of the beast. It's too similar to exactly what the Bible in the book of Revelation says. You won't be able to trade, you won't be able to do anything unless you have the mark, unless you bear the mark."

This response led Joe Rogan to say, "How's the Mark of the Beast described in the Bible? I think we're onto something here."

Rogan then pulled up the Bible and read from Revelation 13:11-18, a section that describes the coming false prophet, a kind of second in command or the lieutenant of the coming antichrist, who is going to make an image to him. The influential podcast host read this entire section live on his broadcast.

This is a well-known unbeliever talking at length about the mark of the beast, reading the book of Revelation, making this connection between a cashless society and the rise of the antichrist.

On the heels of that conversation, the new "Amazon One" technology is about to go nationwide. A recent headline from CBS News reads, "Amazon releases new cashless 'pay by palm' technology that requires only a hand wave."

This article discusses the use of biometric palm scanning technology, which again, is part of this cashless society that Joe Rogan was talking about:

Amazon is taking cashless payments to another level.

In a new rollout, the tech giant is giving customers another contactless way to pay for groceries -- with their palms.

In a statement Thursday, Amazon announced that the palm recognition service, called Amazon One, will be used for payment, identification, loyalty membership, and entry at over 500 Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations across the nation by the end of the year.

Instead of pulling out a credit card or even a phone for Apple Pay, subscribing customers will simply have to hover their palms over an Amazon One device to pay.

For decades, Bible prophecy teachers have been saying that there is going to be a cashless society. The only way that the antichrist can control the world economy is for there not to be cash. As long as there is, people can use cash to operate in a way that is undetected.

The article continues:

The technology is already available at 200 locations across 20 U.S. states including Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon and Mississippi...

Panera Bread, for example, has adopted the technology so that customers can simply wave their hands above the device in order to pull up their MyPanera loyalty account information and pay for their meals.

At Coors Field stadium in Colorado, customers trying to purchase alcoholic beverages can hover their palms over the Amazon One device to verify they are 21 or older.

It's being used now in several different convenience stores. It's being used at Hollywood casinos in Detroit. It's also being used by many airport travel retailers.

Another article from LifeWire reports, "This means you won't need your wallet, purse, or even your phone to complete transactions. You just need your palm." Basically, this turns your hand into a personal credit card.

"How does this work?" the article goes on. "You pre-enroll via your Amazon account, using a credit or debit card. Next, you head over to an Amazon One palm-reading device to make a scan."

Now, this is powerful. LifeWire says, "The algorithm matches unique elements of your palm with your account information... It doesn't just use images of the palm to identify a person, but also incorporates the underlying vein structure. "

CBS went on to state:

A palm is the safest biometric to use because you cannot identify a person by it, Amazon said. The tech company assured customers that their palm data will not be shared with third parties, including "in response to government demands."

Including "in response to government demands"? Well, in the future, this is going to be taken over by the antichrist. He's going to rule the world and rule this economy.

It's important to understand that these technologies that we're talking about here (Amazon One, different chip technologies, or biometrics) are not the mark of the beast, but they're part of the infrastructure he will use to control the world economy. I think he will use these things alongside the mark of the beast. He will use every kind of technology he can to control, monitor, and surveil people's lives and finances. When you control people's money, you control their life.

Here;  How A Cashless Society Is A Precursor To Enforcing The Mark Of The Beast (prophecynewswatch.com)

Why Every Christian Should Study the End Times

I think most of us have heard someone say, “I don’t study the Last Days or the return of Christ because it’s all so confusing and no one knows the day or the hour so why bother?  Just live your life as a good Christian and let God figure out when Christ is coming!”

But that’s really just a cop out.  Studying about the return of Christ makes a follower more eager to see Christ and to watch Him fulfill prophecy before our very eyes!  Fixing our eyes and thoughts upon the glorious future that we have with Christ helps to keep “the things of this world” at bay.  Knowing that Jesus could show up and snatch His bride away tonight, tomorrow, next month or next year helps us to hold things loosely and encourages us to be more bold in out witness.  When you believe that time is short it tends to focus your attention on eternal things.  Maranatha!

***************************

The Purpose of Eschatology

But I began to realize something. Loving Jesus and longing for His return are inseparable. The gospel message encompasses more than just the atonement, eternal life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus's mission was to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43), announcing the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel -- the promised seed, the promised land, and the promised kingdom. The gospel is inherently eschatological, pointing to the return of King Jesus, the establishment of God's eternal kingdom of righteousness, the deliverance from this present evil age, and the restoration of all things.

The biblical word that embodies this gospel message is "maranatha." Marantha is an Aramaic term meaning "the Lord has come," "the Lord is coming," or "Come, Lord!" depending on the word's pronunciation. This longing for the Lord to return and fulfill His promises begins in Genesis 3:15 when God prophesied of the snake-crushing seed of the woman and ends in Revelation 22 with the Spirit and the Bride collectively saying, "Come Lord Jesus!"

Jesus compared the signs of the end of the age to birth pains (Matthew 24:8). We will know Jesus is coming soon when we start seeing these "contractions," and he commands us to watch and be ready as he returns like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:36-44). But don't get obsessed with the birth pains and miss the central purpose of it all -- new life. As the pain and pressure of birth culminates in a beautiful child, the apocalyptic pain and pressure at the end of the age reveals the resurrected, glorified Son of God reigning in righteousness, reconciling all things to Himself, and presenting the church to Himself as His bride in spotless splendor.

The heart of the maranatha message is an intense yearning and desire for Jesus Christ -- to see His unfiltered glory annihilating the curse of sin and death brought upon all creation by Satan and his cosmic forces of darkness. And that is why every Christian should study the end times -- to know and love Christ as He truly is.

Final Thoughts

My eschatological journey is far from over, but here's how I would summarize what I've gathered along the way:

- The gospel is undeniably eschatological.

- Do not be afraid of eschatology. Embrace it.

- You can understand eschatology. Just follow where Jesus pointed us to -- the Old Testament prophets (see Matthew 24:15).

- Don't miss the forest for the trees. The primary goal of studying eschatology is cultivating a deeper love and desire for the return of our Lord and Savior.

 http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=6366

Woman Screams as She's Euthanized

 Kind of a scary story as the world starts looking to kill people that are too expensive or aren't having a good "quality of life".  I totally understand letting people die.  But it certainly is a slippery slope to say, "let's kill this person to save money and pain."

This 36 yr old woman in Belgium was going to be put to sleep.  When the time came her family heard her screaming.  They discovered that the dugs they injected her with maybe didn't work and the nurses took turns smothering her with a pillow.  Now there is a murder investigation.  Go figure.

Christophe Stulens, Wattiez’s partner, was there when she died, along with his 15-year-old daughter, Tracy. A doctor and two nurses came to the home that the three shared to carry out the euthanasia. “After a short night’s sleep, I was woken up by a nurse who told me that Alexina was doing very badly,” Stulens said. “Then the doctor took some syringes and we were asked if we wanted to say goodbye.”

Stulens and his daughter were told to wait outside, so they went onto the terrace, but what they thought would be a peaceful death quickly turned horrific: they heard screaming.

“I recognized her voice,” he said. “Afterwards we saw her lying on the bed with her eyes and mouth open.”

An autopsy was performed, and found that Wattiez died of asphyxiation. Allegedly, the nurses took turns using a pillow to suffocate her. “Alexina wanted to sleep peacefully, but apparently there were too few resources,” Stulens said. The Public Prosecution Service of Liège has now opened a murder investigation, while Stulens is suing.

Here; 'Quickly turned horrific': Family hears woman screaming as she's euthanized! (wnd.com)

As America is faced with millions and millions of 65+ seniors and the money runs out to care for all these people, the push will come to "put these folks to sleep", just like you do for your dog.  The arguments will be, "It's the most humane thing to do.  You do it for your dog that you love, why wouldn't you do it for you mom and not make her suffer?"

And when you think that a patient with dementia can cost $10,000 per month to be in memory care, where is all that money going to come from?  "We need more teachers not more 85 yr olds sucking the money out of society so they can sit in diapers for years waiting and hoping to die."

The debate IS COMING.