Thank you dear brother Cyprian! God bless you and your family, too, as we approach a new year and the Nativity of Christ.
About your comments: Yes, indeed any chip or "mark" required for buying or selling, if it has no vow or confession associated with it contrary to an Orthodox way of life and belief, is but a forerunner of the final biblical "Mark of the Beast". To take such a precursory mark is not necessarily soul destroying. However, we are to resist anything that moves us closer to that day when the aparatus that makes antichrist's power absolute and unchallenged, and the cashless digital system is part of that. I would agree with what you have written too, but the problem is this: consider the Rocor clergy and monks who are tens of thousands including devout laity, they really BELIEVE they have NOT already taken the mark of the beast, where in fact they have done precisely this, and it is this sign that proves it: they no longer can discern the love of the truth from the love of the world and its errors. They think we are schismatics precisely because they think they have not done anything wrong. Remember, these were ALL men and women who were IN THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH, just as we remain today. They also resisted the World Orthodox and the lies of the EP and MP talking heads for a time. How can we know that the nature of the final mark of the beast will not be sufficiently subtle as to be as blindingly obvious as the Noon Day Sun? How do we know it won't deceptively and seductively seem like something that is "not quite yet" the "real mark of the beast"? That is why the practice even at Esphigmenou and many other zealot fathers on Athos is to not even have anything with a bar-code on it in the monastery. They cut them out of anything, boxes, book covers, etc. Some people will think this extreme and naive fanaticism. However, consider this lesson I heard when I took a professional drivers course:
There was a trucking company interviewing three very experienced drivers for a position. They asked each of the candidates this question: "If you are driving an 18 wheeler along a winding Rocky Mountain road with a wall of rock on one side and a cliff on the other, how close to the edge of the road can you get without going over?"
The first driver said, "I can get the outside tires within 6 inches of the drop without going over."
The second driver said, "I can get it within one inch of the cliff edge and not go over."
The third driver answered saying, "I don't know how close I can get it without going over. I have never driven in a way to find out."
Guess who got the job.
So it should be with us in navigating the perils of the spiritual life and maintaining a good confession before God in this world. Stay away from even the mere appearance or hint of evil as if it were evil itself, from the semblance of the mark even long before the mark appears. This is wisdom and the fear of God and admitting that we too could be deceived if we venture to close to the edge and too lax in our course.
God be with you,
Symeon
That is funny! Okay, then brother Cyprian, if you are so sure it is so harmless, go ahead and line up and get chipped! All I can say is, "Ain't no way I'm EVER going to get chipped, 'mark of the beast' or not."
