CHARLO, New Brunswick, August 20, 2023 – It’s funny, the things we think we’ll need if we have to leave the house in an emergency – photos, passports, ID. Maybe a few mementoes. Cash. Bank cards. A bottle of water. Meds. In a mad dash we might forget something important, so the government encourages us to pack a “go-bag” in advance and leave it by the door.

Yet all those must-haves that top our emergency prep list have no place in Heaven. We don’t need any of those things there. There’s no such thing as a heavenly go-bag. We come into this world bearing only our sin and we leave bearing only the record of our choices. No photos, passports, bank cards or meds required.

Wildfires seem to be all around us everywhere this summer. Even if we don’t see the flames, we smell the smoke. When a wildfire roared through a densely forested subdivision in my hometown of Halifax a few months ago, devouring everything in its path, I started packing a go-bag even though I don’t live anywhere near Halifax anymore. I just thought it would be a good idea to put a few things into a bag and put the bag where I could grab it fast if I needed to leave the house fast. I kept the bag in my closet for a few weeks, putting more things into it every now and then and also occasionally taking things out.

Then I remembered Jesus telling us that when we get the signal to leave, we won’t have time to go back even to grab a coat. He also told us that God will provide for all our needs if we put his Kingdom and his righteousness first. My go-bag seemed to be in direct violation of Jesus’ directives, so I unpacked it and decided to go go-bag-free for the rest of my time on Earth, just like I decided a few months ago to go preps-free.

It’s funny how the core things we need to survive within society (money and ID) have no use in Paradise. It’s also funny that the beast regime that’s being set up in preparation for the anti-Christ ruler is aiming to implement a system that appears to function without money or ID. All your data (financial, healthcare, driver’s license, etc.) will either be implanted directly into your body or will work in tandem with your unique bio-signatures, like your irises and fingerprints, through an AI component. This is the infamous mark of the beast foretold in the book of Revelation. Once the beast system is up and running, those who sign onto it will no longer need to carry any money or ID with them. The aim, I’m guessing, is to make it seem as if we don’t need those things anymore, just like in Heaven.

But the world is clumsy at mimicking God’s heavenly realm and supernatural abilities. Look at how badly modern medicine allegedly cures the blind and the lame or how demonic presences (relabeled as mental illnesses) are dealt with or rather not dealt with, just muzzled with drugs or electroshocked into uneasy silence. Satan may be a lot of things, but he’s not God. And the beast system, however glitzy the pre-sales propaganda, will be a far cry from Heaven. Not to mention that all those souls who do sign onto it will be locked out of Heaven and separated from God forever.

Doesn’t sound like much of a deal to me.

I’m happy to bypass “heaven on Earth” and wait for the real thing.

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Amazon’s Whole Foods just came out with “palm pay” as a way to pay for items in their stores. Once you sign up for the program and submit your biometric data (in this case, your palm print) along with your credit or debit card information, you no longer have to whip out a card or fumble for cash to pay at the check-out counter. You just wave your way through. Congratulations! You’ve saved 6.66 seconds on that transaction!

The similarity between palm pay and the mark of the beast has not gone unnoticed by many Christian commentators, but palm pay is obviously not the MOTB. Palm pay will, however, get people used to paying just by waving their hand past a sensor. It’s a training of sorts, so that when the actual mark comes, it won’t be such a shock to the system: it will seem like a natural extension of something already in place and generally accepted by the public. This is how the devil has been accomplishing his most noteworthy achievements of late. For instance, he’s been turning whole regions into modern-day Sodoms not by sudden grand and jolting gestures, but by surreptitious changes to laws and customs over a period of time across several countries. In this way, what was once unthinkable becomes the norm because what was once unthinkable is now deeply entrenched seemingly everywhere.

Needless to say, I’ll never submit my biometric data to Amazon, so I guess I’ll be permanently locked out of the palm pay system. Someone asked me yesterday whether I’m making plans for when cash is outlawed, and my response was nope, no plans. Like shunning go-bags and preps, I’m going to rely on God to help me through the situation, should it arise during my lifetime. I don’t think you can plan for being an outlaw; you just become an outlaw when circumstances dictate. It’s thrust on you, like baptism by fire. No preplanning or prep-work required.

Living in the Kingdom is a day-by-day proposition whose circumstances change by the second. God doesn’t change, but circumstances do, which means we need not only to be flexible, adaptable, mobile, and spiritually “clean”, with our lamp oil constantly topped up, but we also need to be entirely dependent on God for direction and instruction. We can’t put down roots other than in the Kingdom. We can’t have obligations to people. We need to live like Jesus and his first followers, who had only temporary homes and traveled fast and light.

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Over 150 homes were burned to the ground in the Halifax wildfire. Among those homes that were obliterated, I’m wondering how many were stocked with preps, all lost. The fire sprang up so suddenly and moved so quickly in the high winds and abnormally dry conditions, many of the people living in those homes didn’t even have time to jump into their cars but had to flee on foot. Others weren’t at home when the fires started mid-morning on a Sunday. These people lost everything but the clothes on their back.

Scripture gives us a general idea of what’s coming, but it doesn’t tell us exactly when. Jesus tells us to watch and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice with just the clothes on our back. We’re to travel light through this world; if and when we do make it to Heaven, we’ll have a permanent home there, but we’re to expect nothing to be permanent here.

As we move closer and closer to the time of the MOTB, circumstances will only get worse for those who reject the beast system. These circumstances cannot be fought against but only worked around and then endured, the way Jesus endured being an outlaw for a few years until finally being arrested and executed. This is our lot as Jesus’ followers; as it was with Jesus, so will it be with us.

We can pray to be taken Home before the worst arrives – for a supernatural emergency exit – but we cannot demand to be taken Home and we cannot guarantee that we’ll escape what’s coming.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.