A Thief in the Night
Almost 40 years ago a christian film was released with the same title and it was an instant success among christians. The plot was very simple as it followed the trials and woes of one non-christian woman who was left behind at the time of the rapture.
Yet this piece is not about the movie but certain aspects that took place within the story that coul dnot be explained by the technology of the time. Remember this film was made in the early 70's long before computers and other advances became part of normal everyday life. So it stands to reason that there would be many unexplained events that appeared hokey at the time.
40 years later, it is easier to explain and understand how this events took place. This article will only look at a few of the technological changes that help explain what took place in the movie. First, how could the people with the 'mark' communicate so well with each other?
Backin the 70's there were no cellphones, pagers were not the rage, neither were telephone answering machines in every household so how could these people commuicate so well. Inthose days, you had to track someone down, you called their freinds, their favorite hangout spots or physically went looking for them. It took a lot of time to find someone if they were not at home.
Now-a-days, one can text message, use a cellphone, a lot of people have them, instant message on the computer, leave a message on their machine and so on. Unless people turn off their phones, their computers and screen their calls it is not difficult to communicate with others anymore. Communicating withothers is far less difficult now thanit was in the past.
But how could they track down those people who didn't want to be found and were in remote areas? A little invention called GPS. It is being found everywhere now. First it was advertised as a great way to find your car when it was stolen, soon it was promoted as a great way to keep track of your children. Every parent wants to protect their little ones thus it was an easy sell to get them to buy products that contain this tracking device.
Cell phones, shoes, cars, GPS is everywhere and with the help of satellites it is not hard to pinpoint a person's location even when their phones are off and it wasn't hard to convince consumers that this product was a must have. people are afraid of something bad happeing to them. They hate crime and do not want to be a victim thus the simple phrase 'law and order' was used to help change people's minds from rejecting GPS products to accepting them.
What better way to control people than to use fear or play upon people's fears. Because of fear america has 'the patriot act' (and other law and order type bills); a redundant piece of legislature that deprives people of more of their civil rights and freedoms. All in the name of keeping the general public safe.
Another piece of technology that has advanced greatly over the decades is the computer chip. Once too large, it is now so small that it can be implanted into a person's body just under their skin. These microchips work off a number and contain vital personal information which can be expanded to contain all the financial information of a person or family.
Such are being tested right now as we read the odd newspaper article reporting on willing people who want to help advance law and order, safety and protection of one's money. Instead of being a mugging victim and losing one's credit cards or wallet full of cash, one just has a microchip installed in their body and their money is safe from criminals. (Now,instead of a beating and loss of money in a mugging, people will just escape with a beating.)
With computers as advanced as they are, it is not hard to construct and install readers at checkout counters to help pay for food and other items or store entrance ways to guarantee entrance into the business. Yethow does a government convince people to switch tothese microchips? it isn't hard as they have allowed people to be trained through credit card use, store discount cards, direct deposits, debit cards and other cash free pay by a number method.
Another advance in technology that helps explain a lot of the action in the movie is fiber optics, security cameras, computer cameras and so on. It has been rumored (and i have not verified this as i was told about this about 15 years ago) that the technology existed that enabled people to see through one's t.v. set via fiber optics. It was supposed to be military technology at the time and I have not kept up on it to see if it was possible or still in use.
Yet, even without that advantage, people are under scrutiny almost all the time now. Countries and cities use cameras to watch traffic or high crime areas. There are also a myriad of security systems out there in private business that record ones every move (casinos are famous for their camera security systems). Others use their computer cameras to transmit to their friends or any other interested party their home activities.
If one wants to be seen, it is not difficult to be monitered. Now these inventions and advances are not neccessarily part of a great conspiracy. Like all other inventions there is a good and bad use and most of these items mentioned were done so to help society. Unfortunately all inventions can have a bad use and it doesn't take much for a person with evil intent to twist the invention to meet their own perverted ends.
With an unsuspecting society, one trained by t.v. and movies to be passive etc., it isnot hard to usurp the original purpose of the inventions and allow the wrong people to be in control of everyone's life. The law and order campaign sounds good to those who are afraid and it does provide a sense of security to those who feel they cannot defend themselves. Yet Hitler and the Nazis used law and order to gain power and we know how that turned out.
For the christian, they should not have to worry about secular ideas of protection. Law and order should not convince them to give away their rights or be caught in the trap of buying these products. We have God who protects us, if we let him.He will also keep our children safe and give people peace of mind. We do not need technology for it is a very limited field and it cannot stop a crime from being committed.
Instead we should be preaching a warning to the unsaved world, to keep them from being enslaved by nefarious shemes of those who will abuse technology for their own purposes. The believer needs to turn to God for direction when it comes to security not the secular world, God's ways allow a person to remain free and unafraid.
The Bible does give instructions on what we should do in these matters and one is 'commit thy way unto the Lord and trust also in Him...' We need to trust God and the secular world needs to see that we do, so that they have no excuse for rejecting God's ways and so that they have a realalternative to choose if they want to leave their sinful lives behind.
Where did the movie producers get the title to their film? itis foundin 1 Thess. 5: 1-3. The rapture will happen, the mark will take place, they are real. itis time for the church to turn back to God's ways, leaving the world's ideas and strategies behind and cast their light once again on the path sinners need to take. Things of this world are not that important to lose one's salvation over, and the believer needs to get their lives intne with God's word and carefully follow them as the Holy Spirit leads.
