I don't consider myself a conspiracy theory type of guy but I can see why people are quoting Revelation 13:16 more and more as e-payments and e-id becomes harder to avoid.
That seems difficult to test. For convenience here is the text:
Revelation 13:16-18
New International Version
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
I'm not religious but I think this is brilliant. Some 2000 years ago they'd already realized how dangerous it is if a tyrannical government has a way of IDing everyone and using that ID to arbitrarily grant or deny people rights and services on a whim. It's like anti-totalitarianism built right into the religion.
I don't think it was an "if", there is speculation that the mark is reference to Nero [0]. If true this means it wasn't a guess about the future but a commentary on current day events.
