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.
