Show me the money! Should Christians fear a cashless society?
Lately I’ve been hearing some chatter about a nationwide coin shortage that is contributing to some promoting, and others fearing, a cashless society. I don’t really get the fear and trepidation because I have very rarely been using cash for the past decade or so. I predominantly do my shopping online and use a credit card for virtually everything.
Most Christians who oppose movement towards an entirely digital currency do so because they believe a cashless society will make it easier for the government to track us, and thereby, control us. Many view a cashless society as being necessary for the Antichrist to be able to implement the mark of the beast that is mentioned in the book of Revelation (see especially Revelation 13:17).
While I understand the value of holding tangible currency, and agree that cash transactions are far more difficult to track than digital purchases, I think it is a mistake to see a cash-based economy as something that can prevent the rise of the Antichrist. In the first century AD Roman culture, in order to participate in the economy, guilds often required people to sacrifice to their preferred gods. This precursor to the mark of the beast was accomplished nearly 2,000 years before a digital economy was even possible.
Further, the cash and coin that opponents of a cashless society prefer only hold value because the government says that they do. Even in a cash society, all a future Antichrist would have to do is declare existing cash to be worthless, require people to get a new form of cash, and require allegiance to his regime in order to acquire that new cash. Mark of the beast = done.
I am not advocating a cashless society. I am not, in any sense, trying to encourage anyone to switch from cash to digital currency. I am only trying to point out that sticking with cash is not going to prevent, or even delay, the rise of the Antichrist.
Using cash may make it more difficult for banks and/or the government to track you, but a cashless society is not, in and of itself, an ungodly, anti-biblical, unethical, or immoral thing.
Please consider this post a friendly reminder that not everything is a sign of the end times.
S. Michael Houdmann
GotQuestions.blog homepage
Show me the money! Should Christians fear a cashless society?