It requires no sci-fi imagination or leap of faith to see that as more advanced technology comes online, it in turn spawns more complex technology, and on and on. There are probably very few people today who have to be convinced that we’re on the fast track to the technology of tomorrow. Cashless is coming. The issue is no longer if it’s coming, but rather when it will come, and what kinds of technology will be used to implement it.

Now, the Bible never explicitly says the coming one-world economic system will be a cashless system. It only says that people will need the beast’s mark in order to transact business. However, if cash is still king during the reign of the Antichrist, it would be very difficult for him to control world commerce. 

Think about it: If people are still able to use cash, those who are without the mark could develop an extensive black market system that would allow them to secure goods and services. But if there is no cash available, people will have to use the mark to make payments. The absence of cash, and the adoption of some kind of electronic transaction system, would give the Antichrist the means to enforce his complete stranglehold on world commerce. The only option left to people outside his economic system would be bartering, and this would last only as long as people have things of value to trade. 

Make no mistake—if the Antichrist is to gain control over every sale or purchase, it appears cash must be eliminated so that there is a record of every transaction that takes place.

Does this mean we should resist the cashless trend and avoid using services such as direct deposit, electronic turnpike passes, or smart cards? Not necessarily. None of these uses are inherently evil in and of themselves. These new technologies are very convenient and make sense. But we do need to be aware of what is happening and how these changes may be setting the stage for what’s to come. 

The bottom line is this: The coming cashless society is not immoral or evil, but it does serve as a sign that we’re drawing closer to the end times.

More than 40 years ago, in 1970, the blockbuster best seller The Late Great Planet Earth saw what was coming by looking through the lens of Bible prophecy:

Do you believe it will be possible for people to be controlled electronically? In our computerized society, where we are all “numbered” from birth to death, it seems completely plausible that someday in the near future the numbers racket will consolidate and we will have just one number for all our business, money, and credit transactions. Leading members of the business community are now planning that all money matters will be handled electronically.*

We see this coming true today right before our eyes.

*Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 113.

Learn more about this key sign of the end times in The End of Money.