Amazon is not commenting on a report by the Wall Street Journal that it is developing checkout terminals that will allow shoppers to pay for products by simply scanning their hand. The palm scan would be linked to the customer’s credit card information for instant payment.
(Note: If you click the hyperlink for the Wall Street Journal report you may encounter a pay wall pop-up, which -in most cases- can be x-ed out to allow reading the full story)
The palm scanner is perceived to be more convenient, more secure and would be useful for merchants like coffee shops and fast-food restaurants. Amazon is also said to be perfecting a product called Amazon Pay, which would rival Apple Pay and Google Pay.
This new biometric technology has already gotten one headline from a Christian media source that reads in-part: ‘Mark of the Beast Alert!’
To briefly explain this concern, the biblically-predicted Mark of the Beast is referenced in Revelation 13:16-18 (NLT) “He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed here…”
It should be noted, in the past, other high-tech has also been pegged as potential Mark of the Beast-ware like microchips and barcodes. That’s not to say they may not be involved down-the-prophetic-road. But scripture does definitely refer to a mark, which suggests something visible or perhaps invisible on the body itself. Whether a palm-scan would qualify as a candidate is questionable, but does tend to bring up concern about privacy, human integrity, and raises the question: “Is this tech just getting too weird… or is it much cooler to use?”
We certainly appear to have a choice for now when it comes to buying. Even something as ‘primitive’ as cash.