Not many present-day political issues are  expressly predicted in Holy Scripture. Most of the time when we point to current evils and make a biblical parallel, we have to use an allegory or explain what we mean in detail. But not this time. It’s right there in black and white.

Read this passage from the Book of Revelation, given to the Apostle John:

Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth … it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Rev. 13:11,17, emphasis added)

At this point you might be thinking of how the World Health Organization (dominated by Red China) colluded with dozens of governments and thousands of private companies to force the experimental mRNA COVID vaccine — which, like many others now on the market, makes use of stem cells derived from aborted children — on hundreds of millions of people who were given a choice between taking it or losing their jobs and/or being locked in their homes and locked out of their churches. Pope Francis, a key co-conspirator in that event, removed one American Catholic bishop for refusing to segregate the unvaccinated during Holy Communion. In other allegedly free countries such as Australia and New Zealand, government officials spoke of imprisoning the unvaccinated in quarantine camps.

The Mark of the Best

I am not saying the vaccine was literally the “mark of the beast,” though I was surprised that Bill Gates didn’t insist it be given on the right hand or the forehead, if only to troll all the Christians. I think instead that the manufactured COVID panic was a dry run, a war game, that our elites used to see how strongly we would resist future power grabs. We were tested — and most of us failed.

Now we face another, in some ways more aggressive attempt to strangle and stifle believers that even more closely parallels the text of Revelation. It’s called “de-banking,” and it means that your bank or other financial institution strips you of access to your own money, denies you service, or in some cases even seizes your assets. Why? Because what you believe, think, and say doesn’t line up with the prevailing ideology of the day.

Does that sound un-American to you? If so, then your attitudes are so 2015. We’ve come a long way, baby.

An End Run Around the First Amendment

Thank God we still have a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives. That allows a few courageous members of Congress to expose the latest outrages our elites are imposing on us. One of the targets of government-backed de-banking is the Alliance Defending Freedom, a public-interest law firm that does exactly what its name suggests; its client list reads like a who’s-who of people whose First Amendment rights have been violated in one way or another over the years. One of its leaders, Senior Vice President Jeremy Tedesco, testified recently before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. 

Over the past year, evidence has mounted that the federal government is attempting an end-run around the Constitution by outsourcing censorship to some of the most powerful corporations the world has ever known. Now, there is even more concrete evidence of the censorship scheme. …

[T]he U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network colluded with Big Banks to monitor their customers to identify domestic threats and shared a list of “hate groups” published by the hyper-partisan Institute for Strategic Dialogue to help them do so.

Echoing the discredited and morally bankrupt Southern Poverty Law Center list, the ISD list includes Alliance Defending Freedom as well as other mainstream religious and conservative organizations like Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, Pacific Justice Institute, and Ruth Institute.…

In 2023, Bank of America closed the long-standing bank account of Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that helps impoverished widows and children in Uganda. The bank also closed the account of a local Tennessee church that donates to the ministry. The bank claimed it no longer wanted to serve their “business type” and that Indigenous Advance exceeded the “bank’s risk tolerance.” The bank’s abrupt decision created a logistical nightmare for Indigenous Advance and inflicted real harm on the populations they serve.

JP Morgan Chase de-banked the Arkansas Family Council for being “high risk” and never provided a credible reason for canceling the account of former U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback’s organization the National Committee for Religious Freedom. And Wells Fargo denied payment processing to the pro-life group The Ruth Institute. These are some of the many instances of viewpoint-based de-banking and are likely only the tip of the iceberg.

Want to know more details? Here’s the Sub-Committee’s full report. Read it and weep.

The use of government power to politicize every transaction a citizen might have in going about his daily life is a clear echo of the Red Chinese “social credit” system, the most effective form of totalitarian control ever invented. As Jason Jones warned us here, the Great Reset has already happened in China, and our elites intend to impose it on us here.

Trying to Bankrupt Biden’s Critics

You’ve doubtless heard about the attack on Christian entrepreneur and generous conservative donor Mike Lindell. He has seen his longtime financial vendor, American Express, arbitrarily punish his company, MyPillow, because of his politics. As GWire reports:

MyPillow CEO and Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell says his company has been crippled by American Express’s decision to slash its credit line.

“Steve, we really need everybody’s help right now. We have things going on I’m going to let you all know this week,” Lindell told fellow Trump ally Steve Bannon on the latter’s “War Room” podcast on Monday.

“Out of the blue, they took our credit line from a million dollars down to $100,000,” Lindell said. “Just cripples MyPillow. No reason, no explanation, just dropped it down last Tuesday.”

In early 2022, Lindell was terminated as a client by the Minnesota Bank & Trust a month after the bank called him a “reputation risk.”

You’re Not Immune or Exempt. In Fact, You’re Next

But businessmen and advocacy groups aren’t the only victims of persecution by Deep State agencies colluding with woke financial institutions. Ordinary Americans are getting caught in the sticky web of censorship and coercion. The Children’s Health Defense Fund reports:

The federal government conducted “broad” surveillance of the private financial transactions of millions of Americans “without legal process” in the wake of events that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

The report details how government officials asked major banks to search financial transactions for key terms, like “Trump” and “MAGA.” It also suggested they identify transactions related to firearms or sporting goods stores, such as Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“Americans doing nothing other than shopping or exercising their Second Amendment rights were being tracked by financial institutions and federal law enforcement,” according to the report.

The “financial surveillance was not predicated on any specific evidence of particularized criminal conduct and, even worse, it keyed on terms and specific transactions that concerned core political and religious expression protected by the Constitution.”

Hounding a Hero to His Grave

It gets even uglier. Stream readers will likely know the name Jake Gardner. He’s the U.S. Marine Corps combat hero whose business and elderly dad were attacked by a George Floyd rioter in Omaha, Nebraska a few years ago. When he shot the looter who was trying to strangle him, Gardner was falsely tarred as a “white nationalist” by hysterical media, accused of a hate crime, and charged with murder by a politicized special prosecutor. After his landlord evicted him, Gardner took his own life. He is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jake Gardner, USMC, RIP

What was the last straw that drove Gardner to kill himself? According to the eulogy his best friend delivered at his graveside, it was when GoFundMe debanked Jake, stripping him of the funds that Americans were contributing so that he could mount a legal defense. After his death, a Nebraska state senator went on Twitter to gloat about it:

The indictment of Jake Gardner would never have happened without the community, the people, who stood up for justice and demanded action from city officials. Jake Gardner is gone, but the white supremacist attitudes that emboldened him are still with us today. https://t.co/IFw5ZXepAz

— Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) September 21, 2020

When people tell you they want you dead, believe them.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His upcoming book is No Second Amendment, No First.