According to a Blog entry by David Kravets, community farmers in the USA are becoming quite concerned about cattle tags because they are the ‘mark of the beast,’ a reference to symbolic language used in the Book of Revelation.
The tags, as in Australia, are used to track cattle and can be used for ensuring meat quality, keep a check on the spread of disease, etc.
The anti ‘Mark of the Beast’ farmers have filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and are quite serious about not complying with cattle tagging laws (National Animal Identification System). The lawsuit was filed by a group called the ‘Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund,’ which has some 1 400 members.
Should the farmers fail to win the lawsuit, many are expected to quit farming rather than comply with something which would see them (according to their beliefs) embrace the Beast of Revelation.
This sort of thing should be of no surprise when dealing with Christians who have embraced the Premillennialist viewpoint of end times eschatology. Those who hold to such teachings see the mark of the beast in any number of modern technological gadgetry and computer generated codes. They see the mark of the beast in any sort of identification card or chip, in barcodes, etc.
In short, the chief error of the Premillennial viewpoint is the literal understanding of the figurative language of Revelation and other similar writings found in such books of the Bible as Daniel and Ezekiel.
Read more at:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/farmers-decryin.html