‘And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name’



— Rev. 13: 16-17



Physics teacher Phillip Hudok, a fundamentalist Christian who once lost his job temporarily over bar-coded student ID cards, is driving now with an alternate license, sans the digitized photograph he fears is a step in putting the entire world under an end-time dictator, known in the Bible as the Antichrist.

Hudok traveled Friday to Charleston to pick up his new driver’s license, accompanied by Pastor Butch Paugh, a Nettie resident who pastors two fellowships, in Huttonsville and in Summersville.

Paugh views the digitized photograph on West Virginia operator’s cards as a prelude to the coming Antichrist, which the Book of Revelation says will exert global control on every human being via the number of his name, 666.

“We believe it pertains heavily to the ‘mark of the beast’ and the coming ‘mark of the beast,’” Paugh said, while en route to the Capitol.

“I’m not saying it is the ‘mark of the beast,’ but we’re certainly well on the road to it.”

Hudok once lost his job briefly at Elkins High School when he refused participation in a bar-coded student ID system, ultimately winning in the state Supreme Court on the appeal of a lower court edict in his favor.

In Bible studies and seminars, the topic of the West Virginia driver’s license frequently arose, he explained.

“We’re seeing what we talked about all the time — the prophetic progression of a tyrannical state that mirrors what the Bible talks about,” he said.

As far as he knows, Hudok is the first to reject the digitized photo and said he and Paugh decided to reach out to the news media as a means of spreading the word that West Virginia motorists aren’t obligated to have the three-dimensional photograph on their licenses.

“It’s ironic that when you get your driver’s license, the posting says that fingerprints are optional,” he said. “And yet, by taking the picture, you’re giving a fingerprint of your face. I don’t think most people are aware of it.”

Hudok’s opposition runs nearly parallel to a war waged against the federal Real ID card by Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, and Seth DiStefano, field organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union in West Virginia. DiStefano is Hudok’s next-door neighbor but wasn’t involved in the driver’s license issue. The ACLU official and Barnes, however, teamed up in an effort to block the state from participating in Real ID, but their bill died in a House committee last March.

“We have free will, and everyone has the option to do it or not do it,” Hudok said.

“They say you have to do this to travel and board a plane and open a bank account. When it comes right down to it, it’s still a personal decision as to whether you go along with a state or a federal mandate.”

Hudok’s alternate license contains an ordinary photograph, with this caption underneath: No digital image on file.

“They will take a picture,” he said of the alternate license. “We have no problems with something that’s not an identification. God gives us our uniqueness. We don’t believe it’s within our realm to submit that.”

Hudok says his understanding of Bible prophecy leads him to believe the seven-year Tribulation ushered in by a fascist world dictator known as the Antichrist isn’t far off.

“I can’t say (when), but we’re a lot closer than we were 10 years ago,” he said.

Back in 1999 when he resisted the bar-coded student IDs, Hudok warned all who would listen — and apparently most didn’t — about implantable computer chips the government could use to keep track of subjugated people in a dictatorship.

“When I told people that, they said we were crazy,” he said. “Now, people are taking chips.”

Paugh runs a Web site known as www.pastorbutch.com that is devoted heavily to end-time prophecy teaching.

For about 10 years, the pastor says he has eschewed a driver’s license, and, while he has been stopped on occasion, he has avoided punishment.

“Nothing bad happened to me because I feel I was instructed by the Holy Spirit 10 years ago that I couldn’t take a digitized picture,” he said. “I put my faith in God and started writing to the Division of Motor Vehicles.”

Hudok and Paugh said they have to clear a number of hurdles, but the breakthrough came when Gov. Joe Manchin lent a sympathetic ear last April and directed Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo to allow the special license.

“We really thank Gov. Manchin and Mr. Cicchirillo for doing this,” Paugh said. “We appreciate them.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com