West Virginia is offering special driver's licenses to people who oppose digitized photos because they believe this could be the beginning of the biblical "mark of the beast" prophecy.

The Division of Motor Vehicles planned to distribute the special licenses Friday at its Capitol office.

Phil Hudok will be one of the first to receive a special license. The Randolph County teacher had refused to require his students wear bar-coded identification badges in 1998 because it violated his religious beliefs.

Hudok, pastor Butch Paugh and several others met with DMV Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo in 2006 after learning that the state was switching to the digitized licenses.

The DMV agreed to keep hard copies of the opponents' license photos instead of digitizing them.