In the last two blogs I have introduced synopsis of End Time Events and a challenge to investigate these things for yourself.
Let’s address a concern for many followers of Jesus, called The Christ. What is the Mark of the Beast, the significance of the “666,” how will it be done, and what are the results of taking or refusing it? If you are not a Christ-follower, I encourage you to read on, to discover what may happen in the near future.
First, the Mark of the Beast will not be called that, any more than the Beast will be called “The Beast.” It will likely be couched in pleasant sounding euphemisms, e.g. The WISE Mark (Winning Implementation of Supply and Expense) or maybe the KIND Mark (Knowledge-based International Negotiation Dividends). And The Beast will be called a Miracle Man, a Savior of Humankind, the Answer Man, the Peacemaker. He will not be an evil-looking HellBoy, but rather a typical looking world leader. But those who are aware of the Bible’s teaching will recognize him for who and what he really is: the devil incarnate, the Anti- or “Other” Christ. Keep in mind these events will unfold as repercussions of the most mysterious disappearance in history of millions of people and all babies and little children! The global chaos will be ripe for someone, anyone, who seems to know what to do.
“[The spokesman of the Beast] 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. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” (Revelation 13:16-18)
As for the significance of the mystery of the number, 666, this will remain a mystery until the time it is applied. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking they have ‘discovered’ who the Beast is by matching a name to the numeric values of the Hebrew or Greek letters. This was done with transliterations for Emperor Julian, Genghis Khan, Hitler, FDR, John Kennedy, George Bush, bin Laden, Khomeini and a host of others whose candidacy for being the Anti-Christ fell into varying degrees of believability. We will not know who this “Man of Lawlessness” is until he is revealed.
How is the mark applied? It is possible it could be a bio-metric identification or a chip implant, something the angel would only have noted as a “mark.” It could be a nano-activated ink tattoo or simply a literal tattoo, maybe even 666, that would show the wearer was “cooperating” with the government to address the chaos of the missing Christ-followers. “I’m a loyal (insert any nationality). Put it big and bold right there on my forehead!”
In any case, it will not be secretly administered as some right-wing . . . umm, conservatives (note, I did not call them “nuts” 😉) surmised in recent months. It will not be part of a vaccine or some obscure method that will fool people into getting something they do not want. It will be an open and reasonable method of accounting for your personal income, expenses, assets and debts. Everyone will be invited to participate as sensible and patriotic citizens of the world. It will simply be the way the world is working, and if you want to buy or sell, whether stocks and bonds, real estate or groceries, you will need to have an account.
The results of accepting this Mark are explicitly laid out in Revelation 14: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” So if it comes to the point that you are asked to take a Mark in order to buy or sell, just do not do that!
However, be aware that the results of refusing this Mark will be devastating as well. One will not be able to do business in any form. You will not be able to access your savings, your Social Security, your checking or any investments. You will not be allowed to purchase anything at Walmart or Costco, and forget about Amazon or Apple. The Kroger and Safeway will be out of your reach as will be any other thing that you want to buy or sell. Starvation is a slow and difficult death; ostracization by the community may be radical and murderous.
But there is an assurance in the next verses in Revelation 14: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!'”
Do not believe me! 😉 That is, do not take my word for this information. Read last week’s list of Bible chapters that address the End Times. At least take a couple hours and read two very short books: The Gospel of John and The Revelation. Each of these books should not take more than an hour or two to read in your heart language (the language in which you dream). The links are to English Standard Version (ESV), but you can select any language in the “Version Button” by selecting All and scrolling down.
So when will these things occur? Again, as noted last week, no one knows the day or the hour! So do not let anyone deceive you that they somehow have it figured out. But there are interesting developments that make these scenarios more believable.
When I was a child, Bible-prophecy preachers would speak of a united Europe to mimic the ancient Roman Empire; skeptics said this was absurd, that nationalism and language difficulties would prevent this; Europe would never be united. The preachers said money would be accessible only through a mark on your hand or forehead; again skeptics said we would never have computers powerful enough to regulate international commerce; check out Amazon’s latest development in September, 2019. The preachers said cash would be obsolete; skeptics laughed as they wanted to know how you could do business without a reserve currency; laugh no more; digital currency will soon replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency! It will be international, accessible anywhere in the world, and if it uses bio-metrics to access, perfectly (?) secure.
Recall that world events have at times occurred with the speed of a tsunami. The start of WW1, the execution of the tsar of Russia, the Communist revolution in China, the fall of the Berlin wall, literal tsunamis and natural disasters around the world: all occurred with fire-bolt speed, and the next changes in currency, political fortunes and world government will occur even faster when the Church is removed from the world like a lightning flash!
This is why I appeal to you that if you do not know where you will go at the end of your life, you CAN know! If you want to know how to escape the judgements of The God Who Is, He has made it very simple. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31) If you come face to face with the events herein described, recognize that any death from human hands is nothing compared to missing the gift of eternal life Jesus offers. My prayer for each of you reading this is that you will take this warning to heart and Be Ready.
“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.
Keep listening to the thunder of His voice
and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.
Under the whole heaven He lets it go,
and His lightning to the corners of the earth.
After it His voice roars;
He thunders with His majestic voice,
and He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.
God thunders wondrously with His voice;
He does great things that we cannot comprehend.” Job 37:1-5
capost2k 
A good spread of the gospel.
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While this is certainly an interesting gloss on ‘The Beast,’ I’m afraid there are some significant theological and scholarly problems.
1st: the Hebrew and Greek texts do not use “Arabic” numerals (1, 2, 3, etc); they use 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 for the number of the Beast. Thus, it would be six hundred sixty six. As such, the order of the letters makes no difference. For example, six, sixty, six hundred means the same thing as sixty, six hundred and six. The original readers (or more likely 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘳𝘴 of the Book of Revelation (probably written late in the first century AD/CE in the Koine or common Greek of the time) would not have seen or heard a repetition of the number 6 as we do in our 666. (Some modern bible translations do use the numerals, but obviously they are simply translations of translations and are probably just trying to keep it simple for non-studious readers.)
2nd: the Beast in John is not “the devil” or the “other” Christ. In fact there are two — one from the sea and one from the land — and they are aligned in opposition to God.
Now, the “Antichrist” in John’s letters refers to “he who denies that Jesus is the Christ” and “anyone who denies the Father and the Son.” However, the concept of an 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘬𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘴 is not found in Jewish writings in the period 500 BCE–50 CE, so it’s strictly a late Christian New Testament concept (not in Daniel, by the way)
Keep up the good work promoting peace in Jerusalem!
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Hmm, not sure where you see theological or scholarly problems.
That the text in Greek reads “ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ” does not change its meaning any more than my writing “six hundred sixty six” means anything different from using Chinese characters, Arabic or any other numerals. It is still 666, and likely not going to require a “mark” that reads “ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ,” although it could. Note, I did not say “the mark” would definitely be 666, but just one of many possibilities.
That said, as I noted we will not understand the significance of this mark until the “man of lawlessness” (“man of sin” in some translations) is revealed.
The devil cannot come up with anything original. Everything he does is an attempt to copy God’s creative skill, but for his own purposes. Even his “mark” is an imitation, because God first marked Cain for protection and “marked” the redeemed in Revelation 7 with the seal of God on their foreheads.
While it is in some sense inaccurate on my part (mea culpa) to say the first beast is the “devil incarnate,” “the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority” to the beast. The second beast is a “spokesman” for the first beast, as I noted in the scripture quote about him. So you have the devil’s artificial “trinity” of the dragon, the first beast and the spokesman, in effect “the devil incarnate.”
John’s warning is that “it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming.” That other antichrists have come does not diminish his warning that there will come one significant Antichrist, which he reveals in the Revelation.
Anti-, both in English and Greek (αντι-) does not mean exclusively “against,” but “alternative” or “instead of.” What John says about the antichrist in his letter, as well as what Paul says about him (the man of sin) in 2 Thessalonians 2 so closely resembles the first beast of Revelation 13, it would be a stretch of imagination to not recognize they are referring to one and the same.
Though reference to an antichrist is new to “Christian” theology, end times are mentioned quite extensively in Daniel and Ezekiel, as they do refer to times of the end. Much of this still lies in “mystery,” i.e., we cannot say how exactly these future prophecies will be fulfilled any more than we could have described the return of the Jews to their homeland prophesied in Ezekiel 37 prior to 1948 and 1967.
However, it is important for us to study these scriptures and anticipate that Jesus is returning. And if that was expected by the first century Christ-followers, who saw much more “mystery” than we now see (because some of it is becoming clear), we should expect Him any time.
THE most IMPORTANT note of my blog is that there will not be time to decide whether or not one wants to take this mark when it is offered. It will be too late to read and study about end times; they will be upon us. We must BE READY, as Jesus taught in Matthew 24 and 25. “So if it comes to the point that you are asked to take a Mark in order to buy or sell, just do not do that!”
Blessings on you brother, and thanx for visiting and commenting. 😉
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