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Some Thoughts On The Mark of the Beast

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  • Some Thoughts On The Mark of the Beast

    Are you doomed if you take the vaccine?

    Link

    -------

    Are we going to see this in our time? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    Yesterday, I was going through my Facebook feed and I saw again a common refrain I am seeing about the Covid vaccine being the Mark of the Beast. Now I have not bought into the Covid hype at all, but I don’t really care for bad eschatology. My thinking is some time from now in the future, these people will have embarrassed themselves with their pronouncements. Fortunately for them, that doesn’t seem to damage many prophecy experts today who have made similar blunders in the past with their published works.

    So anyway, people often make a big deal about taking the Bible “literally” by which they mean literalistically, and this also applies to the book of Revelation. There can’t be any symbolism in that. If that’s the case, then the so-called antichrist (Seeing as Revelation never once uses the term) should be easy to recognize.

    “The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion.”

    All you have to do is look for the guy who matches this description. As soon as we someone with seven heads and ten horns and all this other stuff, then we’ll know we have the Beast. If you want to tell me that that part isn’t literal, then you are going to have to explain to me why you make an exception. I really don’t know any futurist who takes this as a literal description of the antichrist.

    So now let us jump ahead to the part that everyone wants to talk about which is the Mark of the Beast and the number of the Beast. The mark is said to go on the hand and/or forehead. Now I would say this symbolizes one’s actions (hands) and allegiance (head) being toward the Beast. Our futurist friends think of things like microchips when by their system, it could just as easily be swiping that iPhone constantly held in the hand to pay for something. Also, if this is the vaccine, I have never heard of one going in the hand or in the forehead.

    Again, this is a literalism that is only literal when it fits.

    Now some people are talking about some places having it that if you don’t have the vaccine, that you won’t be able to use certain businesses. See? It’s the Mark of the Beast! They can’t buy or sell! That would first off have to be something not just nationwide, but worldwide. After all, many of these people are pushing the idea that the antichrist will set up a one-world government. Strangely though, they also seem to only focus on America.

    However, at best, this could only point to similarities with the actual mark. It would not demonstrate that any vaccine is the mark or even a precursor to the mark. Dual fulfillment could likely be a claim, but that becomes at this point more a claim put forward to save a system.

    The mark is also a contrast to the Seal of God earlier in the book and I don’t know any futurists that are looking for a literal mark on someone’s body for that one. Keep in mind that in that world, Jews were already exempted from emperor worship, but they could out the Christians and they would face the requirements of emperor worship. If they hadn’t done their dues, their would be consequences in the marketplace.

    In Hebrew, Nero Caesar would spell out to 666. In Latin, it would be 616, and we do have some manuscripts with the number being 616 instead of 666. Ken Gentry has written on this in Before Jerusalem Fell and those wanting more are urged to go and look there.

    Notice this. You can say I have made a false interpretation, but I have made one based on what was known by the people at the time. I have used data that a Hebrew person would understand and I have shown that the Roman would understand it also. I have also not been selective with saying “This part is non-literal, but this part is definitely literal.” I have not had to deny the text in anyway such as saying it reports something that didn’t happen or couldn’t happen. I have been trying to treat the text fairly as I think it deserves. (Really, all texts deserve to be treated that way, even the ones we disagree with.)

    Also, if this was the literal Mark, then several people who hold to essential Christian doctrine and try to live a Christian life are automatically hellbound now and can never be forgiven even with repentance apparently. Is this consistent? Is that upholding Christianity?

    So should you get the vaccine then? That’s not the point of this. If you have reasons on other grounds for not getting it, then go with those. Just please don’t get it or not get it based on bad reasoning. Going with the Mark of the Beast interpretation is bad reasoning. My main concern is it drives more people away from the church when Christians make statements like this publicly that are so easily shown to be false later on. (Has John Hagee ever apologized and recanted his blood moons nonsense?)

    Also, futurists are welcome to try this in other areas, but those wanting to argue this one is the real deal will have a steep hill to climb. I would like to see you just abandon futurism and embrace orthodox Preterism, but that’s for another series.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters
    (And I affirm the virgin birth)

  • #2
    The point of the mark (of God or of the Beast) is that someone is choosing sides. It can't be something you take without knowing. It would need to be something like "renounce God and Jesus as your savior and we will give you this tatoo so you can buy and sell, otherwise you starve!"

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Sparko View Post
      The point of the mark (of God or of the Beast) is that someone is choosing sides. It can't be something you take without knowing. It would need to be something like "renounce God and Jesus as your savior and we will give you this tatoo so you can buy and sell, otherwise you starve!"
      Yep. That point also gets overlooked.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post

        Yep. That point also gets overlooked.
        We usually get a forewarning, and the warning (or foretaste) we might well have seen already. It doesn't have to be anything permanent or visible.
        1Cor 15:34 Come to your senses as you ought and stop sinning; for I say to your shame, there are some who know not God.
        .
        ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛
        Scripture before Tradition:
        but that won't prevent others from
        taking it upon themselves to deprive you
        of the right to call yourself Christian.

        ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛

        Comment


        • #5
          All of this is moot because the Rapture will occur before any of that happens.



          And now I'm leaving. Buh-bye.


          Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

          Comment


          • #6
            Nick, I have read Gentry's dissertation in his book "Before Jerusalem Fell" from cover to cover. I thank God for this man's book which introduced me to some of the concepts of Preterism back in 2012 when I first started studying eschatology in all seriousness. However...

            Unfortunately, Dr. Gentry has missed the mark (pun not intended) when it comes to identifying the mark of the Sea Beast, imposed on everyone by the Land Beast of Revelation 13 on behalf of the Sea Beast. This Sea Beast was every bit of 666 years old at the time Revelation was being written (ever since its feature of the first "lion" kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar had come against Jerusalem). This "mark" was imposed by the high priests of Israel (part of the Land Beast of Rev. 13) upon their own people and anyone coming from any other nation to Jerusalem, wishing to offer sacrifices in the Temple. The "mark" was the Tyrian shekel, a coin with some of the purest silver content, but having abominable images and inscriptions on it (images forbidden by God all the way back in the OT - Deut. 7:25-26). This Tyrian shekel was REQUIRED to be used by one and all of any rank or nationality before they could buy or sell any sacrificial items for their temple worship.

            This Tyrian shekel began being minted in Jerusalem ever since 19 BC, when the mint at Tyre was shut down which had formerly been making them. At that point, the high priesthood went to Rome to ask permission to mint their own pure silver coinage for temple purchases and sales. This was a highly unusual privilege for a subjugated nation that was under tribute to Rome, but it was granted as a special favor to Israel, as long as the coins minted in Jerusalem continued to have the same abominable images and inscriptions as the earlier coins which came from the mint at Tyre. From then on, the greedy high priesthood began making huge profits from the fees they charged for the exchange of any foreign currencies traded for their required Tyrian shekel coin imitations. Christ drove those moneychangers out of the Temple in His days, overturned their tables, and blasted them for making His Father's house "a den of thieves".

            The Tyrian shekel coins (having Rome's engraved initials on them as a sign of their approval and authority) gave tacit homage to Rome every time they were handed over to the one needing to make a purchase or sale in the Temple. Significantly, these Tyrian shekel coins were also habitually worn on the forehead of a woman's headdress, denoting her marital status. Anyone not cooperating with this status quo as set up by the corrupt high priesthood system of the Land Beast was cast out of the Temple. The offender was put under a ban, which forbad anyone from offering that offending person support of their livelihood or sympathy of any kind. This ban could quite literally lead to their death (Rev. 13:15), which is why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, for fear of the Jews. It is why the parents of the man healed from blindness were petrified to admit to the Pharisees that Christ had healed their son. The healed blind man himself ended up being cast out of the Temple for refusing to deny what Christ had done for him. Many of the Jewish leadership really did believe in Christ, but "for fear of the Jews" were too afraid to confess Christ openly.

            Mossrose is correct in one respect - this question of the "mark of the Beast" is MOOT. But that is only because the mark of the Beast was imposed by the Land Beast with its two-horned Pharisee and Sadducee leadership - a Land Beast which became extinct, ever since AD 70's close when it was burned up in Jerusalem.


            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by 3 Resurrections View Post
              Nick, I have read Gentry's dissertation in his book "Before Jerusalem Fell" from cover to cover. I thank God for this man's book which introduced me to some of the concepts of Preterism back in 2012 when I first started studying eschatology in all seriousness. However...

              Unfortunately, Dr. Gentry has missed the mark (pun not intended) when it comes to identifying the mark of the Sea Beast, imposed on everyone by the Land Beast of Revelation 13 on behalf of the Sea Beast. This Sea Beast was every bit of 666 years old at the time Revelation was being written (ever since its feature of the first "lion" kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar had come against Jerusalem). This "mark" was imposed by the high priests of Israel (part of the Land Beast of Rev. 13) upon their own people and anyone coming from any other nation to Jerusalem, wishing to offer sacrifices in the Temple. The "mark" was the Tyrian shekel, a coin with some of the purest silver content, but having abominable images and inscriptions on it (images forbidden by God all the way back in the OT - Deut. 7:25-26). This Tyrian shekel was REQUIRED to be used by one and all of any rank or nationality before they could buy or sell any sacrificial items for their temple worship.

              This Tyrian shekel began being minted in Jerusalem ever since 19 BC, when the mint at Tyre was shut down which had formerly been making them. At that point, the high priesthood went to Rome to ask permission to mint their own pure silver coinage for temple purchases and sales. This was a highly unusual privilege for a subjugated nation that was under tribute to Rome, but it was granted as a special favor to Israel, as long as the coins minted in Jerusalem continued to have the same abominable images and inscriptions as the earlier coins which came from the mint at Tyre. From then on, the greedy high priesthood began making huge profits from the fees they charged for the exchange of any foreign currencies traded for their required Tyrian shekel coin imitations. Christ drove those moneychangers out of the Temple in His days, overturned their tables, and blasted them for making His Father's house "a den of thieves".

              The Tyrian shekel coins (having Rome's engraved initials on them as a sign of their approval and authority) gave tacit homage to Rome every time they were handed over to the one needing to make a purchase or sale in the Temple. Significantly, these Tyrian shekel coins were also habitually worn on the forehead of a woman's headdress, denoting her marital status. Anyone not cooperating with this status quo as set up by the corrupt high priesthood system of the Land Beast was cast out of the Temple. The offender was put under a ban, which forbad anyone from offering that offending person support of their livelihood or sympathy of any kind. This ban could quite literally lead to their death (Rev. 13:15), which is why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, for fear of the Jews. It is why the parents of the man healed from blindness were petrified to admit to the Pharisees that Christ had healed their son. The healed blind man himself ended up being cast out of the Temple for refusing to deny what Christ had done for him. Many of the Jewish leadership really did believe in Christ, but "for fear of the Jews" were too afraid to confess Christ openly.

              Mossrose is correct in one respect - this question of the "mark of the Beast" is MOOT. But that is only because the mark of the Beast was imposed by the Land Beast with its two-horned Pharisee and Sadducee leadership - a Land Beast which became extinct, ever since AD 70's close when it was burned up in Jerusalem.

              I would have to consider that further, but the text says 666 is the number of a man.

              Comment


              • #8
                EXACTLY, Nick. The number of six-hundred-and-sixty-six truly IS the number of a man. It was the STATUE of a man - Daniel's statue of world empires made in the image of a man - that represented the sum total of empires that Israel was put in subjection to over the centuries. Remember in Daniel 7, the "lion" empire (another metaphor for the first, Chaldean empire started under Nebuchadnezzar) was "made to stand upon the feet AS *A MAN*, and a *MAN'S HEART* was given to it"? Jews who knew their Daniel scriptures would have made the connection with this 666-year-old beast who had held domination over them through all those world empires, pictured in Daniel's statue of A MAN.

                The "number of his name" just means how many years that Sea Beast had existed over time. We give a name to things when they first come into existence, don't we? Same thing with the Sea Beast, which had all the powers of those former world empires subsumed into its final phase under the Romans. As of the time John was writing, the Jews with a degree of wisdom could count backward in time to the year 607 BC when their first humiliating deportation to Babylon took place under Nebuchadnezzar (like Daniel and his 3 friends), which began the 70 years of their exile. This was an event burned into the memory of anyone with even a scant education about their own nation's history.

                The time from 607 BC until AD 59-60 when John was writing amounts to those 666 years when the Sea Beast's empires (pictured as the statue of A MAN) had held sway over the known world. In one way or another, that Sea Beast over the centuries had demanded allegiance and homage. Can we say Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold with forced genuflection? Can we say Darius' decree prohibiting prayer to any but himself? Can we say Antiochus Epiphanes demanding the Jews change their worship or be killed? Can we also talk about the Tyrian shekel in Christ's days, which forced Israel to give homage to the Roman phase of the Sea Beast via those abominable images stamped on it? All these empires participated in demanding worship and homage contrary to God over the 666 years.
                Last edited by 3 Resurrections; 08-05-2021, 05:21 PM.

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