Are you doomed if you take the vaccine?
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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)
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)
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