What about the Mark of the Beast? 

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

As the world situation heats up, we become more and more engaged in discussions about the end time.  Some of those discussions center around the mark of the beast.  Nearly all of those discussions falter on the slippery sand of fear. 

 

“Well, I like to eat, so I will probably take the mark.” 

“I wonder if I have already taken it.” 

“What if Satan sneaks up on me, and marks me without my knowing it?” 

Three scriptures to consider: 

“My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) We must know the Word of God. 

“God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) God is not the purveyor of fear.  Satan manipulates through doubt and fear.  

“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Remember the following old hymn: “Be not dismayed whatever betide. God will take care of you. Beneath His wings of love abide. God will take care of you.”(Le’Andria Johnson) 

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39.)  Not even the Anti-christ and his beast can separate us from God because perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18) 

Now we need to compare and contrast a couple of passages: 

Deuteronomy 6:5-8:"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” 

Deuteronomy 11:18 "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” 

In other words, when we allow biblical truths to guide our thinking, biblical truths will guide our doing. 

Through the centuries, Jewish men have worn phylacteries, small leather boxes on their foreheads and forearms.  The phylacteries contain Hebrew texts and are worn by at morning prayer as a reminder to keep the law. 

Contrast with this passage:  

“ And he (the second beast) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13: 16-17.) 

I am not saying that someday, a physical mark of the beast will not exist.  I am saying that, metaphorically, the mark of the beast represents a perversion of the Word of God.   

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20)

 

We must become people of the Word. 

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth.  I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. (Psalm 119:11-16.) 

 Autumn

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Crisp morning breath

Softening in the noontide,

Deepening with the day,

Redolent in the cinnamon

Of fallen leaves and burning wood.

Fields, once green, then golden,

Now newly frosted,

Gleam in russet-bronze.

The earth's returned the harvest

And seeks repose.

We, too, desire respite.

Autumn, amber, umber, Autumn,

Golden, flaxen, honey-hued.

Multitudinous tones

Of withered grass, ruddy leaf

And tranquil turf.

O Lord, our God,

Our Creator, our Sustainer,

In Autumn, we worship Thee.

The harvester surveying fallow fields

Lifts his heart in psalm

For laden cribs and flatten flocks.

The housewife, pausing near the shelf

And fragrant larder,

Sings her sacred song.

Young ones, basking in the fiery glow,

Harken to the swirl and plash of storm

And, mindfully, remember Thee.

O Lord, our God,

We worship Thee.

In Autumn, we worship Thee.

 An early morning thought: Are we as excited about being witnesses for Jesus as we are hopeful about His return? (Check Acts 1)

Feast of Tabernacles:  The Eighth Day

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

Leviticus 23:33-36 (NKJV)

³³ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
³⁴ "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.
³⁵ On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
³⁶ For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.

            The eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles is often called “The Last Great Day”.  

            During the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the high priest, with priests and thousands of worshipers, marched from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam, filled a pitcher with water and went back to the Temple Mount.  The high priest then poured the water onto the altar. This action was accompanied with prayer for the early rains that would come during the winter months and provide water for the barley and wheat crops.   

 What does this picture for Christians?

              Water from the Pool of Siloam was “living water” because it came from a free flowing stream.  “Living Water” is a picture of the cleansing ministry of Christ. Note the following scriptures.”

--Jeremiah 2:13 (NKJV) “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

--John 7:37 (NKJV): On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

--John 7:38 (NKJV) “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

             The Last Great Day is a special time appointed by God to pray for the rains to prepare the land for the crops next season. Many areas of the world have experienced extreme drought conditions. Let’s join together in the Holy Spirit and pray, “Oh, Lord our God, we pray for the living water both in the natural and in the spiritual to quench the thirst of our dry land and our dry souls.  We desire to drink of You so that out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

Living water, representing our Lord, removes the curse:

✟From the land—famine caused by lack of water

✟From spiritual dryness—famine caused by the lack of the Living Water of the Word of God.

✟From physical ailments—our bodies are from dust of the earth.

            The Last Great Day is also called Simchat Torah, rejoicing in the Word of God. This is day to join with King David in praise for the Bible.

● Psalm 12:6 (NKJV).”The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.”

●Psalm 56:10 (NKJV) In God (I will praise His word), In the LORD (I will praise His word).

              Remember that Jesus is the Word.  John 1:1 (NKJV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

            Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:26 that we are cleansed by the washing of the Word. “Thank you, Father, for the Word of God, the Living Water, that cleanses us.”

            The Last Great Day occurs on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  In the Bible, eight designates new beginnings.   As this time of celebrating the Lord’s appointed fall feasts comes to a close, let’s praise Him for all the new beginnings we have experienced and all the new beginnings yet to come.  It is a new year in the Lord, a time of renewed commitment, a time to prepare for the harvest to come, a time to delight in His Word, a time to look forward in hope which is the evidence of things not yet seen.  (Hebrews 11:1) 

  

Yom Kippur: the Beginning of a New Beginning 

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

"And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: "Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath" (Lev 23:26-32). 

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the most solemn and important holy day of the Jewish calendar. In the Old Testament, the Day of Atonement was the day the High Priest made an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. 

After the blood sacrifice was offered to the Lord, a goat was released into the wilderness to symbolically carry away the sins of the people. This "scapegoat" was never to return. The scapegoat represents the atoning work of the cross. Just as the sins of the nation were placed on that sacrificial animal, our sins were placed on Jesus as He suffered the agony of the cross.  

Truly, "Surely he hath borne our Griefs and carried our Sorrows; Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD and afflicted." (Isaiah 53:4) 

 For Christians, Yom Kippur celebrates the atonement of Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection.  Through His atonement, the price for our sin has been paid, and we are reconciled to God. 

 

As we rightly should, millions of Christians are fervently praying for our nation to return to righteousness. Many see biblical Israel as an analogy of the United States of America. In that analogy, we are often praying for political solutions to our dilemma. However, biblical Israel is not analogous to the USA. Biblical Israel is analogous to the Church.

We must begin walking in the truth of 1 Peter 4:17, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  Just as judgment must begin at the house of God, righteousness must begin at the house of God. 

Rosh Hashana sounds the trumpet for a new beginning. Yom Kippur teaches us that a new beginning begins with repentance. Repentance is completed when we are transformed by the renewing of our minds so that that we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2.) 

It is time for the Church to repent. It is time for believers to lay our shortcomings at the feet of Jesus who is our Kippur, our atonement.  

Yom Kippur prayer: Most gracious, omnipotent, loving Father, we acknowledge our coldness, our indifference to You and to Your word. In that indifference we have become cold rather than fervent in the spirit. (Romans 12:1.) In our coldness we have become judgmental and often hostile toward our brothers and sister in Christ even as You have told us to love one another. (1 John 3:13-16)

We have had little desire for the depths of Your words. We have not only settled for, but have also desired, a diluted and deluding message that merely tickles our ears. (2 Timothy 4:3) 

Precious Lord, renew within us a hunger for You as Paul wrote to the Ephesians 14-19: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” 

May this season of new beginnings bring to the body of Christ the fulfillment of Yom Kippur. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:19-21)