What about the Mark of the Beast?
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.)
