THE MARK OF THE BEAST
By Pastor Jim May
Over the years I have done a number of series teaching from the Book of the Revelation. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told, by Christians, that they don’t like studying, or even reading, the Book of Revelation because it frightens them. I have always tried to tell everyone that the prophecies in the Revelation are not something that we, as Christians, should fear. Instead we should welcome the fulfillment of these prophecies for they not the end of peace, love and hope for those who serve the Lord. The calamities and judgments that will fall upon this earth and its inhabitants are not meant to destroy God’s people, but to destroy Satan’s evil empire, to purge the power of death and sin from God’s creation, and to usher in an eternal Kingdom of joy that will never end. Revelation is not a book of defeat and death to a Christian, but a book of “Deliverance and Ultimate Victory”.
I won’t have the time to get deep into the teachings of the prophecies this morning, but there was an article in a recent newspaper that caught my eye and I believe that the Holy Spirit is leading me to give you a message this morning based upon that article and the prophecies of Revelation. This message will be a disturbing message to all anyone who is not truly saved and sold out to Jesus Christ, but for those who are truly born again and rapture ready, it will be a message of great hope because it will show you for certain that it won’t be long until Jesus comes.
Revelation 14:9-11, "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."
Now I am no great Bible Scholar, and I haven’t studied at any Bible College or Seminary, and I make no claims to know all there is to know about the prophecies of Revelation. Frankly, I don’t believe that anyone, no matter how many degrees they may have earned from educational institutions, could say that they fully understand it all either. There are some things in God’s Word that He has not revealed with sufficient detail for us to know all about it. We don’t need to know the details of how God will bring his will to pass. We only need to know that what He says will happen. We need to know that no man can alter the plan of God. And most of all we need to know that we must be ready for the coming of the Lord that could happen at any moment!
Jesus said in Luke 12:40, "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not."
One matter of prophecy that has always been a source of wonder and much guesswork by everyone who takes the Bible literally has been the Mark of the Beast. We all want to know, “What is that Mark”, “When will it be given” and “How can I keep from receiving it, even by accident?”
Let me begin by saying this. There is a great passage of scripture that we have all read many times found in the Book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I get a thrill every time I read it and every time I think about it, I just have to stop and whisper that prayer again, “Lord, help me to be ready when this day comes.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Of course we all refer to the fulfillment of this prophecy as the “Rapture of the Church”. The word “Rapture” is never found in the scriptures, but this event describes a “catching away” and that’s what “Rapture” means.
Concerning the Rapture there are at least three major schools of thought.
First, there are those who believe and teach the same as I do. We are called Pre-Tribulation Believers because we believe that the Rapture of the Church must take place before the Antichrist can be revealed and the final 7 years of man’s history can begin in that time known as “Jacob’s Trouble” or the “Tribulation”.
Secondly, there are those who are called Mid-Tribulation Believers, who believe and teach that the “Rapture” won’t come until the midway point of the Tribulation when the Antichrist is fully revealed as the embodiment of Satan and he breaks his treaty with Israel to begin his final reign of terror before the coming of the Lord to usher in the Millennial Reign.
Thirdly, there are those who don’t believe in the Rapture at all. They are convinced that the church will continue on, through the Tribulation, and that those who survive will just walk into that New Jerusalem to join all who have died in the past.
Why do I believe that the Rapture must take place before the Antichrist can rise to power and before the beginning of the Tribulation? In all of my studies I have never seen one time where the church will be subjected to God’s judgment and wrath as it is poured out in the earth. I could give a lot of scriptures to support my conviction but time won’t allow that this morning and my point of this message is not to convince you of my point of view anyway.
My point is that Jesus is coming soon and we need to see the signs of His coming and make ourselves ready. If you want to know one of the passages of scripture that points to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, this is one of them.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The Antichrist will rise to power after the rapture of the church. He cannot be revealed as the Antichrist while the church is here for we have the power of prayer, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the power to bind him in the earth and to limit his power through the Blood of Jesus Christ. So it is impossible for the devil to take control of this world completely until that power that limits him is removed. Only then can he rise and become the world’s greatest dictator.
He will rise to power through a ten-nation confederation that rises from the ashes of the Roman Empire. Most people believe that this could easily be fulfilled right now through the European Union since there are already 10 nations that have come together to form a united front and nearly all of these nations were at one time a part of that Roman Empire territory, and what few may not have been part of the territory, have accepted the views, laws and government that was established by the Roman Empire.
I don’t believe the United States will be a part of that 10-nation confederation, but even we have established a government that is modeled in part after the Romans with our Senators, and representative form of government.
After the Antichrist rises to power, one of the things that he does is to implement a method of complete control over every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. His whole purpose is to force every living person to worship and serve him, and he will use the mark to track them and control their every move. It will also be a means of identifying anyone and everyone who refuses to bow down and serve him so that they may be hunted down like wild animals and killed.
Let me tell you that if you can’t serve Jesus now, in this time of mercy and grace, don’t think that you will serve him in that day if you miss the rapture. If you are unwilling to give up your friends in the world, and the worldly way of living, right now, when it only means changing your ways, how can you expect to give up everything including life itself, in that day?
Revelation 13:16-18, "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Now, if you believe that the Rapture of the Church must come before the Tribulation begins and the Antichrist is revealed, then you don’t have to worry about the Mark of the Beast. That mark isn’t even given until halfway into the Tribulation when we will all be in Heaven. If you want to believe that the rapture will come at the halfway point, or that there will be no rapture at all, then I can understand why the Mark of the Beast must worry you.
I can tell you this. If you are truly born again, and your heart is right with God, and you are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and you are staying faithful to the call of God upon your life, then you can never take the Mark of the Beast, not even by accident, so don’t be concerned about what this world is doing that might look like it’s creating a way that the Mark of the Beast can be given. Everything that you see, pointing toward that day when the “Mark” will be given, is nothing more than God’s hand, working in the minds of men, to bring about the technology and the methods by which the Antichrist will be able to fulfill the plan of God for the Antichrist’s and Satan’s downfall and defeat.
As I said before, there was an article that I read that impressed upon me just how close we are coming to the rapture of the church and the revealing of the Antichrist during the Tribulation. I want to share part of that article with you and let you see for yourself just one way that the Mark of the Beast could be given.
Who knows what technology will exist in that day when he comes? Who knows what methods he will really use? I just want you to see how very close we are to the fulfillment of this prophecy!
I remember several years ago when some of the local stores began using infrared scanners to check out purchases at the cashiers. There were a lot of Christians getting upset and saying that they wouldn’t buy at those stores anymore because it was the beginnings of the Mark of the Beast.
I also remember going to an amusement park where they would stamp your hand with an invisible ink that could only be see when it was passed under and infrared lamp. I remember thinking at that moment, "Could this be how the Mark of the Beast would be given?"
We can get pretty foolish sometimes when we don’t really understand God’s Word! We need to do as I preached last week and “study the Word of God” so we can understand better what is going on in this world. Satan can take the prophecies that should give us reason to shout the victory and worship the Lord more than ever before, and make us live in fear instead if we don’t know the Word of God.
If you want to worry about the Mark of the Beast, then I am going to really give you something to worry about. Here is the newspaper article in part.
Doctors implanted a radio ID tag under Sean Darks’ skin that allows the executive to enter restricted areas of his Ohio security company.
Jack Schmidig, the police chief in Bergen County, N.J., has a similar chip that doctors can use to find his medical records in an emergency.
And in a separate use of the technology, Washington state entrepreneur Amal Graafstra unlocks his home and car and logs on to his computer using a chip he bought online and had implanted near his thumb.
All three say putting radio-frequency identification chips (RFID) under the skin can improve people’s lives.
Privacy advocates say today’s voluntary use is a step toward a future in which employers or the government mandate implants.
“It’s creepy,” said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. “People realize in their gut that if we require implanted chips, we’ve become the kind of society where people can be tracked by their government.”
Good or bad, the technology is having a breakout year in the United States.
Last month, Darks’ security video company became the first in the nation to use RFID implants to control who has access to a restricted area.
Nationwide, about 70 hospitals are developing or have begun programs to make the implants available to patients and to put RFID scanners in emergency rooms to scan all unconscious patients.
VeriChip says about 70 people in the United States have been implanted with its chips, which cost about $200, including doctors’ fees.
80 people have had unauthorized “hobbyist” chips implanted; buying them over the Internet to experiment with the technology, which has been used for years to track lost pets.
The US is just getting started but other countries are farther along in adopting radio ID implants. In Mexico in 2004, more than 100 employees in the organized crime division of the Attorney General’s Office received implants giving them access to secure areas.
That same year in Spain, the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona launched a VIP zone for patrons with radio ID implants. VIP members use them to authorize credit-card payments for their drinks. The club’s owners have expanded the program to a bar they own in the Netherlands.
“I’m not worried about the government or anyone else tracking me through the chip in my arm,” Darks said. “If they wanted to, they could use the GPS information from my cell phone or the trail of places where I’ve used my credit card. That’s much more of a threat.”
What will the Mark of the Beast be? Will it be a chip implanted either voluntarily or forcibly? Will it be a stamp of invisible ink on the hand or the forehead? Will it be some other technology that we haven’t even seen yet? Will it be a DNA reader that tracks your DNA my simply touching a screen? Will it be a GPS that tracks your location, a satellite that can read the magnetic strips on a credit card, or some other new invention? All of these are possibilities.
Perhaps the Mark of the Beast isn’t a mark at all but is more subtle than that in its application. Perhaps its just the fact that all who serve the Antichrist will gladly live for the devil to get what he offers them in this present world, and they will show their willingness to bow their heads to him, acknowledging him as their Lord, and serve him with the works of their hands.
I do believe that the Mark of the Beast will be a literal mark, but I also believe that you will take it willingly if that day should come for you. You will take it willingly because you will know that it means the difference between life and death and you won’t want to die. You will willingly take that Mark to live in this world, but when you take it, you will forfeit your eternal life and choose to die eternally.
Here is the point of this whole message – WHY WORRY ABOUT THE MARK OF THE BEAST IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO!
You can be saved today, washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ, through faith in his death, burial and resurrection as your substitute. You can accept Jesus as your Lord right now and when the Rapture comes, you can go to be Him and all of us who are ready, before the Antichrist is revealed.
You won’t be here for the Mark of the Beast. You won’t be here during that Tribulation Period. You will be in Heaven having the time of your life forever.
You can choose to reject Jesus and face the day when you will take that Mark and be eternally lost, or you accept Jesus now and live for Him, and you will never see that Mark, nor will you ever die. Jesus will give you eternal life and an inheritance that is truly out of this world.
Will you come to Jesus today? Are you ready for the Rapture? Those are far more important questions than, “What will the Mark of the Beast be?”
