Mark of the Beast
According to an Associated Press news article, a man who believed he saw the “mark of the beast”, amputated his own hand with a circular saw, microwaved it, and then phoned the authorities who afterwards placed him into protective custody in the mental health unit of the local hospital.
Scripture References:
There are 5 scripture references to the mark of the beast which will be forcibly inscribed on the forehead or the right hand in the tribulation period: Revelation 13:16-18; 14:8-12; 16:1-3; 19:19-21 and 20:3-5.
Possibly, this man who cut off his own hand reacted to these Bible verses and irrationally incorporated Jesus’ saying “…if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you…” recorded in Matthew 5:29-30; 18:7-9, and Mark 9:42-48.
Errors in Biblical Interpretation and Application:
I don’t know if the man in Idaho who cut off his hand was mentally ill or not. But he misconstrued scripture in his desperation.
The mark of the beast:
Note: I acknowledge there are differences of opinion concerning the timeline of the events in Revelation. I will not cover them all in this article. From the pre-tribulation, pre-millennial Second Coming of Christ doctrinal view… there is no Beast on the world scene today unless you and I have missed the Rapture. Regardless:
- the mark will be a brand on the forehead or the right hand. What would this man have done if the mark were on his forehead?
- the mark will be forced on everyone alive… the consequences of refusing the mark will be decapitation. You wouldn’t have to do it yourself.
- the mark will be mandatory for buying and selling… conducting all commerce.
- the mark will be co-requisite with worship of the Beast.
Cutting off hands, etc…
As a conservative Christian, I do believe in the literal interpretation of scripture… but only in context to the individual passage and the full Bible.
The Bible verses concerning the mark of the beast should be taken word for word… not loosely interpreted to apply to everything from barcodes to tattoos, birthmarks, national ID cards, credit cards, microchip bio-implants, and whatever else one may imagine…
That said, I do not believe Jesus’saying “…if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you…” should be applied literally:
- If Jesus had intended to be taken literally, there would be examples given among his Apostles. Peter, for instance, would have had to cut out his own tongue. Every other time Peter opened his mouth he got into trouble or offended somebody.
- The full record of the gospels… people came to Jesus to be healed, not to be disfigured. The blind had their eyesight restored, rather than the other way around.
- Jesus healed even his enemies: Luke 22:47-53.
- There is no biblical account of any follower of Christ literally applying this teaching.
This saying of Jesus should be taken figuratively:
- Jesus often spoke in terms of physical reality when talking about spiritual realities, concepts, and ideas. All of the parables, etc…
- If it were sensible to go to the extreme of even amputating a limb, or plucking out your eyes, in order to enter into the kingdom of God then surely giving up ones’s favorite argument against God, or repenting of sin, would be an even better idea… and easier to do.
- Jesus taught that it is impossible for man to save himself by self-improvement or reform. Matthew 19:16-26.
- Jesus taught that gaining the cumulative wealth of the entire world is not worth losing your own soul. Mark 8:35-37.
If you wish to follow Jesus… do not cut off parts of your body! Just change your mind! Repent of your sin. Stopping putting your faith in the things of this world… believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Then one doesn’t have to worry about ever bearing the mark of the beast, unless I’m wrong about the Rapture in which case we just might be in danger of getting beheaded soon for lack of it!
Tags: Bible Study, biblical interpretation, coming of christ, mark of the beast, News, rapture, scripture references, tribulation period
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Marge Alley said,
January 14, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
Thanks for your interesting blog. You might enjoy going to Google and typing in “Pretrib Rapture Desperados” and “Pretrib Rapture Diehards.” Great reading! Marge
Paul GREGERSEN said,
December 11, 2008 @ 9:51 am
We have learned that several million Christians failed to vote in this last election. I have also learned that the end times doomsday theology has a great influence into the mindset of many Christians today. A christian church having nearly a million members is claiming that December 14th will be the beginning of the tribulation period, and the trump will sound. I tried hard to influence a such people to vote this year! Why would they not want to vote? It was a contradiction to their religious convictions when according to them, America has already been judged by God.
Why not vote?
What was their hang up? Why vote if Christian’s are caught up in a rapture to heaven, and when the anti Christ will dominate the world anyway according to prophecy? The most frightening thing coming is the popular 2012 date set for the rapture spreading anticipation like wild fire! It may draw many more Christians into a doomsday mentality, potentially hurting the next election much more so.
The conservative balance of power may be determined by such critical voters who may yet determine America’s future. We need all christians to stay loyal to America, not the Rapture! What is wrong with this anti-christ beast theory? Look at Waco Texas, and David Koresh, and Jim Jones, and others. What happens when normal human beings are drawn into abnormal behavior by strong religious convictions coming from a doomsday theology! This hidden enemy exists within our conservative center, and it may already be doing far more harm than the liberal media has done to conservative causes. Did you hear about the christian in Idaho who cut off his right hand after supposing that the government had planted a chip into him?
Revelation 15:2 clearly states that the mark of the beast is something Christians must personally overcome to gain the victory through the blood of the lamb? This description and obvious wording in the Bible seem to identify mans fallen nature, not some computer implant which many wrongly speculate. Did Christ die for our sins, or did he die for computer implants? Is this not a ridiculous theology which millions of Christians have fallen for?.Lets list some rational truth’s concerning this subject taken directly from the Bible.
The mark originated with Cain, in the Old Testament. Cain killed his brother Abel and sought to cover his sin by hiding his murderous crime. God asked Cain,where is thy brother? Cain said, I know not, am I my brothers keeper? Cain was marked after becoming the the example of satanic behavior God detests.
God then cursed the works of Cain’s hand’s, the ground he tilled no longer brought forth her strength. In other word’s, a bad economy then followed the mark. Can we not identify this mark as Gods curse upon Cain’s right handed works? Why? Cain had yielded himself to Satan’s power by failing to bring forth good fruits, breaking Gods commandments.
It was Satan who was symbolized in the Bible as being the cursed beast (the Serpent) in the Garden of Eden. A type of snake bite, a beastly mark identifying the sin nature which Satan injected into mans heart, was being depicted as the mark of sin.
Later we learn in the New Testament that people who follow Cain like nature are also called beasts. “Jude 1.
The Bible gives us an even clearer example of this mark when Joseph’s brothers sought to kill Joseph, and sell him as a slave into Egypt. The brothers then hid this sin from Jacob, their father. How? By killing a wild beast and placing an animal’s blood upon Joseph’s coat of many colors. How? By using an actual beasts bloodstain as if it belong to Joseph.. The brothers then lied to Jacob, by showing Jacob Joseph’s coat with a marked bloodstain. They told Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. This false evidence convinced Jacob that his only birthright son was dead. This was the secret plan Jacob did not know. It was a mark upon Joseph’s coat which was actually “the mark of the beast” and not coming from Josephs torn body .
The mark of the beast becomes a deception which hides and removes Gods will by replacing it with Satan’s deception and plan. It was Gods will that Joseph become the birthright son. Suddenly, Joseph is removed from sight by the hidden cover up, The mark of a wild beast literally hid the lie, and removed true authority.
The brothers had sold Joseph to the Egyptians for money. Thus, buying and selling the beastly mark through deception for worldly gain. The interpretation of an anti Christ is to remove Christ’s will, and then replace it with the mark of the beast, or Satan’s power. God was being sold out through the lie, coming from a secret combination.
When Nebuchadnezzar forced the world to worship his golden God in Babylon, he used the power of the state to replace the true authority by again using a calculated manufactured lie.
King Nebuchadnezzar also used Gold (money) to build his God, selling out the value of worshiping the true God. Again, replacing Christ’s will with Satan’s deceptive mark. Babylon today represents any government or spiritual system which rewards selfishness by removing the true God.
After Nebuchadnezzar imposed his sin of pride using his political authority, God cursed Nebuchadnezzar transforming him into the nature of a wild beast. (Read Daniel chapter four.) Nebuchadnezzar was marked like unto Cain, removed from men, acting inhuman like a wild beast.
In other word’s, Babylon is a state of mind which destroys our humanity!
Nebuchadnezzar finally repented after going through a terrible withdrawal process for 7 years, removing him from his evil addiction for power. The 666 number in scripture clearly identifies Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue by its dimensions and exact size. The statue was gold, which represents Nebuchadnezzar himself who became the image of the golden statue, as recorded by Daniel. “Daniel 2.” King Nebuchadnezzar was literally the 600 BC man. The entire ancient world represented his power given to one single man marking 600 B.C.in history.
His giant golden image was carefully measured and recorded by Daniel as being 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide. Daniel 3:1 This biblical event marked the Babylonian attempt to replace God with a six hundred and three score, and six man. The 600 BC man was Nebuchadnezzar himself, being enlarged into a huge statue almost a hundred feet tall. Babylon is about a little man trying to become a great big man using earthly political means.
The world did not have the modern media in Nebuchadnezzar’s day to make him self larger than life. This huge golden image represents a man seeking to reach notoriety and Godly status by becoming larger, more visible to the world. This explains why John would instructs believers to count the number of the beast, to find the hidden man. Is the true measure of a man not measured by his inflated image to be seen by men, revealing his beastly pride? Or, is that not the measure of the beastly side which hides his true image!
The true measure of the man is being obscured from view Nebuchadnezzar’s false image was 666. Daniel 3:1
The true man was hidden from our view by sin until he became humble. “Daniel 4″ “Revelation 13:18.” In other words, you can find the answer to the world’s greatest Bible mystery 666, directly recorded inside your very own family Bible. The search is now over…
God actually frees the beast of Babylon from his evil mark after Nebuchadnezzar repents. Evil men today are seeking to remove our God given freedoms by replacing “one nation under God” with state supported socialism. why? In order to make slaves of free Americans. It is not the same spirit of Babylon returning to us again today. Fallen man is still seeking to make his worldly image large in order to remove God, replacing God with a god of gold, purchased with our own money by state decree. The new god becomes mans exalted authority being granted through the state and not God.. Remember Moses and the golden calf image represented a beast God in Moses day! The golden beast was created by collecting the people’s own wealth.
Once again, they are setting up another God of gold using our money to pay for it. Why? Is it not to going to force Americans to worship this golden God of the state? Or become fired, exiled, or destroyed through the power of political correctness? No man or women will be able to buy nor sell, or hold a job, unless they contribute to this god of Babylon being forced through higher taxation, personal loyalty and sacrifice. We now witness a state, growing within a state, within our nation.
Look at the bailouts and the national debt being the taken from us to create Babylon’s God. No one is calling for legal hearings to place Kriss Dodd and Barney Frank in prison after they created this world economic crisis. Instead, They with their friends have been placed in charge of this bail out money and our economy…Every man, every women, and every child born today, including the unborn, must pay for an out of control national debt bringing America into a modern Babylonian bondage. Untold billions of our money must transfer directly into these social democrats hands transforming America into a predatory beast. The secret plan must hide their goal to change America into a new nation under their god. This god of money now becomes the new savior of America through a government bail out as our salvation. This is the true anti Christ that no one yet is looking for already happening directly in front of us..
It is another god of gold, like unto the 666 god in 600 BC! This god is now being constructed for the salvation of Americans who are being forced to worship its image, and make huge sacrifices unto it.
“All small and great, rich and poor,” must sacrifice for the god of this new change… Remember Obama, declaring that all Americans must sacrifice for his image for change? The change is a lie, it is a beast which seeks to make us into its slave.! We are now changing America into the modern beast of Babylon, being robbed of our own right hand works, our own money as its sacrifice. This has been made possible through calculated lies planted within our own foreheads or our deceived minds.
What kind of evil beast has entered into over half of America’s foreheads, or intellects, causing them to vote for the institution of their own slavery? Millions of votes cast against a free America? It was surely an evil beast which deceived their minds through calculated lies being orchestrated from the politically correct media.
The mark of America’s power comes directly from which votes are being marked on ballets, the peoples right handed works represent their spiritual mindset going on inside their thoughts or in their foreheads. A mark represents a goal, or end destination like a map. There are two marks from the Bibles beginning, the tree of life, and the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. God’s true followers were marked with Gods name in their foreheads, and right hands, according to John. Revelation 22:4 Was Jesus ever going to use computer implants to mark his followers? The mark of God, and the mark of Satan clearly represent a spiritual identification being witnessed through the person’s spiritual mindset, and also by our outward behavior manifesting through our right handed works. Who do we serve? Babylon represents Satan’s government of slavery, and Zion represents Christ’s free form of government.
Which of the mindsets are we being marked into, becomes the final question?
We must awaken Christians to this lie about computer implants being spread by Left behind books. Why? These popular books focus Christians on doomsday instead of helping God unite his servants to work the final harvest. We can now see why the harvest is great, but the workers are few!There is a huge spiritual distraction going on about a rapture. There is a reason Christ never wanted us to know the day, nor the hour of his coming. Look at Waco Texas and David Koresh? Look at our last two elections when 4 to 5 million Christians stayed home. Look at the bad fruits coming from the teachings being spread from the most popular Christian book sold today called “Left behind! ” These teachings help Satan by neutralizing Christian’s spiritual resolve! More than anything the liberal media has yet accomplished. I need your help to challenge this doomsday theology before it becomes a bigger monster in 2012. In the next four years this anticipation about the end of the world may destroy our conservative and Christian unity. People blindly follow a teaching not coming from God nor the Bible.
Please help us get a new biblical understanding to as many Christians as possible. Why? Millions have become deceived by thousands of money grabbing preachers who have downloaded the wrong understanding of the mark of the beast into their foreheads! These deceived Christians are still waiting for a computer chip implant to bring in the rapture. This is happening when the mark of slavery is already coming upon them.
It is always important to provide another alternative view for people in order to challenge something like this, rather than let it run wild. We need every christian to vote in future elections, and not allow such apocolyptic distractions to dominate their hearts in 2012. Watch the online video from start to finish, and understand the basis behind Babylon’s mark for today..