The Mark of the beast

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There has been a lot of discussion on this question over the years, particularly since “pre tribulation, pre-millennial model of eschatology was developed by J N Darby and promoted by his early “convert” Schofield in the early 20th century.

 

It is important to understand that the issue really only has a lot of “traction” in the modern day non-conformist evangelical stream (Baptist, Pentecostal, Brethren, Church of Christ etc – i.e. not the “mainstream” churches such as Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran etc).

 

The reason is simple, throughout church history, pre-millennial eschatology (i.e. end times teaching) was rarely considered, with most theologians (and thus denominations) taking a Post Millennial or an A-millennial view. When Darby “discovered” pre-millennialism and developed his dispensational theology model within pre-millennialism, his ideas were largely rejected and he decided to leave his native Ireland and move to the USA. There he met Cyril Schofield and convinced him of this new “end times” model. Schofield published a Bible with notes on each page to help the general Christian population to understand what the Bible was saying – of course, the notes were Schofield’s views on what particular passages meant. Darby’s end times ideas were incorporated into Schofield’s notes and thus they became accepted as “truth” by those who read and accepted Schofield’s general explanations of the meaning of Scripture. The “Schofield Bible” became a best seller among evangelicals and thus Darby’s ideas were adopted by its readers.

 

So we come to the “mark of the beast” mentioned in the book of Revelation. According to Darby, the church would be removed from earth 7 years (later some modified this to 3 ½ years) before Christ actually returned to earth to commence a one thousand year reign. During this final 7 years, the world would suffer great tribulation and anyone who decided to follow Christ in this period, would suffer greatly. The “beast” would rule and everyone would be required to have the “mark” of the beast in order to be able to buy or sell, but anyone accepting the mark would be doomed to an eternity separated from God (i.e. in hell), those refusing the mark would be numbered amongst the “overcomers” and would be granted an eternal place in heaven. If this was to be the case and, especially if the church wasn’t removed until 3 ½ years into the 7 year tribulation and the “mark” was in use before the “rapture” happened, refusing to have the “mark” became incredibly important as your eternal destiny may depend on whether or not you have “the mark”.

 

So, if it is so important, people needed to know exactly what the mark was.

 

Speculation has been pretty broad on what this mark would be. In early speculation, it was generally taken at face value from the book of Revelation, where we are told that the number is 666, the number of man, thus it was suggested, that people would literally have the number 666 tattooed to the forehead and hand. But as time went on, more sophisticated ideas were developed. There was, we were told, a huge computer in Brussels, so big that it filled a number of underground floors of a UN building that was to become the centre of a one world government. The computer would allocate each living human an 18 digit number (3 groups of 6 numbers, thus meeting the “666” requirement) and that unique identity number would be placed on the forehead and hand of every person on the planet. In 1974, the first step to a cashless society and one world government was taken (so we were told by those holding this view) when the Bankcard was introduced. The symbol of the Bankcard was 3 lower case “b” letters overlayed on each other, each one of a distinct colour. The 3 b’s could easily be seen to be three 6’s, thus Bankcard was the 666 mark of the beast and MANY Christians refused to have a card and Christians warned their fellow believers not to have a card either, as their eternal destiny was at stake.

 

Since that time, many opinions have been floated, mostly featuring some form of tattoo or an implanted silicone chip which would be required to be used in a cashless society.

Some have suggested that the tribulation has continued against the church since the stoning of Stephen and suggested that the Roman Catholic Church was actually the antichrist (i.e. it is a system rather than a person, although some did narrow this down to just the Pope of the day). At certain times in history, it was illegal to trade with anyone who was not a Catholic and, in order to become a Catholic, you received Catholic baptism (the priest marked your forehead with water) and later received confirmation (in which the Bishop kissed the back of your hand) so the forehead and hand were in play, thus it fitted the model. It should be noted here that, according to Strong’s dictionary, the Greek word translated as “antichrist” in the English Bible, does not mean against Christ, but means to substitute, or to replace Christ; the Latin equivalent would be ficarrio Christe or fili dei – one title of the Pope is ficarrio fili dei, thus some call him antichrist.

 

OK, that’s what a lot of people have suggested.

 

First of all, let’s deal with the tattoo or technology issue.

 

Just suppose for a minute, that you were one who refused the mark and were thus destined for heaven. Let’s suppose that you are involved in an accident in which you lose consciousness. You are rushed to hospital, they cannot find “the mark” (i.e. your tattoo or chip) to identify you. So they check you out, identify you and whilst you are still unconscious, give you the “mark” (tattoo or chip). Does this mean that God will now send you to hell? Is your eternal destiny in the hands of a doctor in an A and E ward at the local hospital? Hardly, that doesn’t sound at all right – however if you agree that receiving the “mark” in this way wouldn’t negate your salvation, then you must agree that, whatever the mark is, it cannot be something physical as we just shown how someone with the “mark” could still go to heaven.

 

I suggest that to understand what the book of Revelation is saying (and remember it is a book written intentionally in figurative language – i.e. it’s not meant to be taken literally) we need to find not just WHAT it says but WHY.

 

To understand the New Testament, we often need to understand the Old – especially when a book is written in figurative language to people who have only the Old Testament scriptures to read and by which to interpret this book. So is there anything in the Old Testament that may sound vaguely like this. In Deut 6 and again in chapter 11, the Hebrew people had been given the law and were told to do something with it. They were to tie it to their hand and forehead (is this the Old Testament “mark” – forehead and hand – but a mark of being with God instead of against Him?).

 

So the question is, why the forehead and the hand?

 

The prefrontal cortex (that part of the brain located behind your forehead) is where you make decisions to take action on a thought, it considers and determines your behaviour! Reasoning and moral judgment is carried out by the frontal lobe.

 

A thought originates in the frontal lobe and then goes through a process that is unique to your brain following a specific order and time duration in the different parts of the brain. The frontal lobe determines how to interpret the thought according to the training the frontal lobe has received (this is the way you have “trained” you frontal lobe to operate – it is affected by things such your world view, moral disposition all of which you have adopted and trained your frontal lobe to use as a “filter” in the thought process). The thought "goes around" through the brain and is then "bound" by the frontal lobe into what it believes the thought to be.

 

Before man had even begun to understand the processes of the brain, God told man to keep His words "on your forehead". Keeping His word there keeps us from processing and acting on things that are not pleasing to God. If we keep God's word in our prefrontal cortex, we are less likely to commit sin because His Word becomes part of the “training” that our frontal lobe uses as a filter in our thought process.

 

So, if the brain has made a decision to sin, how are we likely to actually commit such sin? With our hands! A thief does not steal with his ear. An angry man does not strike another with his hair. A man does not kill another with his nose. A forger does not fake a signature with his foot. Keeping God's word "on our hands" would mean that we proceed through life not allowing our hands to commit a sin, rather to be subject to God’s Law. So God instructed the Hebrew people to apply His Word to the two greatest sources of sin – our hands and mind – symbolically referring to our thoughts and actions. Some Jews take God’s word on this literally and bind a small box (called a “phylactery” )containing a miniature copy of The Law to their forehead and arm, but they really miss the point. Even if they wore a phylactery all of their life, they can still very easily break that very law by their private thoughts and actions.

 

So, is the “Mark Of The Beast” a physical item or tattoo? I think that to be most unlikely – it’s improbable that we would be damned to a lost eternity because of a tattoo or piece of embedded technology. It is far more likely that this “mark” is a figurative mark, just as it was in the Old Testament.

 

The “mark” describes the choice that we make by thought and action to bow down to and serve another “god” i.e. to submit to an anti-Christ system (something that substitutes for Christ). We can choose to “trade” in the things of God or those of the world, to blindly follow the world’s system or to stand firm on God’s Word.

 

Read Col 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

 

That verse draws the line simply, which line you follow in thought and deed, determines whose mark you bear. You show the mark of the beast (i.e. the world’s system) or the mark of God (see Eph 1:13: When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit).

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So the issue has nothing to do with a physical item, it has everything to do with the allegiance that you have in life with one of two kingdoms - the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness - God's way or the world's way. What you think and what you do shows where your allegiance is placed - if your trust, your eternal hope, your faith is in anything outside of God's Kingdom and His way (that way being defined very clearly by Jesus when He said "I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to The Father except through me) then you are "marked" for a lost eternity - i.e. an eternity separated from God.

 

So, do you wear the mark of Christ or the “beast”? That’s your choice!