What isThe MARK of the BEAST?
There
is an ever widening confusion and misunderstanding among Christians over the
identification of the Mark of the Beast. Many have been taught to believe
by various ministers of most every denominational church, that the Mark of the
Beast of Revelation 13:16, 14:9, 11, 20:4, which is received IN our hand or IN
our forehead, is to be identified as being a credit card, or lazar mark, or a
chip implant, or National Identification Number, or giant computer, or some
other literal thing. Connected with the above is the belief that if any
of God's people possess or are in any way connected with the above items, then
they have received the "mark" of this beast and are lost.
But what exactly is this "mark" of the Beast?
The Greek word used for "mark" is "Charagma" (#5480
in Strong's Concordance), and it translates "stamp (as a badge of
servitude), mark." So the mark of the Beast is a stamp or sign or
seal or badge of servitude to some power or being. But what is the Mark
of the Beast, and how do we receive it? In order to know this, we must
know whom the Beast represents.
The Beast which is connected with this "mark"
refers to the Roman Catholic Church (see the posts in this blog on The Beastand the Little Horn). So the "mark" has something to do with the
papacy. As worship is the main issue listed in connection with this Beast
(see Revelation 13:4, 8, 12, 15, 14:9, 11, 20:4), so the "mark" of
this Beast is connected with the issue of worship. Then what could this
"mark" of Catholicism be?
"Protestants...accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the
day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change...In observing
the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church,
the Pope." Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950.
"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists,
Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them
anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the
Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of
the Catholic Church." Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the
Elizabeth, N.J. "News" of March 18, 1903.
"It was the Catholic Church which...transferred this
rest (Saturday as the Sabbath) to the Sunday....Thus the observance of Sunday
by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the
authority of the (Catholic) Church." Monsignor Louis Segur, "Plain
Talk about the Protestantism of Today," p 213.
"Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change
(from Saturday to Sunday) was her act. It could not have been otherwise,
as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual
and religious without her, and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power
and authority in religious matters." Letter from H.F. Thomas, Chancellor
of Cardinal Gibbons.
So the Catholic Church changed the original day of worship
from Saturday to Sunday, which is the mark or seal or sign of the Beast's
authority and power! As this is true, then Saturday must be the mark or
sign of authority and power to someone else! But to whom? The God
of heaven states:
"Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign
between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify
them....And hollow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you,
that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:12, 20.
Saturday is the Sabbath day of the Lord God, the seventh-day
which He has blessed and made holy (see Genesis 2:2-3), and which is the mark
or seal or sign of His authority and power. God has chosen this memorial
day of creation above all the rest for all His people to worship Him on, and He
even told His people not to forget this fact, but to remember it.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath
of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hollowed it." Exodus 20:8-11.
Here we see the difference between the mark or seal or sign
of God, and the mark or seal or sign of the Beast. The God of heaven
states that "the seventh-day [or Saturday] is the sabbath [or worshiping
day] of the Lord thy God" Exodus 20:10. But the Beast states:
"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before
the existence of a Protestant...changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."
Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893.
"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to
observance can be defended only on Catholic principles...From beginning to end
of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly
public worship from the last day of the week to the first." The Catholic
Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900.
"...prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to
keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of
the Holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says `Remember the sabbath day
to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power
I abolish the sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the
week. And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent
obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church." Priest Thomas
Enright, Redemptorist Catholic College, Kansas City, Mo., lecture "Sunday
in History", p 56, February 18, 1884.
So the mark or seal of the God of heaven is worshiping the
Lord on Saturday--His Sabbath--according to God's fourth commandment. In
doing this, it is a sign that we show that we love, serve, and worship God.
While the mark or seal of the Beast is worshiping on Sunday--the day of
the sun or of the Blazing Star or Lucifer, his sabbath--after it is enforced.
In doing this, it is a sign that we show that we love, serve, and worship
the Beast and Lucifer.
Thus the Mark of the Beast is NOT a literal mark, NOT a
lazar mark, NOT a credit card, NOT an
implanted chip, NOT a National ID Number, and NOT a
giant computer, but it is a symbolic mark! Although all of the above
items may be used to coerce and force us to bow and worship on Sunday, yet they
are not the Mark of the Beast. This symbolic mark will not be ON, but
will be either IN the forehead--signifying mental acceptance,
or that you believe Sunday is the sabbath. Or IN the
hand--signifying service, or that you may not necessarily believe Sunday is the
sabbath, but you will go along with it anyway.
It is a fact that the papacy claims the power to change God's
fourth commandment law from worshiping only on Saturday to worshiping only on
Sunday as God's special Sabbath day. Thus anyone who knows this truth,
and yet choose to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday as God's true Sabbath
day, especially after it is enforced by law, are bowing to and worshiping the
papacy instead of the God of heaven. Thus they will receive the Mark of
the Beast which destines them for the seven last plagues and the lake of fire
(see Revelation 14:10-11, 19:20).
For anyone to then claim that the "mark" of the
beast is anything other than Sunday worship, is deceived and is leading souls
to destruction.
Be blessed.
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