#23 Our subject for this presentation is so crucial I would like to open with PRAYER: Lord, we’re dealing with a most solemn subject, “The Mark of the Beast.” Please open our minds, our hearts and our lives as we examine truths from Your Holy Word. Amen. Our text is the most solemn warning ever given to earth’s inhabitants. Recorded in the Book of Revelation the 14th chapter, Verses 9-10, we read, “...‘If any one worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” As we pull back the curtain of prophecy and sneak a peek into last-day end-time, God’s Word reveals you and I find ourselves in a chilling cosmic battle of epic proportions. Making decisions of destiny every single day, based on which side we’re on in this battle. Which is why every person must carefully study this prophecy to make certain he or she has nothing to do with the beast or his mark. In Revelation 13, John is describing a movement of apostasy of global proportions. A huge behemoth beast power tries to eliminate, crush, eradicate, and stamp out God’s faithful last-day remnant. The good news of Bible prophecy is Jesus Christ wins! He’s victorious over evil. In Revelation 14 we have a picture of what God finally has to do at the end of time in order to bring closure to the cancer of sin. God precipitates a mitosis. A final crisis, forcing human beings to quit straddling the fence and make clear their final decision. They split into two clearly identifiable groups. Safe to save. Unsafe to save. So obvious, it results in the release of God’s terrible wrath upon those who insist on being disobedient. These unfaithful receive the “mark of the beast,” which is the result of their own choice. Of course, all those who do not have this mark are God’s faithful. They’re His “saints.” We want to be among them! They keep His commandments. Therefore they escape the wrath and will be saved. Because they have another type of I.D. mark. Revelation 7:1, 2 says they have a “seal” of protection on them. It says the servants of God are sealed with “the seal of the living God.” This isn’t
anything new in Scripture. Jesus clearly taught that at the very
end of time, earth’s inhabitants will be divided into two
groups: good; bad. Righteous; wicked. Sheep; goats. (1) Those loyal to God – they receive God’s seal; (they’re saved); (2) Those who receive the mark of the beast and cannot be saved. They’re lost. Once the mitosis happens, Revelation tells us this beast power will bring about intense pressure on anyone who refuses to worship the beast or receive his mark. A crisis. More serious than what the three Hebrews faced at Nebuchanezzar’s fiery furnace in Daniel 3. More pressure than Daniel felt in the lion’s den in Daniel 6. The pressure of forced worship. The threat of economic boycott. And genocide. <Revelation
13:16, 17> Then this beast (or power of human agency) breaks all the rules of the Geneva Convention because it issues a death decree to anyone who refuses the mark of the beast. Torture. Parading the prisoners before the CNN cameras. <Revelation
13:15> So the final issue is most serious. The most difficult decision God’s people ever have to make. A man-made church-state religio-political power says, “If you do not worship the beast, we will not buy anything from you or sell anything to you, and eventually we will kill you.” But God says, “If you worship the beast, you will receive the wine of the wrath of God.” What is the wrath of God? <Revelation
15:1> So, the wrath of God is the seven last plagues. Talk about “smart bombs!” Three of these smart bombs specifically target the beast and those who worship him. Three of the plagues are reserved especially for those who receive the mark of the beast. Someone asks the question: “God, is that fair? If I don’t know who the beast is or what his mark is, are You fair to rain down plagues on me?” Well, friend, that’s what’s so wonderful about God! He won’t pour out one of the seven last plagues on anyone without first warning everyone. Like the coalition pilots raining down all those tracts and pamphlets on the Iraqi people. “I’m giving you every chance to live. To surrender. I’ll liberate you. Choose life!” God gives us opportunity to avoid the plagues. To avoid the mark of the beast. No one need face this coming crisis unprepared. But here’s the point. This is why it’s so absolutely vital for us to know who this beast power is and how we can avoid receiving its mark. Please understand, no one has the Mark of the Beast yet! It’s not received until just before Jesus returns. Let’s get that clear. The Mark of the Beast is the very last final message to go to the world just prior to the coming of Jesus. No one has it today. Let’s turn to Revelation 13, and read the prophecy about this beast power. The disciple John describes a beast very similar to the one we saw in Daniel 7. In fact, as we take a closer look, we discover it’s the same identical power. Just pictured a little differently. Notice: <Revelation
13:1-8> Whoa! We need to catch our breath and examine this prophecy more closely. Here God again is using symbols to outline His warning to the world. Daniel 7 taught us a beast represents a kingdom or ruling power. Here in Revelation, we find pictured something truly spectacular – a composite beast made up of all four of Daniel’s great beasts! A quick review of Daniel’s four beasts helps us better understand the beast power we are now studying. What did the lion represent? Babylon! The bear? Medo-Persia. The leopard? Greece. And the 10-horn beast? Yes, the Roman Empire. We’ve studied on previous nights how the “little horn” power followed these four great world empires. History narrows it down so that only one power on earth has all the characteristics to fit this prophecy. Scripture and secular history make identification absolutely certain. The prophecy predicted Pagan Rome would give its “power,” it’s “seat” (or capital city), and “great authority” to this new beast, or “little horn” power. Did this happen? History tells us it did. Emperor Constantine wanted a new Beverly Hills home. So he shifted the Roman Empire’s capital city to Byzantium; renamed it Constantinople, in honor of himself. (We call it Istanbul, Turkey today. I was there last year.) Then Constantine donated his old capital – the city of Rome – plus a vast treasury and an army, no less, to the bishop of Rome, basically making the pope a king! Check it out in your history books: This all happened in A.D. 300. Constantine gave the city of Rome to the Pontiff of the Vatican! The mother of all changes in world history. Suddenly the Bishop of Rome became not only head of the church, he was also a king on a throne! Unique in history: a union of church and state with the church ruling over the state. Unfortunately, the evils and vices that occurred as the result of this marriage are a most tragic blot on the history of Christianity! But friend, let me say something here. As we look back at the history of the Medieval church, let’s remember this is our church we’re talking about. Mine and yours. There was persecution. There was abuse. But to simply call it the Roman Catholic church is misleading, because for 1000 years there weren’t any other denominations. So, whether you today are Protestant or Catholic, this was our heritage. Our church. Were there problems? Did they make tragic mistakes? Yes, just like we do today. But God used this church despite its problems. Catholic universities fed the torch of learning in law, medicine, and theology. Catholic monasteries maintained hospitals, virtually the only hospitals that existed, and provided care also for the orphaned and the aged. Catholic Latin provided a lingua franca – a common language – for diplomacy and commerce; and the Catholic schools provided education for diplomats and business clerks. The Cistercian monks in Britain greatly improved the land’s vital wool trade. Most importantly, Roman Catholic missionaries Christianized large areas of Western Europe and provided pastoral care. So, when one denomination is hit with a sex abuse scandal, we should all weep, not gloat. When terrorists break into a church and blow up believers with hand grenades and AK-47s, we need to all mourn together. We who are believers are looking at ourselves in the mirror here. The little horn power of Daniel Chapter 7 is none other than the Christian church of the Middle Ages. It was my church. Our Christian Church committed these crimes. There are great numbers of Catholic people who worship God sincerely and do not yet know what you are learning from Bible prophecy. But an honest love for our Lord demands that we prayerfully and with humble repentance study all things. Lest anyone think we’re building up prejudice against Roman Catholic people, it is very important to keep in mind that the prophecy is talking about an organization, a system of theology, and not about individuals! I was in Vatican City two years ago. It lies right smack in the middle of Rome, the original pagan city that was the political seat of the old Roman Empire. But now the Vatican is a religious power and a political power, too. (It has its own postage, money, and National Guard.) Every nation sends ambassadors to the Vatican. The bottom line is this: Revelation 13 and 14 makes it clear this is the same religio-political power as the rampaging, truth-challenging “little horn” of Daniel 7. Now, let’s proceed: the prophet John says this beast power would have a distinguishing mark and that (in the last days) it would try to force it upon everyone in the world! <Revelation
13:16, 17> According to God’s Word, this mark somehow becomes a symbol of rebellion or disloyalty to the government of God. Because remember, the Bible clearly described another group who will not receive the mark of the beast. <Revelation
14:12> So there’s the issue, crystal clear: the Commandments of God. One group keeps them. The other doesn’t! (It has it’s own mark or badge or “seal.”) That is the issue: God’s seal, or the Mark of the Beast. We read God also has a mark, or a seal. It’s placed in the foreheads of His followers. (Is it a tattoo? No. It’s in the forehead. It’s something they evidently choose in their minds! Something they “remember.” It’s a matter of conscious choice. Moral behavior.) <Revelation
7:2, 3> I want that seal in my conscience and mind, don’t you? Nothing is more important than that. Because the final conflict of world history is over the seal of God and the mark of the beast, between God’s sign and a counterfeit sign. Let’s discover God’s seal, or mark, because then it will be easy to discover the counterfeit mark that the beast power will enforce. We don’t have to search very far from Genesis to Revelation, God tells us repeatedly what His sign or seal is. Here’s just a few examples: <Ezekiel
20:12> Again, <Exodus 31:13> God Himself announced the Sabbath is His sign, the Sabbath is His mark of authority. The Sabbath is the symbol He is Creator. Redeemer. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Of heaven and earth. We get His seal IN our foreheads by “Remembering the Sabbath...” Showing the world and the universe we have made a conscious choice. We choose Jesus! We are re-created, redeemed, sanctified, holy, set apart as God’s own children. We don’t get to heaven by works. We rest in Jesus by faith. And when we live out the Sabbath in our lives, hey! We’ve got God’s “Good Housekeeping Seal,” God tells us! We’re sealed forever because Sabbath becomes an outward sign of an inward transformation. They’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus. But now let’s discover whether Satan has set up a counterfeit sign of sovereignty. A mark of his authority. Something closely resembling the genuine – something closely resembling God’s mark of the seventh-day Sabbath. What do official historical records of the Beast power say in writing is the mark of its authority? What is the Beast’ mark? The following quotations are taken from the Catholic catechism: “QUESTION: How prove you that the church hath power to command feast and holy days?” “ANSWER: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of: and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.” “QUESTION: Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?” “ANSWER: Had she not had such power she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.” Sunday is the mark of the Roman Catholic Church’s religious authority, according to her own testimony. She readily admits and even boasts that she changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. You say, “But Lonnie, does she call it the ‘mark’ of her power?” Notice these precise words from Catholic Chancellor C.F. Thomas in a letter to Cardinal Gibbons where he says regarding their changing the Sabbath: “that act is the “mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority.” Isn’t that an amazing claim? An incredibly prophetic choice of words! “This is our ‘mark’ of power, our ‘mark’ of authority.” In fact, the Catholic Church challenges Protestants: Why do you desecrate God’s Saturday Sabbath day? Why have you turned from the Bible Sabbath to follow Sunday? Sunday is a day that was instituted entirely by custom, wholly tradition, and only by the command of the Catholic Church. Isn’t that amazing? What’s even more remarkable is, Daniel predicted that this beast power would “think to change times and laws.” It would purport to do just that – as a “mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority.” But now John predicts something else. He adds something new – something that’s still in the future. That Satan will try to force everyone (through this beast power) to receive the mark of the beast. In other words, force people by law to keep another day holy: <Revelation
13:16, 17> In order for this power to fulfill all of this prophecy, it will evidently (at the end of time) try to use the power of civil governments to enforce its mark of authority on everyone. That hasn’t happened yet, so no one today has the mark of the beast. But, before I tell you how that’s going to happen, it’s interesting to notice how God even more explicitly identifies this beast power as “666”… <Revelation
13:18> What does the “number of the beast ‘666’” mean? Many people have asked that question. And they have suggested various meanings. In olden times they had a way of figuring up the numerical value of a person’s name by adding up the numerical value of the Latin letters. My name in Roman numerals would be 1,152! We must be very careful here. You could add up several people’s numerical values and come up with 666. The Bible does not specifically say that the number is the added numerical value of the letters of a name. Would we add it up in Greek? Or, Hebrew? Or, Latin or English? But notice an amazing coincidence and a statement from the Catholic Church on this. Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church. The pope, in Catholic theology, of course, stands for the whole church. The pope’s official title in Latin is Vicarius Filii Dei, meaning “Vicar of the Son of God.” I am God on earth because I’m the representative of Jesus Christ. OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
(Apr. 18, 1915) OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
(Nov. 15, 1914) A: The words referred to are these: ‘Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man; and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.’ The title of the Pope of Rome is VICARIUS FILII DEI. This is inscribed on his mitre; and if you take the letters of his title which represent Latin numerals and add them together, they come to 666.” You will notice that the numerical values of the Latin letters are easy to calculate: VICARIUS = 112, FILII = 53, DEI = 501, making the total 666. Personally I don’t believe we should use this as conclusive evidence, since the Bible gives us so many other unmistakable identifying characteristics. It’s just another identifying prophetic mark of the beast power of Revelation 13. So after looking at all the other crystal clear Bible evidence, what may we conclude from our study of God’s Word? The prophecy says a time is coming soon, when everyone, under threat of boycott and death, will be required to keep the first day of the week in direct violation of the command of God! You say, “Lon! In America?” Or, Canada? Or, Australia? Or, Europe? We value our pluralism. Freedom of religion for everyone. No way would our country repudiate the separation of church and state or persecute minorities. Oh? Put on your seat belts! Recognize this person? Just recently the Holy Father, John Paul II, sent out a directive entitled: “Apostolic Letter, Dies Domini, of the Holy Father, John Paul II, to the Bishops, Clergy, and Faithful of the Church, on keeping the Lord’s Day Holy.” It was sent out to Catholic church leaders admonishing them to press their governments to enact civil laws making it mandatory to keep the “Lord’s Day,” Sunday, as the time of universal rest and worship. “Priests. Cardinals. Bishops, listen up!” he said. People aren’t keeping Sunday like they should, so we need to press for civil legislation to make it a reality. Does that sound eerily familiar? Does it sound prophetic? Just as this prophecy says? And folks, this idea is not new here in America. For decades groups have advocated “Sunday laws.” We’ve had Sunday laws in America since the days of the pilgrims. We don’t choose to enforce them or all our shopping malls would be closed on Sunday. But, in 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Sunday laws were constitutional. Some states already have them – “blue laws,” we call them. Only they’re cloaked under language that is secular rather than religious. Cut down on smog. Reduce weekend traffic. Conserve energy. Watch for improbable to become probable Prophecy says, “Lon, it may sound preposterous! But watch for the impossible! It’s coming.” Someday a national Sunday law will be passed, forcing people to bow to the beast power as part of its ongoing attempt to change God’s commandment. To predict anything further would be speculation. So, now I want to turn to the big question: “Does anyone have the mark of the beast now?” No, not one single person has the mark of the beast – not yet. In fact, God has true followers in every church, including the Roman Catholic. I honestly used to wonder how the Sabbath truth would become a national and world-wide issue known to everyone. After our last election in America I don’t wonder anymore. When Senator Joseph Lieberman accepted the vice-presidential nomination for Al Gore and the Democratic party, it hit world headlines. He was a Jew. What would he do on the Sabbath? The Sabbath was debated everywhere – on CNN, CNBC, ABC, CBS. It will become a world issue again, friend, in God’s perfect timing. But when Sunday keeping is enforced by civil law, then prophecy says the final crisis is precipitated. And every person must make a choice. Allegiance to God and His 10-Commandment Sabbath? Or allegiance to the beast by keeping the day substituted by man’s authority. Then, and only then, will anyone receive the mark of the beast! And the crucial test will come. It will come to every person. Shall I obey God – or shall I obey man? Do you see the real issue? This isn’t just a matter of days. Paul writes: it’s a matter of masters! You’re either “slaves of sin and death,” or of “obedience leading to righteousness.” It’s a matter of love. It’s a matter of loyalty. It’s a matter of obedience. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” In other words, a most solemn moment will soon face every inhabitant on Earth. No one will be able to buy or sell who does not have the mark of the beast, on penalty of death. God says, “Ah, these are My people. They have my seal of approval. They remember the Sabbath.” But on the other side are those who receive the mark. They also receive the seven last plagues. Judgment. Punishment. Do you see why this issue is so important? Do you see why it is a life and death matter? A moral issue? Why it’s so vital that we choose now to honor God? The good news is if we choose to honor God today and receive His seal today, we win! God wins! No, survival may not be easy when we can’t buy or sell. But God says He’ll take care of us! Listen to promises like these: <Isaiah 33:16> And those seven last plagues won’t fall on God’s people either! Listen! <Psalm 91:10> I’d much rather be on God’s side when the seven last plagues begin to fall, wouldn’t you? Before we close the book of Revelation, John was shown a beautiful vision. A vision of those who gained the victory over the beast: <Revelation
15:2> Here in the picture we’re finally home at last! But today, right now, God is pleading with His true followers through this message, inviting us to step out of the counterfeit religious systems to follow Him completely. Revelation 18 is God’s last call to all people in all churches of all faiths, including my own, to “come out of Babylon!” Verse 4: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” God’s not calling us to step out and form another denomination. Because God doesn’t save us by denominations. Not even mine. He’s calling us to step out of our man-made organizations and form a movement of all faiths and become “God’s called out ones.” In fact, Seventh-day Adventists don’t consider themselves just another denomination. We believe we’re a prophetic movement from every race, nation, kindred, tongue, and people…coming out and embracing the light of end-time truth. Will you answer that call? It will cost you something to choose to follow Jesus. But, remember the burning fiery furnace and the three Hebrews’ courage in the face of certain death? In Daniel 3, when Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be thrown into the burning fiery furnace. “Bow down and worship my man-made golden image, receive my mark of authority. Worship me, the beast, the power, or else! But they didn’t, and because they had God’s seal, God took care of them. Miraculously preserved them. But their choice sealed their destiny. And saved them! That’s the lesson for us today. It’s a promise. Remember Daniel facing the lions den? When God shut the lion’s mouths. The law said, “worship our way ,or else. Our authority. Our mark.” Because Daniel was faithful and obeyed God, he received God’s seal – and God’s miracle, too. Without hesitating or rationalizing they took their stand for God! And God came through! He took care of them. The lesson for us today is God will take care of you and me, too! If we accept His seal. Follow His will. Obey His Word. Throughout this series of prophecy meetings, God through His Holy Spirit has been speaking to hearts night by night, illuminating our minds. Inviting us. Pleading with us. He is making His last call to a dying world to get ready for the Second Coming! Won’t you this moment, without hesitation, step forward and say, “Lord, I want to take my stand for You! I place myself on God’s side, regardless of the cost. Whatever sacrifices I’m called to make – I’m going to follow Christ! Today, just now, by faith, I choose to embrace all of the truth I’ve learned from these programs.” Friend, it will be worth it all! Jesus is coming
soon to take us home with Him. All those who choose to follow Him
all of the way. Won’t you, like the three Hebrews, take your
stand for God and His truth right now?
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