What is the Mark of the Beast? – Chip – Barcode? Neither

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A perennial topic in the heated debates surrounding the “mark of the beast” is its nature. What is the mark, what does it look like, what does it do, and where does it come from? Many variations are circulating, but few recognize the true spiritual aspect behind it. The mark concerns the recognition of authority through the observance of declared laws. It really all depends on whose law one chooses to be faithful to: God’s law or the adversary’s rules?

Increasingly important – The Mark of the Beast

The controversial “mark of the beast” is increasingly coming into focus with the accumulating events that are contrary to humanity and peace. Receiving the mark is described in Revelation 13, and the dire warning against it can be found in chapter 14. The second beast in Revelation 13 will ensure that people receive a mark on their foreheads or right hands. The third angel in Revelation 14 warns against receiving this mark on either their foreheads or their hands.

The certain consequences for those who received the mark in one way or another can be found in Revelation 16:2 and Revelation 19:20. What will happen to those who did not receive the mark of the beast is described in Revelation 15:2 and Revelation 20:4.

In simple terms, anyone who has accepted the mark either on their forehead and/or hand will be lost with a sleepwalking certainty. Those who have not accepted the mark despite enormous pressure, coercion, and ultimately even coercion and threats of death will emerge as saved.

There are various interpretations of what exactly this mark is. Strangely, the favored interpretation is a literal, visible mark on the forehead or hand. Examples include an implanted microchip, a tattoo, or a real barcode or QR code. In other words, things “tangible.” However, the very thing that would be most obvious, namely a purely spiritual aspect, is left out.

Already an old misunderstanding

Such a “misunderstanding” was already practiced by many people in ancient Israel, according to the statement in Deuteronomy 11:18. They interpreted God’s command literally.
“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.“

The result: They placed a band with God’s written laws on their wrists and did the same for their foreheads.

That the actual spiritual aspect was not properly recognized, however, is evident from the fact that it would have otherwise borne fruit. The ancient people of Israel literally stumbled from one apostasy and ignoring of God’s law to the next. The first, definitive result was the dissolution of northern Israel, including its capital, Samaria, by the Assyrians, and only a few generations later, the deportation of the Judeans in Jerusalem to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. Even the final period of 7 x 70 weeks (490-year week – Info) was fruitless. The price for this came in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem under the Roman general Titus.

What good is it if the law is literally written on the hand and forehead, yet it is still not obeyed because the work of the Holy Spirit is not allowed or even rejected? God’s admonition to bind His law on the hand and fix it over the eyes means nothing other than action and faith. The hand symbolizes action, while the forehead represents the “thinking center” and thus faith.

The Mark – A Spiritual Aspect

It therefore stands to reason that the mark of the beast, either on the hand or on the forehead, must also have a spiritual aspect. According to the unequivocal presentation of the Gospel, whoever accepts the mark of the beast will perish. The mark of the beast on the forehead OR on the hand, and this contrasts with the mark of God, which is also to be written on the forehead AND on the hand. God’s symbolism refers to His laws. This actually makes it clear that the mark of the beast must also be about laws, but these are opposed to God’s law.

So whoever receives the mark of the beast does so because they follow the rules of the beast, either out of faith (mark on the forehead) or simply through action (mark on the hand). Special caution is required here, because whoever does not believe the beast’s instructions but does them will bear its mark on their hand. Whoever receives the mark on the forehead OR on the hand will perish. But God’s will is that His law be worn on the forehead AND on the hand. That is, true faith and the resulting visible actions.

Laws – Whose and which laws?

Now the question arose as to which laws God wanted to have on man’s hands and foreheads. These are neither the Laws of Moses (Ceremonial Laws – Info), nor any ominous 611 laws, but simply THE Law of God, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). It follows that the mark of the beast must be another set of laws that stands in opposition to the laws of God.

At this point, one law in particular stands out. While nine out of ten commandments are “somehow self-evident,” since, according to the New Covenant, through Jesus Christ, the laws of God were also written into our hearts, the acceptance of a specific commandment is anything but self-evident. Not to worship other gods, not to worship idols, not to murder, not to steal, not to commit adultery, etc., are universally accepted. But the Fourth Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath,” causes an allergic reaction in most Christians.

The Fourth Commandment – The Sabbath

The Fourth Commandment stands out simply because it is the most attacked commandment of God, and has been since the beginning of the first “Church Fathers” of the Roman Catholic Church (Info). Anyone who disregards, breaks, or tramples on even one of the Ten Commandments has violated the entire law (James 2:10). Regardless of whether one person “only” stole and the other is a mass murderer, both have rebelled against God by breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

The Roman Catholic Church proudly proclaims, thanks to “its divine authority,” that it has moved the biblical Sabbath to the first day of the week (“Sunday”) (Info). This church changed God’s law. This also applies to the definition of the “Lord’s Day,” which does not refer to Sunday anywhere in the Bible (Info).

God himself defined the Sabbath as the seventh day of rest immediately after the sixth day of creation (Genesis 2:2-3). God declared the seventh day blessed and sanctified it. According to our usual calendar, the seventh day falls on Saturday, more precisely between Friday sunset and Saturday sunset. However, the Church of Rome and the vast majority of (formerly) Protestant churches observe Sunday for “traditional reasons.” This is a commandment of the Roman Church.

The Originator Mark of the Beast

And at this point, the great “suspicion” arises as to who or what the “beast” actually is. The evidence that the papacy is the earthly adversary, who wants to and will impose its mark (its rules) on humanity, cannot be dismissed (Info).

The papacy, the beast from the sea (Revelation 13), was already foretold by the prophet Daniel. The descriptions in Revelation are continuations and additions to Daniel’s statements (Info).

Simply put, the main characteristic of the mark of the beast will be observing the 1st day of the week (Sunday) instead of the 7th day of the week (Saturday) established by God (Info). The papacy will enforce this globally by law with the help of the beast from the earth (Revelation 13, verse 11). Those who keep Sunday holy instead of the biblical Sabbath will also receive the beast’s mark as recognition of their “loyalty to the beast.” Those who remain faithful to God’s law and persevere in this can be assured of God’s sealing (Revelation 7).

God Himself has declared His Sabbath as His sign, Ezekiel 20:12:
“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.“

Those who truly love God also recognize Him as the one true God and Creator. Consequently, in their true faith, a person will naturally want to keep God’s law. This includes observing the 7th day of the week.

“Supreme Saint” Thomas Aquinas recognized it

The Roman Catholic “supreme saint” Thomas Aquinas also knew that observing the day of God, or in contrast, observing the day of the beast (from the sea), definitely has an aspect of identification and personal recognition of authority. In seinem Werk “summa theologiae“, the definitive standard work of Catholic doctrine, Aquinas wrote the following on the question “Does religion have an external effect?” (the “Third Commandment” contained in the text is the Catholic version of the numbering of the commandments for what is actually the Fourth Commandment – Info):

“Now it belongs to religion to give worship to God: and just as the Divine scriptures teach the interior worship under the guise of certain corporal similitudes, so is external worship given to God under the guise of sensible signs. And since for the most part man is induced to pay interior worship, consisting in prayer and devotion, by the interior prompting of the Holy Ghost, a precept of the Law as necessary respecting the exterior worship that consists in sensible signs.

Now the precepts of the decalogue are, so to speak, first and common principles of the Law, and consequently the third precept of the decalogue describes the exterior worship of God as the sign of a universal boon that concerns all. This universal boon was the work of the Creation of the world, from which work God is stated to have rested on the seventh day: and sign of this we are commanded to keep holy seventh day—that is, to set it aside as a day to be given to God. Hence after the precept about the hallowing of the Sabbath the reason for it is given: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth . . . and rested on the seventh day.”

Against better knowledge

It’s actually astonishing that Aquinas actually recognizes the biblical Sabbath as the 7th day of the week. Yet the Church of Rome nevertheless developed its own belief system centered around a “sun god” (Info). It is clear that Thomas Aquinas also emphasizes the Sabbath as a mark of recognition of God. From this, we can conclude that observance of Sunday also expresses recognition of an authority. However, the recognition of the beast and its power-giving “form,” Revelation 13:2-4:

“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

The papacy, consisting of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See, knows exactly what role it plays according to the biblical description. The Church is described as the “Whore of Babylon” with the golden cup in her hand, and her statehood is shaped like a seven-headed beast, whose crowns have migrated from the heads to the horns over the course of history and ultimately disappeared altogether. While the “ordinary Catholic believer” may indeed be a true believer who has surrendered his or her entire self to Jesus Christ, the “high caste” of the papacy is fully aware of its actual worship of the adversary.

To the misled Catholics, God has a final call:

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)