What is the Mark of
the Beast?
Someone wrote in with
this question. What is the Mark of
the Beast and when will it occur?
As you probably know,
there is a great deal of speculation
on this topic during the past 2,000
years. If you visit this online
encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast, you will find a list
of various interpretations. My
understanding of this topic may be
unlike anything that you have heard
because my conclusion is determined
by a set of rules that govern the
interpretation of apocalyptic
prophecy. * In a nutshell, I believe
the Bible teaches the mark of
the beast will be two tattoos.
On tattoo, showing the number 666
will be placed on the right hand
of everyone that Lucifer spares from
death. The second tattoo will be a
name. I have concluded from my study
that Lucifer will assume a divine
name when he physically appears on
earth masquerading as God and his
name will be tattooed on the foreheads
of his servants – 144,000 high
ranking employees that will work for
him. (Revelation 13:17)
* See the
web site mentioned at the end of this
article for more information about
the rules.
Since this explanation
sounds far-fetched at the present
time, please consider these three
topics: (1) the importance of
“one-third/two-thirds” in
the book of Revelation, (2) the
circumstances surrounding the mark of
the beast, and (3) the identity of
the beast who imposes his mark on
everyone.
1. Twelve
times during the time period of the
seven trumpets, one-third is
mentioned. For example, one-third of
the trees will be burned up in the
first trumpet, one-third of the ships
will sink and one-third of the sea
creatures in the ocean will die in
the second trumpet, one-third of the
rivers will be poisoned in the third
trumpet, and one-third of the day and
one-third of the night will be
without light in the fourth trumpet.
This repetition of one-third is
deliberate. God assures us twelve
times that He is generous – even
thought He will release His wrath on
the world during the seven trumpets.
Instead of justifiably destroying
three-thirds of Earth, God spares
two-thirds of everything! To
understand the ancient practice of
generously sparing one-third and
destroying two-thirds, we need to
examine some passages from the Old
Testament.
“David also
defeated the [rebellious] Moabites.
He made them lie down on the ground
and measured them off with a length
of cord. Every two lengths of them
were put to death, and one-third
length was allowed to live. So the [surviving]
Moabites became subject to David
and brought [suddenly agreed to] tribute
[pay their taxes].” (2 Samuel
8:2, insertions mine.) King David was
as generous as he was wise. He spared
one-third of the Moabites for two
reasons. First, he knew the surviving
Moabites would have a change of mind
and gladly pay their tribute [taxes]
if he spared their lives. (It is
amazing what people do when motivated
by gratitude.) Second, David knew
that in years to come, the Moabites
would recover from the war and
repopulate their tribal nation. Their
future taxes would mean income for
Israel’s treasury! So, David
spared “one-third” of the
Moabites.
About 400 years later,
Israel became so rebellious toward
God that He could not get their
attention. So, God did the same
thing that David did. He destroyed
two-thirds if His own people! “Therefore
as surely as I live, declares the
Sovereign Lord, because you have
defiled my sanctuary with all your
vile images and detestable practices,
I myself will withdraw my favor; I
will not look on you with pity or
spare you. A third
of you people will die of the plague
or perish by famine inside you; a third
will fall by the sword outside your
walls; and a third
I will scatter to the winds and
pursue with drawn sword.” (Ezekiel
5:11,12, italics mine)
Although
I don’t have the space to
explain the following verse, this
text confirms the ancient custom of
destroying two-thirds and sparing
one-third: “’In the
whole land,’ declares the Lord,
‘two-thirds will be struck down
and perish; yet one-third will be
left in it.’”
(Zechariah 13:8)
When it comes to
dealing with rebellion, the ancient
custom of sparing 0ne-third and
destroying two-thirds is clearly
Biblical. The fact is important to
our study on the mark of the beast
because during the sixth trumpet, the
devil will generously spare
two-thirds of mankind.
(Revelation 9:16)
2. Here
is a short scenario explaining how
the mark of the beast unfolds: The
first four trumpets in Revelation 8
will be a series of devastating
judgments that come from God. These
judgments will be overwhelming,
awesome, and deadly. Thousands of
notably wicked places will be
destroyed, one-third of Earth will be
burned up and 25% of the world’s
population will die in a very short
period of time, perhaps as short as
60 to 90 days. God will use His
horrific judgments to get the
attention of a rebellious world. Once
people are willing to listen, God
will send forth His 144,000 prophets
to present four messages to the
people of Earth. (These messages will
test mankind to identify who loves
God enough to submit to His
authority. Revelation 9:16)
When the religious and
political leaders of the world
realize the scope and power of
God’s wrath, they will unite out
of fear of the Almighty and in
sincere effort to appease God’s
wrath, they will establish an
organization that the Bible calls
“Babylon.” Babylon will be
a crisis government designed to
mediate between an angry God and a
world of many nations and diverse
religions.
The only thing
that world leaders can do in an
attempt to appease God’s wrath
is quickly legislate moral conduct.
To reduce man’s decadence and
degenerate behavior (the very things
that caused God’s wrath),
Babylon will demand that all
nations enact and enforce laws that
will severely punish people for
immoral behavior. In addition to
legislating morality, laws will be
enacted and enforced requiring the
worship of God. Babylon’s
“well intentioned” efforts
to appease God’s wrath will seem
appropriate at first for most
survivors and this is why the Bible
predicts the world will follow
the beast (Babylon). (Revelation
13:3)
Babylon’s sinless
laws will put people in a difficult
position. The people who refuse to
worship God as Babylon demands will
be punished because the leaders of
Babylon will be convinced that
God’s wrath will only end when the
world is conducting itself in a
way that is pleasing to God.
Meanwhile, God’s servants, the
144,000, will boldly speak against
the blasphemy of Babylon and a great
debate over the will of God will
unfold. So, everyone on Earth will
eventually get caught up in this
great debate over the will of God
will unfold. So, everyone on Earth
will eventually get caught up in this
hot debate because Catholics, Jews,
Protestants, Moslems, Buddhists,
Hindus and others do not share a
common understanding of God’s
will. Babylon will be so internally
conflicted that religious people will
not know what to think. This
confusion is exactly what God wants.
He wants people to hear the truth
about His will and submit to it
– even though they will be
persecuted for it! This is how God
will test the love and faith of
mankind.
3. About
two-thirds of the way through the
Great Tribulation (890), almost
everyone will take a position on the
gospel of Jesus Christ, presented by
the 144,000. Then, the fifth trumpet
will occur. The devil himself will be
released from the abyss (the spirit
realm where he is confined) and, with
his 200 million angels, will
physically appear on Earth.
(Revelation 9:16) Lucifer is
described in Revelation 12 as a great
red dragon. He is also described as
the “angel king” of the
abyss in Revelation 9:11. He is
“the beast from the
abyss,” in Revelation 17:8 and
11:7, and he is described as the
beast that rises “out of the
earth” in Revelation 13:11. The
devil is represented in different
ways in the book of Revelation
because each caricature tells us more
of his character. In other words,
Lucifer – that mighty angel who
was cast out of Heaven with his
angels, will physically descend
before mankind in dazzling glory
pretending to be Jesus Christ Himself
at the Second Coming!
At first, the devil
will masquerade as a gracious and
forgiving God. He will perform all
kinds of counterfeit signs and
wonders, even causing fire to come
down from heaven to prove his assumed
divinity. His miracles will dazzle
and amaze the wicked, and these
demonstrations will deceive
most of the world’s inhabitants.
(Revelation 13:14) They will say,
“This is Almighty God, Let us
worship him!” Lucifer’s
charade will last five months.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes,
Lucifer’s angels will be
inflicting searing pain on all
undecided people who oppose
Lucifer’s claims of divinity.
(Note: Lucifer’s angels cannot
hurt the 144,000 or God’s people
during the fifth trumpet. Revelation
9:4) God restricts Lucifer’s
torture so that people rebelling
against Lucifer can escape their
predator when they submit to the
gospel of Jesus! (See Numbers 21:4-9
for a parallel.) The net effect of
the fifth trumpet is that Lucifer and
his angles force Earth’s people
into two camps – one camp
consisting of those worshiping
“the lamb-like beast” and
the other camp worshiping “the
Lamb.”
When the five months
of the fifth trumpet have ended,
Lucifer will undergo a sudden change
of character. He will suddenly become
a mean, “stern-faced king.”
(Daniel 8:23) He will demand
the establishment of his theocracy
– a worldwide church/state of
one faith, one Lord, one baptism
using God’s own Word as
justification for this action.
(Consider the following question for
a moment. How can religious diversity
be possible if God actually lives on
Earth?) Lucifer will set up his
throne and rule over the world as
King of kings and Lord of lords. He
will outlaw the practice of previous
religions and the authority of all
previous governments. He will appoint
ten kings too oversee his global
kingdom and he will select 144,000
wicked people to serve as leaders in
his theocracy.
Life on Earth during
the time of the sixth trumpet will be
desperate. There will be little, if
any electricity, manufacturing,
banking, travel, communications, and
infrastructure. These systems will
were all but destroyed during the
first four trumpets. By the time of
the sixth trumpet, most of the world
will be surviving on meager rations
of food and water. (Remember, this
will be a time of great tribulation.)
Of course, those working in the
devil’s government will receive
better rations, but in order to work
for the devil, each person has to be
cruel and demonic as his master. To
secure his control of earth and to
reduce the number of people consuming
rations, the people of Earth will be
divided into groups of 1,000. Then,
four of Lucifer’s angels will
kill one-third of each group.
(Revelation 9:15) Remember the
practice of ancient kings killing
two-thirds? The devil will only kill
one-third because he wants to
appear generous. The result will
be 666 people will be
“mercifully” spared out of
each group. To conduct business and
receive rations from Lucifer’s
government, all people who have sworn
allegiance to him have to wear a
tattoo on the right hand. This
tattoo, showing the number 666, will
identify the 666 people spared from
death. The Greek word used in
Revelation 13:16 for “the
mark” is charagma. The
word means “an engraving.”
There will be no mercy
to the meaning of 666 when the time
comes. This literal number
indicates who submits to Lucifer.
“This calls for wisdom [to
understand the number before it is
implemented]. If anyone has
insight, let him calculate [do
the math] the number of [belonging
to] the beast, for it is
man’s number [in other
words, the number 666 represents the
number of people who belong to the
Man of Sin – 2 Thessalonians2]. His
number [of survivors in each
group] is 666.” (Revelation
13:18, insertions mine)
One final point.
Lucifer’s name will be tattooed
on the foreheads of his lieutenants
so that everyone can visibly see who
is in charge. This tattoo on the
foreheads is a blatant counterfeit of
what Jesus will do to the 144,000
after they are taken to Heaven. The
Bible says that the names of
Jesus and the Father will be
‘written” on the foreheads
of the 144,000! (See Revelation 14:1,
22:4.) This glorious insignia worn on
the foreheads of the 144,000 will
reveal their high rank throughout
eternity.
In closing, I hope you
understand that it is impossible for
anyone to prove the validity
of their prophetic understanding
before prophecy is fulfilled. However
we do not have to remain in darkness
until prophecy is fulfilled.
Prophetic matters that have been
fulfilled are a matter of prophetic fact.
Prophetic matters that have not
been fulfilled are a mater of
prophetic faith. Given the
truth, we understand something about
the unknown if we use rules of
interpretation. Valid rules of
interpretation are self-evident in
the Bible. For example, suppose you
knew nothing about the game of
baseball. If you closely watched
several games of baseball, even
though you knew knowing about the
game, eventually you could figure out
the rules of the game by observing
the behavior of the players.
Similarly, suppose you knew nothing
about apocalyptic prophecy. If you
closely examine the prophecies that
have been fulfilled, looking for
consistent behavior, you can discover
that apocalyptic prophecy conforms to
four rules of interpretation. Once
you discern these rules, then you can
test them. If the rules are proven
valid by fulfilled prophecy, the
rules allow us to decipher prophetic
elements that have not been fulfilled
with a high degree of certainty. (For
a further study on this aspect of
prophetic study, please see my
article, The Necessity for Rules, at http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Rules.pdf)
