HHA
“What is the Mark of the Beast?”… “Don’t receive the Mark!” “Microchips are the Mark!” “Vaccines are the Mark!” … Popular “End Times” prophecy teachers are leading people to be worried about taking the “mark of the beast” as well as ‘the Mark’s’ possible connection to Transhumanism. The speculation is based on a passage in the book of Revelation:
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666..” Rev 13:8
““And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev 14:9-12
That’s a pretty serious warning. Whatever the mark is, we definitely don’t want to be among those who have it! The popular Dispensational interpretation of these verses has brought us the belief that this is referring to a literal mark on the right hand and forehead, but is it? If you’re not familiar with Dispensationalism, don’t feel bad. I wasn’t either until recently, but it is important to understand both what it teaches as well as how and why it was first introduced.
John Piper’s website – “Desiring God,” defines Dispensationalism as follows:
“It can be hard to summarize dispensational theology as a whole because in recent years multiple forms of it have developed. In general, there are three main distinctives.
First, dispensationalism sees God as structuring His relationship with mankind through several stages of revelation which mark off different dispensations, or stewardship arrangements. Each dispensation is a “test” of mankind to be faithful to the particular revelation given at the time. Generally, seven dispensations are distinguished: innocence (before the fall), conscience (Adam to Noah), government (Noah to Babel), promise (Abraham to Moses), Law (Moses to Christ), grace (Pentecost to the rapture), and the millennium.
Second, dispensationalism holds to a literal interpretation of Scripture. This does not deny the existence of figures of speech and non-literal language in the Bible, but rather means that there is a literal meaning behind the figurative passages.
Third, as a result of this literal interpretation of Scripture, dispensationalism holds to a distinction between Israel (even believing Israel) and the church. On this view, the promises made to Israel in the OT were not intended as prophecies about what God would do spiritually for the church, but will literally be fulfilled by Israel itself (largely in the millennium). For example, the promise of the land is interpreted to mean that God will one day fully restore Israel to Palestine. In contrast, non-dispensationalists typically see the land promise as intended by God to prophesy, in shadowy Old-covenant-form, the greater reality that He would one day make the entire church, Jews and Gentiles, heirs of the whole renewed world (cf. Romans 4:13).
In many ways it is thus accurate to say that dispensationalism believes in “two peoples of God.” Although both Jews and Gentiles are saved by Christ through faith, believing Israel will be the recipient of additional “earthly” promises (such as prosperity in the specific land of Palestine, to be fully realized in the millennium) that do not apply to believing Gentiles, whose primary inheritance is thus “heavenly.” – Source
Dispensationalism introduced the teaching of a “one man” antichrist, and is the primary teaching on Eschatology being presented by the church and seminaries today.
“Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning “last” (ἔσχατος) and “study” (-λογία), is the study of ‘end things’, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, the end of the world and the nature of the Kingdom of God.” – Wikipedia
You can read more about Dispensationalism here, as well as watch my video; “Chemtrails: A Christian Perspective“.
Returning to our passage in Revelation; we’re told that the mark is “the number of man and that it is 666.”” Biblically, the 6th day of creation was the day when God created man. 6 is the number of man.
“Now, man was created on the sixth day. Six, moreover, is not seven and never reaches seven. It always fails to attain to perfection; that is, it never becomes seven. Six means missing the mark, or failure. Seven means perfection or victory. […] The number of the beast is 666, that is, failure upon failure upon failure! It is the number of man, for the beast glories in man; and must fail!” 1
With That in Mind, Let’s Take a Moment to Consider the Star on the Israeli Flag.
The 6 pointed star – 6 – the number of man, displayed complete with an upside down trinity – An upright and an inverted triangle. When you expand the resulting hexagon in the center 3-dimensionally, you have a cube. The Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple was perfectly square (1 Kings 6:20). The Holy of Holies was 20 cubits long, wide, and high and was overlaid with God. This room represented the presence of God. This city with its perfect dimensions in equal length, width, and height represents God’s presence with his people who have been made perfect (Hebrews 12:22-24).
This star, known in occult symbolism as the “star of saturn”, is flying over a nation claiming to be chosen by God. The star of Saturn – Exalting man – popularly recognized as the star of Israel, represents man attempting to reach godhood independent from his divine creator-God.
Is the Star of Saturn the Mark of the Beast?
Certainly the star exemplifies the great evil goal of the enemy; Man exalting himself to achieve Godhood. And the star does seem to represent the biblical number 6-6-6, but is Revelation talking about a literal mark on the hand and the forehead? The popular (Dispensational) way to interpret the book of Revelation today is literally; attempting to tie it to world events, technologies and physical things. But when we remove this new lens of eschatology first introduced in the 1800’s, we see that Revelation is a prophetic, spiritual book that should be interpreted symbolically.
The Right Hand and Forehead
In his book “More Than Conquerors”, first published in 1939, New Testament scholar and Bible commentator, William Hendriksen, explains the mark:
“In order to understand the expression ‘mark of the beast’ we must remember that not only cattle but slaves also were branded or marked. The mark meant that the slave belonged to his master. Very soon the expression ‘to receive the mark of someone’ began to mean to belong to someone, to serve or worship someone. Let us prove this point. In Revelation 14:9 we read: ‘If any man worships the beast… and receive the mark on his forehead’. Here’receiving the mark of the beast’ ;seems to mean ‘worshipping the beast’. Similarly, in Revelation 14:11: ‘They that worship the beast… and receive the mark of his name’ (cf. also Rev.20:4). So ‘receiving the mark of the beast’ seems to mean ‘belonging to the beast and worshipping the beast’. The ‘mark of the beast’ is the God-opposing, Christ rejecting, Church-persecuting spirit of antichrist, wherever and whenever it shows itself. This mark is impressed on the forehead or right hand (cf. Dt. 6:8). The forehead symbolizes the mind, the thought-life, the philosophy of a person. The right hand indicates his deed, action, trade, industry, etc. Therefore receiving the mark of the beast on the forehead or right hand indicates that the person so characterized belongs to the company of those who persecute the Church; and that – either pre-eminently in what he thinks, says, writes or more emphatically in what he does – this antichristian spirit becomes evident.
This interpretation harmonizes entirely with our explanation regarding the seal which the believer receives on his forehead. This seal indicates that he belongs to Christ, worships Him, breathes His spirit and thinks His thoughts after Him. Similarly the mark of the beast symbolizes that the unbeliever, who persists in his wickedness, belongs to the beast and therefore to Satan, whom he worships. Observe, however, that there is a difference. The believer receives a seal, the unbeliever a mere mark. Throughout the dispensation (gospel age) it has been true that those people who have not received the mark of the beast and have not worshipped his image have been thwarted in their business pursuits. They are the ones who are crowded out and oppressed. They are not allowed to buy or to sell as long as they remain loyal to their principles. As we approach the end this opposition will increase.” 2
There are other places in scripture that talk about the forehead and right hand. Symbolic of keeping to God’s Word:
“You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deut 11:18-19
“And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt. ” Exodus 13:9
When we allow scripture to interpret itself we begin to see that there is no grounds to interpret the “Mark of the Beast” as a visible mark, microchip or anything else that people or a government can physically place or force upon us.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
The Mark of the Beast presented as the Corruption of Man’s DNA by the Fallen Angels, the Nephilim and Transhumanism
Transhumanism is a real goal of quantum scientists and there are several articles on this site about the various aspects of the technologies behind it. But popular “End Times” prophecy teachers like Tom Horn in his book “Forbidden Gates” are telling us that the “iron mixed with clay” in Revelation refers to Transhumanism; hybrid creatures and technology ‘mixing’ with our physical bodies and turning us into something like cyborg slaves… as well as losing our salvation in the process… More on that here. They’re causing people to live in fear of taking a ‘mark’ or Transhumanism being able to attach itself into our bodies making us serve an anti-christ… But I believe that scripture, rightly interpreted, tells us that the mark of the beast is symbolic.
The modern End Times prophecy teachers are suggesting that the the “iron mixed with clay” feet of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel ch2,) is Transhumanism. In my opinion, this is nothing but more propaganda for a false “End Times” scripted scenario intended to create fear and inaction in the Christian community.
“And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. ” Daniel 2:42-44
If we’re interpreting the dream spiritually, the iron mixed with clay can be seen as the enemy mixing deception with the truth of the gospel, which has happened in the church since day one. The Pharisees were immediately on the scene, trying to mix their law with the grace of the pure gospel. After the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the enemy went to the next step with the creation of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the Word of God out of the hands of men, assigning it to self-appointed authorities and creating a religion. Even after the Reformation, Christianity has held on to much of the religious dogma that mixed itself with the pure gospel, muddying the water, continuing to turn the pure gospel into a religion (religion being man attempting to reach God through his own rituals, deeds and efforts.) This, as well as experiential spirituality is what is being presented to the world today as true Christianity, and of course it isn’t true Christianity at all.
The iron and the clay do not mix. Man-based religion does not mix with the gospel. In my opinion, that is the meaning of the iron and clay and the mark of the beast, not transhumanism.
Is Jesus returning? Resoundingly, Yes! Will it be soon? I certainly hope so! But will His return be in line with the currently popular “End Times” script that’s being presented as bible prophecy today? It is my conviction that the answer to that is “absolutely not.”
References
1-2 More Than Conquerors – William Hendrikson – pg 151
