With all the fear surrounding the COVID vaccine being the Mark of the Beast, Pauline Armstrong Rietz brings some much needed, scriptural clarity. That’s not to say the vaccine isn’t an agenda-filled poisonous concoction that we should avoid at all cost, only that we firmly keep our faith in God and not the wiles of the enemy (in this case deceptive doctrine).
By Pauline Armstrong Rietz
It’s time to remove the fables surrounding… ‘THE MARK OF THE BEAST’!!!
In examining Revelation we can remind ourselves that God’s principles never change. Salvation is and will always be by grace through faith. There is nothing that will change that. Nothing that can be forced on us physically can remove our salvation. In light of this fact we can examine revelation for what it was meant to be:
An ‘apocalpyse’ meaning: a disclosure of knowledge.
One of the most talked about concepts in the book of revelation is ‘The Mark of the Beast’ this has become a topic of much speculation, fear and imagination. The bible reminds us to be sober minded, and to check all things.
The enemy has cleverly sought to create false fulfillments of scripture to lead God’s people into deception, fear and confusion and he will continue to do so. Regardless of how this is manipulated (and it very evidently is) we must remain true to scripture and carefully examine all things. There is little doubt that the enemy would very much like to have us implanted, controlled, vaccinated, impoverished and to create health issues and much suffering as he already is doing. We would be blind indeed to not notice what is taking place on the world stage, or to take a vaccine (which carries serious health threats and which me and my family will certainly not be getting) however, we have to remember that Satan is the master DECEIVER and the master COUNTERFEITER.
In understanding the Mark of The Beast (and all Biblical concepts) it’s important to adhere to the principle of applying scripture to interpret scripture. Revelation is not a stand-alone book. Once we see that scripture clearly uses the principle of God’s people being ‘sealed’ for salvation, we can understand that the Mark of the Beast is the antithesis of the seal from God. In other words the Mark of The Beast is being marked for destruction and in being sealed by God we are sealed for salvation. The seal of God is not physical but is about a choice to follow and worship the one true God. Likewise the mark of the beast is not physical, but represents the following of all that is not of God, which is following Satan by means of our own sinful nature. There are no gray areas. (Matt 12:30)
Pure and simple, it is the very principle that is found throughout the Bible.
We can also look at tense markers and the original language to understand exactly what is being said.
Here are a few points to help us understand Revelation 13:16-18
1) Revelation is a vision, it is metaphorically written
2) Revelation was not written for a distant future generation (Rev 1:1) we can only properly understand it when we remove the futurist ideology surrounding the prophecies of Revelation.
3) The Greek word ‘poieo’ translated as causeth is a prolonged verb – meaning that the beast causing all to take the mark has been ongoing for a long time and it continues to do so.
4) 7 is the number of perfection, 6 is the number of imperfection or the human number
5) The word ‘anthropos’ translated in verse 18 to ‘a man’ is actually better translated as ‘human’
6) The word ‘hautou’ translated in verse 18 to ‘his’ is actually a neutral term not referring specifically to a male possessive.
7) The faithful followers of God face persecution in various ways and extremes.
8) Our choice to follow God is evidenced by our actions.
In light of this, let’s examine the truth behind the ‘Mark of the Beast’.
May the Lord Jesus bless you and give you wisdom!
