Mark of the Beast

Revelation 13:11-18

¹¹Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. ¹²It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. ¹³It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, ¹⁴and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ¹⁶Also 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, ¹⁷so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸This 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.

The third person of the unholy trinity now appears in John’s vision. This is the “beast of the earth.” Yesterday we discussed the “beast of the sea” which represents those political and socio-economic forces that would set themselves up against Christ. Now we see another beast, the beast of the earth that represents forces in the spiritual that would try to move humanity away from the True Christ. Our unholy trinity is now complete, the red dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the earth.

This new beast points back to the beast of the sea, encouraging people to worship this unholy presence, the two working together to drag people away from Christ using power gained from the Red Dragon.

(On a side note: “the beast of the sea, whose mortal wound was healed” probably needs a little explanation. There have been and will be numerous world leaders who have risen up over history who wanted nothing to do with the True God and the work of Jesus Christ. None of them has been resurrected after death. But there is always someone who is willing to take their place. Their “mortal wounds” are healed in that their tyrannical philosophies always continue in the hands of another.)

This spiritual beast is even able to perform what will look like miracles. Over the centuries there have been many who have claimed to work miracles. Oddly enough, the first person who comes to mind is the evil Rasputin who duped the Czar and his family during the Russian revolution. He purported to work miracles on numerous occasions. He was a charlatan and his intentions were evil from the beginning. I am also reminded of the many televangelists who claim the power of healing and have built multimillion dollar empires on those claims. In 2015 one need look no further than the “ministry” of someone like Joel Osteen to find someone who claims to be so very spiritual but whose message has nothing to do with the saving work of Jesus Christ. While I’m not going to actually call him the Antichrist, I would say that his message stands in opposition to the truth of the Gospel. He would fit the description we find in these verses and he drags people way from the truth every day.

One cannot get past this section of Scripture without mentioning the number 666. Just as the number 7 represents perfection and the work of God, so the number 6 represents evil and the work of Satan. While Satan my try and look like God he will always fall short. As we have seen, we have an unholy trinity in the dragon and the two beasts and so we have three sixes – thus 666 to represent Satan and his work. The “mark of the beast” is fairly tough to pin down. Just as you cannot see the mark that Baptism leaves upon a person, so too we probably cannot (or will not) be able to see the mark of the beast. I doubt if true believers will inadvertently receive the mark, just as no one is inadvertently baptized. Where that analogy holds up is that I think there are people who are thoughtlessly baptized, just as there will probably be many who may thoughtlessly receive the mark of the beast, through the deception of the beast. This is one of those times where if you are worried about it – let that go. This isn’t going to happen to you unknowingly.