The Antichrist Regime (Part 2)

The infamous mark of the beast and the number 666 come into focus as a second “beast” emerges in the Great Tribulation…


Transcription (automatically-generated): 

It is the second Sunday of 2022, as I teach this message last Sunday in our Church, we took some time to look at issues surrounding the COVID pandemic government authority and truths that Christians need to remember in these strange days. One of the issues I addressed is the importance of good research in critical thinking. That means finding reliable sources so that we don't fall prey to baseless rumors like the rumor that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand because to that we say fake news for you see the Book of Revelation, the word.

I'm going to start the whole thing again. All right.

It is the second Sunday of 2022, as I teach this message and at our Church last Sunday, I took some time to look at issues surrounding the COVID pandemic government authority and policies and some truths that Christians need to remember in these strange days. And one of the issues I addressed is the importance of good research and critical thinking. That means finding reliable sources so that we don't fall prey to baseless rumors like the rumor that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand because to that we say fake news where you see the word itself, revelation means something has been revealed.

And the first words of this book tell us exactly who it is that's being revealed. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ, and God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised those who would take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing.

And we find that in Revelation, chapter one, verse three, let's claim it together. It says, Blessed is he or she who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. But God knew there would still be those who would claim a revelation is just so hard to understand, so to make it easy to understand, he even courteously and graciously included a simple and easy to follow outline. And we find that in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19, where Jesus gives John these instructions.

Number one, John, I want you to write the things which you have seen that's the resurrected and glorified Jesus in chapter one.

Number two. John, I want you to write the things which are and that refers to the Church age, which began around 32 Ad, continues to the present day and is prophesied in chronological order in chapters two and three, and then third and last. John, I want you to write about the things which will take place after this future events that will unfold after the Church age comes to an end. Now, where does that happen? It happens in Revelation, chapter four, verse one, let me read it to you, John says, after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard that was the voice of Jesus in chapter one was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And up John goes, serving as a picture of the Church who will be raptured to be with the Lord. Jesus takes all of chapters four and five to make sure we don't miss the fact that the Church is with Him in heaven before His wrath is poured out on those on the Earth who have rejected him.

In Revelation chapter six, verse 16, Those on the Earth reveal that they know and understand the source of their calamity, identifying it as the wrath of the Lamb, who is the Lamb? In Scripture, it's Jesus.

So chapter one introduces the focus of Revelation Jesus Christ. Chapters two and three take us through the Church age up to the present day. Then the Church goes up. In chapter four, verse one, we see her safe and secure in heaven for chapters four and five before wrath comes down in chapter six, that wrath will continue for seven years, a time period known as the Tribulation, and will be documented in chapter 619, after which Jesus returns to the Earth with his Saints in the event known as the Second Coming.

And there'll be even more revealed in the incredible final few chapters of this incredible book.

But here's what we know. If you love Jesus, then your story will end with the words and they live happily ever after. Well, as we pick things up, we're in Revelation chapter 13. So make your way there in your Bibles if you haven't done so already. Our main narrative is on pause, while John takes a few chapters to fill us in on some additional developments that will unfold during the tribulation.

He wants us to have the full picture of what's happened. He wants us to be caught up on everything before the play button is pressed again. Chapter 13 focuses on the man infamously known as Antichrist, and what his satanically empowered regime will look like as he rises to power on the Earth. During the tribulation. He is the first beast that John saw emerge over the first ten chapters of chapter 13.

And if you missed our previous study or any of our previous studies in Revelation, we always recommend that you catch up on them on our website where you can listen to and watch all the messages from this series. Well, in Revelation, chapter 13, verse eleven, the plot thickens, John writes, Then I saw another beast coming up out of the Earth and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a Dragon. The word another is the Greek word Alas, which, if you recall from earlier studies, means another of the same kind, just as the first beast was a person Antichrist.

So too, the second beast will be a person to the Jewish mind. The sea was a place of darkness and chaos.

That's where the first beast, Antichrist ascended from in John's vision, the second beast comes up out of the Earth, the idea being the fiery depths of the Earth, a terrifying place, but not as foreboding as the sea. The idea is that the second beast will not appear to be quite as fearsome as Antichrist, and this idea is reinforced by the description of him appearing to be like a lamb. In contrast to the first beast, Antichrist, who was likened to a leopard, a bear, and a lion. In Scripture, horns speak of authority and power, and while the first beast had ten horns, this beast has two.

He appears to be Meeker and gentler than Antichrist, but he is fueled by the same Satanic spirit, and this is betrayed.

In his speech. We are told that he spoke like a Dragon no matter what he looks like on the outside. When the second beast opens his mouth, his true Satanic nature is revealed, looking like a lamb externally, while having the character of the Dragon internally brings to mind this warning from Jesus, which was later repeated by Paul to the elders of the Church at Ephesus in Matthew 715. Jesus said, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous Wolves. This is, of course, where the phrase a Wolf in sheep's clothing comes from.

That's what this second beast will be, a Wolf in sheep's clothing. And because false prophets generally arise from within the Church, there are many who suspect that the second beast will rise up within the Church, which would require the Church they rise up in to still be on the Earth. Following the rapture.

I won't connect all the dots for you if you're not tracking with me yet. That'll come in a later study. But just tuck that away for now. Verse twelve. And he the second Beast exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the Earth, and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Satan will give the second beast the same authority and power as Antichrist, and he will use it to direct people to worship Antichrist, a deception that will be turbocharged when Antichrist miraculously rises from the dead. As we've talked about in our last few studies. And when people worship Antichrist, we know they'll really be worshipping the power behind him, which is Satan. Now perhaps you're wondering who the second beast is. And for the answer, let's look ahead at Revelation, chapter 19, verse 20.

It's on your outlines. It says then the beast was captured, and with him underline this the false Prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the Mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. So write this down. It's your first filling. The second beast is the false Prophet who will lead the global Antichrist cult.

The second beast is the false Prophet who will lead the global Antichrist cult. He is not a false Prophet. He is the False Prophet, though we're meeting him for the first time here in chapter 13, the False Prophet will have been a notable figure on the Earth for years, likely even before the Rapture Antichrist will come on the scene as a political figure and take control of a revived Roman Empire. In contrast, the False Prophet will be seemingly a religious and spiritual figure who will lead the people of the Earth to worship Antichrist.

We've already mentioned that Satan will construct a counterfeit Trinity during the Tribulation, and the False Prophet will be the third part of it impersonating the Holy Spirit, directing people to worship the sun.

Antichrist will be the Ministry of the False Prophet, just as the real Holy Spirit never talks about himself, but always directs glory to Jesus. Verse 13, he, the False Prophet performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the Earth in the sight of men. So this false Prophet will be able to call down fire from the sky, not an illusion. Not allegorical fire, not missiles, but real fire called down from the sky at will. And the obvious comparison is to the two witnesses of Revelation chapter Eleven that God will send to Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation.

We learned they will most likely be Elijah and Moses, and we read of the power they will have to call fire to destroy their enemies. We were told that it would come from their mouths to devour their enemies that would seek to stop them from preaching through the False Prophet. Satan will apparently duplicate this miracle, at least partially in the hopes of assuring those on the Earth that Antichrist has the same power as Yahweh. In a very similar way to what Jonas and Jon Bruhs did for Pharaoh in duplicating Moses miracle of turning his staff into a snake.

They were the two magicians in Pharaoh's court, you might recall from the Book of Exodus, and people will follow these signs just as Jesus predicted when he said in Matthew 24 24, false Christs and false prophets will rise up and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible, even the elect.

And by the way, that verse is making the point that the only thing stopping people from being deceived by Antichrist and the False Prophet in the Great Tribulation will be the fact that some of them will be elect. In other words, they will belong to Jesus. They will have chosen to follow Jesus. And this verse is saying that if it weren't for that, if it weren't for God's hand protecting them, everyone would be deceived. That's how strong the deception will be in that time.

As I mentioned in an earlier study, Christians need to recognize that miracles alone do not validate a Ministry. If they did, then the false Prophet would be totally legit. A man of God but obviously he's not. The Bible teaches that when God is doing something, miracles and signs will follow, but we're never told to follow miracles and signs because it's possible for them to be performed by demonic power. Words that line up with Scripture can be validated by miracles, but miracles cannot validate words or a message that contradicts Scripture.

Well, next, the false Prophet comes up with a big idea. Verse 14, it says, and he deceives those who dwell on the Earth while the Holy Spirit opens eyes and ears and hearts to the truth, bringing enlightenment. The false Prophet deceives. And again, those who dwell on the Earth refers to those on the Earth who have rejected Jesus and will never change their mind. In other words, they're deceived in this time because they want to be deceived.

It says, he deceives those who dwell on the Earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast. That's Antichrist telling those who dwell on the Earth to make an image to the beast underline that make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. We know that by the halfway point of the Tribulation, the new Jewish temple in Jerusalem has been completed. We also know that around that same time Antichrist will enter that temple, set up a throne for himself, and demand to be worshiped by God as prophesied by Daniel, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul.

Shortly after those events, the false Prophet will arrange for this image of Antichrist to be placed in the Holy of Holies of the temple.

As we've discussed before, both Daniel and Jesus refer to that series of events as the abomination of Desolation. Verse 15, he, the false Prophet was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, and without getting too technical. The original Greek makes it clear that we're not talking about the image simply being able to move. We're not talking about a marionette or a puppet. We're talking about something that has the appearance by all accounts of being truly alive, being sentient.

As bizarre as it sounds, this image of the beast will be in some way brought to life by the false Prophet who will be empowered by Satan because it's called the image of the Beast. We know it will be a visual representation of Antichrist in some way. We don't know if this will be a statue, a hologram, a robot, a genetic clone, or artificial intelligence. We don't know if this image will be demonically possessed or actually conscious in some way, but whatever it is, it will in some way come alive.

I personally suspect that it will be related to artificial intelligence, as I believe the ability to create genuine human consciousness is the purview of God alone and a red line that he won't allow anyone else to cross.

I also suspect that this image will be some sort of digital form of Antichrist, possibly to imitate digitally the omnipresence of God. It could be a way for Antichrist to be everywhere with everyone at all times like hey Google or hey Siri, but it doesn't take instructions. It gives them note what this image is brought to life to do. This is what the text says that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

So write this down.

The image will command people to worship Antichrist, identify those who refuse and arrange their execution. Most of those who reject Jesus in the Tribulation are going to be completely convinced that Antichrist is the best thing to happen to humanity ever. They will watch in amazement as he brokers peace in the Middle East and then rises from the dead. And as he declares an end to all religions by calling the world to worship him, most will say finally, an end to the divisiveness of religion. This is going to be like the John Lennon song imagine brought to life.

Nonbelievers will perceive the execution of those who refuse to worship the image of the beast as a necessary price to pay for world peace. Most Gentiles who refuse to take the Mark will be executed during the Great Tribulation. They are the Tribulation Saints we encountered in heaven. In earlier chapters of Revelation, a small percentage of Gentile tribulation Saints will survive and will be alive on the Earth. When Jesus returns at the second Coming, we know that a remnant of the Jewish people will be preserved through the Great Tribulation and will turn to Jesus at the second coming.

However, Zachariah 13, eight and nine tell us that two out of every three Jews on the Earth will die during the Great Tribulation, so not only will the false Prophet lead the global Antichrist cult, write this down, but he will unite all nonchristian religions under Antichrist. Make a note of that. Not only will the false Prophet lead the global Antichrist cult, but he will unite all nonchristian religions under Antichrist. They will all merge into one and receive Antichrist as the fulfillment of their belief systems. This will simply be part of the deception and something like this must take place because we don't see any mention in biblical eschatology of anyone except Christians resisting Antichrist on religious grounds.

Islam has around 1.8 billion adherents. Hinduism has around 800 million. Orthodox Islam teaches that those who reject Muhammad's teachings should be put to death. This is the theology behind the actions of Islamic terror groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. There is also seemingly continually increasing radicalism and violence among many of India's Hindus who also believe in the exclusive claims of their faith.

These are the second and third most popular religions in the world today, and together they represent over 2 billion people. Back in verse three of this chapter, we read all the world marveled and followed the Beast. I want us to take note of the phrase all the world, because that includes Islam, Hinduism, and all other nonchristian religions. Somehow they're all going to accept and submit to Antichrist as a religious figure. Now, how could that be?

Well, if you dig into other cults and religions, you'll find that almost all of them have an eschatology and or prophecies which Antichrist could fulfill. For example, Tashia Muslims, Antichrist will likely be received as the Imam Almahdi, the 12th Imam, or the Mahdi. We've talked about how the Jews will likely receive him as the Messiah that they're still waiting for. The Mormons will likely welcome him as the fulfillment of what's known as the White Horse prophecy. Islam is particularly interesting as it relates to verse 15, as it is the only major religion to specifically stipulate beheading as a method of execution and Revelation.

Chapter 20, verse four tells us that is how believers will be martyred in the Tribulation. This talk of Antichrist directing the world to worship an image of himself brings to mind Daniel. Chapter three, where King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon constructs a massive statue of himself and demands the populace bow down to it or face the death penalty. The dimensions of Nebuchadnezzar's statue are particularly interesting. We're told in Scripture it was 60 qubits high, with a base measuring six qubits by six qubits.

It all points to six six, the Mark of the Beast, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. Those heroes of the Bible, Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego, who refused to bow down to the statue were cast into a fiery furnace. But instead of being destroyed in the fire, Shadrach, Meshek and Abednego were supernaturally protected and encountered their savior, Jesus amid the flames. Scripture says the only thing burned by the fire were the ropes used to bind them, and they walked out the flames as free men. This is what will happen to the Jewish people.

Through the Tribulation. Amid their fiery trial, they will encounter Jesus who will protect them and reveal himself to them that they might be set free. Here's an interesting question as well to ask about the events of Daniel chapter three, Where's Daniel, Where's Daniel being one of the most important government officials in Babylon at the time, we can only deduce that Daniel must have been out of country at the time, as there is no record of him attempting to intervene or being arrested for refusing to bow to the statue, as we know he would have refused to bow if in this event, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego serve as a prophetic picture of the Jewish people in the Great Tribulation.

Who does Daniel represent the Church, just as Daniel is completely absent from Daniel. Chapter three.

So too, the Church is completely absent from Revelation chapter six through 19 and the Tribulation praise God for that. For centuries people have driven themselves crazy trying to figure out what this image and the Mark of the Beast will be in Daniel twelve verse four. Daniel is given these instructions. But you Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.

So Daniel was told that the prophecies he'd been given regarding the end times would be shut up. In other words, they would be sealed until the time of the end. In other words, nobody would be able to really understand them until the very end times, the days in which they would soon be fulfilled. Why? Because Christians in 300 Ad didn't need to understand the details of Antichrist schemes and regime.

But you know who will need to understand them. The generation that is alive when it happens, those who will be left on the Earth following the Rapture, they will need teachings like the ones we're doing right now to help them understand it. And when that time arrives, the Bible declares that knowledge shall increase. God's Word promises that in the last of the last days, those who read the prophecies recorded in Daniel will be able to understand them. Hopefully you're noticing that this is a recurring theme in Biblical eschatology, things that were impossible to understand even 50 years ago.

Now make sense. Technology has evolved, the world has changed, pieces have been moved into place and God is giving his Church understanding in the last of the last days, just as he promised Daniel he would. While we don't know exactly what this image of Antichrist will be, we do know that it will be obvious in the Tribulation when the time comes, those who need to understand will understand. Now let's speculate a little bit more just for fun. Please note that I freely admitted this is speculation.

We noted earlier that verse 15 tells us the image will command people to worship Antichrist, identify those who refuse and arrange their execution. I shared that. I suspect it will be some type of digitally omnipresent AI based on Antichrist consciousness. It will almost certainly sift through all the data provided by the world surveillance apparatus. I'm talking about satellites, cell phones, CCTV, home security cameras, webcams, smartphone assistance, browser activity, et cetera.

And it will use all that information to identify anyone who refuses to worship Antichrist, track them down and arrange for their execution. Hopefully we're all aware that we are already under surveillance by our own governments to a terrifying degree, and it's getting worse every day. I suspect our surveillance States will form the infrastructure of an ultimate Big Brother type system that will be employed by Antichrist or the image of the Beast, to be precise during the tribulation. Now we come to the infamous Mark of the Beast.

Verse 16.

He the false Prophet, causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a Mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no. 1 may buy or sell except one who has the Mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. First and foremost, this Mark will be a sign of allegiance to Antichrist. It will serve two purposes, Firstly, to clearly distinguish those who worship Antichrist from those who don't. Second purpose of the Mark will be to create intense financial pressure to worship Antichrist.

These verses reveal that in the Great Tribulation Antichrist regime will have control over most of the world's financial system. Nobody will be able to buy, sell, or conduct any type of financial transaction in his Empire unless they bear his Mark and pledge allegiance to him. Incredibly, this was foreshadowed all the way back in Leviticus 1928, where God instructed His people, do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. If you have a tattoo, don't worry. Back then, marks on the bodies, such as tattoos and cuts, were primarily used to show devotion to one's pagan cult.

Hence God's command. That same ancient pagan concept will come into play once again with the Mark of the Beast because of Leviticus 1928 because it's part of the law, because it's part of Torah. Satan knows there is no chance any devout Jew will take the Mark. It's just one more way that he will try and sift through the populace to expose the Jewish people so that he can kill them. Verse 16 mentions free and slave, and as we've pointed out before, slavery will apparently become mainstream.

Again. Guess what major world religion allows and even encourages slavery? It's Islam. And my guess is that along with Beheading, those who refuse to worship Antichrist, they'll also be at the center of a revived slave trade in the Antichrist Empire. The Mark of the Beast is yet one more facet of eschatology that was widely considered to be allegorical until less than 50 years ago.

Because think about it for almost all of history, the idea of a Mark being the difference between you being allowed to buy ourselves seemed crazy. But today none of us are scoffing at that notion. We have tiny RFID chips that can be easily implanted and read by scanners on every street corner to track our every movement. Small QR codes can be tattooed on skin and read by scanners. In fact, hundreds of people are already using both technologies for their COVID passports.

If you have a smartphone, you're already being tracked. Where you go, how long you stay there. The audio of your conversations and surroundings. It's all being tracked, and we all know it. It's not a conspiracy theory.

That's actually how Facebook figures out which ads to show you for as long as there have been societies, people have been adjusting their appearance to emulate people they admire. When I was a kid, I had a passion for tennis. And in the world at that time, in the tennis world, specifically, Andre Agassi was it. He was it, and he would wear spandex like biker shorts almost, but without the padding underneath his regular shorts. And so I did the same thing.

Unfortunately, people will show their allegiance to Antichrist by taking his Mark on their forehead or hand. Now think with me for a moment which parts of Antichrist body are left scarred by the assassination attempt on his life? It's his eye and it's his arm. Now it could be that there's some sort of connection there, and the location of the marks is a type of tribute to Antichrist resurrection scars. But here's the trajectory I find most compelling.

Just as Satan will construct a false Trinity during the Tribulation, I believe there's something similar going on with the Mark of the beast. Revelation Seven three told us the 144,000 will be sealed with a Mark placed on their foreheads by God. In Ephesians 113, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit in us is God's seal upon us, marking us as his property. In multiple Old Testament texts, the Lord told Israel to physically place his law upon their foreheads and their hands. Orthodox Jewish men still do this today using filthy, which are little leather cases that contain little Scrolls that contain verses from the Torah and are bound to their foreheads and hands.

Jews believe this represents agreement with God ideologically and a desire to live out that ideology. Practically the idea of the Mark of the beast seems to be Satan imitating and mocking the idea of God's Mark upon his people by marking a people for himself who are committed to his ideology instead of bearing the name of Yahweh. Those on the Earth will bear the name of Satan, whereas the 144,000 were marked to protect them from God's wrath against the wicked on the Earth. During the Tribulation, Antichrist followers will be marked to protect them from Satan's wrath against the righteous on the Earth.

In the Tribulation, let me assuage the fears that I know some of you have regarding the Mark of the Beast.

Make a note of this. Nobody who desires to follow Jesus will take the Mark unintentionally unwittingly or against their will. I hope that makes some of you feel better. Nobody who desires to follow Jesus will take the Mark unintentionally unwittingly or against their will. God will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure everybody understands the gravity of taking the Mark.

In Revelation 14, verses nine through ten, it's on your outlines, we're told. A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its Mark on their forehead or on their hand, they too will drink the wine of God's Fury which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath, they will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the Holy Angels and of the Lamb. Now, please don't miss this. Don't miss this. Have you seen an angel flying around the sky declaring those things?

Has anybody has everybody on the Earth seen that? No. Do you know why? Because it hasn't happened yet. But the Bible says it will happen before the Mark is implemented by the Antichrist regime.

When that time comes, there will be no confusion about what is happening. Nobody will take the Mark in ignorance. Nobody. There's so much misinformation regarding the Mark of the beast. And if I'm honest, what drives me crazy about it is that it's only three verses in the whole Bible.

It's three verses and it's infuriating that people will make whole videos. They'll go on long Facebook rants. They'll make images to share on social media about. This is the Mark of the beast that's happening right now, but they won't even read the three verses about it in Scripture. And they end up saying things and drawing conclusions that are so completely wrong.

If they would just read the three verses, they wouldn't say those sorts of things. So please note what these three verses tell us. They tell us the Mark has nothing to do with class warfare. It has nothing to do with the Illuminati or a global elite. What does it say?

Because it says the Mark is required of all both small and great, rich and poor. So it's not some conspiracy by a global elite to control them. That's not what's going on. Everyone is required to take it. Secondly, these verses tell us that it bears the seal or symbol or name of the beast.

And we'll find in a minute or his number Antichrist. It's his symbol. It's his name. It's his number. And what's implied is that everybody knows that they know they're pledging allegiance to Antichrist.

The logical parallel would be the pinch offering that we learned about back in chapters two and three, the pinch offering that every citizen in the Roman Empire was required to offer at a local temple to Caesar once a year as a means to acknowledge that Caesar was God. That's the idea. Nobody made that pinch offering ignorantly or confused about its meaning. They all understood this pinch offering means I'm acknowledging Caesar as God. That's why Christians didn't do it.

That's the idea with the Mark of the beast. The text also tells us that taking the Mark is irreversible. We just read that in Revelation 14, if you take the Mark, it's over there's no going back. Some suggest that this points to some type of genetic modification which could be true. But I personally think it's a spiritual issue because if you've lived through the first half of the tribulation, you've seen the signs and wonders you've seen and heard the Angel's warnings and you still choose to follow the beast, then you've reached the spiritual point of no return.

If everything you've seen up to that point is still not enough for you, nothing will ever be enough for you. You're rejecting Jesus with your eyes wide open. The verses also tell us that the Mark is physical, physical. Okay, it's an externally visible Mark on or in your forehead and hand. So abstract statements like, well, Islam is the Mark of the beast.

Don't make any sense. In the context of the Bible. We could also tell here that the Mark is not a number. We'll learn about that in a minute. It's not a number.

It's his number. Okay? And people know that it's his number. Since the 1980s, people have been freaking out over any identifying Mark related to numbers. People freaked out about credit cards, they freaked out about being assigned Social Security numbers.

You name it. But they all missed the fact that the Bible specifically tells us it's the Mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. The Mark is not a number that identifies people individually. It's a number associated with Antichrist. Those who take the Mark, take his number.

The verses also tell us that the evidence points to computerized data recognition of some sort. Why? Because we're told you cannot buy, sell, or conduct business without the Mark, it seems clear that it will be connected to one's personal data and finances. And if you've ever visited a store that doesn't take cash, that's the type of scenario that we're talking about with the Mark. We're talking about a time where all stores are cashless and they only take the Mark as a method of payment.

Cash disappears from society. So even if you find another person who's willing to trade with you, who has the Mark or doesn't, you can't move money because all money is digital. Finally, it could be something the Mark that we can't imagine because it doesn't exist yet. Technology is progressing so rapidly. At this point.

People will be using tech just ten years from now that we can't even imagine today. Please understand. Here's my point. We have to look at everything the word says about the Mark of the beast. Just because a program or initiative fulfills one or two of the characteristics of the Mark doesn't make it the Mark.

It must fulfill all of the characteristics. And speaking of the number of the beast, here is that infamous verse. It's verse 18. It says here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man.

His number is six.

What's the deal with six? Six, six. There are a couple of possibilities that I think are plausible. It could be related to what's known as without getting bogged down in all the details. Gmatria is an alphanumeric code.

It can be in sort of any language, but it's an alphanumeric code where a numerical value is assigned to a name, a word, or a phrase based on its letter. So usually every letter will have an assigned number value to it. And so the value of a word is calculated by the sum of the numbers associated with the letters in that word, and some suggest that Antichrist name will add up to 666 using Demetria Alternatively, and I think more plausibly 66 is meant to be the numeric representation of fallenness of ultimate fallenness.

Really? In the Bible in biblical numerology, six is the number of man, but specifically sinful fallen, broken man.

Six is the number of the flesh and repeating something three times may simply be for emphasis as we sing the phrase Holy, Holy, Holy. And so it could be that six six six is simply emphasizing the Great Tribulation and the Antichrist Empire as the culmination, the pinnacle of evil and fallenness on the Earth. People have been trying to guess the Antichrist using this method for decades. They've also driven themselves crazy using various other forms of numerology. Wait a minute.

Barack has six letters or Ronald Wilson Reagan six, six and on and on and on and on. I hope by now we all remember that our brother Paul told us Antichrist will not be revealed until after the Church has been ruptured. This is why we don't play guess the Antichrist because it's impossible to guess his identity if you're part of the Church. So please don't try. Don't forward that message.

Don't share that post. You're better than that. You're better than that. The number of the beasts will be helpful to those who are searching the Scriptures in the Great Tribulation and to them the meaning will be clear and obvious. Well, if you're worried about the Mark of the beast, listen, you don't need to become an expert in understanding it so that you can identify it.

When it happens, you need to be saved. That's what you need to do. You need to give your life to Jesus. If you're on the Earth when it happens, identifying the Mark of the beast won't save you. Only faith in Jesus will save you, just as only faith in Jesus will save you today.

And if you'll put your faith in Jesus, then you don't need to fear Antichrist or the Mark of the beast. You don't need to fear a one world government. You don't need to fear death or hell. You need the perfect love that casts out fear in every circumstance. And his name is Jesus.

I know many have questions and concerns regarding COVID-19, the vaccines and things like vaccine passports and how they might relate to the things we've been looking at in this study. I don't want to speak to that a little bit. I hope that looking into the specifics of God's word has provided us with at least a measure of clarity, because if you were paying attention, it should be really obvious that the vaccines are not the Mark of the beast, just in case anyone thinks that if that's not obvious to you, please go listen to this message again when it's posted later this week online.

But I also think we'd be willingly ignorant to not recognize that some of the things unfolding around us are preparatory for things to come in Antichrist regime. Practically.

We've seen the development of infrastructure and logistics to facilitate the global rollout of vaccines. When the Mark of the beast is implemented, these things will need to be in place and ready to go. And thanks to COVID, they will be. We've seen the implementation of health passports around the globe. Once we digitize data.

The next logical step, please hear me on this. The next logical step is to digitize our health records, our driver's license, our passports, et cetera, into one sort of multi pass. And you'll get that reference on a different level. If you're familiar with the Scifi classic, the fifth element, our society is becoming increasingly cashless. All financial transactions are going digital.

That's significant because it means all financial transactions can be tracked and they can be interfered with. By the way, did you know I looked this up today? The world's most cashless society is Canada.

If you don't know what the trusted news initiative is, you really need to look it up. You can go to BBC's website actually and read about it because it was their idea. They rolled it out in 2020. It's an agreement between the world's major news organizations and social media companies to censor what they consider to be misinformation. And on the flip side of that to promote stories that they feel are in the interest of the public.

Good. So we have today. Right now, the world's media openly colluding to censor information they deem harmful and promote information that they feel is helpful. This is happening right now. Mass surveillance and tracing of the public continues to increase in the name of safety, against terrorism, against battling climate change.

And in the name of stopping the pandemic. Here's a fun bit of news that came out on Christmas Day, just a week or so ago, a couple of weeks ago. Reading from the news article, Canada's federal government admitted to secretly surveilling its population's movements during the COVID-19 lockdown by tracking 33 million phones. For a point of reference, the population of Canada is 38 million. The Public Health Agency of Canada clandestinely tracked the devices to assess, quote, the public's responsiveness during lockdown measures, the agency acknowledged.

But perhaps the most compelling development we've witnessed over the past several years, at least in my opinion, has been the rise of the sociological phenomenon known as other rain. Let me explain. I've shared before that I'm a World War II buff. It's fascinating to me because of the infinite stories and subplots that unfolded. It's a seemingly infinite field of study.

But the part of World War II that I find most interesting is this question, how did ordinary German citizens go from living next door to Jewish people and viewing them as neighbors, to casually watching them and their families be executed, their bodies dumped into mass graves? How did that happen? And the answer is othering. It's uttering. It's what happens when we begin to view a group of people as other, not part of our group and not playing for our team?

Othering can be based around ethnicity, nationality, culture, political views, athletic activity, practically anything. This phenomenon of othering is at the center of what happened in residential schools in Canada where they began to view Indigenous people as somehow lesser something other. And I'll explain what happened because what psychology has figured out is that most people need to other a group of people in order to justify mistreating them. In other words, we need to be able to tell ourselves that those people are not like us. They're not part of us.

And that type of thinking quickly develops into viewing them as less than human, as subhuman in some way which we tell ourselves, and it frees us from our obligations to treat them with human dignity. I don't have to show you basic respect. I don't have to value your life because you're subhuman you're other. You're not even like me. That's what happened in Germany with the Jewish people.

That's what happened in Sarajevo in the early and mid 90s. Ethnic groups and different cultures clashed and one group othered the other. They turned them into caricatures in Germany and the Reich. They turn Jews into creatures rather than people. They created these cartoons depicting them as trolls and golems.

They othered an entire people group all the way to concentration camps and gas Chambers. So let me tell you what othering sounds like and please know this is not endorsing our perspective. I'm doing this because right now, at least in Canada, there's one issue where the overwhelming majority of people have one view and they're othering the people who have a different view. This is what othering sounds like. We shouldn't let unvaccinated people have access to the health care system.

We should put the unvaccinated in camps. It's understandable if nurses are abusing and offering a lower standard of care to the unvaccinated, they don't deserve it. This is what othering sounds like. We need to put restrictions in place to punish the people who aren't being vaccinated. Or how about this?

I couldn't care less if an unvaccinated person dies good riddens and listen. Listen.

I hear Christians talk the same way and other people who don't share their political beliefs. They're too stupid, they're too dumb. They're other typical fill in the blank. I hear Christians, other people all the time. It's one more reason why we don't slander and mock people who have different views to us.

We don't slander and mock anybody. The reason is because we cannot follow Jesus and engage in othering because we will not love anyone that we have. Otherwise we won't love them, not the way Jesus wants us to. But we see othering all around us. And here's my point.

It's reminding us that the day is coming soon when the world will say we need to get rid of these subhumans who follow Jesus and refuse to worship Antichrist. He's leading us into a glorious new age of humanity and we can't be held back by fools any longer. Christians have been uttered since the days the Church was born in around 32 Ad. Christians were uttered by Nero when he blamed the great fire of Rome on them. Christians are othered in countries where they are the religious minority.

Christians are othered under dictatorships. And that's just the way it's always been for the Church. If you follow Jesus, you should expect to be uttered sooner or later. But we are seeing right now around the vaccine issue and around certain political issues. We're seeing how quickly a society can change.

It's unbelievable. Do you realize that the Overwatch? I think at least half probably of the society that I live in here in Canada would be fine with sending the unvaccinated away to camps? No problem doing that. It's unbelievable to hear people that you think are normal people saying, well, you know, I hope the unvaccinated die.

They deserve it. It's unbelievable how quickly othering can affect a population. When you add a charismatic leader to the mix, pumping it up and stoking the fire of othering man, things can move very, very, very quickly and they will when Antichrist steps onto the stage. So in summary, COVID vaccines are not the Mark of the beast. Let me say that one more time, but there are many things going on right now that are preparatory for the coming Antichrist regime.

But praise God because for you and me, our situation never changes every day. When we wake up, His mercy are new. Every morning, every day, our hope, peace and joy and fulfillment are found in the same place abiding in Jesus. But the Lord help us to never forget that. Let's pray.

Would you buy your head and close your eyes? Lord, thank you for your word. Even when the content is heavy. When the content is dark. And Lord, I pray that we would just be encouraged by the example of our brothers and sisters who have come before us in the Church age.

It is true what your word says that we are. We are a peculiar people. We are Sojourners and pilgrims on the Earth. This is not our home. We are in the world, but we're not of the world and we are different.

Lord, we are Lord. I pray for us first of all, that we would not other anyone for any reason. Because when you had every right to exclude people from your Kingdom, you came and laid down your life so that you could invite everyone into your Kingdom. We're in your Kingdom because that was your heart. So, Lord, help us to love like you love.

Help us to not entertain any type of malice or slander or insult or hatred in our hearts. Help us not to tolerate it. Help us to be your hands and feet. In the way that we love in your name on the Earth as we bear your name and thank you that your mercies are new every morning you're the same yesterday today and forever you're firm foundation and our strong power Jesus we love you we bless you it's in your mighty name we pray Amen.