Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 5/8/2008

Question
QUESTION: hi there,i have a question about the mark of the beast.some answers i get from watching tv bible shows says the mark will be implants in the right hand or forehead.some says it will not be implants,i am alittle confuse.i read that part in revelation,it says a mark but it doesn,t say implants.
i am hoping you can tell me what the bible says? does it say anywhere in the bible that it will be implants?
thank you
greg

ANSWER: Answer: In order to understand what the mark is, we must first find out who the beast is. We shall also need to compare the mark with the seal of God, for both are given at about the same time.
This subject is very important because according to Rev. 14:9-11 those who receive the beast's mark won't be in an enviable situation.
Rev 14:9-11 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
There's no doubt about it: God hates the beast and everyone who has cast in their lot with him. In fact the seven last plagues of Rev. 16 are staged for their benefit. I don't want to be among that group, and I'm sure you don't either or you wouldn't be asking this question.
1) Who is the beast? Read Rev. 13:1-10 before you continue.
We notice several important things:
a. He came up out of the sea
Water is a symbol representing peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. (Rev. 17.15) So the beast arose out of a populous area.
b. He had blasphemous names written on him.
Blasphemy is the act of a man claiming to be God (John 10:33), and/or claiming to forgive sins (Mark 2:7)
c. He receives his power and authority from the dragon.
The dragon represents pagan Rome in its act of trying to destroy Jesus (Rev. 12:4). But the real power behind pagan Rome, the great red dragon, is Satan. (Rev. 12:9)
d. He receives his "seat", his throne, from the dragon.
Since the dragon worked through pagan Rome, the "seat" of the Roman government was the city of Rome. So the dragon gave the city of Rome to the beast to use as his capitol city.
e. One of his heads received a wound that should have killed him, but he survived.
There is a time period involving verse 5–42 months. The Biblical month had 30 days, so 42 months would come out to 1260 days. In prophetic reckoning a day is a symbol of a year. (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6) So the wound would be received at the end of a period of 1260 years of supremacy.
f. People worshiped both the dragon and the beast.
(Worship is an absolute necessity in our relationship with God. That's why the first commandment says: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Ex. 20:3) Jesus said to Satan, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" (Mat 4:10). Rev 14:6-9 shows two competing powers who are fighting to receive the worship of man: God, and the dragon―through the beast.)
g. He persecutes God's people.
h. Everyone on Earth worships the beast—except those whose names appear in the book of life. (see Rev. 20:9-15)

2) When you go back into history and seek to find out who the beast is, taking into account the description that has been given here, you will find only one that fits all the specifications that John gives here: the Papacy—known to most people as the Roman Catholic Church.
a. The Papacy came up from within a populous area—Europe.
b. The Papacy claims that the priest has the power to forgive sins.
This is done in the confessional. (This fits the description of blasphemy)
c. The Papacy received its power and its place of residence from pagan Rome. The Roman emperor appointed the Bishop of Rome as the literal head of both religious and political matters in the Western Roman Empire.
d. The Papacy gained full power over the Western Roman Empire in 538 A.D.
It reigned supreme for over a millennium until Napoleon deposed the pope and confiscated church property throughout his empire. This took place in 1798―exactly 1260 years after the Papacy's beginning.
e. Throughout the Papacy's supremacy, it sought to force everyone to obey its decrees.
But some refused, deciding to follow the God of Scripture rather than a pope who claimed to be the vicar of Christ. The Papacy sought these "heretics" out and tried to make them give up their faith, even resorting to torture and the execution of those who refused. Millions died rather than bow to Rome.
f. Today, it seems that the majority of the Earth's population looks to the pope to solve the world's problems. The papacy's adherents number into the 100s of millions.
g. And the beast has a number, the number of a man, and it is 666.
In John's day it was a custom for a person to reduce his name to it's numerical equivalent in Roman numerals. This helps us to know how we should look for this number in connection with the beast.
In searching for this clue, scholars in the middle ages discovered that the official title of the pope, at that time (it is still one of his titles) was vicarius filii dei, which means "vicar of the Son of God."
But by turning the letters which are Roman numerals into their numerical equivalent and adding the total, you come up with 666.

I hasten to add that the number 666 has little importance in itself except that it is merely another of the identifying marks of the beast, the antichrist, the papacy
For these reasons many Bible scholars have come to the conclusion that the Beast of Revelation 13 represents the Papacy—the Roman Catholic Church. This isn't to say that the people of that communion have done all this. But the church did, and still does these things where it has power to do so.

3) Now, what about the second beast whose description begins in verse 11? Read verses 11-18 before you continue.
a. He comes up out of the earth.
If water represents inhabited, organized nations, then the earth would be a symbol of an area where there are no organized nations. The only government that formed in an area where there were no organized nations at the time when the beast was receiving his deadly wound―1798―would be the United States. It begins like a lamb, but will speak like a dragon.
History shows how much this is coming true. The democratic experiment which was driven by its great constitution, was a marvel to the world. But as it has grown in power it has become today the world's only "super power." And in the new regulations of the Homeland Securities Act, we see the beginnings of what could very well lead us into the dragon-talk era.
b. He would make the people of Earth worship the first beast.
This is yet future, and we'll have to wait to see how it plays out.
c. He would perform miraculous signs.
This too is future.
d. He will set up an image to the beast and cause all the Earth to worship it.
An image is a replica of something. The beast is a religious organization that uses the power of the government to force people to follow its way of worship. The image of the beast set up by the United States, then, will likely have to do with religious authorities using the power of the state (perhaps even through laws passed by Congress) to force "dissenters" to worship according to the dictates of the majority. Those who refuse to obey would be punished severely, and continued disobedience would eventually lead to the death penalty. (vs. 15). This too, is yet future.
e. He forces everyone on earth to receive a mark in their forehead or in their hand.
The mark of the beast is forced upon all by the United States. This hasn't happened yet.
f. He puts into effect an economic boycott of all who do not have the mark.

Let's look at the other side of the story, that of those who are "dissenters"—those who refuse to give up their worship of God according to Scripture, rather than according to man. We find a picture of them in chapter 14:1-5:
Rev 14:1-5 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
By John's description of these people, we can see that they are the true people of God. The one thing that catches our attention, in the context of our subject, is the fact that they have something written on their forehead: These people do not have the mark of the beast written on their foreheads or in their hands, but they have the names of the Lamb and the Father on their foreheads (not on their hands).
Chapter 7 helps us understand more about this. The entire chapter describes the 144,000 and their relationship with God. But notice this interesting part:
Rev 7:2, Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
In chapter 14 it was the names of the Lamb and of the Father written in the foreheads of this special group. But here these two names are embraced in the term "seal." So God's faithful people receive His seal in their foreheads, while those who have accepted another god (the Papacy; the image to the beast; the dragon) will receive the mark of the beast in their foreheads (and/or in their hands). (Although there is no direct explanation for the forehead and hand, we could surmise that those who receive either the seal or the mark in their foreheads have knowingly decided to believe either God or the beast. While those who receive the mark in their hand don't really believe in or follow the beast but go along and do what they're told.)
So what is the seal of God? The Bible talks about the seal in a number of places.
Isa 8:16 Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples.
In ancient times kings and nobles had a seal—a design that was often incorporated into the face of a ring, or a small cylinder worn on a string around the neck. They would melt wax onto any item they wished to bear their approval, and empress the image of the seal in the wax. On this seal were three things:
1. the name of the person or organization;
       2. his title;
3. the territory over which the bearer had jurisdiction.
Isaiah indicates that the seal is closely related to God's law—we call them the ten commandments. Does God's seal appear in His law?
Yes. In the fourth commandment we find the three components of a seal, which declare that the Lord God of heaven and earth stands behind them:
Exo 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
In verse 11 we find the three components of a seal:
1. The Person who stands behind the ten commandments is the "LORD your God." (LORD, when it appears in all capital letters, is translated from the Hebrew word yahweh from which we get our word "Jehovah." It is the personal name of God.)
2. God's title is the "Creator." And the commandment points out that God "made" (created) the earth.
3. The territory over which the LORD has jurisdiction is "the heavens and the earth."
Now notice what this commandment says: The seventh day is the Sabbath. The day we call "Saturday" is the seventh day of the week, so Saturday is the Sabbath of "the LORD your God." Thus the seal that is placed in the foreheads of God's faithful people down at the end of time involves their decision to worship God on the day He set aside for His people to rest on. The seal is actually the seventh day Sabbath.
And this takes special import when we notice that the first angel of Rev. 14:6 calls on all the earth to "Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water." This is almost precisely the wording of the Sabbath commandment. The angel is calling God's people to come back to the Sabbath, because that is the day He set aside upon which His people were to worship Him.
It's interesting to notice in this regard that the Papacy claims to have changed the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday in its early years (beginning in 135 A.D.) ( For an excellent historical study of this change, see From Sabbath to Sunday, by Samuele Bacchiocchi, available on www.biblicalperspectives.com.) And the Papacy makes no apology for making the change. In fact, it points to the act of being able to change the LORD's Sabbath to Sunday as a "mark" of their ecclesiastical authority. Notice this from The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, by the Rev. Peter Geieremann, 1957 edition, p. 50: (There are dozens more such quotations)
"Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
"A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
"Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
So the mark of the beast, then, is the false day of worship—Sunday. And those who persist in turning their backs on God's Sabbath and insist on keeping Sunday instead, will, in the days just preceding the coming of Christ, receive the mark of the beast.
I hasten to say that no one has yet received the mark of the beast. Only when we are required by law to keep Sunday and to desecrate the Sabbath, will those who choose to ignore God's Sabbath and obey human laws instead—only then will they receive the mark of the beast.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi there,in the last days,say i was left on earth and i was a believer of God..would i able to tell from the mark of the beast and from God,who belongs with who?
thank you
greg

Answer
Gregg,

The seal of God and the mark of the beast will be received before the coming of Jesus, and after His coming there will be no one left behind. Everyone will either go with Jesus to Heaven, or will be incinerated by His coming.

When Jesus comes, it will not be a snatching away, leaving some behind. Those who are saved will be drawn up to meet Jesus in the air in an audible, visible, tangible occurance (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Those who are NOT ready to meet Him will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming (cf 2 Thess. 2:8 with Rev. 19:11ff).

I also suggest that you re-read the answer I gave to your former question. The seal of God is placed on those who are loyal to God and keep His commandments (Rev. 12:17; 14:12, et. al.)--the fourth of which requires worshiping God on the seventh day Sabbath: Saturday (Exodus 20:8-11).

The mark of the beast is placed upon those who refuse to obey God's law and, instead, attempt to worship Him on a day of their own choosing--whether it be Friday or Sunday or any other day.

I suggest that you read my book "When the Devil Goes to Jail" on my web site, www.PettyPress.com

You might also enjoy reading "The Great Controversy," also on my web site, to gain a better understanding of the "big picture."

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
Thurman@PettyPress.com