Lesson # 21 - The Mark of Beast # 666  - Code: MB; blue.

The most terrible threat of God's anger found anywhere in the Bible is that directed against those who will accept the mark of the Beast. It is only fair that God reveals to us what it is so that we can avoid it. We believe He has revealed this to us.

1. Rev.14:9-11 - Who warns against the beast, his image, and his mark?

Where is the Mark of the Beast received?

Rev.l4:9. 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,  10. 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: 11. 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.

   --- This third angel's message joins the two others of Rev.14:6-8. These are all a part of the everlasting gospel that goes to the world before Jesus returns. They are God's last three warnings! The first calls for worship of the Creator and points out the time of the judgment, when the Great Creator-Savior brings every human action into review. The second warns about the fall of the "Babylon" churches who have departed from Jesus and his high moral standards. The third warning is the subject of this lesson. Then Rev.14:12 describes those who have responded to these messages and are ready for Jesus to come!

   --- When Jesus comes there will be only two classes: - (1) Creator worshipers, and (2) "Beast" worshipers..

2. Rev.7:2-3 - Here is another startling message given before Jesus returns. To whom is this given?

What needs to be done before angels of destruction are allowed to pour out their plagues?

Where is the seal of the living God put upon his people?

Rev.7: LB 2. And I saw another angel coming from the east, carrying the Great Seal of the Living God. And he shouted out to those four angels who had been given power to injure earth and sea, "Wait!" 3. "Wait! Don't do anything yet---hurt neither earth nor sea nor trees---until we have placed the Seal of God upon the foreheads of his servants."

    --- The forehead would represent the mind. "I will put my laws into their mind," was God's new covenant promise! (Heb.8:10) A concordance word study of "mark", "sign", and "seal" shows that the meanings are very much the same. They all mean: - a signal, flag, beacon, sign, token, a signature, desire, imprint, seal, stamp, (as a badge of servitude). The "Mark of the Beast" seems to be a counterfeit of the "Seal of God". Let us review the contrasting points:

3. Isa.8:16 - What is to be sealed in the hearts of God's disciples?

Isa.8: NKJ - 16. Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.

   --- Allow the law to be sealed (imprinted, stamped, marked, or signed) into your mind! The seal of God in His law needs to be in the minds of his children. (All laws need to be sealed or notarized with a signature of the one in power in order to have authority!) Every seal has three requirements of identification: the name, the title, and the territory ruled. Search The Ten Commandments for the Seal of God and you will find it only in the fourth commandment: His name -"The Lord God"; His title - "made" (Maker or Creator); His territory - "heaven and earth…and all that in them is" (Ex.20:8-11) Except for this command that starts with the word "remember" the Decalogue could apply to any heathen god. This fourth commandment is the signature of the author. It gives the entire law authority, the authority of our great Creator. Therefore, the Seal of God is the seventh-day Sabbath!

4. Ex.31:13 - What was Sabbath-keeping a sign of?

Ex.31: 13. Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.

   ---Let God be your Sanctifier. Keep God's Sabbath as a sign (or seal) of sanctification.

5. Ex.31:17 - What else does it signify?

17. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

- - - Note Ex.31: LB 13. The Sabbath is a reminder of the covenant between me and you forever; it helps you to remember that I am Jehovah who makes you holy. 17. It is an eternal symbol of the covenant between me and the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh day, and was refreshed.

   ---  Let us keep the Sabbath as a sign of a six day creation and honor Jesus as the Creator-and -Lord of the Sabbath!

6. Ezek.20:20 - (Note v.12) When one keeps the Sabbath holy what does it show?

Ezek.20: 20. And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.

- - - Note Ezek.20: Moffatt - 20. Keep my sabbath sacred and let it mark the tie between us---to teach you that I am the Eternal your God.

- - Note Ezek.20: LB -- 12. And I gave them the Sabbath-a day of rest every seventh day as a symbol between them and me, to remind them that it is I, the Lord, who sanctifies them, that they are truly my people.

   --- It is a sign that you know the true God as your Lord! Therefore, the Sabbath is a seal between you and God that you are His child! Sabbath-keeping is the mark of God's authority in your life! It is the flag you fly showing your loyalty to his government. Let us lift high His banner of love by keeping the Sabbath holy!

8. Ezek.8:15-16;9:4-6 - What sinful abomination did the prophet foresee taking place within God's church?

Ezek.8: LB 15. "Have you seen this?" he asked. "But I will show you greater evils than these!" 16. Then he brought me into the inner court of the Temple and there at the door, between the porch and the bronze altar, were about twenty-five men standing with their backs to the Temple of the Lord, facing east, worshiping the sun!

Ezek.9: LB 4. And said to him, "Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who weep and sigh because of all the sins around them. 5. Then I heard the Lord tell the other men: "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead isn't marked. Spare not nor pity them-- 6. kill them all---old and young, girls, women and little children; but don't touch anyone with the mark. And begin right here at the Temple." And so they began by killing the seventy elders.

   ---God is warning His people that to turn their back on His temple and to worship the sun is a very serious crime! How concerned about wickedness will those who are sealed (in their forehead) be?

   --- They mourn over sins in the church and cry out against them. As surely as the Babylonian invasion brought death to God's leaders because they had turned to sun worship, even so death will come again to those who turn from the true Lord's day to the counterfeit sun's day. God wants Son worship not Sunday worship. Ezek.9 will have second fulfillment in the final days of earth's history according to Rev.7:2-3.

9. Mal.2:7-10 - What were God's ministers warned to keep?

What were they warned to seek?

Mal.2: 7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. 9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. 10. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

   --- But they failed and caused many to stumble because they were partial with God's law. They emphasized what pleased them and closed their eyes to other parts of the law. Revelation predicts that history will repeat itself.

10. Rev.13:16-17 - Where are people forced to receive the mark of the Beast?

Rev.13: 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

   --- The forehead represents the mind but the hand would represent a man's action or works without mental agreement. In other words some will believe in the mark but others will keep it only because they wish to buy bread. A review of lesson 20 shows that the Rev.13 Beast represented the Roman Papacy, and the Roman Papacy claims that their mark of authority is the Sunday institution.

   --- From the office of Cardinal Gibbons came this declaration: "Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change… [substituting the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day] was her act…and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things." Prophecy foretold of a counterfeit to God's Sabbath Seal. History confirms it, and the Roman Papacy boasts, "Yes, we did it! It is a mark of our power and authority!" - Our next lesson will show that God will not count Sunday observance against anyone as a mark of apostasy until it is enforced by law in opposition to His Sabbath.

11. Ezek.13:19,7-9 - What was the cause of spiritual decline (pollution) among God's people?

Ezek. 13: 19. And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

Ezek. 13: 7. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? 8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God. 9. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.

   --- The warning for us is clear. Don't allow yourself to be polluted by bribes or by lies! Don't listen to anyone that claims the Lord has said something when the Lord has not spoken!

12. 2 Tim.2:19 - What must every Christian move away from?

2 Tim.2: LB 19. But God's truth stands firm like a great rock, and nothing can shake it. It is a foundation stone with these words written on it: "The Lord knows those who are really his," and "A person who calls himself a Christian should not be doing things that are wrong."

13. Titus 1:13,16 - How do many deny God today?

Titus 1: LB 13. ...Speak to the Christians there as sternly as necessary to make them strong in the faith, 14. and to stop them from listening to...the demands of men who have turned their backs on the truth. 16. Such persons claim they know God, but from seeing the way they act, one knows they don't. They are rotten and disobedient, worthless so far as doing anything good is concerned

14. Heb.6:4-6 - What does a Christian do to Jesus when he gives up the truths and hopes that he once enjoyed?

Heb. 6: 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5. And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6. If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

   --- Giving up the true Sabbath for Sunday keeping is like choosing Barabbas and crucifying Jesus.

15. Mark 15:1-2,6-8,15-16 - Who did the religious leaders choose to release when Pilate gave them the choice? Who did they want to crucify?

Mark 15: TEV 1. Early in the morning the chief priests met hurriedly with the elders, the teachers of the Law, and the whole Council, and made their plans. They put Jesus in chains, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2. Pilate questioned him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "So you say." 6. At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for. 7. At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot. 8. When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favor. 15. Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed him over to be crucified.

   --- Listen! To reject the Seal of God is to reject the Son of God!

To accept the Sunday is to choose Barabbas, the thief and murderer.

The Ever Living, Life-giving Creator gave to the human family His own Son; and His own Son died as a sacrifice for our sins so that we might have eternal life. He lived a holy life to save us from a life of sin.

16. Rev.15:2-3 Who will sing the great victory song of all ages?

Rev. 15: 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King 0 saints.

   ---  If we expect to sing it - "Great and marvelous are thy works!" - in the coming kingdom we should practice singing it now. We do this when we keep the true Lord's day, the seventh-day Sabbath memorial of both creation and sanctification.

 May God help you choose the Creator instead of the Beast, choose Jesus instead of Barabbas, God's Seal instead of the Mark of the Beast, and present truth instead of passing lies..

         Edward Graves