Devotional Thought of the Day:

¹⁰  Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹  And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Revelation 12:10-11 (NLT2)

¹  Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:1 (NLT2)

¹⁶  He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. ¹⁷  And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. ¹⁸  Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.   Revelation 13:16-18 (NLT2)

I knew it would happen eventually, that some well-meaning people who are anxious would tie the present pandemic into an end-times scenario. I’ve seen it happen before, after the Northridge Earthquake, and as we approached Y2K.

For the first few weeks, no one was really talking about it, now all of a sudden they are.  And the latest fears are that implanted microchips, and Bill Gates and vaccines will somehow enable Satan to drag you into hell. Unless you repent and buy into the teaching of a well-meaning pastor who bought into the theory from someone’s blog.

In order to reduce anxiety, let’s look at a few scriptures.

I will note for the record that I had had microchips in me since 1992 when I received my first Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. I also ran one of the early smart-card programs, as we rolled it out at Pepperdine University in the ’90s. Then, along with several Bible Scholars there, I looked into the claims that I was about to usher in the time of the Mark of the Beast.

I remember a lot of those conversations, and the talks we gave, and letters we answered.

Here is a short version of the points:

• Notice the “mark” is going to be put on your forehead or hand. Even if it were a physical mark, It wouldn’t be ingested, part of a vaccine.
• The definitions of the word in greek point at something carved, such as a seal, which is then stamped or impressed ( or branded) on someone.
• Just a few verses later, in Revelation 14:1, a mark is put on the forehead of the 144,00, a number representing all the people of God throughout history, the people who would praise God with all their voices.  If that mark is not considered a physical mark, why are we concerned its imitation would be?
• That mark/sign on the people of God is also found in the Old Testament, in Expdis 13:0, 16 In that case, the mark was a reminder of God’s work, that was also on the forehead and hand.
• So the mark and seal of the beast is simply a counterfeit of the mark given to those who believe and trust in the work of Jesus.

The kicker point is this, that in chapter 12 of Revelation before anything about the mark of the beast, it describes the victory already won by all the people of God. That is the first quote at the top.

There it says we defeated Satan by three things

• The blood of Jesus Christ, which takes care of every sin. No sin, no condemnation for those in Christ
• The word of their testimony – what is that?  Simple, our testimony is that Christ has died and risen, and we have been united to Him in both.  (like the mark, this is a reference to baptism – see Romans 6, 2 Corinthians 1:22, Colossians 2 and Ephesians 1:14)
• They didn’t count their lives as so important, because they trusted in Jesus’ victory over death.

If those who worried and wrote about this mark of the beast took the time to realize that their victory over Satan was already won by Jesus and that nothing he could do would steal it from us (Romans 8:38), then they could spend more time rejoicing in that! They could spend more time loving their neighbor, and sharing the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, hope that is incorruptible,  hope that eternal, hope that is based on God’s faithfulness.

Relax, look to the cross, see the love of God, and trust in Him!

He has won the victory, your victory!