Brand of the Animal
Mark of the Beast
The Brand of the Animal
And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
It is likely you have heard many speculations on what the mark of the beast could be in your generation. A great many physical things could be utilized to associate with a person and be instrumental in blocking or permitting that person to buy or sell. But consider another way of interpreting this symbolism of a brand on forehead or hand.
When Moses was reviewing the covenant with the second generation of Israelites coming out of Egypt about to cross the Jordan river and enter the Promised Land, he charged them to constantly consider the 10 Commandments and the applications of those principles. He uses the imagery of physically binding the words on their foreheads and hands. From Deuteronomy chapter six, verse six: These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Anyone could write words on their walls or tie scraps with writing on them to their body parts, but that, in itself, wouldn’t have a direct relation to what they thought with their heart and brain, or accomplished with their hands. But if the imagery is symbolic and refers to letting the Words, Law, and Commands of God govern how you think and what you do – this opens up a more practical interpretation of Revelation thirteen and twenty.
Whether or not the reference to the “mark of the beast” in the book of Revelation was some physical and visible apparatus fulfilled in the lead-up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in seventy A.D. or has yet to be fulfilled in a future tribulation – The symbolic contrast between letting the law of the Creature govern your thoughts and actions versus letting the Words of God govern – is valid in any age. Consistent preference for the word and law of Man over the Word of God is characteristic of unbelievers and not those who are being sanctified.
The threat of not being able to engage in commerce would be great pressure of persecution. It could be expected that only the strongest religious conviction could galvanize men to not comply with such requirements. Thought it does not explicitly state the condemnation of those who are willing to conform their thoughts and actions to human law, the implication is there in chapter twenty, that they will not take part in the First Resurrection, nor be able to reign with and under Jesus the Messiah in accordance with HIS law and Words.
The mention of the active reign of Jesus and the Believer’s participation in it, certainly reminds us of the administration of Daniel’s 4 sea-beasts – Babylon through Rome – in contrast to the Son of Man and the Stone cut out without hands. Does not Paul in Acts chapter 17, remind all men that in Christ’s resurrection, all men are put on notice that Christ is henceforth ruler of the kings of the earth, in that He is now the everlasting OWNER, which gives Him the right to judge all men, and that He will judge in accordance with His own perfect standards.
It is hard not to associate this idea of “mark” or “brand” with the global, electronic, biometric identification that the proponents of a supra-national government are eager to utilize. I got to thinking about what constitutes “identification”. I couldn’t help coming to the conclusion that what they want to do is more like a brand. Think of branding cows with a hot iron. Does that brand burned into the skin tell you who/what the cow is? Does it tell you whether it was a bull or cow, steer or beef? It doesn’t tell you who its parents were. It doesn’t tell you whether it was raised on mother’s milk or formula. It doesn’t tell you whether its purpose is to be food or to produce calves and milk. But it does tell you who it belongs to.
If you belong to Jesus in the special way we mean when we use the phrases “born again” or “regeneration”, then it is appropriate to let His words govern your thoughts and actions. But if you reject His ownership, then you will be claimed by the human group-ownership of Democracy which pretends to own all things – including people – on the principle of the “greatest good for the greatest number”, or “from each according to his ability to each according to his need”. Under this ideology of humanism, men and all things are “owned by the Collective thus the administrators of this claim naturally have the right to be in control of both you and all the goods and services you might want to trade for. This is already showing in the tax laws, Selective Service registration for potential Draft, and Eminent Domain.
During those two centuries of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers fought for the responsibility of the average man to interpret and submit directly to the Word of God and Jesus as God the Son and ascended Man as head of both church and civil governance. They risked poverty, incarceration, and execution for witnessing against the more popular notion that the Pope was God on earth, or that the nation’s king was God on earth. Such fallible humans were preferred as the effective lawgiver and judge. This pattern is evident in First Samuel chapters 8 and twelve. The men of Israel by and large preferred worshiping the goat-demons behind the idol statuary or a flawed, centralized human leader who would “eat out their substance” by excessive tax requirements – over the easy yoke of God’s righteous laws.
Now in our day, we are proud that we have evolved past the foolishness of having a one-man dictator as god-king. And, obviously, no one is so foolish to claim that a minority of men have sovereignty over defining our laws. Religion with its characterization of good and evil has been successfully disconnected from law and economics. So that leaves us with the Sovereignty of the Majority. This is why we have elections and the conviction that what the majority approves IS justice. What should the crimes and punishments be? What a majority votes for.
There is almost some truth in this, in that an Omniscient God does actually count individual votes perfectly. And He does give jurisdictions the kind of government they think they want, all the while warning them how they are NOT going to like it when they get it.
Back to our writing God’s commands on our foreheads and hands, letting His word govern our thoughts and actions results in only punishing the crimes He specifies, and only in the way He allows. By putting the responsibility on ALL the men of a culture, 20 years old and upward, able to participate in public justice against all enemies: foreign and domestic – this eliminates bloated salaries of government officers who are not incentivized to do an efficient job. Financial support of government functions is voluntary, as God’s law has no minimum tax rates, nor designated punishments for those who fail to support public justice. Instead of authorizing men to coerce others for not sufficiently supporting Godly government, He takes this upon Himself.
In the Noahic Covenant after the Genesis Flood, where human participation in the punishment of crime began, He promised to REQUIRE men to participate in punishing those who took ‘life’ away from humans made in His image. Consequently He will take away the common sense of a society who refuses to honor His laws, such that they foolishly exalt criminals to be masters over themselves who will not only punish the innocent and reward/protect the guilty, but set up unjust tax laws that punish those who refuse to support their criminal tyranny. You will see this predicted not just in Genesis nine, but later in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as well as First Samuel chapters eight and twelve. You should also see it in operation in your own generation and every other era, provided you can get good quality historical source documents.
These days, they call it: “Own nothing and be happy”. Paying rent on everything means you do not own it. And if you want to trade “their” Stuff, you will have to accept their “brand”. You will have to accept their definitions of good and evil, crime and punishment in order to participate in “their” economy. And to pay those rents called taxes, you will have to use the money they require you to use. You will have to let their words and laws govern how you think and what you have permission to do. But this is what you wanted, because you refused to have “this man” – Jesus the Messiah – to reign over you by His laws.
To get a thorough explanation of how this is being developed check out this Substack:
https://escapekey.substack.com/p/mark-of-the-beast
You will be able to see tedious detail of how Man (some men) are attempting to be God and setting up a hostile and separate law system which replaces God’s system of condition and consequence, crime and punishment, If-Then, blessings and cursings -- for the “management” of human thought, word, and action. If this new, artificial law-system works “better” than God’s, Man will get the glory of being the superior Judge, lawgiver, king(governor /enforcer of law), and Savior.
What are the chances?
Is. 33:22 For Yahweh is our judge,
Yahweh is our lawgiver,
Yahweh is our king;
He will save us—
