What You Need to Know
The Bible talks about a mark people will get in their right hand or forehead during the tribulation called the mark of the beast.
The beast is the antichrist. When a person receives this mark, it shows their worship of the antichrist. The false prophet will be performing miraculous signs and will be causing many around the world to take this mark. Without this mark, people won’t be able to buy anything (including groceries), and neither will they be able to work at a job.
Once an individual has received this mark, that person has lost his or her salvation (the biblical reasoning behind this will be discussed in part 2). During the tribulation the decisions you make may cause you to lose your life, but through Jesus you are able to save your soul.
The mark of the beast will not happen until after the rapture. Even though true Christians will not be present on earth, it’s important we all understand what this is so that we can warn our family and friends who may not have a relationship with the Lord. Things are happening now that are setting the stage for the mark. When people see Bible prophecy coming to pass, it should be a wake-up call for all of us to get ready.
Once the rapture happens, all kinds of evil will break loose. Those who did not fully give their hearts to God prior to the rapture will be left behind to endure a time of terrible distress on the earth. If they survive the initial chaos of the rapture, they will still have an opportunity to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but the circumstances for doing so post-rapture will be much more difficult. There will be immense persecution. As Matthew 24:9 states, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
The False Prophet Will be Persuasive
In the same way that God places a mark or a seal on someone (Revelation 9:4), the devil will also place a mark on the hand or forehead of those who belong to him. He will use the antichrist (AKA the first beast) and the false prophet (AKA the second beast) to accomplish this. The false prophet will be the one in charge of getting the masses to worship the antichrist and to take what the Bible calls the mark of the beast.
A prophet is someone who speaks divinely inspired words. Since he is a false prophet, that means he is not speaking the words of God.
Revelation 13:11, “Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.”
Jesus is the Lamb of God, and Satan is known as a dragon. The false prophet may appear gentle and religious due to the lamb reference, but he will be speaking words of the devil since he is speaking like a dragon.
Satan is going to use the antichrist and false prophet to display his power. The false prophet will perform signs and wonders to convince people to take this mark.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.”
Miracles can be very convincing to get someone to follow false teaching. I see people who are convinced that the apparitions of Mary are from God because miracles are taking place. Tears roll down the face of the statue, and people are ready to believe them as a divine sign. If you want to read a good book about those apparitions, I recommend Messages from Heaven by Jim Tetlow.
Miracles are not only performed by God. The devil taps into the supernatural to lead many astray.
- Revelation 13:2-4, The devil has a throne, power and great authority, and he uses it.
- Revelation 16:14, The Bible says demon spirits perform signs.
- Matthew 7:22, People who don’t know the Lord can prophecy, cast out demons and perform miracles.
- Matthew 24:24, False Christs and prophets can perform great signs and wonders that even believers could possibly fall for.
- Exodus 8:7, Pharaoh’s wise men performed a lot of the same signs Moses and Aaron were able to do through God. They called up Frogs.
- Exodus 7:21-22, The wise men turned water into blood.
- Exodus 7:11-12, Aaron threw his staff down and it turned into a snake. Pharaoh’s men threw down their staffs, and they turned into snakes. Aaron’s snake swallowed up the wise men’s snakes. Satan will imitate God and his miracles, but Jesus is always more powerful.
It’s possible the devil may cause it to look like there was a resurrection or miraculous healing of the antichrist. The false prophet will then point to the antichrist for the world to worship him.
Revelation 13:12, “And he 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.”
The false prophet will also be persuasive, as is evidenced in Revelation 13:13-14: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast….”
The Mark and Its Consequences
Now that the false prophet has everyone’s attention, people will believe him, and he will convince people to take the mark of the beast.
Revelation 13:16-18, “He 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 one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 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 666.”
It sounds like everyone, no matter their status in life, will be required to get this mark if they want to buy or sell anything. Sell could mean work. You’re selling your services or a product to make a living.
Imagine not being able to work or allowed to buy anything to feed your family. People will be tempted to take this mark for their survival or the survival of their loved ones.
The Bible says that when they take the mark, they will break out in horrible sores all over their body. Revelation 16:2, “The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.” Revelation 16:11 says they will curse God due to their sores.
Festering sores or boils, as some translations say, will be the least of their problems. The Bible says that those who receive this mark will be sealing their fate to everlasting damnation in hell. This might be the only time in history that a living person cannot repent and be saved.
Revelation 14:9-11, “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 sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.'”
Revelation 13:8, “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
Most likely, the mark will probably have a person’s financial and medical information within it. We have seen technology increase so much that we have the ability to implant a device such as the Radio Frequency Identification chip (RFID), which is the size of a grain of rice, under someone’s skin. It can hold all your personal data, from credit cards to health history. The mark could be an invisible tattoo that has something like a bar or a QR code they can scan. There’s currently something in the works where invisible ink is placed in the arm of a person who gets a vaccine. The tattoo on their arm will highlight with a smartphone app or an inferred light.
We can only speculate what the mark will be since the Bible is not specific and technology is changing every day. What we do know is that we will recognize the mark because it will be in the right hand or forehead and you will not be able to buy or sell without it.
Endure Till the End
It won’t be easy to reject the mark of the beast, especially if your family is hurting. I guarantee they would rather have you in heaven with them than for you to receive this mark to save them from a temporary situation that probably won’t end well anyway. Don’t be tempted to do it for them.
Beheadings will be more common in the tribulation. As it is, we already see beheadings taking place in other countries because people are refusing to deny Jesus. It will get much worse, but if people are strong enough to die for Jesus, they will reign with him after the tribulation.
Revelation 20:4, “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
As tempting as it may be to deny Jesus, don’t do it!
Matthew 10:32-33, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Hell on earth is temporary and will end the moment you die and are brought into the loving arms of your Savior, but the real hell is far worse than you imagined, and it’s permanent. A billion years from now, you will still be there.
Matthew 25:46, “And these [the cursed] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 24:13, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'”
Jesus had to endure the cross, but he was able to do that by looking toward the future.
Hebrews 12:2, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Revelation 2:10, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
You can endure as well. The bigger picture of eternal glory with Christ puts our present sufferings in a different perspective.
Your sister in Christ,
Jenny