The Coming Mark.
A spending bill recently passed congress that gave more funds to the war on terror. According to those who keep track of these things, there was also a rider on this bill that gives the government the permission to issue a Federal ID card. Some web sites have made a big deal over this and believe that what we have been forecasting for many years is now happening before our very eyes. What prophetic significance is a national ID card which everyone must use to transact any federal business, board commercial transportation, pay taxes, etc.? That is a good question.
There are two issues in Revelation 13 concerning the mark of the beast. One is the issue of worship. The other is how the decree to worship is implemented. People often get the two issues confused as though they are one. Since God will hold all accountable who willing receive the mark of the beast, we know that it has to do with the violation of His law. We also know that it has to do specifically with those parts of God’s law that define worship. The Ten Commandments tell whom to worship, how to worship, and when to worship. The issue for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to do with the how to worship and Who to worship—they were told to bow down to an image, and they refused. Many believe that the issue in the last days will be over the when to worship. The composite beast of Revelation 13 represents the many powers through which Satan has worked to implement his rebellion against the law of God. According to Revelation 13, one of its heads was wounded, but the deadly would was healed. We believe, according to traditional Protestant interpretation, that the one head that was wounded and is being healed in non other that the papacy which ruled for 1260 years. It has a mark of authority. By its own claim, it says that its rulings are above Scripture, that Christ gave Peter the authority to add and delete, and that its successful change of the Sabbath’s sacredness from Saturday to Sunday is proof of the claim. In other words, the Protestants who follow the Catholics in making Sunday the primary day of worship give credibility to the Catholic’s claim to be able to change even God’s
directives. That is why Sunday is the papacy’s mark of authority.
“Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January, 1562, all hesitation was set aside: the Archbishop of Reggio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition stood above scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of Scriptures because the church had changed… the Sabbath into Sunday, not by a command, but by its own authority.” H. H. Hostzman, Cannon and Tradition, p. 263.
“Sunday is founded, not on Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic Institution.” Catholic Record, Sept 17, 1893.
“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act…and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.” Thomas (Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons), letter, Oct. 28, 1895
“Sunday is our mark of authority… The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.” Catholic Record, London, Ontario, Sept. 21, 1893
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the church ever did happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday… not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power.” Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995.
The mark is the beast’s mark. It represents its symbol of power. When informed people willingly follow in that tradition and trample on the Bible Sabbath, they receive (accept) the beast’s mark, or the “mark of the beast.”
Revelation 13 says that the government will enforce the mark. In other words, those who rule will force all to worship on Sunday and not to worship on any other day. This may seem hard to picture but it has happened before. When times get desperate and the government seeks for ways to return America back to receiving God’s blessing, they will go about it in the wrong way. Making the 10 Commandments the law of the land will not return us to the favor of God. God has favored this nation because of the principles of freedom, not because we all worship Him. God is sold out on the idea of freedom of choice. If He were not we would not be in this test period for Lucifer’s philosophies.
When Sunday observance is enforced, the Bible says that no one will be able to buy or sell unless they receive the beast’s mark. There will be an economic boycott against the non-conformists. I am sure that there will be very sophisticated methods of tracking who cannot buy and sell. But, the methods of implementation are not the mark. The mark is Sunday. How it is enforced is of little consequence. If any person determines, as Daniel and his three friends did, not to be defiled by following the traditions and conventions of man in violation of God’s law, they do not need to worry about whether the government passed a bill to have a national ID card or not. It really doesn’t matter. The government has a job to do—to protect us from the evil designs of terrorist. If tracking every person in the United States with a federal ID card helps fight terrorism, than so be it. This is nothing to be concerned about. In fact, we ought to cooperate with the government. Democracy is the last environment under which the philosophies of Satan will be tested. It will be demonstrated that in the environment of sin, no governmental system works— even democracy. The combination of freedom with the advance of sin and technology is fatal. We probably would all have been dead some time ago if God was not holding back the winds of strife. So, as our government struggles to get a handle on the new threats, we should watch and be mindful that we are in the closing period of earth’s history.
Don’t let the beast’s mark and the implementation of it get confused.
Until next week,
Dennis
www.dennispumford.com
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