Chapter 6

Blasphemy of the Mark

of the Beast

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is perhaps the least understood and most feared teaching of the Bible. There is a forgivable unbelief that is based on ignorance and there is an unforgivable unbelief that will harden your heart, making it impossible to repent and believe in God. Herein lies the difference: If you read a Bible verse and choose not to believe it, that is forgivable, but if the Holy Spirit reveals the meaning of His word to you, and you choose not to believe it, then you will be guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In your heart you know it’s true, because the Spirit of truth revealed it to you. If you have experienced the Holy Spirit firsthand and then turned away from Him, it qualifies as a type of blasphemy from which you cannot repent. You cannot re-believe what God has revealed to you after casting it to the ground and trampling it underfoot with your unbelief.

It is not recorded that Adam ever apologized to God for rebelling against Him. He didn’t apologize because he wasn’t sorry. People have asked, ‘Did Adam go to heaven?” The answer is a resounding no, because Adam walked with God in the garden, making his sin in the likeness of Lucifer, who committed the unpardonable sin. We know that Lucifer has no place for repentance, who sinned in the very presence of God, hence the difference between man and demon. God wants to draw a very definitive line, using His presence in the great endtime revival to make a distinction between those who will follow Him and those who will commit the unpardonable sin and reject Him in full knowledge. We are fortunate that we have never seen God at any time; for that reason our sin is less than the sin of Adam, hence pardonable. It is for this reason the world will hate us, for they will know that manifesting Jesus Christ through the Great Endtime Revival will increase their sin of rejecting God a hundredfold. 

Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt 23:33  KJV). Jesus was saying that their fate was already sealed; there was nothing they could do to appeal to God’s mercy for stepping over the line. The question is: what did they do to step over the line? They stood in the presence of Jesus Christ, though He was clothed in common flesh, they witnessed His miracles, signs and wonders, and listened to the word of God in all its purity; they knew He was their Messiah, yet they hardened their hearts and refused to believe what they knew was true that they were face to face with the God of creation. Luke 20-17,18 says, “What is this then that is written, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” KJV. They knew He was the Son of God but refused to believe in Him. In the same way, God will empower His church in the last days and especially His two witnesses to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are witnesses to a divine act of God in the last days of the church, and prove that those whom they are persecuting to the death are the children of God, yet they will harden their hearts and continue to martyr them in spite of the evidence, securing their fate by taking the mark.

Taking the Mark of the Beast is equivalent to blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Millions will commit this unpardonable sin, searing the reprobate mind in their conscience as with a hot branding iron. Their fate will be sealed still alive in the body. They will have lost the ability to repent of their unbelief, according to Heb 12-16,17, “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears” NIV. 

"He answered, `Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "`No, father Abraham,' he said, `but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"  (Luke 16:27-31  NIV).

This is one of Jesus’ most amazing statements, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.’ He was exonerating the word of God, implying that it is more persuasive than a man coming from beyond the grave with a message from God. This statement moreover testifies against the reprobate mind in that no matter what happens or who brings the message, the reprobate mind will not repent of its unbelief. The reprobate Pharisees were incomprehensible to Jesus, just as the psychopath is incomprehensible to the scientific community. They have delved into his brain and looked for abnormalities and found none; the justice system agrees, calling him sane in a court of law, except that certain tests on the brain have proven that critical regions regulating empathy, remorse and other important emotions are far less active than in healthy brains. Clearly there are spiritual powers underfoot here. Instead of mother and father having a positive impact on his developing brain as a child, demons have manipulated him and turned him into a heartless monster. The antichrist is leader of such people.

The reprobate mind is incapable of repentance; a person becomes a slave to his unbelief. 2 Peter 2:19 says, “Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved” NASB. The reprobate mind thinks identically to Satan, in that he too has no intension of repenting from his plan to one day overthrow God’s throne. We know his vision will never be realized, but Satan actually believes it is possible, being lost in his own grandiose mental image of himself. This is the Bible’s account of “deceiving and being deceived” (1Tim 3-13). After Lucifer received the entire universe as his inheritance and then threw it all away for a chance at God’s throne, it is understandable that he would find it difficult to accept that he will never be God, but refusing to accept this fact is a departure from reality. The reprobate mind is just as lost in his ego and just as departed from reality. If someone were to rise from the dead with a message for Satan, he would not listen, illustrating the resemblance of the reprobate to the devil. While we are alive in the flesh we still have the opportunity to repent and believe in Jesus, but the reprobate is an exception to this. The reprobate has already been judged and condemned to the eternal flames, before he dies in the flesh; for when God gives up on you, you’re already in hell (Mat 23:32-36).

Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  (John 10,22-26  NIV).

These verses expose just how dense the reprobate mind is to God and His truth. Jesus had to remind them that he performed innumerous miracles in their presence, but they still had to ask Him if He was the Christ. They didn’t know because they didn’t want to know. During Jesus’ mock-trial the high priest asked Him the same question, putting the words in Jesus’ mouth, “tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God,” and Jesus answered them, “You have said it yourself…” (Matt 26:63,64). They spoke the very words that would have saved them if they could have only believed. To them it was the wrong answer, because they didn’t want Him as their messiah. They were used to people respecting them as their spiritual leaders, but Jesus found fault with them and rebuked them openly, revealing them as religious cowards. Jesus was a man who had all the earmarks of their Messiah, except that He didn’t speak their language, and they hated Him for it. This reprobate mentality that finds the thoughts of his own mind more fascinating than God's truth is quickly developing within society today, and is preparing for the great day of Satan. When the antichrist reveals himself, they will immediately clamor to him as a moth is drawn to a flame. He will be a match to their unbelief, which itself is a product of Satan.

The mark of the beast is essentially a ticket to eternal damnation to whoever receives it. People will know exactly what they are doing when they receive it. You cannot accidentally lose your soul like you would misplace a pair of socks. In every respect they will be trading any hope of eternal life for a glimmer of hope that their temporal lives might return to normal if they take the mark, and enjoy a few more years of their fleeting lives before they must give an account to God for the lousy decisions they’ve made. They will know what they are doing is wrong, but they will partition in their minds what they are doing to keep from understanding the truth about themselves. The mark’s direct association with pure evil signifies that it represents everything God hates, including and especially the martyring of His saints. Therefore, everyone will know that it is the mark of Satan, and to receive it is to cast their vote in favor of eliminating whomever the beast deems a threat to his kingdom, specifically Jews and Christians.

The world has seen many evil days that have not precipitated the fulfillment of endtime prophecy. God has turned a blind eye without lifting a finger to stop the mayhem of past bloodbaths, because it did not involve the wholesale slaughter and attempted mass extinction of His people. Even the slaughter of the Jews in Hitler’s holocaust did not evoke God’s judgment on Germany the way He intends to judge the world in the last days, because the Jews did not believe in Him (see Deuteronomy 28). The world can kill each other as much as they want, and God will not interfere with the rights He gave mankind to exercise their own will, but when people organize a campaign of mass genocide against His beloved people, who are serving Him in Spirit and Truth, whose cries are bleating in His ears, He will rise from His glorious throne to deliver them, and when he does, I pity my own executioner.

Hence, for the mark to take on the meaning of absolute evil implies that it is directly associated with the killing of Jews and Christians, dictating the fact that martyrdom is underway before the mark is introduced, which also carries with it the implication that a spiritual revival far greater than the glory of the early church is underway before the world organizes a scheme to purge Christians from Satan’s New World Order. An accurate scenario of endtime events involves Satan playing a manic game of catch-up with God, who forces Satan to be constantly on the hustle, trying to stifle the saints who are awakening from their millennial slumber and shining the light of God’s truth in the eyes of the world and testifying against their leader. Nevertheless, the world will continue in the ways of evil, completely ignoring the signs, just as the Pharisees ignored the signs pointing to Jesus’ true identity, and God will use His church to prove the world is following the devil himself.

At this point it looks as though God is doing nothing to prepare for Satan’s wrath, but when He does go to work, He will muster His people very quickly. Without a revival there would be no reason to kill Christians, since the current complacency of the church is hardly a threat to Satan’s kingdom. Rather, the complacency of the church was the very tool Satan used to establish his world dominance in the first place. Miracles, signs and wonders will suddenly become commonplace among His people, causing the world to understand that God is living and working among the very people the antichrist is trying to destroy. This will cause his mark to be directly associated with mass genocide of the saints, and will engender the reprobate mind within society. They will know it is God’s people they are trying to destroy, but will cast their vote against them just the same by receiving the mark. The world will follow the path of the Pharisees who required the death of Christ even after they stood in His presence and heard His words and witnessed His healing power that proved His identity. So it will be in the last days that God will give His people authority to prove their identity as His precious saints by performing signs, wonders and miracles in the presence of their enemies. The world will close their hearts to them and to the truth, and forge ahead with their plan to destroy them without the slightest remorse. Therefore, taking the mark of the beast will become a person’s ticket to hell to those who receive it.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.  Rom 1:18-32  KJV

There will be no doubt about this man being the antichrist, no doubt the people they are murdering are the children of God, and no doubt that taking the mark is their vote to side with pure evil. It will be as in the days of the Egyptians who saw the signs coming from Aaron’s staff with Moses telling Pharaoh to let his people go. When the Red Sea opened and the children of Israel walked across it as though on dry land, the Egyptians fool heartily followed after them and paid the price with their lives. They should have known better than to venture into a miracle that was intended for the very people they were trying to destroy. So it will be in the last days that God will pour out His grace among His people, and when the world lays their hands on the children of God after witnessing so many miracles, they will bring down the judgment on themselves. There is one more reason the mark of the beast will automatically condemn anyone who takes it, because God said it would in Rev 14,9-12. All you have to do is read it for yourself in the Bible. Those who take the mark Jesus said, “It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Matt 26:24 NASB).

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.  (Rev 14:9-12 NIV)

After so many Christians have been sacrificed on Satan’s altar of deception the mid-tribulation rapture will finally occur as though tardy. Those who are serving Satan will make up a story to explain what happened to everybody, all the while knowing the truth in their hearts. They will believe their own made up stories, conveniently forgetting the day and hour they fabricated them. It says that signs were given to the false prophet to deceive the inhabitants of the earth in order that all might believe in the antichrist. Although the world was well acquainted with the signs of the two witnesses, nothing they do will impress them, but the false prophet will impress them.

Instead of being persuaded by the two witnesses, people will send gifts to each other after they are killed (Rev 11:10). The world will interpret their death as proof that the two witnesses were inferior to the dragon who killed them, and inferior to his antichrist, who ordered their death and inferior to his false prophet, who financed the campaign to destroy everything that represents God in the world. After the two witnesses come back to life and are raised to heaven in the presence of their enemies, the whole world will effectively erase it from their minds. No doubt after their bodies began to stir and they stood on their feet, they will call it yet another hoax. They will no doubt pay someone a lot of money to make up a story just like they did about Jesus’ resurrection, saying that his disciples came and took Him away while the guards were asleep (Matt 28:11-15). The world will believe whatever they are told, because they were not chosen to inherit the kingdom of God; they will never once consider believing in Jesus.

The false prophet ordered a statue set up for the world to worship his image in honor of the first beast (the pope) whose fatal wound had been healed. The image of the beast will be like looking into a fire, where you lose the will to look away. He will be like Medusa in Greek mythology; if you look upon her, you turn to stone. People without a personal relationship with Christ will be hypnotized by his human attraction, and will fall to his global deception, and anyone who does not worship him will be killed. The man of lawlessness will establish his New World Order around his own image, and people will clamor to him. They will make their choice and call it life, but in the end it will be the way of death (Proverbs 16-25). The other choice is Jesus Christ, who is the opposite of man’s evil nature and Satan; to choose Christ is to choose eternal life, but initially it will be a choice of potential martyrdom. The book of Romans talks about figuratively dying to the flesh as a means of living in the spirit, but in the last days it may become literal (Rom 6:1-23).

One of the names of Satan is the Great Deceiver (2Jn 1-7). What they are really worshipping is money, which itself is the great deceiver. These will be times when the world will simply refuse to believe in anything beyond their money and their natural instincts of self-preservation without concern for the truth or their fellow man. Society already has this mentality. To them, their flesh is god. It says that power was given to his false prophet to give breath to the image of the beast, so it can speak and cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed. Can an inanimate object come to life? Of course not, it is another deception. The twisted part is that people will know it is not really alive, like their money, yet they will worship it anyway. To them it is better than worshipping the God of heaven.

The false prophet and the antichrist are analogous to king Ahab and his wife Jezebel. It says in 1Kings 16,29-33 that Ahab (the false prophet) did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any other king before him. He married Jezebel (representing the antichrist), a Sidonian, who subsequently influenced Ahab to worship and serve other gods (Baal – the dragon). Ahab was the one in authority, but Jezebel wielded the power of his kingship.

There was another woman who had the same spirit of Jezebel, who was responsible for the death of John the Baptist. Herodias, a woman of standing with the king, hated John the Baptist and had her daughter dance for Herod. The king asked the young dancer what she wanted in exchange for her beauty, offering her half his kingdom(Mat 14,1-12). She turned him down, though, at the request of her mother, who instructed her to ask instead for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herodias could not dance for the king herself, because she had no beauty of her own, just like Satan has no beauty of his own, but needs human slaves to do his bidding. In this case Herodias represents the false prophet and the beautiful girl represents the antichrist. 

Herodias could have been mother of the queen, but she sacrificed her potential status in society to satisfy her hatred for John the Baptist, who opposed the demon spirits that tormented her. What she did was unnatural to hate the Spirit of God over the love of money, power and prestige. This made her all the more dangerous and fearful. Even Elijah of the Old Testament was afraid of Jezebel after calling down fire from heaven; he ran for his life in dread of her. The antichrist and the false prophet will relate to each other very much like Ahab and Jezebel.

The antichrist is God’s opposite: God is love, so the antichrist will butcher the human race. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, so the antichrist is wayward, deceitful and murderous. Jesus obeyed His Father in every way, following Him even to the grave to secure victory over death for the sake of those who would believe in Him. In contrast, the antichrist is free of all laws, rules and human authorities and cares only for himself. Dan 11:21 says, “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom,” and Dan 11:37 says, “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all” (KJV). Instead of going through the proper channels to receive the kingdom, he will take it through flattery and intrigue. There is no limit to this man’s rebellion and arrogance.

In other words he will steal the world without allowing any man, culture, society or laws to preside over him. Nor will he rise from the ranks of human governments, but will be an entity of his own, like Melchizedec, who had neither father nor mother nor genealogy, “Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he abides a priest perpetually” (Heb 6:3). The priest Melchizedec, originally mentioned in Gen 14-18, is a type of Christ, but the antichrist is a counterfeit of Christ, who will claim to come from nowhere, respecting no religion, but will invoke his own religion of self-worship, and will require the world to believe in him. The religion of self-worship is already embedded in society, so when the false prophet requires humanity to worship him, it will be the same as worshipping self, for to worship self is to worship Satan. It is no wonder God will permanently close the door on man’s reign on earth and open a thousand year reign where Christ Himself is emperor, and He will create a heavenly environment on earth that man never came close to achieving, in fact he never even tried.

James R. Wuthrich

www.jeansbiblestudy.com