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