- Nov 21, 2008
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Here we begin "fact finding" not wild trips into fantasy and fiction inserted into the text.
Premise:
Noah "predicted" the time and events of the flood. Learning about it "after the fact" would not have helped any contemporaries in his day and age.
John the baptizer predicted events regarding the first coming of the Messiah -- Jews of his day that remained uninformed - paid a big price for that choice.
The Rev 13 and Rev 14 text is structured in the form of a severe warning... this is clear from the text. Warnings don't do much good at all if they can only be understood after the crisis event they speak of - has passed and all victims already totaled.
God can be trusted to have our best interest in mind and to be fully capable of communicating accurate details to mankind.
=================== begin by observing fairly obvious facts
Rev 13
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 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. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 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, 17 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.
18 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.
Rev 13 is important no question about it.
1. 666 is "the number of his name", "the number of a man", "his number is 666" -- which was something practiced at the time of John - by virtue of the fact that Latin names (Roman names under the Roman empire) used that Latin alphabet where some letters are also the symbols of numbers in their number system.
In this case John tells that the number of his name/title adds up to 666. So then we are given the clue that it may well be one of the many examples of that - which is correct.
2. A mark in the forehead implies that the person agrees with whatever the action is that they are asked to do. But if it is "in the hand" then it means they do not agree with the idea but are doing it anyway under force or compulsion.
3. The force and/or compulsion is listed in the text "No one may buy or sell except he who has the mark".
4. The mark has to be also in a tangible form so that buying and selling is prohibited by observing that a given person does or does not have the required mark.
5. The time when it is given out is determined by Rev 12 and 13 events.
6. The precondition that one must accept/agree-to in order to get the mark - has to be a sin. That way whoever has the mark has committed that sin. And that precondition is stated in the text as a act of worship, or pertaining to an act of worship that is deemed "Worship the beast or his image".
7. In Revelation 7:1-10 we have the "seal of God" put on the saints. In Rev 13 we have the mark of the beast - placed on the wicked.
8. Sin in the NT is defined as "transgression of the Law of God" 1 John 3:4
9. Revelation 14 contrasts the saints "who keep the Commandment of God and their faith in Jesus" Rev 14:12 - as compared to "Those who worship the beast and/or his image and receive the mark" Rev 14:11. A direct contrast.
10. In Rev 14 the last warning message to the world before the end of the world described in Rev 14:14-20 is a message about God's judgment hour having already come, and warning against those who worship the beast, his image or who receive the mark of the beast.
11. Rev 13 is predicting a future event. That event is after the 1260 years of the dark ages discussed in Rev 12 and also mentioned in Rev 13. But it is before the 2nd coming.
12. Rev 13 points to false worship - the worship of the beast and his image as sin that pertains to the mark of the beast. But Mark 7:6-13 shows how sin that invalidates the attempt at true worship of the true God - can exist.
"In the hand or the forehead" according to Revelation 13 -- so the contrast for the wicked is between those who accept it in the hand vs the forehead. Not "in the right hand vs the left hand"
Premise:
Noah "predicted" the time and events of the flood. Learning about it "after the fact" would not have helped any contemporaries in his day and age.
John the baptizer predicted events regarding the first coming of the Messiah -- Jews of his day that remained uninformed - paid a big price for that choice.
The Rev 13 and Rev 14 text is structured in the form of a severe warning... this is clear from the text. Warnings don't do much good at all if they can only be understood after the crisis event they speak of - has passed and all victims already totaled.
God can be trusted to have our best interest in mind and to be fully capable of communicating accurate details to mankind.
=================== begin by observing fairly obvious facts
Rev 13
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 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. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 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, 17 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.
18 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.
Rev 13 is important no question about it.
1. 666 is "the number of his name", "the number of a man", "his number is 666" -- which was something practiced at the time of John - by virtue of the fact that Latin names (Roman names under the Roman empire) used that Latin alphabet where some letters are also the symbols of numbers in their number system.
In this case John tells that the number of his name/title adds up to 666. So then we are given the clue that it may well be one of the many examples of that - which is correct.
2. A mark in the forehead implies that the person agrees with whatever the action is that they are asked to do. But if it is "in the hand" then it means they do not agree with the idea but are doing it anyway under force or compulsion.
3. The force and/or compulsion is listed in the text "No one may buy or sell except he who has the mark".
4. The mark has to be also in a tangible form so that buying and selling is prohibited by observing that a given person does or does not have the required mark.
5. The time when it is given out is determined by Rev 12 and 13 events.
6. The precondition that one must accept/agree-to in order to get the mark - has to be a sin. That way whoever has the mark has committed that sin. And that precondition is stated in the text as a act of worship, or pertaining to an act of worship that is deemed "Worship the beast or his image".
7. In Revelation 7:1-10 we have the "seal of God" put on the saints. In Rev 13 we have the mark of the beast - placed on the wicked.
8. Sin in the NT is defined as "transgression of the Law of God" 1 John 3:4
9. Revelation 14 contrasts the saints "who keep the Commandment of God and their faith in Jesus" Rev 14:12 - as compared to "Those who worship the beast and/or his image and receive the mark" Rev 14:11. A direct contrast.
10. In Rev 14 the last warning message to the world before the end of the world described in Rev 14:14-20 is a message about God's judgment hour having already come, and warning against those who worship the beast, his image or who receive the mark of the beast.
11. Rev 13 is predicting a future event. That event is after the 1260 years of the dark ages discussed in Rev 12 and also mentioned in Rev 13. But it is before the 2nd coming.
12. Rev 13 points to false worship - the worship of the beast and his image as sin that pertains to the mark of the beast. But Mark 7:6-13 shows how sin that invalidates the attempt at true worship of the true God - can exist.
"In the hand or the forehead" according to Revelation 13 -- so the contrast for the wicked is between those who accept it in the hand vs the forehead. Not "in the right hand vs the left hand"
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