What is the Beast of Revelation and Its Mark?

The prophet Daniel gave us a 2300-year prophecy that spanned up to the year 1844, depicting when the end-times of earth's history would begin.

There are several prophecies in the book of Revelation that tell us about the very last days and the signs to look for and with these comes a severe warning of the consequences of taking the Mark of the Beast Revelation 14:10-11 "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name".

It also tells us that those who take the Mark were deceived Revelation 19:20 "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast...".

This shows clearly that the Mark of the Beast will not be something obvious. Those who take the Mark of the Beast on their hand (depicting their actions) or on their forehead (depicting their decisions) will do it unknowingly, because they have not studied the prophecies and have not known what to look out for.

Many people don't realize also that there are two marks, the mark of the beast and the mark or seal of God, and that both of these marks revolve around worship. Revelation shows that those who love and worship God, honouring Him in the way He has requested will be sealed with His Mark by the angels.

The Bible shows that the difference between the two groups of people is that the followers of God are the ones who keep all of His Ten Commandments Revelation 14:11-12 "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus".

This proves then that the Mark of the Beast cannot be a microchip or a tattoo of 666 as some have suggested. The Mark of the Beast, in line with the rest of the book of Revelation is symbolic.

The mark on our forehead reflects our conscious decisions to either follow God, or to disobey Him. When it speaks about Christians living forever in the New Heaven and New Earth it says that we will have His name on our foreheads, again being symbolic not literal Revelation 22:4-5 "And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads..."

The Beasts (prophetically a political or religious ruling power) have been identified as political-religious governments that follow apostate (non-Biblical) doctrines and inflict persecution on the true followers of God, who obey His commandments.

The First Beast is a historical figure and was identified by many of our early church founders as the Roman Catholic Church, as she met all of the prophetic criteria given in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Martin Luther aptly conveyed the sentiments of the Protestant reformers when he said "We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist...personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist." (Aug. 18, 1520) Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 2., pg. 121 by Froom.

The Second Beast, which is yet to emerge has been acknowledged by many leading Bible scholars as being a merging of State and Religion in America at some stage in the future.

What was the Mark of the First Beast? The Catholic Church in much of its literature claims that changing the Sabbath to Sunday is the "Mark of her authority".

The Seal of God, His Name (Lord), Title (Creator) and Realm (Heaven and Earth) are referenced within His Fourth Commandment to keep His Seventh Day Sabbath and as we are clearly shown those who are true to God will be keeping ALL of His commandments.

Revelation also speaks of the First Beast as a Mother, meaning that she has daughter churches and in effect the Protestant churches who follow the apostate teaching of observing Sunday as the day of worship instead of the "Friday evening to Saturday evening" Sabbath of the Bible, are making themselves the daughters of the 'Harlot Woman riding the Beast' of Revelation unawares.

This does in no way mean that God does not have His faithful people in many denominations today. To the contrary, there are many true and faithful believers who are simply ignorant to the fact that they are breaking one of God's sacred commandments by not upholding His true Sabbath day. But Revelation tells us that God will call these people out of the apostate churches and into His final remnant church Revelation 18:4 "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues".