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FEAR THE MARK OF THE BEAST? – CHUCK CRISCO

FEAR THE MARK OF THE BEAST? – CHUCK CRISCO

By July 23, 2015 Uncategorized 0 Comments
Have you seen these kind of YouTube Headlines?

URGENT!! ILLUMINATI MARK OF THE BEAST!! EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS!!
Mark of the Beast: It’s not Coming. It is Here!
666. It Has Begun!
666 RFID Chip Mark of the Beast! 
Mark of the Beast Will Give You “SuperPowers”!

Are the fears of RFID chips and the mark of the beast really warranted? 

The scare tactics that arise from the misuse of Scripture are as varied as the phobias in a psych ward. Are Christians so gullible that they buy into this like a Christian version of the National Enquirer? Yes indeed.
Stop just for a moment and ask yourself: Should we ever be motivated by fear when perfect love casts out all fear? Are you gaining faith or embracing fear by the “mark of the beast” teachings?

MARK IT! THE HEBREW CONCEPT OF THE MARK-SEAL:

Much of the book of Revelation is paralleled in Ezekiel in content, outline and concept of judgment on Israel. Ezekiel 9:3-4 is a description of “the mark”:

3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; 4 and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

In this chapter an angel is dispatched to mark those who would be saved from the coming judgment. The mark was not a natural one, nor with tattoo ink, but was a spiritual identification as to who were authentically God’s faithful ones. Those who identified with the Lord, evidenced by their mourning for the sins of the city, were to be safe from the coming wrath in the form of Babylon’s destruction of the city.
The Hebrew concept of the seal, or the mark, was one which was spiritual. It was an identification of the remnant of Jerusalem whose hearts aligned with heaven.
Now, look at Revelation 14:1, 8-10,

“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads…
And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God…” 

Compare Ezekiel and Revelation:

1. Angels associated with the activity. 
2. A Remnant of Believing Jews (144,000) who are marked spiritually. 
Again notice the theme in Revelation 7:3-4, “saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed…”
If the mark of the beast is an RFID chip, do we really think that God is going to seal-mark the Christians with micro-chips too? Friends, it is a spiritual identification of alignment, not a literal mark of any natural order. 
Notice too, what these marked-sealed ones are called: 
Revelation 14:3-4, “and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as FIRSTFRUITS for God and the Lamb…”
Let me ask you a question… how many FIRST-fruits are there? Only one, right. Therefore the mark of the beast in the same context and same chapter can only be happening in that first generation as well! In fact, James said he was one of those first-fruits in James 1:18.
3. Babylon-Jerusalem
Just as in Ezekiel “Babylon” is associated with the story, except this time God calls Jerusalem, “Babylon” because it had become worse than ancient Babylon. The great city was given many names, spiritually speaking because it had become the most wicked generation in history. Peter calls Jerusalem “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13. There is no need for some future revived Babylon, nor is it America. The scriptures are plain that it was Jerusalem.
John writes about the great fallen city in Revelation 11:8, “And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called SODOM and EGYPT, WHERE also our Lord was CRUCIFIED.” (Jerusalem, after murdering the prophets and the saints and crucifying Christ, was the city that fell to Rome in AD 70,just as Jesus predicted.)
It was called Babylon because the name means “confusion”. It was called Sodom because the sins of Jerusalem were greater than that of Sodom. It was called Hagar-Egypt because the religious Law system was keeping people in bondage and another great Exodus was about to happen. The last Exodus was when the saints, seeing the Roman armies approaching, were to flee Jerusalem according to the prophecy of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse. This is exactly what happened in history and it is believed that not one Christian (believing Jew) died by heeding Jesus’ words. 
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
4. Wrath on the City. 
Just as in Ezekiel, the wrath was poured out on the city through the means of another nation, which in this case was Rome in AD 70. This is because the Law was being applied to them in both instances as a covenant nation. 
Those scriptures cannot apply to us today because Romans 4:15,“because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.” No Law, no wrath.  
What happens when the great Harlot city Babylon-Egypt-Sodom-Jerusalem is destroyed? The Law, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and even the genealogy are burned and in ruin. Which means the wrath of God is finished. No Law, no wrath today:
Revelation 15:1, “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is FINISHED.”

THE BEAST OF REVELATION: OBAMA RIGHT?

Though an argument could be made that he is antichristian in many of his policies, he is not the antichrist. In fact, did you know that the word antichrist isn’t even used in the book of Revelation?
So if Revelation was fulfilled in AD 70, then who is the beast of Revelation?
Well, did you know that there are two beasts in Revelation? One is call the land beast and one is called the beast that rises out of the sea. There was the beast which was Jerusalem’s religious system and the beast which was Rome, and more specifically Nero.
The two were in cahoots against the newly emerging Church as we saw in Revelation 14, as the nations, such as Rome, had come to drink of the wine of Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness by joining in the persecution of the saints. (Jerusalem is also called the Harlot in Revelation, from which God was filing for divorce, while the Church- (the believing Jews/Gentiles) is called the Bride.) But eventually the beast (Rome) that the woman (Jerusalem) rides turned on her and her city was burned with fire and made desolate. Notice:

Revelation 17:9-11,16, “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition… And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.”

The city was burned by Rome with fire in AD 70 just as John predicted.
With certainty we can calculate who this beast was by the kings listed here: Then “one is,” meaning the present ruler at the time of the writing of the book of Revelation. This “king” is simple to discover. Jewish Historian Josephus clearly reveals that Julius Caesar was the first emperor of Rome, followed by Augustus; Tiberius; Caius (Caligula); Claudius; and the sixth emperor was…Nero, who assumed imperial power in October, A.D. 54.
Noted church historian J. L. von Mosheim wrote of Nero’s persecution:“Foremost in the rank of those emperors, on whom the church looks back with horror as her persecutors, stands Nero, a prince whose conduct towards the Christians admits of no palliation, but was to the last degree unprincipled and inhuman. The dreadful persecution which took place by order of this tyrant, commenced at Rome about the middle of November, in the year of our Lord 64. . . . This dreadful persecution ceased but with the death of Nero. The empire, it is well known, was not delivered from the tyranny of this monster until the year 68, when he put an end to his own life.” (L. von Mosheim, Historical Commentaries, I:138,139).
The pagan writer Apollinius of Tyana, a contemporary of Nero, specifically mentions that Nero was called a “beast”: “In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many, many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this BEAST, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs. . . . And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mother, but Nero has gorged himself on this diet.”
So not only does Revelation describe the persecution of the saints by the Jews (Matthew 23-24) but also the persecution that was taking place in partnership with Rome (remember it was both the Jewish religious system and the Romans that crucified Christ).

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST: 666?

Simeon Edigbe writes in his thorough article: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: PERSECUTION OF THE EARLY CHURCH-

John wrote that the number “is the number of a man’s name; and his number is 666.” This tells us that those who received the “mark” were actually in allegiance with a “man,” an actual person of the first century. He is known as Nero Caesar.
John used a method called gematria in which numbers are used to represent certain letters. John used this puzzle to reveal Nero without actually writing down his name due to the perilous times they were living in. Remember, the early churches were being persecuted during this time—not only from the Jews, but also from the Romans. The numerical values of the Hebrew letters in Neron Kesar (Nero Caesar) are:
Nero Caesar fits the gematria code number “666.” Using this code, his name would be rendered as “NRWN QSR.” (NRWN QSR). The number values are:
N = 50
R = 200
W = 6
N = 50
Q = 100
S = 60
R = 200
which, when added together, equals 666. The fact that Nero fits the description of the “beast” is well documented.

Not Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, or Hitler.  It was the number of “a man” (Revelation 13:18) named Nero.

CONCLUSION:

So RFID chips are not the mark of the beast. Should we be concerned for other reasons? Maybe. The abuse of information, identification theft, health concerns, tracking, and a lack of privacy are all ideas that should be addressed… just not from the book of Revelation.
If you want to be concerned, be concerned about the media blitz of bad theology about the end times. The scripture says in Isaiah 9:7, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.”  Let’s get on with teaching people about knowing God and his advancing kingdom!
For more information on the book of Revelation check out this link!
Check out my messages on YOUTUBE: 
Special thanks to Simeon Edigbe and his article: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: PERSECUTION OF THE EARLY CHURCH. For more information also check out Don Preston’s book, Who Is This Babylon?
PICS Credits:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon.jpg and http://athletecell.com/2015/02/02-23-15-wod/

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