Mark of the Beast

The Mark
Of The Beast

By Ron Smith
Revelation 13
1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.
The Beast out of the Sea
And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
Commentary: This beast is Rome. The seven heads are seven Caesars: Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, & Galba. The ten horns are the ten provinces of Rome. Each province had a king like Herod who was under the authority of Caesar. Revelation 17 describes the seven heads as seven kings. He said five had fallen and “one is.” Nero was the 6th and therefore this was written during the reign of Nero.
2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.
Commentary: The head that was wounded was Julius. The senators killed him in order to destroy the dictatorship of empiricism. They thought they had killed it, but it arose in more power than ever with Augustus. All the world wondered at what Augustus had done when he brought about world peace. He said, “There is no other name in heaven whereby we must be saved, but the name Caesar.”
4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?" 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
Commentary: Nero persecuted the Christians for 42 months from AD 64 to AD 68. Peter and Paul were killed at this time.
6 He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. 9 He who has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.
Commentary: Nero was killed with the sword in AD 68.
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.
The Beast out of the Earth
11Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. 12He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14 Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
Commentary: Giving “breath” to the image means causing the rule of Caesar to be effective. The image set up was a mental image. The signs produced could mean all the prosperity Herod brought to his reign. The fire could mean all his murders.
16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

Who Are These Beasts?
The first beast rises out of the sea and is international in government. (The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues - Rev 17:15) The second beast rises out of the land and is local. The first beast in Revelation 13 is the same as the 4th beast in Daniel seven. It is the dynasty of Julius Caesar.
The second beast arises out of the Promised Land. It is Jerusalem. This beast looks like a lamb. Lambs have to do with priesthood sacrifice. It represents the chief priests of Jerusalem. It has two horns. Horns are symbols of power. This beast is schizophrenic because one horn says, “We have no king but Caesar,” and the other says, “Give us Barrabas” (who wanted to overthrow Caesar in an insurrection). It then speaks like a dragon and says, “Crucify Him.” The function of this second beast is to make the whole world worship the mental image of the first beast (Caesar). Nero was the current ruling Caesar and was the beast in the flesh. The letters of his name in Hebrew add up to 666. (Every letter in Hebrew is also a number.) This second beast is later called the false prophet in Revelation 20 and the harlot supported by the beast in Revelation 17. Caesar supported the apostate Jerusalem. That is why she is called the “Whore of Babylon.”
The Book of Revelation arises in a crescendo of heavenly rejoicing when she is destroyed in chapter 19. Then follows the marriage supper of the Lamb. The clue as to the identity of the Whore of Babylon is when it says, “And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth” (Rev 18:24). Jesus also described Jerusalem similarly. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets” (Mat 23:37). No other city in history up to that point could be described this way. Neither Babylon, nor Egypt, nor Nineveh, nor any other city was famous for killing prophets.
To take the mark of the beast is to do what the chief priests of the Jews were doing. They said, “We have no king but Caesar; give us Barrabas and crucify Him.” To take the mark of the beast is to put Caesar (the government) as the highest authority. Those who take this mark believe that if the Supreme Court says it is okay, then it is. That is the same as saying, “We have no king but Caesar.”
What Does It Mean In Apocalyptic Language
To “Buy And Sell?”

In Revelation 3:13 Jesus said, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire.”
How does one buy gold from Jesus? Is it not by worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth? This shows that in Holy Spirit vision language, “buying and selling” is worship. The Spirit says in Revelation 13:16 that no one could buy or sell without the mark of the beast on their forehead and on their hand. This means they could not “worship” in the synagogue.

Put Out of the Synagogue
John 9:22b …the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
The Mark
Dt 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Just as Stephen called God’s Tabernacle the “tabernacle of Moloch” because of their wrong motive in worship, so here the Spirit is calling the God ordained custom of tying the words of God on their hands and foreheads the “mark of the beast.”

In Acts 7:42-44 Stephen said, “Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’ Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed…”

Malachi 2:3 says the “refuse of your solemn feasts” will be rubbed on your faces. Isaiah 1:14 says, “Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me.” The very festivals God had ordained had become a burden to God because of their wrong motive in worship.

How Do We Apply This Today?
How do we apply this? It means that the very duties God has ordained can become sinful because of performing them from a wrong motive and going about to establish our own righteousness. Just as the Pharisees trusted in their fasting, tithing, and Sabbath keeping and left out mercy and justice, so Christians today can trust in their witnessing, their giving, their praying, their worship, their building of hospitals, helping the poor, fighting abortion, church attendance, and many other legitimate duties.
What the hypocrites of that day did is no different from what professing Christians can do now. One “mark” of this beast is when one thinks he has done his duty and must be careful of not going too far in our dedication and giving. Anyone who thinks that way is marked. Anyone who wants credit for all his giving and all his sacrifice has marked himself. We are also told to “mark” those who cause dissension and divisions (Rom 16:17).
Jesus said to go and learn what Hosea 6:6 means:
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
It means He desires substance over symbol.

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