If you find your self in the midst of the tribulation and you know it is happening. If someone in government ask you to take the number of the beast warning you that if you refuse they will take you head off with a sword. Will you take the number?.
MB
"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 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:
11 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." ( Revelation 14:9-11 )
I believe the number refers to what is IN your head, ...so a physical mark is insignificant to me.
I am confident that I'm not being seduced by the lies...
Mar 13:22
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
Sure I will.
Lord knows we both would be laughing at the idea of an easy martyrdom to heaven.
I suffer from a condition of trusting God "too much".
God knows exactly how I feel about him which is why his desire for mercy and kindness would compel me to take the more frightening path.
Then I'd work my way to the beast to educate the foolishness and immaturity of sin,
and my hope is with God's help to "destroy" that evil and redeem the former angel.
The worst the evil the more they qualify for love enemy and least of brethren.
" And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:" ( Revelation 13:16 )
I believe that the "mark" is something very much like a an RFID chip or bar code that when scanned, will bring up pertinent information in a world-wide database.
With today's technology, the only thing left to happen is for Anti-Christ to come on the scene, and get everyone to believe he is Jesus Christ...which will happen very fast.
After that, it's only a matter of all the world's governments cooperating with him, and instituting policy.
Most people will simply cave and give him what he wants, thinking that he is their savior and will help fix all the messes that mankind has made here on earth.
Why?
" And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." ( 2 Thessalonians 10-12 )
Almost everyone, except believers, will be under the delusion that he is the real thing.
They will go right along with the program, report to the "marking centers", and get themselves setup to be tracked and monitored for the rest of their short lives.:Sick
Interesting, but as per Mark 13:22 and a host of other scripture I don't believe it possible that I will be seduced by the Anti-christ or susceptible by a physical mark because of what is in my head belongs to my Lord and I trust only in Him. Again no fear of these physical things: Matthew 10:28. Neither do I plan on being deceived and sprouting wings and escaping to what would most assuredly be the wrong guy but rather being prepared and watching the things which come to pass and trusting that my armour of God is strong and that I will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6. These instructions of preparedness where given for good reason! ;)