This is a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. It requires knowing several aspects of the end times in order to understand it. To help with that, let me outline the distinct categories people will fall into when the mark is out: 3 Categories of People When the Mark Comes Mark accepters (alive, but destined for Gods wrath) Mark rejecters/martyrs (dead or soon-to-be dead(see below) but destined for the First Resurrection) Mark evaders (alive and destined for the rapture) The first two categories are obvious and self-explanatory, but the last one, of mark evader requires explanation. The mark evaders are obviously similar to the mark rejecters in wanting to heed the universal warning about not taking the mark. However, they differ from the mark rejecters in the two aspects of proactivity and of faith. We shall see that to evade the mark is not as simple or foolproof as it may seem to you now. By way of illustration, you could compare it to the challenge of getting a girl to evade teen pregnancy by giving her a warning about it when she is ten years old. She may agree at that age that teen pregnancy is a bad outcome which she does not want. Yet, after she passes puberty, certain temptations must be resisted or certain actions taken for the teen pregnancy warning to work out well. Similarly, when you hear the warning about the mark, you must take a specific action before the mark even arrives. If you do not do so, it will be too late and you will get pregnant, as the analogy goes, or be left with choices 1 and 2 above only. Thats the proactive aspect of evading the mark. The faith aspect of evading the mark comes in because the action required to avoid the mark will be to come out of Babylon (Rev 18:4; Jer 50:8; 51:6, 9, 45). The end time prophecies of the Bible repeatedly speak of God leading his faithful servants out of their home countries to a place he prepares to feed them during the Great Tribulation (Rev 12:12-17). However, it will not be so clear that this is right to do, as it is to, say, exit a burning house when someone shouts Fire! Get out! Probably everything in the world will look as fine (if you ca call it that) as it does today. It will be counterintuitive. It has been my experience that when this clear (future) travel prophecy from the Bible is shared with normal church-going Christians, they reflexively reject it. It sounds ridiculous to the average Christian that God would ever require his people to do something so radical as to leave their homes. Many of them miss the obvious irony in their objection to a future God-given travel command in light of the fact that God has done this very thing repeatedly in the past with his faithful servants as the OT records. He told Abraham to leave his country. Lot had to leave Sodom. He told the entire nation of Israel to leave Egypt. Sure, they were slaves there anyway, but there are many parallels to their literal slavery and our modern slavery to sin, addictions, distractions, etc. in our home countries that an end time exodus would release us from, too. (Note: A major reason that many despair upon hearing about needing to move to escape the end times, is that, again, they are not remembering the lessons of the Exodus. When God commanded Israel to leave Egypt, he did not abandon them but gave them tremendous provision to go along with the commission as the saying goes. They had great leadership, divine protection, payment of back wages through spoiling of the Egyptians and miracles such as the Red Sea crossing, shoes not wearing out, healings, manna from heaven to feed them, water from the rock to drink, victory over their enemies, etc. We can expect the same thing again when God again commands his servants to march out. Passports, money, illnesses unwilling spouses and children will all be worked out (cf Ex 19:4 = Rev 12:14). Hope this helps) Another reason that faith will tie in greatly is that, most likely, the instructions of the three angels will be spoken to people not by the three angels themselves, but by humans; prophets. This probably sounds ridiculous at first but if you read the passage carefully youll note that it never quite says that the angels themselves do the preaching of their own messages (Rev 14:6). It simply says they have the messages to be preached. This leaves room for someone else to do the preaching. This phrasing is good because it does not make the passage break with precedent for how angels are tasked by God in the Bible. Angels usually interface only with the righteous or small groups of the public. When God deals with the general public or nations, he uses men exclusively. I think the answer to which men it will be this time is found, by no coincidence, in the verses immediately preceding (Rev 14:1-5). If you ever wondered who the 144,000 are and why they are given such special protection so that the Beasts forces cannot touch them, this would answer that. Their message of warning must go out without encumbrance to counteract the powerful dragnet that the Beast will be allowed to unleash on humanity. However, like all prophets before them, they are mere men and not as fearsome and compelling as an angel of light speaking before your eyes. People will be able to doubt and ignore the warnings and call to action of the 144,000 men. It should not be hard for the reader to imagine how most Christians will scoff at even a real miracle-working Bible-conforming prophet sent by God telling people to come out of Babylon per the prophecies. Christians by nature rely on their pastors and other Christians to tell them what is right or what to do. They sincerely believe all these churches cant be wrong. Thus, when most churches advise people to ignore the crazy prophet mesage to leave, and just stay safe in Jesus where they are and/or await the pretrib rapture, it will be largely followed. They will not have the faith or guts to obey the command to leave early enough in order to avoid the mark. Then, when they actually see the Abomination of Desolation (military takeover of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Antichrist) that they were warned would come, they will want to obey the crazy instructions they ignored years before. However, if they are not close to the location that God told them to move to, there will be no chance of them making it there in time before the Great Tribulation begins (30 days later). The mark edict will soon be issued and they will be faced with the tough choice of option 1 or option 2. Option 3, of mark evasion, will have expired. What To Do Today To Escape the Mark Clearly, every believer prefers to avoid ending up in that no-win situation of having to choose between martyrdom and markdom. We all want choice 3; neither. To have that option, the challenge at that point of no return will be in having the discernment to recognize which way God is leading; should I stay or should I go? Even if you do recognize the truth spoken by Gods prophets on leaving, you will also need the faith to go ahead with the minority in following such radical and hard instructions. The question, then, is how do we develop the faith and boldness needed to take the hard early action required to avoid the mark? Jesus gave us the clearest advice I know: Luke 18:8 (HCSB) I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth? Luke 17:5-6 (HCSB) 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” the Lord said, “you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Luke 21:36 (ESV) But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Ever notice that nowhere in the Gospels can you find Jesus directly answering the question of how one increases their faith? I was frustrated at that for a while when I was wanting more faith, like the apostles. Finally, I realized that the Bible gives us the answer elsewhere and everywhere. In the many stories of the Bible we see Gods servants walking prayerfully with him through hardships and learning several things in the process. They learn how to recognize his hand leading. This normally does not consist of voices, dreams, and visions, but of coincidences or God-incidences or open doors (Rev 3:8, 20) and closed doors (Rev 3:7). They learn what he is likely to to do or lead us to do and what he is not likely to do nor lead us to do. They learn how to trust him when the situation looks like he has abandoned them and just wait in patience and peace until the clear direction come to act, if any action is required. In other words, they learn faith and how to act on it. If you pray daily about having faith and strength as Jesus instructed, then you can be sure that God will hear that prayer according to his will. In response, he will direct you just as he did the servants in the Bible who wanted the same thing. You will be put in sometimes uncomfortable situations like they were which require you to be bold and radical at times, and to be inactive or meek at other times; the whole gamut. This will prepare you for all situations including the coming crisis of decision over leaving your home country early enough to escape the Mark of the Beast. Conclusion The Mark of the Beast is going to be far more irresistible than most Christians can imagine. But to get distracted today with trying to figure out exactly what it is in advance is not the solution to the problem of the mark. Even if you did figure that out, it would do you no good. If you see the mark, it will already be too late to escape it with your life intact. The proper escape will instead require faith and proactive, radical action. Unfortunately, as Jesus insinuated, faith will be a rare trait in the end times (Lk 18:8). Further, you do not learn bold and radical action by just going to church every Sunday and listening to your pastor. The answer is to follow Jesus advice to stay awake and to pray daily for strength to escape what is coming (Lk 21:36). God will be sure to answer that prayer by guiding your life so that you get the experiences and information which will develop the faith and radical streak you will need when the time comes. Whats more, these two things will help you to serve God and shine your light even better every day along the way, just like the faithful maverick Jesus did.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 15:04:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015