“How much harder is it for a Christian to get a job or keep a job with a major American corporation than it was, say, 15 years ago?
What if that Christian has taken clear, public stands in obedience to Christ and out of loving concern for the lost in accordance with the Gospel and Great Commission regarding the inherent sinfulness of the homosexual deathstyle?
How much harder is it for that sort of Christian to get or keep a job with, say, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Visa, Citibank, Wells Fargo, American Airlines, or any number of proudly pro-sin corporations in America?
How much harder will it be for that Christian to get or keep that sort of job two or three years from now?”
These are some of the questions that we posed last summer in Corporate America’s Big Gay Push (Or: “Mark of the Beast” economics, here we come!). Since then, the situation has only deteriorated and many Christians (myself included) are coming to personally experience the “new economic normal” here in “the land of the free” and the home of the NSA, where the American State and its corporate owners have come out openly in support of a flagrantly anti-Christian worldview both in propaganda and in practice.
Some FBC posts over the past year or so on this subject include:
Banks Inch “Mark of the Beast” Economics Toward Reality
Marked by the beast: Where Christ-less economics has lead us, and what we can do about it.
Putting Teeth into “Mark of the Beast” Economics
Another Big Gay (and “Christian” Enabled) Mark of the Beast…
Corporate “Mark of the Beast” Rollout Continues
For quite a while now we’ve been aiming to help Christians better understand the anti-Christian nature of the economic construct currently (but only temporarily) dominating America and the rest of the world, not just to complain or whine or pout about it, but so that we might A) see more clearly just how wildly unbiblical our present economic construct is, and then B) repent and prayerfully pursue economic reformation and revival using every opportunity, tool, and talent that our Lord has provided for such a time as this.
We’ve aimed to tackle this subject in a manner that takes serious things seriously, meaning that we want to be responsible Christian adults seeking to take every thought captive (see: 2 Corinthians 10:5) – including all economic thoughts in even the most challenging of situations – in accordance with the Gospel-fueled Great Commission (see: Matthew 28:18-20). That said, the last thing we want to encourage or promote is emotionally unhinged fear, anxiety, or panic. Fear of anything in this world is the antithesis of faith in God. (See: The Fear-Fueled Politics of American Statism.)
Reviving the fear or reverence of the Lord in economics is the only sure path out of the grip of the fear of man that has clasped around our collective throats and even now seeks to squeeze the last bits of economic life, economic liberty, and economic freedom from those who would dare faithfully proclaim and pursue Christ as King in practice.
It is this context that motivates us to regularly tackle this subject, so that one day soon, by the grace of God through His Spirit-filled people taking up His Great Commission in practice, the life- and culture-defining realm of economics might be subjected completely to the loving, life-giving reign of Christ.
To that end we posted A Mark of the Beast back in August of 2013 (before any of the above linked articles), in which we aimed to clarify the biblical meaning of “the mark” as it relates to economic (and other) activity:
Throughout church history there’s been intense curiosity and fascination with the “mark of the beast” described in the book of Revelation. While serious interest in the truth of God as revealed in His Word is a wonderful thing, in recent decades much of what is marketed as end times intrigue has been detached from its biblical foundation. Once that happened, it was bound to blossom into something quite ugly, and blossom it has.
In its “Bible lite” format, unhinged from the full context of Scripture, most “end times prophecy” has predictably gone from bad to worse to…where we are now. And people love it (which tends to be the case with any biblical passage or concept taken out of context and massaged to fit the inclinations, desires, and traditions of man). The “mark of the beast” reference made in Revelation 13:16-18 is right there with the “Judge not” partial verse snippet surgically removed from the tippy top of the rest of Matthew 7 when it comes to examples of our culture’s propensity for the convenient destruction of context.
The modern spin on end times prophecy has pegged the obsess-o-meter in our culture. Inspiring and inspired by a growing gaggle of wildly popular yet comically unbiblical movies, books, and “end times ministries”, all coming together to produce a particularly wacky, nasty, and destructive little feedback loop, this movement shows no sign of slowing. This self-perpetuating end times prophecy machine has served as a powerful force of distraction for the professing church in America, with even many true believers captivated by its never-ending parade of tantalizing speculation, gossip-as-“prophecy”, and pin-the-tail-on-the-antichrist sessions.
Ironically, the modern end times prophecy movement would itself seem to be a great indicator of a world come off its biblical rails and in need of an apocalyptic purge.
That said, each of us should resist these distractions and shun even the sheer entertainment value of Jack and Rexella Van Impe’s 2,342nd “I’m not setting a date, but…” prediction for at least long enough to prayerfully focus and seriously consider Revelation 13:16-18, which reads:
…it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666*. (*Some manuscripts record the number as 616.)
The aim here is not to discuss the subject of the mark in detail, rather it is to inspire each of us to consider whether we, in light of this passage from Revelation, could be said to be displaying, right here and now, a “mark of the beast”.
Please note the “a” part of that last sentence. The reference is to a mark of the beast, not the mark of the beast.
It has been rightly noted that to be marked in such a manner (on the forehead and on the arm) is likely an indicator of one’s thoughts and one’s actions, with the mark on the head symbolizing one’s worldview in thought, and the mark on the hand representing one’s worldview in action. What we think and what we do marks us. There need not be a physical mark in order for a person to be marked either by the world or by Christ.
If we obey Christ, we are marked for Christ, and that mark is visible to a watching world. It is visible to them through our actions, which are a reflection of our actual belief (as often opposed to the belief we profess with our mouths but contradict with our actions).
The more American culture plunges itself into Christ-less oblivion as the wrath of God is poured out upon the land and its people, the more these marks will show. And the more these marks show, the more the world will persecute those displaying the mark of Christ.
When we want to be better able to “buy and sell” (as in “make more money” and “get a good job”), what has become “the way of the ‘Christian’ American”?
Compromise, of course. If taking an actual, clear stand for Christ as commanded by Christ would cost us something like a good job (or a shot at any job), we just won’t go there. That’s not how we roll. We simply don’t do personal sacrifice on a serious, comfort-destroying level, to say nothing of embracing a willingness to actually die for the Gospel, which has been a defining mark of the true Church at its world-shaking best throughout history. No, we here in good ol’ comfortable America are not at all interested in paying those prices or making those sacrifices.
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“That’s just the way the world works,” we are told and tell ourselves. And besides, there’s no need to sacrifice that much, since Jesus is just gonna fix it all in the end anyway.
That is our testimony to the world.
That is our worldview in action.
That is our mark.
It is right and good that each of us ”examine ourselves” to see whether we are really “in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5-6), and repent of any mark embraced that does not conform to the lordship of Christ. May God grant His people repentance and restoration, so that true Christ-centered, Gospel-fueled revolution might once again shake the world.
With today’s year-opening market turmoil (see today’s earlier post: Our Unraveling Economic Fiction), it seemed like a good time to re-share some of these ideas.
I hope that they are helpful, encouraging, and inspiring of a healthy, life-giving fear of the Lord…which will drive out all other fears, leaving our enemies nothing by which to manipulate and control us.
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Finally, here are a few good intro/reminder links for those of you who are new to Fire Breathing Christian and curious about exactly what’s goin’ on ’round here:
What are you, some kind of [insert label here] or something?!
What’s with that shark-fishie graphic thing?
Intro to Fire: The Power and Purpose of the Common Believer
When the Bible gets hairy. (Or: Is it right for men to have long hair?)
And especially this one: Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.
Thank you for your support!
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The fact is, it is already too late for most of us. If you carry your identity in your wallet (your "persona"; your "person"), you've already taken the Mark of the Beast. Your quest now is to find a way out.
The mark of the Beast, thank God, is long gone. When teachers project the past into the future and try to make doctrine and teachings around it, it confuses those trying to learn.
Nero was 666. His name adds up to 666.
The Mark of the Beast is the anti-type of the Mark of God from Deut 6:4-8. The charagma (mark or stamp) meant that you were OWNED BY the Roman State and its apostate Jewish cohorts. It was a mark of slavery.
There is no longer a Mark of the Beast. We are in the War of Gog and Magog, Magog is led by Gog (Satan) invisibly (the poor slobs don't even realize who's behind their whole attitude, and that's the way Shemyaza likes it) and they are surrounding the Holy City (the Church) and trying to squeeze the life out of it. That is of course impossible. That doesn't mean they won't try and with the state of the Church in the world today, it is temporarily working. It won't last. Christ will return and that will be the end of THAT.