Wednesday: The Mark of the Beast
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 29th of May 2024
Read Revelation 12:1-17:12,17 and Revelation 13:1-18:1-18:7. How do these texts reveal Satan’s wrath? Why is the devil so angry with God’s end-time people?
Revelation 12:1-17 outlines the cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan down through the ages. It climaxes with Satan’s final attack on the people of God. Revelation 13:1-18:1-18 introduces the dragon’s two allies, the beast from the sea and the beast from the land. These two powers join him in making war on God’s people.
Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com
Read Revelation 13:1-18:1-18:4, 8, 12, 15 and Revelation 14:7,9-11. (See also Revelation 15:4, Revelation 16:2, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:4, Revelation 22:9.) What one key theme appears in all of these verses?
Note the contrast. Either people worship the Creator or they worship something else. The Creator is worthy of worship (Revelation 5:9). The controversy between Christ and Satan began in heaven over worship: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14, NKJV). Satan wanted the worship belonging only to the Creator. According to Revelation 13:1-18:1-18, he succeeds through the activity of the land beast (Revelation 13:4).
A comparison with Daniel 7:1-28 shows that this beast is the same as the little horn that “seeks to change times and laws” and exercises authority for 1,260 prophetic “days,” that is, for 1,260 years (Daniel 7:25; compare Revelation 13:5; see lesson 6). The only part of God’s law, the Ten Commandments, dealing with time is the fourth commandment. This church has attempted to change the day of worship from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week.
For an earthly power to seek to change the day of worship, the seventh-day Sabbath, which God Himself gave as a sign of His authority (Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 20:12,20), is an attempt to usurp divine authority at the most basic level possible. On this point, then, is the focus of the final conflict over true and false worship.
For this reason, Revelation identifies the people who are faithful to God as those “who keep the commandments of God” (Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:12). This includes the seventh-day Sabbath, not Sunday. Those who refuse the final call of the three angels to worship God on His holy day (Isaiah 58:13) and who worship the beast on his counterfeit sabbath, Sunday, will receive the mark of the beast (see lesson 11).
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The faith challenge we face today is that there is no God, or worse, that there is a God who does not care and has to interest in us. During my lifetime I have seen the rise of "no religion" surpassing the number of those who profess even some sort of affiliation with Christianity in Australia. My investigations have shown that the situation in the USA is somewhat behind ours but trending in the same direction.
I don't know how the final conflict will play out and I will not speculate. I do not expect to be alive for any "final conflict". I am getting older and bits of me are dropping off or ceasing to function already. However, I see a present conflict that is very real and is attracting Christians away from their faith.
I have a whole lifetime of church experiences where the Mark of the Beast has been held up as some special challenge, while at the same time I have seen so many Seventh-day Adventists loose their faith not to some false religion but to no religion at all.
My faith is built on a relationship with Jesus and I am hoping that will last me forever.
In Australia, there are some people who put their faith in their GPS devices when they travel. I have read stories of people who have travelled from Sydney to Adelaide and have ended up in one of the deserts. Now, there are great thumping highways between Sydney and Adelaide that are tarsealed and have lines down the middle and signposts and petrol stations. How on earth can people follow a GPS off a well marked route into a gibber-stoned, spinifex-covered, red sandy desert, along a dusty pot-holed bush track? They have become fascinated by a toy guidance system that does not understand main roads.
Jesus is the way. In him we live and move and have our being. There are real beasts beside the road but if we fix our eyes on him, we will be safe.
Very good explanation
Here in Tanzania the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is flourishing speedily. You may search for "Kahama Net Event" and witness GOD'S saving grace still evident. Sorry to our colleagues in the "developed" world😢
We don't like to be uncomfortable. But when we are comfortable, we don't move. God's final warning to people on Earth can be very uncomfortable because it breaks tradition in worship and the very means men have developed for survival: work. We shouldn't feel comfortable on this planet: we are not of this reality; this is not our last home!
Its interesting how people are so used to Christianity here in Kenya, that church is just like any other gathering. Am sure the end time will catch everyone by surprise
I will like to address why satan hates God's people. One of the many reasons I think,is that satan carried out a smare campaign against God and His character. He hoped that all humanity will believe his campaign and hate God and His government.
However, even with his hardest efforts God's people saw the smared campaign for what it is and instead of believing Satan,they understand and fell in love with God's beautiful character. They fell in love with it so much that they wanted it to be replicated in them.
So now, Satan not only has to deal and content with God, but he also sees God's beautiful character in all of God's people. This makes him enraged, all his lies about God has failed and he has to deal with this.
The whole issue of the mark of the beast is over worship. Worship as God commands or worship as man commands. The Sunday laws are fast coming upon us by the false Churches and the secular governments of the world. Through church and state, it will be forced upon us. No one has received the mark of the beast yet. It is when the law is past that those who worship God on His Sabbath, that they must stop worshipping Him on the seventh day and worship Him on the first day of the week. Then we have to decide for ourselves whether to obey The laws of God, or obey the laws of man. If you obey the laws of God, you will be persecuted, put in prison, killed, won’t be able to buy or sell. Those who receive the mark in their hand (which is symbolic) are those who, to avoid being put in prison or not able to buy or sell etc . . . And those who receive the mark in their forehead are those who choose to receive it by their own choice. This will be done by force. Did Jesus use force to follow Him? No! Only Satan uses force, as human history has shown. The major point in all of this is: who will you give your allegiance to? God and His Laws or The beast and his laws? Every individual will have to decide one way or another.
There is an error in the lesson study guide.
"A comparison with Daniel 7:1-28 shows that this land beast is the same as the little horn that “seeks to change times and laws” and exercises authority for 1,260 prophetic “days,” that is, for 1,260 years (Daniel 7:25;)".
The section reads "this land beast is the same as the little horn..."
It should read "this beast is the same as the little horn..."
The word land should be removed.
Done. Thanks for the heads up.
Happy Sabbath. God's children. Someone pointed out to me that Revelation 13: 4 refers to the sea beast not the land beast. So I checked that scripture again and it's true. Do I simply explain to the class that it was a mistake ?
Fixed.
Yes.