WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RECEIVE THE MARK
IN “THE FOREHEAD” “OR” IN “THE HAND?”

“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Rev.20:4

Introduction

     Among the leading reasons men abhor the judgment of GOD is due to how men have interpreted GOD’S dealing with the sin problem throughout man’s brutal history on the Earth. Man has always judged GOD in a wrong light. From the beginning when Satan first opened his sinister mouth to our premier mother Eve with the words, “Hath God said” the seed was sown to cast doubt on the character of GOD and His Everlasting Love for the life He created. And all through history this doubt has continued in the hearts of men.

     And this is where we find ourselves today, progressing toward the insanity of anarchy as evidenced by the fundamentally immoral decisions made in atheistic academia, the supreme court, the federal government and the false piety masking the sins that rule the minds of most Christians (I Pet.4:18): “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom.8:7. Yes, many Christian leaders are carnal minded men. On this fact, Jesus gave them the warning: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt.7:22,23. There was no companionship of Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost in their “wonderful works.” Jesus likewise warns us: “Take heed that no man deceive you…many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” Matt.24:4,11.

     Based on Christ’s words to church leaders, the Apostle John likewise admonished: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” I Jn.4:1. These are life and death warnings to the Bible believing Christian. Therefore, we are called to have a spiritually cautious attitude toward what we are being handed as “truth” by the rulers of the church.

     The reason this is imperative for us is due to the many examples where a single individual led an entire nation to their ruin. Through deceiving the one who leads, Satan can deceive the multitudes. This is the danger of following the pope or some religious guru: resting our souls’ fate in their hands. Many verses of Scripture command us to avoid this all-too-common trap. We are commanded to follow the Word, Jesus Christ. He gave His assurance to provide every lesson to secure the salvation of every man: “But take ye heed: Behold, I have foretold you all things.” Mk.13:23.

     Paul’s words likewise admonish us: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Because “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” II Tim.2:15; 3:16.

The Core of This Lesson

     The churches are universally taught specific doctrines. These doctrines come down from supposed scholars in the church. An entire scenario claimed as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy has been presented, promoted, and believed throughout the churches. Among the many commonly held views in Bible prophecy is how the church has defined "the mark of the beast." Ministers insist that “the mark of the beast” is a computer microchip, and that men “receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand” (Rev.14:9). This is the interpretation that is constantly imposed throughout the churches.

     We need to see how the Bible gives clear identification of “the mark” and its location in the forehead “or” in the hand; and it has nothing to do with technology, but rather the individual’s relationship with Jesus Christ.

     Let us read the Word of GOD on what the forehead represents, because remember, over half the book of Revelation is drawn from the counsel of the Old Testament. And so, to circumvent the Old Testament in the prophecies of the Revelation is to misunderstand the intended lessons that guard us from being played the fool.

     Each verse in Revelation’s prophecy of the “forehead” represents the intellect:

“Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.” Jer.3:3.

“Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.” Eze.3:8.

     There is nothing here that insinuates anything outside of one’s reasoning powers from the frontal lobe of the brain.

     The Bible verses ascribed to “the hand” likewise have nothing to do with technology, but rather carrying out the actions from the decisions that are made:

“And the rest of the people he delivered unto the hand of Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon.” I Chron.19:11.

“I trust in the LORD. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy” Ps.31:6-8.

“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.” Ps.94:20,21.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” Isa.11:11.

     Again, there is not even a hint of anything outside of “the deeds of the body” (Rom.8:13).

     There is one more very important aspect to this verse in Revelation 13:16 that should be understood: “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.” “Or” is the key word to understand the distinction. With this soon to come federal law masquerading in virtue there will be those who agree and say “Amen” to the tyrannical imposition of the federal government forcing the American people to obey the dictates of the church in the worship of GOD. [Yes, a church/state union is on the horizon of our day. The first amendment will be done away. America is about to be backed into a corner for survival that will warrant this extreme by which our church leaders will claim the power to avert our nation's ruin (Lu.21:11,26; Job 2:4; Rev.13:15)]. But a large class of men will disagree intellectually and morally with the law, but for their own selfish ease and comfort they will obey it; and thus, receive “the mark” along with those who intellectually agree with the persecution of the saints: "they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev.14:12.

     Now that you can see the deception propagated by our church leaders (who are now proven to be both Bible illiterate and disobedient men), this calls for our examination of everything they tell us as infallible truth. These saboteurs of truth “as the truth is in Jesus” have led the whole Christian world to believe a lie on this critical issue. Therefore, diligent prayer must be united with Bible literacy to receive discernment from GOD in order to rightly address the prophetic scenario being propagated within the church. One thing the discerning Christian comes to recognize from all the stories of the Bible: Satan is well able to provide convincing evidence to make people believe that it is GOD’S leading hand that is behind the unfolding of events that "deceitful workers" the Bible identifies as "the false prophet" have foretold (Rev.19:20), when their source comes from the devil himself (Rev.16:13) via his deceptions coupled with his temptations to lead men to accept his scheme to divert minds from repenting before God and receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ. In fact, only those with a keen understanding of the great plan of salvation will not be drawn into what the entire Christian world has embraced as Bible truth. They falsely believe that GOD is leading the church, when both disobedience to GOD'S Holy Law and a denial of Christ's own words are leading these souls to their fate of eternal ruin: all because the sinful heart relishes the freedom to live in sin. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." II Thess.2:11,10.

     In closing: two points that are never addressed:

1. Sin is never included in the prophetic scenarios imposed by the church ministers. We need to understand why.
2. As the closing events usher the world’s demise, the deceived church will be called to just hold on a little longer in the false assurance that Christ comes to Jerusalem to establish a temporal millennium of peace on the Earth. This expectation denies the words of our LORD, Saviour, and KING: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jn.18:36.