“He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.”

Revelation 13:16-18

The beast from the earth decrees that everyone receive a mark that will enable them to live on the earth and participate in society. Without this earthly, godless mark they will not be able to buy or sell. Life will become impossible for the people for God, for they will not have this mark on them. They are sealed by God with the work of the Holy Spirit and His mark that bears fruit to God. They cannot and do not participate in the godless culture of the day and do not join in with the unfruitful works of darkness.

“They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.”

John 17:16-18

Christians will have to support each other like no other time before. We must encourage each other in the Lord as we see the Day approaching.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.”

Hebrews 10:23-25

The mark of the Beast is said to be on the hand or the forehead. It affects everyone from the highest thinker to the manual labourer. Everyone will have this mark. They will have received it from the kingdom of the Beast and will be subject to Him because they have this mark. They will bow down to the God’s of this life and worship the Beast and all that He gives them. This is the ultimate human subjugation. We will be utterly under the thrall of this world and never consider God accept as a swear word to insult His holy name. The mark may not be a physical one, or it may be some way of conducting commerce that everyone will need. It will be a world order and the nations will conspire together against the Lord and His ways, to follow the ways of the Beast.

“Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying, “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The LORD will have them in derision.”

Psalm 2:1-4

The number itself is the number of man. It is a number that is totally bound up with itself, hence 666. It is the philosophy of human minds taken over by it’s own evil self, and unrighteousness will abound in the world, due to the godlessness of the thinking. Without God there is no goodness, kindness, self-control, gentleness, love, faith or hope. All these positive things will disappear from the culture and all will become increasingly cruel. People will imbibe the poison and will not be able to resist it because their hearts are hard towards God and the truth of his Word. The false teachers of the Word will have muddied the truth so badly, that the truth will be hard to find and human minds will not be able to receive it.

We have the influence of the media, which transfers itself into almost every home. It has a massive impact on our psyche, without us even realising it. We are brought up with it, and it appears so innocuous and “normal.” It is the normacy of it that is so dangerous. Things appear and we accept it, because it is on certain channels that we trust for some amorphous reason. We cease to question or hold the report or the broadcast to account in our minds, and we accept it because it is on television and that has become our standard for “normacy.” This is everywhere, and we accept things because they are familiar or things are spoken by people that we might know of and somehow feel we trust. This is good ground for sowing seeds. This is good ground for delusion to grow.

“… all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

2 Timothy 3:12-13

The delusion will come in and the whole of humanity without the faith that saves us will be lost to God and themselves. They will lose their souls to the second death, which is forever.

“Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.”

Matthew 16:24-27

It will be subtle and it will be deadly. We must be on our guard against listening and entertaining anything that is evil and that will take our mindset away from CHRIST. We must be questioning people and not accepting of all that is given out by authorities and institutions of state or church. The kingdom of God comes in the hearts of the true believers and not in organisations that purports to serve God. All is corrupted in these days and we serve the LORD with holy humility and caution about where we give our allegiance.

“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance. Surely they will say of Me,‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’ ”

Isaiah 45:22-24

There is still hope. The door of salvation still stand open for those who will come and trust in the only Saviour. We revile the works of darkness and embrace the light of God. Every knee will bow. The kingdom of this world is not forever, in fact, it is very short. Do not receive the godless ways of his present evil age, but trust in God, for He alone can save ignoble us. He will give us His righteousness and strength and bring us safely through all our trouble according to His precious and unbreakable promises.