{"id":8405,"date":"2012-08-25T05:48:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-25T09:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2012-08-24T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T19:49:09","slug":"the-mark-of-the-beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html","title":{"rendered":"The Mark of the Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Evangelicals in a school district in Louisiana are objecting to a palm scanner<\/a> that kids could use to pay for their lunches, thus eliminating the need for lunch money. Why? Because it sounds too similar to \u201cthe mark of the beast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Christian, I\u2019ve read the Bible, you know go to church and stuff,\u201d said Sonnier. \u201cI know where it\u2019s going to end up coming to, the mark of the beast. I\u2019m not going to let my kids have that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those not familiar with evangelicalism, the mark of the beast is part of evangelical eschatology, or end times theology. The rapture is expected any day now, to be followed by seven years of hardship and tribulation that includes the rule of the Antichrist, followed by the battle of\u00a0Armageddon\u00a0in which Jesus will lead an army of the righteous to defeat the Antichrist and his forces and establish the\u00a0millennial\u00a0kingdom. At some point during the tribulation, the Antichrist will require that everyone get \u201cthe mark of the beast,\u201d which will be used in buying and selling.<\/p>\n

Revelation 13: 16-17<\/p>\n

It also forced all people, great and small,\u00a0rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,\u00a0so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark,\u00a0which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a result of this passage and the eschatology formed around it, evangelicals have long speculated over just what this \u201cmark of the beast\u201d will be. And growing up I remember a good deal of concern about advances in technology<\/a> for this reason. Believe it or not, there was concern about the mark of the beast when bar codes came out. Buying and selling, right? It seemed a step in a dangerous direction<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\n

The barcode did something very important to help bring in 666: The mark of the Beast. . .<\/p>\n

The barcode opened the door (in fact, it not only opened it, it kicked the door down) to the \u201cdigital world\u201d. Everything is now a number. Everything gets a barcode. As someone truly said, \u201cIf it exists, bar code it\u201d. I remember when barcodes first started appearing. I began telling people back then, the barcode was preparing the world for 666: the Mark of the Beast. Was I ever laughed at. . . even by the Christians. I can still remember their laughing and ridicule, \u201cYou mean to tell me, everything is getting one of those \u201cmarks\u201d. You mean, I\u2019ll go even to the local \u201c7-Eleven\u201d and they\u2019ll have laser scanners and they\u2019ll scan these \u201cmarks\u201d. No way. It would be too obvious what was happening. Everybody would know the mark of the beast is coming\u201d.<\/p>\n

But isn\u2019t it amazing 25 years later. . . and nobody gives the \u201cmysterious\u201d barcodes even a \u201csecond thought\u201d.<\/p>\n

Satan very carefully and subtlety (see Genesis 3:1 and 2 Cor. 11:3) indoctrinated us to our wonderful, convenient, new \u201cdigital world\u201d.<\/p>\n

And the road to 666 is just ahead. . .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At some point when I was a child some newspaper suggested that children should be implanted with bio chips so that missing children could be located, and I remember reacting in horror. This was simply too close to the mark of the beast! And it wasn\u2019t just me<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just too much evidence to discard the possibility that the Mark of the Beast is a subdermal microchip implant, namely the Verichip implant. In fact, the language in Revelation strongly supports such an idea. \u2026\u00a0Not long ago their VeriKid\u00a0product tracked children in urban environments, but they have also since pulled this product, likely until the market is able to accept it more readily. It was easy to see the similarities between VeriKid and the Mark of the Beast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Part of the concern about the mark of the beast is that no one who takes the mark of the beast can be saved. Ever. It\u2019s like a stamp of eternal damnation.<\/p>\n

Revelation 14: 9-11<\/p>\n

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, \u201cIf anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God\u2019s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remember reading Tim Lahaye\u2019s Left Behind<\/em> books and coming to the part where everyone was forced to get the mark of the beast. It was a bit terrifying. Well, the whole series is terrifying, but that\u2019s beside the point! I remember that one character was knocked out or something and then implanted with the mark of the beast against his will. The book explained that this meant that he was still saved \u2013 see, no one who takes the mark can be saved \u2013 but that he could also buy and sell and get through checkbooks and such. (I remember thinking it this was very convenient for the author.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There was a lot of fear attached to this whole thing. We were confident in our salvation (usually<\/a>), but we also believed that the end times would be a time of trauma and horror. And there was always the possibility that you might not be saved, and therefore might not be raptured but rather \u201cleft behind\u201d to endure the tribulation like the heroes in the Left Behind<\/em> books. And of course, if that were to happen, we all knew we must refuse to take the mark of the beast, whatever the consequences.<\/p>\n

The fear of the mark of the beast is an excellent example of how evangelical beliefs can influence one\u2019s perception of and reaction to developments in the world. The way things are going, I could easily see a move to use some sort of palm scanning devise to purchase things, acting almost like a debit card, but a debit card you can\u2019t lose. There are already cell phones that you can scan in place of a debit card, so why not a hand? But if we were to actually move in this direction, you better believe there would be huge<\/em> outcry by evangelicals. In fact, I don\u2019t think we could<\/em> move in this direction for this very reason \u2013 too many people would be concerned about the mark of the beast. And this is extremely unfortunate.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelicals in a school district in Louisiana are objecting to a palm scanner that kids could use to pay for their lunches, thus eliminating the need for lunch money. Why? Because it sounds too similar to \u201cthe mark of the beast.\u201d \u201cAs a Christian, I\u2019ve read the Bible, you know go to church and stuff,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[22,24,37,44],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-bible","tag-children","tag-end-times","tag-fear"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mark of the Beast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelicals in a school district in Louisiana are objecting to a palm scanner that kids could use to pay for their lunches, thus eliminating the need for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mark of the Beast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evangelicals in a school district in Louisiana are objecting to a palm scanner that kids could use to pay for their lunches, thus eliminating the need for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-25T09:48:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-24T19:49:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/files\/2012\/08\/hand-scanner.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html\",\"name\":\"The Mark of the Beast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-25T09:48:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-24T19:49:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Evangelicals in a school district in Louisiana are objecting to a palm scanner that kids could use to pay for their lunches, thus eliminating the need for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/the-mark-of-the-beast.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Mark of the Beast\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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