The False Prophet & The Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13 - Part 2)

So let's open to Revelation chapter 13, and I've titled this second half of chapter 13,

I've titled this, The False Prophet and the Mark of the Beast. In part one, we looked at the

Antichrist, right, and his beast system. This is the, that final one world government, the beast system, which we identified as what?

The revived Roman Empire. So that's the first beast that John saw rising up out of the sea, and here, starting in verse 11,

John now sees another beast rising up, this time out of the earth.

So when people think about the book of Revelation, they think of Revelation. It's known for its symbolism and its imagery, and that's especially true in this chapter.

I mean, these beasts, they represent either a government or governments and these two men, the

Antichrist and his false prophet. Just as far as before we read this idea that the beast is rising up out of the earth,

I remember years ago when I was first taught these things, I was taught that the sea represents the nations.

So I was told that the Antichrist, that means he's going to come out of Europe, maybe the

European Union. But because the second beast, because the false prophet rises up out of the earth, the earth was symbolic for Palestine or Israel.

So the idea was, what I was taught, is that the false prophet, because he comes from Israel, will be

Jewish. And this is something that people wonder about since the

Antichrist is a false Christ. I mean, he's basically acting as an imposter, claiming to be the true

Christ. Does that mean he's going to be Jewish? I mean, there's all sorts of different theories and it's,

I guess, debatable what the sea and the land represent. But despite the fact that we don't know every,

I can't tell you what every single thing means for certain, but hopefully we're learning that at least the big picture, the overall story, we can be pretty confident in what's going to happen, you know, generally speaking.

So the rest of this chapter, we're going to be looking at, yeah, the Antichrist, talked about him last week, but now this is maybe his top lieutenant, right?

The number two guy in the one world system. This is his false prophet who will institute what is known as the mark of the beast.

So let's begin reading and seeing what the Bible says, Revelation 13, 11 through 18.

John writes, then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

And he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.

And he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

He causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who understands or let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man.

His number is 666. Okay, so a lot of questions about this passage.

What's the biggest question? What does everyone want to know? What is the mark of the beast, right?

Like this, this is the big one. And, you know, I hate to say this right off the bat and maybe spoil your, your fund of what maybe you were expecting, but you know, the reality is no one is, no, no one is sure.

There's no way to really know what it's going to be because again, we're, we believe this is future prophecy.

So it's not happening now. It hasn't happened yet. It's not happening right now. So you're just going to have to wait in the future.

What other questions arise when you read this passage? You know, the image of the beast.

I mean, what, what's that? That's another question. Yeah. A lot of questions, but hopefully we can find some answers.

One, one more thing before we go through these, why on the right hand or on the forehead?

And I know some of you are going to think I'm joking by this statement, but I'm not joking. Here's the thing.

If you had a choice to take a mark, would you rather have it on your forehead or on your right hand?

Probably rather have it on your right hand. I remember a few years ago, there was an article that came out.

It was somewhere in Europe. They were doing this. They had a microchip and all of your health information could be put on this microchip.

And it was put right, you know, right under the skin. And you could just scan it. And of course, dogs and cats, you can put chips in.

And a lot of people think that'll be the market, but why the forehead? Like no one would take the mark in their forehead, right?

Everyone would choose the right hand. So why the forehead option? Mark of submission.

That's what I was going to say. There are people who don't have a right hand, but guess what?

Everyone has a forehead. So, but you know, again, that's, is that really why?

Well, it may, it might be one reason, but yeah, there there's a lot of, and if you have a mark on your forehead,

I mean, there's no hiding it, right? Ray? It's a mark of true submission.

I really believe this person. I want to be, I want everybody to see it.

I don't, I'm not afraid of anybody. You know, and you know, there is a religion where they do have a mark right on their forehead to symbolize something, right.

And it's within Hinduism. So these are some of the questions we'll look at, but let's, before we go through the verses,

I just want to address another thing and making reference to the antichrist. I feel like I've talked about the antichrist quite a bit on the past few weeks.

So here's what someone might ask. And this would be another good question. How do we know who the, the antichrist is, right?

There's this beast. And then there's this other beast. John doesn't actually call them the antichrist, right?

The first beast, nowhere in the book of revelation is he actually called the antichrist. So number one, where do you even get that term?

You know, someone could ask me, where do you get that term? And how do you know which man is the antichrist?

Well, let's turn to the book of 1 John for a moment. The first thing to point out, the term antichrist is a biblical term.

And while John doesn't mention it in the book of revelation, he does mention it in his epistles.

So we're going to look at 1 John 2, where he does mention the antichrist.

And he also mentions antichrist in 2 John. There's several names for this figure who's coming in the end of days.

What are a few other names? I have the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn, the prince to come.

He's called the beast. Any other names that you can think of? The dragon is

Satan. Okay. So the lawless one, right?

Yep. So there, there are several names, so we could call them a whole bunch of different things, but within Christian theology, typically most agree on the term antichrist as like the term.

So let's read 1 John 2, 15 through 19. John is clearly teaching that there is this one coming known as like the antichrist.

1 John 2, starting verse 15, John says, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. And that's important because in the end times, like this is the decision you have to make either trust in Christ or the world system and that, or the beast system verse 16 for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

It is not of the father, but it is of the world in the world is passing away in the lust of it.

But he who does the will of God abides forever. Little children, it is the last hour.

And I see this as John talking about this. This is the last age. Okay. The latter days.

So between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ, this is the last age before the end times.

This is the last hour he says, and you have heard that who is coming.

Okay. That's what he says. You have heard that the antichrist is coming.

That means in the first century churches, the Christians were taught that this man, the antichrist is coming.

So this teaching goes all the way back to the early church and John's writing of it here. So you have heard that the antichrist is coming.

And even now many antichrist plural have come by which we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us for, if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.

Okay. So there's many antichrist plural. You see antichrist with a lower case.

A that's just a reference to the false teachers, but he says the antichrist is coming.

Okay. Let now let's go back to revelation 13, but I just wanted to show you that, that even though it's not in the book of revelation, uh, antichrist is a biblical term for this figure.

Okay. But again, he has many different names. So what's he called here? Well, the antichrist, we would say,

I would identify him as the first beast, but could you say that the second beast is the antichrist?

I mean, I think, I think they're personally, I think they're there. Here's what we know for sure. They're both against Christ.

So they're both antichrist in that sense. But since he is compared to a lamb,

I mean, there, it could be that he could be identified as the antichrist as well.

But typically we, we call the second man, the false prophet.

So that's who we're going to be looking at today or tonight, the second beast better known as the false prophet, but he could be another type of imitation for, for Christ.

Uh, because this is what Satan does. He's, he's an imitator, right? He's a counterfeiter.

So you have the true faith and isn't it interesting, all the different like forms of Christianity, you have

Mormonism, right? The job is witnesses. You have all these different groups that kind of fall under the banner of Christianity, but they're so radically different.

So this is what Satan does. He takes the truth and he, he takes the truth and mixes it with a bunch of error and he creates a whole bunch of counterfeits.

Um, the, the, the Godhead is the Holy Trinity, father, son, and spirit.

But, uh, Satan has his counterfeit Trinity, the, they say take the satanic

Trinity with the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Uh, we talked about this, the ministry of Jesus lasted three and a half years.

Well, the ministry of the antichrist, he's given authority to reign for 42 months, three and a half years.

That's verse five. Um, Jesus had his prophet, John the Baptist who pointed everyone to him.

Well, guess what? The antichrist has his false prophet who is going to point the world to him.

So we see that he's just really copying, uh, the things that God does.

All right. Revelation 13, 11. Let's just go through this verse by verse. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the sea and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.

Uh, so how many horns did the first beast have? 10.

Okay. And this, this guy has two and what John sees. So what does that mean?

You compare 10 to two. Well, um, there could be several ways this is understood.

Uh, some view this is that the false prophet in the way he conducts himself, he's, he's maybe more gentle.

I mean, the picture is like a lamb who has those horns. It's just like a little nubs. He's like a lamb.

You know, he's, he's approachable. He's winsome. He's more gentle. Maybe he's even seen as a man of the people while the antichrist is he's, he's more like God and unapproachable.

Uh, that's one way people understand this. The fact that he's compared to a lamb that could be a reference to the fact that it's, it's at least possible that the false prophet is the one playing the role of Jesus.

If you look at Islam, uh, they have their whole system of, you know, end times eschatology, and they believe that Jesus is coming back, but then they have this other figure known as the

Mahdi. So they have like two or three different people who are going to come.

And of course, Christianity, we have the two witnesses and Moses and Elijah. So the devil is going to have counterfeits which one is actually claiming to be

Jesus Christ. It's at least possible that the false prophet is the one claiming to be Jesus.

I mean, some have seen that as a possibility. There's here's an ancient theory.

Some of you may have heard about this because in the old Testament, all these prophecies about Jesus, uh, there's the prophecies like Isaiah 53, that the

Christ would be the suffering servant, right? So there's old Testament passages about the Messiah that he would die or that he would suffer.

But then there's these other prophecies that he's going to be a mighty warrior and a great King. And the

Jews looked at this and like, how, how can both be true? So they kind of went with the, the

King theory and ignored the suffering servant part, but there were some Jewish rabbis and there are still

Jewish rabbis who believe that when Messiah comes, there's going to be two of them.

And that, that may be what he's doing. He's, you have the antichrist and the false prophet.

You have two men doing a kind of a, a co Messiah role. Um, who's heard of that theory?

There are some Jewish theories that the Messiah, they're actually be twin brothers. One would die and the other would reign as King.

So it's just interesting that those things were believed a long time ago.

Is that what is going to happen here? Possibly because there's this reference to the antichrist and the first beast.

He, what he, he's killed by the sword. Didn't we read that he was killed by the sword, or at least it seemed that way.

And yet he lived. So a lot of questions. Um, how do you take that?

That he had two horns and he appeared like a lamb. Does anyone have anything else?

Maybe a, you read a commentary, something in your study Bible. Okay. So we don't really know.

Um, here's how it looks to me. It looks to me as though the false prophet is going to be the one doing the, doing the day to day operations.

Um, it may be that the antichrist is hidden away somewhere in the false prophet is going to be the guy who's visible.

He's running the empire. He's, he's out front, he's doing everything.

So he's sort of the right hand man, but he's doing all the work. And actually this is a, a way that some cults work.

I watched a documentary, uh, this past a week or two, and it was about a cult.

Um, I forget the name of them. The Ron Ron Ron Nish's back in the eighties.

Does anyone remember the early eighties? There's a, there's like a Indian guru living in Oregon and they're going to take over the

County and take over the state. Anyways. Um, there were thousands of people following this guru, but the guru that they were all following was like hidden away in this room.

Nobody could see him. He was in seclusion. Uh, he didn't even talk, but his, you know, his secretary, the, the, his right hand woman in this case, uh, she would go in and talk to him and, and then she would come out and relay the messages to the people.

That's almost the way it looks like the antichrist is going to operate. Uh, he might even be dead.

I don't know, but you know, he's, he's sort of set, set apart and it's actually the false prophet who's out there, you know, running, running the, the empire.

He's the one instituting the mark of the beast. He's the one directing the religion. So it may be that the antichrist is totally inaccessible and hidden away.

And the false prophet is the guy, you know, you would see on TV every night.

I don't know. So with false religions, you know, that, that type of system, it, it almost adds to the mystique, uh, having this man just being inaccessible and no one can see or talk to him.

Uh, it says that this false prophet, so he has the two horns. He's apparently less threatening.

It's the way it looks, but it says he spoke like what a dragon.

Okay. So what he's saying is just as wicked. It's just as satanic.

Even if he has a pleasant demeanor, even if he is, you know, meat on the surface, uh, he he's teaching the same satanic doctrines.

And this actually describes a lot of false prophets right now, uh, in the church.

They're very soft spoken. They're they're kind, they're gentle. They seem positive and happy and everything's great.

But the things they say are very much opposed, uh, to the word of God. So that may be the situation here.

Let's continue. Verse 12, the false prophet. It says he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

Uh, so there's the one world, uh, government really wrapped up together with a one world religion.

Uh, in the end times, there's going to be a joining together of church and state if you will, where everyone is going to have to worship this, you know, one world, a dictator from, from hell.

So the deadly wound that was healed, we talked about this last week. It's probably a reference to the fact that the

Roman empire is revived. So the Roman empire has come back to life, but it looks like there's actually going to be some sort of resurrection like event with the antichrist as well.

And it's the false prophet who, who tells everybody, Hey, look, look, look at him, uh, worship him.

He's going to point everybody and direct the whole world to, to this man.

Um, second Thessalonians two, nine, when it talks about the antichrist or the man of sin, it says that the miracles he does,

Paul calls them false signs and lying wonders. So let me, let me ask you a question, see what you think about this.

Can Satan perform miracles? Okay. Yeah.

Let's say I asked someone, I was the same answer I got from someone else. Can Satan perform miracles?

If God allows him to do it, could he do it on his own?

You know, presumably all the power and authority Satan has he has because God gave it to him or God allows him to have this.

But again, second Thessalonians two, nine, Paul calls them false signs or lying wonders.

When I, when I hear that, that gives me the impression that they're not real, that it looks like he's able to do this.

You know, it looks like he rose from the dead, but he didn't really, it was somehow staged. It didn't really happen or it says he calls down fire from heaven.

You know, can he really call down fire from, I mean, that's what it says, but if that's a lying wonder, is that really what's happening?

So, you know, there, there is sort of a question here. Can Satan, or in this case, can the false prophet really perform miracles?

And I think that's a good answer. If God allows him to, and actually think that might be what is said here.

So look at verse 13, speaking of the false prophet, he performs great signs.

I mean, that's the word for miracle. It says he does it so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

Who's another person in the Bible that could call fire down from heaven? Elijah.

Right. And of course the Lord did that when he rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.

But yeah, you think of Elijah. Well here, the false prophet is doing it. So is this really a hymn?

Well, notice verse 14 and he deceives in doing this.

He deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which what? Which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast.

So the way I'm reading, the way it looks to me that yes, God grants him the ability that God allows him to actually work miracles.

Now that might be problematic. You have a false prophet working miracles that God's allowing him to do it.

But remember, this is all, this is all working out to help fulfill God's will because the people on the earth are going to believe the lie.

So God, it looks like God allows him to do it. Is that what you're seeing? Any other theories? Okay.

So whatever power and ability Satan has, the antichrist has, the false prophet has, you know, remember with the book of Job, Satan could do all sorts of different things.

Satan could even control the weather. It seemed like, but he was only given so much authority by God and it all helps to accomplish

God's purposes. Also, verse 14 says that the false prophet tells those on the earth to make an image to the beast.

Okay. Now when you hear an image, the first thought I had was like an idol, be like a statue, make an image.

So a graven image, something just, you know, you see these things all around. Uh, there might be some, even in the towns around here, there's some, you know, civil war veteran or, um, general or, you know,

George, there's, there's all sorts of statues to the founding fathers and war heroes and all sorts of different, you know, images of people.

And that's the first thing I think of that he's going to create a statue of this, of this man.

But it says in verse 15, and he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

Now, when John wrote this to have an, a statue that can talk, I mean, that would have been a big deal back in, you know, the first century today, you know,

I, I'm, I'm not aware of any statues that can talk, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to do, right? Yeah.

You'd have some robot, some voice box in there. It wouldn't be hard at all to build a statue that can talk, although it says he has breath.

So, I mean, it seems as though this image is alive because he can't just talk.

He has breath. That makes me think it's probably not a statue. Another theory is it could be something like a, a hologram that there could be a living image right in front of you.

And you know, whoever doesn't worship this thing is going to be, is going to be killed. They'll be an enemy of the state if they don't bow down.

So that's my best theory at the moment. You know, today things are changing so fast.

I don't know if any of you keep up with artificial intelligence and the things that are happening. We have no idea 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the things they'll be coming out with.

It's kind of scary when you think about it, but there's all sorts of different things.

This could be things that we haven't even thought of yet. So we're not really sure, but there will be an image, people it's going to seemingly be alive.

It'll talk. And if people don't worship it, yes, they will be an enemy of state and they will be dealt with.

So everyone on earth at this point really has a choice. They're either going to worship the Lord or they're going to be part of the beast system.

And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of middle ground. Now, when

I mentioned earlier, there's a different people. Well, they, they interpret the book of revelation in a different way, right?

There's the, the preterists. And they say that all these things happened in the first century.

I remember there was a show, it was like a mini series. I don't know if it was called the Bible. Does anyone remember that?

Maybe five years ago, the Bible mini series had like 11 or 12 episodes on TV.

Okay. I mean, there's been a lot of things like that, but I remember there was this one, maybe it wasn't called the

Bible. I think it was. Uh, but the last episode they had, uh,

Nero Caesar was sending an image or a statue of himself to Jerusalem.

And he was going to force the Jews to put this statue of himself in the

Holy of Holies, the Jerusalem temple. And that's how the mini, you know, maybe they got canceled.

Maybe they ran out of money. That was the last show and it never went on. So I, apparently the statue never made it because I looked online.

Did this really happen? Did Nero really try to erect a statue? And I'm not sure if that actually happened or not.

Well, let me rephrase that. I'm not sure if that was actually planned or not. It never ended up happening.

So you could understand if a statue of Nero ended up in the Holy of Holies, that could be seen as like, yeah, that's the abomination of desolation.

And that would make sense, but that never actually took place. So a lot of people, and I always say this because if you talk to other, uh,

Christians, other people, they, you may hear this. There's a lot of people who think that the antichrist, uh, was

Nero Caesar. So there's something about Nero Caesar in with numerology and something about his name that supposedly adds up to six, six, six.

So if you talk to somebody else and they say, Hey, you're interpreting revelation wrong.

Um, the antichrist in the, all this is really Nero. None of this actually took place.

Okay. There, there was never any erecting of a statue in the Jewish temple. So, um, you know, don't let anyone fool you that, that never took place.

Uh, we're still waiting for the book of revelation to be, to be fulfilled. Any questions so far?

Um, all right. So we've, we've kind of looked at between last week and this week, we've looked at, uh, the beast, the antichrist is beast system, the one world government.

Uh, we see the false prophet. He's going to direct everybody in the world to worship the antichrist.

So that's a one world religion, right? If you have, if you have to worship him, that that's a religious thing.

So there's a one world government, one world religion. And now we get into the, the final, um, piece of this is the one world economic system.

And how is this, um, referencing an economic system because no one can buy or sell unless they have what?

Yeah. The mark of the beast. Uh, there's a few weeks ago. I think Marcus asked the question about the mark of God.

Remember in chapter seven, the 144 ,000, it says they had the mark of God in their forehead.

So again, remember Satan is, uh, a counterfeiter and imitator.

Okay. So there is a mark of God where they 144 ,000 had this thing in their forehead.

So what does the devil do? Well, God has a mark. I'll come up with my, my own mark.

So he has this mark, mark of the beast. Look at verse 16. And again, it's not the antichrist who's forcing everyone to do this.

I mean, he does seem sort of removed from the situation. It's, it's the false prophet who's, who's running things.

At least that's the way I'm reading this. Uh, verse 16, it says that the false prophet, he causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

So again, we, we don't know. Nobody knows what the mark of the beast is. If somebody tells you, they know,

I mean, just write it off. Like no, no, you don't. A lot of interesting theories.

And I love, love talking about the theories, but nobody knows. Here's what we do know.

I think number one, the mark of the beast will be visible. It has to be visible.

Otherwise it, you have to identify them. They clearly have it on their forehead or right hand.

So number one, it's visible. Number two, once a person takes the mark of the beast, it's permanent, right?

And because it's permanent, once somebody takes the mark of the beast, like they're done, there's, there's a whole thing where I don't know if it's the left behind books, but there's people that say, well, you know, you could take the mark of the beast and that way you could shop and do and take place.

But you know, in your heart, you don't really accept it. Uh, you can take the mark and just still worship

God, or you can take the mark and repent afterward. No, if somebody takes the mark, that's it.

Like this is permanent. It's a, it's a one -time decision. It's like selling your soul to the devil.

Actually, I think if somebody did sell their soul to the devil, which really isn't even a, it's not a biblical concept.

I actually think a person could repent of that if they did that in this life, but nobody can repent of taking the mark of the beast.

If you read all the passages about it, those who take it, it's like the unpardonable sin.

I mean, that would be the best way to compare it. Um, so number one, it's visible.

Number two, once you take it, it's permanent. And then number three, it represents a ownership, or as you guys said, submission.

So if you have the mark, you belong to the devil, but those who have the mark of God belong, they belong to the

Lord. So any questions on that? I think that's pretty much evident.

Uh, one question that people ask, can they, and I sort of already answered this. Can a Christian take the mark of the beast?

No, because if you took the mark, I mean, that would prove you're not a Christian, right?

But again, we believe the church will be raptured. There will be believers during the tribulation who get saved during the tribulation, but no, a

Christian will not, a believer in Christ will not take the mark of the beast. That is absolute impossibility.

Uh, one commentator, almost done. One commentator said this about the mark, the word, the

Greek word properly means something graven or sculptured. Um, hence a graving sculpture, uh, sculpt, sculptured work or, uh, images or idols.

I mean, these are all definitions. So it looks like it's something carved. That's the first definition of the

Greek word or the second definition, a mark cut in or stamped, uh, as the stamp of a coin.

So it could also refer to something like a tattoo, some sort of printed mark, but it's like embedded.

You think of like cattle, like the branding iron, right? Uh, it could be something like that.

So several different possibilities. The commentator says that in the ancient world, it was not an uncommon thing to mark slaves or even soldiers in this way.

And the design was either to denote their ownership or rank or to prevent their escaping.

So as not to be detected. So yeah, it's, it's a mark of ownership. Uh, the fact that nobody can buy or sell without it makes living, you know, day to day life, which living in the tribulations is going to be hard enough as it is.

Uh, but this just makes it nearly impossible. You can't go and you can't go to the store and buy food.

You can't receive medical care. You, you really can't do anything in society without this mark.

Uh, I think people back hundreds of years ago might've thought, well, how would this even work?

Like, how is this even practical? Well, and you know, I'm not, don't read into my comments, but during 2020,

I mean, I think we saw how something like this could be, uh, implemented quite easily in 2020, 2021, there were places you couldn't go, the things you couldn't do, unless you put this thing on your head.

I mean, it was over your face, but I mean, it was still on your head and it was, it was visible to everybody.

If you didn't have this thing on, you were a villain, right? I mean, that's the way a lot of people viewed you.

That guy's bad. Well, take that and multiply it by like a thousand.

And that's kind of the way the mark of the beast, uh, appears. If, if somebody doesn't have that, they're going to be viewed like this, this is a terrorist, a horrible person, you know, however they frame it, you're going to be banished.

You won't be able to live, uh, and do, do anything. So that's the way the mark of the beast is going to operate.

So that's the one world economic system. And it's all going to be governed by this mark. So to engage in commerce, to work, have a business, buy, sell anything you need to have this mark.

And what is the mark? Well, we're told what it is in a sense, right? But it's, it's six, six, six.

Why six, six, six? Well, we're told that six is the number of what man.

So you think of seven, the number seven is seven represents God, perfection, completeness.

Seven is God's number. You know, God created all things in six days, rested on the seventh day.

God is perfect. So seven is God's number. Man's number is six.

What's six, six, six means exactly is something to do with his name, but we don't, we don't know.

Here's the thing. People who are living in the tribulation, they will know. So we don't, we don't have to know, but when the time comes, they will be able to identify this man by the number six, six, six.

So in conclusion, uh, what's the takeaway? Uh, you know, I always say it's good to know the future to study these things.

Uh, I, I want to know what's going to happen. I find it interesting. The scripture says about itself, you know, all, all scripture is profitable.

Uh, but I think the application here for us, since we presumably won't be around to see any of this, uh, we should live in light of this truth right now.

Uh, what are those things right now that are a mark of the world system?

Like in the end times, you're going to have to take this mark of the beast. You're going to have to worship the antichrist. There are certain things that place you in the world system.

You, you can tell this person's a worshiper of the Lord. This person is a worshiper of the beast just by how they appear things they do.

You can tell, but in a sense you can, you can kind of tell that right now. So what

I would want to do is look at those things that a person can just look at us, observe us, the things we say, the things we do, the things we wear, whatever, how we present ourselves.

What are those marks that would make somebody think, Hey, that guy's of the world.

You know, look at him, look at her, the way she's acting, what things they're doing.

This person is of the world. I would say we want to avoid anything that would give someone the impression that we're worldly, that we're part of the world system.

Again, in the end times, you're going to identify with the beast system by this mark on your forehead.

We don't have anything quite like that, but Romans 12 too says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So whatever those things are that people identify um, as worldliness,

I would say, let's live in light of this truth right now and avoid those things that would people observe us, look at us, hear us talk, whatever it is that they would say, that guy's a

Christian or that woman is a Christian. And they would know that we are set apart from this world system.