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It's Friday and we're taking questions from listeners. Our questions today have to do with the Mark of the Beast, Donald Trump, no direct association there, and what belief in Jesus really means when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everybody. Welcome to the Friday edition of the broadcast, where we take questions from listeners and viewers of our what videos and answer them here. If you'd like to submit a question to the broadcast, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.
And I want you to utilize that email address in another way, because I want your feedback. I'm thinking about adding in an Old Testament book study into this broadcast. So what I would do is on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we would do our New Testament book study, which right now is the book of Romans.
And then on Thursday, we would do an Old Testament book study, and it would go a little bit faster than the exposition that we're applying to the Roman study, because like, for example, there's a lot more stories and narratives that we will see in the Old Testament.
So you're not necessarily doing a verse by verse and saying, well, let's understand this and that sort of a thing. We can read out the entire story and talk about it instead of instead of understanding it line by line.
There would be some of that, but it wouldn't be as common reading from the Old Testament as in the New Testament. And then there's also some things like reading in the book of Joshua, the allocation of land to the tribes of Israel or in First and Second Chronicles, the names that are listed there.
We don't necessarily have to go through all of that and just kind of give a summary of what's being talked about there. So again, the Old Testament study would go a little bit faster. So what do you think?
Maybe doing the New Testament study Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Old Testament study Thursday, and then we would still do our Q &A on Friday. If you like the idea, I'd like to hear from you. If not, if you want to say, keep it the way that it is, that gets too confusing.
So let's just stick with the study the way that we've been doing it. Well, send me an email. I want to hear from you when we understand the text at gmail .com. My first question today comes from the email address, and it has to do with our video on the Mark of the Beast, which came out a couple of weeks ago.
Here's that video, and then we'll get to the question. In Revelation 12 and 13, the Apostle John described an unholy trinity, an imitation of the triune God, consisting of the dragon or Satan, the first beast who is the Antichrist and the second beast, the false prophet.
The second beast makes all the earth worship the first beast, performing great signs and deceptions, and causes those who wouldn't worship the beast to be slain. Also it causes all to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
It is the number of a man, and his number is 666. The most popular theories about the Mark of the Beast pop up in End Times fiction. In the old film, A Thief in the Night, the mark is a binary code for 666.
In the Left Behind series, it's a computer chip in the back of the hand or the forehead. But is it possible this mark is not something physical, but spiritual? Notice the beast causes all people to be marked, and the mark is on the right hand or the forehead.
In Deuteronomy 6, God told Israel, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Isaiah 41 .13 says the Lord God holds our right hand. We are marked by the deeds we do with our hands and the thoughts we think with our mind. Are you doing the works of God or the works of the devil?
Are you thinking with the mind of man or with the mind of Christ? This calls for wisdom, and something we should consider all the time, though it may also have a future fulfillment when we understand the text.
Regarding that video, our question comes from Karis in Oklahoma who says, Dear What, I like your latest video on the Mark of the Beast. It's not our latest video anymore, but it was at the time I got this email.
Anyway, I'd always felt like there was more to the mark than just being a stamp or a computer chip on the back of the hand or the forehead. The idea of the mark being spiritual rather than something physical makes a lot of sense.
But the verse in Revelation says that those without the mark won't be able to buy or sell goods. So how does a spiritual mark mean that a person will not be able to buy or sell? Thank you for your question, Karis.
So let's go ahead and come back to the section that we're looking at here in Revelation 13 and see what it says about the mark. So the second beast was allowed to give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image of the beast might even be able to speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
Notice that we have the word cause here. There is some level of power that has been given to this creature, to this Antichrist, that they would have influence enough even for those who do not worship the beast to be killed, to be martyred.
OK. And then verse 16, it also causes all both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or the forehead. So it physically forces people who follow the beast to be marked on the hand or the forehead.
No, but the forcing is done spiritually. They are forced according to because they do the works of the devil. They therefore have the beast, the beast mark on their hand or on their forehead. And then the connotations as they applied, according to what was said there in the video so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark.
That's Revelation chapter 13, verse 17. That is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is 666.
Anyone who has the mark cannot buy or sell. So if this is a spiritual thing, how would this apply to buying or selling? Well, I would think that by what we're seeing happening in our culture right now, the answer would be rather obvious.
You have people who are being sued out of their livelihood because they refuse to participate in a gay marriage. The state is actually saying to them, you are not allowed to do business unless you think and believe the way that we tell you to.
And we're just getting a taste of this now. But it is going to happen on a much larger scale. It's happening in the city of New York, where a law has been passed by the mayor of New York. A business has to identify a customer by the pronouns they want to be identified by.
So if a man comes into your place of business and wants to be called a she, you have to call him a she and by the woman's name that he wants you to identify him as, or you will be fined up to $250 ,000 and could lose your permit to do business.
So I think that the spiritual application of this, the spiritual connotation to this is evident how a person would not be able to buy or sell because they would be a follower of Christ rather than a follower of the beast.
And this also works the other way on the part of the Christian who might have convictions that would prevent them from doing business with a person or entity who is sworn allegiance with demonic things.
And so in that way, they're not able to buy or sell. And so that's that's how that would work out spiritually. And I hope that makes sense to you. And that has answered your question, Karis. Next question comes from Steven in Ohio.
He says, Dear Pastor Gabe, I have a question about Donald Trump, but it's not really about Donald Trump. I keep hearing Trump compared to all these different Bible characters like he saw who used to be against Christians, but then Jesus revealed himself to him and he became the apostle Paul or he's David, who was an adulterer, but then he repented and turned his life around or he's Nebuchadnezzar, who made people bow to a statue of himself, but then he repented and even wrote part of the Bible.
Setting aside how superfluous these comparisons truly are, there's got to be a problem with comparing famous people in the world today to these biblical figures. Can you help me out? Well, I think you're touching on something very important here, Steven, and that is our tendency to allegorize the text instead of looking at these men in the Bible for what the spirit means for us to understand about them.
Instead, we try to put ourselves into the story. One of the most common ways that this is done, as a matter of fact, this was the first what video that we ever did a couple of years ago. One of the most common ways we do this is regarding the story of David and Goliath, where we'll take that story and we'll make ourselves David and our problems are Goliath.
And with God's help, I can overcome anything. But that's not the way that we're meant to understand that story. First of all, we need to look at it in the context in which it's given. We need to understand what was happening in Israel in 1000 BC, that Saul was not meeting this champion's challenge.
David is the one who steps in, a 17-year-old shepherd boy, and he is the one who is successful against Goliath and overcomes the Philistines, which was a job that Saul was supposed to do. And instead, David did it.
David was an advocate for Israel when nobody else could step into that position. Even Saul could not have come up against Goliath and won. David was that advocate who beat Goliath and no one else could have done it but him.
David was the only one who could beat that giant. So if there's any way that we're going to allegorize that story, it should be in looking at David as being a picture of Christ who was going to come and defeat sin and death when we could not do that.
Only David could beat Goliath. Only Christ can beat sin and death. In the story of David and Goliath, you know who we are? We're the Israelites clamoring off to the side going, he's going to kill us all.
Okay, we're the cowards that David has to step in and save. And notice that David does that even at the mockery of his brothers and the other soldiers in the Israelite army. So David was doing this to the glory of God, not because he was trying to gain glory from this army and not because there were people behind him kind of pushing him forward going, come on, you can do this.
All right. It was all to the glory of God. So we need to see the story in the context in which it is given rather than looking at these stories as, oh, okay, well, that's like my situation now. No. And nor does this apply to Donald Trump.
In no way is he any of these figures, because first of all, Stephen, in the way that you presented this, you have Saul who repented and became Paul. You have David who was an adulterer and he repented, Nebuchadnezzar who made people bow to a statue of himself, and then the Lord cursed him and he wandered in the wilderness and he ate grass like the ox.
And then his reason came back to him and he repented and he he worshiped the Lord most high, as it talks about in Daniel chapter four. And so none of those none of those characters apply to Trump because Trump has outright said I have never asked God for forgiveness and I don't think I need to bring God into the picture that Trump is not apologetic for anything.
And so none of those figures would apply even in that sense, since Trump has never asked God for forgiveness. But anyway, that that's aside from the point of that tendency that we have to allegorize the text, which we need to be very careful about doing.
We need to understand the scriptures in context. And it was teaching that lesson using the story of David and Goliath that when we understand the text as a ministry began. And you can find that video on our website.
If you go to WWUTT .com and you click on the videos tab, go all the way down to the bottom. And there's the four videos that we did that were all the long form videos before we started doing the 90 second videos.
So there's four videos that are four and a half minutes long and you'll find David and Goliath among that list. All right. One more question here. I want to get to this one before we wrap up today. This is from Jonah and he says, what does it mean to believe in Jesus?
That's the subject of his email. And then in the body of his email, he said, so as the subject suggests, what does it mean to believe in Jesus or have faith in Jesus biblically? All of course, in the context of justification.
In addition to that question, what about Jesus? Do we put our trust in his person, his work? Thank you in advance. Jonah. Jonah, I'd like to read you something from John Piper because he was asked, what does it mean to believe?
And here's what Piper said. If I believe that Jesus is the son of God, the same way that I believe Vladimir Putin is the leader of Russia, have I fulfilled the conditions needed to be saved? Or is there more to belief than that?
We know that it doesn't fulfill the conditions because the devil believes it. And we know that the devil believes it because when Jesus came into the world and began to confront the demonic powers of the devil, they said out loud, we know who you are.
You are the holy one of God. You are the son of God. So the devil is absolutely orthodox in his belief in the incarnation of the son of God and Jesus Christ. To believe in orthodox Christology is not to be saved.
The devil is very orthodox when it comes to his understanding of Christ. So what is missing is not believing in the fact that Jesus is the son of God, but delighting in that fact, embracing that fact and making Christ the treasure and the Lord of your life by surrendering to him.
In other words, belief is seeing him for who he really is, seeing him as infinitely valuable as the son of God. It's not just acknowledging the fact that he is the son, but also seeing him as infinitely precious and valuable.
Satan, on the other hand, does not view God as precious and valuable. He hates Christ and Christ is a threat to his own value. But when the Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives, we're not deceived like that anymore.
We recognize that our value is nothing compared to Jesus value. Instead, we just want to know him, be with him, enjoy him, follow him and celebrate him. That transition, that change of heart, so that we are now looking away from ourselves to Christ and embracing all that God is for us in him.
That is what faith is. That is what belief is. And that is what saves. Unquote. OK, so I hope that helps you out a little bit, Jonah. I want to add a little bit something to that as well. To believe in Christ also means that you believe something about yourself.
Now, be careful when I say that. I'm not I'm not saying that to believe in Christ is to believe in yourself. All right. Because our worship of God is entirely upon him. It is not upon ourselves. But when we believe something about God, it also means that we believe something about ourselves.
When we believe that Jesus is holy and righteous and perfect, and it is only through him and the work that he did that we can have right standing with God, then we also believe about ourselves that we are not righteous and holy and perfect.
And there is nothing that we can do with our filthy hands, no work that we can do to bring us right standing with God. So to believe in Christ as holy also means to believe that we are unholy and we need a way to have our sins forgiven so that we can have fellowship with God again.
And that is what Jesus Christ is for us. So a person that does not see themselves as sinful, as depraved, as fallen short of the glory of God, cannot exalt Christ as holy and righteous and perfect because they see in themselves still an ability to attain that by their own merit or by their own works.
OK, does that make sense? So we must understand as worshipers of God to believe this about God, to believe in God means that we also believe of ourselves that we have fallen short of the glory of God and we need the work of Christ in order to be saved.
Now, a piper touched on this a little bit where he said that to believe in Christ also means to follow Christ. So belief in Jesus means that you will obey the things that he said to do because you believe in who he is as the son of God.
So therefore, if you love Christ, you will obey his commands. Jesus said that to his disciples, you'll show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. Think about what the definition of faith is as we have it given in Hebrews 11, 1.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So sure are we of the words of scripture that we are convicted to obey them. So we don't just acknowledge that, well, the Bible exists and it's the word of God, it's words written down on a page.
But we are so sure of their authority and who spoke these words that we are convicted in our hearts to follow them and to obey them. If a person says that they believe in God, but they don't obey God, then they're liars.
They don't truly believe God because they don't acknowledge the authority by which he speaks all things into existence and commands obedience in faith and therefore is convicted in their hearts to obey what it is that God has said.
If a person says they believe in God, they will do what God has said to do. And so the evidence of our belief will be seen in the life of a Christian in the obedience to the commands of Christ. It's not that obedience to God is what saves us, but rather our obedience to God is confirmation that our belief is real and it is genuine.
Obedience doesn't save, but it authenticates our belief as being real. Obedience also doesn't bring about belief. It is God who brings about belief. Jesus said in the book of John, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.
And we read in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not of works so that no one may boast. Belief, faith, repentance, these things have been given to us by God.
Jonah, your ability to believe is because God has granted you to believe. I mentioned this on the broadcast yesterday, but in the life of a believer, we should be able to observe a growth in love for members of the body of Christ.
There should also be an increase in holiness and righteousness and also a growing appreciation and learned learnedness for the word of God. So these are evidences that we should be able to see in the life of a believer and know that their belief is genuine, that they love the body of believers, that they grow in holiness and righteousness and that they also grow in their understanding of God's word.
So that's not how belief comes about, but that's how belief is authenticated. Belief is granted to a person because God gave them the ability to believe. Thank you so much for your question today, Jonah, and to everybody who submitted questions.
If you'd like to submit an email, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And again, I want to hear from you about the format change. I want to hear what your opinion is about that. Doing a New Testament study on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, doing an Old Testament book on Thursday, and then we'll still have the Q &A on Friday.
We'll be back in our study of the book of Romans this coming Monday, still in Romans chapter 15.
So God bless and I'll talk to you then. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com.
If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again next week as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.