The Mark of the Beast — Keith Malcomson

The Mark of the Beast and the Battle for the Mind

Please turn with me here tonight to Revelation chapter 13, Revelation 13 and we're on our series The Battle for the Mind. I believe we've come to the greatest era in all of history in battling for the mind of man.

I believe it's a unique hour that we have come to and what I'm dealing with tonight is maybe the greatest strategy of the devil to make a bid for the mind of man of any generation. My message tonight, part 6 of our series The Battle for the Mind is the mark of the beast.

Revelation 13 and the Prophecy of the Beast

Reading from Revelation chapter 13 verse 11 and it says,. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaketh as a dragon, and he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and he causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, and the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in the foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score and six. Let's pray here tonight together. Father, I do pray that you do bring a sobriety to our hearts, O God, concerning, discerning the hour that we live in, even as we deal with our minds, the battle for our minds against the flesh, this world, nor God against, Lord God, those around us, against the media of this generation, against the political system, against the devil, but O God, in this very hour against the stratagem of hell, nor God a bid for the very minds and the bodies of this generation, we ask for your mercy and your grace that there would be an awakening in the body of Christ, the church, to realize the hour that we live in, that the very stage is being set for one of the most sinister political, spiritual, religious, Lord God, social systems that we've ever seen in any generation.

Father, I pray, make us to fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, to carry his mark, to be joined to him by the Holy Spirit of God, and Father, this night, we thank you for the precious blood of the Lamb, that my name has been written in the Lamb's book of life since the foundation of the world, and we love you tonight, we bless you, O God, for the testimony of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, help us and speak to us tonight in Jesus' mighty name, amen.

Why the Mark of the Beast Requires Biblical Discernment

I want to speak on the mark of the beast tonight, not because I want to, not to be a cessationist, not to be dramatic, none of those reasons. In the past three messages, we have looked at a victorious mind, a sanctified mind, and a peaceful mind.

I believe as Christians, that's the mind we need, it is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason I want you to see that is because a bid, a demonic bid, an extraordinary bid, is being made for the natural minds and brains of this generation.

And I want to teach on what is the mark of the beast? How do we know it is the mark of the beast? What does the Bible say about the mark of the beast? I want us to look biblically at this and expound it.

You know why? Because especially at an hour like this, we get the craziest ideas being taught in the church. I mean, ideas that don't come from the Bible, ideas that contradict the biblical teaching. And I want you in this church to have a biblical view of the mark of the beast.

You see, there's those in the church of our day, many of them, that teach that the mark of the beast has a connection to Islam, and that this mark is going to be an enzyme or a flag or something similar.

That's what they actually teach. Now, I believe that's erroneous. I believe that utterly contradicts what the Bible says. So you've got a lot of genuine Christians who believe Islam is the anti-Christ system, and that it's going to be a flag, an Islamic flag.

Do you know what? They are not taking this from the Bible. There's others who, with new Bible versions, they say the mark shouldn't be 666, that the most accurate Bible translation says it should be 616.

And they believe that we're all wrong. Now, if my Bible says you to count the number in order to identify it, whether it's 666 or 616 makes a difference. And there's only one manuscript that has that in it.

And do you know what? All the new Bible versions actually lean towards that, but they've never had the courage to change 666 into 616. So, they use all the new translations. They use only 5 of the documents we have, but they don't have the courage to change that unless we don't believe what they're saying.

But this is what I really want to deal with tonight is so many are saying across the church that the vaccine, the COVID vaccine, is actually the mark of the beast, are connected to it. Now, the vaccine isn't.

It can't do. And as we look at this, you're going to see the vaccine isn't the mark of the beast. Neither is it worship of Satan. But I do actually believe that it will have a connection to what is going to happen in these days.

You see, all through church history, the church, genuine Christians, have always accused certain leaders of being the Antichrist. I mean the Antichrist. So far, they've been 100 wrong. So far. They've actually accused everyone from Nero in the first century all the way through to all the great political leaders of my generation, including President Obama.

There are people you couldn't speak to them. You couldn't take them to the scripture. They say, but I know he is the Antichrist and he is going to take over the world. You can't talk to them. And you know what?

It's humorous. Yet many of these are sincere. You know what the missing link was? They never went to the Bible. I would ask them simple questions and say, well, is Obama, has he been appointed by 10 great world leaders?

And as soon as you begin, that's only my first question. Their whole thesis falls apart. It's never been taken from the scripture. And so I hope you understand why I want to give you a biblical teaching on the Mark of the Beast and why it is so important because so many people are saying so many things about the Mark of the Beast that we've got to stop.

And it's a very serious hour. We're in very, very serious. And our world has changed in the past year and a half. But I want to bring you to scriptures. I want to bring you back to the Word of God tonight as we look at the Mark of the Beast.

Seven Biblical Tests for Identifying the Mark

I want to give you seven things about the Mark of the Beast. And I want you to note these down or remember them. Because if what men say the Mark of the Beast is, if these seven things are not in place, it cannot be the Mark.

It is not the Mark. And when you have this settled, you'll become very clear. And I believe it's very important you understand this because right now in our world, the stage is being set for all this to take place.

We are very close to it. It is at the door. It is very suddenly going to happen. But it is not in place. The tribulation has not started. The first seal of Revelation 6 has not been opened. Lots of people think because Corona is called Corona meaning in the Latin crown, that the first rider on the white horse in Revelation 6, because he wears a crown and Corona means crown, that he actually is the coronavirus and great multitudes are going to die.

I shared with someone recently, mature believers, and I said, have you noticed they don't start dying to the later seals? Nobody dies in the first seal. And I said, do you know the word is Stephanos in the Greek?

It's a Greek word, not a Latin word. And do you know what? It doesn't mean a crown of a king with spikes on it. It doesn't mean that. And I just started to lay all of this out. We've got to come back to scripture.

And I believe it's very important. If you understand the biblical teaching of the Mark of the Beast and what I'm teaching you, I believe from a child and I used to teach 25 years ago because it's a biblical teaching.

And you know what? It's going to be very applicable for this hour and generation we live in. Let's deal with these seven things and then I'll finish with a very unique point, important point. First of all, the first thing about the Mark of the Beast from Revelation 13 is it is a literal Mark.

The Mark of the Beast as a Literal, Visible Mark

It is a literal Mark. It says in Revelation 13, verse 16, and he, that is the false prophet. He causes all both small and great, poor, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a Mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.

When I say this Mark in Revelation 13 and in the book of Revelation is a literal Mark. I mean, it's not symbolic. I mean, it's not just something mental internally. I mean, it's not something just invisible or just something in the heart.

I mean, this Mark of the Beast is a literal, physical and visible Mark. Notice what it says in verse 16 here. It says, he, that the false prophet causes all to receive the Mark in their right hand and in their forehead.

This word causes all. Notice when the false prophet arises and this system arises, he is going to cause all. It doesn't matter who you are. He's going to put pressure upon you. The word cause means to use force or to make.

It means he's going to begin to compel all. It doesn't matter whether you're extremely rich, a trillionaire or a billionaire, or whether you're a pauper, or whether you're on state benefits. When this happens, it doesn't matter, rich or poor, there is going to come a force, a conjoling, a commanding, and then a threatening to take this Mark.

In other words, it doesn't matter what your status in life, color, nationality, who you are educationally, there is going to come a pressure at this time, very specifically, to actually take a Mark. This Mark of the Beast, you will be threatened.

You will have pressure put on you from the highest powers in our entire world. Pressure will be put upon you. And what does it say? To take the Mark in the right hand or the forehead. Since I grew up with this from a child, but I believe it is now at the door.

For the first time in world history, we are actually there for the first time. The word Mark used here is the kerygma. It means to scratch or to etch out or to put a stamp. So it's saying here, he is going to bring great pressure to have a Mark or a stamp, and it means an indelible Mark.

It means to go right into your right hand. It's going to be visible, it's going to be marked, it's going to be seen. But you know what? There is a Mark on it, not just something worn. It's a Mark in the right hand.

When it's talking about stamping the hand and stamping the forehead, in Greek culture in the first century, this was really seen as a branding. It's a branding of the right hand or a branding of the forehead.

This branding in the first century or this kerygma was used upon livestock, animals. You would actually stamp or mark or etch into your cow, your pig, whatever it is. The farmer, the owner would actually mark his animals, and that's how this was used.

It was a stamp or a mark to mark and identify animals, to say, that's mine. And we still do it today. You'll see the sheep, some have a red mark, some have a blue mark, some have a brown mark. And that farmer says, they belong to me.

It is a mark to show ownership. It was not only used for animals, it was used on documents to say, this is an official seal or mark to show who it is coming from. Also, this kerygma was used on coins.

You mark a coin with a head, with symbolism, with words. In other words, you can identify it with a culture or a political system or with a nation. So you mark the coin, and by marking the coin, you identified it with an entire system.

Also, in the first century, they would use this Greek word to mark a slave. If you owned that slave, you would mark that slave with your mark to say he belongs to your household. He is your servant. He is part of your family system.

He belongs to you. You bought him with a price. So we see that all of these things were used to identify. It sometimes identified a slave or loyalty or fear. And that's what this literal mark of the beast is.

The Bible predicts an hour is going to come where a system is going to come where you will have to take a literal mark on the back of your right hand or your forehead. And that mark, it will be indelible.

It will be permanent. And do you know what? It's going to be visible. It will identify you with something. It is an actual literal mark. It's not spiritual. It's not just mental. You know, we read about this particular word mark or kerygma nine times in the New Testament, eight times in the book of Revelation, but it's used once in Acts 17 verse 21.

And the apostle Paul preaching, he talks about things that are graven by the hand of man that we worship. So it's talking about men engraving things, marking things. And that is the actual word. That's the only place outside of the book of Revelation.

All other eight mentions are about this literal mark that is going to be used. And when we read about it, it's called a mark, the mark or his mark. In other words, this mark is always identified with either a person or as a unique thing.

It's not a general thing. When it talks about this mark, you can't mistake it for anything else. When it comes, it will be utterly unique, utterly unique. Notice as well that in the book of Revelation, we know God's people, they are marked in their forehead.

That is God marking believers, genuine believers with a mark, with a seal to identify them with God. That's a spiritual mark. It comes from a spiritual person. It is a spiritual work. We understand that.

And in fact, those people are preserved from this. But you know what? This mark, this literal mark is given by men. It's not given by God invisibly or spiritually or in the heart. It is actually given by a political religious system.

It is given by men. It is seen. It is visible. It is physical. It is literal. Again, look in verse 18, it says, If it's not a literal mark, if you can't see it, if you can't identify it, if it's just spiritual and not physical, how do you count it?

How do you count it? You can only count it if it is a literal mark that you can read, that you can see, that you can identify. And if you can, then you can count it. If it's symbolic, spiritual, religious, emotional, mental, a belief system in your heart, you can't count it.

You cannot do that. It says here that in order to recognize the number, you're going to need wisdom. Here is wisdom. First of all, you need knowledge. Let him that understandeth. Do you know, I preached on this a few years ago, that first you need knowledge, then understanding, then wisdom.

To get wisdom, first you need knowledge. What is knowledge? It's facts. If you don't have facts, remember what we heard on Sunday from Candice with the children, facts are unchangeable facts. That's what they are.

So first of all, you need knowledge. You need to gather the facts about the mark of the beast. People have ideas. They've never gathered the facts. They've never once sat down and written out all the scriptures on the mark of the beast, yet they're experts on it.

They've never once done a personal study of the Bible. They've never once corresponded the information, and yet they'll say, I know Obama's the antichrist, and I know the vaccine is the mark of the beast.

I know that. How do you know it? I know. You need wisdom. But to get that wisdom, you can easily make a big mistake in this, and most do. First of all, you need knowledge. You need the right facts. Second of all, you need understanding, and that's what it says here.

Let him that has understanding count. What is understanding? It's taking all the facts and piecing them together in the right place. You know, a lot of people make a pig's ear of this. They pull out a couple of scriptures, and they build their picture, and they go, I knew Kissinger was the antichrist.

Sure, most of you younger ones don't even know who Kissinger is now. We were all told in our day, watch this man. He is the man. He's got so old now, I'm not sure he'd be able to do anything much. All these one world government men, they live up into their 90s, almost reach 100.

Very few of them die young. Isn't it amazing? These great world grabbers live to a ripe old age. Notice it says here about this mark that you're to count the number. That means to calculate it. It's a very rare word in the New Testament.

In Luke 14, 28, it's actually the only other use, and it talks about if you're going to build a building, you sit down, what do you do? You count the cost. One pound, two pound, three pound, 10 pound, 20 pound.

I don't think I'll try building the building. I won't start. You count. It actually says here you're to count the number. If you can't count it, if you don't know what it is, if everyone has a different idea, it's not the literal mark of the beast.

We know that we can count it. It's a monetary number. It literally means it's related to counting something. In Strong's Concordance, it means to count with pebbles. You can compute it. You can evaluate it.

The real literal mark of the beast, you can look at it. You can begin to count up. You can look at its numerical value. You can identify it. And it says for the number is the number of man, and his number is 603 score and six.

Notice that it is a actual number. The Bible doesn't say it's an ethos of thinking. It says it's an actual number. The Greek word is arithmos. It's where we got our word arithmetic, and it's used three times.

This word number, the number, this mark is a number. Three times in one verse it says it's a number. It means a fixed and a definite number. You can count it. You can identify it. It's the number of a man.

We know that six is the number of man. That's the great number of man, and yet this is 666. The numbers in Revelation, while some are symbolic, many of them are literal. Look at the term of three and a half years concerning Antichrist's reign.

We're told not only that it will be three and a half years. We're told there'll be 42 months. We're also told there'll be 1260 days, so you're given years, months, and days of the reign of Antichrist.

It is a limited period of time. Do you know what? This mark of the beast is going to be for that period of time, three and a half years. It's a literal mark, and you can count it. You can identify it.

Yes, it will be tied into a mental ideology, a spiritual framework, a whole way of thinking, an attitude of the heart, but it is an actual literal mark. Whose cattle do you mark with a stamp? Only those that belong to you, your own.

Who is Antichrist going to mark? Is he going to mark someone else's people, people who love Christ, who love the Word of God, people who follow after righteousness? He's going to mark those whose mind and heart have already yielded to him.

You see, some people say, I would never take the mark, but yet you are already deluded by Antichrist, by the spirit of Antichrist, your way of thinking, your attitude, your ethos. My second point, not only is it a literal mark, it's an identification mark.

The Mark as an Identification of Allegiance

In verse 16 again, it says, and he causes all, notice all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads. It's talking about an actual right hand, your right hand.

He's going to try and make it an identification mark that's very personal to the individual. He causes all to take the mark on their forehead and on their right hand. Notice this identification mark. It's going to separate those out who are part of a system.

It will identify you with a political, religious, worldly system. No, in fact, it'll do more than that. It will identify you with a person, a person. It is an all-inclusive mark that identifies what you think.

You see, it's not the mark that damns you. It is the heart, the attitude, and the lifestyle. It is the decision that you make to identify yourself with this mark. It is all-inclusive. This mark will reveal equality.

It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. Do you know when you take this mark, we are all on the same level. It doesn't matter how poor you are. You can have the same mark that Bill Gates is going to take, and now it is an equality in this new kingdom that's being made and being brought forth.

It is the great equalizer. It is the great unifier. You know how they're going to promote this? They're going to say, we are going to make sure that nobody gets missed out. We don't want to leave behind any time, any city, any culture, any color, any system.

We don't want to leave anyone. I don't care how poor you are. We will pay your way to make sure that you get the mark. You're going to have all the same benefits through this mark. This mark will open up and give you access to the same financial benefits, the same rights, the same blessings, the same gatherings.

Never have a people listening to a message like this ever understood it better than you and I in this hour, this year. Never have we. See what we're seeing in our world now. For the first time in any generation, we suddenly see how the entire world can be swept by this mark and invited in.

Come in and be part of this system. We'll all be one. You'll be provided for in this system. There is a conformity to this system. There is a unity, but it's a unity under tyranny. You are identifying with a person, a system, a religion, a way of thinking, a belief system.

And you know what? All of us are already reduced to a number. Really, all of us are. All of us have numbers that say you're a number before you're a name. That's how we identify you. Third of all, it is an economic mark.

The Mark as an Economic Requirement

It's an economic mark. It's a literal mark. It's an identification mark, but it's an economic mark. Look at verse 17. And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Notice here that it's an economic mark. This literal mark, this personal identification mark, is also an economic mark. The Bible predicts that our world is going to move into a realm where this mark that's so famously called the mark of the beast, that you won't be able to buy or sell.

Unless you have this mark indelibly on your right hand or your forehead, you will not be able to buy or sell. In other words, if you have this mark, you're in the economic system worldwide. If you're outside it, you cannot buy or sell.

Only he that has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. It's a means of transaction. So we begin to see and understand it has to be a literal mark. If you're going to buy or sell.

You see, I could be a Catholic, or a secret Catholic, and I could be part of that system and say, now do you believe this? Oh yes, I believe. Well then you can have your food as long as you're a Catholic.

Isn't there lots of Catholics in this city? They're only Catholic in name, or if they need to get married, or if they need their baby sprinkled, or if they need their buried, then they're suddenly Catholics.

They don't even know what the Catholic church believes. But if you ask them, now are you a real Catholic? Oh yes, I believe it all. How do you know? You see, it's not some internal way of thinking, or believing, or what you'll compromise for.

This is actually a mark on the right hand of forehead that ties you into an economic system. It's not a medical system. When we read the book of Revelation about the mark, it doesn't mention anything about the medical world.

It mentions about the economic world. This is how you identify it. That's how I know it's not the vaccine. It's not a literal mark that you can see. Neither is it an economic mark. You say, well it's getting close.

I know, I know it is. It's getting to the point almost, unless you take it, you can't buy and sell. But it's not that yet. We can see how all these things are setting the stage, but it is not the mark.

When this mark comes into being, you will not be able to buy or sell. It will be impossible. And believe me, I don't believe there's anywhere that's impossible. Maybe certain shops, maybe certain restaurants.

There's a restriction, but there's no ban as yet. Do you know there's one place in the Bible where 666, 666 is mentioned for the first time in the Old Testament. In 1 Kings chapter 10 and verse 14, we read about King Solomon and how much money he brought in in a year.

It's actually taught about economic power. Solomon was the richest king Israel ever had. In fact, his wealth was so great that he traded with nations all over the world. They actually say that he traded with not only Spain, but Britain as well.

He also traded for monkeys from Africa. He was a great trade and power, a great financial power. It says in 1 Kings 10, 14, now the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in just one year was 600, three score, that's 60, and six talents of gold.

Six, six, six talents of gold. That is the first time we read the number 666. And it's connected to the gold that came into Solomon every single year. He was a economic power. He had the monopoly on wealth.

He was the richest king Israel ever had. The richest king we know of in the Bible. He was remarkable. Is there a connection here? I believe so. You see, I believe that mark is going to be connected to economic power in the last days.

We see it so clearly. It's laid out for us. But there's something else here. Number four, it's a political mark. It's not only an economic mark, but it is a political mark. It's not only connected into the economics to buy and to sell, but it's going to be part of a political system.

This is how it begins. Look with me for a moment in Revelation 13, the very first verse. Do you know that this mark, the beast, is only talked about from Revelation 13 through to Revelation 20? It begins in Revelation 13.

And it begins with the rise of a certain political system. Look in chapter 13, verse 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a great beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns.

Now, in the book of Daniel, we spoke about this same beast. As soon as you read about this beast, you have to go back to Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7. This beast doesn't exist anywhere else. You have to go back to Daniel to identify it.

And notice here that the seven heads and ten horns, that the ten horns have crowns on it. What do the ten horns represent? Ten kings who are going to give their power to a new political system and to a man called the Antichrist.

Notice here that chapter 13 comes before chapter 17. Revelation does not flow in order. When you see the ten horns in chapter 17, those men, God gives them a united mind, one mind in chapter 17. He gives them one mind to do what?

To give all their power to the beast, to a political system. Here in Revelation 13, we see that these ten horns or these ten kings have crowns on their head. In other words, now they're in power. They're not just historic.

It's not prophetic. Here in Revelation 17, you're seeing a political system rise up out of the land. And that political system, when you first see it, it's going to be crowned. There's going to be ten great world leaders.

And what do they do? These are the men. If they're not in place, we don't have the mark of the beast. Do you hear me tonight? Unless you see this economic system and this political system, the mark of the beast is not here.

It's not actually here. If it's not a literal mark and an identifying mark personally to an individual, if it's not economic, not political, it's not here yet. You see, a certain identifiable political system is going to implement it.

And it is this system. It's going to rise up out of the sea. And it says the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were like unto a bear. His mouth is the mouth of a lamb. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and his great authority.

This is a new political system that's going to rise up. The dragon, the devil gives it power. It's going to be a new political system in the last days. Verse 3, and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.

Remember what John said in the first century, five of those heads have come and gone. One of those heads, the sixth head is in place and the seventh head has not yet come. Do you know what? It still has not come, that seventh head.

The sixth head was wounded. What was the sixth head? Because in John's day he said five of those heads have come and gone. They're gone. They're in history. They were before the first century. They're gone.

And then the one in John's day is in place. What was it? It was imperial Rome. It was a political form of government. There had been five forms of government in the Roman empire that were based in the city of Rome in its entire history.

Then there was imperial Rome. Do you know what happened to that sixth head? It got wounded to death. Do you know three times in this chapter when it's preparing to tell you about the mark of the beast, it mentions three times that that head was wounded to death, but it was healed.

In other words, this wounded head, this political system that got killed in history, wounded to death, smited the head, the five fell. That sixth head got wounded to death and it hasn't been healed yet.

No political system has made an agreement or been birthed in the city of Rome in our generation, but they're preparing for it. The club of Rome was signed there and the club of Rome gave birth to the World Economic Forum, but that's a whole other subject.

And you know within the club of Rome that signed their document on Vatican Hill, do you know what they said? We're looking for the world to be divided into 10 regions with 10 kings, 10 kingdoms. And if you want to know does the World Economic Forum have anything to do with it, this is where it was birthed.

This is where it was birthed. And the writer of that document about dividing the world into 10 regions, now I'm giving you stuff I was going to keep secret from you, but now the writer of that club of Rome, that document, he spoke at the World Economic Forum at its third conference, the third Davos.

That man with this master plan, they know exactly what they're doing. I am telling you about a wounded head that is yet to be healed. And you know what? That political system that's going to bring in the mark of the beast, it's going to have a seventh head and it's going to revive, it's going to be a revived Roman empire.

It's going to be a political empire. And you know when it revives, look what it says here, and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast.

Now when we look at the kingdoms in the book of Daniel, four kingdoms, do you remember when we taught on it? It was a kingdom and a king. Each of those four beasts in Daniel 7, they represented the Babylonian kingdom, but also it represented Nebuchadnezzar.