- 00:04
- So one of the questions I get as a pastor and at Theocast, is the
- 00:09
- COVID -19 vaccines a mark of the beast? And I don't want to make a lie to this because I do know this is a legitimate question for some people that are in a dispensational church or context, and the book of Revelation is very important to them, and times theology is very important to them.
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- And so they ask this being serious, and so I want to give a serious answer, and I want you to hear me.
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- One of the things that you have to understand about the Bible is that there's more to the
- 00:39
- Bible than just the end times as far as the return of Jesus Christ. And I know you know that to be true, but the reason
- 00:45
- I say that is you have to look at what the weight of what the Bible puts on something. There's one book,
- 00:53
- Revelation, and then there's sections of different parts of the Bible, but it really only makes up less than 4 % to 3 % of the
- 00:59
- Bible. And as far as an emphasis goes, what is the design of the book of Revelation, and what is the design of the rest of the
- 01:06
- Bible? Let's just start with the beginning of the story. God creates a gorgeous world,
- 01:13
- Adam and Eve are in it. They fall, and as soon as they fall, they are given a promise that God's going to make right.
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- This is Genesis 3 .15, that from Eve is coming a seed, and from that seed he's going to crush the head of Satan, meaning that he's going to receive the punishment riding what was wrong.
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- He says his heel's going to be bruised. And from that moment on, Adam and Eve are asking the question, and so is the rest of the world, who is this seed that's going to make things all right?
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- And then Abraham comes, and the promise is made to Abraham that from you all the nations will be blessed.
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- From your seed, Abraham. Of course, he questions God, is this real? And ends up sleeping with the wrong woman to come up with his own plan.
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- But from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then Joseph thrown into Egypt, you just start seeing this plan unfold where God is expressing to us that he is going to make what is right, what was wrong by sin, right, and he's doing it by his promises through a
- 02:07
- Messiah. And then the Messiah shows up. John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
- 02:12
- And then Paul, he continually writes about this one very important part, the sufficiency of Jesus to save sinners.
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- So the Old Testament, Jesus literally tells us it's about me and me fulfilling the promise made to the prophets.
- 02:29
- Paul says that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these promises. Even in Acts, it says that from the
- 02:37
- Old Testament that Philip shows the eunuch that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah. So you have all the
- 02:45
- Old Testament, God is faithful to fulfill his promises. And then you have the New Testament, Jesus comes, he dies on the cross, and Paul says,
- 02:51
- Jesus is faithful to save. Here's what my point is. I know why people are asking that question. They're asking the question, if I get the mark of the beast, am
- 03:00
- I going to be abandoned? Am I going to be rejected? Am I going to end up in hell because I rejected
- 03:09
- Jesus Christ and accepted the Antichrist? Well, we have to take what 95 % of the
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- Bible says. 95 % of the Bible says that if you belong to Jesus, that you cannot be lost.
- 03:22
- It says literally that he loses none of his sheep. So if by faith you have trusted in Jesus Christ and you trust him, and you've put your faith in the fact that he died for your sins and he rose again, conquering death, and his righteousness is your righteousness by faith alone,
- 03:39
- John 6 says he loses none. None. John 10 tells us that no one can take you out of his hand.
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- When it comes down to the mark of the beast, and there's a lot of interpretations when it comes to the revelation on that,
- 03:52
- I think what he is speaking of is that there is going to be presented the opportunity for those to say, you can either trust
- 03:58
- Jesus Christ and you can follow him, or you can reject Christ and reject his teachings and reject his salvation and follow the
- 04:08
- Antichrist, rejecting him, and you take on as a rejection, fully saying,
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- I do not want to follow Jesus, and I am taking on the mark of the beast. I'm going to receive something that says
- 04:22
- I am following that which is anti -Jesus. And there is nothing within our culture, there's nothing within the current circumstances that has anything that would relate to that at all.
- 04:34
- Whether you take the vaccine or not is more related to a health concern, not a religious concern, as it relates to end -time theology.
- 04:45
- I think that's the hard part about the book of Revelation, is that certain things we like to take literal, and other things we like to take metaphorically, like the seven beasts, or we have different kinds of animals, or different kind of helicopter.
- 04:58
- I mean, how do we know which ones to take literal? So I'm going to end with this. John says, I write these things that you might be encouraged that Jesus is going to return.
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- This is Revelation 21. He says he's going to wipe away all tears. He's going to make all things new.
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- The point of Revelation is not to make you afraid that you might make the wrong decision. The point of Revelation is that Jesus wins.
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- He overcomes everything, including the Antichrist, including the beast. He overcomes everything.
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- And how does he do that? By his power, not yours. It's not your power to choose. Trust in Christ.
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- Do your best to read his word and obey it. Submit to your elders. And I promise you, it will be very clear when the opportunity comes, if you need to make a decision to either follow
- 05:48
- Jesus or follow a false teacher, Jesus says he will not let go of you. So here's the greatest news
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- I can give you. If you belong to Jesus, and by faith you are trusting him, he will not let you go.
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- No matter what you take or what happens to your body, he loses none.
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- Please take encouragement in that. And my encouragement to you would be is read the epistles, read
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- Galatians, read Romans, read Corinthians, as they will encourage you to trust in the sufficiency of Christ.
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- Read Philippians. It will encourage you to trust in the power and sufficiency of Christ, and you won't have to worry about if you accidentally take something that it's going to lose your salvation.
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- You cannot accidentally lose your salvation. It is not possible because you didn't accidentally gain it.
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- This is why I love Hebrews. He who began a good work in you will complete it. Not only
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- Hebrews, but Philippians says the same thing. So hopefully that was encouraging for you. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave us in the comments below.
