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The  MARK of  the  BEAST

     There is an ever widening confusion and misunderstanding among Christians over the identification of the Mark of the Beast.  Many have been taught to believe by various ministers of most every denominational church, that the Mark of the Beast of Revelation 13:16, 14:9, 11, 20:4, which is received IN our hand or IN our forehead, is to be identified as being a credit card, or lazar mark, or a chip implant, or National Identification Number, or giant computer, or some other literal thing.  Connected with the above is the belief that if any of God's people possess or are in any way connected with the above items, then they have received the "mark" of this beast and are lost.
     But what exactly is this "mark" of the Beast?  The Greek word used for "mark" is "Charagma" (#5480 in Strong's Concordance), and it translates "stamp (as a badge of servitude), mark."  So the mark of the Beast is a stamp or sign or seal or badge of servitude to some power or being.  But what is the Mark of the Beast, and how do we receive it?  In order to know this, we must know whom the Beast represents.
     The Beast which is connected with this "mark" refers to the Roman Catholic Church (see the sermon on The Beast and the Little Horn).  So the "mark" has something to do with the papacy.  As worship is the main issue listed in connection with this Beast (see Revelation 13:4, 8, 12, 15, 14:9, 11, 20:4), so the "mark" of this Beast is connected with the issue of worship.  Then what could this "mark" of Catholicism be?
     "Protestants...accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change...In observing the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope." Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950.

     "It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday.  Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church." Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, N.J. "News" of March 18, 1903.

     "It was the Catholic Church which...transferred this rest (Saturday as the Sabbath) to the Sunday....Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) Church." Monsignor Louis Segur, "Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today," p 213.

     "Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change (from Saturday to Sunday) was her act.  It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and religious without her, and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters." Letter from H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.

     So the Catholic Church changed the original day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, which is the mark or seal or sign of the Beast's authority and power!  As this is true, then Saturday must be the mark or sign of authority and power to someone else!  But to whom?  The God of heaven states:
     "Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them....And hollow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:12, 20.

     Saturday is the Sabbath day of the Lord God, the seventh-day which He has blessed and made holy (see Genesis 2:2-3), and which is the mark or seal or sign of His authority and power.  God has chosen this memorial day of creation above all the rest for all His people to worship Him on, and He even told His people not to forget this fact, but to remember it.
     "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hollowed it." Exodus 20:8-11.

     Here we see the difference between the mark or seal or sign of God, and the mark or seal or sign of the Beast.  The God of heaven states that "the seventh-day [or Saturday] is the sabbath [or worshiping day] of the Lord thy God" Exodus 20:10.  But the Beast states:
     "The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant...changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893.

     "Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles...From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first." The Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900.

     "...prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy.  There is no such law in the Bible.  It is a law of the Holy Catholic Church alone.  The Bible says `Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.'  The Catholic Church says, No.  By my divine power I abolish the sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.  And lo!  The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church." Priest Thomas Enright, Redemptorist Catholic College, Kansas City, Mo., lecture "Sunday in History", p 56, February 18, 1884.

     So the mark or seal of the God of heaven is worshiping the Lord on Saturday--His Sabbath--according to God's fourth commandment.  In doing this, it is a sign that we show that we love, serve, and worship God.  While the mark or seal of the Beast is worshiping on Sunday--the day of the sun or of the Blazing Star or Lucifer, his sabbath--after it is enforced.  In doing this, it is a sign that we show that we love, serve, and worship the Beast and Lucifer.
     Thus the Mark of the Beast is NOT a literal mark, NOT a lazar mark, NOT a credit card, NOT an implanted chip, NOT a National ID Number, and NOT a giant computer, but it is a symbolic mark!  Although all of the above items may be used to coerce and force us to bow and worship on Sunday, yet they are not the Mark of the Beast.  This symbolic mark will not be ON, but will be either IN the forehead--signifying mental acceptance, or that you believe Sunday is the sabbath.  Or IN the hand--signifying service, or that you may not necessarily believe Sunday is the sabbath, but you will go along with it anyway.
     It is a fact that the papacy claims the power to change God's fourth commandment law from worshiping only on Saturday to worshiping only on Sunday as God's special Sabbath day.  Thus anyone who knows this truth, and yet choose to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday as God's true Sabbath day, especially after it is enforced by law, are bowing to and worshiping the papacy instead of the God of heaven.  Thus they will receive the Mark of the Beast which destines them for the seven last plagues and the lake of fire (see Revelation 14:10-11, 19:20).  For more information, please see the section on this Sabbath/Sunday Controversy.

     For anyone to then claim that the "mark" of the beast is anything other than Sunday worship, is deceived and is leading souls to destruction.