2. The Mark of the Beast
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, the name of the beast or the number of his
name.
- Revelation 13:16-17
Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!
Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be
hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill
me." And the Lord said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain,
vengeance will be taken on him seven-fold." And the Lord set a mark
on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
- Genesis 4:13-15
Two marks, and so many silly notions surround them that anyone with
sense might well fear to go there. But if we actually look, the Bible has
great practical wisdom for us concerning both.
These two marks are closely related, although with a vital difference.
It’s important to understand why there are so many silly ideas out
there. In fact, it’s not a
specifically biblical or religious problem.
On old maps, where knowledge fails at the edges, you might see,
"Here there be dragons." In general,
when we don’t have answers and we’re anxious about the questions,
we’ll make something up before we admit we just don’t know. That’s especially true when in our
hearts we despair of actually being able to find real answers. This is precisely how we are made stupid
through our unbelief.
Those who read the Bible can easily go astray precisely
because we really do care about the questions, and the answers are not always
obvious, as the apostle Peter pointed out (2 Peter 3:16). As Peter’s warning leads us to expect,
inventing our own ideas about the Bible in place of real understanding opens us
to delusional ideas such as dark skin being the mark of Cain – even
though the Bible clearly states that the mark that God set on Cain would keep
people from daring to kill him. Come now – when have killers ever
been deterred by dark skin? Christians
who quite rightly want to avoid the mark of the beast spoken of in the
Revelation are often enticed by mythical explanations such as an embedded
computer chip – with no support at all in the Bible for their
guesses. But if we remember that those
who wrote these difficult sayings meant to be understood, and admit that we
just don’t understand, we may find the Bible guiding us to good
answers.
When we read, "God set a mark on Cain," and that this mark will deter
people who would otherwise want to kill him, don't we wonder what that mark
might be? If we go with that feeling and keep reading, there it is!
Cain built a city, which would certainly deter others that didn't have cities
and the social organization that cities imply. The sixth in his line is
Lamech, a rich man with two wives, and he tells us exactly what the mark of
Cain is, as he boasts of extending it (Genesis
Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-seven-fold.
The mark of Cain, as understood by Lamech his heir, was the kind of prowess
that deters assailants. In Cain we already see the sophisticated
political organization of a city, and in Lamech wealth and fame, as seen in his
awareness of enemies who want to bring him down and the glee with which he
boasts of putting them down - feeling blessed by God because he has the power
to do so.
And he is the first in Scripture to have more than one wife, reflecting his
unusual wealth and self-indulgence.
In the seventh generation, we see the multifaceted power of this mark. Lamech's sons, Jubal and Tubal-Cain, were dominant in agriculture, music, and
metal-working. These made them masters
economically, culturally, and in industry and war. Unlike the mark of the
beast, which is wholly evil, this mark is from God. Jubal
is the father of all who play the flute and the harp, which therefore must
include David and the temple choir that gave us the Psalms. Tubal-Cain is the father of all who work in bronze and
iron, and so these include those inspired by the Holy Spirit to fashion the
tabernacle and Solomon's temple.
The cultural glories of the world's kingdoms are God's gift, in place of the
God they do not know. They way they go wrong is
to find their identity in them instead of in the God who gave them. As Paul wrote, for this reason not many wise
and not many mighty in the world come to know God, and James likewise reminds
us that God has chosen the poor of the world rich in faith.
But the gifts themselves are God's good gifts, and it is right for God's people
to receive them with thanks and acknowledge as our fathers those men through
whom we receive them, unbelieving or brutal as they may be. Thus the
teaching that we should love our enemies comes early in the Bible.
Receiving from the wicked what God has given them in no way obliges us to trust
in these things and to walk in pride as they do. What they are not doing
we can and should do ourselves - receive them as from God who gave them. What they receive from God is God's and not
theirs, although they don't realize that, so we are both just and faithful to
receive it gladly from the hand of God. Through both fear of their
violence and wonder at their skills, the world will always admire them and follow
their example, believing them to be a superior form of life, as they imagine
themselves to be. But knowing that God did not give these gifts to
Cain because he was a superior form of life, we can use these gifts without
being impressed by their possessors as the world is.
In the beast of Revelation 13, the world's admiration of beauty, power, skill,
and ruthlessness finds its fulfillment. Just as Lamech
"improved" on the mark God had placed on Cain, the beast
"improves" on the mark that God places on his servants, the word of
God on their foreheads and their hands (Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Ezekiel 9:4,
Revelation 14:1). How so, exactly? What is the beast's mark?
That is made clear by how the saints must respond.
In his day, the faith and perseverance of the saints is to know that all who
live by the sword must die by it, and that all who enslave others must be
enslaved (Revelation
Moses states that God's word is to be on the foreheads and on the hands of
God's people. Jesus said that if it is,
it will make them God’s servants indeed and set them free. The
doctrine of the beast - peace through violence, and freedom through the
subjugation of others - will likewise make his disciples servants of Satan:
stealing, killing, destroying, lying, and controlling others to protect themselves. If you believe this doctrine and act upon
it, thereby receiving its mark in your forehead and hand, you will believe and
do accordingly, not according to God's commandment, even if you are saying to
Him, "Lord, Lord!" And so the Revelation emphasizes that all who receive this mark, no matter what their religious
patter, will be condemned, because God will deal with us according to what we
do, not according to our religious talk.
Saying to Jesus, "Lord, Lord," asking him into your heart, receiving
sacraments, and agreeing with creeds is easy stuff and lots of people do it in
one way or another - disputing which variation of this kind of religion is
right. But Jesus says that the way to life is tight and narrow and that
few find it - and he defines that blessed condition in the beginning of that
sermon (Matthew 5:3-12). As we read these beatitudes, it becomes
obvious that those who believe in force and in being on top in the world simply
cannot believe and do anything that Jesus teaches there. Thus the mark of
the beast absolutely locks out everyone who accepts it from the tight and
narrow way to life that Jesus calls us to. Therefore, in order to find
life, we must be ruthless with the mind of the beast in ourselves, repenting of
it daily as it comes to light in us. And it always will, because we are
not a better form of life than others around us who are deluded by this
doctrine of violence. The path of life
has no room for us while we fancy themselves better than other people (Luke
18:9-14).
Unlike some, who have called him a man with the mind of an animal, I claim that
this beast is an empire, powered by a religious "faith." What
is the evidence that the Bible teaches this?
If it does, why does the Bible judge the glorious empires of mankind to
be subhuman, having the minds of beasts?