Hi Mike,

Thank you for your quick reply. I would like to clarify what I said, perhaps saying it in a different way.
One quick question if I might, concerning the mark of the beast. I am trying to put this all together in my mind. If we all have the mark of the beast, how is it that those who are on thrones did not receive the mark of the beast? – Rev 20:4. According to Rev 15:2 these ones overcame the number of his name, which seems to indicate they had it. I tried looking in the Greek to see maybe if there was another way to translate Rev 20:4, but I am just not seeing it. I didn’t see this particular question addressed on your site. Could you please help me understand in what sense these don’t receive the mark? Thank you again for all you do for the body of Christ.

In him,
R____

Hi R____,

I see that I overlooked your question about “Not receiving the mark of the beast.”
Let’s look at the verse that confuses you:

Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Now I want to ask you a simple question. Where in that verse do you see the words that tell us that those who were given judgment, those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God had never worshipped the beast, his image, received his mark in their foreheads or in their hands? Where is it? It simply is not there. All that is there is that those who are “beheaded for the witness of Jesus had not worhipped the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hands.”
“Had not” and ‘Never had,’ are two entirely different thoughts. If I had bowed down to to the image of the beast from birth, and was converted, and refused to do so any longer, then I would be “beheaded for my witness” and it could be truthfully said of me that I “had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in my forehead or in my hand.” I had preferred martyrdom to the submission to the beast to which I had once been a party.

Col 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye [ you and me] also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

“We also walked some time” with the mark of the beast, “when we lived in them.”

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

“By nature” means ‘by birth.’ “We are all children of disobedience… by nature.” But it matters not how many years, or how faithful we have been in serving that beast within, when we stop doing so we “receive not his mark upon our foreheads, or in our hands.”
Here is God’s perspective on our service to the beast:

Eze 18:19 Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, [ and] hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

All of the sermons on “generational sins” to the contrary, there is no such thing in Christ. “The righteousness of the righteousness shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

Eze 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Eze 18:22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
Eze 18:23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

When I speak of dying to the beast within, that is what is meant by “being beheaded for the word of their testimony.” Paul calls it being “crucified with Christ.”

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Do I deny that we may be literally “crucified with Christ?” Not at all, but we need not wait for this to come to pass literally. We, like the apostle Paul, ought to be “presenting our bodies a living sacrifice… dying daily.”

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [ which is] your reasonable service.
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

These two verses are just New Testament realities of what Daniel’s three friends foreshadowed in the Old Testament. These men were living under the law of Moses, but they refused to bow to the image Nebuchadnezzar had erected, and this is what they told ‘the beast’ named Nebuchadnezzar:

Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

If we ever take on the attitude of these ‘three Hebrew children,’ we can safely say that we have given to Christ our bodies as a living sacrifice and we are dying daily and “have not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon our foreheads, or in our hands;”
As Ezekiel says, it matters not what wickedness we committed before, we are now dying in the righteousness of Christ in us.
I hope this has answered this question to your satisfaction. I hope you can see that “neither had received” is not the same as ‘ never had received.”
Your brother in Christ.
Mike