Consequences of the Mark of the Beast

The Christian Mark of the Beast Survival Manual Copyright © 2014 by Erik K. Olinger All rights reserved.

READERS: This is a rough-draft of the manuscript.  It is unedited and contains errors that will be corrected at the final release.

 

Consequences of the Mark of the Beast

 

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “’The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed” (NIV Mt. 21:42-44).

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Christianity is a religion in which one cannot be lukewarm or double-minded in hopes of obtaining salvation by putting in minimal effort. The kingdom is for those who are vigilant in their service to Christ, works and especially faith. If one inwardly or outwardly rejects the cornerstone, Christ, and does not produce the kingdom’s fruit (Mt. 21:42), one will certainly fall. It should not be “simple” to reject Christ, nor can it be done by accident. This is a conscious rejection, a person will either be determined to reject Christ, or will refuse to be led by the Spirit and be disobedient, or will give up hope. A person can fall on the stone or the stone can fall on the person, both with calamitous results (Mt. 21:44). Anyone who falls will be broken to pieces or crushed (Mt. 21:44). The one who trusts the Lord will never fall or be disgraced,

See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame (NIV Ro. 9:33).

Those who fall have disobeyed the message (1Pe. 2:8). They will have lived unfaithfully, in actions and in thought.

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (NIV Mt. 6:22-23).

The point must be driven that if anyone worships the beast on earth, they will have aligned with Satan and will be permanently separated spiritually from God, and expelled from His presence. The fury of God will be on those who worship, full strength (Rev. 14:10). One’s name will become blotted out of the Book of Life, the book that registers who will receive eternal life (Ex. 32:32-33; Da. 12:1; Rev. 3:5, 21:27). Anyone who is victorious will not have his or her name blotted out (Rev. 3:5), however anyone who does worship the beast will haplessly be blotted out, resurrected after death, and tossed into the lake of fire (please see Satan’s Final Battle and the Great White Throne Judgment). That person will experience the harrowing “second death,” which is the lake of fire (Rev. 20:6, 14).

Prepared for the Angels

The lake of fire, the final destination of the impenitent sinner, was not created with the intent to punish man. It is a fiery lake with burning sulfur (Rev. 14:10, 19:20, 20:10. 20:15) that was prepared for the fallen angels,

…’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (NIV Mt. 25:41).

Hell

The English word “hell” is translated from four different words. The O.T. originally used the term Sheol (she’ol), which is the place of the dead often thought to be below the earth. The N.T. words from which hell is translated are the Greek terms Gehenna (geenna), Hades (hadēs), and Tartarus (tartaroō). Gehenna corresponds to the Hebrew gehinnom (the valley of Hinnom), and is used by Christ in the N.T. to indicate a place of punishment. Gehenna is the final punishment for a sinner. Hades is translated from the Hebrew Sheol, and is used to represent a place of torment. This is where the unrighteous dead are kept until the resurrection. Sheol is used literally and metaphorically in the O.T. In Sheol, the inhabitants have lost spiritual connection with God (1Sa. 38:18; Ps. 6:5-6). It is a place of misery and pain, but the Lord will redeem some from Sheol (Hos. 13:14). The angels are said to be reserved in Tartarus (2Pe. 2:4), however this is a term ancient Greeks used to describe a place where the gods and wicked would be confined, and it is only used once in the Bible. The torment of the final punishment, the lake of fire, is forever (Rev. 14:11, 20:10). The flames are eternal (Mt. 18:8, 25:41; Mk. 9:47-48), and the punishment is eternal (Mt. 25:46). It is the second death (Rev. 20:6, 14).

Degrees of Punishment?

It is a possibility that while all wicked will be tossed into the lake of fire, and thus the same location, that there are degrees of punishment within the lake of fire based upon a person’s misconduct while alive (Mt. 10:15, 11:22, 11:24). For instance, some wicked will be punished “most severely” (NIV Mk. 12:40), and some sinners can be “guilty of a greater sin” (NIV Jn. 19:11). The righteous do have various degrees of reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Ro. 14:10-12; 1Co. 3:11-15; 2Co. 5:10), and so it is not a stretch that there may be various degrees of punishment given in the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:11-15).

The Mark, Rewards, and Consequences

The N.T. has the only specific fore-warnings concerning the mark of the beast. The consensus among the few passages about the mark are clear: no one who receives the mark and worships its image will receive any reward. They will be rejected, as they sadly rejected their Christ, and will be punished. It is however, not clear or certain that those who only receive the mark, but who do not worship its image, will receive all of the same punishments as those who do not worship its image although those who fall are truly cut-off (Ro. 11:22). Those who fall can also be grafted back in (Ro. 11:23), and this offer may extend to those who do not worship the beast yet receive the mark. Mankind who worship the beast cannot be grafted back in. This topic will be investigated in the following pages of this chapter.

“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus (NIV Rev. 14:9-12).

Let’s gather some facts from the passage above:

1. One can receive the mark on one’s forehead or on the hand.

2. If one worships the beast and its image and receives its mark, one will receive the fury and wrath of God full strength.

3. A secondary group will, too, receive the fury and wrath of God (Note: This “too” is supplied by the translators, and can be translated to a different word without implicating a secondary group, who are presumably the fallen angels).

4. Those who have worshiped its image and received the mark will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.

5. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or (this is a key word), for anyone who receives the mark of its name.

6. The saints will have to be patient and keep God’s commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Drawing attention to the part where the key word or is in number 5. above, the New International Version translators translated “or” from the Greek conjunction kai. Kai is closest to our English “and,” but it is a Semitic kai that connects clauses or sentences, and can also mean “even” or “yet,” and other connecting words. The context of the sentence determines the meaning of kai when it functions as a conjunction. The key word, kai, translated as “or” in this passage, can result the sentence in absolutely different meaning depending on the various ways it is subjectively translated.

Looking at number 5. above, one can see that by translating kai as “or,” that it results in no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark. This implies that by receiving the mark without worshiping its image, that one will never rest again after death. Let’s examine this from a simpler Greek translation with the different meanings of kai visible:

And the smoke from their torment goes up forever, and those who worship the beast and its image will have no rest day or night kai if anyone receives the mark of its name (Rev. 14:11).

Kai replacements:

and, even, yet, or, for

If the conjunction kai is rendered as “and,” which it means frequently in Greek, no longer will those who receive the mark without worshiping its image, explicitly have no rest day or night. The verse can be understood differently. Instead, from this rendering can be read that those who worship the beast and its image “and” who receive the mark of its name, will have no rest. If kai is translated as “even,” even those who receive the mark will have no rest, a different meaning in line with the outcome of using the word “or” to translate this sentence. “Or” is the NIV translation, and “for” is yet another translation. The Good News Bible renders kai with “for,”

There is no relief day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, for anyone who has the mark of its name (GNB Rev. 14:11).

Depending on the translation, the punishment is either for people who have received the mark without worshiping, or for those who worship its image after having received the mark. There is ambiguity as to the proper word to translate this sentence, and an important difference in meaning. Because the context of this passage is inconclusive in determining the best meaning of the Greek word kai when it functions as a conjunction in Revelation 14:11, we must turn to other mark of the beast passages for a complete overview of the topic.

The book of Revelation imparts that during the judgment of the earth prior to the return of Christ, that those who have the mark of the beast and worship its image will be given repulsive malignant sores. Pay attention to the structure of the latter part of the following sentence which is roughly in the same order as it is in the Greek format,

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image (NIV Rev. 16:2).

We can see that:

1. An angel delivers this judgment from God.

2. The sores inflicted are ugly and festering.

3. Those who had the mark of the beast and (kai) worshiped its image, are who are afflicted.

Number 3. can leave no room for confusion. Substituting any word for the conjunction kai, whether it be and, even, or yet, fails to change the meaning of the verse because “those who had the mark” is written first, and then “those who worshiped its image” is written second. Revelation 16:2 is clear that only those who receive the mark and also worship its image will be afflicted with sores. Those who only receive the mark will not have these identifying ugly wounds. The fact that the punishment is for those who receive and worship, can be applied to the original kai conjunction in question previously, however the safest interpretation is that this kai is clear-cut and the original kai conjunction in question was ambiguous and is safer interpreted as punishment for both receiving and worshiping.

The following is presented in the Bible as a reward for those victorious over the beast, however those who do not faithfully withstand the devil and his mark will be without perhaps all of a reward. Those victorious will partake in a resurrection to life for the righteous (please see The Resurrection and the 1000 Year Reign of Christ). Those not victorious will miss the first resurrection,

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (NIV Rev. 20:4-6).

In this passage:

1. Those who had been beheaded because of their testimony and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark, came to life again.

2. Those not meeting the criteria did not come to life until later.

3. Those partaking in the first resurrection are blessed and holy, and the second death has no power over them.

4. They will reign with Christ a thousand years.

5. Those not eligible to be raised in the first resurrection are possibly subject to the second death (lake of fire).

Revelation 20:4-6 plainly bars those that only receive the mark from taking a priestly position in the thousand year reign of Christ. “Only receive” is truthfully not judicious wording, and is not intended to be a euphemism. There is clearly a significant consequence for receiving the mark, worshiping its image aside. It is uncertain that those who miss the first resurrection will ever inherit eternal life. The Bible warns not to even receive the mark by having faith and gaining perseverance. Christians can inherently by power of Christ, thwart the mark; it is not an option.

Conclusion

In conclusion of the limited specific mark of the beast passages, the pattern throughout the verses investigated here is that worshiping the beast after receiving the mark will eternally condemn a person. Furthermore, 1. those who worship its image and receive the mark will be tormented with burning sulfur (Rev. 14:9-10), 2. those who worship its image and possibly those who only receive the mark will have not have any rest (Rev. 15:11), however it is admissible that those who only receive the mark can somehow be saved by grace for not worshiping its image, 3. only those who have the mark of the beast and worship its image will receive painful sores during the tribulation (Rev. 16:2), 4. to be resurrected in the first resurrection for the righteous, one cannot receive the mark or worship its image (Rev. 20:4-6), and 5. it is possible that the second death is for those who only receive the mark, as well as those who receive and worship.

Final Remarks

Those are the grave consequences for unfaithfulness and disobedience. They are severe and starkly contrasted with the rewards for remaining faithful to Jesus. Punishment is a self-choice for those informed about the consequences, and is an outcome of rejecting the work of the Son who was sent to save the world,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (NIV Jn. 3:16-18).

Chapter Summary

1. Christ is the cornerstone, and one can fall if one rejects Christ.

2. Those who fall have disobeyed the message.

3. Anyone who falls and worships the beast will have aligned with Satan, and will have his or her name blotted out of the Book of Life.

4. The lake of fire was not created with the intent to punish man, but was prepared for the fallen angels.

5. The word “hell” in the Bible is translated from four different words. The following four words were defined:

   a. Sheol.

   b. Gehenna.

   c. Hades.

   d. Tartarus.

6. The final punishment, the lake of fire, is:

   a. Forever.

   b. Possessing of eternal flames.

   c. Producing of eternal punishment.

   d. The second death.

7. Reasons why there may be degrees of punishment given to those in the lake of fire were given.

8. Because it is not clear in Scripture that those who receive the mark but who do not worship its image will be punished with those who worship its image, and because it is not clear that they will receive a reward with those who faithfully refused the mark, the topic was investigated.

9. The consequences of the mark with and without worshiping were disclosed as part of the previous investigation.

10. Punishment is a self-choice for those who are informed about the consequences, and is an outcome of rejecting the work of the Son sent to save the world.