Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

MARK OF THE BEAST

March 18, 2011

The mysteries and images of The Revelation are not only a call to faithfulness, but a hindrance. We risk getting caught up in the wrong point, I fear.

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God's people.
                                                  - Revelation 13:10 TNIV

666--The Mark of the Beast. Revelation 13 brings to a head the emergence of two beasts of terror. The first beast bears a fatal wound that is healed. The second beast deceives "the inhabitants of the earth." And a mark is affixed to people, so that "they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark..." What does it all mean? Such a question has merit, but alarms us with a possible terrible diversion.

Is the issue to figure it out? Is the point to discover the meaning of the imagery and mystery? Or time and again in the vision are we told the point in the face of the beast? "This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God's people." It's not about ciphering the mystery, but worshipping and faithfulness to our God in the face of troublous times.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson