1. You will fear the person who can kill your physical life more than the person who can kill your soul.
2. You will not possess the Spirit of discernment and consequently be deceived by Satan and the beast’s system.
3. You were taught all your life that you would not be here when the Antichrist arrives, and thus your faith will be acutely vulnerable. Or you were taught that all that end-time stuff in Revelation was merely “figurative” language.
4. You will be exposed as a fake-professing-in-name-only Christian, and when push comes to shove you will gladly give your allegiance to the Antichrist while denying Jesus Christ. The excuses for taking the mark will abound. Fill in the blank ____.
5. You were taught the lie that you can take the mark of the beast and “repent of it later” and still be saved.
6. You may be saying now that you are heeding God’s warnings of the mark. But when that existential decision arrives and your very life is at stake, you will not heed to the following warnings of God against taking the beast’s mark.
Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon. He exercised all the ruling authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed. He performed momentous signs, even making fire come down from heaven in front of people and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived. The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast—that is, his name or his number. This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666. (Rev 13:11–18)
A third angel followed the first two, declaring in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand, that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.” This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus.” (Rev 14:9–12)
