I should begin by saying that I am not an alarmist, and that I don’t believe that the bar codes at Safeway are really antichrist codes. Further, I believe that beast of Revelation was the Roman Empire, long gone, lo, these many centuries, and that the woman who rode the beast was apostate Judaism. This means the book of Revelation is not unfolding before your very eyes every time you hit refresh on Drudge.
This is as much to say that the book of Revelation was not written to us. But, like all Scripture, it was written for us, and is profitable for instruction, correction, and training in righteousness. And this is why, ironically, out there dispensationalists are often wiser than sophisticates who have a fallen Rome safely tucked away in some academic category.
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” (Rev. 14:9-10).
This is not a description of our day. But it applies to our day. The United States is not Rome. But every secular power is Rome-like, and they always want you to take their mark, whatever that mark might be. The reference to the hand and forehead is a counterfeit knockoff of what the Jews were required to do in God’s covenant with them. The Jews had to bind the Word of God to their hand or to their forehead, and of course those who want the word of man to reign supreme will necessarily vie for the same place of honor. Listen to man, they say, and not to your God. Heed the words of man. Talk about them when you walk along the way, when you rise up, when you lie down.
And all of this is connected to where dinner comes from (Rev. 13:17). Idolaters always want to get a bit and bridle on the economy so that they can have additional leverage to compel their idolatries. In a free economy, the idols have to use persuasion only (which some of them do quite well), but idols always perfer persuasion and coercion. They like having a full tool box.
And so . . . this leads to a few observations. Before unloading them, let me say that I know there are some qualifications that could be made here. But I am not going to make them, not because certain exceptions to my sweeping generalizations cannot be allowed, but rather because all the people who have a real problem in this area (and their name is legion) like to grab at any offered exception and stretch it so that it always (and quite conveniently) covers their particular situation. Whew. That was close.
So Christians who live in subsidized housing are part of the problem. Christians who use federal money to get their free education are part of the problem. Christians who get on Medicare so they can ding the taxpayers if anything goes wrong with their hobby of homebirthing are part of the problem. Christians on food stamps are part of the problem. Christians who use tax money to fund their mercy ministries are part of the problem. Christians who think that their health care would be more affordable for them if I paid for it are part of the problem. And just to anticipate self-serving objections, Christians who drive on roads built by the government are not part of the problem.
Those Christians who are just one more piglet scrapping for a federal teat are not going to be in the vanguard of reformation.