Again it's as old as Babel when the men of antiquity built a
tower, a holy mountain which served as an axis
mundi, a portal or gateway to heaven. It's the same imagery found in the
pyramids, the obelisk and many other symbols the ancient world knew and
understood. It is a proclamation of heavenly mandate or reckoned in different
terms it is Sacralism in its basic form. Israel was and is the only legitimate
Sacral state, the only real Theocracy in history. The others (including so
called Judeo-Christian civilisation) are all counterfeits.
At the resurrection, Israel was redefined, the typological
overlay that we refer to as Old Testament Israel, the Levantine/Middle Eastern Kingdom
with a true but temporary axis mundi
found in the Mt. Zion Temple of Jerusalem was transferred and transformed into
its true eschatological form. It is now found only in heaven with its earthly
representation in the spiritual temple... the Body of Christ wherein the
Shekinah glory, the presence of the Spirit now dwells within the hearts of
Church. This can be understood in both collective and individual terms. After a
brief and symbolic forty year period, the old order along with its temple was
removed (as prophesied) signalling its fulfillment and obsolescence.
The Beast/Babel Impulse is a recurring phenomenon throughout
history. We see this in the successive Beasts of Daniel's recapitulatory visions
and we see them amalgamated in Revelation. It is something that characterises
the age. It can also be understood in the symbolism of the multi-headed hydra
or dragon in which the individual heads are kingdoms and yet they're all part
of this same beast power that overshadows history. Some are weak, some are
strong, some die only to be replaced or revived. In many ways the history of
the West over the past two thousand years is a series of footnotes and
recapitulations of the Roman Beast. It has undergone many transformations and
modifications but it never goes away. It literally haunts the Western mind.
The Beast symbolism appears in all the pre-Judgment visions
of Revelation. The book is not chronologically successive. One can with
relative ease demonstrate it is a book of successive recurring visions, each
spanning the Last Days, the period between the birth of the Church and the
Second Coming. This period is viewed from various perspectives and with
different emphases. The same thing happens in the visions of Daniel, Zechariah
and even Ezekiel to some degree. The New Testament book of Revelation is laden
with imagery from those books and their visions. The New Testament provides
clear outlines in understanding the Old Testament and the book of Revelation
itself illuminates and helps us to better understand the prophetic books of
old.
In Revelation we read of the Beast which demands all take its
mark and without it placed on head and/or hand people will not be able to buy
and sell. This has been unfortunately sensationalised and misunderstood in
hyper-literal and Dispensational terms. Many think this refers to some kind of
literal marking that will be applied during a future Seven Year Tribulation.
However the Bible doesn't teach a future Seven Year Tribulation which takes
place after the 'rapture'. The Tribulation is the Church Age itself and is
something that waxes and wanes throughout history. Indeed it may get much worse
as we near the very end. The rapture if we want to use that term refers to
events associated with the Second Coming. Thus any 'end times' events as people
like to think of them occur while the Church is here. The Pre-Tribulational
Rapture is a fairly modern invention and though it is now deeply ingrained in
the Evangelical mind it is nevertheless erroneous and without Scriptural
warrant.
Thus the Mark of the Beast episode is not something looked
for in the future when the Church is not present. Some may argue it is
nevertheless future but I would instead argue it's something that has existed
throughout the Church Age and has been greatly misunderstood. It's not a
barcode or some kind of implant. It is the mark of the world, its thought and
action. The key to understanding the Bestial Mark is to view it as a counterfeit
of God's own language concerning the hand and forehead. In Deuteronomy 11.18
God commands His Word is laid up on the heart and soul and bound as a sign on
the hand and on the forehead.
The Jews using a hermeneutic similar to Dispensationalism
understood this in a hyper-literal sense, and some sects even to this day walk
around with scripture verses in a little box (or phylactery) that they attach
to the hand and forehead. Like the Pharisees Jesus interacted with they
completely missed the point of the Deuteronomic injunction.
The idea was that the Word would permeate life, that it would
be constantly on our lips, guiding our lives, marking our homes... not with a
mezuzah but with your life. The hand represents your actions and the head your
thoughts and motives.
I'm afraid the meaning of the Mark is actually quite basic
even mundane and of course this is quite distant from the sensationalised
speculations of many Evangelical leaders. We have the Mark of Christ, imagery
later appearing in Ezekiel 9, where those bearing God's mark are spared the
angelic slaughter. Once you get on this track you'll see that God's Mark vs.
the World's Mark is a constant and recurring theme found in everything from the
Passover to Baptism.
The world is referred to as belonging to Satan, the prince of
the power of the air, the god of this world. There are two types of people in
this world and they're all 'marked' so to speak. Our mark distinguishes us,
declaring we are not of this world, that we are called to another Kingdom. To
put it another way there are those under the First Adam and then there are
those under the Second. This paradigm is viewed from many angles throughout
Scripture.
The Mark is something basic to history and all Beast powers.
The language of Revelation 13 is not meant to be understood literally nor is it
literally applicable in all places and times. It's a generalised statement in
which this recurring power erects an idolatrous world system in which you
cannot function in unless you take the mark so to speak. Those that refuse are
on the outside... which is where we are called to be. So much for Christendom
and the Middle Class Christianity of Evangelicalism and Confessional
Protestantism.
Every Beast power effectively declares this and yet not every
Beast power has the means of enforcing it. Pagan Rome had its mark in offering
incense to the emperor and yet there were always places one could go to more or
less escape the reach of the state. So-called 'Christian' Rome ended up
developing its own varieties of the mark and devolved under Charlemagne and the
Popes into a type of totalitarian state in which total obedience was demanded.
Thought-crime was punishable by death. The so-called 'Church' permeated society
and if you were a dissenter, your life was forfeit. The Church adhering to
Scripture went underground. This is the Whore-Beast imagery of Revelation 17
and a major recurring theme of Church history.
Modern Beast-empires have sought to apply the mark through
various means, through universal conscription, public education and effectively
erecting a social apparatus in which the individual is compelled to conform not
just to the outward laws of the state but to its ideology. Modern totalitarian
states represent the extreme examples of this.
This brings to the question of the hour and the cause of my
ruminations and angst. We are just reaching a new point in history in which for
the first time the Bestial impulse will have tools at its disposal that no
power in history has possessed. The divine impulse will now have seemingly
god-like tools at its disposal. Everything can be tracked and monitored even
down to your voice and face. No totalitarian state has ever wielded this kind
of power. They dreamed of it but even as recently as forty years ago such power
was something evil men could only dream of.
This isn't about having a social security number or a
driver's license or even an Amazon account. These things are but small parts of
the larger picture. The modern phone almost everyone carries is a tool that
binds many of these things together. It is not the mark either but all of these
collectively are working toward a new and potent manifestation of the mark, the
world system that is unlike anything previously imagined. This is what keeps me
up at night so to speak. We (the Church) are seemingly walking into a coming
nightmare and yet everyone seems asleep and few seem to sound the warning. I
suppose many Church leaders are distracted by their lustful desires to control
the Beast apparatus and their minds are on that struggle rather than the true
war of the ages. They've lost their discernment and as watchmen, they have for
the most part failed.
What's the answer here? Again, I'm not even remotely
suggesting we take some kind of survivalist/sovereign citizen route. These are
all worldly responses rooted in pride, anger and often a lack of faith. I'm
thinking in terms of a semi-underground life but realistically for the first
time in history it seems like it may no longer be possible.
Again, my immediate practical hope is that all of this will
blow up. I hope this whole techno-utopia that modern society hopes to create
will implode. I don't wish chaos on society and yet we may have to endure some
for the state to lose this power. In the meantime I urge fellow Christians to
think about technology, what's happening in society and what it means for us in
terms of conformity. We're not 'there' yet but everything is changing so
rapidly it (the moment of crisis) will be upon us before we even know what's
happening. If you're following the developments of computer technology, the
changes are rapid. We all know that of course, but I'm speaking of the cutting
edge stuff, the latest in Artificial Intelligence and the like. While I don't
believe some of their goals are even attainable, great (and terrible) leaps are
being made and the picture ten and twenty years from now... while in some ways
hard to imagine is (to me) a nightmarish one.
Nonconformity may at some point become de facto criminalised. For example if you don't carry a smartphone
you may be cut off from a lot of basic things in society. You may struggle to
shop, park your car, pay your bills, have utilities turned on or hold a
mainstream job unless you submit to the panopticon and its growing push toward
thought crime and pre-crime.
Unless one bows the knee to the state and its ideology one
may become criminalised. This is the dividing line when the question moves from
obeying laws that are exploitative and frustrating, unjust and expensive to
outright idolatry and a religious submission.
If that's the case, then nonconformity will become a heresy
and a criminal offense. If I'm a criminal for wanting to read a book, pray with
fellow Christians and procure food and clothing for me and my family, then
that's a state that has turned fully bestial. This does not give us carte blanche to break the law. We still
have to live by the Christian ethos and yet my concerns for 'having good
report' with the world more or less go out the window. Let me qualify that
statement. We still need to bear witness and some lost people will see that our
nonconformity is not pernicious and yet the state and its devotees will not see
it that way. Respect comes from individuals that know us but it won't come from
society at large.
This of course is already the reality or ought to be but what
I'm speaking of is a new phase in which the practical stakes are much higher
and immediately consequential. Sadly 'having a good report' for many has meant
social conformity and living a respectable middle class life. Given the context
of 1Timothy it is impossible to suggest that's what Paul had in mind.
I fear a 'Christian' victory in terms of political society as
much as I fear an absolute victory for the Secularists. A 'Christian' victory
will mean a return to the age of Robber Barons and/or some kind of fascistic
expression of Christian society. More likely it will result in some kind of
hybrid betwixt the two. The Christian Sacralist state views people like me as
the greatest threat. We are subversives of the most perilous kind. We do not
seek to challenge them on the basis of a rival concept or ideology but from
within. We attack them by dismantling the basis of their standing and expose
that they themselves represent a perversion or corruption of the very
Christianity they have sought to implement on a socio-political basis. How do I
know this? Church history repeatedly demonstrates it. From the Waldensians to
William Tyndale to Christian pacifists in America during World War I and
Christian nonconformists in Germany during World War II... the Church-State
hybrid hates Christians who expose it for the evil that it is.
Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, Thiel and all these cutting edge
tech-visionaries are on the one hand.... nothing. They're just lost people
reaching for the glories that this world can give. On the other hand they are
the facilitators, the men that hope to create utopia but will instead bring
dystopia and they are building the apparatus for a Bestial power that will be
unlike any other.
What does this mean for the near term? It should shape how we
think about work, money, how we raise our kids... our 'goals' and how we want
to use our time. For me, the dreams of a comfortable life with a decent income
and a house in a nice neighbourhood or even a quaint farmhouse in a bucolic
setting.... these are things I abandoned years ago. I realise the vast majority
of readers are not going to be 'on board' with what I'm talking about and some
may even think me a little on the nutty side. Maybe too much learning has made
me mad.
And yet if you're reading this you're also thinking about
these things. I don't have the answers and yet maybe if more people start
thinking along these lines some wisdom can be found.
See also: