Many Christians are afraid they will not be strong enough to refuse the Mark of the Beast so they can continue to ‘buy and sell’ during the time of Antichrist. But the Mark of the Beast is permitted by God and comes only to those who are servants of Satan….whose souls are judged lost by God….who are not worthy to bear the Seal of God.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.Rev. 13:17
God is the Judge and He alone determines who receives the Seal of God (Rev. 7:3) and who receives the Seal of Satan/Mark of the Beast. 2 Thes 2: 11 AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD WILL SEND STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE; 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.’ God decides who is worthy to receive ’strong delusion’ so they believe a lie and are da,med….bearing the scarlet Mark of the Beast. Likewise, God alone decides (judges) who is ‘elect’ ( ‘For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.Matt 24:24 ). God decides who is ‘sealed’ ( ‘Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.Rev. 7:3′). God decides who is worthy of blessing…and who is worthy of cursing.
From Eden to now…God continues to allow man related consequences of choices made. We have the historic biblical record of God’s pronouncements/judgements of good and evil. The Word speaks of Abel vs Cain, Noah vs those destroyed by the flood, Moses(Israel) vs Pharoah (Egypt), Jacob vs Esau, Lot vs the wicked destroyed at Sodom and Gomorrah, and the last example of God’s judgement… men who receive the Seal of God vs those who receive the Seal of Satan (Mark of the Beast). In no instance does Satan have authority to judge the soul of man. God alone is the judge of the living (Seal of God) and the dead (Mark of the Beast). God alone can see the heart, can know when it has chosen death over life….has blasphemed….has trampled under foot the death of Jesus. Matt 10:28 and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And sobering is the reality that damnation comes when God draws a line in the sand…and man steps across it…so to speak. There is a point of no return…of no repentance.
God rewards/judges man according to his works…deeds done in the flesh. Esau is one example of opportunity lost. Heb 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Judas is the prime example of one who walked with Christ, saw the miracles, but chose to serve mammon and not God. Judas became a son of perdition rather than remaining a son of God. Judas played an eternally deadly game and blasphemed the Holy Ghost whose presence he had experienced. (Matt 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.) One could say that Judas received an internal Mark of the Beast which damned him eternally. God who knows all things, foreknew, and it was prophesied, that there would be a son of perdition to betray Christ. Judas chose to be that man. (Matt 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!) 2 Peter 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Afterwards, Judas in whom dwelled Satan the destroyer….took his own life. And Christ grieved over the one who was lost to Him. ( ‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.’ John 17:12 ).
A last example of the eternal state of those bearing the Mark of the Beast is Revelations 9:20-21. They were left at Christ’s return in the world with no Light, no Love, no Mercy, no Church, and thus, no Holy Spirit which could ‘draw’ them to repentance. (John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day). The opportunity for Grace ended for those bearing the Mark of the Beast when, because of their wickedness, God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Romans chapter 1) and sent them strong delusion so they would continue to be deceived…so they would believe a lie. God had stopped striving with them. They would never again be drawn by the Spirit of God. Now, in Rev. 9:21, they are cursing God. By way of His foreknowledge, repentance was no longer optional because of their own choices to serve Satan and not God. There is a point of no return with God. Rev. 9:20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. But now, under the vile penalty and desolate horrors of ultimate Death, they curse God from their vile and unrepentant hearts. There is a place of no return with God. And those who do not bear the Seal of God, wear the Mark of the Beast…eternally.
