x True o False The Mark of the Beast is really really bad.
x True o False According to Revelation 14:9-11, God considers taking the Mark of the Beast so serious that it is the only action in the Bible which will send each and everyone who does it, to Hell. (Revelation 14:9 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, 10 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: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.)x
True o False Each and everyone who takes the Mark of the Beast will go to Hell, according to the Bible, even if they all do all the other things which churches say will take them to Heaven. x True o False If God is that serious about everyone who will take the Mark, God is probably even more serious about everyone who will vote to require all 300 million Americans to take the Mark.x
True o False If it is a ticket to Hell to vote for 100% of the Mark, we should be concerned about the salvation of anyone who votes for 99% of the Mark. x True o False If it is spiritually dangerous to vote directly to advance the Mark of the Beast, it is probably spiritually dangerous to vote for state and federal lawmakers inclined to advance Big Brother.o
Yes x I hope so o No Suppose that within 2 years, 100% of the Mark of the Beast is implemented, and it turns out that the pre-trib rapture theology is correct, so all God’s people are raptured just before the Mark is implemented. But suppose that before the rapture, there was a vote for 99% of the Mark, which will be close enough for Antichrist to take it the rest of the way, just like Hitler was almost elected prime minister, which was close enough for him to take over after the winner mysteriously died. Now suppose you voted for 99% of the Mark, but other than that, you have done all the other things churches say you must do, to be saved. Should you expect to be raptured? (Obviously we can’t objectively measure whether a particular law is 90%, 95%, 99%, or 99.99% of the Mark of the Beast. Any percentage we list is a euphemism for “so close to the same thing that it is scary”. It’s like the “Doomsday Clock” which nuclear scientists created, with its hands set at a few minutes to midnight, to warn how close we are to nuclear war.)x
True o False The Real ID Card, a National ID Card, must be at least 90% of the Mark of the Beast. (It combines state motor vehicle records into a national database, combined with Social Security records and the FBI fingerprint database, and doesn’t let you, without one, open a bank account, fly, cross the border, or go into federal court to sue the criminals who created it.)x
True o False God’s judgment falls lightly on those who sin through ignorance, but heavily on those who are willfully ignorant. (Lu 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 2 Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, ... 1 Corinthians 14:38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. [NCV: “Those who ignore this will be ignored by God.”])x
True o False The vote for the Real ID Act, for 90% of the Mark of the Beast, is already past. God has already weighed the hearts of many Christians who voted to bring the Mark of the Beast closer, in the name of finding and deporting “illegal aliens”. (It passed in 2005 with passionate, well publicized support from Social Conservative Congressmen like Steve King from Iowa, Tom Tancredo from Arizona, and Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama, with enthusiastic, blog-stuffing support from Bible-quoting, Moral Conservative Republican voters.)x
True o False God is a “God of second chances.” God is giving us second, third, fourth, 100th, etc chances today, just as He did in Jeremiah’s time. (God gave Israel many chances to turn from their disobedience, even as the Babylonian armies were pouring into their land. They were slaughtered only because they hardened their hearts right up to the end. In Jeremiah 18, God reserved the right to call off a prophesied judgment to whatever extent the people repented and made judgment inappropriate. In chapter 21, Jeremiah prophesied destruction for everyone who fought, and life for everyone who surrendered. Jeremiah told the king to start right now delivering the oppressed, but he did not. Again in 22, the king was promised a secure reign if he would obey and do justice. If he would “do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.” In 25, the people were told the Babylonians would not come, if the people would just stop worshiping idols. In 27, Jeremiah told not only Judah, but sent messengers to all the surrounding nations: serve Babylon (surrender and pay tribute), and you may remain in your land, and Jerusalem will not be burned. He asked for prayer that the temple treasures be not carried to Babylon; without prayer, they surely would be. People must not have prayed. In 30, God promised second chances even to those in captivity. In 34 Jeremiah told all the people to let their bond servants go free whom they had kept in bondage beyond the 6 year legal maximum. They did, but then changed their minds and took their servants back into bondage. So Jeremiah prophesied their bondage to Babylon. In 38 God gave them one more chance: go out to the Babylonians, and live; otherwise stay and fight, and die. Their response: back to the dungeon for Jeremiah for treason. Zedekiah brought him out once again to prophesy. Jeremiah prophesied again: go out to the Babylonians, and live, and spare the city from being burned. They did not. The city fell. Many were slain, a few were marched in chains to Babylon. In 42 the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar was assassinated. The people were afraid the Babylonians would punish them, so they were ready to flee to Egypt. The whole remnant approached Jeremiah to tell them what to do. The people promised to do whatever God said. Jeremiah said “stay, and be safe from the famine and sword you fear. Go to Egypt, and famine and sword will follow, with pestilence; you will die there and see this place no more. You lied when you said you would obey, so know you will die in Egypt.” In 43 the people accused Jeremiah of speaking falsely, in a conspiracy to hand them over to Babylon. So they took everyone, including Jeremiah, to Egypt. 44 Jeremiah pronounces judgment for offering incense to the Queen of Heaven. The people insist they will continue doing so because only then did they prosper. Jeremiah answers that a small remnant shall escape the coming invasion and return to Israel; they shall be witnesses to whose words are true. 46 God explained that He would never destroy Israel completely, but “in measure”, always proportionate to their rebellion.)x
True o False It is not too late for Christians to reverse the progress of the Mark of the Beast. God has mercifully allowed us to register a “Motion to Reconsider”. (Even though the Real ID Act was enacted in 2005, and the deadline for implementation was May 11, 2008, several states have refused to obey, and have been granted extensions by the Department of Homeland Security. The law said extensions would be granted only to states who request extensions, and who commit to complying later, but the DHS has even granted extensions to states who actually passed laws against ever complying, and who did not request extensions. In other words, the DHS is waving the white flag; it is not going to fight whole states. Meanwhile the Senate has refused to fund the Real ID Act. It unanimously passed Senate Amendment 2406, by Baucus, [on 7/26/7] that said simply: “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for planning, testing, piloting, or developing a national identification card.” (However, Bible-quoting Moral Conservative Republican Christians are still pushing with all their might to hire Big Brother to find all our “illegal aliens” so we can deport them all.)x
True o False Surely it is 95% of the Mark of the Beast to add “taking a job” to the list of things we cannot do without a national ID card (with its digital photo linked to a national database which uses facial recognition software to enable surveillance cameras to log who is walking by). x True o False Such a law was narrowly defeated June 28, 2007. It was called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”. The bill was supported predominantly by liberals, but the Big Brother in it was at the insistence of Moral Conservative Republicans. (Senator Grassley killed the immigration bill in June 28 of 2007 by stripping the real ID card out of it which would have prevented anyone from working without it. His amendment replaced the Real ID card’s digital photo, which can be saved to computer files and processed by facial recognition software, with old fashioned laminated polaroid photos which are not stored in government records. This single difference was so important to the Department of Homeland Security that they advised Senators Specter and Kennedy, who managed the Comprehensive Immigration bill, to let the bill die rather than pass with Grassley’s amendment. Meanwhile Senator Sessions, who wants to deport every last illegal by any possible means, was urging his friends to kill the bill because the Congressional Budget Office had estimated it would only reduce the illegal population by 13%. Which raises the question: if all that Big Brother was projected to reduce the illegal population only 13%, how much more would be needed to find the 95% which Sessions demanded? No one dares say. But here’s what would do it: linking that national database of digital photos, organized by facial recognition software, to surveillance cameras on street corners and border crossings logging everyone walking by.)x True o False Another such law is languishing, as of June 2008, in the House, with fervent support of the most Moral Conservative Republicans: H 4088.
(H 4088 does the same thing as what Grassley stopped: without actually relying officially on the Real ID card, it still requires an ID with a digital photo which can be processed by facial recognition software. Instead of creating a huge new national database by combining the motor vehicle records of all 50 states, it creates a huge new national database by requiring all 50 states to digitize all their birth and death records and add them to existing national databases. No one says it is enough! Only that it is an important first step!)x
True o False H 4088 is considered the latest, greatest hope of Congressmen like Steve King of Iowa and Tancredo of Arizona, who are thoroughly committed to deporting as many “illegal aliens” as possible. They call H 4088 the “Save America Act”. Ironic name. Whatever anyone may think it will save American from, it certainly won’t be Hell. x True o False Most Americans are not ready to go on TV and say they oppose national tracking because it is the road to Hell, according to Revelation 14. Most Americans would rather give, as their reason for opposing national tracking, any other reason than the most important one. For example, the error rate in Social Security databases varies between 4%, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and 10%, the figure of the AFL-CIO which successfully sued DHS last October to restrain the DHS from implementing the essence of H 4088 without waiting for Congress to build up the courage to authorize it. The DHS says its vision of an acceptable database is one with only a 2% error rate. It thinks only a few million citizens thrown into the court system would be perfectly all right. The Court was concerned that with such a high error rate, tens of millions of U.S. citizens would wrongly be fired, and would have to spend months in court and administrative hearings to prove they are citizens. Most Bible-quoting Christians would rather give the public a reason like that for opposing a national ID card, than the Biblical reason that they don’t want to go to Hell for voting for the Mark of the Beast.x
True o False But suppose there were a way to reduce the error rate to zero. That would solve the problem of falsely deporting citizens, but it would also put the antichrist much closer to the database he needs to implement the Mark. Therefore, an error free national database should worry any Christian far more than a database with 10% errors. x True o False The inescapable problem with enforcing deportation of illegal immigrants is that there is simply no way to find them all, which means to tell them apart from citizens, without 100% of the mark of the beast. Currently we have about the same number of unserved warrants on criminal citizens, where we have real names, social security numbers, fingerprints, high school prom dates’ names, favorite rock groups, Nintendo scores, and yet we can’t find them; how can we find the same number of people where we have none of that information?x
True o False God has not been outsmarted by the Devil. To the extent the brick wall cannot be breached by any human, which Tancredo and King are banging their heads against, it was very possibly erected with God’s full complicity. It would therefore be wise to consider what He says about our immigration policy. What if He doesn’t WANT us to deport illegals?x
True o False Not welcoming immigrants could land someone who is otherwise a Christian, in Hell, according to several passages. ...Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: ...for...I was a stranger [immigrant], and ye took me not in: ... Mat 25:41, 43; (Other warnings of God’s judgment for having no mercy for immigrants: De 10:17-19, 27:19, 28:15, 43-44, Jer 7:3-7, 22:3-9, Eze 22:29-31, Zec 7:9-14)And if a stranger
[immigrant] sojourn [come to live] with thee in your land, ye shall not vex [deport] him. Lev 19:33 (Also Ex 22:21. For a word study on the Hebrew word here translated vex, see www.Saltshaker.US/HispanicHope/Ye-shall-not-vex-a-stranger.htm) One law [equal liberty] shall be to him that is homeborn, [natural born citizen] and unto the stranger [immigrant] that sojourneth [comes to live] among you. Ex 12:49 (Jesus’ illustration of “Love Thy Neighbor”, the 2nd Commandment, is the foreigner who, despite our dehumanization of him, still serves us patiently. Luk 10:25-37 and Mat 22:35-40)Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Luke 11:46 (Also Act 15:10, Mat 23:2-4, Gal 6:13) 2, Is 10:1-2 x True o False These considerations interest me in a fresh look at all the alleged facts I have been told about immigration, besides a closer look at the Scriptures, to see if God might actually be more concerned about border security than I am, and might already have thought of a solution that is win-win for everybody, and that will send people to Heaven, not Hell, besides restoring our land to its Biblical roots.Organized Christian Activism
x True o False We are not spiritually safe if the spiritual direction of our nation is Hell, courtesy of our votes.x
True o False We are not spiritually safe if the spiritual direction of our nation is Hell, because we did not bother to vote. If the babysitter doesn’t watch the baby and the baby runs out in the street and dies, the babysitter doesn’t escape responsibility because she wasn’t paying attention. Through our votes, and our potential influence far beyond our mere votes, God has given We the People the stewardship of the spiritual direction of our nation. x True o False Therefore it is spiritually important to be intelligent politically.x
True o False It is not spiritually safe to remain foolish, ignorant, and apathetic about the stewardship God has given us over the spiritual direction of our nation. x True o False We, as stewards of our nation, may not happily hand the reins of our nation to Satan, without hazard to our souls.x
True o False Most of America’s Bible-banging pastors strongly deny that American voters have any Biblical imperative to intelligently exercise their co-stewardship of America’s government.x
True o False Most of America’s Bible-banging pastors strongly deny that American voters risk God’s wrath for voting for Satan’s political agenda, or for failing to vote against it. They see little importance in exercising intelligence to discern the difference. x True o False Most of America’s Bible-driven pastors know that many in their congregation vote for lawmakers who will enact laws that promote the very sins they preach against, and yet these pastors will not shine any light on this problem.x
True o False Many American Bible-banging pastors believe it is unnecessary to systematically allow political information to flow between church members, since as long as they have given their heart to Jesus, “they will know what to do.” x True o False Without information, Christians do not magically know what to do. It is hard to know what to do, even with good information. Such a notion defies common sense, as much as the notion that Jesus’ power to cast out demons would come from Satan! (Matthew 12:22-32) Such a notion says there is no need to exercise intelligence, because intelligence will just rain down from Heaven on anyone who believes Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore it harms no one for pastors to vigorously censor communication from fellow church members about facts people need to wisely guide our nation. By this reasoning, it is theoretically impossible for a Christian to be stupid.x
True o False The notion that as long as people have given their heart to Jesus, “they will know what to do”, defies not only common sense and human experience, but the Bible, which says the Body of Christ cannot function if the members of the Body are not communicating with each other. 1 Corinthians 12:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. x True o False The Bible is emphatic that the information human beings have a Biblical duty to communicate to one another is not satisfied by mental telepathy, but must include the human languages God gave us. Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?x
True o False In those rare churches whose members are allowed to share information with other church members, the flow of information is very restricted, as opposed to enthusiastically welcomed and encouraged. x True o False Vague, contradictory prayers are insufficient to heal our land. We quote, “If my people...shall...pray...and turn from their wicked way” (2 Chronicles 7:14), but if we pray against the sins of the land, without agreeing on what, in the land, constitutes sin, our prayers cancel each other. (One of hundreds of examples: God cannot answer one prayer to protect Alaskan deer by stopping oil drilling, and another prayer from the next pew to hamstring the environmentalist wackos who make up imaginary stories of deer genocide which prevent us using our oil so that we are forced to fund our mortal enemies, who are also the enemies of civilization itself, and, more importantly, the declared enemies of God as He is revealed in the Holy Bible!)x True o False We need a free flow of information between Christians educational enough to address incompatibility in our exercise of our political stewardship, before our land can heal.
x True o False Christendom is about to be blindsided by the greatest sin of all human history, just because the “pastors and teachers”, Ephesians 4:11, and those with the Gift of “governments”, 1 Corinthians 12:28, operate in two separate worlds which seldom communicate.x
True o False The Gift of “governments” is assumed to refer to “church administrators”, and NOT to people who exercise whatever influence God has given them to steer our government away from plunging our nation into Hell. But the Bible never mentions a single “church administrator”, while the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith is full of people who changed the course of nations by interacting with government.|
Revelation 14:9 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, 10 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: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. |
x True o False But the biggest enabler of ignorance is the weak sense of Christian responsibility for the sins of our nation. Christians feel little sense of stewardship of their vote. So “Mark of the Beast” stories are purchased to entertain, not to inspire political involvement.
x True o False The theory that members should not organize to implement pastor’s concerns just preached about apparently rests on the unstated twin beliefs that members have so much freedom to decide for themselves whether to agree with their pastors that they have a "right to be offended" by church members' actions supportive of their pastor’s sermons; and that one's choice to be offended has the power to censor whatever speech or actions the offended Christian names. Indeed, Romans 14 tolerates considerable freedom to disagree with a pastor, and the whole of Protestantism is founded on that premise. Every man should be "persuaded in his own mind". But this does not mean we should not be actively persuading and correcting each other, Heb 10:24-25. This does not mean we should have no concern about differences of opinion which reach all the way to the lips of Hell.
o
Recognizing the Mark of the Beast requires close coordination between the Gifts of Preaching and Teaching, and the Gift of “governments”.
The consensus of popular Christian fiction, and end-times radio preachers, is that the Mark of the Beast will be none other than an implantable chip. Therefore prolife, Moral Conservative, Christian leaders like Congressmen Tom Tancredo, Steve King, Brian Bilbray, and Senators Jeff Sessions and Kay Hutchinson Bailey, guided by the consensus of popular Christian literature, assume it is Biblically safe to require the Real ID Card before anyone can get a job, open a bank account, board a plane, cross the border, etc., so long as no one is talking about an implantable chip.
(Yet.)They say this degree of national tracking is necessary in order to drive out “illegals”, which is another area in which Christian activists are marching in the theological darkness without pastoral direction, endangering many souls.
But what if Revelation does not foresee implantable chips at all? What if it describes a technology that is far more useful to Big Brother? A technology which is already being implemented by these very same well meaning Christian political leaders?When bar codes were invented, Christian authors identified them as The Mark. When implantable chips were invented, the bar code stories were replaced with implantable chip stories.
In order to keep the theory salable, the match between the technology and the Bible is, unfortunately, overstated.It is seldom mentioned that chips can’t be implanted next to bones, ruling out the forehead. In the hand, they are inserted in the large pad of flesh between the thumb and first finger.
The practicality of chips is likewise overstated. It is often alleged that satellites can track them, while the truth is that they can be read from usually no more than a meter away. Transponders have to be battery powered before satellites can track them, but battery powered chips aren’t implantable.It is surely true that researchers are trying to figure out how to make implantable chips readable from great distances, but the theoretical obstacles are formidable. And no research is being done to figure out how to put them in foreheads.
There is another technology which is far more useful, far cheaper, far closer to implementation, and in which the Department of Homeland Security has far greater interest. In fact, the DHS has ruled out chips, but adamantly insists on this new technology.Facial recognition software can enable remote cameras to identify everyone walking or driving by, and to create a computer log of where everyone goes.
Already.You don’t learn this stuff in seminary. Even if you did, it’s out of date now. You can only learn correct, up to date information about this from people who keep Congressional Budget Office reports in their bathrooms, devour Department of Homeland Security press conference transcripts during lunch breaks, and go to sleep reading the Congressional Record.
All that is needed to track every American with facial recognition software is a few more surveillance cameras, and a national database of everyone’s photo. The Real ID Act, enacted but not yet enforced, creates that database.Iowa has already replaced its laminated polaroids with digital photos. Greater accuracy is available if the photo is taken by a special camera that shows the face from all angles, a procedure slowly proliferating, but facial recognition software can do quite a bit with a simple digital photo.
That leaves the question, “but what does that have to do with a mark which the Bible says is in or on the hand or the forehead?”There is no neat, tidy answer with which all authorities agree. Maybe Revelation describes technology yet to be created. The real point is that there are serious enough Biblical and practical problems with implantable chips that assuming that is the only thing to watch for may blind Christians to whatever the real threat may be.
Nevertheless, the Biblical case for facial recognition software may be worth considering.Is The Mark “in” or “on” the hand? The KJV says “in”. Modern translations say “on”. Greek apo can mean either; Arndt-Gingrich says it can also mean “based upon”. If that is so, a digital photo based upon the face, along with an FBI record based upon the fingerprint, might qualify. (The DHS has ruled out implantable chips, but adamantly insists on the digital photos, in a database that includes the FBI IDENT fingerprint database. The DHS wants border crossings equipped with several “biometric scanners”, including surveillance cameras and fingerprint reading kiosks.)
“But the Bible says ‘FOREHEAD’, not ‘FACE’!” Indeed, every version says “forehead”. Which, according to Wikipedia, means the space above the eyebrows, or including the eyebrows. And most Greek lexicons say “forehead”. But the original Webster’s Dictionary says “forehead” means the front part of the head, the prominent part, the expressive part; Greek lexicons written a century ago meant that, according to Webster, when they translated “forehead”. The Arndt-Gingrich lexicon cites Greek literature where the word has to mean the part of the face above a woman’s veil, which includes the eyes; and NASB dictionaries point out the word combines “with and “eye or face”. (For more detail, see www.Saltshaker.US/HispanicHope/Mark-Beast.htm )If Facial Recognition Software does not fulfill Revelation, that does not make promoting it spiritually harmless. Whether it does or doesn’t only determines whether we are racing towards 99.9% of the Mark of the Beast, or only 97%. If the mere taking of 100% of the Mark takes one straight to Hell, are Christian political leaders safe, who drag America to 97% of the Mark? Are voters who insist on being dragged to the lips of Hell safe? Can pastors escape responsibility, who use their power to regulate communication between church members, to censor members who struggle to alert their brothers in Christ? Can Christian political activists escape responsibility, who censor Bible discussion among Christians driven from their churches to exercise their gift of “governments”?
(I remember Congressman Tancredo on the Jan Mickelson show responding to a caller with a Bible verse about immigration, as if quoting God in the middle of public policy discussion is intellectually irresponsible. As a former political candidate, I have often been censured for attempting the same stunt.)This greatest of sins is not just a theological error, like denying that the Bible is the Word of God, or that Jesus was the Son of God. It is an extremely political issue. Besides being an act of worship, it is an act of allegiance to a world political system.
It is a political sin in that (1) it is commanded by a political ruler; (2) political awareness helps to recognize how close it is; (3) political experience helps identify what it is about this sin which is so insidious, so that we may recognize lesser manifestations of this evil in our own days and resist them; and (4) when it comes up for a vote, half of Bible-believing Christians will vote agaisnt the other half, just as they do for every other government-protected sin.But it also theological sin, in that (1) it is an act of worship; (2) Bible research needs to be updated to recognize whether the latest tracking technologies might possibly fit the descriptions of Revelation; and (3) Christians who take part in it, surely including those who facilitate it, will go to Hell.
Without updates from political sources, pastors lose track of whether what they read in their Bible matches what is going on around them. Without exegetical knowledge, guided only by the consensus of popular Christian literature, Christian, church-going, Bible-believing politicians climb on board the paving crew for the Road to Hell, without a clue.For example, Congressman Tom Tancredo is a prolife, Christian, Moral Conservative leader who was the driving force for the Real ID Act in 2005, and is today the driving force behind H4088 which would require the same kind of digital photo ID before anyone could get a job. Can this passionate prolife Christian possibly know where the road he is building ends?
I know that his own staff doesn’t understand. When the Des Moines Register published my op-ed article August 10, 2007, attracting 1238 views and 96 comments on the Register website, Tancredo’s own press secretary logged on to comment, “Congressman Tancredo has never supported any type of national ID card agenda. ...please do not make up such wild stories.” He invited me to call him so he could set the record straight. I did.I reported that conversation in detail, in that comment stream. Here is the summary: “Tom Tancredo’s press secretary does not know that Tancredo supports the Electronic Employment Verification System, (as understood by the Senate and the Department of Homeland Security), was one of the loudest voices calling for the Real ID Act, and issued a press release commenting upon the 9/11 Commission report, calling for biometric scanning of citizens as well as noncitizens at our borders!”
The only solution to such ignorance: allow Christians to organize to act on concerns raised in their pastor’s sermons, in a forum where the Bible is allowed to be quoted in the same room with updates from those forums where our nation decides whether to enact laws inspired by God or Satan.(The link to the Register website: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/OPINION01/708100347/1035/OPINION The link to the copy of that debate on my own website: www.Saltshaker.US/HispanicHope/ Moral-Conservatives-Lost-Way.htm)
Is this greatest of sins only possible in the future, or has a lesser form of it been available from early times? Is there nothing in Revelation’s warnings which should alert us about our behavior in the present?If there is something so wrong with a worldwide dictatorship, should we pay more attention to what God says about suppression of political freedom on a smaller scale, like 1 Samuel 8?
If there is something so wrong with a worldwide tracking system, should we pay more attention to the strange attitude God has towards a simple census, where God told Moses to collect $500 from everyone and count the money, in order to avoid pestilence, while King David didn’t collect the money or avoid the pestilence, so he must have counted names and addresses?Should church members be allowed to organize on church premises to do something about the sins which the pastor has just preached about?
“No”, answer American Christians. Not if the sin is “political”. Meaning, if lawmakers are trying to decide whether to outlaw it or protect it.The Mark of the Beast will be an extremely political sin.
Therefore, as long as current church custom continues, pastors will not allow laymen to educate each other about the Mark of the Beast, any more than they do today about any other sin that government has gotten involved with.“Why, if you take political action inspired by our pastor’s sermons, that will offend me”, we activists are threatened by our fellow church members. The pastor overhears, and takes us aside with urgency and fear, saying, “Brother Biggiver is offended when you try to do something about the sins I preach against. And the Bible says to stop doing anything the minute some fool decides to be offended by it.”
We ask, “Is that a direct quote?” He answers, “Right out of 2 Denominations 93.”Indeed, Romans 14 tolerates considerable freedom to disagree with our pastors. “Every man should be persuaded in his own mind”. But this does not mean we should not be actively persuading and correcting each other, Heb 10:24-25.
(This is not the end of this article. This is an Article Loop. From this point, return to the beginning and read it again.)