There is a lot of false information out there about this topic, but we have a clear message about what the mark of the beast is. Some say, for example, that the mark of the beast is a barcode that you receive on your forehead. Some say that the mark of the beast is Sunday worship (you’ll see what I mean later). Some say that the mark of the beast is an RFID implant that you receive in your hand—indeed the Bible speaks of receiving the mark in the hand or the forehead, but it’s not about a chip. Some even say that it’s the number 666, which is also mentioned in the Bible, but the truth is it’s none of these things, and we want to give you a clear message!
Revelation warns about the mark of the beast, saying that whoever receives the mark of the beast will receive the plagues, and that’s especially why we’re writing about it: to give you the information you need to understand what the mark is, so you don’t receive it, and so you don’t receive the plagues!
First of all, when we’re talking about the mark of the beast, we’re talking about Satan’s mark. It’s the devil’s—whatever name you want to call him by. He’s Lucifer, he’s the angel of light, he’s the serpent, the dragon, he’s the man of sin—yes, he’s a man! He’s that wicked, the antichrist, the destroyer. Many different terms are used to describe him in the Bible, but that’s who we’re talking about. It’s his mark and his image, set up and enforced through human instrumentalities under his power.
Satan has a counterfeit for everything! His mark and image are the counterfeit of something that God has, and in order to understand what the mark and image of the beast are, we first have to understand what the mark and image of God are.
What is the mark of God? Does God have a mark? Yes, He does! And it even goes on the forehead and on the hand:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols on your hands, and bind them on your foreheads. (Deuteronomy 11:18, NIV)
The words of God belong on your hands and on your foreheads! We often get questions about the star symbol that we have on our foreheads in our profile pictures on Facebook and other social medial networks. That’s partly by design, because we want to give people an opportunity to ask us and inquire about what the symbol on our forehead means.
Some people are surprised to see something on our forehead, because they immediately associate anything on the forehead with the mark of the beast or with some kind of satanic “third eye” symbolism, but in the Bible verse above, it says that there is something that should be on your forehead and in your hand, and that’s the Word of God—but it’s even more specific than just the Word of God in general.
The above verse even defines why God’s mark belongs on the forehead: because it’s in your heart and mind. The forehead is where the frontal lobe is. That’s where the decision-making processes happen. That’s the part of the brain where good judgment decisions are made. Something on the forehead represents something on your mind and in your heart. What you care about is in your heart, and you think about the things you care about, and what you think about is literally in your forehead.
The hand is a very clear symbol. You do things with your hand, so your actions are represented by the hand. It’s about what you actually follow through with and do.
God’s Word, of course, should be in your heart and mind (on the forehead), and you should follow it and do what He says (on the hand). The forehead and hand are just a symbolic language to talk about a person’s heart and mind vs. their actions.
The mark of God belongs both on the forehead AND on the hand—you can’t get away with either/or. The mark or image of the beast, however, can be received either in the forehead OR in the hand.
That’s because faith without works is dead.[1] Faith is having God’s Word in your heart and mind. Having faith without works (i.e. without actions that correspond to the faith) is dead, and that’s not acceptable to God.[2]
Likewise, the opposite is dead: doing good things (all for the wrong reasons) while not having God in your heart and mind, is also dead. That’s pure legalism.
With the mark or image of the beast, it is the opposite situation. You can have his mark either on the forehead or on the hand. That’s simply because Satan doesn’t care! As long as he gets you away from God, he’s happy. If you give him your loyalty by worshiping him—that is, having him in your heart and mind—then he gives you the freedom to do whatever you want! He has only one law: “Do as thou wilt!” He doesn’t care what you do, because he has you on his side! He has your vote, and he has you away from God, and that’s all that matters to him.
On the other side, he doesn’t care if you hate him. He doesn’t even care if you love God as long as you do what he (Satan) says, because as long as you’re doing what Satan says, then he has you in disobedience against God. When Satan has you in bondage to sin, he’s your master even if you hate him and would rather be with God. He has you separated from God, and he wins either way.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
So the mark of God goes on the forehead AND on the hand, whereas the mark of the beast goes on the forehead OR on the hand. It is important to understand that, because as the world comes to an end, every person will end up in one camp or the other: either receiving God’s mark on their forehead AND hand, or receiving the mark of the beast on their forehead OR hand. The middle ground is disappearing as every person is brought into the battle.
To understand what the mark and image of the beast is, first we need to understand what the mark and image of God is. In the Ten Commandments, God expressly forbids making and worshiping images of anything (including Himself):
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)
How can there be an image of God, when God forbids the making of such images? The answer is simple: it must be an image that God Himself has made, not something that is man-made. That gives us a big clue as to where we should look for God’s image: in the account of the things He made—in Genesis.
You know the story. In six days God created everything, and then He rested on the seventh day. On which of those days did He create an image?
You can check for yourself in Chapter 1 of Genesis, but we’re just going to take a look at what He did on the sixth day. He created the land animals on the sixth day, and at the very end after He had created everything else, then God made man. The sixth day when He created man was not only the last day of the creation week, but the creation of man was also the last thing He did on the sixth day itself. He had already created all the other animals, and then the very last thing that He did was to make man—and this is how it went:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
There it is! There’s the image of God! God Himself said, “Let Us make man in our image,” and did so. God made man in His image and gave him dominion over the things of the earth, just as God also has dominion over all the vast heavens. So even in that sense, you can see how man was made in the image of God.
Remember, though, the second commandment we read above said not to worship images! We don’t worship the things that God made, but we worship God Himself. We don’t worship man. The world teaches humanism—the worship of man—but that is not biblical, and it is against the law of God.
When we read the description of what God did when He made man, it gets interesting:
…in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
He only created Adam so far—and this is at the end of the sixth day—but it says “male and female, created He them!” That means God created the whole human race in Adam—both male and female.
You can understand that from genetics, because men have one X and one Y chromosome, and it’s that Y chromosome that makes a person into a man instead of a woman. Women have two X chromosomes.
God created Adam complete with the genetic material for both male and female, and later He made Eve from the material He had already created in Adam. He made Eve out of Adam’s rib, which was existing material. He did not actually create anything new, but just separated out a part of what he had already made.
It wouldn’t have worked the other way around. If He had created Eve first, with two X chromosomes, then He wouldn’t have had the substance already on hand to make Adam, because He would have been lacking the Y chromosome. He would have had to create something additional to make Adam in that case. But the way that He did it by creating man first, the whole race was made complete in Adam. All of the variety of natural traits were represented in the genome of Adam—including male and female.
God created male and female, and God blessed “them” even though He had only created Adam so far! This was at the end of the sixth day, and then He rested on the seventh day. Eve didn’t come along until later—after Adam had named the animals and had found no companion for himself, which didn’t happen on the sixth day. The six days of Creation were God’s work, but naming the animals was Adam’s work, and he did that later, probably the next week, after the Sabbath. So Eve didn’t come along until later, but here, God blesses male and female—Adam and Eve—in the person of Adam, before Eve was even created.
And God blessed them [even though it was only Adam so far], and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28)
God created mankind and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply—a creative capacity, which is also an image of God’s creative ability, just as He gave them dominion over the earth, like He has dominion over the universe.
Thus we have the image of God: man and woman united in one flesh—that of Adam! It is about man and woman together as one flesh.
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:4-6)
It is about marriage! That is what the image of God is: marriage of a man and a woman!
Now that we know what the image of God is, we can easily figure out what the image of the beast is. All we have to do is look at it in the same terms. If marriage between a man and a woman is the image of God, then what is the image of the beast? It must be same-sex marriage! It must be the union of a man and a man, or the union of a woman and a woman!
Immediately, you can see that this is THE topic on the minds of the world today. That’s the big issue—not barcodes, Sunday-keeping, or any of those other things. Those aren’t the agitating topics that the world cares about today, but same-sex marriage is THE topic!
If you recognize that we’re at the end of the world—which we are—then you must realize that the mark of the beast should be visible. It should be on the horizon. It should be somewhere even closer than the horizon, at the rate things are going. And indeed it is: because the image of the beast is same-sex marriage. It’s everywhere! That’s the battle front today.
Same-sex marriage is Satan’s counterfeit, the image of the beast. It masquerades as love so-called, but it is only a cheap counterfeit for what came directly from the hand of Infinite Love.
Man was the crowning act of the creation of God, made in the image of God, and designed to be a counterpart of God; but Satan has labored to obliterate the image of God in man, and to imprint upon him his own image. Man is very dear to God, because he was formed in his own image. This fact should impress us with the importance of teaching by precept and example the sin of defiling, by the indulgence of appetite, or by any other sinful practice [such as LGBT practices], the body which is designed to represent God to the world. The medical missionary can do a great amount of good by educating the people how to live. {RH June 18, 1895, par. 2}
Please notice that a great portion of the medical missionary work is to teach people not to follow the practices that deface God’s image, namely same-sex marriage and all of the other perversions or distortions of God’s image in marriage. Question: is a church that is “tolerant” of LGBT practices obedient to God? Is a person obedient to God, if he “tolerates” such a “tolerant” church?
Now we know what the image of God is, and we know what the image of the beast is, but we still have to find out what the mark of the beast is, and we’re going to have to follow the same approach as we did before: we have to understand what the mark of God is first.
The mark of God is usually not called a mark, although it is in some texts, like following:
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. (Ezekiel 9:4)
According to Strong’s Concordance, that word “mark” indicates something like a “signature.” The mark of God is like His signature. Other verses refer to it as a “seal.” Revelation, which is the book that talks about the mark of the beast, first mentions the seal of God in Chapter 7:
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God… (Revelation 7:2)
The seal of God is the original thing which the mark of the beast counterfeits. The seal of God is what we should have, not the mark of the beast.
To understand the seal of God and the mark of the beast, we have to realize that they are very much connected to the image of God and the image of the beast, respectively. That is a hint that we should continue looking for the seal of God in the book of Genesis.
What did God do right after He created man in His image?
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis 1:31-2:3)
Now we can see that God finished everything on the sixth day after He made man. He had not made Eve yet, but Eve was in Adam already as part of his substance. He was complete. In him was the entire human race, including Eve.
At that point, at the end of the sixth day and beginning the seventh, God stopped working. He rested because everything was finished and very good. He rested not because He was tired and wanted to finish His work some other day, or because He wanted to wait and see how it would work out before making some needed changes. No, He stopped working because it was a job well done, and there was nothing more to do other than enjoy the company of His new creation.
Over and over again, the text emphasizes that the work was done and finished. There was no more work to be done, so God stopped working and rested. That was God’s stamp of approval, saying, “Yes, I’m finished, and I did it well.” His resting on the seventh day was His personal guarantee that He had made everything in a good way, and if His instructions are followed, then everything will work properly. In that sense, the Sabbath day—the seventh day, the day of rest—is the stamp of approval on His work. He sealed His work by resting on the Sabbath day. It was as if He stamped His certificate of quality workmanship with His seal, saying “Yes, it’s good, and it won’t need any rework.”
The Sabbath is the seal that seals the work of creation, and in particular, the crowning act of His creative work, which was the creation of the image of Himself in making man, male and female. On all of the other previous days of Creation, it just says that He saw what He had made and it was “good” but not complete; at the end, it was “very good!” It was finished, perfect, and complete.
Now contrast the work of God in creating man in His image, with the image of the beast, same-sex marriage. Is same-sex marriage “very good!?” No! It’s full of mistakes: men don’t have wombs to reproduce as a same-sex couple, for example, and the reproductive organs of man with man or woman with woman don’t fit together properly. In the context of same-sex marriage, Creation was full of mistakes!
So now you have to choose a side, because there are only two possibilities:
Either same-sex marriage is good, and the creation as God made it is not very good, OR:
Creation is very good, and same-sex marriage is not part of God’s perfect and complete plan.
Which option do you choose? Everyone must take a stand either for God, or against God! God said that His creation was very good, and He gave His explicit approval by resting on the Sabbath BECAUSE it was finished and good. He gives His divine approval, saying, “The way I made everything is very good.” If you align with the proponents of same-sex marriage, then you are basically calling God a liar, saying that His work was not good enough.
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4)
The seal of God was given as a continual reminder of the fact that God created marriage good.
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. (Exodus 31:13)
The seal of God is like the divine marriage certificate. When you get a marriage certificate, you keep it, because that is your legal document that makes your marriage recognized in the sight of the State, giving you the civil protections and benefits associated with marriage. You keep that marriage license, and you guard it and protect it.
On the other hand, the marriage certificate is just a sign. It’s just a seal of something else. It is not the marriage itself! A person can preserve their marriage certificate in the best of ways, and destroy their marriage by how they live. Committing adultery would be equivalent to destroying the marriage certificate: if you break one, you break the other.
On the other hand, ask any spouse what it would mean to rip up your marriage certificate.
When the Pharisees afterward questioned Him concerning the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation. “Because of the hardness of your hearts,” He said, Moses “suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” He referred them to the blessed days of Eden when God pronounced all things “very good.” Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, saying, A man shall “leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one,” He enunciated the law of marriage for all the children of Adam to the close of time. That which the eternal Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of highest blessing and development for man. {AH 340.4}
Marriage and the Sabbath are connected. They’re dealing with the same thing—one is the seal of the other. If you break the marriage, you break the seal. If you accept LGBT tolerance, you break the Sabbath.
The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God’s purpose they are indissolubly linked together. {Ed 250.2}
Furthermore, you can now see why Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, and not the other way around.
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)
The Sabbath was made for man, because it was made to certify God’s work in creating man.
Since the Sabbath is the memorial of creative power, it is the day above all others when we should acquaint ourselves with God through His works. {Ed 251.1}
How can we acquaint ourselves with God through His works? By looking for His image in the things that He made! That means, by looking at how He made man in His image, male and female.
Understanding how the seventh day seals up the works of creation, we can now begin to understand what the counterfeit mark is. Seventh-day Adventists say, “Oh, the seal of God is the Sabbath, therefore the mark of the beast is Sunday!” Not so fast, however. The Sabbath is the seal of the marriage institution, and it’s the marriage institution that is in question. Destroying the marriage institution is equivalent to breaking the Sabbath, and Adventists are doing that wholesale, especially in the organized churches where you can find female pastors, transgender elders, and the whole spectrum of LGBT acceptance. All of those things are breaking God’s design in marriage.
The mark of the beast is not about breaking the Sabbath per se, but about breaking the marriage institution! At a national level, a country receives the mark of the beast when they pass legislation to start issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples. It is the opposite of God’s seal of marriage. Issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples is literally putting the State’s seal of approval on same-sex marriage, which is national apostasy from God. In so doing, the State is giving its supreme homage to Satan, who is the mastermind behind all gender confusion.
Those legislators, judges, and other people who have worked to implement same-sex marriage have already received the mark of the beast on their hand through their actions. Similarly, the administrators and theologians in the churches who adapt their rule books to allow same-sex marriages to take place in their church organizations have received the mark of the beast on their hands, by their actions.
When a gay or lesbian couple receives that certificate—whether from the State or from the Church—they receive the mark of the beast on their forehead. The priest gives his unholy “blessing” on the union by placing his hand in the direction of their forehead. The couple’s mind is already made up and in total agreement with the marriage certificate that is completely contrary to God’s design for marriage!
Anyone who supports, accepts, or condones (“tolerates”) same-sex marriage, even if they don’t practice it, is worshiping the image of the beast. They are no longer worshiping God as the Author of marriage, but have their loyalty with Satan in his effort to “improve” upon God’s perfect design.
Do you see how relevant this is to the times we live in? The United States (the leading nation of the New World) has had the mark of the beast in place since the Supreme Court decision of June 26, 2015, and Germany (the leading nation of the Old World) has voted for it and is expected to be issuing same-sex marriage licenses in the very near future.
Keeping Sunday as a day of rest is only a symbol for what the mark of the beast really is. If a person accepts same-sex marriage, then they also indirectly mean that the things God created were not very good after Day 6, and that God would have done better to put a womb in Adam on the seventh day instead of resting. Using the seventh day to fix and finish creation to the satisfaction of gays and lesbians means that God would have finally been able to rest on the eighth day, which is Sunday.
The issue here is not about worshipping on Sunday per se, but about “tolerating” LGBT perversions. Breaking the marriage institution breaks the seal. There are some countries where you cannot even speak against LGBT marriage in any way, because it is considered “hate speech” and is censorable and punishable by law. Germany is such a case, and those who live there are living under the enforcement of the mark of the beast legislation. All you have to do is look at a map on Wikipedia to see how far the mark of the beast has reached—covering almost the entire prophetic “sea” (Europe) and “wilderness” (Americas) origins of the beasts of Revelation 13.
The abominable idea that all of the roles of men and women are interchangeable has a long history—almost as long as the history of marriage, in fact. It was in the Garden of Eden that the serpent introduced the idea that humans could become like “gods” through knowledge.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)
“The gods,” or angles, or spirits, of course, are neither male nor female. Thus the serpent was already seeking to undermine marriage as God made it. The serpent offered a source of light that did not originate from God (though he insinuated it did), and it was contradictory to the plain Word of God.
When Satan has undermined faith in the Bible, he directs men to other sources for light and power. Thus he insinuates himself. Those who turn from the plain teaching of Scripture and the convicting power of God’s Holy Spirit are inviting the control of demons. Criticism and speculation concerning the Scriptures have opened the way for spiritism and theosophy—those modernized forms of ancient heathenism—to gain a foothold even in the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. {DA 258.2}
The spirit of the serpent is at work today, convincing multitudes (even of professed Christians) to pattern their lives after heathenism. The confusion of the sexes is a result of the infiltration of heathen androgyny (gender ambiguity) into the modern mind.
If you study the history of androgyny, you will understand that it is a rebellious defiance against God’s creation order, and has been manifested in pagan religions throughout history.[3]
Thus, the LGBT movement is an overt expression of spiritualism. It is a demonstration of man’s elevation above the restrictions of gender to the androgyny of the gods. This is the unholy fire of spiritualism that was prophesied to come in the last days:
I saw that…Satan’s power would increase and some of his devoted followers would have power to work miracles and even to bring down fire from heaven in the sight of men. {EW 59.2}
The strange fire of homosexuality is indeed “in the sight of men” everywhere one turns his eyes. Interestingly, queer Jews actually identify themselves with Nadab and Abihu who offered strange fire on the altar of God and were consumed.[4]
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. (Leviticus 10:1-2)
God has commanded in His Word that LGBT practices are an abomination to Him. Can such things be brought into legislative halls of nations and the churches of the world with impunity?
Now you can understand what Revelation is really warning about. It doesn’t matter if a person just sits in a pew of a church that condones or tolerates the image of the beast, or if one practices sodomy directly. It doesn’t matter if a person just condones the LGBT initiatives, or if one actually practices the lifestyles. Either way, Satan has him on his side.
The wheat and the tares have grown up together, and now it is time to separate them for the harvest, according to the Great Teacher. In the earlier stages, the wheat and the tares were not so easily distinguishable, therefore the Lord of the harvest let them grow together until they could be easily separated:
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:30)
Now you can see who the wheat and the tares really are. Those who have made up their mind in favor of LGBT tolerance are the tares. This is not about condemning others, but about recognizing who has grieved away the Holy Spirit to the point that their conscience is completely severed, and they no longer have a right sense of morality.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-2)
Once again, we are reminded of Eden, where God created marriage and provided food to be received as He intended it. Anything else comes from seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
This is not a message of condemnation, but a message of warning to those who still have an ear for what the Spirit says! Come out! Come out of Babylon!
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4)
The call is clear! Resign from your church organizations—because at the highest levels they are all under the requirement of the State to tolerate all things LGBT, and there’s no turning back anymore at the corporate level.
If you’ve been supporting LGBT initiatives in any way, stop! Turn around, and start speaking against it, whatever the cost! And if you’ve been living a lifestyle involving LGBT practices of any kind, turn away! Stop doing it and repent—if you can still hear the Holy Spirit—and come back to God and start defending His true design. Let His image be imprinted in your heart and mind, instead of the mark of the beast.
It goes without saying that bestiality is an abomination,[5] and even cross-dressing is an abomination in the sight of God.[6] That includes unisex clothing. Men and women should be distinguished by their clothing, hairstyles, etc. because that is part of how the distinction between male and female is to be honored.
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? (1 Corinthians 11:14)
The Bible is very clear on the subject.
God sealed the created world with His warranty, but when the moral foundations of the world are broken up, the end will come. By moral degradation, mankind will destroy the very earth that he was given dominion over to care for. It is no wonder that the Bible says God will “destroy them which destroy the earth.”[7] When the moral degradation of mankind has reached rock-bottom, it is also no wonder how the withdrawal of the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit will result in men mutually annihilating potentially thousands of entire cities through nuclear war.
In the form of men, angels are often in the assemblies of the righteous; and they visit the assemblies of the wicked, as they went to Sodom, to make a record of their deeds, to determine whether they have passed the boundary of God’s forbearance. The Lord delights in mercy; and for the sake of a few who really serve Him, He restrains calamities and prolongs the tranquillity of multitudes. Little do sinners against God realize that they are indebted for their own lives to the faithful few whom they delight to ridicule and oppress. {GC 631.3}
No respect for the image of God means no respect for God or His creation—no respect for fellow man. Humanism is a paradox. Modern society claims to have high morals in the sense of protecting human rights and the environment, but it is a deception. Secular humanism (the principle behind the worldly conception of human rights) is the worship of man, and even in his most debased condition of LGBT androgyny. That, along with environmentalism, is the worship of creation instead of the Creator, which is expressly forbidden in the Ten Commandments!
Ask yourself: who is the biggest proponent of false worship in the world today? Who is the driving force behind the Climate Deal? Who is the benefactor of the United Nations and its human rights agenda? It is Pope Francis,[8] who is Satan in the flesh[9]—the mastermind behind the mark of the beast.
The fishes of the organized churches have swallowed his deceptions, hook, line, and sinker! The most gullible of all (because they are the proudest of all) are the fish of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which are delighted to finally have a pope that worships creation like they do![10] For them, keeping the Sabbath means remembering creation, and Grandpa Papa just feels like part of the family. He’s even very helpful, giving them all kinds of ideas for how to promote creation worship in their churches.
No, no. When the churches worship creation instead of the Creator on the one hand, and corporately walk the tolerance tightrope to grant women’s and LGBT equality on the other hand, something is dreadfully and deeply wrong. There is no salvation to be found in such churches—they have prostituted themselves to Satan and are the daughters of Babylon.
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5)
To stay in the organized churches where there is no salvation means to put human relationships above God. Do you want to be married to a prostitute?
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. (1 Corinthians 6:16)
The call is “Come out of her!”
Come out and be separate, pure, and undefiled! Flee from the idolatry of the world, which in essence is the worship of the image of the beast. Christ is coming! Come out of the churches that are fornicating with the State, and be pure, unattached virgins—ready to attend the great wedding supper of the Lamb!
How many persons are involved in a marriage? Marriage involves three primary parties, not two. A godly marriage consists of God, man, and woman—in that order.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)
When the serpent beguiled the woman, however, Satan introduced the image of the beast in the exact opposite order: Satan, woman, and then man. The emasculation of man is about reversing the order of authority.
The seal of God carries authority. A seal or signet represents the authority of its owner. The Sabbath is the seal of God in the sense that it identifies the Lord as the Creator of all things—it has His name, office, and dominion:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days [1] the Lord [2] made [3] heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)
However, that is not the whole story—the three parts identified in the verse above form the seal of only one of the three parties involved in marriage: namely, God. The Sabbath seal is God’s seal, applied to the creation like the seal on a marriage certificate. The Sabbath seal represents the third party under whose authority the couple are united. Adam and Eve were created in unity and blessed by God. His resting on the Sabbath was His seal of authority under which the new union of male and female in Adam were blessed, and therefore the Sabbath seal identifies Him as the authority: Lord, Maker, of all.
Similarly, a marriage certificate from the State has the seal of the government where the marriage is legally recognized.
That is still not the whole story, however. Revelation describes the seal of God differently to the church of Philadelphia:
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him [1] the name of my God, and [2] the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him [3] my new name. (Revelation 3:12)
Here we have three parts to the seal again, but they are not the same three parts. Instead, we have three names, representing the authority of the three Persons of the Godhead: Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son (Jesus). Remember, the Holy Spirit is the token of assurance to the saints that they will receive the Holy City itself, which Christ purchased for them:
…that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
The purchased possession is the Holy City, the bride, which the Holy Spirit is the first installment of. In this sense, the Holy Spirit stands for the Holy City, and vice versa.
Those who are familiar with the Orion message and have read our articles[11] know even more about the meaning of each of the three parts of the seal, but in the context of God’s design for marriage, the three parts of the seal of God in Revelation correspond to the three parties involved in a marriage:
God, as the Authority under whom the marriage takes place,
Jesus, as the Bridegroom,
The Holy City, as the bride.
Thus, the seal of Revelation 3:12 is the marriage seal in terms of the Godhead! The union of man and woman under God is in fact the image of God as the Divine Council.
Are you surprised that the Holy City is the bride in the marriage union, and that it symbolizes the Holy Spirit? Revelation indeed refers to the Holy City as the bride:
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem… (Revelation 21:9-10)
The Bible also refers to the people of God as vessels of the Holy Spirit, which means they have an interest in the Holy City.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)
In this world of sin, God needs temples to dwell in, but after sin is finally eradicated from the universe, there will be no temple in the New Jerusalem.[12] God will walk among His people face to face. His people are part of His body:
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? (1 Corinthians 6:15)
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Ephesians 5:23)
Then also, as Christ is the Cornerstone, so His people are living stones built upon Him:
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)
So the bride as the Holy City represents the spiritual house that will be comprised of living “stones” which are the people who receive the Holy Spirit in the earthly temple of their body. This spiritual house comprises the bride and the body of Christ, because husband and wife are one flesh.
Similarly, the converts who believe the Word preached unto them are the fruit or offspring of the union, the heirs of salvation who are the fruit of the mother’s womb, and the reward for her travail.
The completion of the understanding of the seal of God presented in this article came to us on July 27, 2017, the second throne line of the third trumpet. The throne line symbolizes the aspect of divine authority of a message coming directly from the throne of God.
God’s government is founded on the principle of authority and submission, which is represented by male headship in marriage. This principle was followed by Jesus as He submitted His will to the Father:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:8)
Similarly, the bride of Christ must be obedient to her Husband, even to the point of death if necessary. This principle of authority and submission is an integral part of God’s image in marriage.
Another detail is mentioned in the creation account that should not be passed over. God prescribed the diet for his creatures in Eden:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30)
Putting food on the table is still one of the most central and essential responsibilities of married life. Diet was an important enough topic to be included in God’s instructions to Adam, and it was on the question of diet that Eve fell for the temptation of the serpent.
Now that you see how far the world has sunk in moral degradation as a result, you can understand why God commands a diet free of flesh foods, caffeine, and other stimulants at such a time as this. There is wisdom to be exercised in the choice of food. Stimulating foods tend to strengthen the animal passions, which increases the temptation to commit sexual sins.
Those who want to honor God’s image in marriage must overcome the animal nature, and following a diet that is in harmony with God’s plan is a help. Neither the diet of Eden nor that of heaven includes the flesh of animals. Death was not God’s intention, and there will be no death in heaven.
Good health and lifestyle are the right hand of the third angel’s message:
As the right hand of the third angel’s message, God’s methods of treating disease will open doors for the entrance of present truth. Health literature must be circulated in many lands. Our physicians in Europe and other countries should awake to the necessity of having health works prepared by men who are on the ground and who can meet the people where they are with the most essential instruction. {7T 59.1}
It is fitting that the deeper understanding of the image and seal of God has come in connection with the throne lines of the third trumpet, which extend to the other side of the clock where Jesus’ right hand provided the health message to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1865.
It’s a shame that the church organization turned the health reform message into an industry, while most of its members either kick against it or turn it into the rulebooks of the Pharisees. On both sides, however, they can be seen embracing the distorted and degraded image of the beast in the form of up-side-down marriages and LGBT tolerance—the very things that the health message was given to protect against, as the right hand of the third angel’s message that warns of the image of the beast. On either extreme, they have sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.[13]
Don’t let that happen to you, but understand the reason why God gave the health reform message, and follow His dietary and lifestyle counsel with understanding.
The principles of physical health also have a spiritual application. If you continually swallow down the ideas and philosophies of the world, you will be swayed into worshiping the image of the beast, even if you would never practice homosexuality yourself. We already saw under the previous heading how deceptions are doled out in the world’s churches. Be careful where you get your mental and spiritual food, because the quality of the things you watch and hear exerts an influence on the unsuspecting.
This very article explaining of the mark of the beast completes several important prophecies. It took a long time in coming, but this completes the understanding of the mark of the beast that started to be developed in 1888-era Adventism:
The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer.—Selected Messages 1:363 (1892). {LDE 37.3}
Not to go into detail about the sad rejection of truth in those years, let it suffice to say the following: in excess of a hundred and twenty years, which it took for this message to reach completion, speaks to the shame of many.
But hopefully to the redemption of many, the first trumpet opened with the sound of fires in Israel and the US that warned of judgment. That was the resounding echo of the first angel of Revelation 14:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6-7)
In the second trumpet timeframe, the “Christian” political parties of Germany, the leading nation of Europe, voted to legalize same-sex marriage, thus extending the mark of the beast from the land of America to the symbolic seas of Europe. The second angel was sounding his alarm:
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. (Revelation 14:8)
Now the third trumpet has begun, loud and clear. This warning about the mark of the beast is the loud cry of the third angel of Revelation 14:
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: 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. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:9-12)
This message comes at the beginning of the third trumpet, when the third angel is sounding his alarm, but it is not the third angel’s message alone; it is the uniting of the Fourth Angel’s message with the third angel’s message:
Angels were sent to aid the mighty angel from heaven [of Revelation 18], and I heard voices which seemed to sound everywhere, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844. The glory of God rested upon the patient, waiting saints, and they fearlessly gave the last solemn warning, proclaiming the fall of Babylon and calling upon God’s people to come out of her that they might escape her fearful doom. {EW 277.2}
The fuller understanding of the seal of God presented here is prophesied to reach those who do not yet understand or keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Keeping the seventh-day Sabbath instead of Sunday has a whole new depth of meaning now, doesn’t it?
I saw that God had children who do not see and keep the Sabbath. They have not rejected the light upon it. And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the churches and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time God’s chosen all saw clearly that we had the truth, and they came out and endured the persecution with us. {EW 33.2}
You can learn more about the persecution and other aspects of the Fourth Angel’s message by reading the other materials on our WhiteCloudFarm website.
We could recommend going in many different directions after reading this article. For example, Revelation 13 takes on a whole new perspective now with the deeper understanding of the mark and image of the beast. The interactions between the first beast and second beast come to clarity now. That leads into looking at world events to see how the mark of the beast was actually implemented in certain key countries and how the relevant prophecies fulfilled in the second trumpet timeframe.
We would also recommend exploring the heavenly sign where God Himself speaks from heaven to warn that the mark of the beast was set up in the second trumpet time period. He speaks from heaven to confirm these things, so there is no doubt that these things are true, since He alone can order the cosmos.
To conclude this article, however, we have one open question remaining to be answered: What is this mark on our foreheads?
Now you know what the mark and image of the beast are, straight from the Bible, straight from the beginning. Genesis gives you the definitions of God’s true image and seal from the start, as well as the story of Satan’s first attack to bring mankind under sin. Then at the end of the Bible, Revelation brings the seal to view again, along with Satan’s ultimate war to destroy the very foundations of the world.
Take a close look at the symbol on our foreheads, and see if you can find the deeper meaning in it now. We ourselves did not even understand the full meaning of it when we designed it, but God was leading in it. The center background is the open space in Orion, known as the Orion Nebula. It is the nearest stellar nursery, where creation happens. It is the symbol of the creation process itself, which is very fitting as part of the seal.
The nebula is surrounded by a twelve-pointed star, which is actually a crown viewed from above, as you can see from an earlier illustration, which also shows that it is the crown of time. It is the crown of twelve stars on the head of the pure woman of Revelation 12.
Thus the complete symbol—the crown plus the creation process in the Orion nebula—represents the crown of creation, which is the marriage union of male and female under God, which He made as the last crowning act of His creative work, sealed by His rest on the seventh-day Sabbath.
Do you have the seal on your forehead? You can show your decision to honor God’s image by using our on-line tool to put the symbol of the crown of creation on your profile picture too. Then your friends can also ask you what that mark is.
You probably came here just to learn what the mark of the beast is, but hopefully you are glad that you got more than you asked for—and that you found the seal of God.
Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:11)
Update
Don't miss our video entited The Threefold Mark of the Beast for an updated view on this subject, which also includes worldwide DNA vaccination. This is key, because neither the Sabbath question nor the LGBT question ever became universal like the DNA vaccine question!
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