From time to time I am asked my opinion on a particular point of eschatology, or “end times” prophecy. This, or course, involves but is certainly not limited to ideas such as rapture theories, the second coming of Yeshua, the millennium, who the Anti-Messiah will be, and the mark of the beast. These are all topics that certainly originate from things The Bible says, but I do have to wonder if people have approached them correctly throughout history.
First and foremost, we must remember that the entire purpose of The Bible is to lead us to follow Yeshua and The Torah. This is summarized in Revelation 12:19 and 14:12 where these two points are listed as the mark of a true covenant Believer. And that is what I want to get into in this message. As such, this will not be your typical “end times prophecy” approach to these topics, but it may, I do hope, cause you to rethink the entire concept of “end times prophecy”. Let’s start with a peculiar commandment from The Torah, as The Torah should be one of two starting points of all sound doctrine since it is where we find Yah’s instructions for us—the other, of course, being the teachings of Yeshua as recorded in The Gospels.
The secret things belong to Adonai our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever—in order to do all the words of this Torah.
—Deuteronomy 29:28 (TLV)
I think there is a good reason why Yah put this into His Torah. It’s as if He knew from the very beginning that people would drift off into whacky theological theories about a great number of things, many of which are not at all supported by The Bible and others that are often built on heavily reading things into certain somewhat vague and obscure passages of Scripture.
Too much of the time I see people getting caught up in trying to “crack the code” and “figure out” things that we’re really not supposed to be trying to decipher. Many books and articles by “Christian” authors and many of the messages and sermons by “Christian” teachers and preachers today are focused on secrets, codes, and mysteries. These trending buzz words are used in the titles of these books and messages, leading people to believe that if they read the book or listen to the message these hidden mysteries and secrets will be revealed to them.
When this stuff comes up, I often think about those ELS Bible Codes from the 1990s that have been shown to be a fallacy, things like gematria and numerology that comes straight out of witchcraft, and the latest trend called Hebrew Word Pictures that is also easily debunked as utter nonsense. These are prime examples of people ignoring the commandment of Yah from The Torah and being drawn to the very type of thing He said to not be mesmerized by.
In some cases, I have even seen people consumed with ideas such as mysticism and views that come directly from kabbalah. In one case I saw a preacher who professes to operate in the gift of prophecy promoting a so-called “Christian mysticism” and referring to ancient “Christian mystics”. When I looked into it, the impression I got was that he was focused on medieval period Roman Catholic mystics as the basis for his theories. In another case I saw a popular Messianic Jewish group promoting the kabbalist method of Bible study commonly known as PaRDeS and claiming that followers of Yeshua should embrace the “mystical” side of our faith. It’s shocking, appalling, and downright scary to think that so many people are so easily swept away by these completely demonic ideas.
Look, the purpose of prophecy is not to give us a puzzle to figure out what the future holds, but to prepare us for whatever may actually happen. If we’re supposed to be cracking codes, putting puzzles together, or deciphering secret mysteries than Yah would not have commanded us that anything secret is for Him to be concerned with and whatever is revealed—in His Word, in His Torah—is for us to focus on. And it’s all for the purpose that we will follow, obey, keep, and live daily according to The Torah of our God. I would admonish anyone who is willing to listen to reason, whether it’s so-called “Bible codes” like ELS, gematria and numerology, Hebrew Word Pictures or things that come more directly from kabbalah or this alleged “Christian mysticism”, stay away from all of these things and anything that even remotely resembles them. It’s a slippery slope, often with a dangerous ending.
Additionally, tread lightly with regard to “end times prophecy theories”. Again, it would seem that prophetic utterances in Scripture regarding future events are not there for us to figure out the future, but to compel us to prepare for whatever may come by living according to The Torah. We’re not supposed to be trying to figure out the “secret things” that belong to Yah, we are supposed to live in obedience to His commandments. And as His commandment says, whatever is revealed is for the purpose that we obey His Torah. Therefore, “end times prophecies” are a reminder to live by The Torah, not a puzzle to be solved.
WHAT IS THE MARK?
So, now let’s take a little time to look at this “mark of the beast”. To begin, we will need to turn to the passage in the Book of Revelation where it is mentioned.
He also causes all—the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slave—to receive a mark on their right hand or upon their forehead. And so no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark—either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number of a man, and his number is 666.
—Revelation 13:16-18 (TLV)
Many have tried to figure out what exactly this could be referring to. I remember seeing one of those low budget pre-tribulation rapture theory movies, Judgment (2001), that presented the mark as something like a tattoo.1 In the same manner, a more recent publication, a book titled Trumpocalypse that was released during the presidency of Donald Trump, also proposed the idea of the mark being a tattoo.2 Others have speculated that the mark is a computer microchip, as that technology is advancing and has many “Christians” concerned.
Now, these theories shouldn’t be brushed off as sensationalism or extremist. After all, The Bible plainly tells us in Leviticus 19:28 not to get tattoos. I sure would not get a tattoo or a microchip implant—especially on my hand or forehead. But let’s think about the way those who entertain these theories would dogmatically shun these things that could be related to the mark of the beast and take a look at what The Bible actually says.
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
—Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (TLV)
Do you see it? This is the central prayer of all Israel, The Shema. And it says that we are to have The Torah bound on our hand and forehead. Today many Jewish people express this through a religious practice called teffilin, which are small leather boxes containing the words of The Torah in them that are tied to the hand and head during times of prayer. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this practice, but more importantly Yah is telling us that we’re supposed to live by The Torah—and if we are doing that, there will be no room left on our hand and head for the mark of the beast.
And what is this mark of the beast? It’s antinomianism. It’s any and all expressions of anti-Torah beliefs. Whenever someone says that something in The Torah no longer needs to be followed, they are showing that they bear the mark of the beast on their hand and head. Whenever someone says things like: “that’s not what it means to me”, “I don’t think that’s a salvation issue”, “I don’t believe anyone will go to hell for doing that”, “I don’t consider that to be a sin”, or any other such statement they are showing that they bear the mark of the beast on their hand and head.
Recall how I said to think about those who propose the mark to be a tattoo, a computer microchip, or some other such thing while looking at The Shema. How many of those who entertain these theories live by The Torah? How many would even be open to Torah-obedience being the “counter-measure” to receiving the mark of the beast? Most of the people who push these “end times theories” are antinomian to at least some degree. At the very least the majority of them don’t believe they are supposed to follow the Leviticus 11 food laws or keep The Sabbaths. So, let’s now take a closer look at the anti-Torah belief system.
ANTINOMIAN CHRISTIANITY
I want you to take a look at something and think really hard about it as I go through the rest of this message.
ANTI-Torah CHRIST-ianity
ANTI-CHRIST
Did you catch that? You can take the term “Anti-Torah Christianity” and abbreviate it to “Anti-Christ”. I do not think this is a coincidence. After all, Satan is the lawless one who from the very beginning has been leading people to believe that they don’t have to follow something Yah instructed us to either do or not do. That’s precisely what happened in Genesis 3.
Literally, the Anti-Torah “Christian” church system is the anti-Messiah. To be Anti-Torah is the spirit of the Anti-Christ. Those who oppose following The Torah are of the Anti-Christ. They are of the devil. They are joined not with Yeshua but with that ancient serpent who first opened His mouth to say “Did God really say not to eat that? You will not surely die. You can be like God.”
Anti-Torah “Christianity” is where you reject even just one of His commandments and become your own God, deciding for yourself what is right and what is wrong—doing whatever is right in your own eyes. It is the delusional force that Paul spoke of in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. It is Jude’s waterless clouds and fruitless trees. It is the ignorant and unstable people who twist the Scripture that Peter talked about and called the error of the lawless. It is the double-minded people who are unstable in all their ways that James mentioned. Anti-Torah “Christianity” is the religion of the masses, but it is also the religion of the devil.
As I so often point out, in The Bible there is a protagonist—Yeshua, The Righteous One—and an antagonist—Satan, the lawless one. When we read through the Gospel record all we ever see Yeshua teaching is Torah-obedience. Never once do we ever see Yeshua or any of His followers saying “You see this commandment right here, we don’t have to obey this one anymore.” But when we look at Satan, starting with his first appearance in Genesis 3:1-5, he is always trying to get people to believe that there are commandments of God that do not need to be kept today. Satan is the ancient serpent mentioned in Revelation 12:9 who deceives the whole world. He is the one who speaks against the Most High and seeks to change The Torah and God-appointed times from Daniel 7:25. Think about that whenever churches are celebrating pagan and idolatrous Roman Catholic holidays that are not in The Bible instead of the Torah-appointed Feast Days that are in The Bible—that idea comes from Satan.
I recently saw a question asked about what the best tool would be for Satan to use in getting people to receive the mark of the beast. I think it would be “Christian” churches. These places tell people all the time that there are commandments given by God that no longer need to be followed. When they tell people this, when they convince people of this, they have already led their congregants to receive the mark of the beast. Whatever physical manifestation of this may come in the future—be it a tattoo, a microchip, or anything else—the plain fact is that people who reject The Torah of Yah have already received the mark of the beast because they have not sealed their hand and head against it with The Torah as we are told to do in Deuteronomy 6:8.
Whenever a person rejects The Torah, they have taken the mark of the beast. The plain reality of it is that you are either marked with The Torah of God or you are marked with the mark of the beast. Either you are a Torah-keeping follower of Yeshua or you are a Torah-rejecting follower of Satan. And this includes the masses of people within the so-called “Christian” religion, which is not even the religion of The Bible, who believe this nonsense that as a “Christian” they can somehow follow The Bible without following The Torah. And when they do this, they become anti-Christ. Let me make it a little more clear.
Yeshua followed the Torah food laws.
When people, including “Christians”, reject the food laws, they are anti-Christ.
Yeshua kept the biblical seventh-day Sabbath.
When people, including “Christians”, reject keeping The Sabbath Day, they are anti-Christ.
Yeshua celebrated all of the Torah-appointed Feast Days, as well as the festivals of Purim and Hanukkah.
When people, including “Christians”, reject celebrating the Torah-appointed Feast Days and other biblical festivals, they are anti-Christ.
Yeshua clearly opposed the traditions of men, as seen in Matthew 15 and Mark 7, and certainly would not have celebrated pagan holidays or engaged in idolatry.
When people, including “Christians”, celebrate pagan and idolatrous Roman Catholic holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and “Saint” Days, they are anti-Christ.
Do you see the pattern here? Yeshua did not live against The Torah of Yah.
When people, including “Christians”, engage in sexual immorality, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, tattoo their body, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, murder people, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, lie and steal, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, gossip and speak evil of people, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, engage in cross-dressing, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, covet, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, deal unfairly in business, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, engage in any form of idolatry, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, break a vow or oath, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, wear wool and linen together, they are anti-Christ.
When people, including “Christians”, oppress the poor, orphans, and widows, they are anti-Christ.
Yeshua lived daily according to The Torah of His Father. Whenever people, including “Christians”, do anything that goes against The Torah of Yah, they are anti-Christ. When people, including “Christians”, do the opposite of what Yeshua “The Christ” did, they are anti-Christ. When a “Christian” pastor tells you that there are things in The Torah you don’t have to follow “as a Christian”, they are an anti-Christ. And let me slide this in as well: Torah-based tithing is biblical, but when these preachers today twist and manipulate the tithing rules to lead people into an unbiblical distortion of tithing to get rich at the expense of suffering parishioners in their “churches”, they are most definitely anti-Christ.
To be anti-Torah is to be anti-Yeshua. It’s just that simple. Yeshua is The Righteous One. Righteousness is defined in Deuteronomy 6:25 as keeping, following, obeying, living daily by The Torah. This is a fact supported by numerous highly regarded theological resources.
In contrast to this, lawlessness and sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as breaking, violating, transgressing The Torah. This too is supported by a number of highly regarded theological resources. And Satan is the lawless one. If you turn to Revelation 12:9, you will see that the ancient serpent named Satan, the same serpent that first appeared in Genesis 3, will deceive the whole world. What did he do in Genesis 3? He led people to believe they didn’t really have to follow a commandment of God. Ironically, the commandment that was first broken was something God said not to eat and it appears to have taken place on The Sabbath Day. Turn to the “Christian” religion and the commandments they most vehemently oppose keeping today are the Leviticus 11 food laws and the Sabbaths—both the weekly seventh-day Sabbath and the annual Torah-appointed Feast Days commonly referred to as High Sabbaths.
What is the mark of the beast? Regardless of whatever might “literally” happen in the eschatological future, the mark of the beast is antinomianism—it is the belief that as “Christians” there is no longer a need to follow at least some parts of The Torah of Yah. And the only way you can ever ensure that you will not receive the mark of the beast, literally or spiritually, is to enter into genuine new covenant faith where The Torah is on your hand and on your forehead just as it is to be in your mind and on your heart (Jeremiah 31:32, Hebrews 8:10).
Let me give you another thought to think about. Revelation 12 speaks about the dragon, which is a reference to Satan. In verse 4 it says his tail swept away one-third of the stars of heaven—commonly believed to refer to a portion of angelic beings who became demon spirits. When we get to verse 9, it says that this dragon is the ancient serpent [from Genesis 3] who will deceive the whole world. The “Christian” religion today happens to be one-third of the world’s total population. Is this a coincidence?
Satan has no need to deceive those of non-biblical religions, atheists, those of the occult, and the like. His focus is on deceiving anyone who would recognize that The Bible is the truth and Yeshua is the promised Messiah. And so it is that today one-third of the stars of heaven followed Satan and one-third of the world’s population follows anti-Torah forms of “Christianity”. Have you ever heard people talk about “guardian angels”? This is an idea not found in The Bible, and yet almost all “Christians” believe in it. What these “Christians” believe are “guardian angels” are in fact demon spirits leading people to believe a lie while simultaneously thinking they are following The Bible? You know, I have spoken to one very misguided young man recently who claims he speaks to “an ancient spirit” that has him believing The Torah is evil. That’s literally the work of a demon spirit.
When we get to Revelation 12:9 it says that the dragon—that ancient serpent called Satan—wages war against those who both follow the commandments of God, which is The Torah, and hold to the testimony of Yeshua, which is The Gospel. Satan is not warring against anti-Torah “Christians” any more than he is waging war against Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Wiccans, or even Yeshua-rejecting Jews. All of these groups are right where Satan wants them. The only adversary Satan has are those who follow both The Torah and Yeshua. If he can’t get people to follow atheism or the plethora of non-Bible-based religions he will get you to believe in a form of “Christianity” that rejects at least some parts of The Torah or a form of “Judaism” that rejects Yeshua as The Messiah.
The call of the true Gospel is to follow Yeshua (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), walk as He walked (1 John 2:6), and His entire way of life was built on doing what The Torah says to do and not do. He is to be our role model. He is to be our example in all things. To do what He did is the only way to ensure you will not be deceived and overtaken by the spirit of the Anti-Messiah. The call of your Bible is to walk in the covenant of God through keeping His Torah. Literally every book in your Bible was written by someone who walked in covenant with God through keeping His Torah. The major difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is that in the old The Torah was written on tablets of stone and put into a wooden box and in the new the same Torah is written on the heart and put into the mind of the true covenant Believer. The Torah—The Law of God, what many like to call “The Laws of Moses” or “The Mosaic Laws”—did not change, nor was it made void, between the covenants. And once you see it, you will not be able to un-see it.
I understand that the messages I provide are not easy. Many would, like that rich young ruler did with Yeshua, tuck their head and walk away as it seems like too much. But I would say don’t do that. If you are a “Christian” in any form, you are a “Christian” because you have at least recognized that The Bible is THE Book of Truth and that Yeshua is THE promised Messiah. If you truly believe that, don’t you owe it to yourself and your own commitment to faith to study everything you can get your hands on to test if we really are supposed to follow The Torah and that the churches are lying to people just like you? Don’t just read and listen to the anti-Torah messages of popular “Christianity”. Don’t listen to the anti-Torah Calvinist heretics like John MacArthur or the Scripture-twisting hyper-grace heretics like Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen. Definitely don’t listen to anti-Semitic bigots like Rodney Howard-Browne. Read and listen to Torah-positive messages as well and see which one makes more sense when weighed against the whole counsel of Scripture. Study both sides, the anti-Torah and Torah-positive views, and see which one sounds more like Satan telling you to question, reject, and break the commandments of God the same as he did in Genesis 3. Study both sides and see which sounds more like Yeshua saying: “I did not come to abolish The Torah,” “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” and “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
I can assure you that if you will take this approach to reading and studying The Bible, you will ultimately see that, just as Psalm 119:142 declares, The Torah is truth. If you will read everything in The Bible from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 with the understanding that Satan is the lawless one trying to convince you not to follow the commandments of God and Yeshua is The Righteous One telling you to live according to The Torah of God you’ll be amazed at how much more sense everything makes. Those passages that the “Christian” churches and pastors use to say we don’t have to follow The Torah anymore will suddenly mean the opposite and when the “Christians” tell you that those passages overturn something in The Torah all you will hear is the hissing tongue of the Genesis 3 serpent. Give it a try, you really have nothing to lose—especially when dealing with something like the mark of the beast.
Blessings and Shalom
©2024 Truth Ignited Ministry
