The Mark Of The Beast

I have been thinking about the "mark" that the Antichrist is supposed to put on people in the last days of the world according to biblical prophecies. All across the world, this has become the stuff of folklore that people will have a mark on them in order to buy and sell things. Can anyone seriously believe that hundreds of millions of people all over the world are going to line up to have such a mark put on them. I have become certain that this is not going to happen.

In discussing the Book of Revelation and similar prophecies, we have to remember that God gave a vision of future events to a person of ancient times, who described what they saw as best as they could. St. John, author of the Book of Revelation, had not the slightest concept of modern technology.

Let's consider Revelation chapter 9, verses 3-9. St. John described "locusts" having a terrible sting. He also describes them as "scorpions" and as the locusts appearing like horses prepared for battle and as having crowns. To make it even more strange, these creatures are described as having hair like women and faces like men and their wings make a sound like many horses and chariots.

But the mystery ends if we consider that this is a perfect description of a military helicopter of today dispensing some kind of nerve gas or chemical weapon. Such a helicopter resembles both a locust and a scorpion. A helicopter makes a sound like many horses running. It's rotors look somewhat like a woman's long hair. The face of the pilot can be seen through the window. The "crown" is simply the rotor housing of the helicopter.

Now, let's go to verses 17-19. These verses describe what St. John sees as "horses with heads like lions" accompanying a great army of 200 million soldiers from the east in the final days of the world. From out of the "mouths" of these horses come fire, smoke and, brimstone which causes great destruction.

Consider a battle tank. When seen from the side, it's turret resembles the head of a male lion with a mane. Brimstone is the old word for sulfur (sulphur) and is one of the ingredients of gunpowder, which propels shells and bullets from guns. If the "mouth" is the cannon of the tank, this explains why fire, smoke and, destruction comes from it.

Now, considering St. John's obvious descriptions of tanks and helicopters, why should we not think that this legendary "mark" that people will have is not actually a mark at all but some other modern technology that he could not begin to comprehend? John writes that people will have such a mark on their right hands or their foreheads.

What about cell phones (mobiles)? They comes in two basic forms, handheld and headset. If there is one technology that is really taking over the world, it is not computers or cars but these phones, there is more and more that they can do virtually every year. Many countries that never had good land line networks are skipping that stage altogether and many in the west are giving up land line phones and only using cell phones.

St. John saw visions of people using hand-held phones to conduct business and described it as a "mark". He could imagine a cell phone even less than a tank or helicopter. In many countries today, such phones can scan a bar code and download information about the product or buy from a vending machine and have it put on the phone bill.

So what about the number that goes with the mark, 666? It says that this number is the "number of a man" For most of human history, people were assigned names rather than numbers. But today, virtually everyone in the world does have a number, a phone number.

Most country codes for international calling and area codes, such as those in North America, are of three digits just like 666. What is the mystery? This is simply a prefix or part of a phone number. Through cell phone (mobile) records, all that a person has dome can be kept track of. A cell phone can be pinged to determine a person's location by GPS coordinates.

It will be said " What are those silly people talking about, no one is putting any "mark" on anyone, how can this be the Antichrist?"