What’s the Deal with the Mark of the Beast? Part 3
(Part #3 of 4 examining the four approaches to Revelation 13:16-18)
Revelation 13:16-18 - 16 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
An issue that must be addressed before proceeding to an examination of the text of Revelation is our basic hermeneutical approach to the book. There are four different approaches to the book. It’s important to understand “How” to approach reading it before we do, so that we can better grasp John’s vivid imagery. Here is a brief description of each approach:
Historicist View - This approach sees parallels between current events and biblical prophecy. Not too many folks hold this view any longer.
Idealist View - This view is primarily a symbolic description of the ongoing battle between God and the devil, between good and evil. This view is truly a practical approach to the book of Revelation.
Preterist View – In this, prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled in AD 70 when Titus and his Roman army overran Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple.
There are two sub-views to this: Partial and Full.
The full view is difficult to justify because it literally leaves NO ROOM for the return of Christ. The partial view is understandable and widely held, even as part of the Idealist view.
Futurist View - The futurist approach holds that most of the events described in the book will take place in the end times, just prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ, or after a rapture, or “removal” of the believers.
Those are the four approaches. And I will also like to say at this point that you do “not” have to side with one exclusively. Because they are all slightly different from one another, they are not exclusive. So, please keep this in mind as you read through these four articles.
This week’s view: The Preterist
Preterism is the eschatological view that the “end times” prophecies of the Bible have already been fulfilled. So, when we read what the Bible says about the tribulation, we are reading history. Preterism is divided into two camps: full and partial. As we mentioned up above, Full Preterism takes an extreme view that all prophecy in the Bible has been fulfilled in one way or another. Full Preterists, or consistent preterists, as they prefer to be known as, hold that all future Bible prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
If there is a future second coming, they say, the Bible does not talk about it. This view is extreme, to say the least, as they believe that there is no future bodily resurrection, which place them outside the realm of Christian orthodoxy. Regardless, we’re going to immediately throw out this Full Preterist view, because I cannot even hold it together enough to explain it. I believe in the second coming of Christ and I believe that it is one of the Essential Doctrines of Christianity. So, since Full Preterism negates it, I will have to file that one in a trash bin called “heretical”.
Partial preterists, on the other hand, take a more moderate approach, and many partial preterists consider full preterists to be guilty of heresy (which they are accurate). Partial Preterists believe that a lot of prophecy was fulfilled in the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. They do believe that a few passages still teach a yet future second coming (Acts 1:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) and the resurrection of believers at Christ’s bodily return. But because they believe (like the Historicist), that the Mark of the Beast is something that Rome did in the first century, it leaves almost no room for anything like this in the end.
Now, because the approach one takes to the book of Revelation dramatically affects one’s exegetical conclusions, it is necessary to explain this as I go. The Partial Preterist approach is owed some respect because they do agree not all of the prophecies in the book have already been fulfilled. We know this to be impossible because Revelation (20:7–22:21) are the consummation of the Kingdom; so clearly it hasn’t all been fulfilled.
Let’s put this into perspective. If we look at the Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we certainly know that it does not render those prophesies meaningless for later generations. They are still an integral part of our understanding as to “how” the OT teach us of the coming Messiah. Just the same, the multitudes of Old Testament prophecies concerning the destruction of Israel and Judah and the subsequent exile doesn’t render them meaningless for later generations either. This is history and the fact that prophesies that came to fulfillment add to the validity of the gospel record. With that in mind, the prophecies in Revelation would not be any less meaningful or significant if it were shown that many or most of them have already been fulfilled. All Scripture is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16), even those parts of Scripture containing already fulfilled prophecies.
Proponents of the futurist, historicist, and idealist approaches to Revelation offer several criticisms of the preterist approach to the book. Probably the most serious criticism is that this approach robs the book of any contemporary significance. John Walvoord, for example, writes, “The preterist view, in general, tends to destroy any future significance of the book, which becomes a literary curiosity with little prophetic meaning.” Leon Morris echoes this sentiment, claiming that the preterist approach “has the demerit of making it the Book of Revelation meaningless for all subsequent readers (except for the information it gives about that early generation).”
When misguided criticisms, such as the ones above, are made without careful consideration, it is seen to be quite strong. Because, after all, you aren’t guilty by association. If one holds to a Partial Preterist view, it doesn’t mean that they’re heretical like a Full Preterist. Just because each view uses the word “Preterist” appears in both titles. I know this sounds almost contrite, but it’s no less applicable than stating a person is a racist just because they are conservative or liberal, for instance.
Personally, I would never have ever considered the Partial Preterist view in any way, shape or form… until I listened to biblically based exegesis from RC Sproul, Gary Demar and others. In the first place, our basic hermeneutical approach to the book should be determined by the nature and content of the book itself (Just in case, hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that interpretation of the bible.)
As we have already seen, the book of Revelation itself indicates - in both the first and last chapters – that John tells his first century readers that the things revealed in the book “must soon take place” (1:1; 22:6) and that “the time is near” (1:3; 22:10). These statements are generalizations, so they do not require that every event prophesied in the book must be fulfilled in the first century, but the generalizations do provide us with a “general” idea of how we should understand the book.
Prophetic speculation has been running rampant based on how some local governments are attempting to deal with the spread of the virus. For example, Valley County in Montana had mandated “that people wear government-issued pink arm bands in (order) to purchase products inside of stores. The measure, enforced by the Valley County Health Department, insists that store-owners keep customers out unless they have the pink arm-bands, which denote the customer has been in the area more than 14 days and submitted to quarantine protocol.”
Some people compared the directive to how the Nazis identified people suspected of being homosexual by having them wear a triangle patch and, of course, Jews with a Star of David patch and number tattoos. It didn’t take long before the Valley County Commissioners offered an apology and ‘retraction’ of the health department’s flier.
Similar identification methods are being proposed that could limit people’s ability to move freely and buy and sell in the name of public health and well-being. As expected, Christians have pointed to Revelation 13:16–17.
It’s obvious that this chapter is not describing a modern-day technological society because in Revelation 6:13, the earth would have been devastated by “the stars” that fell from the heavens “to the earth.” And if that didn’t mess things up, in Revelation 12, we read about a “great red dragon” whose “tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth” (vv. 3–4).
How could the earth survive let alone keep track of people implanted with microchips or Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) implants after such devastation? If stars hit the earth, the earth would not exist. If these stars are meteorites, the destruction they would bring would wipe out civilization as we know it.
If it’s claimed that Revelation 13:16–17 is being fulfilled today, then when did what is described in chapters 6 and 12 happen? The book of Revelation is not about the antichrist controlling the world. (The word never appears in Revelation). It’s a Revelation, an unveiling (the meaning of the Greek word Apokalypsis (clearly meaning apocalypse in Revelation 1:1), of a covenantal judgment that came upon Israel because of covenantal unfaithfulness. Matthew 21:43 says: “Therefore I tell you; the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”
Revelation 13 is shown to John as “signs” in the form of a vision. The stars falling to earth, a red dragon, a giant woman (12:1–4) are symbols. This means that what we find in Revelation 13:16–17 should be interpreted in a similar way in terms of how the Bible interprets such images (beasts, markings on the right hand and forehead, 666, etc.)
Let’s back up. Jesus told the church of Laodicea, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” - Revelation 3:18. There is no market available to make such a purchase. Purchasing a commodity like oil for lamps to greet the bridegroom is not about economics but worship.
In the same way, buying gold refined by fire is symbolic and is also related to worship. It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that the reference to buying and selling in Revelation 13:17 is also symbolic and not part of an end-time economic system or even one in the first century. Similar language is found in the Old Testament in Isaiah 55:1-2: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
Jesus foretold that this would happen: “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” - John 16:2.
Now, keep in mind that the “beast coming up out of the earth” is involved in these events. The land beast is most certainly associated with first-century Israel, especially the priests who controlled access to the temple, which was finished during Nero’s reign in AD 64.
Early in the church’s history the disciples went to the temple to preach the gospel. At first, they were welcomed (2:46). Peter and John frequented the temple during “the hour of prayer” (3:1). Jewish Christians continued to use the temple, even participating in some of its rituals (21:26). After the temple officials learned that those Jews were preaching that Jesus was the Messiah—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—Paul was “dragged out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut” (See Acts 21:26–30).
During Jesus’ ministry, the temple officials were “selling,” and worshipers were “buying” access to the temple, turning God’s house into a “robbers’ den”, as told in Matthew 21:12–13. Only the Jews who aligned themselves with the priests (i.e., had the “mark of the beast”), the sacrificial system, and the temple buildings, could enter the temple for worship.
To take the “mark of the beast” meant a person denied that Jesus was the Messiah, the true temple of God, the only sufficient sacrifice (see Hebrews 9). Of course, Christian Jews avoided the “mark of the beast” and showed their true allegiance to Jesus, “having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads” - Revelation 14:1. They demonstrated that these symbolic names on their foreheads through their public professions of faith and allegiance to Jesus. Those who carried the mark of the beast professed that they had chosen Caesar over Christ (see John 19:15).
From a Partial Preterist viewpoint, they make a great case for us understanding Revelation is both somewhat fulfilled – and not yet fulfilled. I can see that they make a case. Still, it’s not the view that I hold entirely. And like I said at the onset – we don’t have to “pigeon hole” ourselves into one avenue of agreement. But at the very least, we don’t need to necessarily freak out because of what we’re reading in the news either.
Pastor Patrick D. Garlock
