Soloist wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 11:05 pm
JohnHurt wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:02 am
The mark on your forehead is what you think about, and the mark on your right hand is what you do.
Wife: I don’t know about the rest of what John Hurt is saying, and I’m not making an opinion on what the mark is, but I have actually heard the thought about the forehead and the right hand being representative of your thoughts and your actions, like a belief system someone is supposed to adopt, and maybe they believe it, or maybe they just act like they do to avoid persecution. I suppose either that or physical tattoos/ect are probably good things to avoid.
Carry on.
"That no man may buy or sell" is the part that doesn't makes sense to me, which makes it the most interesting part - I would love to hear your ideas:
Rev 13:(17) And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
From what I understand, throughout history, if you had a gold coin, you could walk up to a vendor and buy what he had for sale. The same is true for paper money. A government really cannot control a purchaser of small amounts of goods.
A government might control who can sell items in a public market, like the old guilds, but there has always been a "black market" where vendors can illegally sell items to the public that are banned by the government.
So how would the "no man may buy or sell" be accomplished?:
Here is what two commentaries say about this:
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
no man might buy or sell] Such disabilities seem to have been actually imposed, at least in the Diocletian persecution, by requiring business transactions to be preceded by pagan formulas.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
And that no man might buy or sell: this the popish church effects by its excommunications; it was begun in the council of Lateran, anathematizing all who entertained any of the Waldenses, or traded with them; and the late learned bishop of Armagh, in his book Deu Successione Ecclesiae, hath given us an account of such a canon of a synod in France, which in express terms forbade any commerce with heretics in buying or selling. Paraeus tells us Pope Martin the Fifth hath best interpreted this prophecy, in his bull added to the council of Constance, where he prohibits Roman Catholics to suffer any heretics to have any dwellings in their countries, or to make any bargains, or use any trades, or to perform to them any civil offices.
Source:
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/revelation/13-17.htm
These two statements do not address the "black marke", which is where those without the "mark" would purchase what they need.
But what "could" stop all unauthorized buying and selling are the proposed CBDC's - or "Central Bank Digital Currencies", that can only be accessed using a "Digital ID" in a "cashless society".
With CBDCs, if you run afoul of the "Beast System" - like not giving your children to them for indoctrination - then your CBDC bank account would be frozen, and your Digital ID made invalid. Without cash, you would not be able to buy or sell.
A friend of mine worked for the State of Tennessee - and when payroll wanted everyone to go to direct deposit, he refused and would not give them a bank account, as he was opposed to banking for religious reasons. So they continued giving him a check until he retired. He would take the check to the bank where it originated, and cash it, and pay cash for everything.
The Amish do something similar - they only take cash if you purchase from them. I wrote a check as a donation to my Amish doctor, and it took about 8 weeks to clear. They had signed it over and traded it to an "Englisher" and it went into his account, not theirs.
It will be much harder to get these people to use CBDCs.
Every time the Adversary lays a trap, it is usually the non-Christians that are ensnared, as our Lord provides a way for us when there is no way.
If CBDCs are the gateway to our complete control under the mark of the beast, then God will open a way for us, perhaps through Bitcoin, or by a barter system between Christians.
But the hope to all of us is that there are those in Revelation that never received the mark, or the number of his name.
Rev 15:(2) And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
So how would you "overcome the Beast" and operate without a bank account? Could a barter system be set up using things you create yourself? Would gold and silver be important for bartering? Or would there have to be a "Christian Community" that shares things?
Acts 2: (44) And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
(45) And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
What do you think?
"He replaced the teachings of Christ with his own opinions, and gave us a religion based on the doctrines of men."