The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God

I wrote this in response to someone who asked about the mark of the beast. But she did not ask about the seal of God. Many do not consider that subject, because they think the seal of God is surely theirs, yet they do not even know what it is. But when they learn what the seal of God is, they will know what the mark of the beast is.

When Moses was forty, it was in his heart to help his people, Israel. But in his own strength, he failed and had to flee for his life. For forty years he was in a wilderness, both physical and spiritual.

Then God appeared to him and sent him to Egypt to deliver Israel. When Moses got there, he was countered by Pharaoh’s magicians. They were able to copy the first miracles God enabled Moses to do. They had power. Why? Because they had the mark of the beast, but Moses overcame because he had the seal of God.

The seal of God is the death sentence. It is the crucifying factor in one’s life. It is the only sure mark of distinction between good and evil, between children of God and the inhabiters of the earth, between those who are God’s and those who are not.

Both light and darkness can do great works. Both perform miracles, call fire down from heaven, and do wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; Revelation 13:13-14). But the power of darkness is limited. Moses prevailed over the magicians of Pharaoh’s court, because he had the power of God. How did he receive that power? He died.

His ambitions had been wiped out beyond hope. The work he tried to do in his own strength had failed long ago. Yet, though his power was sown in corruption, it was raised in incorruption; it was sown in weakness and defeat, and raised in power and victory (1 Corinthians 15:42-43, 53-55). It was the work of God in him, just as was the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as had been signified by Jonah who also “died,” was “buried,” and after three days, was “brought to life.” Death and resurrection is the sign of the Son of man, the sign of true life; it is the seal of God.

The apostle Paul said he determined to know nothing but Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). He knew the secret of God, because he had the seal of God on his forehead. He had the death sentence on himself (Romans 6:4,10-11; 2 Corinthians 1:9). That is the seal of God. That is the mark of a true servant of the Lord. It is the mark of a saint in maturity. It is Christ formed in us (Galatians 4:19).

As grain sown in the ground sprouts and grows, producing more grain, so in the fullness of time, we are resurrected in power and glory with Christ to serve Him in His chosen work (Galatians 2:20). When God applies the seal to us, the world and the carnal mind see it as failure, falsehood, defeat, and humiliation. Christ was killed - He was humiliated and that, publicly. But the crucifixion was the very way of victory; His death was the judgment and salvation of the world.

So it is for all those who are His. They must all suffer death publicly, obediently, quietly, and humbly, and they must be patient for the sure and coming resurrection. As the Head, so the Body, and each member thereof. Otherwise, we are not His.

As members of the Body of Christ, we have no choice but to die. But knowing the truth helps us through our wilderness, through our death, through the receipt of the seal of God on our foreheads, which is a painful experience. It would be far easier to be literally branded on the forehead with an intensely hot iron.

Once death has come upon the soul called by God to be His, there is nothing more that can hurt him or be done to him. No longer does he care what others may think or do. He is a dead man.

“Him who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will go out no more. And I will write upon him the Name of My God, and the Name of the City of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My God, and My New Name” (Revelation 3:12 MKJV).

He recognizes that there is no power but of God. He knows that no matter how powerful the enemy may be, he has nothing to fear. And it does not matter if the enemy prevails for a time. He knows that all is in God’s hands.

Ephesians 2:4-7 MKJV
(4) But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us
(5) (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved),
(6) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
(7) so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Though the flesh still agonizes and frets and fears (Romans 7:18), the inner man has come to a peace and a stillness that prevails.

Moses was a brash and energetic man at forty. He was self-confident. He thought to deliver the children of Israel in his own strength. From his mother’s womb, it was in his heart to redeem Israel. Little did he know at the time that he was only seed grain and not harvest grain. Little did he know that he had still to be planted, humiliated, “failured.” Little did he know he was relying on bestial power, the power of the man of sin, the first Adam.

We see that the seal of God is the death sentence that breaks one. So what is the mark of the beast? It is the exaltation of the flesh, the puffing up of a man, making him bold and brash, enabling him to copy the works of God as did Jannes and Jambres. It is the pride and energy of the flesh that all these evangelists and preachers have on TV and radio, claiming to be serving God.

Whom do they deceive? Only the undead. They deceive those who have chosen to live, those who have shrunk away from denying themselves and taking up the cross to follow the Lord. They deceive those who also have accepted the mark of the beast, which empowers them to do things that please men.

“They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:14 MKJV).

The religious have their reward; they live; they flourish; they laugh...for now. In all these things they display the mark of the beast. They speak with power and are accepted of the world. They are permitted to give and receive among themselves, to buy and sell. The beast has granted them that privilege.

In all these things, when they think they are proving to be God’s, they are unmistakably proving and demonstrating, to those who have eyes to see, that they are the beast’s. And they receive power to do great things in the Name of Jesus Christ:

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 MKJV
(13) For such ones are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
(14) Did not even Satan marvelously transform himself into an angel of light?
(15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.

They are impudent, presumptuous, proud, haughty, fat-eyed, full-bellied, self-satisfied, lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, blasphemous, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, false accusers, unruly in their lusts, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth (the Lord Jesus Christ), having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such, turn away!

These always resist the truth, even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further for, it is written, their folly shall be manifest unto all men. Evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3).

That is the lot of all those who profess Christ, but who have nothing to do with Him.

There is no life but by death in Christ. There is nothing for us if we choose to live and prevail in our works. We may have worldly success, praise of men, and other earthly benefits, but we won’t have the power, favor, and glory of God.

Notice that Paul goes on to say (in 2 Timothy 3) that his life is different....it is one of afflictions, persecutions, proper manner of life, faith, longsuffering, charity, and patience. And he says that all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

To the carnal man, the seal of God appears as the mark of the beast, and the mark of the beast as the seal of God. As Paul said:

“For we are to God a sweet savor of Christ, in those being saved, and in those being lost; to the one we are the savor of death to death, and to the other we are the savor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16 MKJV)

Who can know or understand these things?

“And He said, Go, Daniel! For the words are closed up and sealed until the end-time. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried. But the wicked shall do wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:9-10 MKJV).

Victor Hafichuk