Revelation 13:16 Official Church Teaching

[matthew1624]

NAB - It [beast] forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads, so that no one could…

I had a christian friend of mine (non-catholic) come into my office today asking me for the Catholic Church’s teaching on this passage. She quickly asked me to visit seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=FDA%20Implantable%20Chip which is the story of the FDA approving the use of chips in patients. Again, what is the official catholic teaching on this passage? I believe most of her worries stemmed from the End Times phenomenon of the Left Behind books.

Thanks in advance for your help.

God Bless…

 

[Calbreese]

There is no official church teaching because the Beast has not been unveiled in his own time. A copy of my research paper is being scrutinized at the Vatican as we pray. Here is the bible verse as a possible translated future truth. IHS Daryl 13:16 IT FORCED ALL MEN, SMALL AND GREAT, RICH AND POOR, SLAVE AND FREE, TO ACCEPT A STAMPED IMAGE ON THEIR RIGHT HAND OR THEIR FOREHEAD. WISDOM IS NEEDED HERE; WITH A LITTLE INGENUITY ANYONE CAN CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, FOR IT IS A NUMBER THAT STANDS FOR A CERTAIN MAN. THE MAN’S NUMBER IS SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX. Editor: Those on earth who have chosen to worship the Beast instead of God, already have the mark on their forehead by their conscious decision to access the World WideWeb by their computer, cell phone, mouse or palm pilot. The name, mark and number to access the “man created” Beast. Certainly the mark of a man. Again, new protocol will require to be assigned a unique identification number or address. John does a great job picking Hebrew and Aramaic Square 666 as the closest thing to www. as of the first century A.D. Please see the two reference pages. Thank you John!

The World Wide Web (different from Internet) The web is supported by processing speeds that double about every eighteen months. Based on history, this is a linear progression, and by all educated accounts, its speed is expected to continue to grow at that same rate. Every ten years, its speed and resulting power increase by about 120 times. Christians like it, but do not worship it. It can be turned off at several points, but it is now basically impossible to turn it all off…ever, ever. The appealing www. (Devil) uses the Internet like a spiderweb to catch souls. The World Wide Web’s compounding growth has not and cannot be matched by any religion. It is the latest addiction and certainly takes many people out of and away from the church. A jealous God does not like losing even one soul. This Beast is here, NOW. People in the know suggest it will attain a “machine like consciousness” within a matter of years. This is noted to make the reader aware of the awesome growing power of this man-made, from the earth, World Wide Web. The technical definition of the World Wide Web is: all the resources and users on the internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http). The broader definition is: the universe of network-accessable information, an embodiment of human knowledge. Google has over six billion pages of information. They expect to grow and eventually will be able to accomadate every page ever written, all available to 2024 Weblings. On almost every Web Page that “comes up” to be seen on a monitor, the only consistent “mark” of this beast is www. To men in Jesus’ time, this enclosed “sea” of light, fire and visions were quite remarkable. At the top of every page, the light in the monitor is projecting an image of every page viewed onto and through the screen in front of you, into your eyes and onto your face. Top of the page, is the location of the Beast’s mark, right into your forehead. Look at anyone’s face from the side while they are online. You will see the image on their face, it is even clearer to see in a dark room or when they have the reflection off of eyeglasses. Put your thumb up to any light bulb and see the light penetrating into your skin, into. Obvious mark.He saw a mouse set up for the right hand. Palm Pilots, cell phones, and credit cards are now intricately tied into Web access and are used with the right hand. The development of a new protocol system was announced in 2002. Every computer, mobile phone, digital camera or other device must be assigned a unique identification number or web address. Isaac Asimov wrote a short story, “The Last Question”, about a supercomputer named “Multivac” which ends with the computer saying, “Let there be light”. This is about one tenth of the paper. Call me for it. IHS Daryl 661.703.4444

 

[puzzleannie]

whoops, I can’t let that slide without pointing out that if you want “official Catholic Church teaching” this ain’t it. Whatever the answer, it will probably be the exact opposite of the Left Behind guys.

there are at least a dozen threads dealing with this question, did you look at any of them? did you look at any reliable Catholic bible study or guide before you asked?

for the person who replied, I was entertained by your theory, but suggest you stop listening to talk radio. I would be very interested to know how you got the Vatican to look at your research paper (since it is a city-state, not a person), who is reviewing it and how seriously. did you email it to Ratzinger? Hope it was more polished than the excerpt you gave us.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church seems to allude to Rev 13:16 when it says:

The Church’s ultimate trial
675. Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of** a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.** The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.
676. The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.
677. The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world."

This is not official Church teaching but, concerning Rev 13:16, The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. by William R. Farmer (The Liturgy Press, 1998), says, on page 1865:

Just as the Lamb puts his mark on his followers and thereby protects them (7:3; 9:4; 14:1), so too the beast marks those of his group, “all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave” (13:16). This mark, an important theme in the rest of the book (14:9, 11; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4) is “on the right hand or the forehead, . . . ‘the name of the beast’ or the number of its name” (13:16-17). The contrast with those who “had [the Lamb’s] name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (14:1) is obvious. It is therefore a religious mark, a sign and seal of belonging, of protection. The people submit to the beast, seeking his protection. the author uses the Greek word charagma that was used for the emperor’s seal (and not sphragis as in 7:3). This is the god who protects his people by enslaving them. To refuse to adore him is tantamount to excluding oneself from citizenship in the empire with all its attendant privileges (including economic ones). This is why the Christians’ situation is so awkward: either one enters into the game, with all the advantages it entails, or one becomes a stranger to that society and is excluded from it because one does not have the “party card” (the mark of the beast) (13:17). These are difficult times that call for faithful perseverance and standing firm in one’s witness (13:10 and 12:17)

 

[matthew1624]

Calbreese:

Those on earth who have chosen to worship the Beast instead of God, already have the mark on their forehead by their conscious decision to access the World WideWeb by their computer, cell phone, mouse or palm pilot.

The appealing www. (Devil) uses the Internet like a spiderweb to catch souls.

…about a supercomputer named “Multivac” which ends with the computer saying, “Let there be light”. This is about one tenth of the paper. Call me for it. IHS Daryl 661.703.4444

Whoa! I’ve never heard of this before. I think I’ll pass on getting more info on this and stick with how to deal with the Left Behind phenom of identifying the beast.

God Bless…

 

[matthew1624]

puzzleannie:

there are at least a dozen threads dealing with this question, did you look at any of them? did you look at any reliable Catholic bible study or guide before you asked?

Performing a search usually takes too much time (too many hits). If you know of any off the bat that directly answer my question let me know. I read the Navarre Bible commentary which was good but I also want to know the best approach at answering those individuals who are so determined on identifying the beast or predicting who it will be.

Thanks for your help.

 

[matthew1624]

Todd Easton:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church seems to allude to Rev 13:16 when it says:

The Church’s ultimate trial
675. Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of** a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.** The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.
676. The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.
677. The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world."

This is not official Church teaching but, concerning Rev 13:16, The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. by William R. Farmer (The Liturgy Press, 1998), says, on page 1865:

Just as the Lamb puts his mark on his followers and thereby protects them (7:3; 9:4; 14:1), so too the beast marks those of his group, “all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave” (13:16). This mark, an important theme in the rest of the book (14:9, 11; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4) is “on the right hand or the forehead, . . . ‘the name of the beast’ or the number of its name” (13:16-17). The contrast with those who “had [the Lamb’s] name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (14:1) is obvious. It is therefore a religious mark, a sign and seal of belonging, of protection. The people submit to the beast, seeking his protection. the author uses the Greek word charagma that was used for the emperor’s seal (and not sphragis as in 7:3). This is the god who protects his people by enslaving them. To refuse to adore him is tantamount to excluding oneself from citizenship in the empire with all its attendant privileges (including economic ones). This is why the Christians’ situation is so awkward: either one enters into the game, with all the advantages it entails, or one becomes a stranger to that society and is excluded from it because one does not have the “party card” (the mark of the beast) (13:17). These are difficult times that call for faithful perseverance and standing firm in one’s witness (13:10 and 12:17)

Thanks Todd, this helps.

 

[tralon]

Rome was the first beast and the Papacy was the second beast, because the second beast is like the first, but religious. Only the Papacy came out of Rome. See God’s Plan for man by Finnis Dake.

 

[JimG]

I first read Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” in 1956, in a science fiction magazine. It was a nice story with a trick ending, but it had nothing to do with the mark of the beast or the world wide web.

Is it really necessary to use the book of Revelation to spin all these end of world scenarios? That’s not the meaning it had for John’s original readers.

 

[matthew1624]

tralon:

Rome was the first beast and the Papacy was the second beast, because the second beast is like the first, but religious. Only the Papacy came out of Rome. See God’s Plan for man by Finnis Dake.

No thanks.

 

[Calbreese]

Hey PA, when my Bishop cannot take his eyes off the paper and passes it up to the Laity Council at the Vatican; the Pontifical Biblical Commission at the Vatican; the Commission for Religious Relations for the Jews; Pontifical Academy of Science, also at the Vatican; The Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the learned Synod of Bishops, shouldn’t we let the Magesterium do their job? I realize not viewing all thirteen pages can render a narrow view of the topic. With Church approval I can disseminate this to Catholics in toto, one on one. I appreciate your passion, IHS Daryl K of C 661.703.4444

 

[asteroid]

matthew1624:

No thanks.

Hey - don’t put down Mr Dake. I spent time with his Study Bible and God’s Plan for Man. Very impressive - and still very useful for certain things like his explanations of Greek and Hebrew words and the concordance and subject index in the Study Bible. Of course, on other issues Dake and I don’t see eye to eye - his views on God having a body with 2 arms and legs and living on a planet, very limited in knowledge for example.

I’ve been trying to work one thing out with Dake. His method of Bible interpretation is to take everything totally literally unless there’s no way it can possibly be taken literally - hence the 2 legged God and so forth.

But with my journey towards Catholicism I find that millions of Christians have no trouble taking the words “This is my Body” or the words of John 6 as basically being the literal truth. Christians dating back to the beginning of the church believed it, much to my shock!

Therefore the words CAN and ARE taken literally. Yet Dake takes them very metaphorically. In doing so he undermines his entire rationale for biblical interpretation. Hmmm. Maybe I should mention this on the Dake Bible Board and see what happens.

Blessings.

 

[Steve_Andersen]

I was under the impression that the Beast was an allegorical reference to Nero and that worries about having chips or tattoos on your hand were literalist nonsense at best or paranoid conspiracy theory at worst.

Of course I could be wrong

 

[JimG]

asteroid:

His method of Bible interpretation is to take everything totally literally unless there’s no way it can possibly be taken literally - hence the 2 legged God and so forth.

But with my journey towards Catholicism I find that millions of Christians have no trouble taking the words “This is my Body” or the words of John 6 as basically being the literal truth. Christians dating back to the beginning of the church believed it, much to my shock! . . . .Yet Dake takes them very metaphorically. In doing so he undermines his entire rationale for biblical interpretation.

In other words, Dake preaches and teaches from his OWN tradition.

 

[Calbreese]

God’s divine design reoccurs and grows with/ through scripture as it adapts continually through time. Of course it had the strenght to adapt to Nero symbolically and others throughout the ages with enough left to probably fullfill the Book of Revelation’s future propheses… literally. How could you believe anything else? IHS Daryl

 

[tobias]

The mark of the beast is no more than Satan trying to imitate God. John was not the first to write about recieving a mark on the forehead. If you look at Ezekiel Ch. 9 you’ll find a vision of the prophet where God sends six of His angels and one ‘dressed in linen’(Jesus) into the temple and then throughout the city to put an ‘X’ on the foreheads of those who ‘moan and groan over the abominations that are practiced within.’ Then the angels are commanded to strike down those without the mark on their foreheads. As Catholics we ought to know that the mark which we have recieved on our foreheads is the sacrament of baptism. Christ marks his own. Satan will try to do the same, for he wants to be god.
Then again Ezekiel was not the first to write about being marked. If we go back to the story of Cain and Abel we see that after Cain has killed Abel (this is before the institution of the death penalty in chapter 9 of genesis) God puts a mark on Cain which is God’s protection for Cain ‘lest anyone find him and slay him.’
But we can reflect on it on a more basic level. 6 has the symbolic meaning of imperfection (7 means perfection, based one the head and the 7 openings for the senses) for it is lacking. Triple the number 6 and you have an imperfect (unholy) trinity. This mark is to be put on the forehead or the right hand, it ought to follow the symbolic reading of the rest of the revelations text. Consider that we are commanded to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. If we fail to love God with our actions we accept the mark on our right hand. If we fail to love God with our thoughts and words we accept the mark on our forehead.
I do not know how the mark will be ‘established’ in the end times, but I am certain of this, that one ‘accepts’ the mark of the beast. It is a willfull act, it is not imposed on our freewill, no more than living out our baptism is.
The fact that I can sit here and type this out at my computer and at the same time praise God tells me that this is not the mark. At least not yet?