At this point I would like to advise that if you have not read the studies titled THE MARK OF THE BEAST vs. THE SEAL OF YHWH, YAHSHUA AND JESUS CHRIST, DIFFERENT NAMES OR DIFFERENT GODS?, THE OTHER SEAL, and COUNTERFEITS, that you stop right here until you have read those studies, [tho if I've sent you this study without you having done so, rather than you having received it from someone else, it is probably because you already know about the issues enough that I felt you can understand this study where you are]. In those studies we have seen that there was only one Hebrew word from which the words "token, sign, seal, and mark" were translated. So there are four English words from one Hebrew term. From that we can deduct that the seal of YHWH could just as correctly be called the mark or sign of YHWH, and the mark of the beast could just as correctly be called the sign or seal of the beast. We have also seen that YHWH's seal is the Torah (Deut.6:1,8; 11:1,18), that when we have His seal we show the outward sign of obedience to all of His laws.
The only laws which are an exception to this are those which had their end foretold in the Tanakh itself, as did the sacrificial system in Dan.9:27 & Is. 66:3,4. None of the N.T. characters had the authority to violate or disregard Deu.4:2, thus there are no new laws in the N.T., and there is no abolition of any of the laws of the Torah save those which were prophesied to end. Anything in the N.T. which looks like a law is but counsel or tradition, or else it has been misunderstood. We have learned that the name of the beast is "Kristos Zeus," which is but an early variation of "Christ Jesus." We have also learned that the mark of the beast is not limited to a law enforcing Sunday rest and worship as some churches teach, neither is it limited to a literal mark or implanted micro computer chip as others teach, but it is anything that would cause one to break YHWH's covenant and seal, to be in disobedience to any one of His laws (James 2:10). While the seal is a sign of complete obedience to YHWH, the mark is but a sign of disobedience. Now that we've summarized and defined the mark of the beast, let us take a closer look at prophecy.
It is generally understood that not all of Revelation is in chronological order, however, when we have two verses together and in the same context, we can be pretty sure they are in fact in chronological order. Most of the churches who get involved with the interpretation of Rev.13:15-17 teach that when he mark of the beast becomes law there will first be economic sanctions established against those who refuse to accept the mark, and then, because the economic sanctions are not effective enough, the death penalty will be set in order against them. Most disregard the name of the beast, but they only consider the mark and number, whereas this text shows the mere name of the beast to be accepted as the mark or number, however, we should take special note that according to this passage, totally opposite to what most churches teach, the death penalty is established before the economic sanctions are used. We are not told that the mark of the beast will continue to be enforced as a law of men until the end of time. It is obvious that during and after an attempt to eradicate those who refuse to accept the mark or the name, economic sanctions are placed in order to catch and to persecute those who have either escaped the death penalty, or who may later discover the falsehoods being taught by the religious leaders and attempt to resist. Everyone appears to be looking for these events to be totally in the future, failing to consider events that have already past, and failing to consider that there is no prophecy here to indicate that laws enforcing the mark of the beast will remain in effect as law until the Saviour comes. Now let us look at some things which have already taken place.
Beginning with the Roman Emperor Constantine, from A.D.306 to 337, the laws of the Christian Church, namely the Roman Catholic Church, became the laws of the state. For hundreds of years the civil government tried to stamp out heresy, that is, any teachings that were in conflict with the teachings of the church. The Christian Church being the number one church which has sought to hide and negate the laws of YHWH, naturally some civil laws did require the violation of some of YHWH's laws. Such laws, not all of which were enforced all over the known world at the same time, included laws requiring homage to the Sunday sabbath, Xmas, and Easter, as well as laws forbidding the observance of the so-called Jewish festivals which YHWH commanded in Lev.23. Don't mark my word on it, but I believe that at certain points there were even laws that forbade the circumcision of male infants. I know such laws existed during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, but that was at an earlier time than the time in question, but I believe such laws also existed from time to time during the Dark Ages as well, just as I know there are present day Christian groups seeking to outlaw the practice even today. During this time if a Jew chose to convert to Christianity, among other things, he was required to openly renounce his Judaism and eat pork, thus, even without regard to the pagan beastly origin of the title of "Christian," it was not possible for a Jew to convert to Christianity without receiving and displaying a mark of disobedience to YHWH, or in other words, the mark of the beast. Not only that, but from Constantine onward, the civil authorities made some attempt to assist the church in enforcing that mark. During the 1100's and 1200's some groups of Roman Catholics started to revolt against their church, and civil rulers gave leave to the church to take charge of finding and punishing heretics. Once caught, heretics had the choice of either recanting their heretic beliefs & submitting to the church, or being executed, generally by being burned at the stake. Most were tortured in an attempt to force them to submit. This continued into the 1500's and perhaps even longer, but this activity seemed heaviest from the 1100's to the 1500's. This was known as the Inquisition. It was also during this time frame that the Crusades took place. The Crusades, though less successful than the Inquisition, were aimed mostly toward driving the Moslems from the Holy Land, but some were also aimed at eliminating heretics. What was the ultimate goal behind all these activities? To make sure that everyone was a true Christian, to make sure that everyone had the name of Christ Jesus, which was signified by the person identifying himself as a Christian, and to make sure that all had the mark of disobedience, that is, the mark of the beast, as one could not be a Christian if he were sealed in YHWH's Torah. During this time it is estimated that 50,000,000 people, yes, that's fifty million people, were killed in the Inquisition alone. (50,000,000 number taken from the 1968 Worldbook Encyclopedia)
A lot of people realize the parallel between the books of Daniel & Revelation, and many realize the Hebrew term for the word "time" in Dan.7:25 refers to a year, thus, "time and times and the dividing of time" is equal to 1260 days. Applying the "day for a year" code that is often used in Bible prophecy (Eze.4:4-6), this would equal 1260 years. While I do not have the exact dates for the specific events that marked the beginning and end of the Inquisition, from the time Constantine made Christianity the state religion between 306 and 337, until the 1500's, we will find 1260 years. No one has stopped to consider that this was the reign of the beast and the time of the enforcement of his mark as described in Rev.13:15-17. During this time the Christian Church sought to force everyone to worship its image, its idol, its god, Jesus Christ! It was during this time that the church actually gave him life in the minds of the people and caused him to speak by the false translation and interpretation of scripture. And this was the "abomination of desolation," or "abominable idol," prophesied in Dan.11:31 & 12:11 and referenced by the Saviour in Mat.24:15 & Mark 13:14. In time, as people fought for the right to worship according to their own conscience rather than the dictates of a single church, laws and rules which made the engagement in trade difficult or impossible for people who did not submit to the teachings of the Christian Church were often repealed or else forgotten, yet even today they still remain in some countries such as Communist China where they have a six day work week enforced by the Communist government, while Blue Laws, Christian approved work schedules, and company rules and codes of appearance remain to cause problems for anyone who wants to get ahead while remaining obedient to the Torah in the U.S. So many companies have appearance codes requiring women to dress as men in violation of Deu.22:5 and requiring men to shave their faces like women in violation of Lev.19:27, and that's in addition to the hardships one faces just trying to find a company that will allow them to take off on the weekly and annual sabbaths. In most countries people are forced to live in poverty if they cannot get a good education. In some countries students are required to attend school six days a week, including YHWH's weekly sabbath, and in most countries students are not blessed as we are here in the U.S. by being allowed to take an excused absence from school on the annual sabbaths, so the unexcused absences prevent believing students from ranking among the highest in their classes and obtaining scholarships for a higher education, so they are forced to live in poverty if they persist in obedience to YHWH. Those who are bond, that is, those in prison, are often not granted reasonable requests for religious freedom even here in the U.S.
I know now that some are going to question that the Inquisition could not have been the enforcement of the mark of the beast because the laws enforcing the mark would affect "all" (Rev.13:16), and some parts of the world were controlled by Moslems and people of other religions at this time; however, Dan.7:25 only says that the little horn power, which is the beast of Rev.13 would "wear out the saints of the most High,", not that he would also wear out those who were already in disobedience. During the Crusades there were times when the Catholics and the Moslems made treaties and entered into mutual agreements that allowed them to somewhat peaceably co-exist at least for a time. There is also nothing to indicate that the beast would be totally successful in killing all who refused to receive the mark, else there'd be no saints left among the living when the Saviour does return. The saints were those who were doing their best to obey YHWH's laws in the scripture (Mat.12:50), and it was them over whom the beast exercised civil authority, not necessarily those of nations with religions that did not proclaim the scripture as the supreme standard, and I think 50,000,000 martyrs make a powerful testimony that he definitely wore the saints out! So many of the true believers were destroyed that for generations there were not found any teachers that had the knowledge to teach the whole unadulterated truth, if there are even any today, as we have all so much to unlearn as well as to learn. Now there are many who believe that the past scenario with the Inquisition will be repeated here in these last days of the world as we know it, as well as the laws enforcing the mark of the beast, and there are many individuals and groups undermining and trying to make sure that these events will be repeated worldwide. As we look in the scripture, however, we know that history often does repeat itself, but as we read through the book of Revelation there is nothing to indicate without question that these events will be repeated.
Now the realization that the mark of the beast was enforced as law from the 300's to the present, at least in some parts of the world, and that the mark of the beast is nothing more than a sign of disobedience to YHWH's Torah, and it can be disobedience to any one of its laws, as no matter which law we reject, if we reject even one, no matter how trivial it may appear to our frail human understanding, we are guilty of violating the entire covenant and seal (James 2:10), brings about the question as to whether all who have lived since the mark of the beast was set up have been guilty of the mark of the beast if and because they were not living in complete obedience in spite of having lived up to every ray of biblical truth they had. I'd have to say that I really don't have a solid answer to that, however, in my personal biblically-based opinion, I really don't think those who were living up to all the spiritual light they had and continually striving for truth were accountable for what they had no opportunity to know. On what do I base this? For a starter, in Rev.18:4 YHWH is calling some of His people out of Babylon, which is the system of false religion with Christianity at the head, and from what I can tell this does occur after the events in Rev.13:15-17. Some believe that receiving the mark of the beast, even unaware, is an unforgivable blasphemy. I disagree with this for a couple of reasons, however, one being that there have been many who were born and raised under the sign of the beast, some who never had an opportunity to learn the full truth, and Ps.87:4-6 says that YHWH takes note of where people are born. Also Rev.15:2 shows people in the heavenly kingdom who "had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." Generally one does not get the victory over something that has never had dominion over them to start with. Likewise, Rev.3:12 promises the reward for those that "overcome", and again, we generally would not say that someone has overcome something that has never had some dominion over them. As for the guilt of those who were born in the Dark Ages between the 1260-year reign of the beast and the present day, we might also consider the following passages:
Well, while the mark of the beast is generally considered to be more serious than idolatry in general, the image of the beast is still an idol, and I believe that in many cases YHWH has winked at, or overlooked, this when it was done in ignorance by those who would have changed had they merely been shown that they were in error. Just the same, these passages would apply only to those who have died in ignorance with a sincere heart, while those of us living in the last days and professing a desire for the truth will receive the truth in the form of The Latter Rain, and those of us who are yet living when the Saviour comes will have no excuse if we have continued to show a single sign of disobedience.
While we have seen that the mark of the beast was set up as law long long ago, and we find nothing in the scripture to guarantee that the scenario will ever be repeated, I also want to caution all not to be over confident that it won't be repeated. The enforcement of the mark of the beast has never completely left us, just toned down a bit in some parts of the world, and there is also nothing in the scripture to indicate that the battle will not grow intense once again as we get closer to the end. As I said, there are many forces working to make the mark of the beast worldwide law, be it through the enforcement of a law requiring the observance of a Sunday sabbath, or the implanting of a micro computer chip or otherwise making a literal mark on everyone in violation of Lev.19:28, or any one of a number of other laws people of faiths adverse to the scripture, especially Christianity, are seeking to impose. Although Dan.7:26 makes it appear that once the 1260 year reign of the beast was up he would never again be able to exercise the power he once had, this is very open to interpretation, as well as how we may see the events unfolding when the ten kings in Rev.17:12-17 devote, or did devote (?), their power and energy to the purpose of the beast. Only time will tell whether or not YHWH will allow his enemies another short but intense victory over his people before the scenes of this earth as we know it come to a close. Let us make sure that we are all ready by showing the sign of complete submission to YHWH by being sealed in full obedience to His covenant, the Torah. Sobeit.