Rabbi Schneider - What Is the Mark of the Beast?
I'm in an important message today. I'm talking about what the Scripture calls the mark of the beast. Many of you have heard of this term, the mark of the beast. It's a mysterious term. Some of us don't know what exactly is the mark of the beast. We've even seen horror films made of the mark of the beast associated with the number 6-6-6. What I'm gonna do today is bring you into the Word of God. We're gonna talk about this term, the mark of the beast. We're gonna talk about the number 6-6-6, and we're gonna look at what this could possibly mean, how it could affect humanity's lives. And beloved, the result of this is that you're gonna be more attune with the fact that Jesus is getting ready to return, and that this is not just a term for science fiction movies, but beloved, this is a term that is literally gonna be fleshed out on the planet. And by the grace of God I'm gonna help you to see that today.
I want to go back to a Scripture that I read last week to begin to set the stage today. I'm going to the Book of Revelation. I'm gonna read there beginning in verse number 16 of chapter number 13. Hear the Word of God: And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. So the first thing that we see is that the anti-Christ that's anointed with all the power of the serpent of the devil is gonna cause humanity to take a mark. And this mark's gonna be on their right hand or on their forehead. And we're gonna continue as we read here to see that without this mark humankind will be unable to function in the world. They won't be able to buy or sell.
So let's continue on there in this section of Scripture, Revelation, 13: And he provides that no one, verse 17, will be able to buy or to sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Now I'm gonna go to the Book of Revelation, in my own Bible. I had that one just written down in my notes in front of me. But I want to extend this one more verse into the 18th verse. So we're gonna look now at what is this number; 18 of Revelation, 13: Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man and his number is, get it now, six hundred and sixty six; 6-6-6 then is the number of the mark of the beast.
Now I want to just again point out what I pointed out last week. When we think about, what could this possibly look like. Is it even possible that humanity, humanity could be forced to wear some kind of a mark? Well all we have to do, beloved, is go back approximately 70 years ago to Nazi Germany where 6 million Jews were annihilated by, annihilated by Hitler. And what these Jewish people had to do, listen now, was to wear a bright yellow Jewish star, a mark. And these, these Jews were marked by a mark of a type of anti-Christ who's called Hitler. And Hitler is a type. You see John said in his letter: Many anti-Christs are already in the world. Hitler was an anti-Christ, but he wasn't THE anti-Christ. And yet we can see that even under Hitler, who was a lower level anti-Christ, that he was causing those that he had targeted to wear a mark.
Now let's take this out a bit further, as I shared last week. With all the technology that we have today in the realm of the fact that we're living in an information age of technology through the internet and electronics, it is very easy to see how mankind is no longer going to be identified by paper, not a physical birth certificate, but rather by some type of a chip, some type of an electronic piece that is placed inside human beings at birth to show what their identity is. The same thing is true with buying or selling. Credit card theft is so out of control today, it's not hard to see how eventually something could happen where people will carry some type of device within them to avoid identity theft. So these things are real and they're happening.
I want you to hear this. Where is the mark of this beast? I'm moving forward into new material now. Where is the mark of this beast? We read here that this mark is on their right hand or on their forehead. So the mark that the anti-Christ is gonna cause mankind to bear is gonna be on their right hand, get it now, or on their forehead. Now think about this. In Judaism, the Bible, the Bible tells us as a man thinketh, remember the mark is on the forehead, right. In Judaism, as a man thinketh so he is. In other words, as he thinks so he does. I'm gonna take you now to the Torah, and I'm gonna show you this same concept of Father God wanting to put within humankind, who is created in His own image, His mark, the mark of the Maker, not the mark of the anti-Christ; praise God, the mark of the Maker. He marks us, listen with His Word by having Him place, by placing it between the frontal of our eyes on the forehead, right where the mark of the anti-Christ goes, and, listen beloved, on our arm or on our hand.
So I'm gonna go first now to the Book of Exodus, chapter number 13, verse 16. So the Lord says here, He's saying to Israel: So it shall serve as a sign, get it now, on your hand. What did we just read in, in Revelation, 13? That the mark of the beast goes on their right hand. What does the Torah say? That man is to be marked by God's Word where? On their hand. Hear it again, the Word of God, Exodus, 13:16: So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries, Jesus speaks about this, I'm gonna show you in a second in the Book of Matthew. ...and as phylacteries on your forehead. Where does the mark of the beast go? On your forehead. I'm gonna read again: And so the phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt. So God's marking Israel with His Word bound on their forehead, between the frontal of their eyes and upon their hand.
I'm gonna take you now to the Book of Deuteronomy for this same theme. Now in the Deuteronomy, chapter number 6, we have the most well-known, hear me now, declaration in all of Judaism. In fact, Orthodox Jewish men strive to be declaring this from their lips as they're dying. They want these to be the last words that come from their mouth. Let me sing a little bit for you and then I'll recite it in English. Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses number 4-9, the Shema. ...and I continue on. Let me tell you what it says: Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God. The LORD is One. Blessed is the name of His glorious Kingdom for all eternity. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might.
Now get this: And have these words which I command you this day be upon your heart. And then the Lord goes on to say: And you shall bind them... Hear me now. We're looking at the mark of the beast, which is bound on the forehead and on the right hand. And what does the Lord say He wants Israel to do? You shall bind My Word, He says, You shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, get it now, and let them be frontlets between your eyes. So what Jewish people do, what Orthodox Jewish people do is they bind God's Word upon them through what we call tefillin or tefillin. And tefillin or tefillin are the Word of God in these boxes. I received this, beloved ones, at my Bar Mitzvah. And inside this box is a portion of the Torah that speaks of God delivering Israel out of Egypt, and binding His Word upon our hand and upon our forehead. And we bind these upon our forehead, beloved.
Okay, binding, just like the word says there. Binding His Word on our forehead, and then we wrap them around our arm all the way down upon our hand. So what do we see here? We see the counterfeit. God gives us the real. He wants His Word to be in our mind. And then He wants us to walk it out which is symbolized by being bound on our hand or forearm. Satan wants to replace the Word of God in our lives by putting his mind into us and then carrying out his will. So his mark is bound where God's original purpose for His Word to be bound was between the forehead and upon the hand or around the arm.
I want you to think about this with me for a second. We have the real, God's Word, seen, right, in His commandment to bind His Word on our head and upon our hand. And then we have the counterfeit in Revelation, 13. Now the counterfeit, listen now, is further delineated with a number. The number of the counterfeit is 6-6-6. I want to read it again. I know it's a bit redundant, but I want to read this again because this is so important. Hear the Word of God. I'm gonna start again, Revelation, 13, verses number 16-18. The grass withers but the flowers fade. The Word of God is abides, abiding forever. And I want you now to take this in because are entering in to the end of the age.
Revelation, once again, 13, beginning in verse number 16: And he causes all, meaning the anti-Christ, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forearm. And he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast, get it now, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, understanding. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man and his number is six hundred and sixty-ix.
Now think about this; six hundred sixty-six, that's the mark of the beast. Many people that are not Christian know that the mark of the beast is 6-6-6 'cause they went to the movie theater and saw a science fiction horror film. Consider this, beloved, we have something taking place in our generation during this age that is so horrific, so unlike, so unusual, it is so different from anything we've ever seen before. And what is unfolding before our very eyes is oppressive, scary, and I believe, personally, that it is related to Revelation, 13, verse 18. I believe it's related to the mark of the beast. This is my personal belief. What we are finding today is a demonic addiction to technology, to the personal computer.
Now I want you to hear me. The company that first introduced, that was largely responsible for introducing personal computers to the masses, sold their first personal computer for $666. Now I want you to think about this. What we're seeing in our culture today is a phenomenon whereas human beings are no longer in touch with themselves. You know, you go back 100 years ago, what did human beings do with their spare time? They sat at home. They sat on the couch or in the chair. They sat outside. They talked to each other. They read. They were much quieter, much more in tune with nature, much more in tune with their selves, much more in tune with God's universe.
But today, what are most people more in tune with? They're more in tune, beloved, with their smart phone. You go to a restaurant, you look around. People are sitting across from each other at the table, but a third of the time you look around the restaurant, people aren't talking to the people that are at their table. They're texting somebody on their smart phone, or they're looking up something on their computer. And what do people do with their spare time today? Do they talk to each other? No, they're instead connected to this device, a personal computer, outside of themselves. Mankind is being drawn, listen, beloved, out of themself into a pseudo, a pseudo, cyber space reality that they're being connected to by the personal computer. And this phenomenon is taking mankind out of what is natural, and out of what is real, and out of their own soul that God made in His own image.
They're being taken out of that which was within where Christ is, and they're being drawn again outside of themselves, outside of God, outside what is natural, outside of what is authentic, and they're now addicted to a pseudo reality, and they addicted and connected to this pseudo reality by the personal computer which the first ones sold for, I'm not saying the first one ever, but the ones that became the, the leading proponents or responsible for making it accessible to all mankind, they, they, beloved, the first ones sold for $666. I believe that the devil is using personal computers. And I don't necessarily think the organization or the individuals that sold their first personal computer for $666 thought, thought it was the mark of the beast or knew that it was the mark of the beast. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I think the devil had a strategy behind the scenes where he was gonna captivate and capture the hearts and minds of men through personal computers.
And so today, a three year old child can be on a personal computer and by a mistake put something in that smart phone or in that personal computer, and all of a sudden that three year old, that five year old, that seven year old is exposed to internet pornography, and every type of perverted and defiled thing that you can imagine. And what is happening, beloved, is mankind is losing touch with that which is authentic, and real, and God-oriented. And he's becoming instead a slave to powers of darkness. And not only is man being drawn into this world of darkness through the computer, listen to me, but the same one that is drawing them into the world of darkness, Satan, that's behind the scenes of it all, he is also going further by re-programming the minds of men through the computer.
And so you think, for example, of the way things are changing in the world today so quickly. Why are they changing so quickly? Why are morals changing so quickly, attitudes changing so quickly, societies and civilizations changing so quickly? It's because, beloved, we're living in the age of information through computers. And so the devil now is through the computer telling man what he wants them to think so that mankind is no longer being programmed, listen now, by the Word of God being bound in the frontal, between the front of his eyes or upon his hand or arm. But instead mankind is now being programmed through the devil's mind through an artificial world that is flowing into the psyche of man through the use of personal computers.
Now granted, I can understand, and I do understand that personal computers can be a real blessing. We can, you know, absolutely have access to information and technologies that, that are so helpful for us today in many, many fields. So I'm not saying that personal computers are bad. I'm just saying that the devil is using them for his own purposes. And I believe, beloved, the fact that the first personal computers, not the first ones ever sold, but that which made them mainstream, the first ones sold for $666.
I believe, beloved, God said, He that is understanding, let him understand. I believe personal computers are part of the devil's end times strategy to capture man and to bring him down to destruction. Beware that you are the master of your computer and your smart phone, rather than letting it be a master of you. Don't sleep with it next to your, your ear every night. Don't spend countless hours wasted on Facebook. Beloved, God said, Beware, I'm coming quickly. Be ready. I'm coming back for you. I want you to know, Jesus loves you and He's coming back for you soon, and He's giving us this Word, beloved, 'cause He loves us and He wants us to be prepared. I love you, too. This is Rabbi Schneider saying, until next week, God bless you and Shalom.