Tribulation Saints and ‘The Mark’

Tribulation Saints and ‘The Mark’ – Jack Kinsella (2005) - https://omegalettercom.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/tribulation-saints-and-the-mark/
 
I received an email from a member asking, “Upon what grounds will a believer be saved during the Tribulation Period?” It was an intriguing question, one that we’ve not touched upon in any great detail in previous discussions.
 
My correspondent framed his question around the acceptance of the Mark of the Beast and a ‘paradox’ he sees facing those who might accept it under coercion.
 
Specifically, he asked,
 
“During the Tribulation, if a “believer” is threatened with the choice between either taking the Mark upon himself, or becoming “responsible” for a horrendous evil act otherwise aimed upon their child, doesn’t a feasible scenario present itself whereby a believer may choose to take the Mark. How can these two apparent “truths” occur coincidentally, and form a contradiction?”
 
Another excellent question. Researching the answers was most illuminative, and I thank my correspondent for posing them. At the same time, the answers themselves are among those ‘hard sayings’ of Scripture.
 
Let’s go with the Mark first.
 
The Mark of the Beast is not merely an economic medium of exchange, like a debit or credit card, although it will incorporate that function. If that were all there was to it, my correspondent’s paradox would be valid.
 
The Mark of the Beast is first and foremost a worship system. So now, we have crossed over from the material to the spiritual.
 
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not WORSHIP the image of the beast should be killed.” (Revelation 13:15)
 
The Mark is a symbol of membership in the ‘church’ of antichrist, and among the privileges of membership under his rule is the right to life, a form of liberty and the right to pursue a form of economic happiness.
 
But the Bible makes plain that no man can serve two masters.
 
To the question of whether or not accepting the Mark to save a life is paradoxical, James answers that question with a question of his own:
 
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14)
 
There are two distinct and separate understandings of ‘life’ at work here. There is our understanding of life, under which one might be tempted to take the Mark of the Beast, say, to save one’s child.
 
Then there is God’s understanding of life. Physical life is granted to us so that we can choose where we will spend eternity.
 
Since the main purpose in the spiritual sense for our physical existence is to exercise that choice, the choice we make is of far greater importance than the physical existence that provides the opportunity to choose.
 
Is the Bible specific concerning the choice to accept the Mark of the Beast and worship his image?
 
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:9-11)
 
There is no paradox here. The choice is the same as it has always been. It was the same choice that Joshua offered the children of Israel more than three thousand years ago.
 
“And if it seem evil
http://www.omegaletter.com/admin/tinymce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js
 
unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
 
During the early persecution of the Church, many martyrs were given the choice between worshipping Caesar or seeing their entire families thrown to the lions.
 
Those who accept a martyr’s death are promised a crown, but nowhere does the Bible grant an exemption for those who reject Jesus, coercion notwithstanding. Not in the Church Age, and not during the Tribulation.
 
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
 
The second question asks, “Upon what grounds will a believer be saved during the Tribulation?” The short answer would appear to be, “the same grounds upon which believers are saved during the Church Age” — salvation by grace through faith. But that isn’t exactly accurate.
 
During the Tribulation, God’s grace, as we understand it in this Dispensation, is withdrawn. The Age of Grace concludes with the Rapture. The Tribulation Period is the final, unfulfilled week of the Age of the Law.
 
Revelation Chapter 7 describes an event so unique that Jesus devotes an entire chapter to its discussion. It describes a special ‘sealing’ of “the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Revelation 7:3) These ‘servants of God’ are twelve thousand Jewish male virgins chosen from each of the twelve tribes of Israel — 144,000 in all.
 
They are sealed in a miraculous manner, by the direct intervention of God, in exactly the same way Church Age believers are, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
 
Jesus was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
 
“And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
 
Church Age believers are sealed. “. . . in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13)
 
The sealing work of the Holy Spirit is the basis for our eternal security during the Church Age. Among the spiritual benefits of being sealed by the Holy Spirit are:
 
1) Men receive courage to rebuke sin: Matt. 3:8
 
2) Men are enabled to speak with confidence: Acts 4:31-33
 
3) Gives spiritual and moral strength: 2 Samuel 22:40; Isaiah 28:26; Isaiah 40:31;41:10; Daniel 11:32; Ephesians 3:16
 
4) Provides strength in weakness: 1 Corinthians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 13:4
 
5) Provides spiritual gifts: Romans 12:6; Ephesians 4:11
 
Returning to the question at hand, the 144,000 evangelists are sealed by the Holy Spirit to empower them as evangelists during the Tribulation Period, because it is only through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that men can be saved.
 
The doctrine of eternal security is due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers during the Age of Grace.
 
During the final Week of the Age of the Law, the universal ministry of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn. (2nd Thessalonians 2:7)
 
He then indwells believers only selectively, as He did during David’s time, when David cried out, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11)
 
There will be believers in the Tribulation who will succumb to the antichrist’s coercion and accept his mark to save their families. And Scripture is clear that those who do are forever lost.
 
Tribulation believers will be saved by faith in Christ and enduring until the end, as in the Church Age, but without the guarantee of eternal security or the automatic indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
 
Jesus described the tribulation as, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
 
He warned that, “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)
 
It is our job on this side of the Tribulation to give the warning of what is to come. It is coming. And it is coming soon.
 
Our blessed hope is found in the Scripture’s promise that Jesus comes for His Church first.
 
“Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1st Thessalonians 4:18)

 


 
The Tin-Foil Hat Brigade
By Pete Garcia
 
You know who you are. You’re the person other people tiptoe around when it comes to discussing current events or religion. You are the person who can spend hours devouring scripture or news with equal vigor, pointing out ‘last days’ events to anyone who would listen to you. You are semi-shunned at church. You are disinvited from church socials because you are just too intense and narrow-minded. You’re called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or a ‘Jesus Freak’ behind your back. You’re always going on about the Lord’s return and that “Rapture thingy”. Admit it. You are one of them, one of those “prophecy nuts."
 
(READ MORE)

 


 
Nearing Midnight: Satan’s Little Helpers Revisited
By Todd Strandberg
 
About 25 years ago, I wrote an article called Satan’s Little Helpers. It was about how the forces of darkness use the liberal media to implement the devil’s agenda. Most people would agree that the press has a bias, but nothing is ever done to change things.
 
The liberal media controls about 95% of all the news that is distributed in America. Years ago, CNN and the three major networks were more rounded in their news coverage. They would put their thumb on the scale to give news stories a leftist slant. Today, they don’t even pretend to weigh the news. They tell you what the news weighs because they know the weight of everything.
 
(READ MORE)

 


 
To Die Is Gain
By Terry James
 
Every Good Friday, as it is termed, my thoughts turn to my experience on April 22, 2011. That was the date of Good Friday of that year. People immediately surrounding me–those I love most dearly—might, with a roll of eyes, get tired of hearing it. Some jokingly tell me so, although I think they are glad to still have me hanging around.
 
Perhaps you, too, are tired of my again writing about it. Makes no difference. The experience is just too powerful to suppress. It is with me constantly. It leaps to my mind at times completely unrelated to thinking on things of the Bible–of the God I serve. I am immediately, on those occasions, drawn deeply into concentration upon what it was all about, asking myself through spiritual, inner-self search what it meant.
 
(READ MORE)

 
 


 
More News and Articles of Prophetic Interest...

 
Biden’s highest ranking transgender official says medical professionals unanimously agree about value of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’
 
Growing number of pastors considered quitting, cite stress, loneliness and politics
 
Franklin Graham: The Eternal Peril of Progressive Christianity
 
German Study: Number of Those Suffering Severe Complications After Taking COVID Vaccine Is 40 Times Higher Than Previously Recorded
 
Canada Moves Forward with Plans to Implement Digital IDs
 
CDC Restates Recommendation For Masks on Planes Despite Court Ruling That Struck Down Biden’s Mandate
 
Macron launches COVID jab digital ID program in France immediately after being reelected
 
Dinesh D'Souza: 2020 election narrative to be 'blown out of the water' - 'Most secure election ever' claim meets hard evidence in movie '2000 Mules'
 
This is How 18 Top Political Voices Reacted When They Heard That Roe Is Likely To Be Overturned…
 
YIKES: Bill Gates Wants To Build A New Global Team Called “GERM”

 


 
Daily Jot: Stupidocrisy: SCOTUS and abortion - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com
 
Since 1973, some 65 million unborn US citizens were deprived of their God-given and constitutional right to life. Liberal left political forces marshalled enough clout on the US Supreme Court to conjure up an unlegislated law of the land, or as then Justice Byron White put it an “exercise of raw judicial power.” It was a political move to consolidate a Democratic base of extremists. The leaked draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton smacks of yet another political move for Democrats to stir up such animus among extremists that they will turn around a vital midterm election that is going against them and to provide fodder to pack the court with judicial activists. A bit of history is in order.
 
I attended a Senate Judiciary hearing in 2005 where Sandra Cano, the “Doe” in Doe vs. Bolton, the companion case to Roe vs. Wade, said that she was always against abortion. Abortion was always against her wishes. She never sought an abortion and never went for an abortion. She has said when she approached her attorneys for help, she understood her case as an effort to obtain a divorce and regain custody of her children. She was pregnant, and unbeknownst to her, her attorney and her mother arranged an abortion for Sandra. Sandra, to this day, says such an act was so far from her intentions that when she discovered the plan, she fled to Oklahoma alone.
 
The “Roe” in Roe vs. Wade is a similar case. Norma McCorvey was a rough talking woman who drifted from job to job and had three children, all of them given up for adoption. She never had an abortion, she just signed the affidavit provided by her slick attorney and was expected to melt into the background and keep her mouth shut. For years she was an abortion advocate, but then a young girl named Emily struck up a relationship with her. When McCorvey found out that Emily was almost aborted, she put a face with the decision that bore her name. McCorvey could not fathom that her young friend Emily may have fallen victim to abortion. McCorvey then became a Christian and a pro-life advocate.
 
Evil politicians, their media minions, and some religious leaders cost lives as they pursue their prideful existence. Christ said in Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” He loved children. And Christ is the one who gave us all eternal life. Abortion is death. Life is the way of Christ. God’s law written on our hearts is the SUPREME LAW. When the SCOTUS investigation concludes revealing the truth behind this leak, we may well find that it was a planned political assault on this Constitutional Republic aimed at retaining power and the death cult to which they ascribe. And that, my friends, is far worse than, say it with me…Stupidocrisy.

 


 
Daily Devotion: A Clear Objective - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
 
I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us —Philippians 3:13–14
 
https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/a-clear-objective/ - Listen
 
In the film City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays the role of Mitch, a New Yorker in his late thirties whose marriage is falling apart. He goes to a dude ranch to become a cowboy for two weeks, and there he meets an actual cowboy named Curly.
 
As they’re riding along on their horses, Curly, a man of few words, turns to Mitch and tells him the secret of life is just one thing.
 
“That’s great,” Mitch says, “but what’s the one thing?”
 
“That’s what you gotta figure out.”
 
The apostle Paul figured it out. He said, “I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:13–14 NLT).
 
Paul had a clear objective. Notice that he said, “I focus on this one thing.”
 
David, the great psalmist and king of Israel, summed it up this way in Psalm 27: “The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple” (verse 4 NLT).
 
What is the one thing that gets you up in the morning? What is the one thing that gets your blood pumping, the one thing that you are really passionate about?
 
For the apostle Paul, that one thing was Jesus—following Jesus and knowing Jesus. And that’s what we should focus our attention on as well.
 
I’m not running the race of life for people. I’m not even running this race for whatever heavenly reward I may receive. I’m doing it for Jesus.

 
 


 
FROM THE HEART
    
Let Us Make the Short Time We have Left,
Count for ALL of Eternity!

IF YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED THROUGH THIS MINISTRY, THEN WE ASK THAT YOU WOULD PLEASE REMEMBER PROPHECY UPDATE IN YOUR GIVING - WE ARE TRULY, TRULY, THANKFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT  
 
WORTHY OF YOUR SUPPORT?
 
One of the most reliable ways to determine if a ministry is worthy of your financial support is to examine its fruits. If Prophecy Update is keeping you informed, and if that information inspires you, and causes you to draw closer to the Lord, if Prophecy Update equips you with valuable information and knowledge to share with and encourage other believers, and open the eyes of non-believers, and if Prophecy Update keeps you connected to current events relating to Bible Prophecy, then you are partaking of the fruit produced through this ministry. None of this would be possible without the Lords blessings and your support. I believe where the Lord guides, the Lord provides, and most of the time He provides through the willing and generous hearts of believers just like you and me.
 
Humbly Seek Your Support
 
Prophecy Update has no corporate sponsors. This ministry is paid for and prayed for by readers and supporters. Without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update, Please pray about becoming a monthly supporter - thanks!
 
If ever there was a time to invest in God's Kingdom, it's now!
What on earth are you doing for Heaven's Sake?
"Share in the Blessings and Rewards that will last Forever!"
 
"Folks, it's all beginning to unravel. America is in more danger of falling than at any time in its history. But I believe Bible prophecy predicts this very decline. From this point on, we believers have to get serious. We are going to face discouragement, disillusionment and, most certainly, persecution in the time between now and the Rapture. But don't be discouraged or disillusioned. The coming turmoil will provide us unrivaled opportunities to share the good news of the Gospel. So be ready to share your faith and your hope with those who need Christ. We still have time to reap a great harvest of souls for God's kingdom!" - Hal Lindsey
 
1) We need your prayers!- We proclaim the Truth of the Word of God and we are under constant spiritual and sometimes even physical attack.
2) We need your encouragement!- We need to hear from you, let us know how the Lord is blessing you through this ministry so that we can share it with others.
3) We need your input! - If you have a prophetic article or story or if there is a news related item we missed, let us know.
4) We need your financial support!- To put it quite simply, without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update.
 
I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us to get the Word out and keep the world informed. Remember, your gift, no matter how small, does make a difference! You will be helping to touch lives, around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to the internet your generosity carries a global impact! - Thanks!
 
Our Prayer for You- "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." 2 Corinthians 9:10-13
 
If you have been blessed by Prophecy Update and would like to help support this ministry financially. You can make a secure donation online by going to:
 
 DONATE NOW 
 
 
 
Or write us at:
 
Prophecy Update
P.O. Box 40516
Bakersfield, CA 93384-0516 
 
 
We are very pleased to offer all our readers this FREE download on Bible Prophecy from the Evangelical Bible College of Western Australia - Just download and enjoy and be blessed! Feel free to share it with all your friends and family members.
 
Click below to download!
 
"AS YOU SEE THE DAY APPROACHING"
 
 
 
 
If You Died Today, Would You Go To Heaven?
Find out, visit:
www.thegoodtest.net
www.gotquestions.org
www.wayofthemaster.com 
How to know God
 
 
 
DID YOU KNOW?
You can submit an article, leave a comment or praise report at email:
[email protected]
 
 
Maranatha! (Lord Come Quickly)
 
 "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All other ground is sinking sand."
 
 "Let Us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!"
 
 YBIC-Randy
​