Quote:
Originally Posted by Esaias
Why do so many people who claim to believe we are literally going to have the mark of the beast in the next year and a half not live as though they actually believed that?
Still selling books on Amazon (using credit cards, of course)? I mean, seriously, why aren't these people holed up on a farm somewhere so they can at least try to grow their own food to survive the 3 and a half year tribulation/mark of the beast thing? A church has the prophecy teacher come in, tell everyone it's all going down within the next couple of years, then next week they are doing hotdogs and whatever for "youth service", meanwhile they are still FULLY hooked up with the banking credit and commerce system that they supposedly think is the machinery of the Beast and the precursor to the mark...?
I mean, seriously, you guys don't actually believe what you claim to believe. Your actions and lifestyle PROVE that you don't. It's just all in your head as an intellectual exercise in fantasy live action role playing. It's literally fantasy football.
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Brother because the idea is first, it just hasn't happened yet according to this interpretation, second, when it happens, there will be little you can do to survive in such a large scale situation.
The inability to participate in the economy is not because of the rejection of means of payment themselves, but because what the means of payment entails. If you give me a card to participate in the economy I'll use it. But if you give me a card for the same, but first you demand that I deny the Lordship of Christ, and say the beast is the only Lord above everything, and I say "no thanks" to the card and suffer the consequences.
If I recall correctly from my readings, it is not the first time something similar happens. I recall emperors demanding that people do some idol worship, and then they are given a paper indicating they did it, and then allow them to enter the marketplace if they had that paper. Effectively, that becomes a mark of the beast, where you can't participate in the economy unless you worshiped de idol first.
That's the reasoning behind the doctrine, that something similar will happen. There may be a variety of teachers teaching variants of this, and some even embarrassing themselves, but in general, there is no worries that we are being marked right now since it is only a problem when the requirement to be part of the economy involves denying Christ.