Why This Mark is Far More Sinister Than a Bar Code or Microchip

For many decades, popular media (from books and movies to social media posts) has routinely depicted something called "the mark of the beast" in frightening and Orwellian (think 1984) terms. The phrase comes from Revelation 13:16-17, two verses that describe a powerful entity or institution requiring this mark on a person's "right hand or the forehead". As the text goes on to explain, "no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark". But does this text and its context, does the book of the Revelation itself, support the idea that this is a literal mark that will one day be used to secure allegiance to some global movement opposed to God and God's people? I don't believe it does. Here are five reasons why I think the book calls us to define this “mark” in light of both a narrower historical and a broader spiritual perspective.  

First, this book is the Revelation they needed. The book we call Revelation was not sealed in a time capsule for a future generation who alone would see the fulfillment of its prophecies. It was written to seven actual churches (1:11), churches who were struggling through both trials and temptations (chapters 2-3). This was the revelation Jesus knew they needed, and speaks not only of things "that are", but also "those that are to take place after this" (1:19); or more specifically, "the things that must soon take place" (1:1), "for the time is near" (1:3). If the recipients are known, and the book's relevance for the original audience is emphasized, it would be strange to veer from this conclusion: what we read in Revelation about the "mark of the beast" was first a warning to that ancient audience.

This mark was initially related to the Imperial Cult. It's likely that those first readers would have recognized how chapters 12 and 13 describe the devil shifting his persecution from the first Jewish Christians (12:1-6) to the newer Gentile churches springing up across the Greco-Roman world (12:13-17). How would Satan accomplish this persecution? By working through the Roman government, in all of its expressions. In chapter 13, the Empire is depicted as a beast with great authority over "the whole earth" (13:3)(i.e., the vast Roman world at the time, as in Luke 2:1). This "beast" was even "allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them" (13:7). But a second beast is also represented in this chapter, one whose main objective is to make "the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast" (13:12). The seven churches to whom Revelation was written would have recognized this beast as the Imperial Cult, since their region was the Empire-wide epicenter of this very movement. What was the Imperial Cult? It was a movement centered on worshiping the Roman Emperors as divine. History tells us the later years of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) was one of the times when this expected or required worship resulted in the persecution of Christians who refused to do so. Not surprisingly, Revelation is thought to have been written sometime between 90-95 AD. 

The mark is one of two symbolic designators that divides all humanity. It's well known that what sets the Revelation apart from other books of the Bible is its use of symbolic imagery. The vast majority of the book is presented in this highly visual and memorable language. While there are many places in the text of the book where this distinct symbolism is explained (e.g., 1:20; 4:5; 5:8; 17:18; 19:8), most of these images have to be deciphered in light of the context or from Old Testament parallels. So how might this "mark of the beast" also be used as a symbol? Verse 17 specifies the nature of this mark:  it is "the name of the beast" (or the "number of his name"). When we consider this in light of other passages in Revelation, a striking parallel stands out. In chapter 7, God's people were also marked or "sealed... on their foreheads" (v. 3). Do we know anything else about this heavenly seal? Yes! Revelation 14:1 tells us that these "had [the Lamb's] name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads." (cf. 22:4) And when we look for this same "mark" language in other parts of the book, we realize that all humanity is symbolically designated as belonging either to the beast (bearing his name) or to God (bearing His name)(14:9-11; 17:8; 20:4-6).

The mark is a symbol of compromise and conformity. It is not surprising that the number of the mark, that is, the number of the beast's name, is given as "666". It is one less than the number of divine perfection, confirmed three times: "777" (this is something like a numerical representation of the praise, "Holy, holy, holy..." in 4:8). Why is this significant? I think it points out that the "mark of the beast" is a symbolic representation, not simply of those who do not worship God, but of those who worship instead the false idols embodied by the beast, the false prophet (16:13), and the woman of chapters 17 and 18. This idolatry would include things like the pursuit of worldly power, wisdom, and pleasure.

The mark is both a past snare and a present temptation. There are several clues throughout the Revelation that the forces of persecution and compromise depicted here are more than just representations of foreign realities confined to the ancient world. For example, the first beast portrayed in chapter 13 is described as a composite of the first three beasts (or ancient empires) in Daniel 7. Add to this the fact that the prostitute of 17:1 bears the name, "Babylon the great" (v. 5). But even though her title is connected to an even older city, the original readers would have recognized her as sensual, idolatrous, and materialistic Rome, since John explicitly explains in 17:18 that "the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” For the first audience, only one city fit that description. So these clues seemed to indicate that while the original recipients of Revelation were meant to connect many of these symbols to Rome, the Roman Empire was just the latest manifestation of a God-hating, human-centered, pleasure-seeking and power-seeking world system, one that is present in every generation of our fallen existence on this planet. Jesus spoke of this same system when he said, "the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me... If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 14:30; 15:18)

So what have we learned from Revelation about this "mark of the beast"? I think we can say that this mark is just a symbolic way to talk about the world's 'stamp of approval' on those who compromise and conform as people-pleasers and world-worshipers, rather than God-pleasers who want to live for his glory alone. Do you see how the temptations related to this mark are just as true for us today as they were for the seven churches to whom Revelation was addressed? Aren't we also tempted to look the part, to go with the flow, to shut up when necessary, to conform, to fit in... even if that means compromising our faith? To clarify, resistance to this pressure is not always about wearing different clothes than everyone else. It's ultimately about not bowing down to the idol of appearance. The warnings here are not simply about avoiding earthly success. They are ultimately about not bowing down to the idol of greed. This "mark" is not, for example, primarily about rejecting this or that aspect of media. It's a warning about allowing idols of distraction, vanity, and immorality to fill our heads with sin's ugliness rather than the pure and profitable things to which God calls us (cf. Philippians 4:8).

Thus when we forget Revelation's rootedness in the past, and focus instead on a future of microchips, bar codes, or tattoos, rather than our present-day pursuit of faithfulness, we are missing the actual heart of this warning. It remains what it always has been (and will continue to be): a potent warning against everyday compromise with the world. As John warned us in another of his books...

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. [17] And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)