My thoughts on the mark of the beast

[fides' Jack]

1 minute ago, Era Might said:

Thanks for clearing that up, I'll make sure not to interact with you anymore.

You're not as stupid as you think. Cheer up! Man is a creature who is wonderfully and fearfully made! There's nothing you cannot do with the active intelligence of your mind.

I hope you find all the eternal peace and happiness you're waiting for.

 

Thanks, I sincerely hope the same for you.

[Peace]

On 1/25/2021 at 2:47 PM, fides' Jack said:

Throughout all of Judaeo-Christian history, there are precursors and prefigurements, where the end of an era is always prefigured by the beginning.  There are signs everywhere you look.  It would certainly make sense to me that the first offense committed by man would be mirrored in some way by the last offense.  In Biblical terms, then, I would expect that the nature of the Great Apostasy near the end of the book of Apocalypse would be similar in form and meaning to the nature of the fall of Adam and Eve.  We know the Great Apostasy will be in the form of receiving a mark on the forehead or right hand, and the mark somehow is or contains the mark of the beast, which is his number: 666.

So, what was the nature of the sin of Adam and Eve?  They ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  This is significant.  Immediately following this error, they knew themselves to be naked and were ashamed.  You could say that the knowledge gained through the forbidden fruit was knowledge of self.  They were supposed to focus on God, not themselves.

If you follow so far, ask yourself this question: what is the ultimate knowledge of self, that if you had complete mastery of this knowledge and control of it that you could commit the ultimate sin in the quest to "be like gods", which would be trying to remake man in your own image, by natural means?  (Remember God created man in His image, by supernatural means)

That knowledge is DNA.  It's the instruction set God uses to determine all the characteristics of a person from the way they look to diseases they might carry or be immune to, to the person's temperament.

Moreover, the one clue that we have from scripture regarding the mark of the beast is that it is the "number of man".  Greek, like many other languages, doesn't have articles, so it can be written as "number of man" or "number of a man".  Either way, it works to my point, here.  If the mark of the beast is related to DNA, it certainly fits that clue perfectly.

This is more than just reasonable, it seems likely that this is the meaning, given what we know these days.  Now what does that mean regarding the form of the Great Apostasy?  It would almost certainly take the form of placing our faith and our hope in medicinal science, rather than in God.  Imagine if the antichrist were to appear in the next few years, and as part of his one-world government, he mandated that all people be given a vaccine with a built-in, scannable sign (they already want to do this - ironically, and correctly, it's called luciferase, because it emits light), which is an answer to the latest deadly pandemic.  The vaccine itself, following in the footsteps of our current Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, manipulates the most basic structures of the human person (DNA and/or RNA) to make a person immune to covid-21, or covid-22, or whatever it happens to be, then.  By trying to manipulate our own basic structures, we are putting our faith in science, and specifically medical science.  If we do so at the demand of the antichrist, we are doing it to save our lives, while turning our backs on God and His promise of eternal life.  It is apparent, though not necessarily formal, apostasy.

Has anyone looked at the symbol of the medical community?  Most of you reading this are probably more familiar with it than I am.  It's two snakes (which is often the symbol of satan), wrapped around a staff or rod (which is the rod of a mythical god, a false idol) to represent DNA, with wings as of an angel at the top.  I mean, yes, the way that I'm looking at it is not how most people look at it, but in light of what we're discussing here, it's almost prophetic.  There are different symbols for different medical fields, but this is the main one.  All of them depict the snake around the staff of a false god.

All of this being said, I do not claim to understand how DNA correlates to the number six-hundred and sixty-six.  Only that it fits the description that we have.  I am not a prophet or a seer.  I'm just a regular Catholic dude who's asking questions that I think are pertinent to the signs of our times. 

My main point is this: do not trust the vaccines coming out, especially the RNA vaccines.  Do not wear blasphemous face masks based on lies, which hide the image of God in each of us, and cause us to be less civil and less charitable toward one another.  Refuse the vaccines in the name of God, refuse the face masks in the name of God.  Pray for those who have been blinded to the truth.

And may God have mercy on all of us sinners.  Amen.

Mark of the beast? Last week it was a donkey. This week it is a vaccine. What is it going to be next week? The iPhone 12?

[Anastasia]

42 minutes ago, fides' Jack said:

That whole paragraph is evil and demonic.

Gnostic, to be precise.

[Era Might]

46 minutes ago, Anastasia said:

Gnostic, to be precise.

Not gnostic. Gnostics believe in secret knowledge. I don't believe in any secret knowledge. Life is not a mystery. If we are created in God's image, then that means we are exactly like him. When the disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, he said, have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me? As the psalm says, we are gods, sons of the Most High. To me, people who try to find the real, hidden meaning of Revelation are the real gnostics. They think they and only they possess the true interpretation, and everyone else is a fool.

[Anastasia]

1 hour ago, Era Might said:

To me, people who try to find the real, hidden meaning of Revelation are the real gnostics. They think they and only they possess the true interpretation, and everyone else is a fool.

Like the Church for example.

[Era Might]

1 hour ago, Anastasia said:

Like the Church for example.

The church doesn't really say much about Revelation and no doubt takes seriously its historical context as a condemnation of the Roman Empire. Here's a good lecture on Revelation as New Testament literature, from Yale Courses on YouTube:

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Era Might

[ReasonableFaith]

The original post demonstrates basic misunderstandings in:

Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, Genetic replication, genetic transcription, gene expression, Virology, Immunology, Bio-Chemistry and Epidemiology. 
 

Bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon introduced to many a novice biology student, including the existence of luciferase and luciferin.  The name did elicit brow raises and chuckles at my Catholic undergraduate university and is why it is presented. It is no more controversial in study than gram staining. 

Equating masking to blasphemy is a danger to public health and on its face ridiculous. It hides the image of God?  Like wearing a full motorcycle helmet? Like wearing a football helmet? Like wearing a ski mask? Like wearing a scarf? Like wearing sunglasses? Like wearing a chapel or wedding veil? 

Attempts to scare people away from a potentially life saving vaccine with conspiracy theories and misinformation are mind boggling.

These arguments against vaccination and masks all seem such a disservice to The Faith.  It gives fodder to the secular notion of believers being backwards, anti-science and ignorant.  Most of all it is all a danger to public health.

 

 

 

[Anastasia]

2 hours ago, Era Might said:

The church doesn't really say much about Revelation

You are quite wrong, the Church speaks about Revelation - or perhaps speaks the Revelation is more accurate - every day:

"Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, sustained by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope, the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." (The order of the Mass)

[beatitude]

5 hours ago, ReasonableFaith said:

These arguments against vaccination and masks all seem such a disservice to The Faith.  It gives fodder to the secular notion of believers being backwards, anti-science and ignorant.  Most of all it is all a danger to public health.

There are anti-vaxxers who aren't religious and who have their own equally bizarre conspiracy theories (e.g. the idea that you can microchip someone through a vaccine). Conspiracies always flourish in times of uncertainty and fear, finding supporters among all faiths and none, because they offer people the illusion of certainty and control. If the pandemic is all a giant plot, then that means someone somewhere is in control of it, and that's far more comforting and reassuring than the reality. In the Middle Ages in Europe, for example, there was a common conspiracy theory that the Black Death was being spread by Jews poisoning wells. This offered an additional source of comfort: there's a definite enemy, and if we fight the enemy, the plague will go away. In the modern day conspiracy theories are attractive because they give people the sense that they're privy to special, top-secret knowledge that is being deliberately hidden from the public, and the idea that you're one of the clear-sighted few who can recognise this information and act on it also gives you a misplaced but very comforting sense of power.

We should remember all the outraged conspiracies that surrounded Edward Jenner when he invented the smallpox vaccine. Yet today no one gets smallpox. It killed millions of people and now it's gone, and it's gone because of vaccination. It might be an uphill road, but in the long run mass vaccination programmes and other public health strategies do tend to succeed.

I work in the emergency department of a large hospital in the UK, and most of our staff have had their first dose of the vaccine. If it's any reassurance to anyone, I got mine on Friday, and I have yet to sprout a second head/horns/a tail or to start smelling of sulphur. My colleagues are also looking no more demonic than usual.  On a serious note, if anyone is struggling to reconcile faith in God with medical science, read Sirach 38. The two are not incompatible and never have been, but the argument that they are is evidently at least as old as Sirach.

[Era Might]

4 hours ago, Anastasia said:

You are quite wrong, the Church speaks about Revelation - or perhaps speaks the Revelation is more accurate - every day:

"Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, sustained by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope, the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." (The order of the Mass)

Yes, that's about all the church says about Revelation, that Christ comes again to judge the earth. I agree with this because Christ is the king of the poor and the poor cannot wait forever for justice. But then you have what's known as "crisis cults" which use Revelation as a useful text to scare people for political or social purposes. Revelation is a little cottage industry and you have both Protestant (Tim LaHaye, etc.) and Catholic (Michael Voris) crisis cults that prey upon the fearful to give them a magical explanation why the world is the way it is. Christ comes to save the poor, he has nothing to do with people who used his name to sell books and manipulate people emotionally. Depart from me, he says to them, for I never knew you.

[Era Might]

Some positive vibrations for the return of Christ. You don't have to be afraid, just be awake:

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Era Might

[fides' Jack]

18 hours ago, beatitude said:

There are anti-vaxxers who aren't religious and who have their own equally bizarre conspiracy theories (e.g. the idea that you can microchip someone through a vaccine).

The discussion (not just you) is sort of alluding that I'm a conspiracy theorist.  Nothing is further from the truth.  And yes, it is technically possible to microchip someone through a vaccine.  It would actually be fairly easy with the technology we have now.  But I don't believe that's happening.  At least not with the current vaccines.

18 hours ago, beatitude said:

If the pandemic is all a giant plot, then that means someone somewhere is in control of it, and that's far more comforting and reassuring than the reality.

What is the reality?  Clearly there is no pandemic, except a pandemic of fear.  As children of God, as Christians, the fear around the world exposes the truth: we care more about our physical lives than we do our spiritual lives - that's true if there is a pandemic.  If not, there's no reason to be afraid in the first place.

Personally, I believe God is in control of the situation, and yes, that's very comforting and reassuring.  It's also true.

18 hours ago, beatitude said:

In the Middle Ages in Europe, for example, there was a common conspiracy theory that the Black Death was being spread by Jews poisoning wells

False analogy, specifically because everyone could see that people all around them were dying.  What we have now, if you DO believe the government statistics, which the government has already said are false, and have been false this entire time, is similar to the flu.  More extreme for the elderly or very sick, and far less so for almost everyone else.  I'm not afraid of the flu - is everyone else?

Has the entire world gone mad??  Oh, wait, I already know the answer to that one...

19 hours ago, beatitude said:

This offered an additional source of comfort: there's a definite enemy, and if we fight the enemy, the plague will go away.

So am I still a conspiracy theorist if I believe there isn't a physical enemy you can just fight away?  We did this to ourselves, through our sins.  Regardless of whether or not the pandemic is real, there is almost certainly a worse virus coming - and a real one.  When that happens the government won't have to inflate the numbers.  

19 hours ago, beatitude said:

I got mine on Friday, and I have yet to sprout a second head/horns/a tail or to start smelling of sulphur. My colleagues are also looking no more demonic than usual.

I'm sorry to hear that.  I'll pray for you.  I'm not worried about you turning into a devil.  I'm just worried about your soul...

19 hours ago, beatitude said:

On a serious note, if anyone is struggling to reconcile faith in God with medical science, read Sirach 38. The two are not incompatible and never have been, but the argument that they are is evidently at least as old as Sirach.

That's interesting, I didn't know that there was a conflict, there, between medical science and faith.  It might be an old idea, but it's one that I've never come across in our post-modern Western culture.

18 hours ago, Era Might said:

But then you have what's known as "crisis cults" which use Revelation as a useful text to scare people for political or social purposes.

Is it still a "crisis cult" if we use Revelation to try to bring people hope (for those are who faith), or to scare them for religious purposes (for those who don't)?

Just curious...

18 hours ago, Era Might said:

Christ comes to save the poor, He has nothing to do with people who used His name to sell books and manipulate people emotionally. Depart from me, He says to them, for I never knew you.

Hefty words coming from a non-believer.

On 1/26/2021 at 11:22 PM, ReasonableFaith said:

The original post demonstrates basic misunderstandings in:

Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, Genetic replication, genetic transcription, gene expression, Virology, Immunology, Bio-Chemistry and Epidemiology. 

One specific example, please?  I was bringing up religious points.  All of my references to anything biological were kept entirely general, specifically because I'm not a scientist in the medical field.  Did you perhaps take something away from my post that I didn't say?

On 1/26/2021 at 11:22 PM, ReasonableFaith said:

Bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon introduced to many a novice biology student, including the existence of luciferase and luciferin.  The name did elicit brow raises and chuckles at my Catholic undergraduate university and is why it is presented. It is no more controversial in study than gram staining. 

I agree, and I didn't suggest anything to the contrary.  In fact, I said that it's correctly called luciferase, from a technical standpoint.

On 1/26/2021 at 11:22 PM, ReasonableFaith said:

Equating masking to blasphemy is a danger to public health and on its face ridiculous. It hides the image of God?  Like wearing a full motorcycle helmet? Like wearing a football helmet? Like wearing a ski mask? Like wearing a scarf? Like wearing sunglasses? 

Face masks aren't in themselves evil.  But I can see how someone would take that idea from what I said.  No, just the erroneous use of them.  I will elaborate more on my point: it's based on lies. 

Even Fauci admitted publicly, in an interview, that he lied for what he deemed to be the public good.  When the idea of face masks was first brought up in March, he recommended that people don't wear them: "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask", and "they don't provide the protection folks believe they do and might create unintended consequences."  Both of these statements are irreconcilable with what they're pushing now - that a piece of cloth such as a bandana can make a significant difference in blocking viruses.  Now, the excuse is that Fauci wanted to ensure that people didn't take N95 masks from medical professionals who needed them.  Regardless, either those statements were lies (and lies to protect the common good are still immoral), or the push by the government for the last 6 months and all of Fauci's statements on the matter since then are lies.  The two are mutually exclusive, and there is no 3rd possibility.

Given that the science of face masks has been settled for decades, and agree scientifically with Fauci's first statements on the subject, I'll choose to believe those doctors who advocate for removing masks.  Which doctors - you might ask?  The ones whose lives are being destroyed because they refuse to bow to the left.  You may not have even heard much of them.  They've also been removed, as much as possible, from the news media.

So they're blasphemous partly because you're covering the image of God with lies.  There are several other reasons, too, but that was the one I mentioned in the first post.

Quote

Like wearing a chapel or wedding veil? 

That's covering the hair, not the face, and it's specifically recommended Scripturally.  Bad example.

19 hours ago, Era Might said:

Yes, that's about all the church says about Revelation, that Christ comes again to judge the earth.

That's not all the Church says about Revelation.  She says an awful lot about the entire book.  

 

On 1/26/2021 at 11:22 PM, ReasonableFaith said:

Most of all it is all a danger to public health.

And this will be the lie that starts the persecution.

From Benjamin Franklin: "Any society that would give up liberty to gain security will deserve neither and lose both."

We're now losing both.  It's been a long time since we deserved anything.

[fides' Jack]

The next step, or one of the main "next steps", in the unfolding apocalyptic times that we're in, according to Sacred Scripture, as well as the Church Fathers, visionaries throughout the centuries, and both recent and not-so-recent approved private apparitions, is global war.  This could take place really any time in the next several years.  All indications are that it could also happen this year.

If you see this, keep heart!  Do not lose hope!  For those fortunate enough to keep their faith, who die in this process, heaven awaits you.  And for those who don't die, a period of peace is coming to this sinful world the likes of which haven't been seen - ever.  Just a little while longer...  The Kingdom of God is imminent!

[MiscarriageSucks]

My husband got the first shot today and he is doing great. I'm getting mine sometime in my third trimester.

Thank God for vaccines. 

[fides' Jack]

Thank God for real vaccines.

Each vaccine should be weighed individually, on its own merits.  The covid-19 vaccines have been weighed and have been found wanting.