Armageddon For Beginners - Dave Mckay (10 best books of all time .TXT) 📗

on Bible prophecy. Well over 100 million copies of books in the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have been read by virtually everyone in Western society who has an interest in Bible prophecy, thus putting the books on the New York Times best-seller list.

Yet this same series has subtly undermined the seriousness of the biblical warning against taking the Mark of the Beast in a number of deceptive ways. We will list them below:

1. The secret rapture. The first book in the series says all Christians will supernaturally vanish sometime before the persecution of believers begins. This popular teaching, called 'the secret rapture', implies that present believers will never have to make a choice for or against the Mark.

2. A meaningless mark. When the Mark of the Beast finally gets a mention in the series, it has nothing to do with buying and selling. Consequently, the book's heroes get the best paid jobs, working personally for the Antichrist. Christians are even awarded contracts to do such things as setting up the Antichrist's security and computer systems! The 'mark' itself is a simple tattoo on the forehead (no mention of hands) which Christians can get around by just wearing a baseball cap!

3. Faith in fate. Readers of the series are told that it does not take courage to refuse the Mark; anyone who has said a ritual prayer "asking Jesus into their hearts" will be guaranteed protection from the Mark, without any effort on their part. They can even turn totally against their faith and still they will be saved, because not even God can take back the salvation he has given to them.

4. Biloyalty. After the book has convinced many of its readers that it is impossible for them to take the Mark (because the ritual prayer has bought them eternal security), it goes on to say that even if they take the Mark, they will not be punished because "nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and that has to include our own selves."

To prove this, the authors create a subplot where a teenager is physically forced by his parents to take the Mark. One of the book's heroes compliments the boy about the way in which he received the tattoo. He says, "I'm glad you didn't just scream out that you are a believer."

From this apparent tragedy, the book's heroes discover that they have just what they need to continue their life of luxury. They even give this horrible distortion of the truth a name. They call it bi-loyalty. The teenager responds, "I love that term bi-loyal," and he goes on to show what an advantage having the Mark can be!

And yet, hardly a word of protest has come from the religious masses of the West who are lapping up these damnable lies of the devil!

Appendix, Chapter 18

Matthew 6:26, 31-33. Behold the birds of the air, for they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? … Therefore, take no thought, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "With what will we be clothed?" (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

John 6:27. Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man will give to you. For him has God the Father sealed.

Luke 16:13. No servant can work for two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot work for God and mammon [money].

Matthew 4:18-22. Jesus… saw two brothers… casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. He said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men," and they straightway left their nets and followed him.

And going on from there he saw two other brothers… in a ship with their father, mending their nets, and he called them. They immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.

Luke 5:27-28. He saw a publican… sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said to him, "Follow me," and he left all, rose up, and followed him.

Luke 12:32-33. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with bags that do not wax old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches neither moth corrupts.

Luke 14:33. Whoever… does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

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19. "Here is Wisdom"

When Jesus Christ made his prophecy about the "abomination of desolation" preceding the Great Tribulation at the end of the world, he included a little note: "Whoever reads this, let him understand it." The phrase "abomination of desolation" took us back to Daniel's prophecy about a counterfeit "prince" who would make an agreement to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. It said that he would eventually profane the Temple and cause the sacrifices to cease. (see Chapter 13. The Middle of the Week) The 'abomination of desolation' prophecy is the only time the instruction, "Whoever reads this, let him understand," appears in the gospels.

The prophecy in The Revelation about the Mark of the Beast includes a similar instruction. It concludes: "Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the Beast; for it is the number of a man. His number is 666." (Revelation 13:18)

The "number" here is generally believed to be referring to the use of letters as numbers in some alphabets. Most of us know that I, V, X, L, C, D, and M all had numerical values in the Roman numeral system. Similar systems operated with the Hebrew and Greek alphabets, so that each person's name had a numerical value if you added up all such numbers in their name. For example; a person with the name VLADIMIR, would, according to the Roman number system, be 1557 (M = 1000, D = 500, L = 50, and I (x2) = 2).

The name of the Beast (if his name equals 666 in the Roman numeral system) would probably have the letters D, C, L, X, V, and I in it (each occurring only once, to give you 500+100+50+10 +5+1)*, and it could not have the letter M (1000). It could, of course, have any number of non-numerical letters as well. Some possible names might be: Vox Euclid, Victor Delux, or Exact Devil.** There don't appear to be any well known candidates for world ruler with such names at the moment. It is my guess that the Beast will have a name which adds up to 666 in Hebrew, but maybe also in Greek as well as Latin.

But "Wisdom" shouldn't depend on knowing the identity of the Antichrist. There must be a deeper truth hidden in the number. So I checked to see if the number 666 appeared anywhere else in the Bible. Sure enough, I found one other reference. It is the number of talents of gold that came to King Solomon in one year. (I Kings 10:14) It seemed ironic that a clue which started out by saying, "Here is wisdom" should lead me to the very man whose name has been equated with wisdom for thousands of years. King Solomon was said to have been given one wish by God, and he wished for wisdom. He later became known as the wisest man on earth.

(*You could make other substitutions, such as two more V's for the X; or two more L's for the C).

(**Some longer examples: Clarence Vaughan Oxbridge, or Governor Charles Poindexter. One observation from this is that names adding up to 666 are relatively rare.)

 

Solomon wrote two books of the Bible. In addition to that, forty chapters of the Old Testament cover events in his life; but there are only two references to him in the Gospels. In one, Christ points to an event in the same chapter (I Kings 10) that has the number 666 in it, where the Queen of Sheba travelled hundreds of miles and brought nearly two tons of gold with her as a gift for King Solomon. (I Kings 10:1-2) Jesus said: "The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the utmost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, one greater than Solomon is here." (Luke 11:31)

In another place, Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not work, neither do they spin [cloth], and yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these… Therefore, take no thought saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we be clothed?' (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.) For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." (Matthew 6:28-33)

In both instances, Christ was saying that what he had to offer was greater than what Solomon had. So, in my own search for wisdom, I deduced that true wisdom would not come from following Solomon, but it would come from following Christ.

Solomon was rich; Christ was poor. Solomon was a king; Christ was a commoner. Solomon had hundreds of wives; Christ was a bachelor. Solomon built the famous Temple in Jerusalem; Christ was executed on the grounds that he was threatening to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem.

Isn't it strange how, in our study of the final three and a half years, we keep coming back to the Temple? Solomon (through I Kings 10:14) is linked with the number 666, and he is the one credited with having built the original Temple. The Beast (or Antichrist) is also linked with the number 666, and with making an agreement to rebuild the Temple. Solomon was a king, and the Antichrist is a king. But the underlying message of The Revelation is that Christ is the true King of kings, and all others are but counterfeits by comparison.

And that must include Solomon as well.

Solomon was a good man; but he cannot hold a candle to Christ. Nor can anyone who was ever born. As Christ said in prophecies about the last days, people will find many replacements for the true Messiah. (Matthew 24:24) But when they do, their replacement (whoever it may be) becomes an antichrist. (I John 2:18; II John 6-7) The so-called Christian church would rather follow St. Paul, or the Pope, or Billy Graham, or, for that matter, Solomon, than to follow Christ. In fact, Solomon is used as one of the prime justifications for the "prosperity gospel", a heresy based on greed, which is spreading like wildfire through the entire church scene today. Even those who say they don't subscribe to it, still choose to tolerate books teaching the prosperity gospel in their religious bookshops.

It doesn't take a genius to see that the church, with its emphasis on prosperity, popularity, and political power, is closer to the lifestyle of Solomon than it is to the teachings of Christ. Counterfeit messiahs of all sorts have moved into the "holy place" and made it spiritually desolate.

But there is another aspect of the number 666.

In The Revelation the number 666 is linked with the "Mark" of the Beast, and in the passage from I Kings, it is linked with gold.

Both the Mark (i.e. a computerised implant) and gold, represent significant developments in the history of economics. Mankind has