Remain faithful

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REMAIN FAITHFUL

Rev 14:9-12

9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

NIV

We have arrived at the point of some contention between scholars. This language used in this verse refers to burning sulfur, but in the Greek text the language says fire and brimstone, which certainly could be burning sulfur. But this also has some similarity to the fate of those who lived such an unnatural sin in Sodom and Gomorrah. That scripture even has Abraham looking upon the smoke that ascended from that land. The different here is in the fact those residence of Sodom and Gomorrah who experienced the full strength of the wrath of God perished in that great fire and brimstone event, but it would seem these people who received the mark of the beast are not perishing,  but find no rest from their torment. This is where many get the idea of being in eternal torment in hell. But we will see death and hades, or hell give up their dead and both death and hades, along with the beast, the false prophet and Satan will be cast in the lake of burning sulfur. We are also going to see all those who received this mark of the beast cast there as well, but the language is different. The beast, the false prophet and Satan were cast alive into this lake of burning sulfur, but the others it speaks about being cast there it calls them experiencing the second death. Which has to be a spiritual death as they already died in the body. But let us leave this topic for further discussion when we get there, yet we cannot leave it entirely as here we see God saying they will find no rest day or night. First we should note those who have the mark of the beast upon them were not forced to have it, but received it, such as we receive a gift, it was received willingly, without coercion, perhaps by deceit but still they accepted it of their own free will. There is also language throughout scripture about people not entering God’s rest. This was especially true of the people of Israel who did not believe God about crossing the Jordon into the land of milk and honey and thus they were directed back out into the desert for forty years until they all died. God told them they would not enter his rest. A complete discussion of this is in the letter to the Hebrews. If we have entered his rest because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then those who have refused to believe God will not enter into his rest. This may well be the intent of the language here, not that they will never be able to rest from their torment, that they shall be in eternal torment in fire and brimstone. Anyone in the past scriptures who experienced the fire and brimstone of God perished, thus not finding and entering into his rest. What we can be certain of is that there is a distinction between those who are in his rest and those who are not. Regarding having patience and endurance for us who obey God and remain faithful to Jesus, it is evident that Satan would try his best to deceive us into some false thinking, some false doctrine, to buy into concepts that are not the truth. At this point we do not know exactly what the mark of the beast is. We mostly assume it to be some mark that denotes we refuse to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That the mark is a form of humanism or anti-Christ belief. But this mark could also be a religion, a false religion, a doctrine which does not ascribe wholly to the scriptures, but perverts them just enough so that many so called believers will be deceived willingly accepting that doctrine, or mark of the beast, the false prophet. This may not be a wide open full frontal assault on our beliefs, but a sly perversion of Christianity which many will not see coming. This certainly would require a great deal of patience and endurance on our part to be able to notice this type of deception and marking and thus refuse it and remain faithful to Jesus Christ obeying the commands of God, rather than of men. Let us forever be faithful. The fact still remains there is but one truth, and so how can so many Christian denominations that are based on various interpretations of the truth claim they possess the one truth? Perhaps, just a thought, denominationalism is that mark. Perhaps as with one denomination which they actually have their congregants receiving a mark on their foreheads once a year this could happen elsewhere in other forms. This is not to condemn that experience, but rather just a thought as to how we believers might be deceived by what we think is the truth. There is no evidence of this being an ordinance of the first or early church. We need to be very careful to be aware of any attempt to deceive us and thus be patience and continue to trust God and God alone, renaming faithful onto the end of time.