What in the WORLD is the Mark of the Beast?

Well, it’s been a few moons and then some since my last actual writing on here!

2018, 2019 and 2020 have come and gone.

Most of us have survived the apocalypse while maintaining a decent supply of toilet paper and have kept our sanity…though not easily.  In times of trouble or distress, it seems like the peddlers of foolishness and idiocy have found fertile soil in the fearful hearts of people to plant desperation, doubt, despair and wild conspiracies…and Christians have not only proven open to these all but, in my limited experience, have rather been alarmingly deceived on multiple fronts over the past 12 months. I’ve been disheartened in watching many people I respect and care about swallow ideas and attitudes that were profoundly at odds with the clear teaching of scripture and/or the basic tenets of logic. One of the most frequent ideas was that everything was somehow the mark of the beast: 5G cellular technology, vaccines, coronavirus itself, closing down your church in response to government orders, Mark Zuckerberg himself (I mean, his name is MARK! What more do you need?), etc.

I’ve had this post bouncing around in my head for many months, so I’m finally just going to pound it out.

So what IS the Mark of the Beast?

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here.  I’ve been working 60-70 hours a week (at 2 jobs) and still am…but I ended up doing some writing tonight that I’ll toss on here since it’s both a) long enough to be a post and b) of possible interest to some.  Because I’m already past my bedtime by 2 hours, there’s no pictures or editting tonight; just some quick Bible study that’s a horribly rough draft.

I won’t bother with the story of why I’m writing this, but I’m going to answer a single question.  What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament?

Let’s look at every single instance that the Greek verb Baptizo (“baptize”) and the term Pneuma (“Spirit”) appear together in the Scripture. For those that don’t trust me, look at the results here:

So, here’s the verses:

A Brief Look at Heaven

In this day, there is no shortage of confusion about Heaven: it’s one of the topics of Christian theology that innumerable unbalanced and unregenerate people love to focus on (that and angels, which is highly related).  There is no shortage of fools and frauds that claim to have insight into Heaven; what it’s like, the nature of it, who goes there, etc.  Also, the last twenty years or so has produced a gaggle of I Went To Heaven books where some clown claimed to go to Heaven and get the inside scoop (every single one of those people is lying, and I explain why here).   There’s no shortage of claims about Heaven out there, and it gets pretty crazy.  Try and survive a few minutes of this barking-mad insanity, which is shockingly peddled by the New Apostolic Reformation crowd (Just kidding…I’m not shocked for a second).

So in an effort to help sort through the mess of misinformation,  I took my youth group through a brief exploration of the topic of Heaven.

Here’s the notes I gave them, for your encouragement and edification!

Responding to The “Shellfish Objection”

Here’s something I taught the youth in my church recently as we were dealing with various issues related to Christianity.  I hope this is helpful to folks who have struggled with this question!

Christians who appeal to the Old Testament in conversations about homosexuality are often (crudely) accused of hypocrisy because the regulations regarding sexuality are part of the Old Testament Law.  The “Shellfish Objection” popularly comes up like this:

The Shellfish Objection is often articulated in a version of the following:

The Argument: Since the Bible condemns eating shellfish but Christians don’t obey the laws against eating shellfish, then they’re hypocritical when they quote other laws as binding.  In other words, Christians hypocritically pick and choose which rules they follow. 

Quick Thoughts: What is the “Seven Mountains Mandate”?

If you’ve heard of the New Apostolic Reformation, you’ve heard of many strange ideas.  One of those may be the “Seven Mountains Mandate.”  What is that exactly?  Well, the Seven Mountains Mandate is an idea that originates in a vision that Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) and Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, or Cru, and author of The Four Spiritual Laws) both had in 1975 (read about it here and here and here and here). The idea was that there are seven spheres (circles of cultural influence) that were the key to world evangelism; if a person could “reclaim” each sphere, they would establish Christianity across the globe and finish the great commission (and as a side benefit, usher in the second coming). Cunningham was told (by God, no less), that he had to infiltrate each sphere to successfully evangelize the world.

What were those seven spheres?