One of the most sacrosanct of man’s heathen practices involves the Sunday Sabbath. Man’s excuses for defying God relative to the Sabbath are several, not one of which in any way relates to His Word. This teaching will reveal God’s Truth about His Sabbath and the important part it will play when the Beast and False Prophet come on the scene. God’s tiny church will be there to confront them. Unlike the rest of mankind, she will not have taken the Mark of the Beast. What is the Mark of the Beast? God answers those with eyes to see and ears to hear–the “few” (Mat. 7:13,14).

The books of Daniel and Revelation tell us of a time when a governmental entity (the First Beast and its leader-the Antichrist) will rise up and force its will on the world. A religious figure (the Second Beast–a church led by the False Prophet) will force the world to worship and obey the First Beast. At that point (the Great Tribulation) the world will be divided into two camps: 1) the Universal Church that will obey the First Beast and bear its “Mark,” and 2) God’s tiny church that bears His “Mark” (Exo. 31:13-17). The Institutional Church unwittingly bears Satan’s Mark today and has done so since the fourth century.

False prophets use Revelation 13:11-18 to warn their congregations not to miss the “rapture” and be “left behind” to face the coming Great Tribulation. The passage warns that a time is coming when one will not be able to buy, sell, etc. unless one bears the “Mark” or number or name of the First Beast. The Second Beast will perform miracles in order to convince people to worship the “one” God has supposedly sent to save the world. The Beast’s Mark will identify those who do; God’s Mark will identify those who do not. Revelation 15:1,6;16:1,2 warns about the seven plagues God will pour out on those who bear the Mark of the Beast. The Tribulation has two segments: a 2.5 yr. period when Satan will pour out his wrath on mankind, and a 1 yr. period, known Scripturally as the “Day of the Lord,” when God will pour out His seven plagues on sinning man: “If any man worships the Beast … and receives his Mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God” (Rev. 14:9,10) while His people are being protected in “her place” (Rev. 12:14-17).

By the time the Antichrist and the False Prophet arrive on the scene their Mark will have been globally popular for thousands of years. During the Tribulation the False Prophet will be the leader of a global church which will have absorbed all other religious entities, with one exception–the God’s tiny church. Because she will not submit, the army of the Beast (the “waters” of Rev. 12:15,16) will try to destroy her, but will itself be destroyed. Revelation reveals that the power behind the Beasts is the “Dragon,” the “Serpent” of Genesis three–Satan.

The First Beast being a world-encompassing government, what exactly is the Second Beast? It is the world-encompassing church described as the Great Whore, Mystery, Babylon which sits astride (controls) the Beast government. The Second Beast (a church led by the False Prophet) is described in Revelation 16:6 and 17:6 as having “… shed the blood of the saints.” During the Inquisition, the Catholic Church martyred between 50,000,000 and 150,000,000 people, many of them God’s people. By the time of the Great Tribulation this Great Whore will have reunited with her “Harlot Daughters” (the Protestant churches) and will have absorbed all other religions known to man. This great religious power will martyr those people of all races, religions and creeds who come to the Lord during the Tribulation. It is those who were martyred during the Inquisition along with those portrayed in Hebrews 11 who will ask: “How long, O Lord” until He executes retribution on those who killed them (Rev. 6:10). He tells them that they must wait a little while until those unprotected by Him are beheaded for coming to Him during the Great Tribulation. These are described in Revelation 20:4: “… and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the WITNESS (gospel) of Jesus and for the WORD OF GOD and who had not worshiped the Beast … neither had received his mark.”

By searching the Scriptures and secular history we learn that the political descendants of Daniel’s Beast will martyr the spiritual descendants of the Inquisition martyrs, and for the same reason–obedience to God. The events of Hebrews 11 and the Inquisition will be repeated during the Great Tribulation.

Jesus warns that there is coming a time when God’s saints will not be allowed to preach or teach His Word. Therefore, as Jesus tells us in John 9:4;12:35,36, we must work while there is still day, for night (spiritual darkness) is coming when no man will be able to work. The two Marks will distinguish who worships and obeys whom. Those taking God’s Mark during the Tribulation will be beheaded. Those who have born it all along (His remnant church) will be in “her place” where she is protected by God–Noah, Lot, baby Moses and baby Jesus being prime examples of God’s divine protection during deadly times. I believe that the Tribulation converts will be mostly those who had been in Catholicism/Protestantism all their lives but had never heard the Truth. Hearing it, they will turn to the Lord and will be martyred for doing so.

I believe that the First Beast will be the European Union–the resurrected Roman Empire–the same entity that carried out the Inquisition for the Catholic Church. I believe that the Second Beast (the False Prophet) will be the reigning Pope who, like the Inquisition Popes, will direct the deadly activities of the First Beast, as the Popes did during the Inquisition.

According to the Scriptures, there will be five classes of people alive during the Great Tribulation: 1) God’s saints who will have been taken to a place of safety known as “her place”, 2) those who bear Satan’s Mark and are allowed to live, 3) those who refuse to bear his Mark and are beheaded and 4) the First Beast government with the Antichrist at its head and 5) and the Second Beast church with the False Prophet at its head. To be continued.