Week 9

Fear, Control, and the Mark

By Trish Tipton

If you're still with me, it's because you're looking for answers too. I can't guarantee I have them all, but I know what I'd like to understand. So let's dive in. Last time I asked what readiness would look like if we are not exempt from trouble, and how we could be ready without being afraid. This week I want to sit with the other side of that question. If fear can lead people who are asleep, how do we read Revelation's warning and stay hopeful?

We talked about being asleep, and about ears that close even while the Word is being read. What I keep seeing is that people who are not paying attention can be led by fear. Fear of dying. Fear of losing a job. Fear of not being able to feed a family. Fear is a powerful tool. A person who is already afraid does not need much of a push to follow whoever promises to keep them safe.

I saw that during COVID. I am not here to tell you what you should have done about a vaccine, or to settle a medical argument. I am talking about fear, and about how it can take over a conversation. I watched people become afraid of dying, and I watched other people become afraid of losing a job over a vaccine requirement. I watched families stop talking. I watched churches split over it without ever sitting down and asking, together, who we were trusting.

There are things worse than death. One of them, the way I read it, is becoming so afraid that we will follow anyone who promises to save us. We have one Savior. Fear is not how He told us to live.

I have a concern, and I want to say it as a concern, not as a prediction I can prove. I have heard people say that powerful people will try another wave of fear, because they saw how well it worked. I don't know if that will happen, or when. What I do believe is that many who felt fooled before will ask harder questions next time. That is one reason I want us awake now, not later, and one reason I want us to know who we listen to when we get scared.

Paul wrote this to Timothy:

2 Timothy 1:7 (NASB 2020)

⁷For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

The NASB says "a spirit of timidity" here. Many of us grew up hearing "fear." Either way, God has not given us a spirit that shrinks back. He has given us power, love, and discipline.

John said it another way:

1 John 4:18 (NASB 2020)

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

"Perfect love drives out fear." Not perfect panic. Not perfect planning. Love. The love that comes from God is stronger than the voices that want us afraid enough to hand something over.

Isaiah heard the same heart from God:

Isaiah 41:10 (NASB 2020)

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

"Do not fear, for I am with you." That is not the same as "nothing hard will ever happen." It is a promise of who stands with us when something hard does happen.

Solomon put a warning next to that comfort:

Proverbs 29:25 (NASB 2020)

²⁵The fear of man brings a snare, But one who trusts in the LORD will be protected.

"The fear of man brings a snare." When I am more afraid of what people can do to me than I am settled in who God is, I become easier to lead.

David was honest about being afraid, and then he said what he would do with it:

Psalm 56:3-4 (NASB 2020)

³When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. ⁴In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

"When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You." He did not pretend the fear wasn't there. He decided who would get it.

When fear rises, I try to stop and ask two questions. Who is speaking? And what do they want handed over? Those questions have helped me more than any headline has.

That is the ground I want under us before we open Revelation, because Revelation can be read in a way that produces more fear instead of more hope. I don't claim to know every detail of that book. I have heard people map every horn and every crown to a current event, and I have watched those maps change when the news changed. I would rather stay close to what John actually wrote, and ask what it shows us about power, worship, and courage.

John is also the one who used the word "antichrist," and he did not use it the way a lot of movies do. The word itself appears in his letters, not in Revelation. Here's what he said:

1 John 2:18 (NASB 2020)

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

"Even now many antichrists have appeared." Not only one man someday. Already. Plural. So when I read about a coming figure who exalts himself, I also hear John saying the spirit of that opposition is already at work.

Paul wrote about a "man of lawlessness":

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 (NASB 2020)

³No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Christians read "the temple of God" here in different ways, and I don't want to turn this into another week about land and buildings. What I notice is someone who opposes God, exalts himself, and displays himself as being God. That is the kind of power that asks for worship, not only for attention.

Then John describes a beast who is given power, a throne, and great authority:

Revelation 13:2 (NASB 2020)

²And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.

Revelation 13:4-8 (NASB 2020)

⁴they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” ⁵A mouth was given to him speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. ⁶And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over every tribe, people, language, and nation. ⁸All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered.

"The dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority." "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" That is the language of fear. People look at this figure, or these figures, and decide no one can stand against them. They worship the dragon because he gave the beast his authority. They worship the beast because they are afraid.

Authority was given to him "over every tribe, people, language, and nation," and "it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them." That does not sound like a church that has already been taken out of the way. And "all who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written" in the Lamb's book of life. Worship is the issue, not only politics.

The way I read it, the beast is a person or people who gain power and authority and control through fear. I believe the spirit of that is already at work, the way John said many antichrists had already appeared. I am not asking you to pick a name from the news and pin this chapter to it. I am asking us to notice how fear and worship can travel together, and to refuse to hand our worship to anyone who demands it.

After writing about power and fear, I kept going back to the part of Revelation 13 that most people know, the mark.

I think about Larry Burkett's The Illuminati, a novel published in 1991. He was a Christian financial teacher, and he died in 2003 (publication record; biographical reference). This is fiction, not Scripture, and not a prediction I am asking you to accept. It is a story that stayed with me, and I want to tell it as my recollection of a novel.

What I remember is a one-world money system, cards, a black market in stolen cards, and then a chip in the hand offered as a safer answer. Christians who refused it as the mark of the beast were treated as terrorists and sent to camps. Those details are my recollection of the story. The publisher's description confirms the one-world-economy premise and Christians being jailed as terrorists. A contemporary review describes the electronic financial network and implanted IDs.

I had remembered it as being before debit cards, but debit cards already existed (debit-card history). What strikes me now is how ordinary cashless payment has become. Card transactions can leave a record of where we spend and what we spend. That is not the same as a chip tracking where a person is all the time. An ordinary card chip is not a GPS tracker (how card chips work), and an ordinary payment card is not the mark of the beast.

The part that stays with me is the promise of safety. If something were offered as the only safe way to buy food, how many of us would agree out of fear? I've asked for a long time how believers could accept the mark. Fear seems to me a very effective way to persuade people who aren't paying attention. That's why I want us awake to the Word, not frightened into following the next promise of rescue.

Here's what John wrote:

Revelation 13:16-17 (NASB 2020)

¹⁶And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

"On their right hands or on their foreheads." And "no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark." Everyone is included, "the small and the great, the rich and the poor." No one is too important or too ordinary to be asked.

And here's the warning that comes in the very next chapter:

Revelation 14:9-11 (NASB 2020)

⁹Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

That is one of the most serious warnings in the whole Bible. God didn't hide this. He told us ahead of time, plainly, so that no one would have to take it without knowing. I read that warning as a mercy. He loves us enough to tell us before it comes.

I don't want to say more than John says. Revelation speaks of those whose names have not been written in the book of life, and it warns against worshiping the beast and receiving its mark. It does not say here that using an ordinary payment card erases a believer's name. The way I read it, the mark involves allegiance as well as buying and selling. My concern is that we know whom we worship, not that we panic at every new piece of technology.

A story put a picture in my mind of a chip in the hand. I don't know if that's how it will look, or when it will come. I don't know the exact shape of it. What I do believe is that it may come looking ordinary, even convenient, and that a mark which decides whether you can feed your family is the kind of control that only works if people are afraid enough to accept it. That's why I want us to know Revelation 13 and 14 well enough to recognize what John actually warned us about.

Revelation does not end with the warning. It shows the people who refused the mark:

Revelation 15:2 (NASB 2020)

²And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who were victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.

Revelation 20:4 (NASB 2020)

⁴Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

"Victorious over the beast." "Had not received the mark." "Reigned with Christ." Saying no cost some of them everything here, but that isn't the end of their story. They stood with Christ, and they came to life, and they reigned with Him.

That is where I want us to land. Not in panic, and not in pretending the warning isn't there. In hope. God has not given us a spirit of timidity. Perfect love drives out fear. When we are afraid, we can put our trust in Him. And the people who refused the mark are not remembered as victims. They are remembered as victorious.

Would we notice if something came looking ordinary or convenient? And would fear make us agree?

When you are afraid, who do you trust, and what would readiness look like without panic?

I would rather you not take my word for any of this. Open your Bible and read it yourself. Read Revelation 13 and 14 slowly, and sit with both the mark and the warning. Read Revelation 15 and 20, and look at the ones who were victorious and who reigned with Christ. Read 2 Timothy 1, 1 John 4, Isaiah 41, and Psalm 56, and ask what God has given us instead of fear. Read 1 John 2 and 2 Thessalonians 2, and listen for a spirit that was already at work, not only a figure someday.

If something doesn't sit right, stay with it. If a story you once read, or a season you lived through, still raises questions, stay with those too, and take them to the Word rather than to the next wave of fear. That's how this one stayed with me: a novel I could not forget, a season when fear ran a conversation, and a growing sense that I needed to know what John actually wrote, so I would recognize a demand for worship if it ever came looking ordinary.

Sources on Larry Burkett's novel and on ordinary payment cards: publication record and publisher's description of The Illuminati (https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Illuminati.html?id=4340br9EBTcC); biographical reference (https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/burkett_larry); contemporary review (https://www.wired.com/1993/02/hacking-for-jesus-2001/); debit-card history (https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/when-were-debit-cards-invented/); how card chips work (https://www.supermoney.com/debit-card-tracker).

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