David Berg
DO 19431/85
—A Revelation About the Mark of the Beast!
1. I FORGOT TO GIVE YOU YOUR HOMEWORK, BUT I GUESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR HOMEWORK IS!—TO READ THE CHAPTERS THAT WE'RE STUDYING & BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THEM! Because we just cannot go into every single word of everything here, we've been over most of this territory before. So praise the Lord! TYL! Amen! Hallelujah! (Sings:)
"How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said?
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled,
To you who for refuge, to Jesus have fled!"
PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen, amen, amen! TYJ! Will someone lead us in prayer? (Family member prays) Amen! PTL! TYL!
2. "WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER IN MY NAME, THERE AM I IN THE MIDST OF THEM!" (MAT 18:20) JESUS IS HERE! (Sings: )
"Keep on believing, Jesus is here!
Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear!
Keep on believing, this is the way!
Faith in the night as well as the day!"
PTL! TYJ! Amen! I always pitch'm too low you because I was a double base to begin with & then a baritone. In church I had to try to get up & sing soprano the way all the hymns are written & it was awfully high for me but praise the Lord!
3. I HAD A LITTLE REVELATION THIS MORNING, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR IT? You know as many times as you can read a Scripture, you can read it time & time again & still not understand it. Revelation is such a mysterious book anyhow, nearly every phrase & every line is a mystery. But the Lord is opening it to is, isn't He? So there's not very much of it left that's still a mystery! but they're still saying things in Revelation that I don't understand‚ so don't think I know everything! I'm not going to be able to tell you everything unless the Lord gives it to me right while I'm teaching, which He sometimes does!
4. BUT ISAAC SENT ME A LITTLE NOTE & HE WAS QUITE EXCITED ABOUT SOMETHING HE FELT THE LORD HAD SHOWN HIM , CONFIRMING WHAT THE LORD HAD SHOWN US IN "THE COMPUTER CHIP DREAM!" (#1666) Remember? I had that dream about a little computer chip & there was a little pin on it & it was imbedded in the forehead‚ etc. Well, that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be literal, but it could be, they've got'm! They say they could even implant computer chips in your wrist or your hand or something‚ your credit number. They're talking about all this already, tattoos & imbedded computer chips which could be absolute certain identification, your credit card & all the rest.
5. BUT IN THIS DREAM I HAD, THE CHIP WAS A SMALL THING WITH A LITTLE PIN ON THE BACK OF IT, & IT WAS IMBEDDED IN THE FLESH & THEN COVERED UP WITH THE FLESH. I don't know whether that's going to be literal or whether that's going to be a symbolic thing. But he said, "You know what? All these new identification numbers which are being used now all over the World on credit cards & Social Security cards & bank cards & all kinds of things, they are called Personal Identification Numbers, & they go under the abbreviation of guess what?—P-I-N!—PIN!" I said, "Well, that'll sure pin'm down! The Antichrist can say, "Hey, Buddy, I've got your number!" I told Isaac‚ "Maybe you've got the gift of interpretation!" (See GN171‚ pgs.8-9.)
6. THEN I WAS THINKING ABOUT EACH ONE HAVING A NUMBER, & I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT THAT WAY BEFORE! I've heard preachers preach on this Chapter, & boy, they've got almost as many interpretations as there are preachers! Turn to the 13th Chapter of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast‚ 16th verse. (David: "And he causeth all, both small & great, rich & poor, free & bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.") All right, we're all familiar with that, aren't we? Now exactly what kind of a Mark is the mystery. Okay‚ somebody else continue on with the 17th verse. (Fam: "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the Mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of the his name.")
7. SO THE MARK HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE BEAST, APPARENTLY, BUT IT SOUNDS ALMOST LIKE THREE DIFFERENT THINGS: THE MARK OR THE NAME OF THE BEAST OR THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME!—Quite a variety there in choice. Now whether that all means one & the same thing, we don't know. I can't tell you everything. But the thing that struck me is the next verse that I've read so many times, & I'm sure it was the Lord because just this one phrase suddenly came to me when I was reading Isaac's little note. Somebody else read the 18th verse. (Fam: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast: For it is the number of a man; & his number is Six hundred threescore & six.") All right, so it says what here?
8. FIRST OF ALL HE'S WARNING YOU IT'S GOING TO TAKE WISDOM TO DECIPHER THIS, DECODE IT, TO INTERPRET IT! IT'S A MYSTERY! You're not supposed to be able to get it right off or understand what it means with the first reading. In fact, preachers have probably argued over this for thousands of years, at least a couple thousand. I told you one reason a lot of Revelation is a mystery & is more or less put in code is so the System of each day would not understand it!
9. JESUS WAS ASKED BY HIS DISCIPLES,"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SPEAK IN PARABLES?"—Particularly when the Scribes & the Pharisees & the Enemy was present. He said, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto them it is not given!" (Mat.13:10,11) But once in awhile He would tell a parable that was so simple that the Scribes & the Pharisees got the point & they realised it was they that He speaking of, & it says so. (Luk.20:19) It says they recognised that He was speaking of them, & it usually wasn't very complimentary! It made them furious & that's why they wanted to kill Him & finally did.
10. BUT MOST OF THAT CAME AT THE VERY END. JESUS DIDN'T REALLY COME OUT & BLAST THEM FACE-TO-FACE UNTIL JUST BEFORE THEY CRUCIFIED HIM. That was when He came out in the open & just called a spade a spade & buried them as far as that was concerned, & told the public their number! If you want to read what He really thought about the Scribes & the Pharisees, those self-righteous hypocrites, the Enemy—just the same exactly as our enemies today—don't just read the 24th Chapter of Matthew, but sometime when you have time, read the 23rd! Boy, He really blasted them! I used to enjoy reading that Chapter, that really has got it! I almost wish I had said that, that's the way I like to blast'm! Boy, these churchy hypocrites‚ the 23rd Chapter of Matthew has their number! Just read it & see what Jesus thought about His enemies!—The same enemies that we have.
11. BUT YOU NOTICE HE DIDN'T COME OUT WITH THAT UNTIL THOSE LAST DAYS. It wasn't until about the last week or two that He really came out full-fledged, flat-footed & hit'm between the eyes! Because He knew that when He did, that would be the end of His ministry. He knew it was about to end anyhow & it didn't matter, so He just socked it to'm! Well, I'm sure they understood that language! He wasn't speaking in riddles that time!
12. SO I'VE READ ALL THESE VERSES HERE IN REVELATION 13 SO MANY TIMES & IT'S STILL MYSTERIOUS! But we're beginning to learn, we're actually beginning to see exactly how this can be possible. Some church people used to say, "Pooh pooh‚ how could we ever go around wearing a number in our foreheads or in our right hand? That's ridiculous, that'll never happen! That's symbolic, it's just a spiritual interpretation, it just means that you are one of the unsaved wicked that belong to the Devil. It doesn't mean that there's going to really be a Mark there of some kind."—Oh yes? Well, now we know & we believe the Lord means what He says & it's literal, they're actually going to be marked & it's spoken of many times!
13. AND WHAT IS THIS MARK? HE TELLS YOU IT IS THE MARK OR THE NAME OF THE BEAST OR THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME. Those may be three different things or they may be one & the same thing. Even if it's a number‚ it's still the Mark of the Beast. And even if it's related to his name, it's his brand, the same as his name‚ & it shows you're one of his if you take it. So it's all three even if it's only a number—the Mark, the name of the Beast, & the number of his name. So the Mark, even if it's a number, is still the name of the Beast, it's branding you with his name by the fact that you've even got the number.
14. IT'S ALL COMING IN VERY INNOCENTLY WITH ALL VERY GOOD REASONS FOR DOING IT, to make sure everybody's got a specific identification number so things can't get mixed up in any way, & to make sure that all the credit system works perfectly & everybody's got their own number, to facilitate & speed up the whole economic, & credit system, the exchange system of the World.
15. WHAT ARE THESE NUMBERS THEY GIVE YOU ON YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD OR IDENTIFICATION CARD? What is that number? Isaac mentioned, by the way, that they all have six digits. There are six numbers in each of these series of numbers. And they say the new Social Security cards in the States which are supposed to be issued next year, are coming out with 666 as the base number‚ they all begin with 666.
16. AND THEY SAY WHEN THEY ISSUE THE NEW MONEY, 666 IS RIGHT ON THERE TOO! They're going to call all the old money in because it's getting so cheap, & issue a new kind of money that's supposed to be worth more. Recently I think in Argentina they stopped making certain bills & they had to change from the old peso to the new peso because the bills were getting too big again, hundreds of thousands of pesos for one bill! So they made the new peso worth a thousand pesos. They had to cut down the number or pretty soon there wouldn't have been room for it on the paper.—Paper! Just paper!
17. BUT AT LEAST THAT NUMBER WHICH THE ANTICHRIST IS GOING TO GIVE YOU‚ & which probably pretty soon governments are going to give your even before he comes along—although if he comes along next year it won't take long—at least that number is supposed to represent something & be worth something, providing you work & you earn credits & they're in your account. It'll be good for something, they can't take it away from you. It sounds like a very good system with a lot of advantages! They can identify criminals, they can catch people for various crimes, they can't forge'm, they can't forge checks any more, etc.
18. THEY WENT FROM COINAGE TO PAPER MONEY, THEN THE PAPER MONEY WASN'T BIG ENOUGH & EVEN TOO BULKY & THEY WENT TO PAPER CHECKS where they can write millions of dollars on one check, which would otherwise take a suitcasefull of bills, too hard to carry around‚ too difficult to send through the mail or through the banking system. But even the bank are getting swamped now to where they can't even handle the checks! So now they have machines that reads the numbers on the checks electronically to sort out the checks, but even with that they're still swamped & it takes too long to make banking transactions. Checks can get damaged or wet or smeared or burned or lost or all kinds of things, but let me tell you, you can't lose that thing unless you could lose your head! Of course, he can cause you to lose your head if you don't have his Mark!
19. BUT IF EACH ONE HAS A NUMBER LIKE THAT, ON THESE CREDIT CARDS & ALL, WHAT IS THAT NUMBER? REALLY IT'S THE NUMBER OF WHAT? (FAM: THE NUMBER OF A MAN!)—Exactly! You've been cheatin', you've been reading the verse!—Ha! In fact, you already read it. It is the number of a man, the man who wears it, the man who carries it, the man who uses it! That's your number, Buddy! They've got your number, Buddy!—Right? It's the number of a man, isn't that what it says here? All I know is that just came to me like a flash, I'd even forgotten it was part of the verse. Isaac was talking about this PIN thing being the new kind of credit number & how easily it could become the Mark of the Beast, & I was thinking, "Well, what Isaac is taking about is the number that they'll give people for their number on their cards," etc., & instantly the verse flashed in my mind, that phrase just by itself: "It is the number of a man!"
20. THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS YOUR NUMBER, YOUR ID NUMBER, YOUR PIN NUMBER, PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER, YOUR PIN! THAT REALLY PINS YOU DOWN & THEY'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER! It is the number of a man—or a woman or a girl too, of course. But kids probably won't be doing business that soon, it will probably be at a certain age that they require you to have the number when you may start doing business. All this sort of thing comes rather gradually, but it's moving faster all the time. It is in the stage right now that they've got it all figured out how to do it & where to do it.
21. THEY'VE EVEN GOT THAT BIG COMPUTER NOW THAT THEY CALL THE BEAST THAT OCCUPIES THREE OR FOUR FLOORS OF A BUILDING IN BRUSSELS, the World headquarters of the EEC‚ & also World headquarters of some of the U.N. branches & NATO & all that sort of thing, the international headquarters. They say they've got it all figured out already to where they're going to give everybody in Europe a PIN, & you know that's going to sweep worldwide just as fast as possible. They already have'm in some of the countries in the East on cards & they're called your PIN, your Personal Identification Number. They've got you pinned, they've got you pinned down! And what are those numbers? What does it say? "It is the number of a man!"
22. NOW ALL THESE YEARS I WAS CONFUSED BECAUSE RIGHT AFTER THAT IT SAYS: "AND HIS NUMBER IS SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE & SIX"—666. The preachers always interpreted that as the number of the Antichrist. "It is the number of a man; & his number is Six hundred threescore & six." It is also the number of the Antichrist, that's true. He says first of all, "Count the number of the Beast," Who gave it to'm? Who gives you this number?—The Beast! It's the number of the Beast, he gives it to you, right? "For it is the number of a man." It's not only the number of the Beast, it'syour number. He's got his number on it. According to some of these recent reports‚ 666 is right there, but your number is also there, it follows the 666. So it's not only the number of the Beast, but it is the number of a man & He gets even more specific & says it's 666. Now that 666 can be manifested in many ways. It's actually on the new Social Security card to be issued in the United States‚ I think it's next year, & it's actually on the new money that they're planning to issue, the actual number 666.
23. I'LL NEVER FORGET HOW SHOCKED I WAS IN THE LAST DRAFT IN WORLD WAR 2! In those days they gave every boy of draft age a tree-digit serial number‚ & those three digits were on the first part of your military number. It was called your serial number, if you remember. I think you guys all managed to dodge it, but I didn't. You were young enough‚ maybe you weren't even born yet. The first three numbers were the first three numbers of your military serial number which you were given when you finally got into the army, & you had to memorize that & be able to recite it at a moment's notice when anybody asked you your serial number. If an officer suddenly pointed at you & said, "What's your serial number?" you had to be able to flash it off like that! (Snaps fingers!) I think mine began with 531, as I recall, I remember that much. That was very important, because since those numbers only went up to I think it was 1000 or 999, under each one of those numbers were thousands of men whose serial numbers also began with each one of those numbers. In other words, there were thousands of other men whose serial numbers began with 531.
24. SO TO CONDUCT THE DRAFT SUPPOSEDLY FAIRLY, THEY DREW LOTS. They dumped little capsules into a great big fish bowl, all one thousand of them, each one labeled with these digits numbering from 1 to 999. and then the Secretary of War came along, I'm sure he didn't finish the pot, but they had him photographed in the newspaper to show how fair the draft was, that he was pulling out the first number. It could have been any number, but that was the first group of men they called up in the draft, all the men whose serial number began with that number. When you registered for the draft you got your serial number, & everybody 18 years of age & over had to register. That was called your order number, & the order in which you would be drafted was according to the order in which they pulled these numbers out of the bowl. Well, mine was one of the pretty early numbers because I was drafted almost right away.
25. BUT THE THING THAT AMAZED ME, GUESS WHAT THE 666TH NUMBER WAS WHICH THEY PULLED OUT OF THE BOWL? GUESS WHAT NUMBER WAS ON THE PELLET?—666! I think it was a sign of the times! God was trying to wake people up! Who knows? Maybe one of those guys of the thousands whose serial number began with 666 is going to turn out to be the Antichrist! You say‚ "Oh, but Dad, you said he's from Egypt & he's going to Russia!" Well, goodness, there are oodles of Jews in the United States that came from Russia & even guys from Egypt that could have been drafted if they were living in the United States! "Oh, but that was such a long time ago, he'd be as old as you‚ Dad!" Well, I agree, but I thought it was rather significant, rather unusual that the 666th pellet was 666! I don't know whether you children understand or not.
26. SEE, THESE NUMBERS IN THE BOWL WERE ALL MIXED UP & HE COULD HAVE PICKED OUT ANY NUMBER. And when he reached in the 666th time to pick out a number, he lifted up the pellet & looked at it & the number on it was 666! There was only one chance in a thousand, in fact I suppose if you go by chances because you'd have to multiply the thousand times all those various numbers. So it was a chance in a million, something like that, or more, that he would have picked out that number. Well, we're getting close‚ Beloved!
27. ANYHOW, THAT WAS THE NUMBER OF A MAN, QUITE A FEW MEN! And these credit card numbers, these bank card numbers‚ these identification card numbers, these Social Security card numbers, all of these things, what are they?—The numbers of what? (Fam: A man.)—The number of a person, a man! "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast: For it is the number of man; & his number is Six hundred three score & six." The preachers always told us before that that meant that was the Antichrist's number. Well, it is his number, but now we begin to understand how men can be numbered. It is the number of a man. It is the number of the Antichrist that he puts on each man.
28. DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU SEE HOW CLOSE IT'S COMING? THE SYSTEM'S ALREADY FIGURED OUT! They've got the huge computer they call the Beast occupying several floors of this big building in Brussels to sort out all the identification numbers of everybody in Europe, & they're going to given everybody a PIN. They're just working on the System, still getting it operative, but they've got it pretty well figured out now. They're still debating exactly how they're going to apply the number to the human body, but they have settled on the fact that the best method is not a card, because that can be lost or stolen or whatever, but it is to implant the number somehow on the individual, like a tattoo that's only revealed by black light.
29. REMEMBER THOSE NUMBERS THEY USED TO STAMP ON YOU AT THE DANCE HALLS when you had to go out to the toilet or something? When you came back in they stuck you wrist underneath the light to prove that you paid your money. I was shocked when they did that to me, I thought, "Boy, they're already getting things like the Mark of the Beast!" It didn't show at all otherwise, you couldn't see it, but you stuck it under the ultraviolet light & there was the number! That was 20 years ago that they used to do that in dance halls, clubs or cinemas‚ when you had to go out for some reason & come back, to prove that you had paid your money. You had the number, you had the Mark of the Beast! Some of them were beasts‚ all right, that's for sure!
30. BUT THERE IT IS, THE NUMBER OF A MAN! That's a little extra lesson I didn't plan to throw in, but that's on the subject we're studying, Bible Prophecy, & it's time to quite! Amen! Thank God we don't belong to the kingdom of the Beast! What Kingdom do we belong to? (Fam: The Kingdom of God!) Also called what else? (Fam: The Kingdom of Heaven.) So shall we pray the Lord's Prayer about the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven? (Prays the Lord's Prayer)
31. DO BLESS & KEEP THESE THY CHILDREN ALL DAY LONG, & MAKE THEM FRUITFUL & HELP THEM TO ACCOMPLISH A LOT FOR THEE TODAY! Keep us in safety from our enemies & even our own selves‚ Lord, & mistakes. Help us, Lord, in Jesus' name! Bless us as we go for our little walk. Make it good for our health & our muscles & our legs so we'll be prepared to flee, to run‚ any time we have to! PTL! God bless you all! I love you!