Dr Paul Allen

Making Plans for Tomorrow The Galilean worshipers whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1) were all making plans for tomorrow. They were all making plans for how they were going to spend their time once they got back from temple worship. The men in Jerusalem that the Tower of Siloam fell on and killed (Luke 13:4) were all making plans for the summer. They expected to live long enough to get married, to have kids, to see their kids get married, to grow old with their spouse, to be grandparents. To be sure, they all knew they were going to die, someday. If you asked them, “Do you realize that death is certain?” every last one of them would have said, “Yes, of course.” But what was their problem? They all thought that death was out there, somewhere in the distance. They all flattered themselves that they had plenty of time before they had to think about that, plenty of time to make preparations, to clean up their act, to “get right with God.” And then the day ca...

John speaks of the “mark of the beast” in connection with the efforts of the false prophet (the beast from the earth) to force the inhabitants of the earth to worship the Beast (the beast from the sea) on the basis of economic sanctions. He writes in Revelation 13:16–17: “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Since John assumes that his readers understand what he is writing, the meaning of the “mark of the beast” needs to be analyzed within its first-century context and theological “world.” The mark of the Beast is a parody of the “seal of God” that the followers of the Lamb have received, marking them as belonging to God’s people (Rev. 7:2, 4, 5, 8; 9:4). The followers of the Lamb, many of whom are killed “for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God,” are descri...