"The worship of the beast and his image and the receiving of his mark must be something that involves the greatest offense that can be committed against God, to call down so severe a denunciation of wrath against it.
This is a work, as has already been shown, which takes place in the last days.
God sends forth a message a little before this fearful crisis comes upon the people, as we shall see in remarks on Revelation 14: 9-12, declaring that all who do any of these things "shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation."
Prideaux says that Ptolemy Philopater ordered all the Jews who applied to be enrolled as citizens of Alexandria to have the form of an ivy leaf (the badge of his god, Bacchus) impressed upon them with a hot iron, under pain of death.
The word used for mark in this prophecy is {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, charagma, and is defined to mean, "a graving, sculpture; a mark cut in or stamped."
It occurs nine times in the New Testament, and with the single exception of Acts 17: 29, refers every time to the mark of the beast.
Of course, we are not to understand in this symbolic prophecy that a literal mark is intended, but the giving of the literal mark, as practiced in ancient times, is used as a figure to illustrate certain acts that will be performed in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
From the literal mark as formerly employed, we learn something of its meaning as used in the prophecy, for between the symbol and the thing symbolized there must be some resemblance.
The mark as literally used,
--signified that the person receiving it was the servant of the person whose mark he bore,
--acknowledged his authority,
--and professed allegiance to him.
So the mark of the beast, or of the papacy, must be some act or profession by which the authority of that power is acknowledged."
Uriah Smith
This is a work, as has already been shown, which takes place in the last days.
God sends forth a message a little before this fearful crisis comes upon the people, as we shall see in remarks on Revelation 14: 9-12, declaring that all who do any of these things "shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation."
Prideaux says that Ptolemy Philopater ordered all the Jews who applied to be enrolled as citizens of Alexandria to have the form of an ivy leaf (the badge of his god, Bacchus) impressed upon them with a hot iron, under pain of death.
The word used for mark in this prophecy is {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, charagma, and is defined to mean, "a graving, sculpture; a mark cut in or stamped."
It occurs nine times in the New Testament, and with the single exception of Acts 17: 29, refers every time to the mark of the beast.
Of course, we are not to understand in this symbolic prophecy that a literal mark is intended, but the giving of the literal mark, as practiced in ancient times, is used as a figure to illustrate certain acts that will be performed in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
From the literal mark as formerly employed, we learn something of its meaning as used in the prophecy, for between the symbol and the thing symbolized there must be some resemblance.
The mark as literally used,
--signified that the person receiving it was the servant of the person whose mark he bore,
--acknowledged his authority,
--and professed allegiance to him.
So the mark of the beast, or of the papacy, must be some act or profession by which the authority of that power is acknowledged."
Uriah Smith
