Let’s talk about “the mark of the beast.”

Every time some new vaccine becomes necessary, there’s a small-but-loud group of evangelicals and otherwise who believe taking this vaccine could be “pledging your allegiance to the devil.” But does this have any grounds in The Bible?

The so-called “mark of the beast” appears in The Revelation, so first we’ve gotta dispel some myths about the book as a whole.

I’d argue that if there’s one book that has been twisted most heavily by the “evangelical fanfiction lore” of the 80s and 90s, it’s gotta be Revelation.
American Christianity in the 90s was wack. After years of politicians stoking fears of communism & new world order, conservatives snowballed their vision of what “the apocalypse” would look like, and reverse-engineered their fears back into Revelation with stuff like Left Behind.
The Left Behind books were pretty critical to the end-times fearmongering. Even Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell said at the time, "in terms of its impact on Christianity, Left Behind is probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside The Bible.”
Meanwhile, Theologian David Carlson said, “Left Behind promotes a skewed view of the Christian faith that welcomes war and disaster, while dismissing peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere—all in the name of Christ.”
The Left Behind series was not really based on any theologically acceptable interpretation of Revelation - rather, it was based on how conservative evangelicals in the 1990s preferred to *imagine* Revelation. It was more red-white-and-blue sensationalism than Christian theology.
Now, I’m not saying Left Behind was directly responsible for anti-vax sentiments, but it did contribute to the misinterpretation of Revelation that saw “the mark of the beast” as something that would be forced upon us by “the man” rather than something we’d bring upon ourselves.
It’s very strange to me that so much of American Christianity is built on the profound fear of persecution, especially when so much of the NT says we should *expect it* and offers encouragement. I mean, really: the most frequently-repeated command in The Bible is “do not fear.”
One telltale sign of distorted Christianity is when it doesn’t inspire hope. The Gospel is the “good news” that God cares about humans enough to become like us, and the *great news* that She’s coming back to redeem and make all things new. Fear shouldn’t be part of the equation.
But so, okay, let’s discuss what The Revelation and “the mark of the beast” are really about. And if you want some dope animation to go along with it, here’s The Bible Project’s masterful video too.

https://t.co/6IzGEr06ij
Revelation is a highly symbolic, enigmatic and brilliantly-constructed book. But it’s not really about the antichrist. Primarily, it’s a word of encouragement, written specifically to 7 harshly persecuted churches in first-century Asia, meant to invoke truths of a deeper reality.
Much of the symbolism in Revelation, rather than pointing to the end of the world, actually foreshadows the more immediate fall of Rome. That said - the book also crystalizes what it means to follow Jesus in *any* period, and it does indeed point to the conclusion of the story.
Revelation is “apocalyptic literature” - but not always in the sense of the actual destructive apocalypse.

In ancient writing, an “apocalypse” is the unveiling of a deeper spiritual reality existing behind the scenes of every moment in life, suddenly made clear for all to see.
John’s “apocalypse” embodies Satan as a dragon, referencing his first appearance as a snake, and grapples with the idea that all Christians bow down to the devil when they fail to live out the steadfast love of Christ. John symbolizes this idolatry with a mark on their foreheads.
But the mark of the beast isn’t the only mark in Revelation. There’s also a mark of the lamb, meant to symbolize the thin remnant of Christians who, amidst the persecution of Rome and all the trials & temptations to come, remain true to the love and identity they know in Jesus.
The mark of the lamb and mark of the beast are not meant to literally refer to tattoos, microchips, cell phones, or flags. Rather, both marks symbolize a deeper spiritual allegiance, either to the unfailing selflessness of Christ, or the short-lived selfishness of the world.
The notion that the “mark of the beast” would literally appear as a “forced vaccine” is uniformly silly. If there really was a mark, it wouldn’t be one you could receive by accident or force - and the action wouldn’t be done with the intention of keeping your community healthy.
The mark of the beast is not literal. The mark of the beast is a symbol meant to represent the conscious sacrifice of your devotion to God, and thus your devotion to love, in exchange for devotion to yourself. Taking a vaccine? It’s the opposite of that.
The church rejects God and embraces “the beast” whenever it succumbs to temptations of power and desire to be on top. Nationalism wasn’t forced on people of faith by “the man.” It was baked into culture over years of negligence. And *that’s* the mark we’re dealing with right now.

More from Society

A long thread on how an obsessive & violent antisemite & Holocaust denier has been embraced by the international “community of the good.”

Sarah Wilkinson has a history of Holocaust denial & anti-Jewish hatred dating back (in documented examples) to around 2015.


She is a self-proclaimed British activist for “Palestinian rights” but is more accurately a far Left neo-Nazi. Her son shares the same characteristics of violence, racism & Holocaust denial.

I first documented Sarah Wilkinson’s Holocaust denial back in July 2016. I believe I was the 1st person to do so.

Since then she has produced a long trail of written hate and abuse. See here for a good summary.


Wilkinson has recently been publicly celebrated by @XRebellionUK over her latest violent action against a Jewish owned business. Despite many people calling XR’s attention to her history, XR have chosen to remain in alliance with this neo-Nazi.

Former Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP is among those who also chose to stand with Wilkinson via a tweet.

But McDonnell is not alone.

Neo-Nazi Sarah Wilkinson is supported and encouraged by thousands of those on the Left who consider themselves “anti-racists”.
Brief thread to debunk the repeated claims we hear about transmission not happening 'within school walls', infection in school children being 'a reflection of infection from the community', and 'primary school children less likely to get infected and contribute to transmission'.

I've heard a lot of scientists claim these three - including most recently the chief advisor to the CDC, where the claim that most transmission doesn't happen within the walls of schools. There is strong evidence to rebut this claim. Let's look at


Let's look at the trends of infection in different age groups in England first- as reported by the ONS. Being a random survey of infection in the community, this doesn't suffer from the biases of symptom-based testing, particularly important in children who are often asymptomatic

A few things to note:
1. The infection rates among primary & secondary school children closely follow school openings, closures & levels of attendance. E.g. We see a dip in infections following Oct half-term, followed by a rise after school reopening.


We see steep drops in both primary & secondary school groups after end of term (18th December), but these drops plateau out in primary school children, where attendance has been >20% after re-opening in January (by contrast with 2ndary schools where this is ~5%).
We finally have the U.S. Citizenship Act Bill Text! I'm going to go through some portions of the bill right now and highlight some of the major changes and improvements that it would make to our immigration system.

Thread:


First the Bill makes a series of promises changes to the way we talk about immigrants and immigration law.

Gone would be the term "alien" and in its place is "noncitizen."

Also gone would be the term "alienage," replaced with "noncitizenship."


Now we get to the "earned path to citizenship" for all undocumented immigrants present in the United States on January 1, 2021.

Under this bill, anyone who satisfies the eligibility criteria for a new "lawful prospective immigrant status" can come out of the shadows.


So, what are the eligibility criteria for becoming a "lawful prospective immigrant status"? Those are in a new INA 245G and include:

- Payment of the appropriate fees
- Continuous presence after January 1, 2021
- Not having certain criminal record (but there's a waiver)


After a person has been in "lawful prospective immigrant status" for at least 5 years, they can apply for a green card, so long as they still pass background checks and have paid back any taxes they are required to do so by law.

However! Some groups don't have to wait 5 years.

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