In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.
The mark of the beast is the beast’s name and it’s in contrast to the seal of God, which is God’s name. In both cases, we end up with one or the other name written on our foreheads. Having the Father’s name means belonging and acceptance.
But if we look deeper, we see that the word name in the Bible refers to character. One of the most beautiful examples in scripture is in Exodus 33 and 34. Chap 33:19 God says to Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the NAME of the Lord before you. Then he tells him he has to hide moses in the cleft of the rock as a full revelation of God would be overwhelming. A few verses later in chapter 34, God appears:
“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the NAME of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
What happens when we worship something? We become who we worship. If we choose to worship the beast, we will become like the beast, we will manifest his character; we will receive his mark.
Those that have the Father’s name written on their forehead are those that belong to God and because they belong to God they manifest or reflect his character. The father’s name – his sealing – is not something you can get or do or earn – it’s what happens when you find your being in Jesus Christ and allow God to love you into all you were created to be.