Of Seals, Garments and the Mark of the Beast

Of Seals and Garments and the Mark of the Beast

by Paul Rosenboom

Many Christians are anxiously preoccupied, often to the point of feverishness, with questions about the End Times, the Lord’s Second Coming, and the Mark of the Beast.

The Book of Revelation informs us that the Savior’s Second Coming will be preceded by the Antichrist.  Much is said in the Holy Scriptures about the two Beasts, a little about the Mark of the Beast and surrounding these are a multitude of theories concerning the hidden meaning of the number 666.  But, all too often, these matters are argued and interpreted without the proper ecclesial perspective, humility and discernment.  We grow accustomed to living according to the rhythm of this world and then, without living a genuine Christian life of noetic prayer and asceticism, we hope to understand things that, as the Scriptures caution us, require the deepest wisdom.  And so, many have become disquieted and anxious with regard to the Mark, waiting for its appearance and seeking to discover it in vaccines, official documents and passports, in electronic microchips or gene altering technology,  

Sadly, many Orthodox have unknowingly adopted a Protestant approach to this question; indeed, many of the current theories have their origin in Protestant texts and Protestant fundamentalist theology.  This kind of speculative approach and heightened emotionalism, its very terms of reference -  are alien to the Orthodox Church. The truth is that we do not know what form the Mark of the Beast will take. While there are certain interpretive strains that consistently run through the Fathers and, in our day, the great modern Greek elder Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios has written a very insightful and edifying interpretation of the Book of Revelation, there is no Patristic consensus around the understanding of the Beasts and the Mark of the Beast.  We must be careful to not take interpretations offered by individual Fathers for the Mind of the Church. We should also be careful about attributing to Divine inspiration every thought or opinion expressed by saintly elders. St. John Damascene offered an interpretation that has been repeated by a number of saints but this does not make it the definitive interpretation expressing the Mind of the Church. These matters are veiled and may be better understood with the passage of time.  

Nevertheless, we can make several important points with regard to the Mark of the Beast and a proper Orthodox perspective:

First, it is important to be mindful that no outward action and no practical safeguard can guarantee our faithfulness to the Lord.  It doesn't matter if we move out of the cities to rural areas, stock up on supplies, home school our children, or move close to monasteries. These measures are fine and well and may be necessary to endure in this increasingly hostile world, but these alone will not protect our faith. The Evil One works diligently, employing innumerable methods to separate us from Christ.  As the revered Russian elder, Father John Krestiankin, said, “... the seal [of antichrist] can only be placed upon those who lived in sins without repentance, and who have renounced the Lord by their lives.”  In addition, he comments:  “We should be running not from technology but from our own sins.”  In this light, our sole aim should be the preservation of our faith and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. In this time of rampant heresy and spiritual confusion, we must strive to be faithful to the Patristic ethos and Orthodox Tradition. 

In this vein, we might point out that the Book of Revelation speaks of the servants of God also receiving a seal.  St. John the Evangelist writes: 

 “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, til we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”  

 “And I heard the number of them who were sealed:  and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”  The seal upon the foreheads of the servants of God refers to the Baptism and Confession of Faith of all those who fear God and live according to His will. The seal on the forehead is the knowledge of God and of Christ, whereby the Christian is distinguished from other men. This knowledge is not intellectual knowledge but that acquired through noetic prayer, asceticism and watchfulness. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” The knowledge of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit is impressed invisibly upon the minds of those who believe and are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the knowledge born of a relationship with the God-Man Christ.  This knowledge the prophet David calls a mark of the Divine Light, saying: “the light of Thy Face has made a mark upon us.”   In the hymn of Matins at Theophany we hear:  “You appeared today to us on earth, O Master, and Your light was signed on us who cry aloud to You and say with understanding, O Christ our God: You came and shone forth, O Light unapproachable.” By this mark, the children of God are recognized as such by the angels of God who keep watch over them.  Man in this world is born, grows up  and attains sanctification by being sealed with the seal of God, that is, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Those who keep the law of God, those who do the will of God and keep themselves untainted by sin, have revealed to them a knowledge of God's truth which makes them immune to the dangers of this world. This is not merely the knowledge of dogma and the Word of God but the product of a humble life lived according to the virtues described in the Beatitudes. However, we must be mindful that the demons also seal the followers of Satan in a similar way, impressing upon their minds false ideas concerning God and Christ, making them instruments to counteract the progress of God’s work, that work being to make man in God’s image and likeness. We must ask ourselves, do we possess this sacred seal?  Are we in any condition to know and serve Christ?  

Second, the Holy Scriptures also describe Christian faith and the virtues in terms of the garment Christians wear.  St. Paul speaks of “putting on Christ,”  The Book of Revelation describes the “white raiment” of the faithful.  “He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.”   “And he said to me, These are those coming out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  To ask if we possess the seal of God is to ask if we are properly arrayed in this white raiment.  But what does this white raiment mean?

Just as our naked body is clothed and adorned by garments, so our naked soul is adorned by a spiritual garment and thereby stands in the presence of God. Our spiritual clothing consists of the virtues and graces of the Holy Spirit which Christians receive through Baptism and the cleansing in the Mystery of Confession of their sin-stained garments.  The white raiment is similar to that seen by the Holy Apostles on Mt. Tabor when Christ became Transfigured before them, His face as bright as the sun, and His robe became radiant as light. No man is by nature holy, but a man may become holy through cleansing and sanctification by the Holy Spirit.  The white robes are the glory of the Holy Spirit, which adorns the faithful soul. The white raiment represents the pure virtues of Christ proclaimed by the seven beatitudes and rooted in humility.  We must acquire all the virtues of Christ, viz., humility, meekness, justice, mercy, purity of heart, peaceableness, manliness and endurance during temptation that we may be made worthy to walk with the Lord, wearing the resplendent robe of holiness. 

The essential question then is: How do we best wash and preserve our garment that we might preserve it undefiled and thus be prepared to thwart the Mark of the Beast from entering our hearts and minds? 

The first step in washing and preserving our garment is Repentance and Confession, for the evangelist John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will make remission for our sins and cleanses us of all guile.”   And the prophet David says “All the night I make my bed to swim, I water my couch with tears.”   Be zealous, therefore, and repent.  St. John Maximovich speaks about how the Light penetrates our soul and we become aware of how much sin and falsehood abides in us. Then we cry out from our soul, Have mercy on me Oh, God, according to Thy great mercy and according to the multitude of Thy compassions, blot out my transgressions.  Grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother.   

The second step is Prayer and Watchfulness.

In prayer, we praise God for His loving kindness and entreat His mercy for our sins. We bring before Him our most urgent troubles and concerns. And we must also pray for one another.  It is important that we keep to our prayer rule and that we establish ourselves in the prayers of the saints as contained in the prayer books of the Church. It is by praying in this sacred Tradition forged over centuries that we learn how to pray.  We are not simply mimicking the prayers of the saints but learning to make them our own.

We must also exercise careful inner observation and watchfulness.  One must examine oneself and see if any passions are present in his or her heart or soul.  When we observe them, we must struggle against them and, through persistent prayer, confession and self-discipline, uproot them from our souls. Through inner attention of the nous - the spiritual intellect -  one observes these evil and undesirable thoughts, images and feelings and opposes them.  “Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments…”

The third step is the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ.   “Drink ye all of it; for this is My Blood of the New Testament.” The robes of Christians are whitened  “in the blood of the lamb” through the mystery of the Eucharist. Christ says: Unless ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of His blood, ye cannot have life within you. Our sanctification is effected through the mystery of the Eucharist, through which we partake of the body and blood of Christ toward the remission of sin and life everlasting, not only once but continually.  It is in the Eucharist that we acquire within us the very life of Jesus, our Savior.  

The blood of Christ, like an eternal fountain, provides a continual cleansing in the Church by means of which the Christian cleanse and purges himself of all sin and becomes sinless;  By means of this cleansing and sanctifying mystery of the Eucharist we can keep continually before us a manifestation of the perfect love of Christ in return for which we love Him even as he loved us.  Perfect love is manifested by a willing sacrifice on behalf of the life of the loved one. This great love we see in partaking of the body and blood of Christ and we return this love unto death, even as he has loved us. Behold, I stand at the door and knock;  if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.

The fourth step is keeping the moral law, doing Christ’s will and defeating the will of Satan. The Christians who live a morally pure life do effectively confess Christ before men and it is from them that those who are ignorant as to the nature of Christ and Christianity, learn the Faith and the Way. For Christians, this is the Gospel Law expressed in the Beatitudes of the Gospel of Matthew, 5,6 and 7. We see in the person of the incarnate Logos, our Sweetest Jesus, all the virtues we are to acquire. If we love Christ and continually contemplate His beauty, we cultivate a natural desire to acquire the virtues of Christ, thereby fulfilling the likeness of the Image of God.  

The fifth and final step in the moral law is death by martyrdom for the love of Christ.  Baptism by blood, undergone by many martyrs, whitens and brightens the robe.  This death holds no dread for those who die in the faith, confessing Jesus Christ, or for those who throughout their life repelled the evil one without suffering defeat, for all these inherit eternal life. This blood of the martyrs shed upon the earth is the blood of the Lamb, for the blood of Christians is the blood of Christ, which they receive through the mystery of the Eucharist and which cleanses them of all sin.  John testifies to this in his first Catholic Epistle:  “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin.” (Jn I, 1,7)  Those who fear men more than God are unworthy of God. Christ permits these sufferings of His faithful, including persecutions by authorities, physical torture, and death by martyrdom to test the Christian, for all those who suffer tribulation bravely without denying Christ, prove themselves genuine Christians, while those who, fearing trials, deny Him, prove themselves false and unworthy, and are cut off from the Body of Christ. 

But we must be mindful that martyrdom is a Gift  and not all are called to shed their blood.  However, according to the saints, martyrdom is attained not only through shedding of one’s blood, but also through living a Godly life.  St. Theodore the Studite states:  “Do you see that he [St. Paul], collectively calls Martyrs all those who long for holiness and who through patience lead lives of affliction?  Therefore, brothers, we, too, are included in this martyrdom;..cherishing and enduring the many tribulations of the Cross-bearing life,...”

A third point: It is not the purpose of this essay, and also well beyond my abilities, to attempt any interpretations of the relevant chapters of Revelation, but a few points in this regard might offer some perspective. Regarding the Beasts described in the Book of Revelation, suffice it to say that there are two; one will physically “conquer the saints” while the other is deceptive, with the horns of a lamb and the mouth of a dragon.  Of course, the saints are not defeated spiritually so the defeat will take a physical form.  The deceptive Beast may take the form of a pseudo- Christianity, far removed from the ethos of the Orthodox Church.  It might be worth adding that, historically, the Orthodox Church has already suffered at the hands of both in the form of Islam and Western pseudo-Christianities.

In addition, the Church is described as a woman clothed in the Sun and counterposed to Her is the harlot,  holding a cup filled with the abominations and filthiness of her fornication, or, the mixture of truth with falsehood.  We must be vigilant in preserving the True Faith in the face of the temptations posed by false Christianities.  Enduring fortitude and steadfastness must be among the virtues that characterize our lives.  We must cling to the ethos of the Orthodox Church and follow the path of the God-bearing saints, especially those of our day.    

Whatever form these Beasts, the Harlot and 666 may prove to take,  the Orthodox Christian will do well to heed the guidance of the blessed John Krestiankin:  

 “I am sure that the Lord will not tempt those who love Him beyond the measure of their strength. The seal of antichrist will be preceded by the seal of sin on the mind. You will be judged together with the unbelievers for your inactivity and for not multiplying the talent entrusted to you by God. As for the new passport, I have already written to you about this, and I will not repeat myself. The seal will come only after an individual’s personal renunciation of God, and not by trickery. Trickery has no significance. The Lord needs our heart, loving Him.”  Let us then begin the spiritual work of weaving the cloth of our white garments.  “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”