But you have to eat, don’t you?

One of the more memorable Sunday sermons I ever heard was from a Baptist preacher regarding one of his classmates in the seminary.  The lesson for the day concerned the End Times, the prophesied future time when, for seven years, the world will be ruled by a satanic dictator.  The particular biblical passage of concern was Revelation 13:17, in which Satan enforces his edict that “no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name [on his hand or on his forehead].”

What this is commonly taken to mean is that those who do not obey the evil ruler will be prevented (perhaps by means of a cashless economy) from purchasing food or any other necessities of life.  Those who are obedient to evil will be permitted to eat, and they will be readily identifiable by some sort of mark.  Those who reject the mark — that is, those who refuse to bow down to evil — will suffer starvation.

The professor posed the question: to what extent would your faith require you to resist evil?  While most of the class thoughtfully absorbed the gravity of the question, one of the students volunteered a remark, saying, “But you have to eat, don’t you?”

I remember that sermon because it reminded me of some other clergy I have encountered over the years, men for whom pastoral service is not at all different from any secular occupation or career.  Unfortunately, such false servants of God are far more numerous than we might imagine.  Worse yet, not only are many of them of weak faith (and I admit my own flaw in this regard), but a great many are wolves in sheep’s clothing, having gone over to the side of evil.  They endorse unrestricted abortion, the redefinition of marriage, and the perversion of castrating young children to further the cause of transgenderism.

As we have seen, people who dare to speak against the tenets of woke ideology are subjected to the possibility of losing their livelihoods through the tactic known as “canceling.”  Some people consider this the foreshadowing of what biblical prophecy refers to as “taking the mark of the beast.”  Those who refuse the mark will be persecuted to death.

A key objection to mentioning the End Times is the concern that, in our present-day struggle against evil, some people may take a fatalistic attitude and decline to do their part.  After all, some say, Scripture tells us that evil will conquer the world, so therefore, why should we fight it?

And it was given unto him [Satan] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (Rev. 13:7)

Taken alone, this looks discouraging, but it does not excuse us from resisting evil at every level, and by every moral means available to us.   Indeed, the choice between good and evil is binary.  There is no middle ground, and there can be no compromise. 

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. (Rev. 3:16)

We are told in the Old Testament that God has gone ahead of us and already won the victory.  Our duty is to cross over into the Land of Promise.  We must not turn away from the battle.  Yet this is what the Israelites did in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 13, saying,

 “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Indeed, well might we be intimidated today by the forces arrayed against us.  The Dark State is mighty and powerful, and its minions are ruthless.  For seven years they will crush us.  Yet we must fight, and if necessary die, because God has gone ahead of us and won the victory.

Woe unto that seminary student.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.