The end time is a biblical concept referring to the time before the old world is folded away and a new world is introduced (the new heavens and earth, Revelation 21:1).
According to the Bible, the end time is not peaceful but full of apocalyptic terrors and disasters. Therefore, any mention of the end time comes with a terrifying connotation. But this shouldn’t be the case for everyone in every sense. The end time is terrible news to the old world, but good news (glad tidings or gospel) to those who belong to the New World.
Also, the biblical end time broadly represents the whole age since the ascension of Christ almost 2000 years ago, rather than just a short period of time in the future or the present time only.
But this does not mean every day is the same and will be the same. All signs indicate that we are in the final stages of the end time. Therefore, there is every reason to believe we live in a special time of human history.
More important, the end time is spiritually characterized, rather than materially, and should not be understood only in terms of the simple visible things.
This does not mean the end time is only conceptual and will not actually happen in reality. The end will come, and is coming, but the time is more characterized by spiritual matters than physical ones. The physical events will happen, but the discernment of them is based not on what our physical eyes can see but on the spiritual eyes.
Failing to look from a spiritual viewpoint causes people to misunderstand the end time fundamentally. Some even mock it: look, it’s been almost 2000 years, yet nothing has happened!
But it is happening, both spiritually and physically, although much is discernible only to the spiritual eyes. And a thousand years is only a day in the view of God.
Is a cashless society a mark of the end time?
Unfortunately, today, even Christians look for superficial material marks as indicators of the end time.
One great example is the idea of ‘cashless society’ as an important mark of the end time. This has occupied many people’s minds, especially Christians.
But the idea is clearly a misunderstanding of the book of Revelation.
Every speculation about the cashless society is based on Revelation 13:16-17:
16 And it [the beast] causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bondmen, that they should give them a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead;
17 and that no one should be able to buy or sell save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of its name.
The Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verses 16-17.
It is fairly logical to infer a cashless society from ‘requiring a mark on one’s body to buy and sell things’.
But the book of Revelation has a far more direct and important message that has spiritual and moral bearings. Cashless might coincide with the end time, but it is not the spiritual or moral mark of the end time.
The main message of this part of the prophecy in the book of Revelation is spiritual and moral, and must be spiritually and morally minded and interpreted. Broadly speaking, the spiritual includes moral, therefore, the message is primarily spiritual.
Being spiritual does not mean it’s not practical. In fact, it’s the opposite because the spiritual is far more significant and powerful than the visible material.
The beast puts a mark upon people’s right hand or upon their forehead. The ones who don’t have the mark are prohibited from doing business.
The right hand represents people’s ability to actually do things, and the forehead represents people’s mind, their thinking, and intentions.
The mark therefore, represents a way of doing things and a way of thinking things.
Note, the biblical language is highly symbolic and often abstract. This is not to make it harder to understand, but is necessary, because God uses the things that we can readily understand as “parables” or analogies to reveal the reality that we do not see or understand today in our flesh due to our limitations.
The parables serve as a bridge between the shadow that we see physically today and the reality that can only be seen spiritually.
When a thing is used as a symbol to represent something, the coverage is complete. The ‘right hand’ represents people doing things, and it represents everything, every act we perform and every capability we have. Likewise, the ‘forehead’ represents the mind, and it includes every thought and intention we have.
So don’t foolishly think it’s only the right hand, only a small part, not including the left hand and other parts of your being. If you think that way, you will never understand the Word of God.
Interpretation
From the right biblical and spiritual viewpoint (which is God-centered, versus the secular technical viewpoint, which is man-centered), the meaning of the prophecy in Revelation chapter 13 is clear.
The beast is the Antichrist (see below).
What is he doing? He’s putting marks on people’s way of doing things and way of thinking things. In what ways? This should not be hard to see for people who are familiar with the Word of God.
The marks that the beast is putting on people’s hands and foreheads are the characters of Satan himself, including:
- untruthfulness (Satan is the father of all lies),
- pride (Satan’s most prominent character is pride),
- selfishness (Satan manipulates and destroys others for his own benefit),
- unjustness (Satan is the source of all unrighteousness and unfairness),
- brutality (Satan is the author of ‘end justifies means’ philosophy and resorts to all necessary schemes, including suppression, defaming, sabotage, defrauding, violence and murder, not limited to physical), etc.
The beast has been affecting the earth for a long time, and is accelerating what he’s doing in recent years.
Look at our world today, not only the business world, but broadly any economic interaction and exchanges among people, is it not becoming strikingly clear that people who don’t have the above marks (untruthfulness, pride, selfishness, unjustness, brutality, etc.) are finding it more and more difficult to do business?
This is happening all over the world, China being the forerunner, and the US is not very far behind, with its base of Christian faith disappearing and Christian values collapsing.
None of this has to do with technology directly, although technology can be and will be used malevolently to accelerate the perversion.
People have been misled into focusing on the adoption of a certain type of technology, but ignoring the fundamental spiritual principles and messages.
Just think about it, how can the righteous God judge people in such an important matter as eternity using the kind of technology or methods they happen to use in conducting normal business, regardless of their intention, purpose, and conduct?
God always judges according to the spiritual and moral nature of one’s life.
Those who follow Christ must see this clearly and refuse to let the beast put the mark on you, even if it means losing out on many opportunities of doing business.
The number 666
The identity of the beast in Revelation 13:18 has also been the subject of speculation.
18 Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast: for it is a man’s number; and its number [is] six hundred [and] sixty-six.
Bible, the Book of Revelation chapter 13, verse 18.
But the meaning of that is also rather clear. It is fundamentally not about the number 666 itself, but a symbol. The original language in Greek was simply three letters:
Χ ξ ς
The first letter Χ is a cross, the second ξ a snake, while the third ς is an obsolete Greek letter which stood for ‘stigma’, itself a mark.
These three letters were used to designate numbers (600, 60, and 6, respectively), but they themselves are symbols in the first place. That is, the true meaning is not numerical but symbolic.
The beast is the Antichrist. The snake (ξ ) resists and blocks the cross (Χ), and presents itself to the world as a different stigma (ς), one that causes people to despise the cross. And in that, he has got many people, and certainly will get even more in the future before everything ends.
The Antichrist has come out even in the apostolic age (1 John 2:18), in spirit but carried by multiple human actors who act according to the spirit of the Antichrist.
According to a literal reading of the book of Revelation, the Antichrist will be personified and appear in an actual person at the final stage of the end time. Whether this physical interpretation will be fulfilled or not, it does not alter the spiritual meaning. We should be flexible and prepared for a singular physical fulfillment, even if we are not convinced of such an interpretation, but either way, we must always be faithful to the spiritual matters revealed in the Word of God, which never contradicts itself and remains forever.
Only ones who know Christ can recognize the Antichrist in spirit, as all these things are fundamentally spiritual, not technical.
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