You sound like your friend Locutus!
Sounds like something a full-preterist would say.
I see Paul and Peter in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 telling Christians to respect government and authority. I think limiting it to only the Roman government is unwarranted from the context but I guess someone could read it that way. I think it has application for Christians for all generations. We should respect government and authority that God has put in place as long as they don't go against God's Word. God has appointed all nations boundaries and times as this verse says:
Acts 17: 26-27, and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us
I see the Mark of the Beast as something an unbeliever
spiritually receives because they have
bought into (
I see this as the buy and sell of Rev 13: 17) this world system and rejected God. They are materialistic, idolaters etc.. The love of the Father is not in them. They love the world and what it has to offer.
It is not a computer chip or banking thing that prevents people from buying and selling. At least not in my opinion.
Notice how the "Mark of the Beast" is on people's forehead or their hands in Rev 14: 9-12. The forehead represents your thoughts/beliefs in the Bible and the hand represents your works/actions.
Unbelievers receive this spiritual mark and that is why you read that they all go to the lake of Fire and perish. That's why it is on their forehead because they don't believe. It is also on their hand because they are judged for their wicked works/actions.
Contrast that with Rev 14: 1. Believers only receive a "seal/mark" on their foreheads but not their hands. Why? Because we believe in Jesus and He is our righteousness. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. That's why there is only the seal on their foreheads and nothing on their hands.
I know my dispensationalist premillennial friends will vehemently disagree and that is okay. Fair enough.
I sincerely think they are looking for the wrong thing with computer chips and the 70th week was already fulfilled in Jesus' day so there is no 7-year treaty with Antichrist either.
Also you want to remember that the first verse of Revelation says that it is "signified" or "communicated to John by an angel. That word in Greek means "signs". It is encoded in symbols.
Ask this question... Is the seal on the forehead in Rev 14: 1 on God's servants visible? I would say no. They just believe in God. So then why is the Mark of the Beast physical? It's not in my opinion. They belong to the world and the devil. They don't believe in Jesus.