THE MARK OF THE BEAST and the HARDENED HEART
Strong Delusion
Is the Mark of the Beast just simply taking a "mark" to buy and sell? No. It involves worshipping the beast (Rev. 20:4). How can a person worship "the beast"? Only a deceived person can do that.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 (Bold added)
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Because of their giving place to deception, and because of their rejecting the true Jesus Christ of the Bible, God will send these hardened people "strong delusion that they should believe a lie".
A Hardened Heart
God's Word says that people can harden their hearts against God and God can harden their hearts. There is a clear warning not to have a hardened heart. God, in the Old Testament, talks about this through the psalmist.
Psalm 95:6-11
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
God, in the New Testament, talks about this through the writer of Hebrews. (Remember, there is one Bible. Both Old and New Testaments are for our learning and growth. [2 Timothy 3:16]. )
