by Richard Gan
In this message, we shall take a journey through time to study the distinguishing MARK OF THE WICKED ONES. We can trace the MARK found on the wicked ones beginning from the first one who dwelt outside the Garden of Eden to the last one who is dwelling in the Vatican.
I will deal mainly with that MARK which the Lord God had set upon Cain.
Of what importance is this revelation of THE MARK OF CAIN to a Bible Believer?
An understanding of the MARK will certainly enable us to recognize the working of the children of the Wicked One throughout the ages, especially in our days. Cain, the seed of the Serpent, had his own kind which still exists today. That MARK which God had set upon Cain can also be found upon his kind. As you take a look around you, you can never miss his kind with that prominent MARK upon them.
EXPULSION FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD
After sin had entered the Garden of Eden, the Man and his Woman were expelled from that delightful place (Gen.3:22-24). It wasn't just a specific location from which God had driven them away and which God had placed cherubim to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Remember that the Bible is written in the language of the Spirit. In many passages, the TRUTH is hidden from the wise and prudent who are content to read the Bible casually and scratching only the surface of it. But we, who are spiritual, do mind the deep spiritual things of God.
The couple were actually driven from the Eternal Presence of God. They were in that place where they had access to the realm of the spirits. They were actually dwelling in the Glorious Presence of the Almighty. But when sin entered their lives, they were no longer allowed to live in the presence of the SOURCE OF LIFE (Gen.3:22). They were driven away from God's Glorious Presence of Eternal Life. Sin brought death upon them.
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” – Gen.3:23
Thus, man became earth bound and possessed a corruptible natural body, and since then has been denied access to that realm of the Glorious Presence of his Creator (Gen.3:24; 1 Cor.15:42-50).
Thenceforth, Adam had to toil by tilling the ground to obtain food for himself and his wife. In the sweat of his face, and in sorrow, he had to labour against the thorns and thistles which sprang up from the ground because of God's curse upon it.
CAIN & ABEL
In the course of time, Eve gave birth to twins, Cain and Abel. Eve was the mother of all living, as she was named (Gen.3:20). Although Cain (whose name means acquisition) was the elder of the twins, the whole Sacred Scripture bears out that he was not of Adam.Cain was a Beast-man, the seed of the Serpent. Abel was the firstborn of Adam.
“And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” – Gen.4:2b-7
From the above account we can see a marked difference between the twins. Like his father, the Serpent, who was a servant of Adam, Cain was a tiller of the ground. Whereas, Abel was a shepherd. And like his father, Adam, he had dominion over the animals that God had created.
While Cain had brought of the best of the first fruits of his harvest as an offering to the Lord, he did not have the divine revelation of what God desired. Apostle Paul said his sacrifice was excellent, but Abel was more excellent (Heb.11:4). God not only wanted the best, but the BLOODY BEST, if I may say so, not meaning to be sacrilegious. Because of the make-up of his personality, Cain never understood that. He was not a son of God as Abel was.
Abel offered to Jehovah God precisely what God desired: the shed blood of the best firstlings. That prophetic revelation pointed to the Seed of the woman (Gen.3:15) who was to come as the Lamb of God and die a bloody death at Mount Calvary. The Lamb of God was our Lord, Jesus the Christ. He was God's BEST GIFT to mankind.
God was not without mercy and grace when He rejected Cain and his offering. On the contrary, He was, and always is, rich in Grace and Mercy. He always provides the way for man to return to Him that man's fellowship with Him may be restored.
Yes, even in this generation, had God not sent to us the second 'Elijah', prophesied in Malachi 4:5-6, we would not be found walking in the Light of His WORD, neither would we have the REST that Prophet Isaiah had prophesied (in Isaiah 28:8-13). We would most likely be out in the denominational quagmire and hogwash if not for the Grace and Mercy of God. The Lord is restoring His Bride back to His WORD that He may know her as His Own before He burns the world up at His coming. (Read Matthew 7:21-23; 25:11-12.)
Now, there are various interpretations given to Genesis 4:7. One version states that Cain was told to master his sin, which was crouching at the door (of his heart), because of his wrong offering. Another version implies that Cain sinned because he did not do well in his offering, and that he was told to go back to his brother Abel, who would be subjected to him.
On the face of it, all these interpretations seem to be acceptable. But the Great Merciful and Gracious God did not just stop at showing Cain the acceptable way, but had gone beyond that by providing him an acceptable sin-offering.
Let me paraphrase Genesis 4:6-7:
And the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why do you look so downcast? If you had done well, would you not be accepted? And if not, there is a sin-offering crouching right before you. He is subjected unto you, and you can do with him as you please.”
There is a somewhat similar situation in Genesis 22. When Isaac asked Abraham about the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham replied that God would provide Himself a lamb (vv.7-8). And right at the moment when Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering, God provided him a ram for the purpose. And Abraham went and took the ram under subjection and offered him up for a burnt offering unto the Lord (vv.13). See also 2Corinthians 5:21.
Well, Cain was not like Abraham. He was of Satan, the Wicked One and the Adversary of God. He was too proud and too lifted up to accept God's Provided Way of Worship, especially seeing that God had favored his younger brother and his offering. Like many today, he felt that his religion was as good as Abel, and that God should accept it. To Cain, even God's gift was not good enough, compared to what he had to offer. He spurned the Grace and the gift of God, and walked out on Him. (Can you see the same thing being committed today by thousands and thousands of people who just have no desire to accept God's Gift at Calvary and His Provided Way of Worship in that Blessed Name of Jesus Christ?)
Some time later, being filled with envy, jealousy, emulation, wrath, and other works of the flesh, Cain took his (half-)brother Abel to the field, and argued with him about religion. ('Religion' has always been the greatest cause of bloodshed. Read 1 John 3:12.) And Cain murdered Abel and buried him good and proper, that he might not be found.
Well, he didn't realise (or did he?) that the blood could cry out. Life is in the blood. And God heard the cry of Abel's blood. He questioned Cain concerning his brother's death.
Cain's reply, as recorded in Genesis 4:9, was not merely a soft spoken denial of guilt which many Bible readers think so. On the contrary, Cain was insolently violent. He literally shouted at God.
THE CURSE ON CAIN
The Lord God then cursed Cain:
“And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.” – Gen.4:10-12
Notice the shock reaction of Cain when he heard the punishment God had pronounced on him:
“And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.” – Gen.4:13-14
Now, why would “every one” (excluding the sons of God, the Sethites) want to kill him? As he had protested, his punishment was already too much for him to bear. Was it because his iniquity was too great to be forgiven? Not only was he under a curse and rejected by the earth which received the blood of Abel, but Cain was also banished from the Presence of God to live a nomadic life as a fugitive and a vagabond.
The answer to the earlier question lies in the first part of Genesis 4:12. The ground would no longer yield its strength for everyone's crops no matter how hard they would work on it. That was the cause for the other ill consequences which would befall him.
The people who would later come into existence in his lifetime would surely rise up against him to kill him. They would not just merely curse and swear at him, they would want to kill him; not because he was a murderer, but because he had caused the ground to be cursed that they would be unable to reap what they had sown no matter how hard they would work the field. Vengeance would be the natural reaction of the unregenerate to someone who had caused them all those troubles!
THE GROUND: TWICE CURSED
The ground was cursed twice. The first curse was the judgment of God on the sin of Adam. Although the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles, its strength to produce abundant crops was not removed (Gen.3:18). The second curse was the penalty of Cain's sin for shedding the righteous blood of Abel. The Lord had heard the voice of Abel's blood (which denotes his posterity) crying out from the ground unto Him (Matt. 23:35). And Cain was placed under a curse in which the ground was no longer able to yield its crops as it used to be. The harvests which were once plentiful had become barely sufficient.
THE MARK OF CAIN
“And the Lord said to him, It shall not be so; whoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, so that anyone who may find him may not kill him.” – Gen.4:15 [Lamsa]
The El Shaddai had once again shown His Mercy and Grace unto Cain upon hearing his plea. Cain had feared for his life because of the curse on the ground as a result of his sin in shedding Abel's blood upon it. But God promised him that he would not be so easily killed by any person who sought to kill him, and He further added that a sevenfold vengeance would be upon anyone who took Cain's life. And the Lord set upon Cain a mark which made it impossible for anyone to kill him.
What was that MARK?
Some Christians believe that the mark was either a visible sign, indelibly inscribed upon Cain's forehead, similar to that which is described about the Mark of the Beast as recorded in the Book of Revelation, or that he had black skin. There are others who do not even bother to find out what it was. A true Bible Believer should never adopt such an attitude towards the Word of God, but is enjoined to “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Tim.2:15). For “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim.3:16-17).
Yes, the Bible should be our most precious Book of all books on our book shelves. And we would gain by receiving the revelation of God's hidden mysteries within It.
The mark set upon Cain was something which could protect him from being killed. Therefore, it was neither an indelible visible sign on his forehead nor the black colour of his skin. How could a mark upon Cain's forehead (the Bible does not state so) or being a black person ever protect him from being killed by other men?
The mark was certainly a visible protective sign which was able to generate fear in his opponents. Any would-be killer would think twice before making any attempt on Cain's life lest he be overpowered by Cain.
Believe it or not, the MARK set upon Cain was his SIZE. This is the revelation I have received from the Holy Spirit according to His Scriptures. Thatsame MARKwas upon some of his kind, as we shall see by following the trail of the Serpent.
SAGACIOUS GIANT OF A MAN
The Prophet of God to this age, William Branham, told us that the Serpent was aBIG fellow. Let's say he was 1 foot taller than Adam who was perhaps 6 foot tall based on the average height of mankind. Remember, he was created to be Adam's servant to work the field. Being a Serpent's seed, Cain must also be aBIG fellowlike the Serpent according to the law of reproduction. When God set the MARK upon Cain, He actually further increased his PHYSIQUE and his INTELLECT.
Now, would any of his descendants, who stood about 7 foot tall and weighed 300 pounds, dare to look upon a giant like Cain, who stood, perhaps between 9 and 10 foot tall (may be even taller) and weighed some 800 pounds, and say, “I am going to kill you, you trouble-maker!”?
Undoubtedly, no man in his right mind would dare make that attempt.
At this juncture, let me say that though Cain was the father of the Cainites, his descendants were not giants until they intermarried with the Sethites and produced the hybrids.
Genesis 6:4 states that there were giants in those days before and after the Flood. The giants were a result of the intermarriage of the two lines of people, the Sethites and the Cainites, which probably began some time before the generation of Enoch. This can be determined by looking at the two genealogies of Cain and Seth.
According to the record of Genesis 4:19-22, the line ofpure Cainite people ended with the three sons of Lamech — Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain. They belonged to the same generation as Enoch, a descendant of Seth (Gen.5:18-24). The hybriding between the two peoples most likely took place two or three generations prior to this period. It brought an end to the totally PURE Cainite race. But as the seed is traced to the male sex, the Cainite race continued even as the male descendants took to themselves wives of the Sethite race.
As the two peoples began to intermarry among themselves,the pure descendants of Seth continued for another three generations until the generation of Noah who was the last of the pure Sethite race(Notice, like Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain, Noah's father was also named Lamech.)
Giants, both physical and intellectual, were born as a result of genetic disturbances in the hybriding. However, not everyone who was born of such inter-racial marriages was a giant. But the majority of them were by nature more wicked and evil (Gen.6:4-5). And so, by God's foreknowledge of that condition, Enoch was born and raised up to prophesy against that wicked and evil generation. His son, Methuselah, was the living testimony of his faith in Jehovah God. He was also a faithful testimony to his God-given prophecy concerning the impending judgement of God upon the earth (Jude 14,15).
Intellectually, Cain was as smart and cunning as his father, the Serpent. He had not only inherited the evil traits from the wicked one, the devil, but was also full ofworldly wisdom. When God increased his BUILD, the SIZE of his BRAIN also increased proportionately and his mental capacity and reasoning power were thus enhanced. Should a group of men come against him, Cain might not be able to overcome them with his build alone, but with hisINTELLECTUAL SHREWDNESShe would be able to escape unscathed.
Whether you are hunting or being hunted, you have to be smart and cunning in order to get your prey or to stay alive. With the MARK set on him, Cain must have been more subtle than his Serpent father. Hisintellectual and sagacious mindmust have helped him to outwit his pursuers in many situations when he was being hunted.
“A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” — as the Lord God had said to Cain, and so was he. As he was being hunted, Cain constantly had to run from one place to another to hide himself from his pursuers.
'SPIRITUAL' DECEIT
Remember, Cain was alsospiritually religious. But he did not worship God in TRUTH. He rejected GOD'S PROVIDED WAY OF WORSHIP. He killed the righteous Abel out of jealousy because his own deed was evil. After God had judged him, he set off towards the land of Nod and led a wandering life.
Genesis 4:16-24 is a record of Cain's descendants who were as carnally and intellectually minded as Cain. The Bible records that they were either great builders of BIG or PROMINENT monuments and cities, or great artificers and inventors of BEAUTIFUL metal objects, musical instruments, tools and weapons. They were also as RELIGIOUS as they could be.
As we read Genesis 4:26, it appears that this people in the generation of Enos had begun to call upon the Name of Jehovah God to worship Him:
“And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.”
Generally, the verse has been misinterpreted by most people. It is preposterous to believe that the Serpent's descendants, the Cainites, had suddenly turned to the Lord God to worship Him in spirit and in truth. There are two obvious reasons why it could not have been so. The first is that Cain, being religious, would doubtless have a form of worship of his own, and that he would have passed it down to his descendants. And the second is that the Serpent seeds might claim to worship God in spirit, but certainly never in truth.
On the other hand, they are those who teach that this verse refers to Divine worship being practised only from the time of Seth's descendants. This is even more ridiculous. Before Seth, both Cain and Abel were worshipping God. There's no doubt about it. They were brought up to do so by Adam and Eve. When Seth was born, he too learned to worship Jehovah in the same manner. He would in turn teach his children who would also learn about the true form of Divine worship even from their grandparents, Adam and Eve. As such, it is indeed absurd to say that the Sethites only began to worship Jehovah after Enos was born. As it was only a short span of time between the two generations of Adam and Seth, how could they have forgotten how to worship God? True worship could not have begun only after Enos was born. It began when Adam was created and has continued ever since.
Ancient Jewish records rendered that the “men” refers to the Cainic race who “began profanely to call upon the name of the Lord”. That is right. They had desisted from that little knowledge of the true spirit of worship that they might have learned from Cain, although they might not have the truth. They had turned to make themselves idols out of precious metals, wood and stones, and surnamed their idols after the Name of Jehovah God in their worship.
The profanation of God's Holy Name started from Enos' time to and beyond the Flood. All the time, they got even more evil and more wicked, especially when they later co-habited with the Sethite women and produced giants who were “mighty men”, “men of renown”. (Read Genesis 6.)
After the Flood the serpentine nature was more markedly manifested in Ham and his descendants. One of them was Nimrod, a son of Cush. Nimrod was the builder of Babylon and the Tower of Babel (a name which means `the gate of the god' and also `confusion'). He was also the one who introduced the worship of Baal.
Enos' name, in itself, was a revelation that the Cainites were spiritually 'incurable, sick, frail and weak', especially when they profaned the Holy Name of God. Seth gave his son that name 'Enos' as a witness to that generation of evil people. Moreover, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was raised up to prophesy of the Lord's judgment upon their ungodliness (Jude 14,15.)
The third feature of Cain's MARK was his ability to deceive the people spiritually, making them religious. Always bear in mind that Cain was of the Evil and Wicked One, the Adversary of God and His people. Satan has always been a DECEIVER. He is good at transforming himself into an angel of Light to hoodwink the spiritually weak worshippers. For those who enjoy sweet talk, he is a great guy. He is good at tickling those who have itchy ears, too.
Well, how could that ability further help protect Cain from those who sought to kill him?
It certainly facilitated him to spiritually deceive the people into believing that he worshipped the same God and had the same faith as them. (Do not for one moment think that they did not have had as many different `faith' as Christendom today.) He would appease them by deceptive talks. “Why killest thou me, a believer of the same God Whom thou also believe? Let it be known that I also am a worshipper of the same God that thou worship. Don't you see? We are of the same family, same `church'? Let's love one another as real brothers in the Lord God.”
Deceit? Sure! Why, haven't we often heard `Christian people' say, “Come on, we believe in the same Bible and the same Jesus. We should not be splitting hair over doctrines. We should be more concerned about the Great Commission of Christ. We should be united together as one, just as Jesus prayed”? Very religious, indeed!
Yes, butter it up with sugar! Top it up with icing! Then give it to any `Tom, Dick or Harry' Christian: they will certainly grab and gulp it down! But not so with an elect of God: he will not even come near nor touch it with a ten-foot pole! Amen!
Brethren, remember, serpents do not die easily. And Satan, that old Serpent, whose head was bruised at Calvary, had revived himself through time and has come up riding on a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse. Yes, he has gone through all the Church Ages, deceiving, killing, blackmailing and leading mankind into a spiritual WORD-less death within the RELIGIOUS REALM.
Today, 'The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man' is the theme of the religious World Council of Churches which seeks to bring about a unity of all the organised churches around the world. This is the fulfillment of the Scripture as spoken by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 13:30. The TARES are now gathered together and bound up ready for the burning soon.
DEATH OF ALL PURE SERPENT SEEDS
We know that Cain and his descendants built a great empire in those days before the Flood. They were great people who were very imaginative and inventive (Gen.4:16-24). And their intermarriage with the Sethites produced even greater, but more wicked, people whose entire imagination, desires and purposes of their hearts were only evil continually (Gen.6:1-5).
It grieved God at His heart to see the prevailing condition on the earth. So He sent a great flood upon the earth by breaking up the fountain of the great deep and the floodgates of the heaven to destroy every living thing upon the face of the earth.
Except Noah and his family, and pairs of every kind of animal, bird and creeping thing, all the rest of the living things upon the face of the earth were destroyed in that deluge. All those who survived with Noah were in the ark for about a year.
The Flood had destroyed ALL the pure Serpentine people. No literal Serpent seed exists today, as some believe otherwise. But the evil and beastly serpentine nature is present in the whole of human race. For we are all of the same blood. We are descendants of either Ham, Shem or Japheth, who carried a mixture of the blood of righteous Noah, a Sethite, and his wife, who was either a Cainite or a hybrid.
SERPENT NATURE
It was not long after the Flood that the serpentine nature began to manifest itself. Among the three sons of Noah, the serpentine nature was more predominant in Ham. It had so dominated him that he committed incest with his mother while his father was drunk in his tent (Gen.9:20-23; cf. Lev.18:8; 20:11).
When Noah came to know about it, he cursed Ham and said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren” (Gen.9:25). Canaan was the fruit of Ham's incestuous act with his mother.
Canaan was the last of the four sons of Ham. He was the father of the Canaanites; all giants, like the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgasites, and many others, which dwelt in the land of Canaan.
CUSH & NIMROD
Yes, the Mark of Cain was upon Ham and his descendants, too. They were people of great stature. Ham's firstborn, Cush, the ring-leader in the building of the Tower of Babel and the city Babylon, was also a great big fellow. In Pagan Antiquity he was known by several names, two of which were Bel — 'The Confounder', and Chaos — 'God of Confusion'. Cush gave birth to one of the most controversial politico-religious figures in history — Nimrod, who was a mighty man and a tyrant in the sight of the Lord God (Gen.10:6-12).
Nimrod took over his father's unfinished work. He came to be known as the founder and builder of the great city of Babylon. He also built several other great cities. He was literally the founder of the religion of Papal worship.
Parallel to Ham's incest with his mother was Nimrod's marriage to his own mother, Semiramis. According to historian Alexander Hislop, author of 'The Two Babylons', Nimrod was killed by his great uncle, Shem, who could not tolerate his evil practices of the occult and baby sacrifice. Then his evil mother-wife deified him. In fact, he was the first human to be deified. Hislop stated “that Nimrod was the actual Father of the gods, as being the first of deified mortals”. His mother was later deified based on the argument that if Nimrod was a god, then his mother-wife must also be a goddess.
That was how Papal Rome founded their worship of mother Mary and child Jesus.
Hence, we see the same Mark of Cain upon the Hamites: big physically, great intellectually. And their religion? As 'great' and 'beautiful', but full of deceit, evil and wickedness to the core.
ESAU & JACOB
Now, let us skip the pages of history and look at Esau and Jacob.
“And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord.
And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” – Gen.25:21-23
“…and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” – Gen.25:27
This brief record clearly shows us that Esau and Jacob were twins of the same father. But the twins that were conceived in the Garden of Eden were of different fathers. Cain was a seed of the Serpent and Abel was of Adam.
We have noticed that, after the Flood, of the three sons of Noah, Ham possessed a very dominant serpentine nature, the mark of which was also manifested in his direct descendants.
Therefore, even by the same father, different kinds of seeds can come forth out of the same womb. It will either be a spiritual seed of God or a religious seed of the devil. One will believe every WORD and PROMISE of God, the other will despise God's WORD and make His PROMISES of none effect.
The twins of Isaac and Rebekah showed a type of what could come forth out of the 'womb' of the Church.
Now, like Abraham, the True Worshippers would be called of God out of their so-called kindred — the denominationals. They would hear the 'Call' in the 'SHOUT' Message of the 7th Church Age Messenger, William Branham. They would obey and walk out of their 'homelands' to claim the Promised Word. And like Abraham, they would hear theVOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL and receive HIM — THE PROMISED SON (THE WORD OF GOD), which is THE TRUTH for their day.
As Isaac loved Rebekah, so Christ Jesus loves His Church. And as the womb of Rebekah produced two different people, so has the Church today. It has also produced its 'Esaus' and 'Jacobs'. The spirit of that religious Serpent seed has truly crept in.
Consider the two persons, Esau and Jacob.
Esau was a strongman, perhapsbig. Hemarriedthree wives, two of whom wereHittite giantesses(Gen.26:34). Though polygamy was permitted then, he wasunequally yokedwith the unbelievers. He was also acunning hunter, anintellectualman who wasknowledgeableabout the things of the world.
Jacob, on the other hand, was merely aplainman. He was a shepherd, living asimplelife. He marriedfour wives: Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah —believerswithin 'the family', so to speak.
Being the firstborn, Esau was heir to all his father's properties. He had thebirthright. But when he was put to a test in a dire situation, Esau despised THE PROMISE OF THE WORD. To deal with his then famished condition was more important to him than his birthright. He said, “I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” So he despised his birthright for a piece of bread and a bowl of vegetable soup.
Is not this the confession of some of the 'Esaus' today? “I need natural bread.” “What is the use of preaching this Endtime Message if I am not financed?” “I am being ridiculed for the Truth.” And away they go, back to their 'homelands' like “a dog returneth to his vomit”.
And when Esau lost his blessing to Jacob, did he not seek to slay Jacob? (Gen.27:41).
Now, Jacob was a spiritual person. He knew what the birthright meant. All the PROMISES and BLESSINGS were attached to it. His heart was set upon obtaining it. And when he got it, he held on to it until the PROMISES and BLESSINGS came. So, ought not we, who possess the birthright TOKEN for this hour, do the same?
PARADOX
Elect does not persecute the elect. It is true. But notice a paradox. Weren't Esau and Jacob related? Weren't they from the same womb? Weren't they of the same father — bearing the same surname? If so, why did Esau persecute Jacob?
Naturally, the answer lies in the serpentine nature in Esau. As I have mentioned, 'religion' has always been the main cause of bloodshed. Hence, as the religious Cain had spurned the Grace of God and killed spiritual Abel, the religious Esau had also despised his birthright, lost his blessing and finding “no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Heb.12:17), he sought to kill spiritual Jacob.
But the Church is SPIRITUAL, not natural. The 'Esaus' in the church are not spiritual. They are only religious. They are the 'serpent seeds'! Like Esau, they are truly showing that Mark of Cain in their lives. Do I have to say more?
Now, let's see another group of 'elects' that persecuted the elects in their generation.
THE PHARISEES, THE SADDUCEES & THE SCRIBES
All of us, Bible believers, know that the Oracles of God were committed unto Israel. The Oracles were the channels of Truth through which true worship could be rendered unto the Lord God. But ever since they were given, many false anointed ones had crept in in every generation to proclaim themselves as prophets and leaders. All these sprang forth in the name of worship.
In the days of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, the common people were ledreligiously in their worship of God by threeBIG RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS or DENOMINATIONS of 'Rabbis' — the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes. All those groups of religious people claimed that they believed Abraham, Moses and all the prophets — the Old Testament gospel. Yet when the Gospel, introduced by John the Baptist, came among them, they ridiculedChrist and His messenger. As religious as they were, those people were not even the least spiritual to recognise the hour of their visitation.
Read the New Testament Gospel Books and you can see that those Rabbis were INTELLECTUAL people. They were scholars, and very traditional. They would confront anyone who was opposed to their traditions or views. For that reason, they confronted John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus many times.
Being what they were, they dressed themselves differently from the common people. That was an outward show of themselves in public that people would call them 'Rabbi'. The Lord Jesus called them “whited sepulchers, which indeed appear BEAUTIFUL OUTWARD, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matt.23:27). They appeared righteous unto the people but were actually full of hypocrisies and iniquities.
John the Baptist refused to baptize them and called them 'vipers', for so they were (Matt.3:7). Our Lord hit out against them, calling them 'names' such as blind guides, fools, hypocrites, murderers, DECEIVERS, and many others (Matt.16:1-12, 23; etc.).
Yes, beware of their leaven! Jesus warned His disciples. They claimed as religiously as they could that they believed the WORD, but they despised THE TRUTH, THE WAY and THE LIFE. They were INTELLECTUALS in the field of traditional religions. They were BIG, STRONG and VERY DECEPTIVE. Without a shadow of doubt, they had the Mark of Cain upon them.
Did they not also persecute the disciples and the Lord's Christ just like Cain and Esau did their blood brothers? And did they not DESPISE THE WORD and CUNNINGLY put Christ to death on Calvary.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads;
And 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.
Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.” – Rev.13:11-18
The trail of the Serpent will lead to the Antichrist in the end. Here is where we see the Mark of the Wicked One taking the form of the Beast — ROMANISM.
Yes, it all began with the Serpent, a BEAST. He fornicated with the woman, Eve, and brought forth Cain, a Beast-man. And it will all end with a monstrous BEAST which, by fornication with the woman, 'Mystery Babylon', will bring forth the Beast-man known as the Antichrist.
In his days, Prophet Daniel had a vision concerning that beast before it changed its form to become that First Beast as seen by the Apostle John in his vision, centuries later. He witnessed four beasts (see Daniel 7) which foretold the changing empires from Babylonian to Medo-Persian to Grecian and finally to Roman. This fourth beast was “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns” (Dan.7:7). That was Pagan Rome under the Caesars.
However, Pagan Rome came to an end and gave way to Papal Rome. Since then, the Roman Catholic church has been sitting on the Beast (Rev.17:3-5). Papal Rome is Romanism in another form, a blending of politics and religion. It is power in the guise of religious holiness to conquer and to control the souls of men.
And the First Beast (of Revelation 13) grew stronger each day by the power of the Second Beast which gave life to the Image which the people had made to it.
The Second Beast is today's so-called PROTESTANT-AMERICANISM. It is no longer as benevolent with its two lamb-like horns that it once was when the early Protestants from the Papal-controlled land of Europe first came and settled in the great continent some 200 years ago. Now it is a freak Beast which has two horns like a lamb and a mouth that speaks like a dragon! Under the Republican and Democratic parties, the Church and State have been blended as one which speaks with authority!
Yes, religious giants and false prophets have been sounding a deceptive voice to the people, and an Image to the First Beast, the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, has been formed! Yes, today practically every Protestant church has sold its birthright when they bind themselves to make this Image to the Beast. Does not the Bible specifically call them daughters of that Mother Harlot which is none other than that Roman Catholic church? As harlot daughters, they will naturally act like their Harlot Mother. (Read Revelation 17).
What deception! Just look at the MARK. They have everything BIG. They have BIG buildings. Notice the religious practices of the Serpent's seed seen in such buildings — flowers and idols. On the outside, do you not notice the pagan obelisk in the form of the spire pointing heavenward? Yes, that's Nimrod's horn, a horn that represented his power, sexually and religiously. Even his tower (of Babel) was built that way as a symbol.
Then they have BIG programmes, many Hollywood-styled, which are conducted in the name of the Gospel, to draw BIG crowd. They have BIG names for their organisations, even BIG names for their preachers, too. That's right. They are called by such high-sounding titles as Archbishop, Cardinal, Right Honourable, Very Reverend, Holy Father, etc., etc.. They are an INTELLECTUAL lot with letters after their names to denote the strings of university degrees they possess in Bible Theology and such like. But they are truly the children of DECEIT who are full of dead men's bones.
Like the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, they have let down the bar of the Word of God and have subscribed to creeds and traditions of man. Instead of a phylactery, they wear a BIG hat, or a BROAD 'holy' garment with the collar turned inside out, to be seen of men and be recognized as someone who is holy and religiously intellectual. And so they are!
Furthermore, they seek to destroy those who are spiritual enough to disagree with their wrong interpretations of the Scriptures; just as religious Cain did to spiritual Abel; and as thereligious Pharisees, the religious Sadducees and thereligious Scribes did unto the spiritual Christ Jesus.
Yes, the true Christian Faith of the Bible has been replaced today by a 'big' bunch of creeds, dogmas, traditions of men and so-called fundamental truths. As in history where 'big' men built empires to their names, so it is today. They have replaced God by their 'Bigness'.
MARK – NAME – NUMBER
The nominal Christians may be looking for a literal Mark of the Beast to appear in the period of Great Tribulation. Little do they realise that it has already appeared since the 4th Century. It is religiously visible to the eyes of the spiritually discerned.
The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse (Rev.6) symbolise the reign of the Beast beginning with the Antichrist spirit which crept into the Church around 54 A.D. History shows how it conquered the people by its religious authority. That's NICOLAITANISM. Then it made WARS and caused BLOODSHED. After that it brought upon the people a state of FAMINE of the Word of God. And what did it produce? Indulgence, mass, lottery and every conceivable beastly nonsense to keep the people from the WORD.
The result of all these is DEATH.
Papacy, the Beast, the great Roman ecclesiastical power, has continued through the centuries 'strong as iron', the unchanging and uncompromising rock in a turbulent and transitory world. She had exalted herself above all that is called God and made all nations drunk with the wine of her false doctrines (2 Thess.2:4; Rev.17:1-6).
Can you see the MARK, even the Mark of the Beast? Can you see its NAME and recognise its NUMBER, the number of a man? It has been manifested since the time of Cain, who was a Beast-man. And right after the Flood, his kind built the kingdom of BABEL (BABYLON), which means CONFUSION. That's the NAME. And 'Mystery Babylon' spellsCONFUSION!It's the gate of the god of hell!
As for theNUMBER, Nimrod, the first god of BABYLON, bore the number666in his name in the Chaldee language. And the man who sits in his throne atSt. Peter's(in Rome), overlooking anobelisk, and receives reverence and worship, also bears the number666in hisNAME — 'VICARIVS FILII DEI'. Surely this is no coincidence. Even the NAME 'ROMIITH'which is 'ROME'in the Hebrew language, adds up to666. Then again the title:'LATEINOS' or 'LATIN MAN', of whichJulius Caesarwas first to claim, gives another666. The title belonged to the man whose seat is now occupied by a politico-religious figure, thePope.
GIVEN FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE BUT ENDS IN DEATH
The Mark that God set upon Cain was to protect his life, but the devil had taken advantage of it and twisted it into a form of death at the end of its trail. You are marked for death if you believe the words of the Beast or give your right hand of fellowship to it, or pledge allegiance to it or its Image (Rev.14:9).
Many churches have pledged their allegiance to this Beast and its Image. And God's warning to all true Bible Believers is this:
“Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” – 2 Cor.6:17
“Come out of her, My People, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” – Rev.18:4
God does not want you to stay put in the organisation and try to improve the situation.
To stay inthese 'churches' today spellsDEATH. They have become “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” (Rev.18:2). And they can be identified by theMark of the Wicked Oneupon them. There is nowdarknessthroughout the hold and cage, for the LIFE and LIGHT had moved out beyond that camp. It's death in there. The LIFE is on the outside (Rev.3:20).
Unfortunately, DEATH still stalks many who have come out for they are still being deceived in one form or another by the evil one who, by that Ecumenical Octopus, is holding them with his many ugly tentacles. Some of them, while staying independent, are still holding to the traditions and dogmas of the churches they had come out of. Others drift into the hold of the Charismatic Movement where Truth is substituted and sacrificed for freedom of worship and expression. It's today's great deception.
And of those who have come into the last day Message of the 7th Church Age Messenger, William Marrion Branham, but holding on to his STATEMENTS as The Absolute, they are just as deceived. Because they are simply holding to some 'creeds'. The Spoken Word of any true servant of God is only made meaningful by the revelation of the Holy Spirit according to the Written Word of God. And whosoever adds anything to or takes anything away from the LOGOS of God is accursed.
MESSAGE OF LIFE FOR THE HOUR
It is imperative that we know the Word of the Lord, see the hour that we are living in, and recognise our days of God's visitation. We should give an ear to what the Spirit is saying unto us in this day. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Yes, God has sent His Messenger with a message. And this is the message:
“Return to the Word! Back to the Faith of the Apostolic Fathers! Back to the Original! Away with religious creeds and dogmas! Contend for the Faith once delivered to the saints!”
Yes, this isthe hour of separationfrom things which defile. This isthe hour of preparation. It isthe hour of reconciliation and intimacy with THE WORD; it is an invisible union of the Bride with the Bridegroom. This is the hour of the Voice of the Archangel (1 Thess. 4:16). TheTrue Word Bridemust make herself ready, for theMarriage Supper of the Lambwill soon become a reality (Rev.19:7). And how can she prepare herself unless she first hears the message of God's Messenger (Matt.25:6; Mal.4:5-6; Rev.10:7). Amen!
THE WORD is the only safe ground for us. We have to be sealed by His Holy Spirit of Promise unto the day of our redemption (Eph.1:13; 4:30). We must have the Mark of God upon us.
Be ye therefore established in the Present Truth of the hour provided for the perfection of the Bride of Christ through Christ's Own Gift of the Five-fold ministry. (Read Ephesians4.)
CHRIST, The Revealed Word for this generation, is our answer to LIFE.
