What is "The Mark"? | Erik Luchetta and Jeremy Marrone

((music playing)) How's it going, Jeremy? Good, man. How are you? Good. I'm glad to be back again and I'm I'm excited about the our conversation tonight. Um, let me ask you a question since this is what we're talking about. The Bible talks a lot about getting a mark or it mentions it several times.

Getting a mark. What does that mean to have a mark? Yeah, it's a great question. Um, getting the mark just simply means this. It is the deliverance or salvation from destruction or punishment in the technical sense. We see this in scripture and um we see that that um people get marks all through the Bible.

There's one particular mark that everybody most people are fascinated with and that's in the book of Revelation. The mark of the beast. Mark of the beast. Yeah. But the mark goes beyond Revelation 13 and it's you can find it in multiple places over the scriptures. But the idea of it is simply this.

It is deliverance or salvation from destruction because of our allegiance or devotion. Really the question is with the mark, who have we given our devotion to? Who have we committed or given our allegiance to in this world? the true and the living God or the God of the age.

And that is clear in scripture through metaphors, right? word pictures are used and the authors of the Bible um explain to us this is what humanity looks like when we give our devotion to God or when we give our devotion to the God of the age um which is described as beasts, dragons, all kinds of wild Jewish literature and metaphors.

So tonight I want to talk about what does it actually mean and we're going to look at some very specific passages that can be controversial but I want to bring some light to what these passages what the authors are describing to us about what this means. So there are throughout scripture you're saying there are many marks.

Yes. And but but they all refer to giving an allegiance to something. You're you're marked and that's basically defined by giving your allegiance to God or to someone or something else. Correct. We use we use these we use this this idiom all the time. Your your life is marked for greatness.

Oh, okay. Okay. You know, your life is marked for um to you you have a certain calling and somebody says, "Man, you're really your life is really marked by being great at that thing." I have a friend of mine who played in the NBA and great basketball player.

I mean, there's only 384 basketball players in the NBA right now. He was at one time one of the top 384 basketball players on the planet. His life was marked by a talent that very few people have. So we use this a lot. Um God marks us for his kingdom.

He marks us for his glory. He marks us for a specific calling or gifting or something. So, this is an everyday phrase that humans tend to use to describe um you've kind of been marked or chosen for something. And so, we see this mark and what I want to do tonight is I want to kind of put some some definition around it.

What does this mean when we see this in the scriptures? Now, the most famous of the marks, let's start here. We're the big one. We're going to start in the book of the revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. The first five words of in English of this book are describing to us this book is about the revelation.

It's an apocalypse meaning it's a revealing an unveiling about who Jesus is as the conquering Messiah. And in Revelation chap 13, I want to start here. We see that this first of all this this book is set in the first century. And there are a lot of theories or perspectives on what the book of the revelation is trying to explain to us.

It is a is it a book from the past? Is it a book from the future? We don't have time necessarily to get into that tonight. But here's what I will say. It definitely meant something to the first audience. It we have to keep it in its first century context to start, right? and then, you know, sort of build out from there.

So, in Revelation 13, I want to start here. So, if anybody's listening or watching, we're going to start in Revelation 13. If you want to open your Bible, um, because I think it's really important for us to see what would it have meant for them in the first century.

What would it have meant for the people that were hearing this in John's day? John is the writer of the Revelation. He is the revelator as we call him. And in Revelation chapter 13, we see this very famous mark. Sometimes referred to as the mark of the beast, the mark of man, but it's generally referred to as the mark.

And in Revelation 13:14, it says, "Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth." Now, this is a picture of the beasts in Revelation 13. It is describing beasts that were also described in the book of Daniel.

Daniel is prophesying about beasts that would come in the future. The beasts in the book of Daniel were world leaders. They were emperors or kings of nations. You had the Assyrians and then the Babylonians and then you had um the Persians and then the Greeks and then the Romans.

It's describing very specific empires back in ancient times. Yeah. So when you read beasts in Revelation, what it's really talking about is world kings, world powers, world leaders or empires. That's what it means. The imagery there is these empires when they do not worship the true and the living God become beasts over humans.

Yeah. And that's what it's describing. Verse 14 again. And it ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. This is basically man worship. Beasts are human beings, human kings, human rulers. They set up an image to say, "You're going to worship this human ruler."

Verse 15, the second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image could speak and cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed. So you will worship the Caesars. you will honor human leaders or we will deal with you.

So, it's basically back to the idea of allegiance. Correct. So, it's we're going to um kill you. Yes. Take advantage of you if you don't show proper allegiance to this leader. Correct. Which the Bible forbids, right? You shall worship the Lord only. You shall have no other gods.

Now, do we are there authorities in the Bible? Does the is the Bible clear in Romans 13 that we submit ourselves to the governing authorities? Yes. That does not mean we worship or give our ultimate allegiance to these human people, right? Only to God. And this is what the mark is describing.

Verse 16 of Revelation 13. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand and on their forehead, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Verse 18 of Revelation 13, let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666. Now whatever people's perspective are is on the book of the revelation this part right here is John is specifically talking about to a about a ruler in his day and that is Caesar um Neero Caesar.

It is specifically describing a man who has that number. And if you um in Jewish literature, numbers also have corresponding letters or characters and it spells out his name. But it's also Caesar is a bit of a a type or a prototype. He's not the only beast or the only one who would demand allegiance from human beings.

Well, it's kind of like what you even said with Daniel. Yes. You see many different beasts throughout Daniel. So this concept from a Jewish perspective coming from a Jewish writer, John, right? No doubt to many Jewish people, they hear beast and they're not thinking one individual one time throughout history, this is anybody who sets itself up against God and demands allegiance and worship.

Correct. And so you're saying though specifically just so for our listeners that there in Revelation where it talks about the number 666 and the man you're saying that it was the king at that time. Correct. Caesar. Yeah. And that the listeners who had wisdom knew that that's who John was talking about.

Yes. I mean and if you think about it to even put you really you would really have to be careful to write that down in that day. You wouldn't you just you wouldn't want to just write I'm talking about Caesar, right? cuz that's a good way to get executed.

They would kill you for treason on something like that. Absolutely. So, it's taking wisdom to understand John is saying, "We know who this guy is. It's the current king in Rome who's oppressing people and demanding that we worship him, which we cannot do." Correct. That's a death sentence.

You write a letter to people saying, "Hey, reject Caesar as king and worship the one true king, Jesus." It's a death sentence. It's a death sentence. Yeah. Now, John is using first century Jewish. This is what we refer to as meditation literature. This is really important. These are signs and symbols in Jewish literature used to describe to a people who would understand what these signs and symbols mean to convey a message.

John is not trying to cover up the meaning. He's actually this is a revelation. An apocalypse is an unveiling. It is a peeling back the layer of the onion to say here's what's really happening. And we use metaphors all the time every day in our language and don't realize how many metaphors we're using.

That's what John is doing. He's using metaphor language, metaphoric language for first century Jewish audience who would understand what he's trying to communicate. Well, if it's like a metaphor, then the mark itself, is that a metaphor? Is it an actual mark? Like visible mark on the hand and on the forehead?

What's what's going on? It's a metaphorical mark. It's not a physical mark. John does not intend to do that. And I'll show you why. The very next chapter, this again, they received a mark to worship the ruler to give their allegiance to the beast, whoever the beast is at that time.

In Revelation 14, we see this. The very next verse, John says, "Then I looked and there before me was the lamb, Jesus." Okay, standing on Mount Zion, the holy hill, and with him 144,000. Now, that's a picture of the church, the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes. 12* 12 is 144.

And then a thousand is an incalculable number in Jewish literature. So this 144,000 is describing all human beings over the span of human history who will give their allegiance to Jesus, the church. It is God's people, the family of God. So when we read 144,000, it's 12 tribes, 12 apostles times a thousand.

And it is all of those who would follow God and his revelation through Jesus with 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. So like another mark metaphorically that they would follow the true Messiah and his father who is God. So one verse is talking about a mark from the beast on the hand and the forehead.

Correct. Now, you're reading a verse though of another mark. Correct. It's interesting how this mark that you, you know, the one that you just read from the lamb is one that I mean, I don't know about you or others, but sometimes that one's really overlooked. We tend to look at the mark of the beast instead of the mark of the lamb, which which is right there.

So, all right. So, if there's a mark on our head from the lamb, that means what? They're followers of God. The followers of God. The same way the beast would be walk of the beast would be you follow the beast. You have given your devotion either to the true and living God or any other god of the age including the god of the age that uses human rulers to do his bidding.

Wow. So the question is who as a human being in this life we have an option. We give our allegiance and devotion to the one true and living God who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Or we give our allegiance and devotion to the God of the age and rulers, nations, other belief systems.

Yeah, that's the option because the gospel in itself is a conflict. The gospel is a is a choice that we have to make. We are when the gospel is presented to us, who do you believe is truly king? Do you believe that Caesar is king or Jesus is king?

It's going to be one of the two. Do you believe that the the great emperors of the past were king or that Jesus is the true and living king? Do we believe that political figures today are the ones who rule or do we believe Jesus is king? This is the Bible's way of describing who do we give our allegiance to.

Now this is what we call the shama in Israel. Israel was called to give their allegiance to God and God alone. It is shama meaning the word listen. Listen meaning not just hear but obey. It is with the intent to obey whatever god tells us, whatever he gives us as his commands and his truth.

[sighs and gasps] Now this also means that you escape destruction or that you are saved from destruction and ultimately judgment. So in the book of the revelation, what God is describing is those who given their allegiance to Jesus will escape from God's ultimate final judgment. He will judge the living and the dead.

We will escape to new life because we have given our allegiance to God. And those who haven't given their allegiance to God will find as the Bible describes the judgment of God, the wrath of God, the destruction of whatever um many many different ways of describing it. But they will be removed from God's presence is ultimately the judgment.

The ones who have the mark of God's name on their forehead are the ones who again the metaphorical mark, not a literal mark. They are the ones who will spend eternity with God. They will dwell with him. So it is it is the meaning literally of salvation. It is some will be saved from some will be saved to.

So so basically when you're talking about the mark of God, the mark of the lamb there in Revelation, it involves at least two things. It's it's one our faithfulness to God in following him. Correct. Which is a major theme in the book of Revelation. There's always that urge to be faithful in the midst of suffering and those who conquer is that's a good point.

Yeah. you know, those who have overcome, those who conquered, those who stuck with the lamb. And then that second part though, his faithfulness to us in delivering us, yes, from destruction, from those things that uh that could harm us, right? And again, the book of the revelation, some people have a perspective that it's from the past.

It was to a past audience. Some people have the perspective that it's to a future audience or a future time. Whatever you hold, John is definitely describing this is a mark for all times with all human beings are challenged with the choice, who do you believe is the true ruler of the world?

God through his son Jesus or the beasts of the earth, right? Who has ultimate power? That is what the book of Revelation is describing. For all times, all human beings come to that. And John wants to say, "Hey, who will you give your allegiance to?" Wow. And we are challenged with that choice today.

Who will we give our allegiance to? Now, in the book of Ezekiel, we're going to look at another Mark in the book of Ezekiel chapter 9. God tells Ezekiel, he gives him a vision. This is a vision. This is not an actual command that he tells him to do this.

He says, "This is what it looks like when people give their allegiance to me or don't give their allegiance to me." In Ezekiel 9:es 3 and 4, it says, "Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the carob or the cherubam where it had been."

This is um on the ark of the covenant. The carobim had their wings and God's presence was believed to to be right on the top of that ark and it moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, this is verses 3 and four of Ezekiel 9, go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.

God is telling Ezekiel, I am um frustrated with Israel because they have worshiped every other god but me. Mhm. And he's saying um those in the city, this is this is where judgment comes in. There will be a time in the future where God will judge the living and the dead.

But in Ezekiel's day, in Ezekiel's day, God is saying, "This judgment is for my people to say, you have worshiped and given your allegiance to other gods, pagan gods, the God of this age." And I'm telling you, there's a group of people that have not given their allegiance to other pagan gods.

And I want you to mark them, again, not with a literal mark, but I want you to mark them with safety and security, deliverance or salvation from the judgment that is to come. Wow. So, he's saying these people who receive this mark are the ones that will not be uh that will that will receive salvation, that will be delivered.

Delivered. Yeah. From the destruction. Now, again, this sounds a lot like the Passover. It does. Go listen to the story of Israel coming out of Egypt. God said, "Mark the doorpost with blood." Oh, okay. And the angel of death will pass over. You will be delivered. So the mark then of of the blood that was o over the doorpost was is a sign of safety.

A sign of safety. Yeah. It's a sign of safety. This is Ezekiel 9 to those who grieve and lament. There were people who did not care about Israel's sin. There were Israelites who were like, "We don't care. We join in. We're worshiping pagan gods. We're s sacrificing to idols.

And God goes, "No, your allegiance is to me and me alone. And you're giving your allegiance to these other gods." And I'm saying that the judgment is coming. And he said, "Mark the people who on their foreheads who won't experience that, who will be delivered from it." So again, this has to do with allegiance and ultimately forgiveness.

Who has God forgiven from their sin? we move on. I want to go back to Deuteronomy. I said a minute ago in Revelation 13 and 14 that um this is the anti- shama. The shama being the word for listen and with the intent to obey. In Deuteronomy chapter 6:es 4-9, God establish Israel as establishes Israel as his people coming out of Egypt.

They're now in the desert and God gives Deuteronomy uh Deuterom meaning the second andy meaning law. Deuteronomy is like a second law. It is a repeat of the laws to Moses to say, I gave you the the laws at Mount Si that you are not to worship any other gods but me.

And now he's repeating this to Moses in Deuteronomy saying again I'm telling you as a nation you need to worship the one true and the living God who is me. I'm the one who brings life. And so we see here in Deuteronomy 6:4, O Israel, Shama, listen Israel, to obey the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, with your muchness. That word in the Hebrews, mode, with your everything. And then he says, these commands I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit down and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up.

Tie them as symbols, not a literal mark, as a symbol on your hands and bind them on your forehead. Why? Because your allegiance is to me. So right there is hands and forehead. Um just like in the book of Revelation. Correct. So I so if you read the that that mark right there, the mark of the beast is the anti- shama.

It is the rejection of God as the true and living king and an allegiance to a human ruler or the God of the age. Wow. So there it is again though on the on the hand on the forehead and then you see that show up in Revelation where it's the reverse instead of allegiance to God individuals have it have the mark of the beast on their hands and on their forehead.

It is it is it is a it is a word picture way of saying it's a metaphor way of saying the things you do and the things you think. Wow. In all you're doing and all of your thinking worship God in all of your doing and all of your thinking.

Honor God in all of your doing. In all of your thinking, worship and give your allegiance and devotion to God alone. In all of your doing, in all of your thinking, Israel, you are to be separate unto me as my people. And that makes sense because Caesar would say just the opposite.

In all of your doing, in all of your thinking, consider your faithfulness to me. Correct? In other words, you're ultimately living for Caesar and for the sake of Rome and its success, right? instead of for God and for his will in the earth. So the the mark of the beast in Revelation 13 contrasted and compared with the mark of the lamb in Revelation 14 is a way of saying will you give your devotion to God?

Will you shama will you listen and obey the true and the living God with what you do and how you think? Yeah. Or will you give your allegiance to the God of the age and the beasts? It's one of the two. Wow. Um, and so we see this.

But here's the thing. Um, it's it's a chosen people who God brought out of Egypt that he's explaining this to the Shama to Israel. This is his chosen people that he's delivered from Egypt. And let me show you in Exodus chapter 13. If you have your Bible and you want to go to Exodus 13 says, "Then Moses, verse three of Exodus 13, then Moses said to the people, commemorate this day that God delivered you, the day that you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out again, deliverance, salvation.

The Lord brought you out out of his uh with his mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. Don't eat anything containing yeast. This is unleavened bread. This observance, verse 9, I'm skipping up to verse 9 from verse three. This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead.

It's not a literal mark. It's a reminder you belong to God because I delivered you. Wow. This law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. Again, God is saying, "Give me your devotion and your uh allegiance because I'm the one who's delivered you from Egypt."

Yeah. Where do your where does your allegiance lie? So, he's saying, "This is a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead of the fact that I delivered you from Egypt, that you are my people. You are my chosen people that I have brought you out.

Give the Lord the first of your offspring of every womb, all the firstborn males." Verse 14 of Exodus 13. In days to come when your son asks you, what does this mean to give the off the first offspring of every womb of all the firstborn males say to him with a mighty hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

He's repeating it in the same chapter. I brought you out. So with with every time you eat bread, I want you to be reminded every time that you sacrifice the firstborn of your animals, not your children, of your animals, I want you to be reminded the Lord brought you out the blood on the doorpost.

I delivered you from Egypt. You are mine. Yeah. And he's saying, "Out of the land of slavery, I brought you." Verse 15, "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt." Now I want to be very clear on this.

That was a response because in the first chapter of Exodus, Pharaoh decided to kill all the firstborn males of Israel because he was worried that a king would take over that the Israelites were outnumbering him and he was terrified. So he put them into slavery. Up until that point, Israel's relationship with Egypt was actually very good.

Mhm. All the way back to Joseph in Genesis, there there was abundance. Israel had a great relationship, but they outnumbered the Egyptians now. And the Egyptians were afraid. So he said, "Kill all the firstborn males." God's response is one to say, "You cannot kill my people and go undelt with."

God is a just God. Mhm. And so he says here, I I took the life of the firstborn of people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrificed to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons. Now, he's not saying actual child sacrifice.

He's saying um that you are to dedicate you are to dedicate to me your children. And then with the animals that you sacrifice, it's a reminder that you belong to me, that I delivered you. Verse 16, and it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead.

There we see it again. He says it twice in the same chapter. That the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand. Again, this is God is the true God. He is the one that saves. We give our allegiance to him. And because he has delivered us or will deliver us through salvation that it's because of our faith, our allegiance, our devotion to him as God that we are saved from destruction.

We are saved. And that doesn't mean just eternal judgment. It literally means any destruction. God desires to save us and deliver us. You know, I'm thinking here just as you're talking. So if we talk about the mark as a sign of of salvation, correct? Then to have the mark of the beast or the mark of Caesar is to call him savior.

Correct. Is to say he is our deliverer. He is our provider. Right? So that's actually that's really that's a great way of looking at it. If we're looking at these marks where it it's it's devotion particularly in terms of who you're calling savior, who you're calling provider. And so here we actually not just in the verses you're reading there but throughout the Old Testament there's this ongoing call by God to say remember that I am the deliverer and the provider the savior of you in every area in every area of life and now we see that there's this pressure though in the book of revelation to join up with Caesar to call him savior correct to put his mark on your hand in in terms of what you do and what you think the mark on your forehead head um to call him savior.

So that's wow that's very enlightening. One of the coolest things about Exodus 13 is the fact that this wasn't just Israelites. It wasn't natural-born Israelites. When God called the children of Israel out of Egypt, it was a the Bible says a mixed multitude. There were people from all different kinds of nations who were enslaved in Egypt and they all got delivered.

And Gentiles came with the Israelites. They all got delivered because they wanted to worship the true, the one true and the living God in the desert. That's what Moses said. I want you to let my people go so we can worship the true God in the desert. And they actually brought Gentiles.

It was a mixed nation. God's people have always been people from everywhere. Even the Israelites were not all just natural-born Israelites. They were Gentiles. God's people has always been a people chosen who would put their faith in the true and the living God. Even back to the book of Exodus where we see a specific nation called out, but they were still people from all different nations.

So basically when when when Israel was called out of slavery from Egypt, God didn't leave the other Gentile slaves in there. He took them all with him. Any anybody who would go, that's right. They went right along with them. Wow. And they and they actually the the Israelites actually ceremonially brought ceremonially brought the Gentiles in.

They could do they could eat the bread. They could they could take the P like they could literally be part of their traditions and the commandments that God gave because he said these are my people. Now fast forward again to the book of the revelation. I said earlier in Revelation 14, the 144,000 12 tribes, 12 apostles, an incalculable number, a sea of people.

What does this mean? John in Revelation is describing the same type of people. It's people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. It is people from all over the earth who will worship the true and the living God. God has not changed that through the scriptures. He's always been about anybody.

Yes, he called out Israel to be his specific nation, to be his light through which he would bless the nations. But that's one of the ways he blessed the nations was immediately from the time they were delivered in Egypt. They already had Gentiles mixed in. Wow. They already had people who were not Israelites that were enjoying the blessing of God.

So even then, those Gentiles had the mark, the mark of God on their on their hands and on their foreheads. And they were reminded every time they would do these things, they were reminded of how God delivered them and how God is their God. Wow. This is the beauty of the scriptures to say God throughout the scriptures when when we put our faith in him, we give him our allegiance and devotion.

God delivers. God saves. God renews. God restores. God does all of these things. And he's describing it. Again, this is Jewish literature way of saying your life is marked to belong to God. Or your life, you reject the true and the living God. And you say, I want to give my allegiance to the God of the age or other beasts and rulers and kingdoms.

I don't want to belong to the kingdom of Jesus. I want to belong to a different kingdom. Right? And we all have that choice. My the final passage, it goes all the way back to Genesis 4. Adam and Eve had kids. Their names were Cain and Abel. The older brother was Cain.

And it's a very famous story in the Bible. Even if you're not a Christian, most people know the story. Cain killed his brother Abel. And Cain was terrified because God was driving him out of the land in which he lived. That was his um what's the word? That was his consequence.

Consequence. God was driving him out of the land, but he was terrified. He said, "God, I'm worried that if other people find me, they will take vengeance on me for what I've done." Now, at some point, we've all been Cain. The Bible says, "We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right?

But in in chapter 4 of Genesis, verse 14, it says, "Today you are driving me from the land. Cain is having this conversation with God. And I'll be hidden from your presence. That's the ultimate consequence of sin is to be driven from God's presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me.

He's in fear. Verse 15. But the Lord said to him, "Not so. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one would who who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nar east of Eden.

What was Cain being delivered from? He was being delivered from the judgment and vengeance of human beings. They're being you have other people. The people whom God marks in the book of Revelation were being delivered from the wrath of Caesar. Wow. Even if they're persecuted, their ultimate end will be that God will save and deliver and restore life, whatever it may be. again because Cain is showing a sign of repentance.

God, I know that I did this and I was wrong. And God is saying there is a forgiveness that comes with acknowledging me with making giving your allegiance to me. And God put a mark on Cain to say, I am going to deliver you. I'm going to save you from that vengeance, judgment, all of those things.

So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land and nobody could touch him. So from gen Genesis all the way through to Revelation, we see that the authors will use a term like the mark. The mark is a way of saying we have given our faith to God and our allegiance.

Even if we've sinned, there is forgiveness. And through that forgiveness, namely the the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we have been marked as God's family to be delivered from destruction, to be delivered from punishment. And so God's desire is that we would live with this idea that we have been marked.

The shama, the mark of the beast is the anti-shama. We're going to give our allegiance and devotion to one of two gods, the true and the living God or the God of the age through human rulers and the kingdom of darkness and uh principalities and powers who rule over the earth.

We will give our allegiance to one of the two. And and my my encouragement, my plea for anybody who's listening or watching is let us in everything we do and everything we think give our allegiance to the one true God. Amen. Wow. That that was a great conversation and so insightful for for a topic that sometimes can be very confusing and you know a topic that's discussed a lot.

And so I just really just appreciate your insight and your study and um who knows maybe we should uh do some more stuff particularly with the book of Revelation and uh share some more things on that. But absolutely great time uh tonight. I appreciate it uh Pastor Jeremy and I look forward to our next time together.

Me too. Thanks man.