Because of its references to 'diseases' and 'plagues', it seems to be designed for what the world is going through at the moment with the coronavirus. The findings are consistent with other studies on the impact of religious affiliation and human flourishing, according to VanderWeele. questions, but it does have a lot of related information. In order to understand the mark of the beast in Revelation 13:18, we need to see what is happening in the rest of the chapter. might get very sick or die from COVID-19.1,2, Jesus taught that one of the most important of all commandments is, "Love infection is much greater than any theoretical risk from the vaccine. He leads people into false religion. They encouraged, and sometimes made mandatory, the worship of the state. When the pandemic hit in March, there were initial signs it might be having an overall positive effect on American spirituality. And by putting Nero in the form of a riddle like this, it protected the Christians from charges of sedition and further persecution. Second, to come up with 666, you have to spell Neron Kaisar incorrectly in Hebrew. "People with spiritual beliefs that all things are influenced by religion are more likely to believe 'mark of the beast,' which is in every Christian's Bible, but people will focus on particular passages in the Bible to support their belief system," Evans said. See something we missed? More on that in a moment. There are also a number of treatments available. c. Percentages are based on provisional estimates of the end-year population for 2021. As one author puts it, it doesnt tell us much that a certain key fits the lock, if its a lock that works with almost any key. It certainly is the verse that has produced the most fruitless debate. The. The number forty appears many times in the Bible: Generally speaking, the number forty has been considered to be used in the Bible as a rounded number. In our day, the beast may not directly instruct us to worship the state or the president, but he still functions as the mouthpiece for the Devil. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived (vv. . One rarely hears Ecclesiastes in church these days, though the poem found in 3:1-8 is well known, due in part to "Turn! Frequent Bible readers rated themselves 33 points more hopeful than irregular Scripture readers did in two surveys of more than 1,000 people done six months apart. The number 666 is mans number (cf. The first survey was in January and the second was in June, when the total number of confirmed cases passed 2.5 million and the World Health Organization tallied more than 125,000 American deaths. That's a question you can ask when you have a dad who calls himself an apostolic prophet and leads a prophetic ministry. If the COVID-19 vaccine's possible connection to Bible prophecy seems farfetched, consider that a local prophecy scholar already has had the issue come up several times during the pandemic. However, Jesus made it clear that we cannot know when the end will come The Weekly Epidemiological Update provides an overview of the global, regional and country-level COVID-19 cases and deaths, highlighting key data and trends; as well as other pertinent epidemiological information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? Nero fits with the story line of Revelation better than the other alternatives. We are told that 666 is the answer to the question. The world has a way of operating and when we choose a different way, we must be prepared for setbacks, strange looks, and often shame and suffering. A possible corroboration for this view can be found in the Latin version of his name. But vaccines can only control the Christians are also measurably more hopeful. tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough maimed and killed many people. They even have a greater sense of financial and material stability compared to those who dont attend church or engage with the Bible. 22:6 "And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent . By June, after months of quarantine and church closures, that figure was down to 22.6 percent. The second beast lives wherever the Devil entices people to worship something man-made, to make an idolatrous image out of anything other than Jesus Christ, who alone is the image of the invisible God. Their evil reach which can be interpretedas hidden manipulation will require all people who engage in commerce to wear the mark of the beast. Hotline: (314) 657-1499 Mondays-Fridays 8am-5pm More emergency resources and contacts COVID-19 Data New Cases 52.4 /100k 7-day total of new PCR positive cases per 100k people New Hospital Admissions 10.9 /100k 7-day total of new hospital admissions for COVID-19 per 100k people % Staffed Inpatient Beds 4.1% Sneak Peek Interview: Laura Wiflers New Childrens Book, Receiving Not Achieving. If the first beast is the perversion of the state, the second beast is the perversion of true worship. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.. Does the Bible Mention What to Give Up for Lent? Laurie, who has been vaccinated, said the mark will be a pledge of loyalty to the Antichrist, and no one would take the mark unknowingly. COVID-19 is caused by infection with a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2, and flu is caused by infection with influenza viruses. Third, none of the early church fathers calculated Neron Kaisar from 666. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Within just a few short months, COVID-19 has spread like a wildfire to almost every corner of the globe, infecting a confirmed 3,870,865 of the worlds population in its wake and tallying a death toll of 267,771, as of May 7, 2020. Coronavirus has infected more than 85,000 people and killed at least 2,933. To Accomplish His Purposes God used plagues to deliver the enslaved Jews from their Egyptian overlords. African Americans have the highest level of Scripture engagement among racial groups in America, another finding consistent with longstanding trends. What could be more loving than wearing a mask and So he asked his dad: "Is this the end of the world?". Whatever or whomever appears as true Christianity in order to draw us away to some human counterfeit, that is the work of the beast, and his number is 666. The Devil is perfectly happy to have everyone searching for God. In each case, the pictures and numbers mean something, but they refer to general truths, not to specific people or referents. Three times, Revelation makes reference to the beast and the false prophet (16:13; 19:20; 20:10). (1 Peter 5:7) 7. The study also found that people are more hopeful when they read Scripture more frequently. People who attend church and read their Bibles tend to be happier, are less likely to die by suicide, and have a greater sense of purpose in their lives. What You Should Know About Biblical Complementarianism, Liberalism Is (Still) a Threat to Fundamentalism. The ONS Covid infection survey estimates an average of 219,600 people were infected . Senior Church leaders receive COVID-19 vaccine, encourage members to He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. But that changed when the pandemic hit. Cases over time can be viewed using two date options, Symptom Onset Date or Date of Report, and they can also be viewed by county. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name (vv. If you have questions about coronavirus, please contact the Louisiana 211 Network by dialing dial 211. By the end of September, 56% ofpeople in the USAare projected to be fully vaccinated and 59% by Jan. 1, 2022, according to data from the, wrote anop-ed in August for the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Ivermectin is not a proven treatment for COVID-19, Pregnant unvaccinated nurse and her unborn 'sweet baby girl' die of COVID, What we know about the mu variant and why Fauci is 'keeping a very close eye on it', Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. From a Christian perspective, one often has growth through suffering.. With a current world population of approximately 7.8 billion, the death rate for COVID-19 would have to reach approximately 1.95 billion people, in purely mathematical terms for this prophecy to come to pass. Around the world, there are over 118,000 cases and over 4,200 deaths . But the decline continued during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, and by June, the percentage of daily Bible users had dropped to 8.5 percent. For that reason, we need not fear a wrathful God, rather we can rejoice in a God of grace and mercy, who forgives us for our sins and transgressions. So through all sorts of complicated gematria calculations in different languages, people have come up with all the names in the list above. Theres a reason hardly anyone is an atheist. . What Is the Significance of Not the Letter but of the Spirit? In both case we are talking about a spiritual mark, an invisible stamp of approval. More details on the reporting schedule. Learn what to do if you have COVID-19? To counter a pandemic-prompted morass in Bible engagement, Hall said, learn to read the Bible in a new way. That could include using a Bible app that plays music as a person reads or a Bible app that reads a selected passage aloud over and over. Although the coronavirus is the most disastrous plague that has impacted humanity this century, there is no evidence in the Bible to suggest that COVID-19 is one of the plagues prophesied in Scripture. Thaddeus Williams asks good questions about contemporary zeal for change. "Social media plays a 100% role in the misconceptions about the vaccine," Smith said. The spike in curiosity was corroborated by ABS, which found more Americans exploring the Bible for the first time in June than January. The four horsemen that are mentioned in Revelation 6:8 have each been allocated power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.. The researchers soon realized that since they used the human flourishing measures in the January study, they had inadvertently set a comparison point to measure how people were doing during COVID-19. Lack of encouragement from physical presence with other believers can diminish our engagement in the spiritual disciplines because when were together, were encouraged to stay faithful to the things of God.. 7-day Average Daily Total and Skilled Nursing Facility-Associated COVID-19 Laboratory Confirmed Case Deaths by Date of Death 1,2,3,4,5. 21:17). This study supports the idea that the church plays a significant role in benefitting peoples wellbeing and Scripture engagement, said John Farquhar Plake, ABS director of ministry intelligence. UK NHS: Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, 1 Harvard Medical School, Most COVID-19 cases are spread by people The answer Here's my humble opinion (he said humbly! 40 is the smallest number n with exactly nine . "The number of participants at this time reflects their interest and effort to understand the words of Revelation consistently with the rest of the Bible," said Mr. Shin-chang Kim, General Director of the International Mission Department of Shincheonji Church. But the evidence shows that Americans who actively engage with the Bible and in corporate worship score higher on every measure of human flourishing, including better mental and physical health and a deeper sense of character and virtue. Thirty-six percent of those with a neighbor who died of the virus increased their Bible use (1.7 times more than average), and 33 percent of those with a close personal friend who died increased their use (1.6 times more than average). A lack of in-person connection with churches and small groups also could have played a role, according to the report. The findings were published in October in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in a report co-authored by VanderWeele, Plake, Jeffery Fulks of ABS, and Matthew Lee of Harvard. When he asked the mother if she had been vaccinated, Smith said her response was"Oh no, that turns you into a zombie.". This coronavirus originated in China and seems related to the wildlife trade there. But the most interesting data, from the viewpoint of ABS, was how the Bible, church, and Christian disciplines seemed to help people through this dark period. She said vaccines are not a magical shot that cures all, but they're one of many tools to fight the virus. Smith said one woman brought her child in for a fever and cough, and he explained that the toddler might have COVID-19. United States of America Situation 101,752,396 Confirmed Cases Forty is a composite number, a refactorable number, an octagonal number, andas the sum of the first four pentagonal numbers: + + + = it is a pentagonal pyramidal number. In the New Testament, there is mention of plagues that will act as key signs that will herald the end times and the coming of Jesus Christ. people around the world. Until the question came again. As a result, Egyptian lives, crops, and animals were destroyed, and the 400-year enslavement of the Israelites finally came to an end. He acts on his behalf and leads people to worship him. over is eligible to receive vaccination. By releasing data weekly, Oklahomans will get a better picture of what is happening throughout the state. Some have been repeated by large media website: Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering? But it is close to perfection, and has most of the hallmarks of truth, and so can easily deceive. Fifth, finding hidden, precise meanings in numbers is not the way numbers work in Revelation. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-much-of-the-population-will-need-to-be-vaccinated-until-the-pandemic-is-over. In January, women were slightly more Bible engaged than men (19.1% vs. 18.8%) and 2 percent more likely than men to be Bible centered (a Barna and ABS designation for individuals with the highest level of influence from Scripture in their daily lives). It is an invisible spiritual mark.