¹ The first beast is from the sea: from the peoples, nations, and tongues of the earth. The beast of the Book of Revelation is the beast of heathen religious authority, which power was severely curtailed [a wound to the head] by early Christianity, particularly in the Mediterranean region. But the wound healed. This religion received power from the devil. There was great power to be seen. It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. The whole world followed these heathen religions and in the process,

all the world followed the beast in wonder and admiration, and they worshipped the dragon who gave power to the beast. The dragon is the devil. Just as this scripture prophesied, the whole world worships the devil today: imitation Christianity and the world's other religions all worship the devil, thinking they are worshiping God. Why and How? Because they worship a being that excuses them from the necessity of a sin-free life, a being that approves of their selfish, dishonest, covetous, angry, immoral, impure lifestyle, promising them an after-death escape from Hell, which promise shall be annulled.

Who is able to make war with him [the beast]? The beast is the spirit of fallen man, whose religion is hypocrisy: praise from his lips but with an evil, corrupt heart. Men say, "who can conquer human nature; we are all sinners and it is impossible to become sin free. Who can fight sin and win? No one is perfect except Jesus; why should we even try to become sin free?" These men deny the power of God to be sufficient to make them free from sin, to be able to fight the good fight to victory. They have a religion, but it is only a form [empty shell, imitation] of godliness that denies the power of God. 2 Tim 3:5.

This is the man of sin in each of us that stands in the temple of God, (your heart), and proclaims himself God; who must be revealed before the Lord comes and slays this residual spirit of Satan within you by the brightness of his coming, by his breath, and the splendor of his coming, by his crushing the head of Satan under your feet [heel]. The final judgment. The true baptism of the Holy Spirit: into the death of Christ. The baptism of death. The sharing of his death. Then Jesus is resurrected in you to be your true Lord as you rise with Him to be a new man. 2 Cor4:14,Col 2:12,3:1, Eph 2:6.

We are touched by God, and we immediately do great repentance in our first love. The beastly spirit within us is deeply curtailed, (wounded in the head). But then we relax our effort and go back into our former worldly pursuits, (the dog returns to its own vomit and the sow that was washed returns to her mire); and the wound to the head of the beast is healed. Edward Burrough wrote of this beastly spirit within himself:

for I saw myself to be in bondage to my own will and to my own lusts; and through the Word of the Lord spoken to me by him, began to see myself, (the witness being raised), where I was, and what I had been doing, and saw I had been making an image to the First Beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live, whose deadly wound was healed, and was full of airy notions and imaginations, and was worshiping the image that I had made; and then I saw myself to be a child of wrath, and that the son of the bond-woman lived, and harlots had been my companions, and I was not worthy to be called a son.

² I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. This beast looks like a lamb, but speaks from the devil. It is from the earth: the traditions and things of men. This is the spirit that powers the false church, that looks like Christ's church, but whose words come from the carnal mind of man, which is from the devil, rather than words from the Spirit of God. This beastly spirit, deceived all men on the earth to worship an image of the first beast; the image being a religion that reflected many of the same religious practices of the heathens, (ceremonies, rituals, pomp, pageantry, money). And anyone who did not worship that image, was killed. The Roman sect made Hitler's Gestapo look like amateurs. Anyone who had not taken "the eucharist," (bread and wine supposedly made holy, the eating of which in mass constituted a sacrifice for sin, thus denying Christ's one, lasting sacrifice), or had not confessed their sins to a priest in the last 120 days, was a heretic and examined with murderous torture in the Inquisition. Anyone with a Bailiff helping them could search for heretics anywhere. The priests were required to frequently search all suspected houses and lands in cities and country for concealed heretics. If a heretic did not die from the torture of the inquisition, like vermin he was "delivered to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death." The Roman sect's inquisitions and slaughters throughout Europe in the Middle Ages (800 AD to 1500 AD) murdered nine million souls, accused of witchcraft.

From the Word of the Lord within:
"It might be seen that any man who was out of compliance or
conformance with the Catholic church was killed."

Protestants killed and murdered throughout Europe too. The founder of the Episcopal sect, Henry VIII, had 72,000 people killed, mostly Roman Catholics. The Peasants War in Germany, led by Luther-inspired religious despots, raped, plundered and killed 100,000 of the nobility and Roman Catholics. England, Scotland, and Ireland suffered three civil wars of protestant Puritans, (Presbyterians and Congregationalists), against ruling governments, which left 190,00 dead in England, (3.7% of the population); 60,000 dead in Scotland, (6% of the population); and 616,000 dead in Ireland, (41% of the population, which was mostly Catholic). This was followed by the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalists of England and America who in 50 years imprisoned over ten thousand Quakers and killed over 869 Quakers in the 17th Century, including three men and a woman hung in Boston by the Bible-believing Puritans. The beast (with many names) was given power to overcome the saints. The false church, the whore of Babylon, was drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

This beast caused the all the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, who is powered by the devil; and so all the earth is still worshiping the dragon, or the devil. Now, the whole world, thinking they are worshiping God, is worshiping the devil; all the world's religions worship a God who overlooks their sinful hearts full of evil, based on some ritual, ceremony, prayer, contribution, deed, etc. Even Christendom worships Satan impersonating Jesus! How so? Because the false Jesus they worship excuses all manner of sin; the false Jesus they worship is going to marry a bride who is full of adultery, covetousness, anger, lust, profane language, lies, etc. Their false Jesus allows them to live their life in sin until they die, and then is supposedly going to embrace them into heaven. Their false Jesus makes sin easier, by supposedly making sin, guilt free. Their false Jesus embraces sin and evil. Their false Jesus says, you can live however you please, making decisions for yourself based on what you think is good and bad. People, this is a description of the devil who told Eve she would be like God, knowing good and evil. This false Jesus is a god who approves of man walking after the imagination of his own heart, which is worse than worshipping wooden and stone idols, Jer 16:11-12. This false Jesus approves of man being his own God. This is not the real Jesus.

Jesus is holy and pure. The bride of Jesus must be holy and pure too. Jesus said: Sin no more! and Repent or perish! [to lose your soul]. And Jesus said, If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. Mark 9:43,45,47-48. Jesus is desperately trying to tell us that to enter the Kingdom and escape hell, sin has to go. He knew false ministers with false gospels promising freedom to continue to sin would arise after he left. Changes in our heart through the missing cross to purity can take away the desire of the hand, foot, and eye to cause us to sin.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  For if you live after the flesh, you will die; but if through the Spirit you mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, you will live. Rom 8:8,13. And Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh [the sinful nature] with its passions and desires [lusts and affections]. Gal 5:24. And You can be sure: No sexually immoral, or impure, or covetous person, who is an is idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with vain words. For because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Eph 5:5-6. So all of the 45,000 sects of Christendom, who allow their members to keep sinning until death, are worshipping the devil, who wears a Jesus nametag. Paul warned us about "different Jesus'" and different gospels. 2 Cor 11:4.

³ And he does great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. The false church with its antichrists was established with the strongest of miracles, including fire to come down from heaven, as in Elijah's time. John told us that antichrists and false apostles were already appearing in his time, (Note! Past tense, already had happened and continues today), having gone out from among the true Christians. Isaac Penington, in his expose of Christendom having become Babylon, explains these miracles being performed by the antichrists, particularly in the time of Babylon's beginning to displace the true church:

Now mark this: antichrist's coming, when first perceived, was very mighty, exceedingly strong. "Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," etc. Weigh the thing well. Satan used all his art, and all his strength, to conceive and bring forth this mystery of iniquity, so like the mystery of godliness, that it might pass for reality in the world, and he rule as God in it. With all power, etc., no lack of power to deceive; he did not spare for signs, and lying wonders. Yes, he gave power to the beast to do wonders and miracles, even to make fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of men, (which through Elijah was the sign and wonder by which the God of Israel was distinguished from Baal; power to work this very sign Satan gives to the beast, with which to confirm the godhead of the dragon and antichrist). Rev 13:13-14. These are the things men look for; seeing great power, signs, miracles, they are satisfied. The whole world stands ready to be deceived with this. Yes, and if the eye is not opened in persons, which can distinguish of power, they are deceived. Signs, wonders, and miracles had their place in the first covenant, and were to that part to which the first covenant was; not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe. Now after the full demonstration of the truth by signs and miracles, the power of Satan rises up; and by lying signs, wonders, and miracles overturns the truth. Now the unbelieving part in man expects and calls for signs and miracles, and says they will determine the controversy, and settle the state of the church again; but that part is not to prescribe God his way. Yes, he will steal as a thief upon you, whose eye is abroad, and looks for demonstrations without.

And deceives those who dwell on the earth by means of those miracles. Rev 13:14.

By the strongest of miracles, the false church was established, so that the whole world worshiped the beast. Now you might be wondering why God permitted the false religion to be established? God, knowing just as Judaism was taken over by the enemy countless times in the Old Testament, knew that most people would end up embracing almost any religion that was permissive of their sinful lives, including very evil religions that had existed outside of Judaism, (with temple prostitutes, sacrifice of children, etc.); and knowing that the cross had the aroma of death to those not drawn in love, the evil was allowed as the lesser of evils and so that it could inadvertently serve His purposes, which are:

1. It is a test of the elect:
• Can an individual be easily persuaded that his sinful lifestyle is acceptable to God, when all the scriptures clearly state differently?
• Does the individual love truth and righteousness, or does the individual love ceremony and ritual, while taking pleasure in unrighteousness?
• Does the individual love God enough to seek Him alone, or does the individual love the company of people whose lips profess the love of God, while their sins deny the Lord as Lord and Master of their lives?
2. Despite Babylon's very selective reference to the scriptures, the complete scriptures are fully supported, even provided, by Babylon; so that anyone who really desires to please God, can plainly read all of what Babylon ignores: the exclusions, the requirements, and the qualifying conditions of salvation and pleasing God. Imagine how weak this web site would be with only the record of the early Quakers and no scriptures to validate their experiences. Imagine how much more difficult it would be for us without the scriptures, fortunately surviving 2000 years through the aid of Babylon.
3. From within Babylon, the voice of the bridegroom can softly call: "come out of her my love;" exactly as the Lord says that one day the voice of the bridegroom will not be heard within Babylon any longer.
4. God knew the false church would persecute and kill those of the true church, just as Judaism had killed many true prophets, (including Jesus); and just as the pagan religions killed many of the early Christians, (including most of the original disciples). But He uses this persecution to His and the saints' benefit too: to be perfected by being persecuted and killed at the hand of Babylon, (as thousands of early Quakers were perfected); and many after perfection, to be further rewarded through Babylon's persecuting and killing them. Therefore the saints will certainly celebrate the destruction of Babylon.
5. Most sects in the many's broad way at least teach the fundamentals of moral conduct through the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, despite offering no clue as to how to totally comply; many participating in acts of kindness in their communities. Certainly their preachings stand far apart from human sacrifice, temple prostitutes, stealing, hatred, violence, rape, murder of "infidels," etc.
6. Finally, speaking about the false church, from the Word of the Lord within: "Christians today are not Christians. By their evident display of sin, Christians cause my name to be blasphemed among the people. They have passed their usefulness."

So the false church has served a usefulness, as we have described above; but when Babylon falls, the saints and heaven will celebrate her destruction, and those archers who are specifically called by the Lord to draw the bow against Babylon, must spare no arrows, (words commanded by the Holy Spirit), for she has sinned against the Lord. Regarding those still in the captivity of Babylon, the Word of the Lord within said: "Put yourself in their shoes."

We are to love the Lord and hate evil, including Babylon, but we should not let that hate drift to bitterness.

⁴ he had power to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Footnote 2 above details all the killings that the beastly spirit inspired. Christianity and all the world's religions are filled with people that are still walking in the lusts of their flesh according to their carnal minds and evil imaginations. According to what they have read and heard, they create an image of God in their imagination who they worship; but since they are still controlled by a beastly mind and spirit, their image of God is somewhat like themselves and their beastly nature. Demons then speak to them, pretending to be God.

The images that people have imagined become even more believable when demons then speak to them, pretending to be God. Many hear a voice they think it is the Lord speaking to them, but they really don't know that the true voice of the Lord is like thunder over waters; and the soft, gentle voice of the Holy Spirit or the Word within their heart cannot be accurately identified as different from the voice of the devil.* So the devil speaks volumes of instructions and prophecies to many of the blind guide preachers and followers of their imagined God, causing them to think they are hearing God or the Lord. This allows the devil to be very controlling in the 45,000 sects in Christianity. In addition, the devil works miraculous healings that the blind guides and their listeners also think is the Lord's work, (in the Book of Revelation, we are told the spirits of demons would be working miracles. Rev 16:14).

* This is why we should only follow commands heard from the small, still voice of Holy Spirit and the Word of the Lord within our hearts that urge us to repent from our behaviors we understand to be wrong; for if we follow commands that tell us to do anything else,* we are responding to the devil's impersonation of God as the unsuspecting, blind guides of Christianity do. We will hear the Lord's voice like thunder over waters for the first time after we have submitted to the baptism of fire and death to be resurrected as a new creature. Then, as John 10:3-5 states: we will know his voice, he will lead us out of the world to the kingdom, and we will flee from other voices. For more information on how to avoid being deceived, see Deceptions on the web page, How to Benefit from the Changing Power of God by Waiting on the Lord.

*You may hear the Lord tell you to go ahead with your considering to buy something or do something that you feel is necessary; and providing it is nothing that you know to be wrong, or it is nothing He has told you not to do in the past, you can follow His suggestions before you can distinguish His voice. If you don't need what you are considering to purchase, He may plainly tell you, "you don't need it." If it is not necessary to do something you are considering, He may tell you, "it's not necessary." If it is necessary and/or needed, he may encourage you to proceed.

People imagine God to be a person like themselves — a super good person, but still a person much like themselves, beastly.

"These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was entirely like you." Psa 50:21
However, "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," says the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa 55:8-9

From the Word of the Lord within:
"When they pray, they don't pray to God; they pray to their collective conscience.
Christianity has no idea what I am or for what I stand."

With their evil spirits, defiled hearts, and carnal minds, each sect takes a subset of the scriptures and creates their own image of God and Jesus, based on their collective opinion as to which scriptures they think give them eternal life. They then worship that image; but the image they worship is the image of the beast, not the image of God. Until man has been freed from his sinful nature; until man has been restored to the image of God in true righteousness and holiness; until the light shines in a man to reveal the image of Christ and glory of God within a man; until man is controlled in thought, word, and deed by the anointing; any attempt to worship is an abomination for God must only be worshiped in Spirit and Truth, John 4:24. A man can have memorized the Bible, but he still does not know how to worship God, nor does he know God for God is only known by revelation; he only has an image based on his fleshly knowledge, and that image is of the beast, not the image of Christ.

From the Word of the Lord within: "God is not found going to services or reading about him." 

The spirit of the beast causes men to make an image of the beast in themselves, as kingdom-dwelling, early Quaker giant, Edward Burrough wrote:

Then it pleased the Lord to send his true and faithful servant and messenger, who is called according to the flesh, G. Fox; he spoke the language which I knew not, not withstanding all my high talking, for it was higher and yet lower. And it pleased the Lord to speak to me by him, that I was in the prodigal state, and above the cross of Christ, and not in the pure fear of the Lord, but full of corruption and the old nature, though I had professed freedom, yet it was such as the Jews professed; for I saw myself to be in bondage to my own will and to my own lusts; and through the Word of the Lord spoken to me by him, began to see myself, (the witness being raised), where I was, and what I had been doing, and saw I had been making an image to the First Beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live, whose deadly wound was healed, and was full of airy notions and imaginations, and was worshiping the image that I had made; and then I saw myself to be a child of wrath, and that the son of the bond-woman lived, and harlots had been my companions, and I was not worthy to be called a son.

Below are just a few of the imagined characteristics of the image of the beast, which the sects of Christianity label with the name "Jesus" and then pray to, worship, and sing to:

• the vast majority of imagined images excuse their believers' sins throughout their life, embracing them into heaven when they die.
• with nothing required on their part, several images are imagined to choose those to whom it gives faith, (the elect); but the vast majority of mankind, (the reprobates), are not chosen by their image to believe, so the image sends the reprobates to eternal torture in Hell after death.
• at their death, it is imagined that their image takes persons with similar records of words and deeds in their lives, sending those who believed in it to heaven, and those who did not believe in it to eternal torture in Hell.
• many images are imagined to admit to heaven those in their sect, but to banish all other sects to eternal torture in Hell.
• one image is imagined to only torture non-believers in Hell in proportion to the sins they committed while on earth, and then the image kills them when they have paid for their sins, which its believers consider merciful.
• most images are imagined to get angry just like people do.
• most images are imagined to be three persons in one.
• unless many images are imagined to empower a man, he cannot say, "Jesus is Lord."
• almost all images are imagined to dwell in beautiful, grand buildings and cathedrals.
• many images are imagined to insist that you give ten percent of your income to the sects that worship it.
• most images are imagined to have cancelled all laws in the Old Testament, but tithing is the one ordinance that is reputed to not have been cancelled.
• a few images are imagined to insist you do not sin in any way, but the only hope or help to stop sinning offered is "study the scriptures."
• most all images are imagined to allow taking oaths and swearing in court.
• many images are imagined to accept into heaven all that had been sprinkled with water in ritual when they were infants; some images requiring an immersion-under-water ritual when an adult; but all others, not having gotten wet in their formal ritual, are sent to Hell for eternal torture.
• several images are imagined to send stillborn infants to Hell for eternal torture because they were not sprinkled with water alive.
• some images are imagined to make their believers holy when they drink a little wine and eat small pieces of bread in their sects' rituals.
• some think the wine they drink is the blood of their image, and the bread they eat is the body of their image; thus the life of their image is taken into themselves; some images erase all their believers' sins committed since the last time they drank its blood and ate its body, but they must keep erasing new sins in subsequent rituals. This cycle of repeated, constant sinning and erasing sins by ritual has no limit with their image; and so their believers keep sinning with great ease of conscience.
• others think drinking a little grape juice and eating small pieces of bread establishes a union with their image, as they commune with it to share in its crucifixion, death, and life; so that they are in it, and it is in them.
• many images are imagined to prosper its believers when they give their money to the institutions that worship it.
• for some, their images are imagined to no longer provide revelations or speak to them as occurred in the early Church because since the early Church days, their images are imagined to have provided the additional New Testament as their guide, their rule, the source of their faith, and the pillar of their church; and if one does hear something and write it down, attributing it to have come from their image, it will pour the plagues of Revelation on that person because their Bible is a closed book, (their image's final word).
• for others, their imagined images speak, (which is just demons speaking), guiding them in their efforts to support their sect and recruit others.
• for some imagined images, dead people who were really great adherents of their image when alive, can also be prayed to; and those dead people in heaven will intervene with their image in their favor. Even praying to statues of those dead people can cause their image to answer their prayers.
• most images are imagined to require nothing except belief in it to go to heaven for there is absolutely nothing any man can do to merit heaven; so a free pass to heaven is necessary, and that is a gift from their kind image to those who believe in it; and if anyone tries to do anything to deserve going to heaven, they lose their free pass to heaven.
• to others, their images are imagined to require them to do good deeds to make up for their lying, or adultery, or drunkenness, or stealing, or any manner of sin.
• to some, if they die while sinning, their images are imagined to send them to its special place to be purified; from which they can be prayed out and/or bought out by their still-alive friends and relatives on earth, and then they to go to heaven forever.
• to others, because they believed in it, their images are imagined to instantly purify them as soon as they die.
• although many unbelievers do not think the above images judge fairly, those who do believe say that is because their image's ways are much higher than ours [man's] and thus strange.

Who is it really that they imagine? A god who ignores believers' continual sinning until death; and according to early Quaker, kingdom-dwelling William Penn: "the deity they truly worship is the god of this world, the great lord of lusts," who is Satan; and also according to early Quaker, kingdom-dwelling Isaac Penington: "in the apostasy, men have not known God or Satan, the light or the darkness; but have mistook, taking the one for the other, worshipping the devil instead of God." From the Word of the Lord within: "Do you agree with any who in their arrogance have stated that God excuses evil in believers? It's not fair, but they don't care. By their evident display of sin, Christians cause my name to be blasphemed among the people. These people no longer represent me; they have caused great indignation."

When you remove the emotional words Jesus and God and substitute the word image instead from the above imagined characteristics of the images of the beast, they seem plainly unjust or completely devoid of wisdom, but as the Word of the Lord within said, (speaking on the subject of this sentence), "the true God is just beyond measure," which everyone increasingly realizes with each revelation received.

You might be thinking, I reject all of the above, so I can pray and worship as I please; but I assure you, even so, until He has appeared in you to guide you, your own image of God is flawed and far removed from what God really is; and as the Word of the Lord within said, (speaking on the subject of this sentence), "All must worship in spirit and truth."

Perhaps now you better understand why all worship, prayer, and song from still-sinning persons to their image, (whom they name God or Jesus), is an abomination, and why until then, to wait on God in humble silence, (and then obey what we hear), is the best we can do and the only way now we can show our love for Him; for God must be worshipped in spirit and truth. You must be in His spirit to worship. You must be in the truth. From the Word of the Lord within: "To be in Jesus is to be in truth;" (when you are in Jesus, or in truth, you have been translated into the kingdom and are sitting with Jesus in heaven) — to be in the truth is to be in union with Jesus.

⁵ And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or on their foreheads. So that no man might buy or sell, except he who had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. The mark of the beast is seen by what spiritual fruits a man exhibits: fruits of the flesh instead of fruits of the Spirit. Those with the mark of the beast put their evil spirit, defiled heart, and carnal mind to the upholding of the religion of man, as invented by man; seeking justification by fleshly action, ceremony, and ritual; they are looking for cover, to remain in their fallen, unredeemed, unpurified, unregenerated, imperfect, unholy, carnal, prideful, lusting, fleshly, lying, selfish, hateful, oppressive, dark, beastly nature. In his Introduction to George Fox's Journal, William Penn writes of the beast that became the false church of Babylon:

"Thus the false church sprang up, and mounted the throne. But though she had lost her nature, she would try to keep her good name as the Lamb's bride, which is the true church and mother of the faithful. This false church forced all to receive her mark, either in their forehead or right hand; that is, publicly or privately.* But in deed and in truth she was mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots; mother of those who, with all their show and outward religion, had adulterated and gone from the spirit, nature, and life of Christ; and had grown vain, worldly, ambitious, covetous, and cruel, which are the fruits of the flesh, and not of the spirit."

* The mark in the forehead is symbolic of a public possession or practice of fruits of the flesh, easily seen by everyone; and the mark in the right hand is symbolic of a private possession or practice of fruits of the flesh, (or beastly nature), seen upon examination. (Any religion that accepts sin in man as inevitable until death is a religion of the beast and Satan.) The fruit of the flesh includes: sexual immorality, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, profanity, adultery, lack of restraint, sorcery, hatred, arguments, jealousies, rage, selfish ambition, divisiveness, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelries (partying), evil thoughts, fornications, wickedness, deceit, blasphemy, pride, anger, boasting, flattery, immodesty, immorality, and foolishness. Any of these disqualify any man from heaven.

In the Inquisition's Middle Ages anyone, who tried to increase their measure of Christ by any way that differed from the doctrine of the Roman false church (to buy or sell spiritual oil differently for their lamps), was not only stopped from buying and selling; they were killed — which really made them unable to buy or sell, (See footnote 2 above as to how 9,000,000 were killed throughout Europe.)

Look at the words buy and sell spiritually: Buy the truth, and do not sell it; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Pro 23:23. Obviously you cannot buy the truth, it is a metaphor for acquire the truth, and sell is a metaphor for letting your teachings from Christ's spirit go cold by disobedience; teachings that you hear are spirit and life-giving, (the life of God): The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life-giving. John 6:63. So, what is the life of God? Jesus told us: I am the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6; and I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life, John 8:12. The Holy Spirit has been referred to as gold and eye salve in Rev 3:18: I counsel you to buy from me gold refined and tried in the fire, so that you may be rich; and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see. The wise virgins told the foolish virgins to go and obtain more truth, more life, more light, more Holy Spirit using the metaphor of buying and selling oil. Isaiah further shows how buying is a metaphor for listening to the Holy Spirit:

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your hard-earned money for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to me. Hear [and obey], and your soul shall live; Isa 55:1-3.

The mark of the beast was being a member of the Roman Catholic sect; those not in good standing were killed. They were not allowed to worship or seek God, (buy and sell), in any other manner than Catholic masses with the eating of bread and wine. All the speculation in Christendom about being literally unable to buy or sell is only a distraction from the truth, which is: that the horror of being unable to buy or sell is history; however, those still in the Catholic and Protestant sects are currently serving the beast and so spiritually marked. All the world's religions are serving the beast, denying the consequences of continuing to sin and denying the fallen nature of man, each who must be restored to the purity of righteousness and holiness before being acceptable to God and heaven after death. Even atheists serve the beast because they make themselves God, denying sin, serving their lusts, passions, and pride. All men serve the beast when they walk in darkness, according to their carnal mind and evil imagination instead of walking in the Spirit and light, guiding all their thoughts, words and deeds.

George Fox writes of two, (of the many), examples of the mark of the beast:

"As for sprinkling infants,* it is a thing which the scripture does not hold forth, but has been gotten up since the days of the apostles; it is not witnessed by scripture, but is a tradition of men, an invention of men; and then all may see if it is not a mark of that beastly spirit that is erred from the apostles, and out of the power!"

*Although infant baptism actually includes drawing the sign of the cross on the forehead of the infant, the mark of the beast is not a physical mark; mark is a metaphor for possession of the symptoms, or characteristics, (a sign), of the beastly spirit, evidenced by the fruits of the flesh instead of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, by which you will know them. Since the mark is not a mark, but only a sign of his beastly spirit, by repentance a man can be freed from being a part of that beastly spirit.

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"You show yourselves not to be ministers of Christ, but to be such that ever were out of the saints' life, who were found in the spirit of murderers and persecutors; of him you are that is out of the truth, that would drink the blood of the saints; this is the mark of the beast and false prophets, that would kill creatures, and wrestle with flesh and blood."

We can add many more marks of the beast to what George Fox has just explained: the trinity, (nowhere mentioned in scriptures), marriage by priests, vain and prideful buildings called holy, steeples with bells, black robes, black shirts, special collars, creeds, reading sermons, sacraments, vicars, clerks, parsons, curates, bachelors of art, masters, fathers, Christmas, Easter, and bachelors of divinity, separation of revered clergy vs. the second class laity or lay people, elevated stages, choirs, elevated pulpits, confession, penance, rule by bishop or priest, tithes, the cross and crucifix, hail mary, the rosary, the habit, convents, monasteries, seminaries, popes, cardinals, programmed services, altar calls, the sinner's prayer, crusades, revivals, and expiation of sin with words, water, bread and wine — all as George Fox said: "things which the scripture does not hold forth, but has been gotten up since the days of the apostles; it is not witnessed by scripture, but is a tradition of men, an invention of men ... that is erred from the apostles, and out of the power;" — inventions by fallen men ruled by the beastly spirit of Satan and possessing the fruits of the flesh.

And a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If any man worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead, or on his hand; the same will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture [of love] into the cup of his indignation; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever. Those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name have no rest day or night. Rev 14:9-11. From the Word of the Lord within: "Those with the mark of the beast will be given thirty days to repent."

⁶ The great pastime of modern Christendom: speculating on what is the meaning of 666, or who is it? The King James, says incorrectly: it is a number of a man. The Amplified says: it is a human number. The New International says it is man's number. Look for yourself, by clicking here. Seems to be a bit of confusion in the translation. But this is a critical difference in expectations and ability to understand the meaning. On the sixth day, man was created, so that 6 is man's number.

John said: Here is discernment. Let anyone who has understanding (penetration and insight enough) calculate the number of the beast, for it is a human number; his [the beast's, not the antichrist's] number is 666. It is the beastly religion created by man's spirit(6), man's defiled heart(6), and man's carnal mind(6); the old fleshly self, the old sinful nature, the old man, the uncircumcised in heart, the stony heart, the carnal mind, the old unregenerated creature, walking after the lusts of the flesh — instead of walking in the Spirit, in faith, in love, in the light. If the beast is supposedly yet to come, then all previous generations of Christians were deliberately told to do the impossible — to calculate the number with intelligence and insight. The beasts are the spirits of man-made religions, seeking to appease their image of God with some heathenish ritual, works, actions, or sacrifice. The 2nd beast, with horns like a lamb [appearing christian], is the so-called christian sects of today.

Now since the 666 number doesn't even refer to an antichrist, it refers to the image of the beast, with no mention of the antiChrist; but if you still think there is a [single] antichrist to appear, explain John's statement in 2 John 1:18: Little children, it is the last time [2000 years ago]; and as you have heard that antichrist will come, even now many antichrists have come [2000 years ago]. By this we know that it is the last time. John has just told us that two thousand years ago there were many antichrists; they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, so that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. 1 John 2:19. The antichrists were believers who left them. From the Word of the Lord within: "they did not have patience;" they didn't have the patience for what?—they could not bear the cross and its necessary suffering over time. They went out as the many false prophets have gone out into the world, who tried to seduce the true Christians with their false gospel and false Jesus, promising liberty without the necessity mortifying the sinful nature on the inward cross of self-denial. Anyone preaching who does not have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ, is antichrist. Anyone preaching, teaching, or witnessing, who does not confess that Christ's anointing is their Lord, controlling their thoughts, words, and deeds, is an antichrist. With the anointing of the Spirit of Christ, a true believer knows all things: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 1 John 2:20.  But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need any man to teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you all things, and is truth, and is no lie; and even as it has taught you, abide in him. 1 John 2:27. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey, as their souls are purified by obedience to the truth.

as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And anyone who did not worship that image, was killed. As predicted, the Roman Church speaks great abominations, calling the Pope the Vicar of Christ, (a vicar is someone who acts in place of Christ, implying that Christ does not still act); creating saints and then worshipping them; offering absolution; worshipping statues; praying to dead men and dead women instead of the one mediator, (Christ); forbidding marriage, forbidding meats; self-appointed men creating laws, ordinances, rituals, etc. The Roman sect made Hitler's Gestapo look like amateurs. Anyone who had not taken "the eucharist," (bread and wine supposedly made holy, the eating of which in mass constituted a sacrifice for sin, thus denying Christ's one, lasting sacrifice), in the last 90 days was subject to investigation by a European wide network of priests who then "examined with murderous torture " that individual in the inquisition for heresy. Anyone who allowed someone to live on their land, who had not recently taken the "eucharist," was also subject to the inquisition. The priests and civil magistrates periodically searched all houses and all lands for concealed heretics. The Roman sect's inquisitions and slaughters throughout Europe in the Middle Ages (800 AD to 1500 AD) murdered nine million souls, accused of witchcraft.

Following in the footsteps of their murdering mother, the Protestants killed and murdered throughout Europe too. The Peasants War in Germany, led by Luther-inspired religious despots, raped, plundered, and killed 100,000 of the nobility and Roman Catholics. English King Henry VIII, the founder of the Episcopalians, had 72,000 opponents, (mostly Catholics), killed. England, Scotland, and Ireland suffered three civil wars of Puritans* against ruling governments, which left 190,00 dead in England, (3.7% of the population); 60,000 dead in Scotland, (6% of the population); and 616,000 dead in Ireland, (41% of the population, which was mostly Catholic).

*Justifying their revolution as bringing Christ's kingdom to earth, the Puritans regarded their adversaries as enemies of Christ. The Puritan officers of their army frequently inspired their troops by shouting a quote from the Old Testament against heathen idolatry: "Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully, and keeps back his sword from blood." The victorious Puritan and parliamentary soldiers, with their extraordinary biblical names — Praise God Barebones and Sergeant Hew Agag in Pieces before the Lord — were roaming through the country, smashing the images in the churches, tearing out the pipes in the organs, breaking the stained-glass windows, and stabling their horses in cathedrals.

This was followed in the 17th Century by the Protestants of England and America, who in 50 years were responsible for the deaths of over 869 Quakers, imprisoning tens of thousands, and seizing the property of tens of thousands; the persecutors of the Quakers included Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalist Puritans, and Baptists. Three men and a woman were hung in Boston by the Bible-believing Puritans. The beast was given power to overcome the saints. The false church, the whore of Babylon, was drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

All the Protestant and Catholic sects that killed, (or even approved of killing), those with a different religious opinion were very different from real Christians; in even considering murder, they were following and yielding to their father the devil, who was the murderer from the beginning.

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