
The seal of God and Satan
Today, we will explore the seals of the sons of God and of the sons of Satan. Within Christian communities, the seal of the beast is often discussed, and these discussions are followed by some sort of fear and vigilance, so that we do not take that seal upon ourselves. The generic questions go something like this:
- What does the seal indicate?
- How can we take it upon ourselves?
- What is God’s seal?
- What is Satan’s seal?
So, to start with the first question:
What does the seal indicate?
Ezekiel 9,1-6
“Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, "Bring the guards of the city here, each with a weapon in his hand." And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and 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, "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." As I listened, he said to the others, "Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.”
To summarise, what does the seal indicate? The belonging! There are two choices, either with God, or against Him:
Matthew 6,24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Therefore, the ones who are not with the Lord are the slaves of Satan:
John 8,31-36
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Jesus frees the ones who believe in Him from sinning, not from God’s judgement! The ones who commit sin are slaves to sin, so God did not free that person, meaning that person is still in slavery. I am not the one saying this, but the verse which you read above says so! We either wear the seal as slaves of Satan or as sons of God.
How can we take it upon ourselves?
The type of seal that we bear is the consequence of our actions, as our actions determine which country’s citizens we are, which country’s laws we live by. If we live by the passions of the flesh, then we are this world’s citizens. But if we live by God’s laws, living our lives by His will, we become His sons, citizens of Heaven. It is not a coincidence that on the day of judgement, God will judge us based on our actions.
Matthew 25,31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
According to James, there are two types of faith exist:
- Acting (good deeds)
- Useless (without good deeds)
James 2,14-24
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”
There is nothing else to be explained regarding these verses, as they clearly explain themselves. Despite this, many people reject the importance of good deeds which leads to salvation. Returning to the previous verses (sheep – goats parable), we need to pay attention that both the righteous and the unrighteous called Jesus their Lord. Jesus judged the righteous and the unrighteous alike, based on their deeds, and not based on how many sins they put before His feet.
As I have said it in the beginning, many people are in fear and stay vigilant not to bear the seal of the beast accidentally. But the truth is that God does not have random followers; therefore, if someone who does not truly serve God, will be the slave of Satan. Therefore, it is not possible to bear neither seals accidentally, as the bearing of Satan’s seal is a conscious opposition against God’s commandments. God places His seal on the ones who follow Him in truth! This is what John wrote regarding true life:
1John 3,18
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
As we have discussed what the seal indicates in previous points (the belonging), we do not have to think much about how this all adds up: the ones who bear Satan’s seal are not belonging to God because no one becomes the follower of God through worshipping Him with speech alone. While the people who live an ungodly life are also saying that their life is kind in God’s eyes, these people took the seal of Satan upon themselves.
What is the seal of God?
Deuteronomy 6,1-8
“These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”
In short: The fulfilment of God’s commandments! And not the generic beliefs, such as “it’s enough to just accept His grace”! Many people consider themselves to be Christians, because while they continue to live a sinful life, at least they know who to ask for forgiveness. But God does not call these people His sons, but the ones who walk by His will. For this reason (being one of many), they had to tie them on their hands, because we have to serve our Lord with all our strength. For another reason (being one of many) we also had to bind them on our foreheads to love the Lord with our whole mind as well.
Mark 12,30
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'”
But this holds another message too. Let’s look back at the night before 10th plague of Egypt. Which houses did the Destroyer not go into to kill the firstborns? Into the ones which did not have the blood of the sheep painted on the lintels and the doorposts. The forehead marks the lintel, and the arm marks the doorpost. In both cases, a cross is represented. The ones who have Jesus’ blood upon them are separated from the ones who will be destroyed.
God can only be our Lord if we do his bidding. The ones, who do not do His Lord’s bidding, will end up like so:
Luke 12,42-46
“And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
We have already talked about cutting someone in half, which is the punishment for transgressing covenants:
Jeremiah 34,13-20
“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”
We will return to God’s seal.
What is Satan’s seal?
Revelation 13,11-18
“Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 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 refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 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. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”
So the ones who do not take the seal of the beast upon themselves, will be unable to buy and sell anything, meaning that they will be unable to take care of their own needs. If we keep reading a bit further, then we understand this easier:
Revelation 14,9-12
“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.”
Faithful to Jesus? What faith did Jesus have?
Matthew 4,1-4
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Why didn’t Jesus turn the stones into bread? How could have Jesus sinned if he would have done that? Because His quest was not only to keep the commandments, but to also have faith in God! This is the reason why nobody can reach salvation by solely fulfilling the law! The unwavering faith in God is also a criterion for our salvation. Jesus had faith in God, who takes care of His sons. After this happened, Jesus taught us the following:
Matthew 6,25
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”
This is the faith that He asks from both you and me! The majority of today’s Christians are very practical thinking, explaining to God why they had to transgress His commandments to care for their own needs. For example: “I lied because I would have gotten into big trouble”, “I stole because I had nothing to eat”. The Jews who refused to eat pork starved to death (during World War 2), and many people just laugh at them and judge them.
How many people will take Satan’s seal upon themselves to take care of their bodily needs?
How many people will choose their bodies, denying their faith?
I promised that I would return to God’s seal, so I will wrap this up with one final verse.
2Timothy 2,19
“Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
Which seal is upon you?
Antal Farkas
(March 6, 2020)