Mark Biltz: Why Parents Will Run to Get the Mark of the Beast for Their Kids

Mark Biltz: Why Parents Will Run to Get the Mark of the Beast for Their Kids
2:09PM EDT 4/12/2019 STEPHEN STRANG
https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/the-strang-report/41018-mark-biltz-why-parents-will-run-to-get-the-mark-of-the-beast-for-their-kids
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The Bible has much to say about the end times. And if you've been watching the news, you may be wondering if we're in those prophesied last days. In many ways, it seems the evil in our culture and across the world is getting worse and worse. Are all these wars, political scandals and natural disasters coming to a head now? Is the Antichrist about to introduce the mark of the beast?

I recently discussed this topic with Pastor Mark Biltz for my "In Depth With Stephen Strang" podcast, which you can listen to here
https://www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/show/indepth/9edda790123c40ea97cf1b914aba873d

 or at the end of the article. Biltz has been studying the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective to decode the end times and the Antichrist's future system. He says many Christians have a false sense of confidence that they will never take the mark of the beast. The mark the Antichrist chooses, he points out, will be extremely enticing.

"I think parents are going to run for the mark of the beast," Biltz says. "They're going to want it because it's going to be so tempting. It's not going to be some ugly thing. It's going to be something that will let you access the internet with your thoughts. So I think people will be deceived because they're going to be passionate about the things of this world."

Biltz writes about his findings in his new book, Decoding the Antichrist, which I've had the privilege to publish through Charisma House. Early sales have already far exceeded our expectations, indicating the book will be a huge success. One point he made in our interview, which he talks more in depth about in his book, is that artificial intelligence will likely play a huge role in creating the mark of the beast—and perhaps even the Antichrist himself.

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"In this age of artificial intelligence, some are wondering if the Antichrist might be some kind of super-intelligent hybrid human cyborg that will want to be worshipped," he says. "Top experts are warning us of the malicious use of artificial intelligence."

Biltz is right; artificial intelligence is advancing at a frightening pace. After all, Google keeps track of more than just what you research online. It tracks where you've been, what you order and even what you do. Just recently, Google gave me a weekly update on everywhere I've been. Even though the report wasn't harmful, it still concerned me that a computer was keeping such detailed track of me. Who's to say an evil person or organization can't use such powerful technology to harm God's people?

"When it comes to this artificial intelligence, what's really creepy is the driverless cars they have now that will drive for you because of GPS," Biltz says. "They're creating a computer that's driving your car, and they're giving it a moral artificial intelligence. If you're in the back seat and that car is driving, and a deer runs in front of your car, the computer has to know: 'Do I hit the deer? Do I swerve and hit the two pedestrians? Or do I take the driver down the cliff?' So they're creating a moral intelligence for these computer systems."

But whether or not the Antichrist will use artificial intelligence to persecute believers and take control, Biltz says he will still use other methods to deceive people.

"The apostle John declared that there were many Antichrists at his time," Biltz explains. "But what was interesting is that he said they came out from among us, as if they were a type of professing Christian. And Paul says Satan comes as an angel of light and his ministers are ministers of righteousness. ... He wants to come across as a believer, which will be very deceptive. We have to know [the Antichrist's] modus operandi. I think he's going to have very flowery language. I think he's going to be solid, wealthy, famous and powerful.

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Biltz says his message is resonating with people across the world. His El Shaddai Ministries church in Tacoma, Washington, represents a wide variety of ethnic groups and Christian denominations. And his online congregation is even more diverse—the 250,000 people who watch Biltz's church service online come from over 30 nations.

"I couldn't [draw this crowd,]" he says. "This is why I know it has to be a God thing. We have all the different cultures, different countries, wanting to come back to the original. And for me, that's pretty exciting."

If you want a free copy of Biltz's book, Decoding the Antichrist, just subscribe to Charisma magazine at charismamag.com/decoding. You can buy one year for $20 or two years for $30. This is just our way of saying thank you for your continued support as we have reported on what the Holy Spirit is doing for the last 40-plus years.

Be sure to listen to my entire interview with Biltz below!
https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/the-strang-report/41018-mark-biltz-why-parents-will-run-to-get-the-mark-of-the-beast-for-their-kids

MORE https://www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/show/indepth/9edda790123c40ea97cf1b914aba873d
In-Depth with

Stephen Strang

Guest: Mark Biltz

Mark Biltz, author of Decoding the Antichrist and The End Times, says many Christians have a false sense of confidence about the mark and will unknowingly put their children in harm's way by following the enemy's, and the world's leading.

Introduction

Stephen Strang: The Bible talks about the end times. What is going to happen? If you've been watching the news, you have to believe that it’s culminating in something. Today, we're going to talk with an author that is going to help us to decode the end times and even help us to understand who the Antichrist might be.

Hello everyone. This is Stephen Strang and welcome to In-depth with Stephen Strang, my new once-a-week podcast in which today I'm going to go in depth with Pastor Mark Biltz, who has recently written the book Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times: What the Bible Says and What the Future Holds. I think it's a very interesting interview. I tracked him down and invited him to be on my podcast. And what I want you to do is listen to what he has to say. At the end of the podcast, I'm going to tell you how you can get a free copy of this new book, which is just blowing up out there in the marketplace. We got a report recently that the early sales of this book are just significantly more than we had expected, indicating that there's a lot of interest in it. Also, he's been getting quite a bit of media play. So, here's my interview:

 

·         Read the Strang Report: Mark Biltz: Why Parents Will Run to Get the Mark of the Beast for Their Kids

 

Pastor Mark, you're probably best known about the blood moons. Could you explain to me exactly why it is a blood moon? And. how did you become aware of this and the significance as it relates to the Bible and Bible prophecy?

 

·         Listen to the Greenelines podcast: Smart Gadgets, Antichrist, end Times and More with Mark Biltz

 

Mark Biltz: Yes, a blood moon is simply a total lunar eclipse when the moon turns blood red. I came across this when I was in my prayer closet back in 2008. I noticed that there were total lunar eclipses on Passover and Tabernacle two years in a row. So, I did the research to see how often that happened and noticed the previous times was 1967, when they recaptured Jerusalem and in 1948-49 when Israel became a nation. I just started noticing the pattern of all the events that happened in Jewish history. So, I thought, people need to know what potentially could happen coming up in 2014 and 2015.

 

Mark Biltz on Charisma News

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·         Pastor Says Key to Sunday’s Super Blood Wolf Moon Can Be Found in Scripture

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Stephen Strang: That's right. It was widely circulated. In fact, a lot of other ministries kind of picked up on this theme and did their own interpretation of it. You have also written some things. Of course, I'm most excited about your latest book called Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times with the subtitle What the Bible says About What the Future Holds. And just full disclosure, I'm proud of this partly because I had the privilege of publishing it through Charisma House. In fact, you and I did a podcast before on this. But I'm just interested in how this ministry has developed and what the Lord has showed you. Then, I'll want to delve into a little bit about your background.

 

·         Listen to the Strang Report podcast: ‘Trump Blood Moons’ Reveal How God is Fulfilling Prophecy, with Steve Cioccolanti

 

Mark Biltz: Sure, the ministry started back in 2001. El Shaddai Ministries has been going for about 18 years now. We just really felt like we needed to reconnect to the Jewish roots to understand the culture of the Bible and the context. We really felt like we couldn't understand the New Testament unless we connected it to the Old Testament. So, I started it back in 2001. Almost immediately, we started getting people from all over … different denominations, different ethnic groups started coming. Right now, we have about 20 Russians and about 20 South Koreans and about 20 Hispanics. We’ve got people from every denomination because we make the New Testament come alive when you reconnect back to the Old Testament.

Stephen Strang: You also have a huge congregation on the Internet, don't you?

Mark Biltz: We probably have about 250,000 people who follow us on the Internet. As a matter of fact, we live stream our services. During any one service, we will have over 300 cities in 30 nations watching all at once.

Stephen Strang: It’s just amazing what technology allows us to do that wasn't possible just a few years ago. So, you're talking about all the different countries and the different ethnic groups. So, this is a message that really resonates far and wide.

Mark Biltz: Exactly right, Steve. That's what's amazing, I couldn't do this. This is why I know it has to be a God thing, to have all these different cultures, different countries wanting to come back to the original. And for me, it's pretty exciting.

Stephen Strang: Well, I'd like to drill down a little bit, maybe go in-depth and to find out about you about your background and sort of how you came to this awareness of how the New Testament ties into the Old Testament and into our Jewish roots. So, let's start by where you were born. What was your family of origin like.

Mark Biltz: I'm really an oddball. I was raised Catholic for 20 years. But when it happened, my ancestors were totally 100 percent Jewish on my father’s side. Basically, I have relatives who died in the Holocaust that are listed in Israel and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. But my great ancestor was a Jew, married to a Jewish woman and got tired of being a poor Jewish tailor in and France so he ran off with a wealthy Catholic lady to America and had my grandpa, and then he ended up going back to France. So, my grandpa was raised Catholic knowing that his dad was Jewish. So, he raised my dad Catholic. And then my dad married a Protestant, but we still would do the Passover. I still have the Hebrew English Passover in my house right here. So, here I’ve got a Catholic dad, a protestant mom, remembering our Jewish roots and doing Passover. And so, for the first 20 years of my life, I was studying Catholicism. I even went to the seminary. Then the next 20 years, I had gotten saved and I jumped into Protestantism, the charismatic movement. And the last 20 years, I've been looking at the Jewish roots of Christianity and how it connects. So, it's really a diverse life I've had.

Stephen Strang: Who were some of the influencers about the time you got saved as you got involved in the charismatic movement? Were there any teachers that may have influenced you? Or, were there books that influenced you?

Mark Biltz: Yes, both. I had joined a youth organization called the The Agape Force that was centered in Sebastopol, California. Tony Salerno was my mentor along with Winky Pratme, along with Leonard Ravenhill. Then when we moved to Texas, David Wilkerson was my next-door neighbor. I played ping pong with them. I had a lot of great mentors.

Stephen Strang: We've not talked about this before, but when I was 19, Winky had a huge, huge impact on me, as did Tony. It was a pivotal time in my life, so I can identify with you about that. The Agape Force doesn't really exist anymore. I was talking to Joy Dawson about it just a few days ago. But obviously you got involved with this. I don't think of Winky or Tony Salerno as really … I feel certain they would have agreed with you. But I don't know that they really taught on this. So, was Derek Prince or any of those people an influence?

Mark Biltz: Yes, I had a lot of different influences. But the biggest influence, believe it or not, was a book that my wife bought me back in 1994. She had gone to a bookstore and she saw a book on the Jewish Holy Days written by a Rabbi Moshe Braun. Knowing that I'm Jewish on my father’s side, and I love the Bible, she bought that book for me. As you know, the Bible says, we see through a glass darkly. We only know in part. Well, I'm reading Romans 11 and it says the Jews are only blinded in part. So, they're not totally blind any more than we are totally blind. But I felt like the first group to humble themselves and look out of the other lands gets to see the clear picture. So, I read that book and it blew me away in what they were coming up with. And I tell people, I know how to eat chicken, I can eat the meat and throw out the bones. Sure, there are bones in Judaism, but there's bones in Christianity as well. It sent me on a journey where I learned how to study according to the Jewish mindset, and it really opened up the Scriptures for me.

Stephen Strang: That's very interesting. Could you kind of outline more about what you just said on how you begin to understand how to study the Jewish scriptures in the Jewish way?

Mark Biltz: Yes. The way they look at things in the Greek mindset, we always look at things linearly, so to speak, like a checklist. But in Jewish mindset, things happen repeatedly over and over and over, and I started looking for patterns. Then I started seeing how, in Hebrew, what's fascinating is every letter is a number, every letter is a word. So, for example, I saw the word Zion, which we know is another name for Jerusalem. But in Hebrew, since I already knew every letter was also a word in the picture, the very word Zion, the first letter is a fish hook and the last letter is a fish. The Lord said he wanted to make us fishers of men. Then, what's the bait on the hook to catch the fish? If you remember what Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll catch all men. The middle two letters is Zion are a hand and a nail. So, then, nail hand on the Messiah is the bait on the hook to catch the fish. Now, the Jews aren’t going to see that. But as a Christian, when I looked at the word Zion and I saw a fish hook, a hand, a nail and a fish as how David wrote that word, it blew me away.

Stephen Strang: It blows me away now. We get very, very little of this teaching, even though within evangelical circles and certainly charismatic circles there's a great love for Israel. But a lot of times, it's kind of, at least in my opinion, kind of a sentimental love rather than really helping us to delve into the scriptures more and learn. So, your ministry obviously helps people to do this. You teach this on Sunday, you teach it on the Internet. And, you've also written some books now. So, why don't we talk about this book, Decoding the Antichrist and End Times. Describe to me and my listeners exactly what the book says in terms of how do we decode the Antichrist and in the end times.

Mark Blitz: Sure. A lot of people, especially the last 2,000 years, been trying to figure out who the Antichrist is. The way I look at it is, instead of trying to figure out who it is, because usually everybody's wrong, we need to profile the Antichrist and the Antichrist system so we have a better idea of what to look for. For me, it is legalized lawlessness. We see that in the book of Esther. In Ecclesiastes, God said there's nothing new under the sun. That which has happened is that which will happen again. So, as I look at the Old Testament, I look at history. Then I look at the patterns and see, wow, it's being repeated. In Hayman's day, in the book of Esther, Hayman was a type of Antichrist. He wanted to annihilate all the Jewish people. Yet he wanted to do everything legally. He had to create a law to make it OK to commit genocide. They wanted to create a law to seize all of this property. They want to make a law to make it legal to drink all you want. They had to make a law for women. To me, when I look at it even today, we decide if we just legalize abortion, if we legalize drugs, if we legalize gay marriage, if we legalize prostitution, that will make it OK. I even know Christians, teenagers, who think abortions is OK because it's legal.

Stephen Strang: I hope you enjoyed my interview and I promised that I would tell you how you can get a free copy of Mark Biltz’s book, Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times. The way is just to subscribe to Charisma magazine. Most of my listeners would know that, for the last 43 years, I've been publishing the magazine about Spirit-led living, Charisma. I hope you get it in your home. Even if you are a subscriber, you can take advantage of this special offer, which is subscribe to Charisma for $20 and you will get the free book by Mark Biltz, Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times. To get the deal, all you have to do is go to our website, it's fairly easy to remember, you may want to write it down. The good thing about a podcast is you can back it up and listen to it again. If you need to, go to Charismamag com/decoding. If you'd rather have two years for $30, you will also get the book for free. So, this is a special offer for a subscription to Charisma magazine, which I hope that you want in your home anyway.

Connect with Mark Biltz

·         On YouTube

·         On Twitter
Where to Find Stephen Strang on the Internet

·         The Strang Report on Charismamag.com

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https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/41032-officials-try-to-dispel-fears-of-new-id-labeled-mark-of-the-beast
Officials Try to Dispel Fears of New ID Labeled 'Mark of the Beast'
9:00AM EDT 4/13/2019 FREDRICK NZWILI/RNS

(Photo by steve wafula on Unsplash)
In Kenyan churches, the Antichrist is a frequent sermon subject, one that often serves to feed controversial end-time conspiracy theories.

Those fears of the apocalyptic figure, a seven-headed beast that rises from the sea in the New Testament Book of Revelation, are colliding with a new government effort to assign Kenyans a personal identification number. Clerics are alleging the new ID number will brand their flocks with 666, the biblical mark of the beast.

"This is actually the journey towards the mark of the beast, but I think outside forces are driving the process," said Daniel Mungai, a lay preacher with the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa churches in Nairobi.

"We are in the end times," Benjamin Mutungi, a Pentecostal church pastor, told Religion News Service. "They will keep upgrading this number until it becomes micro-chip that will be implanted on people's hands or forehead. We do not need to worry for now, but when they start fixing it on the people's foreheads that's the time to rise up."

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President Uhuru Kenyatta registered disbelief as he launched the identification known as "Huduma (Service) Number" in Masii, a small town east of Nairobi, on April 2.

"I was shocked to hear that some of pastors are saying that this the devil's number," said Kenyatta. "Goodness! How does the devil come in, in a process of identification?" Kenyatta explained that the government needed the numbers to make it easier for citizens to receive services.

Kenyatta warned church leaders against misusing their privileged positions to mislead their congregations.

Eighty percent of Kenyans are Christian, and bishops, priests and pastors exercise immense influence on national issues, including education, politics and health.

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Mark Biltz: Why Parents Will Run to Get the Mark of the Beast for Their Kids
Some government officials have responded to the charges about the mark of the beast with theological arguments of their own. "Those talking about the mark of the beast are ahead of time because you need to die first, then resurrect to get the number," said Karanja Kibicho, the principal secretary in the State Department, Interior Ministry.

Some Christian leaders are similarly dismissing the fears. "The evangelical churches are supporting the number," said Nyabuto Marube, an evangelical pastor with the Church of Christ in Nairobi's Kayole area. "I think to view it as the mark of the beast is to read too much in the Bible. It's also too radical."

But leaflets linked to Pentecostal groups opposing the ID number have been spotted in Mombasa and elsewhere in the country, urging residents not to sign up for the program and quoting apparent proofs from Revelation. "So that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark of the beast," one flyer read, citing Revelation's Chapter 13.

Another, written in Swahili, warned: "It doesn't matter if you are a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu or a pagan. Understand that when you acquire the Huduma number, you and your creator have parted ways, meaning you will not receive the forgiveness of sin for ever. If you doubt this, ask Jesus (Pray), and the faithful one will provide an answer."

Other church leaders offered a criticism that the government's introduction of the new IDs sowed confusion from the start and said officials should have better educated people on its usefulness.

"Kenyans have several identifications and many view this as unnecessary," said retired Anglican Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa.

On the streets, ordinary citizens have more mundane theories: The number will be used, for instance, to catch cheating spouses. 

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