Ask Your Preacher - Archives
No Sci-Fi Before Bed
Thursday, April 07, 2016Hi, I had a dream a few nights ago; I was outside, and it was daytime. I looked up at the sky, and I saw a few clouds, and something red was in the clouds. It was like a human shape; it was red. I couldn’t see a face or hands; I don’t know what it was. Then I saw three or four, maybe even five, moons in the sky. What does this mean?Sincerely,
New Moon
Dear New Moon,
It means you had a weird dream. The days of prophecy and visions are over. The purpose of prophecy was to bring God's Word to us. Now that we have the complete and perfect word of God, there is no more need for visions and dreams (1 Cor 13:8-10). God's Word is complete, and it has once and for all been given to mankind (Jude 1:3). We all have odd dreams from time to time; they are caused by strange events in our lives, eating something disagreeable, or any number of other factors... but they have no divine significance.
We recommend you read "I Dreamed A Dream" for more information.
Those Beastly Things
Wednesday, April 06, 2016I have a quick question about the mark of the beast; I like to read others’ questions on this website ‘cause it helps me learn more about the Bible. Often I have some of the same questions myself, so it helps a lot. My question is about the "RFID CHIPS". I’ve been looking at videos about them, and it seems that people will be putting computer chips into their hands to "buy stuff" and, of course, many other things. It seems that the world is going to be pushing people to get these things one day, and maybe it would even be required. This scares me because this sounds like the mark of the beast to me. I admit I could be wrong, but I wanted to know what you thought about these so-called "chips". I don’t know if this is the mark or not, but I do not want to risk it. What do you think? Thanks for your time.Sincerely,
I Don’t Want Stuff In Me
Dear I Don’t Want Stuff In Me,
Nope, RFID chips implanted under the skin (although ridiculously creepy) are not the mark of the beast. The topic of the book of Revelation was the battle between Rome and the church. It has nothing to do with modern society or modern technology. When John wrote the book, God told him the vision was "shortly to come to pass" and "at hand" (Rev 1:1-3). That vision was dealing with a specific problem that the first-century christians were about to face - physical persecution at the hands of Rome. Although the book of Revelation provides great encouragement to christians today through its message of hope through trials, it is not specifically applying to us. The mark of the beast was most likely the practice of burning incense to Caesar as a god. In Roman society, anyone who wouldn't burn incense to Caesar as a god was persecuted and often killed. The only people unwilling to do that were christians.