Understanding that the number of the beast is the number of man takes us a long way in our understanding of the mark of the beast. For as we said, the mark is the number. The mark and the number and the name are essentially the same. The mark is simply an expression of the man-centred character of this beast. The text says that false religion, led by the false and apostatizing Christianity, in its effort to prop up the anti-Christian world power, leads all the people of the earth to get a mark in their forehead or on their right hand, in order to be a part of this worldwide kingdom.
In the Bible times it was not only livestock that was marked or branded. Servants were marked or branded. And that mark indicated to whom the servant belonged. This mark of the beast indicates that the person who is being marked belongs to the Antichrist and his kingdom – this kingdom that exalts man. He gives himself to that kingdom with his heart. He is allied to it. His life is for this kingdom. He is owned by it. In the next chapter Revelation 14:9, the Word of God says:
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.Revelation 14:9–10a, KJVThis mark indicates that you are one who worships the beast. That is what it is saying. You are owned by him and you give your life in worship to this kingdom. The point of the mark is that by it the Antichrist seeks to know who is his and who is not. Who is for him and who is against him. Who is propping him up, who is one with him, and who is not.
What is marked here is the right hand and/or the forehead. The forehead represents the mind – a person's worldview, his philosophy, the thoughts and intents and purposes of his life. That the forehead is marked indicates that it is all owned by the Antichrist and his kingdom. His worldview and his philosophy is given over to man’s glory. The service of man in all of his mind, in all of his purpose, in all of his goals. The right hand is the picture of power and man’s activity. The right hand of God is the picture of the power of God. So the point is that one who has this mark on his right hand is one who is given over in the activity of his life to the service of the Antichrist and his kingdom. He is owned in what he does. He willingly gives himself over in allegiance in his life to the service of this kingdom.
Back in Deuteronomy 6:8 God had commanded that the Israelites bind His Word on their foreheads and on their right hands. The picture there was that their mind and their life (their actions) were to be owned by that Word of God, were to be subject to that Word of God, taken over by that Word and submitted to that Word. And now here the second beast leads men to give their minds and all their thoughts and all their purposes and all their lives in total subjection to the beast and to its head, the Antichrist, for the glory of man in the world as one.1
Cory Griess
16 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,