God seals His elect

By doing this, once again the devil is seeking to copy God. Remember that we have said that all the way through this series. The devil always tries to copy God to accomplish his evil purposes. It is imperative that we understand this mark of the beast in connection with the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7:1–17.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Revelation 7:2–3, KJV.

The elect people of God are sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads, indicating that they are God’s in the midst of this world. They are owned by Him. God possesses them. And they cannot be lost to the world or to its service to man. They submit themselves in their mind, in their doctrine, in their understanding, in their purposes and in their goals to the Word of God and to the service of Jehovah God. Even in the last days they do that. Revelation 14:1 further informs us that this seal is in fact the name of God upon their foreheads.

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. Revelation 14:1, KJV

Do you see? As God identifies His elect, seals them and marks them out as those who are part of His spiritual kingdom in the midst of this world, the Antichrist seeks to mark out those who are his own, who belong to his earthly, man-centred kingdom. And as God seals His elect with His own name upon their foreheads, so the Antichrist marks his own with his own name. Revelation 7:17 tells us that the number of the beast and the mark is the name of the beast also. He is copying God. He is seeking to overthrow God by copying what God does.¹

Cory Griess