Monday, March 16, 2015

in "The Mark of the Beast" what allusions to the Book of Revelation int he Bible are made?

Are you referring to the story by Rudyard Kipling? In this
story, three friends are celebrating New Year's Eve by drinking. They are British men
living in India. One, Fleete, gets particularly drunk and defaces the statue of an
Indian god, Hanuman the Monkey God, with his cigar butt. He states that he is giving the
statue the "mark of the beast." Immediately a leper/priest jumps out from behind the
statue and touches Fleete with his diseased body. Soon after, a mark appears on Fleete's
chest. He begins acting strangely - he is ravenously hungry, his horse is afraid of him,
he cannot bear light and he literally turns into a
beast:



The
human spirit must have been giving way all day and have died out with the twilight. We
were dealing with a beast that had once been
Fleete.



In the book of
Revelation in the Bible, the apostle John warns us:


readability="6">

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six
hundred threescore and
six.



The number 666,
therefore, refers to the Anti-Christ, who will one day come and wreak havoc on the
earth. The Anti-Christ will be empowered by Satan. The number 666 and the reference to
"the Beast" in literature is symbolic of evil, or Satan. Once one has received "the
mark" one is doomed. So in this story, Fleete is doomed. Strickland, his friend,
recognizes the spiritual nature of the danger to his friend, being familiar with the
Biblical prophecy. When Fleete cries out, Strickland notes that if this happens six
times, it will confirm the spiritual nature of the attack on
Fleete:


readability="6">

'Watch!' said Strickland. 'If this happens six
times I shall take the law into my own hands. I order you to help
me.'



Fleete's friends then
trap the leper/priest and force him to reverse the evil
spell:



We
unstrapped the leper and told him to take away the evil spirit. He crawled to the beast
and laid his hand upon the left
breast.



They perform an
exorcism, driving out the evil.


The Bible says that when
the Anti-Christ appears, he will require everyone to "receive the mark" and those who do
not, will not be able to survive because they will not be able to buy food, water, etc.
When Fleete's friends force the leper/priest to exorcise the evil spirit from their
friend, they are acting in an opposite way to Jesus' words in John
10:14:



I am
the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know
me--



Since the Anti-Christ
will do everything "anti" Christ, he will also pervert Christ's sayings. So while Jesus
knows who his sheep are, so does Satan. That is why the evil leper/priest is the only
one who can drive out the demon in Fleete.

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