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According to Tim LaHaye, a Christian can not exercise his will to save his own life in this world and accept the mark of
the beast. His book, Are
We Living in the End Times?, contains
this statement concerning a Christian obtaining the mark of the beast:
Second, the aforementioned verses [Rev.
13:13-18] show that the mark is obtained only by those who sell their soul to
the Beast and the devil who gives him power. This involves a willful rejection of God--something a true Christian could
never do." pg 197
Tim LaHaye asserted that a true Christian
could never willfully reject God. This is his nonfiction
teaching!
Tim LaHaye's nonfiction book, The Mark,
contains the same teaching in the
form of a sermon written by the leader of the 144,00 Jewish witnesses, Tsion Ben
Judah. Judah wrote that a Christian cannot change his mind and depart from
God:
"The Bible tells us that once one is either
sealed by God as a believer or accepts the mark of loyalty to Antichrist, this
is a once-and-for all choice. In other words, if you have decided for
Christ and the seal of God is evident on your forehead, you cannot change your
mind!' (The Mark page 339)
Tim LaHaye portrayed the fictional character, Tsion Ben Judah, teaching the same
doctrine that Tim is teaching in his nonfiction book! A Christian
cannot change his mind and take the mark of the beast!
But that's not all...the authors want to hammer this point home either
farther:
"That tells me that somehow, when we face
the ultimate test, God miraculously overcomes our evil, selfish flesh and gives
us the grace and courage to make the right decision in spite of ourselves.
My interpretation of this is that we will be unable to deny Jesus, unable
to even choose the mark that would temporarily save our lives." (The
Mark, page 339; emphasis theirs!)
It is so revealing that Tsion Ben Judah's interpretation
that a Christian will be unable to deny Jesus and take the mark is
Tim LaHaye's nonfiction teaching! It makes sense in light of the fact
that Jerry B. Jenkins has declared that the novels are teaching
truth.
Tsion's sermon is a mixture of truth and
falsehood. The truth is that God will give the Christian grace
and courage to confess Christ and take the consequences for not taking the mark
of the beast. This grace and courage comes from the Christian's daily
abiding in Christ, his daily walking in the Spirit lifestyle of obedience to
God. The true Christian is dying to self and crucifying the flesh daily, and when the time comes for miraculous grace to be martyred, God will
graciously grant it to him.
It is false that God overcomes the Christian's will (God does not violate the will of any
person) and renders
him unable to commit the sin of taking the mark of the beast. To give a
Christian this kind of false assurance is clearly wrong and actually sets him up
to become overcome.
According to the Holy Bible, a true Christian can most definitely depart
from the living God through unbelief, and even take the mark if he lacks
patience, which is God's command to him during tribulation. I will write
another article about this, but I just wanted to mention the counsel God has for
the Christian who has to undergo the trial of faith when the mark of the beast
is ordered as the law of the land: "Here is the patience of the saints:
here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus." The saints of God must exercise their will to believe God and have patience
which is keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This
patience comes not by God overcoming the will of the Christian, but by God
strengthening the Christian as he wills to believe God and be patient.
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