Carnegie Auditorium, Pittsburg, Pa
Tuesday, December 4, 1962
Kathryn Kuhlman
SERMON NO. 27
- Revelation 13:16 to 18.
I don’t think we really realize how fortunate we are in understanding the Word of God, I, too, feel that I have taken things for granted. God knows how I love the Word. I thrill to it. Nothing gives me a greater thrill than the teaching of the Word. As I give it to you, He keeps giving me more. We take it so for granted, but these words are so true: “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
Before I go deeper into the mark of the beast, there are a couple of questions that I want to answer.
The first question is: “What relation do little children have to the return of Christ?” In other words, in the great catching up, will the little children be left and have to go through the great tribulation? This is my answer to the folk who have asked questions regarding the little children at the time of the Rapture of the Church and the return of Christ.
My understanding of the Scripture is that all children, including those of ungodly parents, are Christ’s by virtue of what He accomplished on the cross. In other words, it is like this: Children, by nature, are sinners because we are all born in sin; but until they reach the age of responsibility and accountability, this sinful nature is covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I believe that with all of my heart. You will never make me believe that a just God, and a Cod of love, will ever send an innocent little baby to hell. Never! I don’t care whether that child has been baptized or not. I don’t care who you are. These people who can scarcely wait to get the baby baptized – that little bit of water, that little bit of sprinkling that you do, has nothing to do with the salvation of that child’s soul. Nothing!
If you have a child and that child has not yet reached the age of accountability and has never been baptized, and if that child has not yet reached the age of accountability and that child dies, this sinful nature is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. You will never make me believe that God ever sent a baby to hell.
But when a child gets to the place – and don’t you ever prevent a child from accepting the Lord, or coming to an altar, or making any move in accepting Christ. Some children reach the age of responsibility and accountability sooner than others. It is left entirely with the youngster. But when a child gets to the place where he knows good from bad, when he gets to the place where he knows to lie, when he gets to the place where he knows to take things that he shouldn’t take, when he gets to the place where he knows enough to sneak and be deceitful that child knows the difference between right and wrong. In the age of some, it is 6; in the age of others, it is 7. It depends entirely on the child. But before that time, before the time that child has reached the age of responsibility, before that child reaches that age where he knows the difference between right and wrong, the sinful nature is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Here is another question: “Are there prophecies that must be fulfilled before the Lord can come?
May I make it very clear again – I am taking for granted that the one who asks this question means before the great Catching Up. Are their any prophecies to be fulfilled, this very hour, before the Rapture of the Church? My answer is: Not for the church. There are no prophecies that must be fulfilled for the church before the Rapture. So far as the Catching Up of the Church is concerned, the Bride of Christ – and remember, the Bride of Christ is in the kingdom of heaven. The Bride of Christ – that called-out body of believers – so far as Scripture is concerned, that body of believers can leave tonight and not violate one portion of the Word of Prophecy. I hope I have made that clear.
Here is another question: “In what place on earth will Jesus be during the millennium?”
First, we have the Rapture; then we have the seven years of tribulation, and that is what we have been talking about in our recent messages. Up until now, we are still in this time of tribulation and great tribulation when God keeps those earthly covenants with the Jewish people; the time when Israel as a whole accepts the Messiah. At the close of that time, we have the great Battle of the Armageddon. We will come to that a little later in the Book of the Revelation.
At the end of that time, the end of the seven years of tribulation upon the earth, Jesus Christ for the very first time comes back to earth, for the first time since He left the Mount of Olives. He will return and His feet will literally, actually touch the earth, and He will come back in bodily form. This time not as a Saviour, not as a Redeemer, but He comes back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
For seven years, the great dictator – Antichrist – rules and reigns, but just for seven years. At the close of that time, Jesus comes back and actually rules, not as a Saviour, but He rules, the Scripture says, with a rod of iron. The question is: “In what place on earth will He be during the millennium?” In other words, where will He reign? His seat of reign will be in Jerusalem.
Now, here is another question. Protestants have been just as much in error as Catholics have been regarding this question. I told you when I preached on it that I stand practically alone in the answer and yet, I’ll challenge anyone to prove to me that I am wrong. This is the question: “Miss Kuhlman, our priest says that the woman in the 12th chapter of Revelation is the Virgin Mary.” What can I tell her? Remember something. I know and when I brought you these messages on this woman I stood here knowing full well that which was commonly accepted by Catholicism regarding this woman. But you Protestants are just as wrong. Catholicism says this woman is the Virgin Mary. But most of our Protestant ministers say she is the Church. Both are wrong.
It can’t be the Church. The Church has already been raptured. The church has already gone. She left a long time ago. She went through that open door in the beginning of the 4th chapter of the Revelation. All during this time, the Church is having the Great Wedding Supper of the Lamb, We are having a glorious time up there in Glory. It’s wonderful; so it can’t be the Church.
Now, I know that Catholicism says – and I knew it full well when I brought you these messages – that this woman is the Virgin Mary. She can’t be. Why? As I told you before, your key to this is – “upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Go back to the Old Testament. Joseph was the twelfth star. It is symbolic of Israel. It can’t be anything else.
Furthermore, I will show you something else, and it is very marvelous. It says here “she brought forth a man child.” She is symbolic of the nation that brought forth a man child. And who is it? Israel. “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” The last part of that describes the ascension of Jesus when He left this earth. From the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob did come forth this child: The One who ascended and is today at the right hand of God the Father. It is there and as plain as can be.
There is something I want to discuss with you before we go deeper into this thing of the mark of the beast, because I feel it is so important. In the 13th chapter of the Book of the Revelation it says:
Verse 16:
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: (that’s Antichrist)
Revelation 13:16
Verse 17:
“And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 13:17
Verse 18:
“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 three score and six.”
Revelation 13:18
A man said to me today, a man who, I would say a year ago, was very, very skeptical, and who said some very unkind things, I believe, so far as the preaching of the Word is concerned, because he has been raised in another faith entirely. All these things are absolutely contrary to his early training and teaching. And yet, after following all of the messages with an open heart and an open mind, he said something that I appreciated very much. I was talking about the why of the giving of the mark. He said: You know, I have come to the conclusion, it is so simple, it is so understandable when you come right down to it. It is so logical that when it is explained to you, you have to accept it.
God has a definite purpose. You and I were created for a definite purpose. Know that! Man knows all about life but few know the purpose for which life has been given. It is amazing. We talk about an intellectual generation. We have come to the day when actually, literally this generation knows all about living from practically every angle. They have analyzed it from top to bottom and all four sides. There isn’t anything that this generation hasn’t analyzed. We have come to the place where man knows all about life but very few tonight know the purpose for which life was given and man was created. And yet, in my way of thinking, that is one of the most important things that we need to know.
It is a common expression that there are two things that a man never discusses, and that is, politics and religion. I know, you can be neutral about politics. You don’t have to be a Republican; you don’t have to be a Democrat. You don’t have to talk politics, you don’t have to think politics, if you don’t want to. You can live and die and never have one thing to do about politics. You are right, but you are only half right in your statement. But there is one thing you have to do something about: RELIGION! Absolutely, you have got to do something about religion. You cannot wash your hands, you cannot wash from off of your soul, the responsibility of not having done something about religion in this life of yours. That is one thing you cannot be neutral about. You have got to be definite when it comes to religion.
There are only two forces in the world. That is all! This is what it is all about. This is the purpose for which man was created. This is the purpose for which life was given. Do you think God created you just to make money? Just to coin a few copper cents? Cod wouldn’t have wasted His precious time to make man just so that man might be born to make money.
A woman said something to me the other night. She said – You know, and then she began telling me about some of their struggles. They once owned their home and then bought a business and lost everything. I mean, they lost everything! They lived on practically nothing. Very marvelous people. They have this young lad, 10 or 11 years of age. He went through the whole thing with them. She said that a few days ago her young son came home and said: “Mom, are we poor?” She said she was so startled, and she said – Honey, what did you say? So seriously, he said – Are we poor? She stopped right there. I said – What did you say to him? I think she stopped because she was all choked up with emotion. She said – Honey, come and sit down here. No, we are not poor. Sure, I know you haven’t had the things a lot of other young boys have had. We haven’t always had three square meals to eat. You haven’t always had shoes without holes in the soles. We haven’t always had everything. We have had to live in one of these housing projects. I know. And Daddy hasn’t had all the money that we have needed. But, you know, money is man’s idea of being rich and not God’s. That is man’s sense of values. We have each other, and we have good, well, strong bodies. We have love, and she went on. I said if your son only knew it, he was rich in having a mother like you. That’s something money can’t buy!
Poor? There isn’t a poor one among us tonight. We have something that money can’t buy. It is man who has had the wrong sense of values. We have created our own standards, for man has not learned why he was created. He has not yet realized for what purpose he was created. That is the reason we have not learned how to live.
Every man who has ever breathed the breath of life has got to do something about these two forces that are in the world: the forces of righteousness and the forces of unrighteousness. The forces of sin; the forces of good. The forces of God and the forces of the Devil; Satanic power and the power of God. You cannot be neutral in your living in these two things, in anything regarding these two forces. Be neutral about anything else that you want to. In not being a Christian, in not accepting God as your Heavenly Father, in not accepting Jesus Christ as your Master, as your Saviour, automatically you choose the other force. THERE IS NO NEUTRAL GROUND! There are only two forces here, and when death comes and breath leaves your body, there are only two places to go: heaven or hell. It is just like that! The soul cannot go any place else. There is no third place out there. Absolutely none! Your soul has got to go either one place or the other.
You may feel that you are just as completely neutral about religion as you have been about politics, but it doesn’t work. It just simply doesn’t work!
So tonight, if you are not a Christian, if the Mighty Creator is not your Heavenly Father, if you are not an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ Jesus, having been made possible by your acceptance of Jesus as Saviour, then, by your rejection of Him, you automatically have chosen the enemy to be your master and you belong to that outfit. That is why Julia said – I belong to this outfit. She gave a profound statement not realizing it. We belong to this outfit. The outfit that we belong to is HIS OUTFIT and He is the HEAD of that outfit. You wonder why people take their life. They haven’t got a thing in the world to live for.
I left you last Tuesday by showing you that God has marked every member of His outfit with His mark – THE BLOOD. But in coming into His outfit, you come out of CHOICE. He forces no man. Anyone who bears His mark has never been forced into the outfit. Not one! No Christian in this place can bear witness to the fact that you were ever forced into this thing of being a Christian. It is by choice! If you bear His mark, you have taken it out of choice.
Now, when we come to the end, as I have told you, the enemy has counterfeited everything for which there is a genuine. Everything! I don’t care what it is. Go right straight on down the line. He desires to be like unto the most High God. And the last counterfeit is a mark. For, you see, the mark that I bear, the mark that you bear, is an invisible mark; but the mark is there. God sees us.
Remember, how often I have told you that there is no holiness – not one of us is holy. I cannot come before the Throne and plead any holiness of myself. I don’t care how spiritual you might be. God the Father sees you and sees me through the perfection, through the holiness, through the righteousness of His perfect Son; and seeing us through the perfection of His Son, He must see us through the BLOOD of His only Begotten Son. Therefore, He sees that mark upon everyone of us – that invisible mark, the BLOOD.
Not the blood of a Jew, not the blood of Mary, for their blood was not sinless blood. Their blood was not blood of perfection. Know that! When we talk about the blood, when I talk about the mark of the blood and being covered with the blood, I am not talking about ordinary blood; I am talking about perfect blood. I am not talking about the blood of Mary, the blood of a Jew. Only One person’s blood would suffice; only One had perfect blood. There was no trace of sin in the blood of the One who shed that blood on Calvary. If the blood of a Jew would have sufficed, Abraham or Isaiah would have gladly died. Theirs was the blood of just an ordinary man. If the blood of Mary would have sufficed, I believe that Mary gladly would have given her life instead of the life of Jesus that was shed on the cross.
Mary knew her imperfection. She knew that she, too, had to accept the atonement when it came to the forgiveness of her sins. No, beloved, Mary had to confess her failures, her mistakes and her sins just as any mother in this place, for hers was not sinless blood. She was human. Know that! No, the blood of One, only One, could make atonement for the soul, and that was, the blood of the very Son of the Living God.
God the Father sees us with that mark of the blood of His Son; His mark. We are marked! Oh, that’s so glorious, so marvelous! The thing that makes the difference when that soul takes its flight from this body, and the heart takes its last beat, and the breath has come for the last time, God the Father looking down, and seeing His mark, takes that one all the way from earth to Glory. WITHOUT THAT MARK OF THE BLOOD, THAT SOUL IS DOOMED AND DAMNED AND LOST.
During his last months, the Devil comes alone and says – All right, I tried everything else. I have done everything. When Israel accepted the Messiah when given her second chance, I stood there and I tried with all the forces in my power to try to keep their eyes blinded and to keep them from accepting the Messiah. I stood helpless. But I have another plan. That plan will be by FORCE. And watch the difference.
God uses no force. So desperate will Antichrist, Satan, be that in those last months of his existence here on earth, so great will be his organization, so perfect will be his plan, so complete will be his domination upon men and women living at that time that he will force those living to take his mark. We take ours out of choice. By sheer force, in desperation, he says – I force every man and every woman, rich and poor, small and great, young and old, to take that mark, that no man might buy or sell without that mark.
Talk about something that is cunning! That is one of the most cunning devices I know anything about. Do you know what that means? That means the day is coming when you are either going to have to STARVE or be KILLED, if you refuse to take that mark. He is going to force them to serve him. You will not be able to buy one morsel of food. You will not be able to buy or sell an egg, a pound of coffee, a potato, not one piece of clothing – nothing – without that mark.
In the last five minutes, I want to answer something. What will that mark be? Let me just say that up until now in studying the Word of God regarding the number, what is the number – I am perfectly satisfied to leave it where God leaves it until He makes it plain. I cannot come before you tonight and tell you – and I think that any man, any person or any student of the Bible who will stand before a congregation and say that definitely the mark is thus and so, does not act in wisdom.
In exactly the same way that somebody has been very foolish in setting a date, a month or a year, for the rapture of the Church. Because the Bible clearly teaches that the day and the hour not even the angels of heaven know. If the very angels of heaven do not know, not even Michael and Gabriel have that knowledge – I do not believe that Gabriel will be told to sound the trumpet until a split second before. Therefore, God is not going to give it to any human being. I would only show my ignorance if I were to stand before you and say we are going to have the Rapture of the Church in the year 1963. If I were to stand here tonight and tell you this mark of the beast – that mark that is going to be placed in the palm of your hand or in your forehead – if I were to tell you what it is, I would only be showing my ignorance in exactly the same way. I can only speculate.
But I will say that when it comes time and those folk are living at that time, they will know what the mark is. God will give to them that knowledge. But follow me a little closer. I am not going to stop there. I am perfectly willing to leave it where God leaves it when He says: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:17.) But He goes on to say, in verse 18: “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 three score and six.” In other words, 666. 666 is man’s number. Man was created on the 6th day; God appointed 6 days for man’s labor; the Hebrew slave was to serve 6 years.
As you study the Book of the Revelation, this is most fitting and something to watch. You remember, it was under the 6th seal there is to be an appalling catastrophe upon the earth.
I believe that the number 666 (six hundred three score and six) means the culmination or the consummation of everything that is evil. Six being man’s number, 666 is the fullest, the highest development of man under direct satanic control. The very zenith, the very heighth of everything that is evil. So far as our mental faculties are able to discern and to analyze, it will be the very heighth. Beloved, we are coming right up to it.
You talk about the hearts of men being as evil a generation ago as today. You talk about sin today. You talk about loose living and life. Don’t let anybody kid you! I don’t think there has ever been a generation as wicked as this generation. But the time is coming when it will be greater for all the satanic forces, all the devils of hell will be turned wide open. They will not be suppressed in any way. In this hour there is still the restraining power of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost right now is still the restraining force.
It is like this: You have seen these terrific dams and that great force from the water. That mighty power is being controlled; it is being suppressed. There are controlling forces. But when those controlling forces let go, the dam breaks and there is nothing there to suppress it. Then it can cause mighty destruction.
When the Holy Ghost is taken out, there is nothing to suppress or control the forces of sin and unrighteousness. I do not think it will be safe for a woman to be out on the street at night. As it is, with the Holy Spirit still here, things are bad enough. But after He is gone and Satan rules and reigns, it will be so bad that when you take that number – it will not be three 6’s. There are some people going around saying this is going to be the mark of the beast. I don’t believe that for a minute. It only means, it is the fullest and highest development of man under direct satanic control. That mark – whatever it is – will be a definite mark. When the time comes, you will know it. But when that mark is given – that is the mark of sin, the mark of Satan – when you take that mark, your soul has been doomed and damned forever and forever. In the sight of God, THERE IS NO HOPE.
In exactly the same way those of us who bear His mark – the mark of the BLOOD – for life everlasting and are in His care and His control.
“THERE IS POWER, POWER, WONDER WORKING POWER, IN THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF THE LAMB.”
No, we are not poor. If we have to live on a crust of bread and water the rest of our lives, we are still RICH. WE BELONG TO HIM!
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
