There will be no physical branding, period. That is a christian fantasy that sells books by the score to those who live in fear.
I would also certainly refuse the full preterist views on this matter as well. Lame. Very lame.
The beast is shown to us the very first time here:
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more
subtil than any
beast of the field
Do you get the connection here? The serpent IS the beast....the most subtil one there is. Moreso than any beast we could observe in a field, on the outside.
You see the beast is A DECEIVER and A TEMPTER of us all. And no, it was not Nero. What a laugher!
By the time we get to Revelation here is what the beast has become:
Revelation 12:9
And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called
the Devil, and
Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
If you say you are immune to the entrance of the tempter, you are in fact already blinded to the presence of same.
If you say the tempter does not exist today, you again are simply deceived, and will only blame yourself or other people and DENY that presence, which same action is OF THE TEMPTER in you. Sorry to tell you the truth on this matter, but it's just a fact. If someone tells you the TEMPTER was, oh, say Nero or some Pope past or present, they are again speaking deception from the TEMPTER speaking in them and denying the tempter himself. That is in fact a working of the mark of the beast in any given person.
Here is where the 'beast' comes from:
Rev. 17:
8
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and
shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:
Paul connects this matter about the son of perdition quite nicely here. Read it carefully and you will see the 'man of sin' the 'son of perdition.' And NO, it is not a MAN you will see as a FLESH MAN or 'thee anti-Christ.' I will highlight it for the blinded ones, but they still may not see:
2 Thess. 2:
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall
that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
No, Nero was not Satan.
This is a matter of 'mystery' because it is not an 'externally viewed matter.'
Where does that man of SIN sit? He sits in the TEMPLES of MEN. He does so as A TEMPTER and A DECEIVER.
There is more to be said on these matters, but few will be able to pinpoint the location of the tempter to actually be in themselves.
Such people are elected by God to remain blind to the fact as the tempter will cover this matter up within them, claim it is not so, and defray to other subjects that are not YOU.
Today for some however, the location of the man of sin will be revealed, right here in this post.
enjoy!
smaller
Yes, I have more than my share of learning I think sometimes. 
!! 
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