Hi JC,
Can you give some scriptural support for this interpretation? What information have you used to conclude that "buy" and "sell" means to receive and give grace? Can you list any other examples of this usage in the Bible?
Also, it seems strange that it would be grace. Considering your interpretation, the prophecy would say, "No person can give or receive grace without the Mark of the beast". How would something like that even be monitored? If someone wrongs me, what's to stop me from having grace on that person by saying, "no problem"? How would a bit of paint on my forhead stop me from doing that?
On the other hand, if we believe that the words "buy" and "sell" mean what they actually say, then it's easy to see how such activity can be controlled via advances in digital/electronic money. I was at a bank today which had a notice saying that they will be switching over to biometric thumbprints to authorize access to accounts.
Did you see the photos I posted in post# 7? Barclays bank has released a series of electronic money gadgets including a wrist band, key chain, and sticker, all of which use stored credit for buying and selling. You just "tap-and-pay". All around the world "buying and selling" is slowly shifting over to a cashless economy in general and, specifically, towards a "tap-and-pay" method using the hand. Money has always changed it's shape, evolving into more and more efficient means while still maintaining it's same basic purpose. In other words, the shape changes, but the spirit behind it always stays the same. The world is being prepared for microchip implants. It makes sense they they will be put in the hand since the hand is the most versatile appendage we have and it makes sense to be put in the right hand since the majority of the world is right-handed.
Jesus said A LOT about money and our relationship to it (Luke 12:15). He said that we cannot work for God and mammon (money and the things money can buy) without chating on one or the other. He said we will love one and despise the other. His followers said things like, "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim 6:10) and "beware of those who teach that wealth is proof of spirituality" (1 Tim 6:10). With all this emphasis on the dangers of materialism, it's quite amazing that people find so many different theories for what the Mark could be which have nothing to do with what the prophecy plainly says about the Mark (i.e. it wil be used to control buying and selling). It's like people have become so dependent on money that teachings against dependence get automatically reinterpreted as anything but a teaching against money.
People do this with the word "work". People see the word "work" in the Bible any they automatically assume it must mean "for money" (2 Thess 3:10). They do not consider that it could be talking about working for love, or working for the Kingdom of Heaven. It's always assumed to be "work for money".
Your interpretation of "buy and sell" actually meaning to "give and receive grace" is one of the more extreme examples of this tendency. Anyway, I guess it's all just part of the overall scenario of people choosing who they will work for.
first, let "me" tell you something about the delusion, firstly the mechanism of (the) delusion usually tries to suggest/persuade that ostensibly the physical is the critical, not the spiritual, while the truth is actually that it's exactly the opposite, i.e., as it was explained in my previous post, with regard to the very sin, the system of the sin tries to divert the attention from the spiritual to the physical, because exactly the spiritual iniquity/lawlessness is the original, the very and even the only sin, because it is the cause and the source of all other evils/iniquities/lawlessnesses:
Romans 5:12-14 "by one man(also: by the generation of the unrighteous spiritual workers/servants) sin(i.e. the devil and the system of (the) spiritual iniquity/lawlessness) entered into the world, and death(i.e. and the (spirit of) deterioration) by sin; and so death passed upon all men(i.e. and so the deterioration affected many humans), for that all have sinned(i.e. because many were seized by the system of (the) spiritual iniquity/lawlessness, some of them as its servants, others as its victims): For until the law sin was in the world(i.e. because the "darkness" was in the universe even until the entry of the human spirituality/religion): but sin is not imputed when there is no law(i.e. but there is no sin where there is no spiritual iniquity/lawlessness). Nevertheless death(i.e. the deterioration) reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression(i.e. even over people that had not committed spiritual iniquity/lawlessness)"
what made eve and adam sin?!, they were both righteous/sinless to one juncture - the moment in which the devil enticed them and they became spiritual workers of the unrighteousness, so there appeared a different(one strange) consciousness in them and they began to perceive and think that the physical is ostensibly unclean, shameful, troublesome, problematic and sinful of itself, while it is really not such, and here is how such a persuasion works even in your views/beliefs, because you hurry to state that ostensibly the physical is the critical, but the real truth is deeper, and exactly thus many believers/worshipers erred believing in the fabrication of the so-called "materialism" that actually were sown by the hindu religions, that's also why there is no such concept (materialism) in the doctrine of the biblical scriptures as well as there is no concept "spirituality" there (for God is love, while the spiritual may also be devilish), because the next thing that were sown by the unrighteous spiritual workers/servants is the defilement of the physical, i.e. the fact that the system of the spiritual iniquity/lawlessness negativized/demonized the physical including the economy, the business, the trade, the money, the banks, etc.
it is even absurd to talk about the modern means of payment, banking, security, etc. as something bad, while the real bad come from the world of the human(666) religion/spirituality, then how could and why are the things that make life better for the people evil, after their purpose is good?!, i am not trying to defend someone's iniquity/lawlessness, but there are righteous principles of faith, for example the first commandment of the true God is: you must not have other gods/lords besides Me, and there is nothing material(physical) therein, but it is entirely spiritual commandment, the second commandment is also such(periphrasis): you must not make spiritual beliefs/wisdom/prophecies and spiritual practices/rituals/traditions by yourself(i.e. that are not of God) with/in reference to anything up in the "heaven", down on the "earth", or in the "water" under the "earth", you must not bow to such things, nor serve them..., this commandment is also entirely spiritual, because it is against the heresies, i.e. the unrighteousness in the faith, the third commandment is also such(periphrasis): you must not use the faith for corrupt/selfish purposes or purposes that are against the will of the true God..., because the "name" of God is His faith, for He is righteous and faithful to take good care of all humans, and His worshipers/spritrual servants must also be righteous and faithful like Him, here is also the fourth commandment(periphrasis): do not forget the time during which the true God is in a state of incomplete wakefulness, to keep the creature/creation holy, in principle you are free to do any thing whereby there would be no infliction of evil/harm on any person, but, because the hour of the faith is the "sabbath" of the true God, see (how) not to defile it, neither you, nor any one in the faith, for the true God created the "heaven", the "earth", the "sea", and the rest of the relevant things, and fell (of necessity/against His will) into a centuries-long state of sleepiness from the seventh day on, therefore He blessed the sabbath and hallowed it - because God the Father was not always able to take full care of every human/besouled being for the last 5-6 millennia, that is why He gave to the spiritual servants to sanctify the creature/creation so that they might wake Him (up) to save all human and other besouled beings, and this commandment is also entirely spiritual
the problem is that the kingdom of (the) human(666) religion/spirituality has brought that delusion in the world from long ago, and here is how many modern christians also turn out to be misled according to the old creeds of the world:
Colossians 2:8
(NIV) "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.",
(NLT) "Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.",
(ESV) "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.",
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