theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

The Covid Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…and Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation

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by Matthew L. Halsted, PhD

In an article published last week on theLAB, COVID-19 and The Mark of the Beast, I claimed that the mark of the beast (666) is most likely not a physical or visible mark (Rev. 13:16). The biggest objection I received from readers had to do with this very point: how could the mark be non-physical and invisible if having the mark was what allowed people to “buy or sell” things (Rev. 13:17)? Wouldn’t the mark need to be visible in order to do that? Furthermore, isn’t there enough evidence that the vaccine is the “number” of the beast, including a bill currently before the House of Representatives (6666) and the very letters “C-O-R-O-N-A” themselves?1 These are good questions, and I think a response would be helpful. But first, we need to start from square one and do some background work.

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Bonhoeffer and COVID-19: “Life Together” in Isolation

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Image by Elliot Alderson from Pixabay

By Charles C. Helmer IV

How are we to think theologically about our present social isolation? How might our time apart sharpen our understanding of the church? My intention here is to reflect briefly upon three theological insights from Bonhoeffer’s Life Together that may serve to hearten us in our experience living apart. None of what follows is intended to minimize the challenges the church now faces. Rather, it is to be reminded that the church is an eschatological community, united with Christ and born of and empowered by the Spirit. It is a community whose existence transcends present, worldly circumstances and a community over which the gates of hell will not prevail (Mt. 16:18). This present article suggests how I think Dietrich might consider our present ecclesiological crisis.

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