The Mark We All Missed

The Jesus Fish in the Rear Window

When I was sixteen, my dad came home from work laughing about a debate he’d just survived.

A coworker, knowing Dad was Mormon, cornered him with his ultimate evangelical gotcha du jour: “Latter-day Saint temple garments are the mark of the beast. Revelation 13:16 says it’s worn on the body and it’s a sign of false worship (14:11, 16:2, 19:20).”

Dad listened politely, then said, “That’s interesting. Because lately I’ve been seeing a mark which is prominently displayed, people refuse to do business without it (13:17), and plenty treat it like a badge of righteousness.”

The coworker couldn't resist. “What is it?”

Dad grabbed a napkin and drew:

⟨><

The Jesus fish.

He went on: “You won’t do business with a plumber or a daycare unless that little fish is on their truck or their ad. People display it proudly. Some even worship the feeling of superiority it gives them.”

The coworker went silent. Topic closed.

Dad still doesn’t think the Jesus fish is the actual mark (and neither do I), but the napkin stunt worked because it exposed something uncomfortable: almost any visible symbol can be wrested into “the mark” if you’re determined enough.

I laughed when Dad told me the story. But the truths underlying that story have stuck with me.

What if the mark of the beast isn’t a barcode, a microchip, a vaccine passport, or a sacred undershirt?

What if it’s been evolving in plain sight for decades; an emblem so familiar that we stopped noticing it, yet so emotionally charged that it quietly sorts the world into “us” and “them”?

I’m going to spend the next few posts walking through Revelation’s clues about the mark. Not to declare that I’ve cracked the code (I haven’t), but to show why the code probably isn’t meant to be cracked in advance. John wrote in symbols that feel specific enough to keep us searching, yet slippery enough that every generation thinks it has finally spotted the culprit.

Along the way I’ll argue two things at once:

  1. Outwardly, one modern symbol comes closer to checking every biblical box than anything the prophecy channels are currently obsessed with.
  2. Inwardly, the real mark isn't a symbol at all. It's the moment we decide some outward sign is what makes a person worthwhile.

By the time we reach part three or four, I’ll name the candidate.

Whether that candidate is “the” mark is still open for debate.

What isn’t open for debate is that millions of us already behave as though our identity, our sophistication, even our moral worth depend on it.

Revelation keeps warning that the mark will be embraced willingly, even enthusiastically.

The scary part?

We already did. In the next post, we'll explore parallels between Revelation and Lehi's Dream. (NOTE: As with all my posts, the ideas in this post are all mine, but I did leverage AI to help structure and refine it)

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