Page 23 - The Mark of the Beast

submit to his Head, which is Christ. Man was to receive his direction from Christ, and in
turn he was to subdue and rule over the beasts of earth and sky and sea. Woman was given
to man to be a helpmate in this ruling.
We know the story of the fall in the Garden of Eden, and how man and woman both
failed to accept and maintain the government of God. God commanded both the man and
woman to rule over the beasts, yet Eve allowed the beasts to rule over her. We are told that
the serpent was the most subtle (cunning and wise) of all beasts of the field. The serpent
deceived Eve and she submitted herself to the beast. God commanded Eve to subdue the
beasts and rule over them, making them submit to her as she in turn was subject to God.
Eve failed to do this, and rather than submitting to God and expressing His image, she
submitted to the beast and began to express the beast nature.
Eve in turn urged her husband to eat of the fruit which God had forbidden them to eat.
At this point Eve was manifesting the beast nature, for she had submitted to the beast
rather than God. Paul tells us that we become slaves to the one whom we obey.

Romans 6:16
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for
obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey...?

Thus, when Eve obeyed the beast she became a slave to the beast nature. Adam
likewise had to choose whether he would subdue and rule over this beast nature, choosing
obedience to God and honoring the divine government, or whether he would also bow down
to the beast and come under its governance. Adam chose to bow down to the beast nature,
and as he did so the potential to express the image of God within him was lost, and this is
shown in his being barred from the pathway to the Tree of Life. Adam’s soul became
darkened and overshadowed by the image of the beast. Adam, who was created to bear the
image of God, became formless and void, lacking the image of God within him. He also
came under the curse of darkness.
Had God made a miscalculation in His creation? Was His plan to “create man in Our
image, after Our likeness” thwarted? No! God knew that the first Adam would fail, even as
the first earth had been subjected to judgment. He had already planned that mankind
should not be perfected apart from sending His only begotten Son into the earth to subdue
and rule over the beast nature. This Christ did perfectly. He always maintained the
government of God, always being perfect in obedience to the Father, never giving in to the
suggestions of Satan, the temptations of the flesh, or the enticements of the world. In Christ
man was seen as a perfect expression of God, and all the saints are called to bear this image
of the Heavenly.
What is missing from the gospel today? There is an absence of this message of ruling
over the beast nature. Mankind cannot attain to the desire of God to bear His image and
likeness unless he first rules over all the beasts of earth and sky and sea, that is to say, man
must subdue and rule over the spiritual antitypes which are depicted in the types of nature.
In the following chapters we will examine what the beast nature is more fully. Sadly, many
saints have not discerned the need to rule over this lower nature. They have tried to make
peace with the beast, to live harmoniously with it, when it must be subdued and ruled over.
There is an entire church portrayed as a harlot and as Babylon in Scripture, who has
failed to rule over the beast, and it will be this beast that in the end will be her demise. The
apostle John speaks of this in the book of Revelation.