Actually Paul teaches that “we are the judges” of those in the Church.
And if we are to judge, we are to judge righteously, especially when Scripture is being broken.
There is no tricky interpretation problem here.
MacArthur plainly teaches that if you take the Mark of the Beast, you can be redeemed.
This is in DIRECT CONFLICT with the Bible.
End of story.
Go argue with the other people online that have video after video on this topic, not me.
“Actually Paul teaches that “we are the judges” of those in the Church.”
Yes, but that is BEHAVIOR, not conflicting INTERPRETATIONS. We are also to be wary of false prophets:
“There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. 3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.”
But if you want to argue a man who has a track record of decades, who has commented on every verse in the Bible, is a false prophet, you’ll need something more than “I disagree with his interpretation of a couple of verses in Revelations!
“As I’ve written, I have had to pick up the pieces in several people’s broken lives by the apocalypse of the loveless hopeless Calvinism in MacArthur’s church.”
I’m very skeptical. Particularly since you say “loveless hopeless” - neither of which a rational person would associate with John MacArthur’s preaching. Heck, he preaches that someone who has received the mark of the beast has hope IF they repent!
“I think it is pretty obvious. Satan must have free will consent of those who take the Mark.”
YOUR interpretation!
“The Scripture tells us not to take the Mark; therefore there must be some way out of it, probably beheading.”
That is fine for those who are already Christians - again, assuming Revelations is a prediction of future history - but MacArthur argues - with reason - that some of those will later repent. That is a plausible explanation for believers appearing in large numbers later on. It may not be the CORRECT one, but then, the CORRECT interpretation of Revelations may have nothing to do with future history!