Prophecy Expert Jimmy DeYoung, Vaccines, and the Mark of the Beast

The Dispensationalist teacher Jimmy DeYoung died in August of Covid-19. I had listened to him on and off for years. His programme appeared on the local Evangelical radio station and it seemed like many times we were in the car when it aired. I took great exception to his teachings. Misunderstanding the Bible on a massive scale, the outworkings of his aberrant theology took a particularly bad turn when it came to political Zionism and support for the often violent Settler movement in the West Bank, and Likud policy in general.

A so-called 'prophecy expert' he often missed the point entirely and apparently his swan song was yet another occasion of his trumpeted Scriptural ignorance. He apparently floated the idea that the Covid vaccine was the Mark of the Beast.

I grew up in Dispensational circles and remember well when the cutting edge discussion was whether or not UPC-barcodes were the mark. It's been one thing after another and it continues to this day. Misunderstanding the Scripture, these were mostly harmless rabbit trails but decades later the ramifications are becoming serious.

DeYoung once again completely missed the point and misunderstood the nature of the mark as revealed in Revelation. It's something applicable to the entire Church age, something in effect at this very moment. The mark concept is born in the Old Testament. In the Pentateuch, God's people are marked on their foreheads (and hands) by the Word of God. DeYoung's hermeneutic was close-cousin to the Orthodox Jews who (also missing the point) think the command is fulfilled by tying a phylactery to their forehead with a Scripture verse inside.

You would think DeYoung would have at least understood this in light of Jesus' teaching in places like the Sermon on the Mount wherein he unfolds (and expands) the nature of the law. But alas, he did not. I'm not sure if he was 'old school' enough in his Dispensationalism to discount the Sermon on the Mount altogether as something only relating to the Jews. That once common view began to be dispensed with in the 1960's and has become almost obsolete today.

The mark is demonstrated again in Ezekiel wherein God (via the mediation of angelic entities) marks out his people as separate from the world. Everyone it would seem is marked – belonging either as children of wrath to the god of this world, or to the God of Zion.

Even the Revelation language concerning buying and selling is applicable to the entirety of the Church Age. It's not always applied in a strict literalistic way though there have been periods in Church history when it has been the case that those who refuse to conform to the world system and live by its worldview and ethics are unable to function within society – buy or sell as it were.

More often than not it's a generalisation. God's people who always suffer persecution and usually are reduced to poverty or near-poverty (if they're being faithful) are all but closed off from the mainstream of society. It doesn't have to literally be a scene out of Dispensational film where your hand is being scanned in order to pay for your groceries and a lack thereof leads to alarms and a police chase. No, a modern application would be things like credit, access, and standing within society. The faithful will find doors closed to them at almost every level. It does not mean that they won't be able to find food – though in some situations it could. It may mean that it's hard to get, hard to function, and yes, many venues are closed to them whether by law, custom, or practice – a reality that already exists as some will know.

Persecution in the so-called 'Christian West' is nothing new for the faithful. We may be on the verge of it getting worse but struggle, difficulty, and yes, persecution have long been realities for those who are faithful.

The vision of Revelation is but one of many successive visions within the book that encompass the entirety of the Coming of Christ – the epoch which in time is comprised of what we call the First and Second Comings. This follows patterns already established in the Old Testament in the repetitive-reiterative and multiperspectival visions of prophets like Daniel and Ezekiel.

But sadly Dispensational theology in its misreading of the Scriptures has provided a vehicle for vaccine confusion. There are legitimate reasons to discuss the vaccine and what the state is doing. The Mark of the Beast isn't one of them. We are surrounded by billions of people who already bear the Mark of the Beast. They are its servants. They are lost. And sadly many of them are in the Church and not a few hold positions of leadership.

I have no idea if Jimmy DeYoung was a Christian. Maybe he understood the gospel. Maybe he didn't. The gospel of cheap grace that runs rampant in those circles is a dangerous deception and many have been led astray by it. I'm afraid hay and stubble are his legacy as he promoted evil in the realm of politics and in that regard he had blood on his hands. He was undoubtedly sincere but the New Testament is less than kind to those who promote a Judaized gospel – let alone one in which retains Judaism and its forms as a valid expression of God-pleasing faith. DeYoung may not have been as bad as someone like John Hagee but he was bad enough.

It's ironic and maybe a little tragic that his misguided theology also clouded his judgment. The man who was supposedly an 'expert' on current events and how they relate to prophecy was almost always wrong and this time it literally cost him his life. Obviously it was his time in terms of Providence. But on the other hand (and the ways these concepts relate is a mystery), he is responsible for his actions, the way in which he misled others (in general and in terms of Covid) and thus he must also know that his error led to his own death. He was hardly young but that's beside the point. Regardless of extenuating circumstances it can be safely and certainly said that his doctrinal error led to his death. Let's hope for his sake that it didn't lead to the deaths of others.