Dear Gramps,

Is the mark of the beast simply the fact that those afflicted with it are people who worship Satan and, therefore, not an actual visible body marking, such as a tattoo or some other body marking?

Richard, from Utah

Dear Richard,

Apparently, it is a visible mark. Elder Bruce R. McConkie asks the same question, and answers it in this way-

“And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. Could this be the same plague of which Zechariah speaks when he says that men’s flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth? (Zech. 14:12)

“Does it have reference to these words of latter-day revelation: And their flesh shall fall from off their bones, and their eyes from their sockets (D&C 29:19.) Is this a plague that will result from atomic fallout? Or from some worldwide pollution of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink? It is to come upon those who worship at the altars of evil, leaving the inference that those only will escape who have faith in the Lord and who exercise the power of the priesthood to rebuke the evils that otherwise would afflict them (The Millennial Messiah, p.394).

Gramps