The Shema is an ancient Israelite prayer prayed every morning and evening to recommit all of themselves to God: heart, soul, and strength. In Revelation 13 we encounter the dreaded mark of the beast, which Tim Mackie of the Bible Project describes as the anti-Shema. It's not a microchip implanted in our hands or foreheads. Rather, John was communicating to first century Christians in symbols they would have immediately understood to mean that the beast, a symbolic representative of godless political powers, also demands our complete loyalty. We're not scholars or theologians but we do our best to dive into this weighty topic in order to dispel fear and refocus our attention on God.
