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666 and the Mark of the Beast
Kim Riddlebarger ^

Posted on 09/24/2008 6:41:42 AM PDT by Gamecock

If you are a futurist and believe that the beast of Revelation 13 is not connected to the Roman Empire of the first century and remains yet to be revealed at the end of the age (i.e., during the seven-year tribulation period, as dispensationalists teach), then you will not look at the mark of the beast through the lens of the New Testament and the historical situation when John was given his vision. Instead, you will understand this mysterious mark as something still hidden in the future. And given the breakneck pace of the advance being made in all forms of technology, it is only natural that futurists would see John’s reference to the mark of the beast as somehow connected to the technological advantage by which the beast and false prophet will enslave the inhabitants of the world and deceive them into worshiping the Antichrist.

As futurists see it, when John speaks of the mark of the beast, he’s essentially predicting that some future form of technology will be utilized by Antichrist to dominate and control the world’s population. According to Peter and Paul Lalonde, “The Bible says that the mark of the beast and its accompanying technology will be installed by the antichrist–not as an end in itself, but as a means of managing the new world order that is even now being created” (Peter LaLonde and Paul LaLonde, Racing Toward the Mark of the Beast, Harvest House Publishers, 1994, 148).

The futurist approach to Revelation is misguided because it pushes off into the distant future what was already a serious threat to Christians in the first century (emperor worship), by ignoring the historical context for the visions of Revelation 13 and 17. Instead, John’s comments about the mark of the beast should be seen against the backdrop of the imperial cult and the worship of the Roman emperor. The emperor’s blasphemous image was everywhere in John’s world (Asia Minor), from coins to statues identifying various emperors as deities in most major cities ( cf. S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, Cambridge University Press, 1984).

John’s reference to the mark being placed upon the back of the hand or the forehead makes perfect sense in light of the wide-spread first century practice of branding or tattooing slaves–a mark of shame and subjugation (Caird, The Revelation of St. John, 173).

The theological significance of this practice of marking slaves is simply that those who have this mark of the imperial cult are property of the beast–followers and servants who do his will. In other words, this mark (charagama) identifies those who worship and serve the beast. That such a charagama specifically refers to the imperial stamp on official documents (Sweet, Revelation, 217), indicates that whatever John means by this mark is directly tied to the state’s usurpation of that authority and honor which belong to God alone. John has already exhorted the persecuted Smyrnans in the second chapter of Revelation, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).” Surely, this exhortation extends beyond the Smyrnans to Christians in every age.

As for the number of the beast (666), some historical background would be helpful here as well. The Greco-Roman world did not use Arabic numbers as do we, so instead, letters were assigned numeric value. Using the sum totals of the numerical equivalent of letters to identify words or persons is commonly known as gematria (Beale, Revelation, 718-728). The most obvious candidate derived from the sum total of the numbers 6-6-6 is Nero Caesar, since the Greek form of Nero’s name when transliterated into Hebrew may indeed total 666. This is not an unreasonable conclusion and is widely accepted (See the discussions in: Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy, 384-452; Caird, The Revelation of St. John, 174-177; Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, 193-219).

This attempt to calculate the identity of the beast with this degree of specificity is disputed on a number of grounds. This does not involve the exact use of Hebrew letters and Caesar is not the only title for Nero. None of the church fathers, apparently, were aware of this connection (Beale, Revelation, 720). In fact, it was not until 1831 that the specific identification of these numbers with Nero using gematria was first suggested by four German scholars (Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy, 387). And then, finally, as John says, this requires wisdom, not knowledge, to calculate. In other words, spiritual insight is required, not cleverness or skill in math.

The attempt to calculate the number of the beast using gematria can also be problematic because this kind of methodology can be manipulated to refer to almost anyone, in what has come to be known in certain circles as the “pin the tail” on the Antichrist game. Ronald Wilson Reagan was once identified as the beast because his three names each have six letters (Robert Fuller, Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession, Oxford University Press, 1995, 28). So have a host of others.

Another problem with gematria is that from our vantage point two thousand years after the fact, it is relatively easy to turn a particular name into a number, but it is far more difficult to work from the number back to a specific name, which is what the text seems to imply– “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666" (Revelation 13:18–cf. Beale, Revelation, 724-725).

While these objections are not sufficient to overturn what appears to be an obvious connection of some sort between the number 666 and Nero, these points do urge us to be a bit cautious about identifying Nero as that one to whom John was referring and then simply leaving the matter there.

In fact, the preoccupation with identifying just who it is, exactly, to whom this number refers creates an unfortunate tendency to downplay (or even ignore) the theological significance of this number. What the number 666 represents is at least as significant as the beast’s human identity. When John tells us that this is “man’s number,” he may even mean that this number does not refer to a specific individual such as Nero, but to a series of individuals who behave as Nero did.

As Beale points out, “The omission of the article in 13:18 indicates the general idea of humanity, not some special individual who can be discerned only through an esoteric method of calculation. Therefore, in both verses anthropou [man] is a descriptive or qualitative genitive, so that the phrase here should be rendered `a human number’ (so RSV) or `a number of humanity.’ It is a number common to fallen humanity.” (Beale, Revelation, 724)

In light of the beast’s attempt to parody the redemptive work of Christ so as to receive the worship of the nations, the idea that this number is to be understood as the number of fallen humanity makes a great deal of sense. If seven is the number of perfection, the number six comes close, but never reaches the goal.

As Beale points out, “The beast is the supreme representative of unregenerate humanity, separated from God and unable to achieve divine likeness, but always trying. Humanity was created on the sixth day, but without the seventh day of rest Adam and Eve would have been imperfect and incomplete. The triple six emphasizes that the beast and his followers fall short of God’s creative purposes for humanity” (Beale, Revelation, 725).

If Beale is correct, and I think he is, this does not mean that John does not have Nero in mind at all. In fact, some have argued that Nero is indeed the individual who first bears the number 666, but the number also has symbolic meaning as well.

According to Beale, “Some believe both that John had Nero in mind and also that the number had a symbolic meaning, which is quite possible. . . . Bauckham has argued that John used the Nero legend not to focus on an individual but to construct a history of a succession of emperors paralleling the death, resurrection and final return of Christ; accordingly, Nero, and the imperial power, are symbols for any state power that overreaches its proper limits by trying to grasp what properly belongs only to Christ and God” (Beale, Revelation, 725. See the discussion in Bauckham, Climax of Prophecy, 384-452). This, it seems to me, fits well within the scenario we have set forth above.

What, then, is the mark of the beast? It may indeed be directly tied to Nero as indicative of his personal wickedness and hatred for God’s people, but Nero does not exhaust what is implied by taking the number–worshiping the state or its leader, in order to avoid persecution for confessing that Christ is Lord. The beast is manifest to some degree throughout the inter-advental period, but is restrained until the time of the end through the preaching of the gospel or the providence of God (cf. Revelation 20:1-10; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).

The meaning of the number is at least as significant as identifying to whom it applies. The number of man “666" is “perfectly imperfect” in contrast to the number of perfection–seven. The thrice repeated number “6" implies endless work without rest. The creational order was for man to work for six days and then rest on the seventh as did the creator. But in this case, those who take the mark work endlessly and never do enter the hoped-for Sabbath rest.

When placed in the larger context of the New Testament, Christians are said to be “sealed” unto Christ in their baptism (Romans 4:11 with Romans 6:1-11). The mark of the beast may be the theological equivalent of the rejection of baptism (in the case of apostasy) or the rejection of Christ’s Lordship through the confession that Caesar (or any other political figure) is Lord. This comports with the New Testament’s repeated warnings about apostasy being connected to the final manifestation of the beast (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Revelation 20:7-10).

Even as the image of godless Nero lurks in the background, this phenomena reoccurs throughout the course of the present age whenever someone confesses that “Caesar is Lord.” I’ll never forget the gasp that went through the room when a video on Nazi Germany was shown in an Academy class at our church. German school children in an old newsreel sang with glee, “Hitler is our Savior. Hitler is our Lord.” That is as clear an image of what is means to “take the mark” as anything I can imagine.

Surely, Nero is the forerunner or type of all those wicked and godless leaders who come after him, and who take that which belongs to God unto themselves and who then mock the natural order of things. Such men reject all conventional norms of morality and use power for personal gain and pleasure. This explains why Christians have frequently spoken of a Nero redvivus in connection to the beast. It is not that Nero comes back to life, but that what Nero represented will be a fact of life until the end of the age. For it is not until the seventh trumpet sounds that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).

Although the various manifestations of the beast and the false prophet throughout the interadvental age may utilize technological advances to further the cause of the beast and false prophet in their persecution of God’s people, the mark of the beast cannot be tied specifically to new advances in technology apart from a proper theological context. John is not speaking of an event isolated to the time of the end as dispensationalists teach. He is warning the faithful across the ages of the cost of following Christ. There are indeed times when the confession “Jesus is Lord” will enrage some tyrannical leader.

Attempts by historicists to tie the ceremonies of the Roman Church to the mark of the beast have merit, in so far as the Roman Church has, at times, prevented those who denied its authority from buying and selling. The Roman church’s relationship to a number of governments (monarchies), especially those of the late-middle ages (the Holy Roman Empire and its remnants), may well serve as a model of sorts for an end-times marriage between heresy and the state, as in those grotesque instances where the church takes up the sword and the state imposes false religion. Reformed Protestants were keenly aware of the story of the relentless persecution of the faithful in the Netherlands at the hand of Spanish armies in the name of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church during the so-called Council of Troubles in the 1570's. This is one of the main reasons why Reformed Christians have believed the papacy to be the seat of Antichrist and the subject of John’s visions.

Of course, such persecution of Christians could also occur in a thoroughly secular nation (such as the former Soviet Union), or a nation with no real Christian history (China), or even a nation which previously had been largely Protestant (Nazi Germany), or a nation dominated by pluralistic civil religion (the United States), where its leaders have in the past or may in the future manifest beast-like characteristics by taking unto themselves what rightfully belongs to God and waging war upon the saints, only to be crushed by the Lamb.

Taken from my book, Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About Antichrist (Baker, 2006).


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Mainline Protestant; Theology
KEYWORDS: 666; beast; escatology
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1 posted on 09/24/2008 6:41:42 AM PDT by Gamecock
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To: topcat54

Ping


2 posted on 09/24/2008 6:42:19 AM PDT by Gamecock (Life is to short for bad theology.)
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To: All

bump


3 posted on 09/24/2008 6:43:16 AM PDT by Maverick68 (w)
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To: Gamecock

The events foretold in Daniel, the NT, and Revelation were completed in A.D. 70.

To bring those prophecies into the modern day is completely incorrect theology.


4 posted on 09/24/2008 6:52:35 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: Gamecock

666 represents man trying to make himself God, as opposed to the God who became man. As the article points out, 7 ws the number signifying rest, and life in Jesus becomes the Sabbath rest of the New Covenant (Heb. 4, Col. 2). 666 indicates a removal of that rest, meaning an attempt to work for salvation by human efforts. 666 represents everything wrong with human religion, as juxtaposed with everything right about the completed work of Jesus.


5 posted on 09/24/2008 6:53:27 AM PDT by Thane_Banquo (You can put lipstick on a donkey, but it's still just a jackass.)
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To: Thane_Banquo

666 = I am God.


6 posted on 09/24/2008 6:55:11 AM PDT by evets (beer)
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To: webstersII

JOhn who? Who was the john that wrote Revelation - the book that really doesn’t belong in the bible.


7 posted on 09/24/2008 6:55:11 AM PDT by chouli
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To: chouli
JOhn who?

Do some research - it seems like you could use the education.

8 posted on 09/24/2008 6:58:55 AM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall cause you to vote against the Democrats.)
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To: ItsOurTimeNow; HarleyD; suzyjaruki; nobdysfool; jkl1122; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Dr. Eckleburg; ...
Reformed Eschatology Ping List (REPL)

"For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)

9 posted on 09/24/2008 7:01:30 AM PDT by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: webstersII

“The events foretold in Daniel, the NT, and Revelation were completed in A.D. 70.”

Including the 1000 year reign of Jesus?


10 posted on 09/24/2008 7:03:04 AM PDT by bigcat32
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To: bigcat32

No silly, that finished in 1070AD. ;)


11 posted on 09/24/2008 7:06:57 AM PDT by GoDuke
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To: Gamecock
From Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry:

The Beast of Revelation: IDENTIFIED (YouTube)

The Beast of Revelation Identified

12 posted on 09/24/2008 7:07:03 AM PDT by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: webstersII

I think Peter told us exactly what to think about those who deny what is to come in the latter days.

2 Peter 3: First of all you must understand this: In the last days mockers will come and, following their own desires, will ridicule us.

He was very clear, saying “First of all”. That means, before you understand any other point, first, you must (that is an order not a suggestion) you “must” understand, reason, know and believe, than in the last days... that is the end of days, not 2,000 years ago, but right now or yet future days, “mockers” will come and say “this stuff is all old news”.

You mock the promise of His coming, His power and His prophecy. And we have been warned about you.


13 posted on 09/24/2008 7:10:24 AM PDT by Waywardson (Carry on! Nothing equals the splendor!)
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To: webstersII

No, Daniel’s prophecy wasn’t completed, there is one more week left in Daniel’s 70 weeks of years


14 posted on 09/24/2008 7:11:11 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Innocent until proven guilty; The Pendleton 8: We are not going down without a fight)
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To: bigcat32

Yes, Jesus came back, we just weren’t told about it. :>)


15 posted on 09/24/2008 7:13:12 AM PDT by irishtenor (Check out my blog at http://boompa53.blogspot.com/)
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To: Gamecock
42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. As you know, 4+2=6, and if you multiply that by 111 we get 666. (4+2)*111 = 666. A very troubling formula. Deeply suspicious. And, as Farakan points out, ((4+2)*3)+1 = 19. Again, the number 19 can be directly linked to 666 using the meaning of life the universe and everything.

The world is ending...

16 posted on 09/24/2008 7:13:12 AM PDT by Poopyhead (I'm so ronery, so very ronery.)
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To: MEGoody

John, the son of Jesus.


17 posted on 09/24/2008 7:19:45 AM PDT by PurpleMan
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To: Gamecock
I'll just throw this out: Daniel speaks of a ram with two horns. One is "Persia" (we all know who that is). The other is "Media."

Hmmmm.

18 posted on 09/24/2008 7:23:03 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." (Hendrix))
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To: Gamecock; Quix
ping.

I've been aware of this for many years now; the first I got wind of it was a book by Mary Stewart Relfe who claimed a brother out east somewhere was given it to him by something like a word of knowledge and sent it to her, have the book around here somewhere. That explanation I'm not sure I buy any more but think, if her account is true, the person would have had some inside information. I've read a little more about the development group, but don't know know how reliable the information is/was nor how to find it again. I suppose some would consider it an "urban legend" at this point.

I checked around the house in those years and found many that fit. Not all products have that exact configuration in the code, but it's not as simple as some would have it. Some products only have half codes and variations on the basic code in "reverse".

Some of my friends thought I was a kook for trying to call it to their attention, so I usually keep it to myself. I was talking to an IT guy from the UK on a discussion board, and he informed me that the 3 field separators were not read the same by scanners as the 6's in the code itself.

Well, they certainly LOOK the same, so what to make of it at this point, I don't know nor how it ties in to some future beast system. I worked with computers but not this type of coding. Allegedly they say it is based on the numerical base of 6, but actually computers reduce down to being binary or base 2. To further complicate it, core dumps on IBM computers (during that computer evolution period), were in the form of the numerical base 16 for debugging purposes. You had to learn how that system worked, how to do addition and subtraction with it and how to convert it back to decimal. It's not terribly difficult once you get on to it. There are calculators that helped with that, and I finally bought one but before did the calculations the traditional way like you add and subtract in our familiar decimal system.

But as to requiring wisdom, I would have never figured it out on my own if I hadn't found this explanation in that book. I'm still open to a biblical interpretation that it is what it appears to be, but don't believe it is the mark of the beast which may be fanciful or literal (I lean to literal at some future point and think the RFID chip if it becomes required for buying and selling will be the mark Christians are supposed to refuse). I don't know how the code works in those chips.

We're so used to seeing it on all our products now, that I seldom think about it any more, just try to be watchful like the bible says. The world will consider those of us who think it is a harbinger of the actual mark will still regard us a kooks or worse.

I've also learned to do as much of my own fact checking as possible as some ministries are deceptive and using it for profit to peddle their version and sell books. I can't remember the exact details, but some ministry put out a pamphlet with an article that appeared in a Junior Scholastic magazine with kids having 666 or their foreheads on the cover. So I took a whole morning, found some stored on microfilm in a library, and tracked down that particular issue on microfilm. I confirmed there actually was such an issue, that was on the cover, but some of the rest of what was alleged in that publication was NOT in that magazine article. I don't want to name names publicly for fear I would be accusing the wrong ministry.

It's all over out there now, no big secret if you google for it.

19 posted on 09/24/2008 7:27:11 AM PDT by Aliska
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To: Gamecock

Interesting/educational.

The 666 caught my eye because I went to Wendy’s yesterday for lunch and ordered a single combo w/o cheese and a small frosty and the bill came to $6.66. I knew there were some kind of negative/mark-of-the-beast implications in those numbers. I looked for signs that the order giver and money changer (the same person...a pleasant young lady) might look at me funny. She did not. I had lunch in my car, listened to Rush and went back to work and didn’t think of it again until seeing this post.

Thanks for posting. Interesting history and thread. Thanks to all contributors.


20 posted on 09/24/2008 7:27:57 AM PDT by PGalt
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