666

666

When it comes to the Book of Revelation, ignorance, speculation and superstition reign supreme. The most mysterious feature of this spectacular book is the man mentioned in 13:16-18, whose number is 666. Among those speculated to be this mysterious man are emperors Nero and Domition, various Popes, Joseph Smith, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Henry Kissinger. Folks have tried to discover the identity from the numerical value of the letters of these and other men's names. Like the Latin with its Roman numerals I, V, X, etc., the characters of the Greek alphabet have numerical value. The weakness of this method is that it is purely speculative and thus without any assurance of being right. There is a much better approach.

In the Book of Revelation, several numbers have symbolic value: 7, 10, 12, 1260, 3 ½ . There are seven stars, seven angels, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath. The anti-Christian beast has seven heads. Seven was considered the perfect number. It meant perfection, completion, wholeness. The beast with seven heads and ten horns is the Roman Empire (Rev. 17:9-13). The evil lamb is the pagan priesthood that supported Rome by their lies and deceit (13:11-14). The image of the beast is their idols used to promote emperor worship. The mark that all were required to have on their hand or forehead was the certificate that was issued when one publicly worshiped Caesar. It was proof of his loyalty.

By reading chapters 13-14 together we notice two different groups of people, each with a different mark on their forehead. There are those who dwell on the earth (13:14). They worship the beast and have his identifying mark on their forehead. There are those who dwell with Christ on Mt. Zion. The name of Christ and his Father is on their foreheads (14:1). The first group are sinners, lost in their present state. The second are Christians, saved by Jesus. We are told what the mark on Christians is. In Rev. 7:1-4, the mark is God's seal. Kings had their seal or signet by which their documents were validated and their property marked. Every Christian is sealed with the Holy Spirit (II Cor. 1:22). He is sealed when in faith he is baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) This mark is not visible to the human eye but certainly is to God. Those with God's seal are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). Those with the mark of the beast, marked 666, are lost. If their mark was seven they would be among the saved. Six is less than seven. They are incomplete before God, sinners in need of salivation. Which of these two marks do you bear?

The greater mystery of 666 is in all the speculation. This simple explanation makes sense.

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