Revelation: What is the Meaning of 666 (Part 2)

Revelation: What is the Meaning of 666 (Part 2)

Previously, I wrote Part 1 of this topic, an article that studies the biblical meaning of the infamous symbol “666” in Revelation.  That article focused mainly on how people view the number, the various erroneous interpretations commonly given to it, and biblical principles we need to keep in mind in order to come to the correct conclusions about it and the rest of the symbolism found in Revelation.

Let’s now start examining what 666 really means.  It is called the number of the beast (Rev. 13:18), so it’s probably best to first come to understand what the Bible says about the beast of Revelation 13.

There are actually two beasts in chapter 13.  The first beast mentioned is the one which rises out of the sea (Rev. 13:1-10).  Space doesn’t permit us to examine in great detail all the symbolism surrounding this beast, but the best way to sum up what this beast represents is to study Daniel 7:1-7, 15-18.

Daniel, like John, had a vision of beasts, four of them rising out of the sea.  He then specifies that these beasts each represented four kingdoms or governments.  If we allow the Bible to be its own best interpreter (which is what God wants us to do; compare Ephesians 4:15, John 17:17, and 2 Timothy 4:2), we will apply this same interpretation to the beast rising up out of the sea in Revelation 13.

Thus, the “beast” in Revelation is a symbolic term used to represent governmental forces which rule in this world.

This beast which rises out of the sea in Revelation 13 was a servant of the dragon whom Revelation 12:9 identifies as Satan, and those who followed the beast would worship both the dragon and the beast (Rev. 13:2, 4).  This beast would blaspheme against God, his name, and his dwelling, and would make war on the saints and conquer them (Rev. 13:5-8).  All who dwell on the earth, specifically “everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” — i.e., those who aren’t Christians — would worship the beast (v. 8).

This tells us that the first beast rising up out of the sea represents governmental forces which rule in this world who are hostile to Christianity.  During John’s day, this would have been the Jewish ruling class in Jerusalem and the Roman Empire, both of whom severely persecuted Christians.  Throughout history, including today, we see many governments showing various degrees of hostility towards Christianity.  America’s government and society is becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian faith as well, as seen in the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage and how florists and bakers who profess the Christian faith concerning same-sex marriage are being persecuted by governmental authorities.

It’s very clear that the first beast of Revelation 13 is still alive and well today, and will always be until Christ comes again.

Let’s now turn our focus to the second beast, the one which rose out of the earth (Rev. 13:11-18).  Again, space does not permit a detailed examination of all the symbolism surrounding this second beast, so we’ll hit the highlights.

To sum up, we know from our study of the first beast and also the beasts of Daniel 7 that this beast would symbolize an entity that has the power of civil government.  Additionally, this beast apparently had the power to force people to make an image to the beast and worship it (v. 15).  This tells us that this second beast controlled not only the physical actions and freedom of man the way civil governments would, but it would also control his spiritual worship.  This is the meaning of the two horns (v. 11).  Horns symbolize power, and this beast had two horns.  Its power was twofold.  It possessed civil powers and spiritual powers.

Elsewhere in Revelation this second beast is called a false prophet (Rev. 16:13; 19:20).  This shows that the beast was a false religious power which caused or forced many people to worship in ways other than those designed by God.  This is why the Bible says it had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon (Rev. 13:11).  It acts like a lamb of God but speaks the message of Satan the dragon.  It represents the wolves in sheep’s clothing, the false teachers and prophets which Jesus and Paul warned us about (Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29).

Think back over history since the church of Christ was founded on Pentecost after Jesus’ death and resurrection?.  Are there any false religions which profess to have allegiance to Christ?  Of course there are.  We call them denominations.  Where did these denominations come from?  History shows us that the Protestant denominations (the Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc.), all of which teach and practice doctrines contradictory to New Testament teaching, originally split off from the Roman Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic Church, also infamous for adding to and taking away from the Word of God, used to be known as simply the Catholic Church before it had a split one thousand years ago which formed the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, an entity which continued to add to and ignore biblical doctrine.  Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church are more than just religions and churches.  Historically and all the way up to today, they are both churches AND governments.

Catholicism’s headquarters is in the Vatican.  The Vatican is its own country, having its own form of government.  Throughout Catholic history, the Catholic Church has been very closely aligned with various governments in the countries that have been predominately Catholic.  Over the past one thousand years, the Eastern Orthodox Church has split into various Orthodox Churches, all defining themselves by the countries and governments with which they are aligned.  That’s why we have Greek Orthodox Churches, Russian Orthodox Churches, etc.

In like manner, the religion of Islam claims to follow the God of Abraham and Jesus and is closely aligned with many Middle Eastern governments.  Yet it has always persecuted Christians and continues to do so, and its doctrine and tenets blatantly go against the teachings of the God of the Bible.

Thus, history shows us the existence of false religions which are closely aligned with governmental powers that look on the surface to the uninformed like they follow the Lamb of God while in reality speaking the message of Satan the dragon.  The second beast of Revelation 13 which rose out of the earth, has two horns like a lamb, speaks like a dragon, and makes people worship the first beast is clearly seen in the false religions, specifically the denominations of Christendom and the various sects of Islam that are closely aligned with governmental powers hostile to true New Testament Christianity over the years.

To sum up what we know about the two beasts of Revelation 13:

  • The first beast symbolizes any governmental power throughout history that is hostile to Christianity.
  • The second beast symbolizes any false religion aligned with governmental authorities which is hostile to Christianity, false religions who profess to follow God but in reality serve Satan.

The next article will continue our study of Revelation 13 in order to understand the meaning of 666, but for now let’s end with some encouragement, some real “edification from Revelation.”  I’d like to call your attention to a few passages from Revelation:

“And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.  And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.  These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.”

Revelation 19:19-20

“And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Revelation 20:9-10

Take heart, Christians.  What you just read is the ultimate destiny of the two beasts and Satan the dragon whom they serve.  We may be persecuted in varying ways by the government or by false churches and religions, but in the end Christ will conquer over all!

Will we be conquering with him?

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.  From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.  And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 20:11-15

Do you want to spend eternity with the two beasts and the dragon in the lake of fire?  If your name is not written in the Book of Life, that’s what will happen.

Is your name written there?  Contact me to find out what the Bible says about being saved.

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Revelation: What is the Meaning of 666? (Part 1)

Revelation: What is the Meaning of 666? (Part 1)

666.  The number of the beast.

A while back I wrote on Facebook that I was going to preach about 666, and the first thing my mother-in-law wrote in response was, “Scary number!”  To a lot of people, the number 666 IS a scary number.

In fact, 666 even has its own clinical phobia.  Hexakosiohexekontahexaphobia.  “Fear of the number 666.”  (What I’m more afraid of is trying to pronounce that word.)  Believe it or not, President Reagan and his wife Nancy were known to have this phobia.  They changed the address of their Bel Air, California home from 666 St. Cloud Road to 669 St. Cloud Road.

What is behind the fear of this number from the Bible?

What is behind the fear of this number from the Bible?

It’s probably the most infamous number in the world.  Just about every person who professes to be a Christian associates some negative connotation with that number.  Even people who are very secular in their worldview think negatively of 666.

I’ve known song leaders in the church whose consciences would not allow them to lead any song whose number in the book was 666.  There are reports of people who were born on June 6, 1966 or June 6, 2006 getting all kinds of grief for being born on 6/6/66 or 6/6/06.

There are all kinds of interpretations out there as to what 666 represents.  Some use gematria, the assigning of a numerical value to certain letters of the alphabet, as a way to attempt to determine its meaning.  Some people, seeing that Revelation 13:18 says that 666 is the number of a man, will take the names of people who are evil or whom they consider to be evil, and they’ll try to use gematria to fit their names to spell out 666 in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew.  Some will go back to notorious evil people of biblical times like Roman emperors Julius Caesar, Nero, or Domitian and try to fit their names to 666.  Others will go to more recent historical figures like Martin Luther, Napoleon, Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Bill or Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama and try to fit their names to 666.

The problem with using gematria to interpret 666 was summed up by Bible scholar F.F. Bruce in the following way:

The three rules for making any name yield the desired 666 are: (1) if the proper name itself will not yield it, add a title; (2) if the sum cannot be found in Greek, try Latin, or Hebrew; (3) if that does not work, misspell it!

Bible commentator James Coffman told of a Bible scholar who tried to use gematria to make “Nero” come up to mean 666.  He first tried adding it up in Greek or Latin, and when that wouldn’t work he switched to Hebrew.  That meant he couldn’t use the vowels in Nero’s name since there are no vowels in the Hebrew language, but that didn’t add up either.  So he then added the title Caesar to Nero’s name, and found that wouldn’t work either unless he misspelled Caesar.  Only then could he finally make “Nero” add up to 666!

The other problem which is easily apparent with using gematria to interpret 666 is that there are many possible answers.  Thus, it soon becomes a matter of opinion as to which one we accept as the correct interpretation.  For these and other reasons, we must reject gematria as the proper method of determining the meaning of 666.

There are other interpretations of 666 that are out there (and by “out there,” I really mean out there.)  Some believe barcodes are the mark of the beast because Revelation 13:17 says, “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”  Barcodes work by assigning shapes or lines of different widths to each number.  Some sources maintain that the “guard bars” (the lines on the ends and the middle of the standard Universal Product Code, or UPC, barcode) are the code for the number 6.  Hence, every barcode supposedly contains 666.

Others believe that the Internet, the World Wide Web, or computers in general are what Revelation’s 666 refers to.  Some look at “www” and say it means “666.”  Technology has frequently been viewed suspiciously by those searching for the meaning of 666.  For example, I read that the first Apple computer, Apple I, sold for $666.66 and Intel’s Pentium III had a clock speed of 666.666 megahertz.  This has caused some to denounce computers as a tool of the beast.

Some have determined that the VISA credit card is the meaning of 666.  Using gematria, the letters V-I-S-A spell out 666…if you combine Roman, Greek, and Babylonian languages, that is.  In fact, many look at credit cards, debit cards, and smart cards in general as the proper interpretation of 666, again considering that Revelation 13:17 associates buying and selling with 666.

And then there is the notion that 666 refers to microchips.  A microchip is a passive RFID (radio frequency identification) device that contains a unique identification number which can be read with a scanner.  Some sources believe that, besides being used for identification, microchips will be used to store information, as tracking devices, and required for commerce transactions.  Some people react to this by taking Revelation 13:17 and concluding that 666 is a prophecy about microchips and all other RFID devices.  (Incidentally, all kinds of brands in general have also been suggested as the meaning of 666.  Unlike microchips, however, they have been around for centuries.)

The problem with all of the above interpretations of 666, and indeed the mistake most people make when they try to interpret what any part of Revelation means, is that they ignore the very first verse of Revelation.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and SIGNIFIED by his angel unto his servant John.” 

Revelation 1:1

Revelation was signified.  In other words, it is a book written using signs and symbols.  Symbolism.  Symbolic language.  The overwhelming majority of it is not meant to be taken literally.  666, literally in the original Greek six hundred sixty-six, is not meant to be interpreted as a literal number.  It’s symbolic of something.  Most people recognize this, although some don’t.

But what does 666 symbolize?  This leads to the next mistake many make.

When it comes to Revelation, a lot of Christians forget that God told them to always “speak the truth” (Eph. 4:15).  The truth is defined by God as his Word (John 17:17), which is why we are also told to “preach the Word” (2 Tim. 4:2).

People go to barcodes, gematria, historical figures and credit cards to figure out what 666 means instead of going to where they should have gone first:  the Word of God.

I want to take us first and foremost to God’s Word to interpret 666 and some of the other symbolism of Revelation.  That’s how we will have the truth, because God’s Word is truth and we are to speak the truth.

Let’s also remember a couple of other important items as we continue this study.  First, Revelation was originally written two thousand years ago to a people who would have had no idea what VISA cards, the Internet, Barack Obama, Napoleon, Nixon, or Hitler were.  Therefore, does it make sense to ascribe these meanings to 666?  Would the first century A.D. Christians of Laodicea and Ephesus have had a clue what a barcode or a microchip were if John had told them 666 stood for those things?  How could knowing about the invention of the Internet two thousand years after they lived have helped them to become better Christians?  Obviously it wouldn’t have.  So when we try to figure out what 666 or anything else in Revelation means, let’s ask ourselves if our theory would in any way be relevant to the first century Christians.

In like manner, remember 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Revelation is part of “all Scripture.”  So are the verses about 666.  “The man of God” referred to in the passage would not only be the Christians of two thousand years ago but also you and me today.

Thus, the true, scriptural interpretation of 666 would have helped those Christians in John’s day to be better servants of God.  It likewise will help us to be better servants of God.  The true interpretation would apply to them and us equally.

Want to know if you’re on the right track in trying to figure out what 666 means?  It’s when you come to a conclusion about 666 that would spiritually benefit all Christians from John’s time up to today and until Christ comes again.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this study…

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The Prophet Hosea on Mercy and Truth

The Prophet Hosea on Mercy and Truth

For over two hundred years after the death of Solomon, those ten tribes in the northern part of Palestine never worshiped God. If you want to see just how longsuffering God is, consider that during this time they had nineteen kings and not a single one of them was righteous. It was not that they had no way to know God, for He sent prophet after prophet to call them back. They refused to hear.

A lack of Mercy will bring down a great people.

A lack of Mercy will bring down a great people.

They chose to not know Him. God’s messenger, Hosea, described them and their destiny in this way: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you from being a priest to Me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children” (Hos. 4:6). The end was at hand. It was the end of that nation. Their children would never enjoy the favor of God again.

How did all of this happen? Look at the verses in the first part of Hosea chapter four. In the very first verse, Hosea describes the path traveled by Israel in its journey away from God. “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.” Where there is no desire for truth, there is no room for true mercy and compassion. Think of how often truth and mercy are connected with the Lord. Remove these from any nation, and there is no hope for that nation. They have left these holy values and ignorance of God prevails.

What happens in a society where there is no mercy, truth and knowledge? Look at the words found in verse two. There is swearing and lying. We tend to think of swearing as using profanity, but in this context, the emphasis is swearing to tell the truth and not doing it.

What else happens? There is killing, stealing and adultery. Killing is also described in the last part of this verse as bloodshed upon bloodshed. The blood of the oppressed flows so freely that it touches the flow of blood from other killings. There is theft of property and even the taking of another man’s wife. Adultery in any nation will ultimately lead to the moral decay of that nation.

The most revealing phrase in this path away from God is, “They break all restraint.” The entry of sin may begin with a “little sin,” but it does not end there. The Bible describes it as adding sin to sin. The door through which little sins enter soon opens to the entry of many others. There finally is no restraint in our lives. “They break all restraint.” We think it cannot happen, but it is inevitable!

Read these verses again. How far is America from being like Israel—no mercy, truth or knowledge? How close are we from being a nation which has broken all restraint?

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Abounding in Hope

Abounding in Hope

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

On the edge of bleakness, Hope stands sure.

On the edge of bleakness, Hope stands sure.

I don’t know that there is any worse feeling than that of hopelessness. Left unchecked, it is soon followed by despair. These strong feelings present themselves those who are suicidal. Satan desires humans to die in sin so they may accompany him to the place prepared for him and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Satan does not want people to have hope, and that means that hope is a powerful tool of God for good. God is the God of hope (Romans 15:13). This verse also presents a connection between joy, peace, faith, and hope. Joy, peace, and faith are powerful tools of the Holy Spirit that enable the Christian to abound in hope.

Having a life filled and overflowing with hope is a process that begins with faith, the foundation of joy and peace.  It is “in believing” that God fills us with joy and peace. Faith comes by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17). Joy and peace are the natural results of believing (in an obedient way) God’s word. The Ethiopian nobleman went on his way rejoicing after believing (in an obedient way) the word of God (Acts 8:39). Peace comes from the fact that we have Christ as our reconciler (Ephesians 2:14-22). It is a blessing of putting our trust in Christ. Philippians 3:6-7 emphasize the connection between trusting in God through prayer and receiving the peace of God that passes all understanding. When we have faith producing joy and peace, then we have wonderful hope in the One who can bring the abundant life both now and in eternity (John 10:10).

 

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Diligent or Lagging?

Diligent or Lagging

In Romans 12, Paul offers a number of short exhortations to his readers. The King James Version translates the first part of verse 11, “Not slothful in business.” The Christian should be diligent for his employer, but the context this verse has more to do with the business of the church.

Are you too lazy to be diligent in following the path God has given you?

Are you too lazy to be diligent in following the path God has given you?

We sing a song, “I want to be a worker for the Lord.” Do we mean those words when we sing them? Do we truly want to “be busy every day in the vineyard of the Lord,” or are we just giving lip service?

All disciples are to be actively engaged in the work of the Lord’s church. We should be busy making disciples (Matthew 28:19), encouraging each other (Hebrews 10:24-25), and helping the needy (Galatians 6:10; James 1:27).

We do not always see the fruit of our labors, but we must not give up. If we are mocked or rejected or persecuted by those around us, we keep obeying God (1 Peter 2:19-20). The things we do in the name of the Lord are not done in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). May we never lag in diligence when it comes to the Lord’s work.

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