What does the number of the beast mean?

 

The Significance of 666

In Revelation 13:18 it says, “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” This number, 666, has piqued the interest throughout the Christian and non-Christian world. Most people have correctly identified this number with an antichrist figure, an enemy of God. So what does the number of the beast mean? To understand the number of the beast, we need to understand what the beast is that the number applies to. 

The Four Great Kingdoms

In Revelation 13, there are two beasts mentioned. There is the first beast that is described in Revelation 13:1-10. This beast is an amalgamation of a lion, bear, leopard, and beast with 10 horns. This imagery harkens back to Daniel 7:1-8. Daniel 7 records four beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard and a beast with 10 horns. Daniel is told that these beasts represent the four great human kingdoms that would consecutively reign over the earth until the end of the world (Daniel 7: 17-18).  In Daniel 2,7,8 and 11, Daniel records visions of the earth’s political history from his day until the final moments of this earth. Each vision provides a glimpse of something different about each political power. They are not stand-alone visions; rather they build upon the information given in previous visions.  When you unpack the interpretations of these visions given in Daniel, the first of the four great kingdoms was Babylon (Daniel 2:38); the second was Medo-Persia with Persia becoming the more prominent part of this kingdom (Daniel 8:20; Daniel 11:2); the third was Greece (Daniel 8:21; Daniel 11:2-3); and the fourth is one which rose through peace-keeping in Greece (Daniel 8:25).  This last kingdom is in fact Rome. The Roman Empire was able to overthrow Greece through ‘peace-keeping’ efforts in Greece. It started with the southern part of the Greek empire, ruled by Ptolemy, and progressed to other parts of the Greek empire; until they annihilated the last Greek King in 168 BC. This Roman empire is what is represented by the great and terrible beast in Daniel 7:7, and the amalgamated beast in Revelation 13 and the beast and woman of Revelation 17. The Bible tells us that the Roman empire would rule the world until Jesus would return. What does the number of the beast mean? It is a number that represents the spirit and intent of this final power. Now you may be thinking, I don’t see a Roman army marching the streets. Rome is a little city over in Europe and we live in a country that has completely independent sovereignty. You may then wonder how the Bible can be correct when Rome doesn’t appear to be ruling the world.  Rome has come in two forms. The first was primarily a political power that conquered the world and became a super-power in 168 BC. However, over time Rome changed. Daniel 7:7 tells us, “It was different from all the beasts that were before it.” Instead of being overthrown by another nation, it transitioned to a religious power: the Holy Roman Catholic Empire.  Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic church was as corrupt and as wicked as the Roman civil power that had gone before it. It was supposedly Christian, but because of its wealth and influence in society it attracted adherents motivated by selfish gain. To become a bishop or pope didn’t require conversion to Christianity. It only required wealth and power. The spirit and intent of the church was to rule the world through human intellect, power, and effort. This is what the number of the beast means. The number is 666 (Revelation 13:18). Why specifically the number 6 three times?  If we go back to when the number six was first used in the Bible we find that it is Genesis 1 and further explained in Genesis 2. In Genesis 1: 24-31, we are told that the sixth day is when God created the beast and man. Note that the mark of the beast is also the number of man (Revelation 13:18). In Genesis 2:1-3 it mentions seven days and says that God had completed His work by the seventh day. So His work was confined to the preceding six days.  Then a third time, in Genesis 2:16-17, the sixth day of creation is brought into focus. It doesn’t talk about it being the sixth day, but we know that it is the sixth day because it was that day that God created man. Besides the creation of man and beast, God gives man a law on day six. It’s a simple law that requires them to trust God. God says, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” It was these premises: God’s creatorship, God’s completion of His work, and God’s law that Satan attacked at the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden. In Genesis 3:1-5, Satan used a form of a serpent to communicate with Eve to communicate a threefold message that was to instil in man the concept that it would only be through human intellect, power and effort that we would achieve completion of perfection.  Through Satan’s discussion with Eve, he implied: 

1. As our creator, God couldn’t be trusted. In my paraphrase, Satan essentially said, “God had said that if you eat, you will die, but He doesn’t know what He’s talking about. Trust your senses – the food looks good to eat. Look at me, I’m a talking snake, have you ever seen a talking animal before? It must be because of this tree. Trust me, I am a beast of the field, don’t trust God your creator;” 
2. The crux of the second message that Satan shared was that God hadn’t completed His work. Something more was needed for them to be complete, and God was withholding that from them. To obtain it they needed to stretch forth their hand and eat from the tree.
3. With the third message, Satan communicated this, “You don’t need to follow God’s law to be like God. God lives forever, and you will too if you break God’s law and eat from this tree. Do what thou wilt and create your own law”(my paraphrase).

You will note that all three of these messages require work from creation. Trust in creation, in our selves, in our senses, in our own intellect, power and effort is the message that Satan instilled into humanity with the temptation and the fall. Humanty from hence forth turned to their human intellect, power, and effort to sustain their lives. Which is exactly what the number of the beast means: 6 – work of man; 6 – work of man; 6 – work of man. This three-fold message fell incredibly short of God’s plan for humanity! God has a number too, and it is the number seven. The first mention of seven was in Genesis 2:1-3. It is associated with God’s completed work of creatorship, rest from work, and God’s sanctification (His ability to make anything holy through His efforts). So as opposed to 666, work work work, we could say that God’s number 777, is trust and rest in God, trust and rest in God, trust and rest in God. Revelation 14 also talks about the number or mark of the beast. It says, “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” (Revelation 14: 9-13, emphasis added)

Deciphering the Number

You will note that those who receive the make of the beast have torment and “no rest day or night.” On the other hand, those who have patience (which requires trust), follow God’s law (obedience), and the faith of Jesus (which trusts entirely in God’s ability to create and re-create) “rest from their labors.” The interesting thing about this latter group is their “works follow them”, but it says they are “dead.”  Paul wrote, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:21). He also said,  “For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him”  (Romans 6:7-8). If we have spiritually died, it means we have given up on human intellect, power, and effort and we trust God entirely to be our creator, to complete His work in us, and to both give us a law and do the labouring for us. Understanding what the number of the beast means can be understood better by looking at the first time that anyone in the Bible had a mark put on them. It is in Genesis 4:1-15.  Genesis 4 contains the sad story of Cain and Abel. Cain brought his own sacrifice, he then followed his own law (of hate, anger, murder and lies), and then he was consumed with self-presevation for the rest of his life. As a result of going his own way in these three areas, he lived out the remainder of his life with fear and torment. He received and carried a mark with him for the rest of his life because of his choice to work, work, work. On the other hand, Abel his brother, brought the sacrifice that God asked for, he demonstrated the law of love when he tried to reason with his brother, and he clearly did not fight his brother but rather rested in God from that moment on (literally).  When we are attempting to understand what does the number of the beast mean, the mark, or the number of man, we need to look for this spirit of relying on human intellect, power, and efforts. This spirit pervades the world. In fact, Reveltion 13:3 it says, “And all the world marveled and followed the beast.” Then in Revelation 18:3 it says, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”  So why would we narrow it down to saying that the Roman Catholic church is the one that has their specific mark placed on “both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave” (Revelation 13:16)? As previously mentioned, the Bible is clear that only 4 major kingdoms should rule the world from Daniel’s time to the end of the world that were of prophetic significance. The last is Rome. We know this from history, but we also know it from the descriptions of this power in both Daniel and Revelation. We also know from the Bible that it is a Christian religious power that enforces the number of the beast or it’s mark. In Matthew 24:24, Jesus told His disciples that the last power would be so deceptive that it would be possible to deceive the elect – those who are professed sincere Christianitians. You can’t deceive sincere Christians with a non-Christian religion or secularism. Furthermore, it tells us in Revelation 13 that the issue of receiving the number of the beast or his mark is about worship.  Finally, in Revelation 17, in describing the last power it talks of a harlot woman. Harlot women in the Bible are symbolic of an apostate church of God (see Hosea). False religions are never referred to as harlots in the Bible. It then concludes Revelation 17 with, “And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18). There is only one Christian, religious power that also has a city and also has a significant influence over the kings of the earth. That is the Roman Catholic church.  So, in attempting to understand what does the number of the beast mean. We need to look at what the Roman Catholic church offers ‘the very elect’ that could deceive them to rely on human intellect, power, and effort.  There are many things that the Roman Catholic church utlises within their religious tradition that attempt to supplant God’s work with human work. For example, the use of saints and Mary as intermediaries between God and man. The idea of achieving common good as the means of preserving the planet. The installation of a Pope who can talk “ex-cathedra” – infallible words as if he is God. Still another sign of the Roman Catholic church relying on human intellect, power and effort is their transferring of the weekly day of worship (Sabbath) from the seventh day to the first day of the week. This is what the Bishop of London wrote in 1923: “On Protestant principles there is no possible explanation of the substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Sabbath; for this plain abrogation of the express commandment of God as recorded in the Bible. Protestants reject Divine Tradition, the Unwritten Word, which Catholics accept as of equal authority with the Written Word, the Bible. The Divine authority given by Christ to the Church to teach in His name, to bind and to loose, Protestants deny. For them—and it is their boast—the Bible and the Bible alone has Divine authority. Now in the matter of Sabbath Observance the Protestant rule of Faith is utterly unable to explain the substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Saturday. It has been changed. The Bible still teaches that the Sabbath or Saturday should be kept holy. There is no authority in the New Testament for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday. Surely it is an important matter. It’s there in the Bible as one of the Ten Commandments of God. There is no authority in the Bible for abrogating this Commandment, or for transferring its observance to another day of the week. “For Catholics there is not the slightest difficulty. “All power is given Me in heaven and on earth; as the Father sent Me so I also send you,” said our Divine Lord in giving His tremendous commission to His Apostles. “He that heareth you heareth Me”. We have in the authoritative voice of the Church the voice of Christ Himself. The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact. Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third—Protestant Fourth— Commandment of God. “Thus, by that same Divine authority, in virtue of which she did away with the Jewish Sabbath and substituted therefore the Christian Sunday, the Catholic Church legislated as to how the Lord’s Day should be observed”. 1 If we were to look at the myriad of things that the Roman Catholic church has instituted that have most represented the spirit of the number of the beast, this conversion of the Sabbath to the Sunday is one of the most deceiving. The majority of very sincere Christians worldwide worship on Sunday even though they may consider themselves non-Catholics and Bible-believing.  The seventh-day Sabbath was God’s day that He made holy and He asked us to keep it holy (Exodus 4:8-11). He tells us in Exodus 31:13, “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” Then in Hebrews 4:9-11, in reference to the seventh-day (Hebrews 4:4), it says, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” We need to cease from our works – our attempts to fix this world, to fix ourselves, to make ourselves holy, and yes to even make a day holy. We cannot offer our own sacrifice, make our own laws, or preserve ourselves like Cain tried to do. Let us not be drunk with the wine of the harlot woman of Revelation 17 and receive her mark. What does the number of the beast mean: work, human striving, and torment. What does God offer? Rest. Only as we rest in Him will His sanctified work be seen in our lives through His efforts.   1 Fallon, M.F. (Bishop of London) The Catholic record: Volume XLV, [No.] 2342 (September 1, 1923) accessed via: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06663_2342/4?r=0&s=4, 18.2.2021