Then I saw another
beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke
as a dragon. (12) He exercises all the authority of the first
beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to
worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. (13)
He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of
heaven to the earth in the presence of men.
(14) And he deceives those who
dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in
the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an
image to the beast who[1]
had the wound of the sword and has come to life. (15)
And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so
that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not
worship the image of the beast to be killed.
(16) And he causes all, the small
and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to
be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, (17)
and he provides that no
one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the
number of his name. (18) Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding
calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his
number is six hundred and sixty-six. (Rev
13:11-18 NASB)
The world’s fascination with the number 666 seems to have no
bounds. In popular films and novels it
is always connected with the devil or the occult. In the comedy film The Burbs, neighbors of the strange, suspicious family the Klopecs
decide to visit them and get acquainted.
But when they knock on the door, a loose house number flips over and
changes the address from 696 to – you guessed it – 666, thus proving decisively
that the Klopecs are evil!
Christians through the centuries have identified the beast from
the sea in Revelation 13 as the Antichrist, the “man of sin” mentioned by Paul
(2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV, NKJV).
Speculations have run wild, especially in the last couple of centuries,
as to who exactly this Antichrist might be, and the number 666 has often been considered
the key to his identity. By assigning
numerical values to letters, interpreters have identified a wide variety of
candidates from Nero Caesar[2] to
Ronald Wilson Reagan (whose first, middle, and last names all have six
letters!).[3] Kim Riddlebarger’s comment shows the futility
of modern speculation about the number 666:
The attempt to calculate the number of
the beast using gematria (computing numerical value of letters) 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.[4]
John tells
us in verse 18 that discerning the meaning of the number of the beast requires
“wisdom” and “understanding,” not mathematical or kabbalistic acumen! The word translated “calculate” in v. 18 is
used only one other place in the New Testament – Luke 14:28 – where Jesus gives
an illustration about counting the cost of a decision. The idea is clearly one of using wisdom in
evaluating a given situation. In
Revelation, as we have noted previously, numbers generally have symbolic
significance, and so it is with the number 6 and its repetition in 666.
Throughout Scripture, and certainly in Revelation, the
number 7 represents the fullness or completion of divine acts. God’s work of creation was complete on the
seventh day, and so He rested, signaling the fullness and completion of
creation. God’s judgments in the Book of
Revelation are in groups of seven, symbolizing their fullness and
completion. The number six, on the other
hand, represents humanity. The man,
created on the sixth day, was to bear the image of God’s character, the
reflected glory of God. But he sinned, and in his fallen, distorted humanity,
he continually comes short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Satan would have mankind assert its independence
from God. Satan, the beast from the sea,
and the beast from the earth (the false prophet) represent an unholy trinity
dedicated to usurping authority from God, yet continually falling short. The number of the beast, appropriately, is
666 – the three-fold assertion of fallen humanity. The number three stands for perfection, as in
the Triune God who is “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isaiah 6:3). The number of the beast
declares mankind in their alienation from God to be “perfect” in unholiness, spiritual
lepers who ought to be crying out: “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!”
A key point in this interpretation is the fact that New
Testament Greek did not have the indefinite article “a,” as in “a man.” The indefinite article is supplied in English
translations where it is clearly needed, as in the phrase, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John”
(John 1:6). In Revelation 13:18,
however, it is not clear that the indefinite article “a” is needed. If we translate the Greek text literally, we
read, “for it is number of man.” Beale renders it, “a number of humanity.”[5] The same grammatical construction is found in
Revelation 21:17, where John describes the dimensions of the wall of the
heavenly Jerusalem, saying the measurements were “human measurements” (NASB),
or literally, “measurement of man.”
What does the number 666 represent, then? Beale explains it well:
It is a number common to fallen
humanity … This generic notion is consistent with 13:1, which affirms that the
beast has its earthly origin in the sea of fallen humanity (See also
17:15). The beast is the supreme
representative of fallen humanity, separated from God and unable to achieve
divine likeness, but always trying.[6]
Can there be any
doubt that the dominant “religion” in most of the world today is what we call
“secular humanism,” the assertion that mankind is the supreme sovereign over both
his own life and the destiny of this world? Those
who buy into that “religion,” and refuse to repent, do in fact bear the mark of
the beast and the number of this name. How much better to bear the seal of God, the name of God and the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ!
[1]
Based on the masculine pronoun in the
Greek for “who,” the NASB seems justified in using the masculine personal pronoun
for both the first beast and the second beast.
The ESV refers to the beast with the pronoun “it,” implying that the beast
may be an impersonal entity rather than an actual human dictator.
[2]
Riddlebarger, Kim. The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About The Antichrist. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2006, p. 111. As Riddlebarger notes: “None of the church
fathers, apparently, were aware of any connection between 666 and Nero.”
[3]
Ibid., p. 111. Note: Riddlebarger rejects
this connection as ridiculous, as do I!
[4]
Ibid., p. 111.
[5]
Beale, G. K. The Book of Revelation. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.: Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999, p. 724.
[6]
Ibid. p. 724.
