Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

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

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, with some insight:

But what about the number 666? In verse 18, John says “this calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.” Throughout the history of the church there has been much speculation about what this number means. I am not going to use what time remains to go through the history of this. But I think we already have the solution in view. John’s call for wisdom likely entails Christians looking to the Old Testament background, and then attempting to understand, how, in the light of the coming of Jesus Christ, these things were being fulfilled before their very eyes. Soon after Revelation was written, Christians figured out that this was a kind of ancient code, a gematria, since letters in many ancient languages were also assigned a numeric value. When the Greek words “dragon” and “beast” are given such numeric value in Hebrew, both total “666.” When done with Neron Kaisar (Greek for Nero Caesar) the total is 666. This fits perfectly with John’s assertion that 666 is the number of a man, and connects Nero to those who empower him, the Beast and the Dragon.8 But while Nero may very well be in view, the thrice repeated “6’s” also tell us something important as well–they point beyond Nero to the beast in every age!

John has been making the point that the dragon, the beast and the false prophet constitute a counterfeit Trinity, seeking the worship of the nations, rightfully meant for God and his Christ. The number 7 is the number of perfection and completeness, hence the divine number would be 777. But “6″ is the number  of man, and repeated 3 times, “666″ consistently falls short of 777. Therefore, the number 666 is an  apocalyptic symbol for those rulers, nations and false teachers, whose Satanic nature becomes apparent  to the people of God.9 Nero may have been the first whose number was 666, but he will not be the last.

This has nothing to do with bar codes, debit cards, microchips and modern technology–although all of things may be enlisted by the false prophet in service to the Beast. The mark of the beast and the number 666 has to do with the beast and false prophet forcing people to acknowledge that the state and its ruler are divine. The mark was present when someone in John’s day confessed “Caesar is Lord” and worshiped his image in some symbolic way so as to buy and sell. The mark of the beast is seen in news reels when German school children sing “Hitler is our savior, Hitler is our Lord.” It is not a phenomena limited to a future tribulation. The mark of the beast and the number “666″ is the tell-tail sign of our enemy Satan and his two henchman, the beast (the state) and the false prophet (the beast’s spokesman).

Beloved, we are the people of God. We need not fear the dragon, the beast or the false prophet. We need not fear their mark. For we are sealed with the name of God and of his Christ in our baptism. Our hope is not to escape from our enemies through a secret rapture, but as our baptismal liturgy puts it, we are to manfully fight against and overcome sin, the Devil and his whole dominion. And our weapon against the beast and the false prophet is the truth of God’s word–the law and gospel–which exposes all Satanic deception and reminds the world that “666″ is but the number of a man. And what can men do to the church of Jesus Christ? If they kill us, we come to life. If we live, we preach the gospel. Either way, we have nothing to fear. As John has already made clear–we have already overcome the Devil through the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, no messianic pretender, no false prophet, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen!