YOU CAN'T CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

666 - THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

While almost everybody associates the number "666" with a yet to come individual called "Antichrist," the Bible does not. Bible scholars have made that connection purely through conjecture, and this will become evident as we begin to investigate their claims by comparing them to actual Scripture.

WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST?
The word Antichrist appears in the Bible only four times, and only in 1st and 2nd John.

"Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time" (1 Jo 2:18).

"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son" (1 Jo 2:22).

"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world" (1 Jo 4:3).

"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (2 Jo 1:7).

Read these verses carefully. You will notice that John never mentions an individual as THE "Antichrist," although he speaks of many people as Antichrists who deny that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh. The Antichrist is, no doubt, a spirit force; it is the spirit of Satan. In verse 4:3 John refers to this force as the impersonal "it."

The NASV renders 1 John 2:21 as though there is only one Antichrist: "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and Son." However, their rendering of 1 John 1:7 reveals a bit of inconsistency: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." This translation seems to be speaking of many deceivers, and yet of one deceiver, all in the same breath. It seems to be the result of very careless use of the English language. Such incompetence should not be found among those who prefess themselves to be "better" Bible translators.

Future minded Bible scholars identify a myriad of Bible entities and objects throughout the Old and New testaments as "Antichrist," but again, a careful study of Scripture finds all of these to be arbitrary, and many quite unbiblical. According to the writings of John, the "many Antichrists" were the unbelieving Jews of that "last time," while THE Antichrist was the spirit of Satan. There was no Roman, or Jewish, or Greek "scintillating super politician" known as THE Antichrist.

The many Antichrists were the Israelites in the first century who witnessed Jesus do miracles and healing, listened to Him preach and teach, and still refused to acknowledge Him as Christ come in the flesh. They were Antichrists. THE Antichrist was the satanic force, the "spirit of iniquity," that drove them to disbelieve and reject the Son of God.

1 John 2:18 is interesting. John says that because there were many Antichrists, thereby he could tell that it was the "last time." Futurists see the "last time" as that which comes after the long period of the Church Age, One Bible expositor, a Futurist, makes the remark that we have been in the "last time" for a long time. Apparently he believed that the "last time" began even while the Church was brand new. So what was it the "last time" of? It couldn't have been the "last time" of the Church. But something definitely was in it's "last times" when he wrote that. The "last time" John was referring to was the approaching end of the nation of Israel. They were living in the "last days," or the "last times," or the "last time" of the Jewish system.

Most of the stuff you read here comes from Revelation chapter 13. I can almost guarantee that futurists have not figured out anything about that chapter in spite of all the malarky they have put forth in the last 200 years. Furthermore, I don't believe that anyone else has either. The Antichrist as a human individual is not named here. After reading many commentaries dwelling on the subject of the "Antichrist," the "Beast," his "number," or the "number of his name," and so forth I, personally, have concluded that a thorough understanding of Chapter 13 is for yet another time in the history of the Church (perhaps soon if genuine Bible scholars begin to genuinely study the genuine Bible).

Meanwhile, We must also admit that trying to figure out the "number of his name" has been an exercise in futility. After many centuries of trying, no one has figured it out yet. So Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, the Pope, Henry Kissinger, and anyone else who got caught in the crosshairs of those enthusiastic mathematicians trying to "calculate the number of his name" can relax; no one so far has come up with the name of this fellow. But it is a lot of fun, and I can't resist having a go at it myself. So let the good times roll...

"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" (Rev. 13:17).

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" (Rev. 13:18).

For centuries Christianity's greatest minds have wrestled with the letters in the name of this "Antichrist," adding them forward, backward, sideways, in Hebrew, in Greek, in Latin, and who knows what else, and so far no one is convinced that he has arrived at the name of a beast whose number is 666.

Maybe they're going at it all wrong. Maybe it's time to try another approach. Well, here's one. This one may be novel, perhaps a bit off the wall, most likely not any more accurate, but it is different and, in my own humble(!) opinion, more in line with the Bible than most others. At any rate, this is more fun than a game of Scrabble.

For one thing, "beast" is not the exact term for a human individual who is supposed to be the "Antichrist." Beast is the biblical term for government - that is - a king, or kingdom, or empire. But behind every secular government or kingdom, and actually an integral part of it, is the one and only real Antichrist, Satan himself. Remember Isaiah 14? Here the prophet is told to take up a proverb against the king of Babylon, and right off he begins speaking to Lucifer, and the king of Babylon is virtually ignored. And Ezekiel is commanded to speak to the prince of Tyrus. This prophet also seems to ignore the human prince of Tyrus, and addresses Satan directly. Notice something interesting: in verse 2 he is speaking to Satan, not the human prince of Tyrus, but he says that "...yet thou art a man..." So Satan is not only a wicked spirit, he is also a man. And I am thoroughly convinced that all governments of the world belong to Satan - at least they did in the time of Christ's ministry here on earth:

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." (Luke 4:5-7)

So Satan is in possession of all governments of the world, and I have not seen Scripture where that status of his has changed. In fact, toward the days when time shall be no more, Satan goes out to deceive and gather the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth against the camp of the beloved. That tells me that he still owns the nations of the world. And for another thing, the Bible is not telling us to count the letters in his name, we are instructed to count the number of his name. That just may be a horse of a different color.

Let's assume for the moment that the "mark," the "name of the beast," and the "number of his name," are three different things.

THE MARK
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads" (Rev. 13:16):

Does that mark consist of three six's in a row? Most likely not. Three six's in a row merely represent the quantity six hundred and sixty-six, nothing else. Imagine how easy it would be to counterfeit 666! The mark of the beast may be real and physical, or it may be symbolic, we really don't know. And we have no idea what it looks like. Verse 16 says that the beast causes all to receive a MARK in their right hand, or in their foreheads. Some people think that it will be an actual brand, others think it might be a computer chip, still others think that it is symbolic, and represents the fact that the person has pledged his allegiance to this "Antichrist."

THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME
The "number of names," or the "number of their names," seems to be a peculiarly biblical expression, and has nothing to do with the letters in somebody's name. It simply means head count.

"Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls" (Num. 1:2);

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names" (Num. 3:40).

"And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty," (Acts 1:15))

The "number of names" or the "number of their names" is the biblical expression for "number of people." So, instead of counting the number of letters in the beast's name, and doing all sorts of mathematical gymnastics, we simply count the number of the beasts. The obvious problem here is that only one beast is spoken of, and we're only to count the number of his name (singular). It appears that we have only one name to count. How can we get 666 out of one?

Here we may have a clue. This so-called "Antichrist" is Satan, and Satan is one with every secular kingdom in the world. They all are his. He owns them; they are part of him, and he is part of them. As the devil, he is one; as part of the - shall we say - community of man, he is all of them.

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. "And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it" (Luke 4:5-6).

Read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, where the prophets speak to the rulers of Babylon and Tyrus, and at the same time they are speaking to Satan. So Satan is all world rulers, and all world rulers are Satan. Sounds weird, but that's the way it is.

In Mark we see roughly the same thing is going on with Satan's fallen angels, or devils. "Demons," if you are infatuated with modern sophisticated translations. Of lower rank than Satan, these might possess, instead of governments, individual human beings, or even pigs.

"And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many" (Mark 5:9).

Being one, he is many. Go figure!

So, rather than count the letters in someone's name, it might make more sense to count the number of names of sovereign kingdoms, or governments, or domains. Although I suspect that the world is a long way from having 666 kingdoms, who knows? The way nations are breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces, the day may come when there will be that many governments in the world. They may be small, but they will all belong to Satan. When that number begins to approach 666, then look up. When that time comes, pray that you have already permitted Someone to purchase your ticket out of this place.

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