For as long as I can remember and certainly many centuries before that, people have been trying to decipher this number, the mark of the beast. All kinds of cryptic contortions have been employed to create a match to the name of some wicked tyrant. Some have even matched it to the Roman church and the papacy. All these exercises miss the point – the number itself.
The number 6 is short of the perfect number, 7, the number often associated with God. In our vernacular it is one fry short of happy meal; one brick short of a full load; one card shy of a full deck; its elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top; its driveway doesn’t go all the way to the road. It is weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Three 6’s only raises this lacking to the greatest degree. Then, as now, 666 indicates great evil. It is a tattoo on nihilists, Satanists, and mass killers. John is simply giving his readers a description of the beast who is persecuting them and letting them know that the emperor is being controlled by the dragon, Satan himself.
There is a paranoia about that one might inadvertently receive the mark of the beast and thus be numbered with the damned. John’s readers were not tricked into receiving a mark on their hand or forehead. They knew full well the import of being tattooed per the emperor’s mandate. And John is warning them against compromising in order to provide for their families.
In our day, the mark is a cultural, an ideological, mark. And the beast it represents is also the puppet of the dragon. Align yourself with the diabolical notions of the day or you will lose your job or your business. The choice is a real one and we need to lose any paranoia about tattoos and embedded microchips and instead face the tough issues and refuse to go along blithely with the crowd, even if it means not being able to put food on the table. That is exactly the choice John’s readers faced.
The number 6 is short of the perfect number, 7, the number often associated with God. In our vernacular it is one fry short of happy meal; one brick short of a full load; one card shy of a full deck; its elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top; its driveway doesn’t go all the way to the road. It is weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Three 6’s only raises this lacking to the greatest degree. Then, as now, 666 indicates great evil. It is a tattoo on nihilists, Satanists, and mass killers. John is simply giving his readers a description of the beast who is persecuting them and letting them know that the emperor is being controlled by the dragon, Satan himself.
There is a paranoia about that one might inadvertently receive the mark of the beast and thus be numbered with the damned. John’s readers were not tricked into receiving a mark on their hand or forehead. They knew full well the import of being tattooed per the emperor’s mandate. And John is warning them against compromising in order to provide for their families.
In our day, the mark is a cultural, an ideological, mark. And the beast it represents is also the puppet of the dragon. Align yourself with the diabolical notions of the day or you will lose your job or your business. The choice is a real one and we need to lose any paranoia about tattoos and embedded microchips and instead face the tough issues and refuse to go along blithely with the crowd, even if it means not being able to put food on the table. That is exactly the choice John’s readers faced.
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