End Times Truth

Prophecies of the Second Coming of Christ

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search
  • End Times News
    • Israel News
    • Middle East News
    • Terrorism News
    • New World Order and Globalism
    • European Union News
    • Smart Card News
    • Biometrics & Identification Technology
    • RFID & Surveillance Technology
    • Nuclear Weapons and Advanced Military Systems
  • Escape to Safety
  • The Bible
  • Principles of Prophecy
    • The Test of a Prophet
    • The Purpose of a Prophet
    • Visions of the Future
  • Israel
    • The Blessing and Curse
    • The Scattering of Israel
    • The Scattering of Judah and Jerusalem
    • The Final Scattering of Israel
    • The Regathering of Israel
    • Gathered in Unbelief
    • Prophecies of 1948
    • Restored with Fury
    • Trembling and Fear
      • Wars and Battles of Israel
    • Success Teetering On the Brink of Disaster
    • The Palestinian Problem
    • Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
      • The Start Date for the Seventy Weeks
      • Calculating the Time of Messiah
      • Daniel’s Seventieth Week
  • New World Order
    • Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
    • The Final Empire
    • Daniel’s Four Beasts
    • The Dreadful and Terrible Beast
    • The Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns
    • The Empire-Beast Arises
    • The Empire-Beast Today
    • Rise of the European Community
    • A New World Order Arises
    • The Group of Seven
    • Globalist Movements
  • The Antichrist
    • The Persona of Pride
    • The Antichrist is Revealed
    • The Second Beast of Revelation
    • Power, Signs, and Wonders
  • Mark of the Beast
    • Branded for Death
    • The Cashless Society
    • Plastic Money
    • Electronic Funds Transfer
    • A Wired Society
    • ATM and POS
    • Rise of the Internet
    • The Identification Problem
    • Smart Cards
    • Biometrics
    • RFID
    • The Final Mark
    • Surveillance and Control
  • 666
    • The Number of the Beast
    • The Imagery of 666
    • Barcode Technology and 666
    • Security Permissions Setting 666
  • World War III
    • The Abomination of Desolation
    • The Time of the End
    • The Attack of Russia
    • The Battle Begins
    • The Attack of China
    • Nuclear War and the Great Tribulation
    • The Effects of Nuclear Weapons
      • The Mushroom Cloud
      • The Fireball and Thermal Pulse
      • Firestorms and Conflagrations
      • The Blast Wave
      • Radioactive Fallout and Clouds of Dust
      • Ozone Depletion
      • Collapse of the Ecosystem
  • Return of Christ
    • The Seventh Trumpet
    • Christ’s Predictions
    • The Sign of the Son of Man
    • The Testimony of the Disciples
    • In the Twinkling of an Eye
    • The Trumpet Sounds
    • Delivered from God’s Wrath
    • The Witness of the Old Testament
    • The Importance of Knowing When
    • Characteristics of Christ’s Return and the Rapture
  • Kingdom Age
    • The People of the Kingdom
    • The Redemption of Israel
    • Israel in the Kingdom
  • End Times Chronology
    • The Sign Posts of History
    • Israel in the Last Days
    • Events Signaling the End
You are here: Home / 666 / The Number of the Beast
post

The Number of the Beast

The Number of the BeastIn the centuries that followed the writing of Revelation, countless writers and preachers have tried to interpret John’s vision, speculating what the Number of the Beast could mean, but without success.  The prophetic descriptions of the Mark and the peculiar number 666 became among the most well-known of all the prophecies in the Bible.  There even developed a certain obsession related to this prediction.  No Christians wanted to be associated with anything that even remotely reminded them of 666—just in case God would disapprove.  In extreme cases, people have been known to send back credit cards or license plates just because they contained that number.  Some companies have even received hate mail merely because they made the mistake of incorporating this number sequence into their ads or addresses.  It’s amazing how this one simple, three-digit number can almost cause paranoia in Christian circles.  In fact, there is even a technical term coined to describe those with a fear of the number 666.  It is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia!

Authors of end-time books have further perpetuated this fear by citing almost anything that contains three sixes in sequence and saying that these examples are proof of the soon rise of the Final World Order.  The fact is, though, such interpretations of John’s prophecy are mainly just numerical coincidences that could occur at any time and any place when sequences of numbers are used.  Basic statistics shows that any of the other numbers between zero and nine also have an equal chance of repeating in any sequence of three numbers.  In fact, the probability that 666 will occur in any random sequence of three numbers is equal to 1 chance in 1000 (or 1/1000).  This can be calculated simply by assuming that each digit can consist of any number between 0 and 9 inclusive.  Thus, for each position in a triad the probability that a 6 will occur is one chance in 10 or 1/10 (because there are 10 possible numbers that could occur in a given position).  Therefore, the overall probability of the sequence 666 appearing randomly together is 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 = 1/1000.  In a society where sequences of numbers are used virtually billions and billions of times daily, the number 666 is bound to come up frequently.  In other words, just because the number sequence 666 happens to show up on your checking account or credit card number doesn’t mean that it is associated with the Antichrist’s system—it just means that it randomly appeared because of probability.  It also doesn’t mean that you are endorsing or following the Antichrist if you find that number randomly showing up on one of your account numbers or license plates.

For most of church history, the number 666 was thought to be associated strictly with the Mark itself.  In fact, to many people the prophecies about 666 and the Mark were describing basically the same thing.  Probably a significant percentage of Christians may have believed that the Antichrist will actually have this number branded right on a person’s hand or forehead as part of the Mark.  The movie “The Omen” furthered this view by showing the Antichrist himself as having the mark mysteriously engraved on his scalp as a birthmark.  Is this really the way the number 666 will be used at the end?  Will the Mark of the Beast and the Number of the Beast turn out to incorporate the literal number 666 written on the body?  In one very real possibility, this may turn out to be the truth, because a tattoo consisting of a barcode could be used to identify all the people in the world and also incorporate an encoded 666 feature within it (see the sections The Final Mark and Barcode Technology for additional information).

Other people have thought that the Number of the Beast would turn out to be the secret code that would identify the Antichrist to the world.  This belief most likely originated because in the English Bible the prophecy of 666 says to “count the number of the beast” (Rev. 13:18).  The original Greek word for “count” in this verse is ψηφισάτω (psefisato), which means “to count, to reckon, to vote, or to decide”.  It might also be said that it means “to determine” or “to figure out” the Number of the Beast.  In this sense, to understand the prophecy some form of discovery, unveiling, or calculation must take place to determine the true meaning of 666 in the end times.  According to the Apostle John, the true application of this prophecy will be difficult to figure out.  In fact, no other prophecy in the Bible is given with this type of qualification, so it is natural that people have tried to calculate the Number of the Beast to discover its meaning.

One of the oldest methods of trying to determine the Number of the Beast was to assign numerical values to each of the letters of an alphabet and sum the resultant number equivalents of each of the letters in names, words, or phrases.  As a result of this theory, many Christians have tried to find the number 666 buried inside of important organizational names or calculated using the names of certain world leaders.  According to this approach, if the numerical sum of the name, word, or phrase equals 666, then a possible meaning for the Number of the Beast has been found.  In particular, the names of many well known people have been summed in this way to see if they equal 666, because the prophecy in Revelation also says that the Number of the Beast is the number of “a man“.  Those who have sought to identify the Antichrist by this method have pointed their fingers at many of the Popes, almost every evil world leader that has arisen, and even people like Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan!  However, to calculate the Number of the Beast from these names often different languages and alphabets are used or different number assignments to the letters are used, making the process nebulous at best.  Using this approach, not only is there wide disagreement between people as to what 666 might mean, but they typically don’t yield anything remotely associated with the prophecies of the Antichrist or the Final World Empire.

Nero Caesar = 666 in HebrewThis process of correlating numbers to names has been called “gematria”, which most commonly has used a prominent (or notorious) leader’s name to try to equate it with the Number of the Beast.  For some languages, such as Greek or Hebrew, this practice may have some basis, because the letters that make up their alphabets also correspond to the numbers that are used in mathematics.  With other languages, such as English, it is much more dubious, because the letters of the alphabet are not used interchangeably for numbers as they are in Greek and Hebrew.

One of the more popular historical interpretations of calculating 666 using gematria is equating the Roman Emperor Nero with the Antichrist.  This is typically done by combining his name with his title, thus Nero Caesar, and then transliterating that name from the Greek into Hebrew (see illustration).  The letters in Hebrew finally are correlated to the equivalent Hebrew numbers such that when summed can be seen to equal 666.

Many people who do not believe that the book of Revelation is prophetic espouse the theory that Nero is represented by this prophecy, because he was a great persecutor of Christians during the first century.  However, Nero reigned from 54-68 AD, which by most historians placed him well before the time that the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation (~95 AD).  This poses a significant problem for those equating Nero with 666 and the Antichrist, because John’s book is written as a prophecy of a future dictator that would reign over the world at the end, not about a past leader or even a contemporary leader.  Nero also did not institute a worldwide marking program to fulfill the prophecy of the Mark of the Beast.  In addition, the Book of Revelation leads to the Return of Christ at the end of the Antichrist’s reign, which clearly did not happen after Nero was the Emperor of Rome.  Truly Nero was an evil man and certainly a type of antichrist, but he was not the predicted Antichrist even if the transliteration of his name and title equal 666.

Using gematria to calculate the number of other names or phrases, people have found 666 by transliterating the words Lucifer, Santa Claus, Kissinger, Gorbatchov, and even the word beast.  There is actually an Internet site that has deployed an online application for calculating the gematria of any name or phrase using a particular numbering scheme (http://antichristcalculator.tripod.com/antichrist.html).  However, calculating the Number of the Beast in this manner is clearly not in keeping with the true meaning of the prophecy in Revelation, because in the original Greek Rev. 13:18 actually says it is the number of man, not the number of a man.  The word in the Greek here is ἄνθρωπος (anthrópos), which is the word for man or mankind in a general sense irrespective of gender.  The word is often used in the Bible to describe the human race, but it is not commonly used in reference to an individual.  To indicate a particular man, the word to use would have been anēr, which refers to a male individual.  Therefore, instead of saying that the Number of the Beast is the number of the Antichrist, the prophecy is actually stating that the number is created by man or will come from man’s invention and will not be directly associated with any one individual’s name.  In other words, the number 666 will appear at the end as a feature of the final economic system just as the Apostle John indicates in this prophecy, and it will not be the transliteration of a man’s name into the equivalent numerical sum.  Therefore, the use of gematria to discover the Number of the Beast and an individual associated with it is an incorrect path to determining the mystery of 666.  However, despite all this evidence to the contrary, the practice of trying to link a leader’s name to the calculation of 666 still stubbornly persists.

Next: The Imagery of the Beast

 

Recent News and Posts on End Times Prophecy

The Great Reset, from The World Economic Forum data, 2020

The Great Reset

The Globalist Plot to Change the World System In the wake of the Wuhan virus and the disruptions caused to the health, political, and economic systems of the world, many powerful leaders are now taking advantage of the pandemic in an attempt to bring about a New World Order. The advocates of globalism are calling […]

Social distancing app showing red & green labels around people

Chinese Coronavirus Fears Lead to Greater Surveillance and Control

In 2020, the world suddenly moved closer to a global surveillance system under the auspices of public “health and safety”.  The Chinese coronavirus fears stemming from a global pandemic has provided all the excuse that leaders needed to increase societal controls and implement high tech solutions to monitor entire populations. Even in countries with relative […]

Coronavirus 3D Illustration, Wikipedia

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the End Times

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 [also called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (or SARS-CoV-2)] is continuing to spread around the globe from its origin in the Wuhan region in China. It is now threatening the health and the economy of all countries, as normal life shuts down to contain the infection. Thousands of people have […]

Surveillance collage, Pixabay images

The Tyranny of Technocracy

A new type of global governance is taking form, and it’s threatening to become a monster. It is based not upon traditional political theories such as capitalism, socialism, communism, or fascism. This new system transcends all previous political systems to create something far more dangerous. Instead of being based upon a ruling class operating within […]

Israeli and Palestinian access in the West Bank

Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria

News reports from Israel on Sunday, May 12, 2019, indicated that the US won’t oppose Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, which would involve Israeli annexation of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. This region has been known to the Jews as the territories of Judea and Samaria, and it has been a hot […]

Destruction in Raqqa from the Syrian conflict

Russia, Iran, and Israel Battle for Military Advantage in Syria

The very nations that are predicted in the Bible to fight within the Middle East at the Time of the End now battle for military advantage in Syria.  Throughout 2018, Iranian forces have been setting up bases in Syria, and several times they have prompted Israel to respond militarily. On May 10th, during the early […]

The Flag of Israel

Israel’s 70th Anniversary

Israel’s 70th anniversary has occurred, which memorialized and celebrated their sudden rebirth as a nation on May 14, 1948.  Israel’s rebirth was the most momentous prophetic fulfillment in recent history as they became an independent nation again in their former homeland against all odds. After being scattered throughout the world since their rejection of Christ […]

The Destruction in Aleppo, Syria

The War in Syria and the End Times

The war in Syria that began in 2011 as a civil war between government forces and various factions seeking to overthrow the Assad regime, has now become a battleground for many opposing forces. The Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, previously revealed to the UN Security Council that Iran had amassed a surrogate […]

President Trump, statement on Jerusalem, 12-7-2017, Wikipedia image

Chaos in Wake of Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem

A massive, Hezbollah-inspired protest involving tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians occurred in Beirut shortly after Trump announced he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. The protesters could be heard chanting that America was “the Great Satan” and Israel “the little Satan”. The Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech at the rally […]

Trump to Recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

President Trump said this week that the U.S. for the first time now fully recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and he also said that he will order the State Department to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.  Trump had promised since the presidential campaign in 2016 that he would move […]

Recent In-Depth Articles on End Times Prophecy

Events Signaling the End

Events Signaling the End

Bible prophecy predicts that there will be several significant events signaling the End of the Age. These seminal events will occur just prior to the beginning of a period … [more]

Great Day of His Wrath, by John Martin, artist

Collapse of the Ecosystem

The final aspect of the prophecies that relate to the effects of nuclear war is the widespread pollution of land and water by radioactive fallout, dust from the explosions and … [more]

Chronology of Israel in the Last Days

Israel in the Last Days

The incredible prophecies of Israel in the Last Days are the key to understanding just how close we are to the End of the Age.  The Bible predicts virtually everything that … [more]

Painting of the Temple, by the Temple Institute

Israel in the Kingdom

One of the first events predicted to occur in the early years of the Kingdom Age is the fulfillment of the final ingathering of all the scattered Jews back to the land of … [more]

resurrection, end times, last days, Israel, redemption of Israel, raising the dead

The Redemption of Israel

Two of the most important events for the Jewish people that are predicted to occur near the start of the Kingdom Age include the redemption of Israel and the restoration of … [more]

Largest ozone hole over Antarctica, NASA and NOAA image, Wikipedia

Ozone Depletion

In the previous sections, we have seen that everything the Bible describes as being a characteristic of the Great Tribulation also correlates precisely to what is now expected … [more]

Chagan Nuclear test, Russia

Radioactive Fallout and Clouds of Dust

Scorpions of Death As we have seen in previous sections, one of the main consequences of a nuclear explosion happening at or near ground level is that millions of tons of … [more]

Firestorms and Conflagrations

The Trumpet Judgments In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John records terrible visions of nuclear weapons causing vast destruction at the end of the age through the … [more]

The Tsar Bomba nuclear fireball

The Fireball and Thermal Pulse

Although the formation of a mushroom cloud has become the most recognizable feature of a nuclear explosion (see previous section), it is actually not the generation of smoke … [more]

Truckee Nuclear Explosion

The Mushroom Cloud

The effects of nuclear weapons have been studied extensively since the initial use of atomic bombs upon Japan in 1945. As the pillars of smoke rose above the decimated cities … [more]

Licorne Nuclear Explosion, French Polynesia test site

Nuclear War and the Great Tribulation

Fire, Smoke, and Brimstone The Battle of Armageddon is predicted to be the last and greatest conflict of mankind. Even the non-believing world has adopted this Biblical term … [more]

End Times Truth Site Map

  • 666
    • The Number of the Beast
    • The Imagery of 666
    • Barcode Technology and 666
    • Security Permissions Setting 666
  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • Contact
  • End Times News
    • Israel News
    • Middle East News
    • New World Order and Globalism
    • European Union News
    • Smart Card News
    • Biometrics & Identification Technology
    • RFID & Surveillance Technology
    • Nuclear Weapons and Advanced Military Systems
    • Terrorism News
  • End Times Truth Home
  • My account
  • Privacy Policy
  • Search
  • Shop
  • The Bible
  • About
  • Kingdom Age
    • The People of the Kingdom
    • The Redemption of Israel
    • Israel in the Kingdom
  • Principles of Prophecy
    • The Test of a Prophet
    • The Purpose of a Prophet
    • Visions of the Future
  • Israel
    • The Blessing and Curse
    • The Scattering of Israel
    • The Scattering of Judah and Jerusalem
    • The Final Scattering of Israel
    • The Regathering of Israel
    • Gathered in Unbelief
    • Prophecies of 1948
    • Restored with Fury
    • Wars and Battles of Israel
    • Trembling and Fear
    • Success Teetering On the Brink of Disaster
    • The Palestinian Problem
    • Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
    • The Start Date for the Seventy Weeks
    • Calculating the Time of Messiah
    • Daniel’s Seventieth Week
  • New World Order
    • Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
    • The Final Empire
    • Daniel’s Four Beasts
    • The Dreadful and Terrible Beast
    • The Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns
    • The Empire-Beast Arises
    • The Empire-Beast Today
    • Rise of the European Community
    • A New World Order Arises
    • The Group of Seven
    • Globalist Movements
  • The Antichrist
    • The Persona of Pride
    • The Antichrist is Revealed
    • The Second Beast of Revelation
    • Power, Signs, and Wonders
  • Mark of the Beast
    • Branded for Death
    • The Cashless Society
    • Plastic Money
    • Electronic Funds Transfer
    • A Wired Society
    • ATM and POS
    • Rise of the Internet
    • The Identification Problem
    • Smart Cards
    • Biometrics
    • RFID
    • The Final Mark
    • Surveillance and Control
  • World War III
    • The Abomination of Desolation
    • The Time of the End
    • The Attack of Russia
    • The Battle Begins
    • The Attack of China
    • Nuclear War and the Great Tribulation
    • The Mushroom Cloud
    • The Fireball and Thermal Pulse
    • Firestorms and Conflagrations
    • The Blast Wave
    • Radioactive Fallout and Clouds of Dust
    • Ozone Depletion
    • Collapse of the Ecosystem
  • Return of Christ
    • The Seventh Trumpet
    • Christ’s Predictions
    • The Sign of the Son of Man
    • The Testimony of the Disciples
    • In the Twinkling of an Eye
    • The Trumpet Sounds
    • Delivered from God’s Wrath
    • The Witness of the Old Testament
    • The Importance of Knowing When
    • Characteristics of Christ’s Return and the Rapture
  • End Times Chronology
    • The Sign Posts of History
    • Israel in the Last Days
    • Events Signaling the End
  • Escape to Safety

Escape to Safety in the End Times

The Bible provides the only solution to the evil of this world. While the world is heading for a judgment day as a result of sin and rejecting God's love through Christ, an individual can escape that fate through a simple act of faith. In fact, you can be as certain of making it through the end times and of being saved from judgment as the Lord's predictions are assured of coming true. For those that can see the truth in God's Word through prophecy, know also that the Bible provides a simple and guaranteed alternative to judgment, which is vital for every person to understand. Read more...

Bible verse of the day

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:5
DailyVerses.net
   

Michelangelo, Christ at the final judgmentPrivacy Policy

Bible Copyright Notices

Biblical quotations used throughout this web site may come from one of several authoritative translations:

1. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

2. The New Scofield Reference Bible, Authorized King James Version, Copyright 1967 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Bible text in public domain.

3. The King James Version of the Bible, in the public domain.

4. NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

 

Back to top Arrow, white

 

Copyright © 2021 End Times Truth