SIX HUNDRED, THREESCORE, AND SIX
Revelation 13:11-18
James A. Gunn
Preached on September 16, 2007
Copyright © 2007 James A. Gunn
All rights reserved
Used by permission.
All By Grace
Sola Christus
Sola Scriptura Sola Gratia Sola Fida Soli Deo Gloria
Revelation 13:11-18
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or 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 it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
In the first part of chapter 13 John sees a beast rising out of the sea. In verse 2 the beast is described in the same terms as the vision given to Daniel many centuries before and is symbolic of the series of world powers.
“Out of the sea” symbolizes the unrest of the nations of the world; usually wicked ones. The history of the nations of the world is characterized by turmoil and agitation like a troubled sea with a never ending desire to have power over other nations. The sea is troubled humanity.
See Isaiah 57:20-21
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 "There is no peace,"
Says my God, "for the wicked."
The beast that rises out of the sea is given the power and the authority of the Dragon, which is Satan.
The last world empire seen by Daniel was Imperial Rome. The blasphemy spoken by the beast and the war that it makes with the saints is emperor worship. Everyone was commanded to say “Caesar is lord!” But the saint of God can only say that Jesus is Lord!
The beast that is Imperial Rome has a mortal wound [3] and his deadly wound was healed. The healing of the mortal wound symbolizes another Rome that emerges and that takes on the same priestcraft and that makes blasphemous claims.
Emperor worship is morphed into the worship of a sinful man that is called the Pope, the Pontifex Maximus, the same title held by the head of the priesthood in ancient Rome.
The second beast makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. This is the claim to the power of excommunication which holds millions in fear of the fire of hell. All false religions rule through fear. If a religion claims the power to send a person to hell and their followers believe that they have complete control over that person.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
And Jesus was referring to fearing His heavenly Father and not to any sinful man.
The true saint of God does not serve Him out of fear of hellfire but rather out of love. The true saint of God is a sheep [bulletin cover] and the Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep and nothing or anyone can take a single one of Christ’s sheep out of His hand. There is no fear of condemnation for the believer.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
[Romans 8:1] So do not fear the threatening of any sinful man, Pope or otherwise.
I do not fear condemnation but I do fear that I might bring shame on my church and her Lord.
Two Kingdoms
There are two kingdoms with which all men have to do. You must know that in the Bible a kingdom is not necessarily a geographical-political entity. That was the error of the Jews who looked for a physical kingdom and thereby rejected Christ whose kingdom is not of this world. And that is the error of those who long for a restored Kingdom of Israel sometime in the future.
One kingdom is the Kingdom of Satan, in the Bible called “the power of darkness” or the “power of Satan”. The other kingdom is the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.
Colossians 1:13-14
3 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Paul before King Agrippa:
Acts 26:12-18
12 "While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
13 at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
15 So I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,
18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'
Every one of us is born into the kingdom of darkness.
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Watch this next phrase; is there a “But God” in your life? Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are all born by natural birth a child of Adam and the devil into the kingdom of darkness, dead in trespasses and sins. If by grace there is a “But God” in your life, you are born from above, translated from the power of darkness to light in Jesus Christ now a child of God.
In John’s day the power of Satan’s kingdom of darkness was in full bloom under the paganism of ancient Imperial Rome. The same pagan kingdom flourishes today with the worship of Mary, prayers of intercession made to so-called saints and angels, the vain repetitions of counting the Rosary beads, and the magical claim of turning simple bread and wine into the actual body and blood of the Savior.
But do not make the mistake in thinking that the Church of Rome is exclusively the kingdom of Satan. Apostate Protestantism that denies the deity of Jesus of Nazareth discredits the Holy Bible and sets up atheistic evolution in the place of six days of creation by God. Everything that is not God was called into being out of nothing pre-existing. Rationalism that worships the mind of man saying that the human mind can explain everything that is and that the Bible is not the only source of objective truth.
The promotion of homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, yea even to the ordination of homosexuals to offices in the local church; drugs and promiscuous sex, living together as man and wife while yet unmarried as a normal and acceptable relationship; divorce as common as a case of the flu.
This is what the true saint of God must contend with, even in our own families. And we must contend with those living under the power of Satan with love even as the father loved the prodigal son and longed for him to recover his senses and to be welcomed home with kisses and a feast.
That is all the saint has to do. We must preach the Gospel and keep watch over our own self so that we do not bring shame to the profession of Christ.
666
How many theories have been offered as to the meaning of the “Mark of the Beast?” How many books have been sold to Christians who want to know the meaning of these words? Many people are convinced that this is a physical mark on the skin, like a cattle brand or a tattoo. Then as technology advanced it may be a computer chip implanted under the skin that can be read by a scanner.
If we would read our Bibles more and read less of the sensational theories it would not be too difficult to know. At least we will come closer to the truth. The next chapter gives us a strong clue as to the meaning of the “Mark of the Beast.”
Look at 14:1:
Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads.
The Father’s name is the invisible seal of the Holy Spirit whereby all of God’s elect, the perfect number of 144,000 [12 x 12 x 1000], are known to God. Their souls belong to God. And the Mark of the Beast is the voluntary allegiance of unbelievers to the kingdom of Satan.
Both the divine mark and the devil’s mark are symbols of ownership and the Lord knoweth them that are His.
You must see that this has spiritual meaning and if that is so then the rest of the Book is spiritual.
We are dealing with symbolism in Revelation. There is no such thing as a beast with seven heads and ten horns, but there is a kingdom of darkness which runs through all history in wicked tyrannies, empires, and superstitious religions, that holds captive those who reject the objective truth of the divine being revealed in creation and in this Holy Book.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear [13:9].
This warning should be enough to show us that these words have a spiritual meaning and are not to be taken literally.
The Lord Jesus often used these words of caution. Turn to Matthew 11 and let’s learn a lesson about how to spiritually interpret Scripture.
Matthew 11:1-19
1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples
3 and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"
4 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:
5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."
7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is he of whom it is written:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.'
11 "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.
15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
In spite of the fact that the Lord Himself interprets the prophecy of Malachi 4:5 about the return of Elijah as being fulfilled in John the Baptist, some writers of prophetical books insist that Elijah must literally return and that Elijah is one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11.
The Lord is saying that Elijah has already come and the prophecy of Malachi was fulfilled in the spirit and power of Elijah.
The Jews did not recognize the fulfillment in John the Baptist as Elijah because they did not have ears to hear.
And neither will you understand the Book of Revelation as long as you insist on external literalism.
Jesus repeats the same warning in the parable of the sower [soils] in Matthew 13 as He explains the reason that He taught in parables.
The messages to the Seven Churches in Asia [chapters 2 &3] likewise are to be understood spiritually because in each instance Jesus repeats the same warning:
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Now for the mysterious cipher – 666
Rev 13:18
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast,
for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
This is the number of the Antichrist for those who play in this arena. I do not look for a personal Antichrist because John writes that there are many antichrists already present at the time John wrote his epistles.
Rather than wear you out with too many examples of how this term has been explained down through the centuries I will only mention a few.
Some try to make it work out chronologically, i. e. in terms of days, or is it weeks, no wait, it must be years. The great Luther, and he was great, reckoned that the thousand years of Revelation 20 ran from the birth of Christ to Pope Gregory VII and then he allowed 666 years from Gregory VII to the end of the pāpacy. Well the papacy is still with us.
Others have taken important names in history to find out who is the Antichrist: such as the popes, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, et al and calculated numerical values of their names from Hebrew, Greek, Latin alphabets.
Just for fun I calculated the number of my name from English: A=1, B=2, C=3, etc. and my number is 166. At least I am not the Antichrist since his number is 666 according to many writers.
One reference states that “this famous number has been made to yield almost all the historical names for the past eighteen centuries…..”
One thing in common about all of these explanations, whether chronological periods, or historical names, they have all been wrong.
Because John so often draws on the OT for symbols the best place to look for an explanation of the number of the Beast is in the Scriptures. And, the answer will be spiritual and not external.
When I first read the interpretation of “666” by Mr. Alexander I thought that it was a stretch. But when I considered what he brought out of the Scriptures against the fanciful interpretations that abound I am satisfied that he is closer to the truth than anything else I have read.
Six is the broken twelve. Twelve is the signature of the Church in the OT and in the NT: the twelve tribes, the twelve apostles, the double twelve [24] elders in Revelation 4, the multiple of the twelve spiritual tribes times the number of completeness [144,000] in chapter 7, and the repetition of twelve and its multiples in the description of the completed Church in Revelation 21 seen in the measurements of the Holy City with its gates and walls.
With twelve having so much significance, six then is a denial of what twelve stands for. Six is a symbol of the denial of the truth of God and His Church and the blasphemy of worshipping anything in the place of God in spirit and in truth.
The giant Goliath in the days of David represented the enemies of Israel. Goliath was six cubits and a span tall. His spearhead weighed 600 shekels of iron. David asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” [1 Samuel 17:26] David’s victory over Goliath was a type of Christ’s victory over death and hell.
Goliath had a giant-sized brother who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. [2 Samuel 21:20-22] What ever that means it was put in the Bible for some purpose. I’ll bet he was a good swimmer.
But we go to the Book of Daniel for a more significant use of the number six. Nebuchadnezzar’s great golden image that he set up in the Plain of Dura measured 60 cubits by 6 cubits [Daniel 3:1]. The image is ten times the size of Goliath and it represents the same blasphemy. Refusal to worship the image was the reason Daniel’s three friends were cast into the fiery furnace.
Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in which God revealed the course of history of the four world empires [and there were only four]: Babylon, Persia, Macedon, and Rome which dominated history until Christ set up His kingdom which is eternal.
The Kingdom of Christ is not limited to geography but is a spiritual kingdom in which the saints of God are submitted to King Jesus.
What John sees in his vision of the seven-headed beast multiplies Nebuchadnezzar’s image by ten-fold: Six hundred, three-score, and six – 666.
The principle is always the same. It is blasphemy against God to exalt man or the works of man above the divine. That was what Goliath symbolized, that was what the golden image was for, and that is the “mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Hence the number of the kingdom of darkness is the number or the measure of a man. It is how men measure greatness, or how men think.
We will spend more time on this passage when we get to it in chapter 21, but we need to see how John uses twelve and its multiples, keeping in mind that six is the broken twelve.
Revelation 21:9-21
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife."
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
16 The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
This is symbolism and it represents a heavenly measure. The measure of a man is 144 cubits and it is the measure of an angel. This is not an actual city with streets of gold and gates, each with a gemstone. This is a heavenly vision of the Church, 12 times 12 – 144 cubits the symbolic number of the elect, the 144,000.
That this is not an actual city lowered down from heaven on cords is told to us in verses 9-10.
"Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God.
What John sees is the “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” not the place where she is to dwell.
The Number of the Beast then is not an actual number but a description of the nature of what the beast represents. It is a symbolic multiplication of the idolatry and blasphemy by which Nebuchadnezzar sought to place himself in the rank of the gods, and enthrone heathenism in the place of God.
Oh dear souls, do you not see where the battle is being fought? From the first murder on the earth brought about by pride and a refusal to worship God according to God’s way of sacrifice. James calls it the “way of Cain” when men think they know more than God and refuse to bow in submission to their Creator.
When you read the Bible you should be struck at the ignorance and stupidity of fallen man. But know that I do not think that I am one wit better than the vilest man that ever lived.
If we are saints of God it is entirely the work of God in sovereign mercy. If we are saints of God we are in the battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And if we are saints of God we know that King Jesus has won the victory and it is our charge to endure against the wiles of the devil and his enticements.
Chapter 13 is a continuation of the war against the saints in chapter 12. John sees in a vision what Daniel saw; how world powers rise and fall, but God’s kingdom is eternal.
Right now you are in one of two kingdoms. You either have the Father’s name written on your forehead or you have the mark of the beast. There is no need to look in a mirror. Ask Christ to look into your heart and show you your sin and guilt. Then repent and believe the Gospel.
Can you do that?
Not “will” you trust Jesus Christ; can you by grace trust Christ?
John 1:10-13
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right [power, ability] to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13 who were born, not of blood [no matter if your parents and grandparents were believers, that doesn’t count for you], nor of the will of the flesh [your sinful nature], nor of the will of man [the intellect; many have made an idol out of man’s free-will and that is sending many souls to hell because they are trusting in what they have done and not in Christ alone], but of God.
If you can and you never have professed faith in Jesus Christ you are urged to do that. Confess Christ in believer’s baptism. Baptism has absolutely no merit as far as justification is concerned but it is a command of our Lord and we should desire to obey Him.
Amen
