666 (Part 1)

In an effort to make the church more comfortable for the unbeliever, the church has effectively stopped believing anything uncomfortable and certainly communicating it. So is it any wonder that our own culture is now entrenched more than ever in Eastern religions and cults than it any time before?

And at the same time, the number of churches representing mainline denominations, they're closing their doors at a rate of three to five churches every single day in this country. What does 666 really mean? In Revelation 13, John describes a future where every person must choose between alliance to Christ or surrender to the Antichrist. The infamous Mark of the Beast becomes not just a symbol of a global system of control.

It determines who can buy, sell, or even survive. Stephen Davey explores the significance of this mark, its connection to worship, and why the number 666 holds both figurative and literal meaning. This message will deepen your understanding of biblical prophecy and equip you to recognize spiritual deception.

Keep listening. My friends, if there was ever a day when the world is primed for somebody to deceive it into believing a lie, if there was ever a generation ready to embrace something, some kind of anchor, whether it be a new world religion, a global economy, it's our generation today. Now thus far in our study, in chapter 13, we've seen the false priest, preacher performing signs and wonders, that's verses 12 and 13 if you are with us.

The next few verses reveal him setting up a statue and giving it life miraculously, thus further deceiving people. The world will now flock to Jerusalem to worship the image as the Jews scatter and run for their lives. Now the world is primed and ready for the next step of global deception. Let me break it down into three parts of your taking notes. Number one, three aspects here of this last conquering, so to speak, of the world. Number one is the global physical surrender to the Antichrist, global physical surrender. Look at verse 16 where we left off on our last study. And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. Now you've heard of the mark of the beast, haven't you?

Well this is the origin of that terminology. It's true, it will happen. And I want you to notice first off, there's a lot of things we're going to see, but I want you to notice first off the global sweep of this decree. John in verse 16 refers to the small and the great. That's every social category, the untouchables in India to the royal family in England.

This is going to hit everybody. John adds the rich and the poor. This is every economic category on the planet. This is the poorest of the poor. This is the poor person. This is from that kind of poverty all the way to the billionaire on Wall Street or I should say the former billionaire on Wall Street. The Antichrist doesn't care if you're rich or poor, well-bred or disowned.

He wants your worship. John adds then that last phrase, the free men and the slaves. This is every cultural category. So you have every social category, every economic category, and every cultural category. Basically what he's saying is everybody.

This is a long way of basically saying there's no loophole, nobody gets out, everybody's going to be given this decree. Every human being except those who believe in Christ after the rapture are going to receive this mark on their body. Now you might notice back in that verse again that this is given to them either on their right hand or their forehead. Now in the Bible, and again the Antichrist is mimicking the Bible, the right hand is the symbol of strength and the forehead is the most conspicuous part of the body.

For some of us it's even more conspicuous than others. Now in Revelation 7 we read about God marking the forehead of his 144,000 evangelists. You remember they were from the tribes of Israel. They were marked and they couldn't die. The Antichrist couldn't kill them.

So now this copycat is at it again. He's going to mark his servants just as God marked his. He's going to put a mark on their forehead. He's going to give an option either the right hand representing their authority or strength or their forehead. Now the word mark, kiragma, was immediately understood by John's audience, not so much by us.

Let me slow down for a minute and tell you what's happening. In the Roman Empire, slaves were given a kiragma, sometimes a stigma. We get that word that we use now even to this day. They were branded it proved that they were the property of that particular estate.

In fact that carried all the way through. It's still being done in many countries today. It was done in our own country until the slaves were emancipated, branded to show they belonged to the estate.

Horrible practice. Soldiers would often voluntarily brand themselves with the name of their general as a statement of loyalty, as a statement that we are willing to die for this man and this man's cause. There are several other illustrations.

I'll just give you one more. In the world of commercial enterprise, every contract of commercial enterprise was stamped with the name of the emperor and the current date. This indicated, this declared that that commercial activity upheld the name and the authority of the emperor.

So John's readers got it immediately. The Antichrist the Antichrist is placing his mark on his slaves. They are his property. Furthermore, his slaves are marked with his name to declare that they are willing to give their lives for him. They're loyal to him. And even further still they're saying that listen nothing is going to happen commercially.

Our whole lives, our hopes, our dreams are bound up to uphold the name of our emperor. Now let's some think that this future mark of the beast is a chip placed under the skin. You go back to your text and you notice the Bible uses very clear terminology translated well in your Bible to inform us that this mark will be on upon the right hand or the forehead. It's clearly intended to be visible.

It's intended to be seen, obvious. Now let me add this, lest anybody thinks that everybody on the planet is forced into doing this. The decree is there certainly and if you don't you know it's bad news but I want you to know the Greek language presents a very different picture here of those who receive it. It's not like there's a gun to their head and if they don't get it they're dead. The language indicates that they are rushing to get it. They want to get it. They want to have it. They long to have it. They willingly give up that right hand or the forehead. Please give me the name of my emperor.

That's the language here. This is going to be a great day for the world. They think it's the pinnacle of their sovereign emperor.

Of course I'll bear his name. They'll press forward to receive it at their places of worship. They're going to be thrilled. They're going to bear the mark of their emperor like a soldier wears his medals of honor.

They're going to bear like a professional athlete even down a little league wears their jersey with great pride. This is the the pride of a patriot who carries the flag of his country. They're going to want the rest of the world to know I follow him. I belong to him. I uphold his name. Everything about my life every commercial activity is to honor him.

Here please give me the mark. Can you imagine what they don't realize is that they've been deceived. The dragon through the antichrist and his minister of propaganda has done nothing less than turn the world into a global concentration camp and now all of the inmates are numbered and in less than 36 months most of them will be dead. Now obviously satan wants people to you know bear the name of his false messiah and he's going to be all excited about that he's going to get worship but he really has something else behind that that he's after isn't he doesn't he have something it's to flush out the remaining believers so we can kill him this is his this is the motive this is the main issue behind what seems to be the main issue so this is not only going to involve a global physical surrender to the antichrist but the second aspect is this is a global economic stranglehold by the antichrist look at verse 17 the text tells us and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell except the one who has the mark either the name of the beast or the number of his name and we're going to talk in a minute about what it means the number of his name but for now notice the antichrist is going to shut down any financial activity by those who are not proud citizens of the new world order i mean if you're not loyal to the emperor if you're not really fitting into this scene if you're not a loyal patriot you have no right to benefit from it you don't belong in it so we're going to see you starve you can't buy anything whether it's buying food or buying medicine or putting gas into your car you're stuck and you have nowhere to hide now how's he going to pull this off well we don't know and every generation probably had to struggle through it as expositors got up and explained the text i think for us it's not as much of a stretch as it was for preachers i heard even 30 and 40 years ago in times past one author said the idea of a mark that would individually identify everybody in the world for governmental control seemed a far-fetched fantasy possible only in science fiction but no one today however questions the possibility of such an identification process is anybody here doubt that it could happen not at all it's possible that everyone who receives the mark will be given some of the latest technology that has already been in the market for some time that identifies them and not only that it tracks them several authors i've researched pointed out the latest in personal identification systems one caught my eye it talked about the first human tests of a small microchip in fact this is back in 2002 the size of a grain of rice implanted underneath the skin that tracks these people a business week online referred to the developments of digital angel technology i thought it was interesting it was called digital angel at any rate it represents the first ever combination of advanced sensors web-enabled wireless telecommunications linked to global positioning systems by using advanced sensor capabilities digital angel is able to monitor ambient temperature and physical movement for those who have the chip and they're giving these to alzheimer's patients they're putting it on cattle it has wonderful benefits of protection and safety it saves from theft so it has wonderful benefits but it's going to integrate biosensors and virus sensors whatever they are wireless communications and gps technology it'll be able to read your heart rate your temperature your blood pressure your pulse and blood chemistry because this technology is networked with the internet and the gps systems your information can be sent instantly to your doctor from wherever you are on the planet now listen listen these chips are not the mark of the beast okay if it comes out tomorrow and you want to put it on your your dog so that if it strays that doesn't mean you've given your dog to the antichrist he may belong to him already i don't know your bird definitely go ahead and put it in there that thing's lost but you can track it you can decide whether to go get it because that's fine you haven't succumbed you haven't given over to the antichrist that's not it at all the mark of the beast is not your social security number it's not some national id number or any other number the mark of the beast is his number it's his name and there will come a time when people will decide will they take his name it's not only some kind of secret if you get that chip maybe i've been tricked and now i belong to the antichrist that's not that's not it at all and remember by the way this is going to be inaugurated after we're aware in heaven and even for those who've accepted christ living through the tribulation it's not going to be some sleight of hand where the next thing you know they've gotten some kind of tattoo or some kind of chip and now they belong to the antichrist and they belong to the antichrist and they really didn't want to belong to him they belong to christ that isn't going to happen it's going to be a conscious decision and these people the world with great joy will take his name one more comment about this tracking system that perhaps the antichrist might use to flush people out who don't go along with his system or have received his name in some way they're now developing radio frequency identification tags going on or in almost everything made retailers are now using these it helps against theft shoplifting in fact i was reading this past week about grocery carts that are being designed that will automatically scan items you put in there so you put in your your gallon of milk and it'll scan the price you put in your you know your your box of chocolate covered donuts and it'll it'll honk at you until you take him out see that's my nightmare that's what i'm afraid it'll do toes it all up there may come a day when you just swipe your cart across your grocery cart you go on out to your car and be wonderful technology again it's not the mark of the beast it's only technology that will allow i believe the beast to track everybody and do what we here see shutting down economy any kind of purchasing for those who do not have his name rfid systems radio frequency identification systems it's interesting now they've designed ink that carries the ability electronically to read or it has embedded in the ink the tracking system which has even further implications so that if you had his name perhaps that name could have embedded in it all that was necessary to track you in its very ink well what will all this technology do one day well in the new world order it will enable one man to virtually control commerce put a stranglehold on commerce and only those john 13 verse 17 says only those who have given their loyalty and allegiance to him will be able to buy or sell so we have a a global physical surrender to the antichrist we have a global economic stranglehold and these days by the antichrist one more we have global spiritual supremacy of the antichrist look at verse 18 verse 18 reads here is wisdom let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for the number is that of a man and his number is 666 666 just the sound of it makes you think of the devil doesn't it 666 it even hisses like the serpent in the bible numbers can be both figurative and literal at the same time we think of the number three that way it's a number that represents our triune god the number seven is the number in the scriptures that represents perfection perhaps completeness the number one represents unity i read a text earlier where one body there's one lord represents unique singularity and unity number six represents man like we're told here it represents it's the number of a man man was created on the sixth day the triple designation of the number six i think does have figurative meaning it figuratively indicates the antichrist's attempt at mimicking the triune god 666 he is the triune false god he is the triune man he claims to be god but he's just a goat he would like to be 777 triple perfection but he is only 666 he is simply a man failing three times over some suggest that that's all the number means it's just figurative i believe it's also a literal designation the way john talks about having insight in order to calculate the number he's saying add it up so i think there's a literal designation here the total sum of his name is 666 let me explain now this is uh what many evangelical bible scholars believe to be the one clear example of gematria in the bible the greek word geomatria or geomatria gives us our transliterated word what my favorite subject it wasn't my favorite subject but you're right it's geometry the practice of gematria tracks all the way back to john and centuries before the hebrew letters greek letters latin letters were all given numerical values and by using certain letters then you could also represent a certain numerical figure and by the way this is one of the reasons people thought hitler was the antichrist h had a numerical value i has a numerical value t has a numerical value at least in the english language it all totaled up to 666 when you added up the numerical attributes of those letters you got the sum of 666 the trouble is here in this text we're not told what language to calculate in is it hebrew is it latin is it greek is it german is it italian is it french we're not told which language it is even still and further confusing is the fact that you can have all sorts of combinations of letters to get to the sum of 666 and let me illustrate it for you this way if we give a numerical value to certain letters let's just do this as a as an illustration if a equals one b equals two c equals i want to make sure you're awake here this is exciting i know this is thrilling for you to come to church to get this uh d equals and so forth okay now we want to get to the sum total using letters of six we could use two a's and one d and we'd have six we could however use one c one b and one a and get six we could also use two c's reminds me of my report card growing up okay and we'd get six all the combinations just to get to a single six imagine how many combinations you could have to get to 666 geometry was discovered by archaeologists in pompeii interestingly enough one man had written on the wall i love her whose number is 545 that wasn't her phone number basically what he was saying is her letters add up to that he both concealed her identity to those who didn't know her and revealed her identity to those who did that's sort of what you have happening here here's the challenge since many different letters can equal 666 it's impossible to figure the name out in advance it's a puzzle it's a puzzle from our creative god and some of you aren't going to be able to sleep tonight because there's a puzzle in the bible that you can't figure out it'll be figured out in the tribulation which means you don't want to figure it out right you don't want to be part of the group that figures it out who has insight so don't try to guess now i've come across all sorts of guesses henry kissinger added up to 666 so did john f kennedy so did linden johnson so did ronald reagan in fact they came across one author who said that bill gates the third those numerical values to those letters equals 666 and so does windows 95 and you're probably thinking that explains it i knew the devil was in my computer now don't waste your imagination on the puzzle it's going to give confirmation to those who are living through it that this one is indeed the false messiah that's one puzzle we won't be around to solve so what does the church do in the meantime while we like the thessalonians wait for the upward call of christ well in light of our deceived world in light of so many false teachers distorting the gospel in light of moral values and absolutes that are being washed down the sewer the good news is the mission of the body of christ is not a puzzle it hasn't changed it's been the same since its inception in the first century we're to go and make disciples bring along followers of christ the true messiah baptize them identify them publicly through water teach them to observe all i've commanded to jesus christ said and then he said and by the way i am with you always even to the end of this age and i'm going to end this age and the upward call here's our mission i think best spoken by one search and rescue team in colorado they put it this way and i quote millions of people visit the mountains of larimer county colorado every year a few will become lost stranded injured and some will die our objective is to find and rescue these lost or injured people before it's too late we are dedicated to saving lives wouldn't it be great if the church had that as its motto not we don't know what the word save means anymore no here's what it means be saved from the wrath of god be saved by the savior who can deliver you from sin and judgment and save you unto himself forever and we ought to be reveling in the glory and grace of god who's revealed that truth to us open our eyes and we today worship him our great savior thanks for joining us today here on wisdom for the heart this is the bible teaching ministry of stephen davey steven's not through with 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