By Dr. Johan Tredoux – Uncommon Community
Whenever I think about the Mark of the Beast…. my mind immediately goes to the youth camp in Krugersdorp, a town close to Johannesburg, Rep. of South Africa. The name of this Youth Camp was Maranatha, which literally means Come Lord Jesus. It had a huge 30 ft. cross made out of white-painted rocks stacked against a steep hill that lit up at night. It could be seen for miles and everyone knew about this camp because of the cross. One of my memories of this Middle school Camp experience was watching the movie “The Thief in the Night.” Even back then, it should have been R-rated because of the intense emotional trauma it caused to me and my friends who had never seen a movie, let alone something so disturbing. The primary focus of this movie was a dispensational portrayal of the rapture and what happens to those left behind. Unbeknownst to me, this was the beginning of a fear-based spirituality that would take years to undo. One thing was for sure, after watching this movie; you knew instinctively that you never wanted anything to do with the # 666. I am sure you have never heard this, but the technical term for the fear of the number 666 is hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. In Revelation 13 the land beast is famously identified as a person whose number is 666 (13:18). This is probably one of the most well-known symbolic and even superstitious numbers of all time.
Back then, I was told that the future world dictator and his supporters are expected to promote one world religion and to use computer technology to control the global economy. The big story was that a cash-less society was on the horizon and everyone who participates will have to be marked with a number. Some warned that credit card numbers or the international product code numbers were all part of the ploy of the beast to pull you in. Proponents of this scenario gained credibility by claiming to offer a strictly literal understanding of the Bible.
Today, given the COVID-19 pandemic, end-time fear propaganda is rampant. Uncommon Community received a note this week detailing the conspiracy theory that the vaccine to prevent COVID-19 uses Nanotechnology to place the mark of the beast in your bloodstream. The message warns not to take the vaccine, subjecting vulnerable people to unnecessary stress and worry. I am on the other side of this spectrum. According to Yuval Noah Harari, Nanotechnology experts are developing a bionic immune system composed of millions of nano-robots, which would inhabit our bodies, not to harm us, but instead, to open blocked blood vessels, fight viruses and bacteria and eliminate cancerous cells. Just as the medicine of today was unimaginable a century ago, so to the advanced medicine of tomorrow seems like fantasy to us today. Given the prospects of its positive potential, to have this technology be market-ready and included in the Pfizer & Moderna Vaccines today would be quite the impossible feat, given the time factor of 9 months and the close scrutiny of the FDA and the world! This future Nanotechnology is probably at least decades off.
Going back to the source, an apocalyptic genre like Rev. 13 requires that we read the text symbolically, not literally. This should be applied to # 666 as well. The question is not whether to read the text symbolically, but how to read its symbolism. The issue is whether the visions of the beasts in Revelation 13 function as coded predictions concerning figures that will appear at the end of time, or whether the passage depicts threats that affect people of many times and places.
One of the requirements for proper exegesis is to consider how the imagery would have communicated to the readers in the seven churches. Since John wrote in order to be understood by them, we must consider what meaning they might have seen in this number 666. So, are you ready? Here it comes…Most scholars believe that 666 is the numerical name for Nero Caesar. Koester says:
In John’s day, they assigned a numerical value to letters. The practice was not uncommon. On the level of street culture, for example, a graffiti artist at Pompeii used a number for the name of his beloved when he scrawled on the wall: “I love her whose number is 545.” By the time Revelation was written, Nero was dead, but John portrays the beast as a Nero figure in order to underscore the threat that it poses. John sought to startle the Christians who thought that the best way to get along in pagan society was to accommodate its practices under the assumption that it was all quite harmless. Through his imagery John warns, “`Beware, it is Nero all over again,’ just as one might say, whenever we hear anti-Semitism, `Beware, it’s Hitler all over again*
So, if we know that the #666 is Nero, shall we stop trying to figure out who is the next beast? Yes and No. Yes, you can stop trying to figure out who will emerge as the leader of a one-world government that marks his followers. But no, you can’t stop looking for the beast that marks his followers. The beasts still brainwash people with propaganda about “what they think” (forehead) and “what they do” (forearm). The beast parades as fame and fortune and lures you to think that you can have it all. He invites us to the altar of materialism, sexual seduction, and racism.
The “beast’s” invitation is to label people and write them off. To create an “us vs. them” scenario and ignore the great commandment to love our neighbor and pray for our enemies. The beast inspires its followers to embrace the belief that the Empire is Divine and complete, (as in Christian Nationalism), but the truth is, the #666 means incomplete, falling short of the complete #777. Any national figure that is set up as “divine” as in the case of the Roman Emperors in Jesus’ day, is an invitation to idolatry. Jesus is the God of love incarnate. So, just know beforehand, choosing love over hate will almost always get you crucified. Encouraging violence in the name of Jesus is at the heart of the Beastly propaganda. When Jesus comes riding on the white horse in the final battle, the sword is in his mouth, not in his hand. He fights with his word and the blood spilled is his own blood. Jesus does not have blood on his hands. (Note that the final battle as portrayed in Rev. 19 began 2000 years ago)
As true Christ-followers, instead, may we be marked by the Lamb and follow Him, the Shepherd who watches over his flock. The ethics of our shepherd is to do no harm and do the most loving thing, respecting the autonomy of every person he encounters. I can see our Shepherd hovering over our scientific community inspiring them to use their God-given gifts to co-create and co-nurture our creation as they come up with vaccines designed for everyone’s wellness. Both our present and previous presidents have taken the vaccine, and so did I. These vaccines are designed for wellness for everyone. After all, didn’t Jesus say… “You will do greater acts than these?”
What is fascinating is that Jesus’ numerical # goes beyond 777, his # adds up to 888.
*Craig R. Koester. Revelation and the End of All Things (Kindle Location 1944). Kindle Edition.
* Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens, p. 270.
Photo by Steven Cornfield on Unsplash