What the heck is 666?

 

(Witches Sabbath by Francisco de Goya)

This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. (Revelation 13:18).

I really enjoyed writing the last post that I thought I would ride this wave a little longer. I talked a lot about conspiracy theories and I thought I would share one that I looked into a little bit last year. In another life, I feel like I would have pursued a career in history. I even went back to school for history at one point, but I knew in my heart I was meant to be a therapist. I love history and learning about the different time periods. History can be a great escape from the constant noise we hear on an everyday basis. We can learn a lot from history. This doesn't always have to be from a book either. Hamilton was a great way to learn about Hamilton and the beginning of America, even though it isn't completely accurate. The Patriot showed the brutal side of the revolutionary war. Rocketman gave us an in-depth look into Elton John's upbringing. Vice is a hilarious movie about Dick Cheney's time as vice president. Hidden Figures is about  Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three African American women who contributed much to Nasa. History can be fun! That's why I brought you all here to talk about the devil.

Growing up in the church we were taught many lessons but always that God is good and the devil is bad. I agree with that belief. We see the devil in different parts of the bible such as the serpent with Adam and Eve or tempting Jesus while he was fasting. The devil, formerly known as Lucifer, the angel of music, was cast out of heaven. I could go on about Lucifer but to sum him up, he's evil incarnate. Oh, I forgot to mention that many pastors and scholars believe that he is near perfect, unlike God who is perfect. 

What is 666?

(The Number of the Beast is 666 is a painting by William Blake)

The bible is a great way to learn of the many different stories and parables of the past that can still be applied today. Rather you read the old or new testament, the good book takes on many different topics. Growing up we read all these stories of the past but I wanted something of the future! Enter stage right, the book of revelation. The final book in the bible, the book of revelations was written by John, the last surviving disciple that was not executed for being a Christian. He was attempted to be executed on many occasions but failed. Real giga Chad move. John's final punishment was exile to the island of Patmos. I always like to think it was like the island in Spongebob but it was a little bit bigger. During his exile, John would have visions that he wrote in revelation. 

I'm going, to be honest, the book of revelation is a lot. You want to get kicked out of running a kid's Sunday school class, crack open the book of revelation. This book in the bible is quite vague in parts. Whenever you hear old fire and brimstone pastors talking about hell, they are pulling from the book of revelation. When you hear Christians discussing the end-times, this is mainly revelation, if you hear about the mark of the beast in the vaccines, they are referring to revelation. If someone is talking about how rad Gideon was with the morning dew and the cloth, they are talking about the book of judges. Sorry, I just really like the story of Gideon. You should read it. The book of revelation has a lot of visions that are open for interpretation. Many Christians see symbolism in the book of revelation while others take it literally. The woman draped in the sun, dragons with 7 heads, the lake of fire, rapture, tribulation, the new world, streets of gold, all of this is in the book of revelation. The topic of this post also comes from revelation as the number of the beast and/or man is 666. Now, this may sound like I am bashing revelation but I'm not. I really love breaking this down and trying to figure out what John is saying. You see, he was exiled for being a Christian and all the other disciples were brutally murdered, some of them even being crucified. Being a Christian during this time was hard and many of the early Christians would be tortured and put to death. Knowing this, perhaps John was trying to relay something to his fellow Christians. Was the book of revelation written for us? Other books in the bible were letters to the 12 tribes and to other believers. What if John was writing to a particular group of people or to a particular person. After all, I love a good inside joke. I could explain it but...you just had to be there.

Nero

(Nero by Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen 1620)

This is Nero. BOO! BOOOOOO! This guy sucks! Whether you were Christian, Roman, or just lived in this time period, Nero was just a complete dump of a person. He was a literal MFer. No really, he slept with his mother and killed his mother. Killed his two wives and aunt as well. Also slept with a vestal virgin. What the heck is a vestal virgin? These were high priestesses that tended to the royal house of vesta. Believed to keep the security of Rome, which Nero sleeping with one of the priestesses was a huge no-no. Starting his rule in 54 AD, this 16-year-old would also be responsible for the burning of Rome while rocking out to fiddle as it burned. Even though this has been debunked, it is confirmed that Nero would blame the burning of Rome on Christians. What he did to Christians was absolutely horrifying. Crucifixions, being torn apart by dogs, fed to lions, or set on fire. So this brings us to the question. If we asked John, who he would consider the beast (or man) he would be possibly referring to when writing the book of revelation.

Numbers that we see today are not the same as they were back then. The bible was originally written in Greek/Hebrew and we use the Arabic numerical system. In the original text, the way John writes 666, which Hebrew numerology of gematria would translate roughly to Nero Ceaser. Scholars have found that early Christians would use greek numbers and letters to communicate with each other in secret. They would relay encoded messages to avoid persecution. Well, that's neat! So John was just talking smack? Well, yes and no. This was a warning for fellow Christians that if the devil walked among them it was Nero. 

I find this really interesting. John saw Jesus as the human embodiment of God. Does this mean that he could have seen Nero as the human embodiment of Satan? This is just a theory but it could make sense. Seven different books in the bible mention the antichrist, perhaps John believed Nero was that antichrist. Nero was the ruler, and at that time he was the emperor of the world. Well, we know now that Nero wasn't the anti-christ, and at the age of 30, he would kill himself. This leads to my next question. If Nero wasn't the beast, who is?

Who is the Beast?

The Devil from Cuphead

Satan, or the devil, has been a real enigma for me while writing this post. Nero was pretty straightforward in his wickedness and persecuted many Christians but I wonder if the devil would be so brass this way. The son of God was just a carpenter while the devil was to be the emperor of Rome? If I had to think of the Nero of our time, I thought of Hitler. He persecuted God's people in horrific ways on a large scale. This happened over 70 years ago. I'm not sure who the beast would be today. Trump? Biden? No no no. I think we have a little more respect for the devil on that end. Perhaps Putin or Jinping? Would the devil want us to love him or hate him? Is the devil cunning or brass? Is he smart or dumb? Is he trying to get Christians or non-believers? Would persecuting Christians be his tactic or get people not to believe in Christians at all?

These questions always get my head-scratching as the main enemy of Christians today is Christians themselves. Growing up, I believed that I would have been persecuted because of my beliefs.  That some shadow government or society itself would outlaw it. Well, the persecution that I get from being a Christian comes from people that were hurt in the church. Sure you got your born-again atheist that wants to debate creation but many times I see people leave the church due to the hurt they have felt. From 1950 to 2002, over 4,000 priests would commit sexual abuse to over 10,000 minors across the globe. Many people leave the church due to a lack of guidance and judgment. Many of my co-workers and friends don't feel accepted at churches and feel that they would be better off not going. I have even felt judgment among other Christians and found more fellowship and acceptance from many of my friends who are not Christian. If the devil wants to end Christianity, we did it to ourselves. Evil came from within the church. Many people are leaving the church because of what is happening within the church. The devil did not lead them astray, we threw them out.

With that being said, I'm not alone in realizing this. Many Christians want to change and bring more people into the church. I have gone to churches where I can be accepted for who I am and that the church is for everyone. I believe Christianity is beginning to change and return to the root of radical love and unconditional acceptance. I do wonder if the antichrist will be a Christian. A wolf in sheep's clothing. No one would see it coming. Of course, Christians would already be raptured. I don't think it would be straightforward as a satanist, because they don't even believe in Satan but just the concept of him. Think of it as how we love Santa even though he's not real. Funny, you move a couple of letters around Satan and you spell out Santa.

Sympathy for the Devil

Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel

Sorry if that Rolling Stones song is playing in your head now. I want to conclude with the story of Lucifer and how his envy was his downfall. You see, Lucifer was an angel who fell from grace as he rebelled against God. Believed to be the angel of music, Lucifer was envious of God and believed that he could rule. Lucifer would then become Satan and rule in hell. How did one of God's most beloved angels become the opposing force of all things good? What does Lucifer get from all this pain and torment? These are questions that live rent-free in my mind. I cannot truly wrap my mind around the creator of everything and cast his angel, thus creating eternal damnation. I mean how can anyone understand the infinity beyond time and space that is these cosmic powers. We know God is stronger than Lucifer, but he still believed he could take on the big guy himself.

We've talked about Lucifer's plans and endgames but I'm going to end this with the first time we read about him, the garden of Eden. I find it interesting that Lucifer came to Adam and Eve as a snake. No other angel in the bible takes on the form of animals but just their true form, which if you read Ezekiel, hoo-boy you'll see why they say, "do not be afraid".  Lucifer wasn't trying to get Adam and Eve to commit crimes, bring pain, or destruction. All he wanted was for them to eat from the tree of knowledge. Disobey God. Now I know what you are thinking, why would the tree be there in the first place, I have my theories but I'm not sure. Secondly, why would Lucifer want them to have knowledge? The tree wasn't called the tree of evil, it was known as the tree of knowledge. This is the good stuff, and I would love to hear your takes on this. 

Well, we got off the path a little bit near the end, didn't we? I hope you all enjoyed this post and see what is to come. I plan on releasing a new blog post each month for 2022. As always, thanks for reading.