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Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Revelation." To view all parts, click the link below.
Revelation 13:18 says,
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of that beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six [666].
The Greek text that is translated “six hundred and sixty-six” is just three Greek letters chi, xi, and sigma. Like the Hebrews, the Greeks used their letters as numbers, so each letter carries a numeric value. The letter chi served as their number for 600, xi was their number 60, and sigma was their number 6. So by putting these letters together, this was how they wrote the number 666.
The Number Six
John, of course, was well acquainted with these numbers. However, he does not explain this number, other than to tell us that it is the number of “that beast” and the number of “a man.” Every number has both a positive and a negative side to it, depending upon its application. In biblical numerology, we find that the number six is the number of man, or humanity in general. A triple six would indicate the apex or even the perfection of man, for it is built upon the foundation of the number six.
In biblical law, six days was the time to work, and then the seventh day the people were to rest. Likewise, a slave was to work for six years and then be released for a one-year vacation in the seventh year. This seems to be the underlying reason for the association between 666 and man under the earth beast. Man was to labor six days—that is, 6,000 years—from Adam to the great Sabbath rest known commonly as the Millennium.
For this reason, Moses had to wait six days before he was allowed to go up the mount to meet the Lord in Exodus 24:16-18. This suggests a 6,000 year waiting period of labor on earth before the saints can ascend “to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
The works of the flesh that Paul listed in Galatians 5:19-21 puts witchcraft (KJV) or sorcery (NASB) as the sixth vice. Witchcraft is simply man’s attempt to manipulate others against their will. So Saul’s rebellion against God was “as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23). Man’s religious rituals often boil down to an earthly attempt to manipulate God (or the gods) into doing something beneficial to man. This is low-level witchcraft.
The good news about the number six is that when we view it as a time cycle, it signifies the END of labor or slavery and the beginning of rest (seven).
Solomon’s Gold
The number 666 appears twice in Scripture, not only in Revelation 13:18 but also in 2 Chronicles 9:13,
13 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.
As with so many things, the New Testament must be interpreted with its double witness, the Old Testament. It is plain that in 2 Chronicles 9:13 the number 666 is associated with gold, which is also used as money. Certainly, this statement has an economic color to it, even as we see in John’s reference. Thus, when we look at John’s statement in its natural flow of the revelation of history, it is remarkable that it would coincide precisely with the rise of the international banking system as invented and developed by the family of Rothschilds.
It is not so much the USE of money, but the LOVE of money that determines if one has the mark of the beast. When everything one does is for the sake of money, it is a “mark of the beast” upon one’s hand. When one constantly schemes how to make more money, it is a “mark of the beast” upon one’s forehead. It does not matter if men justify their greed by saying that it is for the advancement of the Christian faith or the Kingdom of God. It is still a mark of the beast and the opposite of God’s law, which tells us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Solomon’s gold, or wealth, was given to him, along with wisdom and peace, in order to build the Kingdom of God in his day. Unfortunately, the last half of his kingdom was spent in rebellion, for we read in 1 Kings 11:3-5,
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. 4 For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
Because of this, God judged him by dividing Israel into two nations, giving the bulk of the tribes to a political rival (1 Kings 11:11-13). Just as Solomon’s sin divided the kingdom, so also today we see the Freemasons obsessed with Solomon, his temple, and his dark arts. Freemasonry is part of the earth beast which is characterized by the number 666.
The main difference is that the earth beast is the final beast system to enslave the earth, bringing us to the end of the time when the divided kingdom will be reunited. To do this, of course, the earth beast must be overthrown first. The result will be that the Scepter of Judah (given to the house of David) will be reunited with the Birthright of Joseph, and thus the full inheritance will be given to the saints of the Most High. In 2014 the Divine Court issued the legal decree to establish this, and we are now seeing the effects of that decree reshaping the world.
The Temple Vessels
Jerusalem was captured by the king of Babylon in 604 B.C. Jehoiakim was the vassal king of Jerusalem under Babylon until he revolted in 597 B.C. Jehoiakim was then killed and replaced by Jehoiachin, who was then just eight years old. He lasted just three months and ten days (2 Chronicles 36:9). It was then that King Nebuchadnezzar “brought him to Babylon with the valuable articles of the house of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 36:10). So the vessels of the temple were taken to Babylon with Jehoiachin in 597 B.C.
2 Kings 25:13-17 gives us an inventory of the temple vessels carried to Babylon. It is interesting to note that neither the altar of incense nor the Ark of the Covenant were listed, for according to the records found by Nehemiah, they had already been hidden by Jeremiah in Mount Nebo. This is recorded in 2 Maccabees 2:4,
4 It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.
The deportation of the temple vessels appears to be the most important event to Ezekiel, for he dates his ministry and revelations according to Jehoiachin’s captivity in 597 B.C., as we see in Ezekiel 1:2. The importance of this date is seen in history, because 666 years later, the Roman army took Jerusalem and brought the vessels of the temple to Rome. There was no Ark, of course, because that had long disappeared. The Most Holy Place of the second temple was devoid of the Ark, and a stone was put in its place. But the lampstand is clearly depicted on the Arch of Titus.
It is curious also that 1,260 years after 70 A.D. brings us to the year 1330, when the noblemen in England prevented the king from returning the sacred vessels to Scotland that had been taken to London in 1296. This included the Stone of Scone, or Jacob’s Pillar, the stone on which the ancient kings of Israel were crowned in Jerusalem. This Stone was finally returned in 1996, which was 666 years after the king had tried to return it to Scotland.
Hence, we see the chronology as: 666 plus 1,260 years plus 666 years comes to the year 1996. The first 666 was about the sacred temple vessels; the last 666 was about the Coronation Stone. This implies that the Coronation Stone is sacred and is connected to the temple in Jerusalem.
But what does this tell us about the meaning of the number 666? It is associated with the captivity of the temple vessels and also with the removal of the Stone signifying the divine right to rule with the Dominion Mandate. Both of these have to do with the long captivity that began in the time of Jeremiah when Babylon took Jerusalem. The earth beast is the final entity that has had the right to put the earth into captivity under these beast systems.
This is also tied to the actions of King Belshazzar of Babylon on the night that he was killed. Daniel 5:2-4 tells us that on the night Babylon fell, the king was holding a party in which they used the temple vessels to praise “the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (Daniel 5:4). This desecration was the final act before the king was killed and the kingdom was taken by the kings of the east—the Medes and Persians.
This desecration, when seen in the broader context of the Babylonian captivity itself, depicts temple worship being subjected to false gods that men create in their own image. Such worship has characterized the church of the captivity (Laodicea) without their realizing it. It is also a peculiar characteristic of religious life under the earth beast in general, especially in Freemasonry, which bases its “worship” ceremonies on the temple of Solomon.
The Golden Image
Daniel 3:1 says,
1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Note the measure of 60 x 6. If this “image” was actually a statue of a man, the proportions would have been 6:1, rather than 10:1. So if this was a man, he was a very thin man. But it is more likely that it was a pillar with some sort of golden emblem or figure on the top of it. This would explain why no religious leaders were assembled, but only “the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces” (Daniel 3:3). Although this ceremony was religious in nature, it was designed to set up Babylon’s gold standard—the worship of gold, based on “the love of money.”
The numeric value of Daniel 3:1 is precisely 4662, or 666 x 7. This connects the event with the earth beast and the 666 of Revelation 13:18.
As for timing, this may have recurred 2,520 years later, a period of “seven times.” Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem in 588 B.C., and 2,520 years later brings us to 1933-34, when President Roosevelt declared the United States to be bankrupt, abolished private ownership of gold, and then devalued the dollar by one-third.
Nebuchadnezzar reigned until 560 B.C., the 43rd year of his long reign, and 2,520 years later is the year 1960-61. Nebuchadnezzar’s image was set up some time after the fall of Jerusalem. Daniel does not date this event, however, so we can only guess its precise date. But if we assume a 2,520-year parallel event may have occurred, then we might look for a “gold event” some time prior to 1961, but not before the 1930’s.
This event might be linked to the establishment of the World Collateral Accounts in 1947, in which the world pooled its gold in order to rebuild the nations devastated by World War 2. (President Soekarno of Indonesia was put in charge of those accounts.) If so, we might be able to date Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold 2,520 years earlier in 574 B.C., or the 29th year of his reign.
The establishment of the United Nations, along with the Collateral Accounts, was the real outcome of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. This was to be the New World Order during the 99-year contract that began in 1919.
Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Revelation." To view all parts, click the link below.