First, a word on anti-christ. Historically, anti-christ does not refer to a
single person, such as satan, or the son of satan. Anti-christ simply meant,
anything anti-christian. So, when Martin Luther called the pope the
anti-christ, he was not calling him satan, but anti-christian, or against what
Christ stood for. 1 John, (which is believed to be the same John who wrote
Revelations, which I will talk about later) also talks about anti-christs, but
is like Luther, NOT talking about Satan, but about people who do un-Christian
things.
The beast, and the mark of the beast are from Revelations, starting in chapter
13, and going on through the next few chapters. Like I said, Revelations was
written by John, but it was written while he was in prison on the island of
Patmos. He wrote about his visions that he saw while he sat, all alone in this
prison. So, his visions tend to NOT be very happy ones.
If you read through chapter 13, you will see what I think all the excitement is
about. At the very end of the chapter, it says the number or "mark of the
beast" is the number 666. Numbers are all over the Bible, and they are NOT
intended to be accurate, but symbolic. What is the symbolism of 666? Well, 7
is the number which represents perfection. 7 is all over the Bible and it is
always a good number; 7 days to finish creation, you must forgive 70 time 7,
there were 7 baskets of food left after the feeding of the 5000, and other
examples. So what is 6? 6 means IMperfection--it is close to perfection, but
is not perfect. The fact that they triple the numbers to 666 is just meant to
make sure we understand that this is the ultimate imperfect one. What I take
from John saying that the mark of the beast or satan is 666 is that satan or the
beast is deceptive. Symbolically, 666 is very close to 777, so Satan is going
to try and appear perfect, very harmless, and decepti
ve. And if you think about the nature of sin, that is pretty close to reality.
As an example, a drug addict most likely does not decide one day to inject
heroin into their veins, but probably starts out with "something harmless" like
smoking pot or taking some pills. Gradually, the addiction takes over, and they
need real help. "The devil will not attack us from the front, but is much more
devious than that." I think this is what John is saying by giving us that
symbol 666 as the mark of the beast.
Now, none of this was sexy enough for Hollywood, so back in the 70's (I think)
they made a movie called "The Omen" which mixed all this stuff up and got it all
wrong. It was a scary movie and made loads of money, so Hollywood was happy,
but they did a bad job of telling the true story. Bottom line is, if you watch
The Omen, or The Exorcist, or whatever the latest horror movie is, we don't have
to worry about this stuff. The devil is whipped. God is victorious, and will
not allow the devil to have his way with us. Of course, Hollywood wants to make
money, so they will keep on making these movies, and the televangelists want to
scare Jesus into you, and want you to send them money, so they will keep on
telling you that Satan or his son will rule the world for a while. But all that
is a load of crap! We have nothing to worry about because God is in charge, and
we are his.
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