My theory about the meaning of the number is as follows: It's a reference to Nebuchadnezzars golden image, which he used to unify his empire in false worship. That golden image was in dimensions of sixes, six being a babylonian holy number.
So, in Revelation, when the number appears, it is actually a prediction of a Universal Church of some sort, membership in which will be required to do anything like buy or sell or get married. It's an odd thought, but if an Anti-Christ appears and rules over all, it follows he might try the same thing that Neuchadnezzar did to solidify his power.
You Bible scholars out there, what do you think?
Right up the alley....in fact you said it way better than I could explain it.
The mark of the beast, known as 666, is a system in which the anti-christ will establish as part of the loyalty system he will set up sometime in the middle of the Tribulation. This system will be a new government that will consist both politics and religion combine. The anti-christ is going to establish his godhead on the new system.
This Universal Church you speak up will be a one world religion. Currently, today, the Universal Church believes that ALL religion is true and expresses TOTAL religious tolerance. Any that does not tolerate one's religion to another is an enemy of the Univeral Church. The Roman Catholic church has a membership with the Universal Church. The Pope had attended the UC meetings every year since he inherited the church's throne. Many people from all faiths have gathered together to express universal peace and tolerance to one's religion. I'm sure many of you have read about it already in the news.
Anyway, this mark of the beast, 666, will be the most primary source of survival during the tribulation. As mentioned above, you cannot buy or sell or get married or hold a job without this mark. In fact, you will not be able to live without this mark, if you get caught during the middle of the tribulation for not wearing the mark, you will face execution.
Aside the mark, there is a microchip being tested as we speak, this microchip is being inserted on animals as well as old folks who suffers the alhzimer(?)'s disease, also known as the wandering disease. This chip, when scanned by a handscan attached to the computer will open up information pertaining about you, such as your ID number, your medical files, work history, your work credit (as the same as monitary cash or currentcy), criminal records (if any), and all other pertainable information.
This chip will eventually replace the currency we now use, such as cash, credit cards, debit cards, etc. Time clocks will have a handscanner that you can clock in to receive credit for the work you have done and same to clock out when you are done for the day. All credit will go to your bank once the payroll system approves them.
From there, when you shop, grocery stores will have a hand scanner that will scan your chip that will automatically "debit" your account by looking up your "debit" account number to check to see if you have enough credit in your bank account for approval. Once approved, you can take your grocery home. Same for gas and anything else you may normally purchase on a weekly basis.
Hospitals will also have the same system and will need your chip to enter you in as either as an in-patient or out-patient for whatever medical reasons you need. Same for a normal doctor appointment.
Get busted while speeding? Cops already have a computer in their units. Wireless handheld scanners is already being used in variety of reasons, such as grocery stores, warehouses, etc. The cops will have one inside their unit and will scan a chipper for their driver's information and you will get a printout of your ticket as well as a permanant record of your violations. So, if you decide to become a chipper, don't speed! :p
One good thing about the microchip out of all the bad things it will be used for, drug Caesars will have a hard time selling their dope w/o being tracked and detected. It will be very hard to hide your credit.
Unless, you have a very reliable hacker that knows the inner workings of the system and can create conterfeit chips and be able to bypass the system to plant false information about a person w/o being caught. Although there will be a very few people that will have the technological know-how to do this. One thing for certain, there will be plenty of counterfeiters walking around getting away with things. Question is, some will want to be paid for this, so how to do that??? Hmmmmmmm. Interesting problem.
Although this could also be useful for those who are against the new system, such as Christians for a good example. They will need a hacker to help them get around and get information on the movements and happenings on the anti-christ and his goons. They'll want to know what's going on and move people around to avoid his goons hunting them down.
While the chip will be inserted under the skin, it will become invisible to the naked eye of everyone. But, there also has to be a need for a visible mark, so the visible mark will probably be most likely a tattoo of some sort. I will explain why there is a need for a visible mark later in this post...
Now, take a look at some links below pertaining to the microchip, the links I will provide are BOTH secular and Christian viewpoints....
http://www.dogsncats.asn.au/catkit/6_options_for_identification_sys.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/la/prophet1/cstmny.html
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/14/chipman.idg/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2002/05/08/ncguest2.htm
Now I am going to explain why there is a need for a visible mark....
According to scripture, there will be another kind of mark, which is the Seal of God. This seal will be on the foreheads of every believer that have to come to believe in God and in His Son Christ Jesus. Every new believer will receive this seal immediately upon conversion.
The vast majaority of scholars agree this seal cannot be seen by unbelievers and only believers will be able to see each other's seal. This will help believers find other believers more easily while at the same time, invade unbelievers.
Remember, this seal only works during the tribulation. We are by no means today able to see any kind of seal from each other. Those who are already believers will be gone right before the Tribulation begins, this is called the Rapture. Over 50 million believers today could be gone at any given moment. Why the reason for the Rapture? I can explain this in another thread when I get time to do it. You may find this very interesting.
Now, here's some scriptures that talks about this seal...
Revelation 7:3
"Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
(Whole Chapter: Revelation 7 In context: Revelation 7:2-4)
Revelation 9:4
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
(Whole Chapter: Revelation 9 In context: Revelation 9:3-5)
Revelation 14:1
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
(Whole Chapter: Revelation 14 In context: Revelation 14:1-2)
According to scripture, the seal will protect some of them for a short period of time. Most will be killed when they are discovered to be w/o the anti-christ's mark of loyalty. Those who are protected during a short period of time will occur during the latter part of the tribulation. This is another story to explain, I will post it after I finish this mark and seal topic.
Anyway, the anti-christ will become aware of the seal of God and not even he can see them.
So, to counter this problem and to help him find the believers out of all of the unbelievers (hence this problem will be like seperating salt and sugar from among the population). He will create his own mark, a counterfeit mark of God. Since Satan loves to counterfeit everything that is of God (i.e. counterfeit religions like JWs, Mormons, Reuninification church, etc. etc.).
Once he establishes the mark system, it will become easier to find the believers since they will not be wearing a worldwide visible mark. His goons will be on the lookout for believers not wearing his mark and arrest them.
They will try and scare them to take the mark by threatening their lives. If that fails, they will be executed.
Revelation 20:4
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(Whole Chapter: Revelation 20 In context: Revelation 20:3-5)
Eventally almost, if not all believers will be killed during the last leg of the tribulation...
Revelations 6:9 - When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
If any survives, however few may be, will be able to see the Glorious return of Christ, who will then usher in His rulership over the earth that will last 1000 years.
Now, about Babylon, we know of 2 past histories of that city.
In Genesis, Babylon was built as a tower and God confused their language and spread them across the earth.
The second was a complete city and was totally fortified from their enemies. God's people found a way in the city and destroyed it.
Now, the city of Babylon will be resurrected again for the third time. Guess what? It's being rebult. Guess where it is? Hang on to your socks folks, the ruins of the city has been found in Iraq. Guess who is funding the restoration of the city? None other than Saddam Hussen.
Here's some pictures of the restoration of the city...
This is the Istar's Gate, it was found buried in sand and dirt deep in the ground. Most of the entire city was completely covered in sand and dirt. It took a long time for the entire city to be unearth. The walls had to be rebuilt as well as the buildings inside. This gate survived with very little damage to it, except for the paint which had to be repainted, some paint survived the abrasion of sand and dirt to give the rebuilders an idea what color the gate was.
Here is the walls of the city, not entirely done yet since this was once a huge city. There's still more work to do.
This is the palace that belongs to Saddan Hussen, one of the many palaces he owns. It's not far from the city and judging from the trees, you can see how HUGE his palace is. My guess he doesn't want the original city to dwarf his own palace next to it. Tsk, typical of Saddam.
An earlier photo sometime during or after the gulf war. You can see some damage of the wall as well on top of it. Note how thick the wall was at that period of time.
I'm tracking down more photos of the city. I will post them when I find more.
The city's reconstruction took place before the gulf war. So, photos will be hard to find. I first saw this on a book about Saddam Hussen and inside it was tons of photos dating back from the beginning to before the gulf war. I saw a photo of the gate covered in dirt and sand with the damage on the paint. When I saw it, I realized the prophecy concerning the 3rd rebirth of Babylon, which is a sign that Christ's return is not far at all, next to the prophecy of the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Israel. The ground breaking ceramony had already taken place before the election of Prime Minister Sharon which caused a outbreak of fighting between Arafat's people and the people of Israel a few years ago (and still going on even to this day). Unfortunantly, scholars believe we will not be able to see it being rebuilt until after the Tribulation has begun.
So before Christ returns, these two things needs to be fullfilled in scripture, the resurrection of Babylon and the renewal Jewish Temple.
So we see that Babylon is already being fullfilled in scripture, next will be the Temple of God.
Yizuman
Edited by - Yizuman on 27 December 2002 12:34:41
