Revelation 13:11-18 - The Number of Perfect Evil

Revelation 13:11-18

The Beast from the Earth

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

Many try to decipher the number 666 of the man who is the beast to come with the voice of the dragon but horns appearing as a mild lamb, but they attempt what is not clearly defined beyond the known meaning given.  We read that he comes out of the earth, that he is a man, that he talks like a dragon who we read is the devil himself in the last chapter.  We also read that this beast man is deceiving like his master masquerading as a lamb while talking blasphemous evil.  He will have the authority of the first beast who will come out of the sea and will be worshipped by all whose names are not predetermined in the Book of Life of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.  This second beast from the land will then incite these lost souls to keep on worshiping the first beast who came before and mimicked the resurrection of Christ by his near death mortal wound turned to life.  This deceiver will do great signs and wonders to imitate the Lord as well, going even so far as to murder anyone who does not worship this false god in place of the Lord of life.  He will also mark the unbelievers in a crude imitation of the mark of the Lord () and control their lives by what they can buy and sell with that mark of evil alone.  That mark is the number of the very beast himself calculated as 666.  The number appears to not be a direct calculation of a man’s name as some have conjectured, but the sum of all “wickedness that took place previous to the deluge, due to the apostasy of the angels” according to Irenaeus in writing against heresies.  Revelation 13:18 has the idea of incompleteness as seen in the writings that interpreted the seven days of Genesis 1, by way of Ps. 90:4, as representing seven thousand years of world history according to him as well.  The number is seen as parodied by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet and therefore the six repeated three times indicates the completeness of sinful incompleteness found in the beast as the New International Greek Greek Testament Commentary says.  We can safely conclude that the number 666 is likely not a man’s name to decipher but a description of the deceiver’s attempt to parody Christ and mislead the world into following him and his fallen angels into the lake of fire to take down as many as would have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17) and live to keep God’s word.  Like in the beginning of creation and the fall of mankind by such deception, his methods remain the same and we who know Him are aware of the wiles of the devil (Luke 21:8, Ephesians 6:11) to not fall for such deception (Mark 13:5-6, 22-23, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 1 John 5:19-20).  The number of the man set against Christ is that of perfect evil parodying our perfect Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are not to be led astray with signs and wonders pointing to worship any other than the Father in heaven and His only Son, Jesus Christ the perfect man and divine Lord whose number can be seen as 777, the perfect number seen repeated in the triune God.