Bible Prophecy about “...his number is 666”

“...his number is 666” EUROPE and THE ROMAN CONNECTION Since the days of the third century A.D. there has been perennial fascination with the Biblical number 666. It occurs in Revelation 13:18 and reads: “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” A Waste of Time Anyone with an hour to waste on surfing the net will soon discover literally dozens of “imaginative” (“foolish” would be a better word!) ideas as to what 666 means, or to whom it refers. It has been a central topic of many a making millions of dollars for their authors. Some intellectuals, displaying greater mathematical and linguistic skills than simple common sense, have lifted the number completely out of its context and identified it with their own name, that of their favourite author, their credit card identification number or even with the title of Adolf Hitler’sMein Kampf! All this senseless speculation, however, totally overlooks the context in which the verse occurs, and to what the number is related. It is in fact a symbol of the continuing power of Rome in its varying forms from the days of Christ onwards. Revelation 13 expands on the prophecies given by Daniel in his 7th chapter concerning world powers which are portrayed as beasts. The Fourth Beast of Daniel chapter 7 metamorphoses over a long period from the times of the Roman empire through to today, and as verse 21 makes clear, it will still be in existence in one form or another when Christ returns. Thus Revelation 13 takes up the theme and traces the evolution of the powers which followed on from the ancient Empire of Rome. As the simplest history book will show, the power of Rome passed first to Charlemagne in about 800 AD and thereafter in the Middle Ages to the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe. This has now been superseded by the European Union of today which significantly enough was founded by the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The growing power over individual freedom by the European Union is concerning many politicians and it   constitutes a potentially serious threat to the traditional rights of freedom of speech and religious expression. Tony Blair’s proposed legislation, intended to deal with Muslim extremism, will clearly infringe the rights of many Protestants to protest as aggressively as they have done in the past against the growing power of Roman Catholicism. “the number (666) is... a symbol of the continuing power of Rome in its varying forms from the days of Christ onwards.” 666 is the Number of a Beast! The point so often missed when attempting to identify what is meant by 666 is the careful way in which Revelation 13:18 is worded. Although it is the number of a man (or rather a succession, or “dynasty” of men) rather than mankind in general, nevertheless that number is applied to and is concerned with the nature of the beast in Revelation 13. Thus the beast and the man are interrelated—a point overlooked by those who apply it to, for example, a particular dictator who will arise in the last  days. One has to ask them how the person they have in mind, identified with and is related to the ‘Roman’ beast described in this chapter. It is not surprising therefore that the Lord promises wisdom to those who try hard to perceive the real significance of this enigmatic verse. Letters have Numbers Unlike the English language, in ancient Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian and other languages each letter of the alphabet had a numerical equivalent. Thus for example in Greek the letter equivalent to “L” has the value 30, and the letter equivalent to “E” is 5. In ancient times it was common practice when referring to pagan gods or even important people to use thenumerical equivalents to refer to particular men or even gods. For example, in Egypt the god Thoth had the number 1218: in Rome, Jupiter was 717 and in Greece Apollo was 606. So to what, then, does the number 666 apply, bearing in mind that this number of a man has to relate to this specific Roman beast? There have been many attempts to unravel the enigma presented to us by the Apostle John in A.D. 96. His early contemporaries however, were in no doubt as to its application. One of them was a student called Polycarp who probably knew John personally, and was in turn mentor to another early Christian, Irenaeus. He lived only a few years after John himself and believed in the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; in the resurrection and the ensuing millennial kingdom based in Jerusalem as prophesied by Ezekiel, Isaiah and others.  Given this grasp of so many essentials of the Gospel message it is not surprising that he should have been clear in his own mind as to what John was prophesying. Using the Greek alphabet (the language in which Revelation is written) he discovered that 666 was the numerical value attaching to the word Lateinos—an expression for the Latin Kingdom of the latter days. He was not alone, for many Bible students from the days of the Reformation onwards have also arrived at the same conclusion.1 Where is Lateinos Today? Where are we to look for such a “kingdom” with a form of leadership provided by a dynasty of leaders and related to the Roman “beast” power of the latter days? Clearly none of the popular ideas about 666 come anywhere near demonstrating the interrelationship of a religious leadership role with the particular political power which is the subject of Revelation chapter 13. When set in the correct context it is clear that,   immediately before the return of Christ, we are looking at a “beast kingdom” succeeding the old Holy Roman Empire, namely the European Union which is so heavily influenced by the spiritual power of Rome. As one Bible student, John Thomas, saw it writing way back in 1867, “No power on earth has so exclusive a claim to the name of ‘Lateinos’ as the power of the Seven Hills.”(reference to Rome a City built on seven hills) 666 and the European Parliament Because so many people refuse to consider the number 666 in the right context and also fail to grasp what the Bible really means by the term “antichrist,” they are led on to the promotion of some really strange ideas.2   One of the most bizarre is the expectation that a strange supernatural pseudo-Christian powerful leader whom we might even call “Mr. 666” will arise from within the European Parliament. A year or two ago there was much foolish speculation that when an enlarged European Parliament came to allocate seats to its 732 members that the seat numbered 666 might be occupied by none other than the imagined “Antichrist” himself.3 Indeed for a while the seat did remain unoccupied heightening a sense of growing drama. To investigate the situation for ourselves we recently made a visit to Brussels and discovered that the supposed mystical occupant of seat number 666 was none other than the genial, 69 year-old Mr. Mogens Camre, a Danish People’s Party MEP, (see picture)—not quite the sort of person who the plethora of Christian paper writers would have foreseen as the latter day Antichrist (see seating plan below and interior opposite). Mr. Mogens belongs to a small select group of 27 MEPs drawn from seven different countries as far apart as Ireland, Italy and Lithuania—all of them of Catholic orientation. Their joint leaders are Brian Crowley from Dublin’s Fianna Fail Party and Christina Muscadine from Italy’s National Alliance party. What they stand for as distinct from the other six groupings of Left, Right, Centre, Independent, Green, and Christian Democrat parties is hard to discern. Their manifesto is a typical piece of “Eurospeak” but focuses on “the need to respect individual local autonomy within the European context,” and to “promote social groups” whilst “protecting towns from overcrowding” etc. etc. Two Parliaments for one Government! Whether the same seating plan applies in the duplicate European Parliament building in Strasbourg we cannot confirm from personal inspection. But the very fact that there should be two such Parliament buildings for one government is one of the great curiosities of the European situation. The origin of that situation has something to do with French insistence that the proper place for the parliament should be at Strasbourg—the “cross roads” (the Franco-German cross road, that is!) of Europe and not at a city like Brussels that houses the NATO headquarters, so disliked by earlier French Presidents. Be that as it may, many MEPs are not happy with the situation that requires them to shuttle back and forth every month between Brussels and Strasbourg. To quote from an official E.U. document: “Parliament only spends four days each month in Strasbourg in order to take its final plenary votes. Additional plenary meetings are held in Brussels.” However, it continues, “On several occasions the European parliament has expressed a wish to be granted the right to choose for itself the location for its seat.” Very recently they had the opportunity to do just that! In August this year, a Catholic polish MEP, Mr. Marian Giertych (see box right), Chairman of the 36-strong “Independent and Democratic” group of MEPs made a proposal to close down both the Brussels and Strasbourg Parliament buildings and relocate to just one such building in Rome! “Christianity Derives from Rome”! We have no interest in commenting as to why this proposal was allowed to lapse, The reasons for proposing the move are of special interest to Bible Students looking for a latter day “Latin Kingdom” lead by the “Man of Sin.” Reading through the half dozen or so statements made in support of the proposal, the most significant are, because:— · “Europe’s political and civil law is based on Roman Law.” · “Europe’s idea of citizenship and civil responsibility derives from the Roman concept of a citizen (‘Civis Romanus’).” · “Ethical values predominant in Europe and the Western world are derived from Christianity which for 2000 years emanated from Rome.” In short you could say because Europe is, in effect, a very Latin Kingdom! To what extent this proposal may have been influenced by the Vatican (alias the Man of Sin) we do not know at present, but such a move would have been entirely consistent with the determination of the Pope to exercise greater influence over the affairs of Europe in the future. Footnotes 1. For example, the Anglican Bishop Newton in 1754: “The Reverend Elliot in Horae Apocalypticae 1837, Dr. John Thomas inEureka, 1867. 2. The word antichrist occurs only five times in the Bible—all in the Epistles of John. It is not an individual, but refers primarily to a number of false doctrines which were beginning to emerge in the church e.g. the Trinity, the Atonement etc. it is true however, that these are some of the characteristic teachings of the papacy—a powerful organisation referred to by the Apostle Paul in Thessalonians as the Man of Sin. 3. See, for example the web site of the European Institute of Protestant Studies promoted by Ian Paisley in Belfast.