44: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 13:15-18

[McNeely] Welcome to this class here. We’re still in Revelation 13. We’ve talked in the last class about the two beasts that come up—one comes up out of the sea and one comes up out of the earth.

Describe those two beasts and the unity of church and state of that period of time.

And we’re now down to, it looks like, the last few verses of chapter 13, where we want to talk about this very famous statement and passage out of Revelation about the mark of the beast.

All right, so let’s kind of just read it here. Let’s go ahead to verse 15: “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast.” We talked about this—He, being the second beast, gave power 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.”

We talked about the timing of persecutions and the inquisitions of history—where those who did not conform to the orthodox teaching of the church at Rome, the post-Nicene church, were hounded, burned at the stake, tortured, urged to recant, etc. History is full of stories.

There are whole books about that. Probably the most famous is a book called Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Fox’s Book of Martyrs, written a number of years ago, chronicles martyrdom going back into the earliest periods—the story of people being killed for their faith. And so this is part of the story of religious history.

Revelation 13 here is talking about this, and it begins to shift here in chapter 13. Of course, keeping in mind the whole setting of Revelation is the timing of the Day of the Lord—the end of the age.

And we’ve traced this historical development of the people of God, the Church of God, these false systems, and these powers through to here.

We’ve had the story of Satan and his efforts to—again, a second effort in chapter 12—of Satan, Lucifer, fighting to try to thwart the plan of God, being cast back down to earth, and then going to persecute the woman, the Church, and all of these events that are folded into, in one sense, three verses here at the end of chapter 13 that focus on this “mark of the beast” that we do want to talk about here and understand before we leave it.

It says: “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; 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.”

“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred sixty-six.” (Revelation 13:16–18)

So here we are at that point in the book of Revelation where we talk about the number 666 and the number of the beast—the number you never want to draw in whatever situation you might be in. You don’t want to have a house number 666. You don’t want to have that in any way that is a part of this entire system.

And so let’s kind of break this down. Let’s look at what we are told here in the Scripture, and again, understanding it from history. It’s not difficult—but because it is so colorful, can I use that term?—this is the “mark of the beast.” 666.

People—and you don’t want this—this is the mark of this whole system, a religious-political system here kind of personified into one. And you cannot buy or sell. You don’t want to take it into your right hand or into your forehead.

We’re going to look at what that means here and understand this. And it is a mark—and what does that mean?

I’ve got a picture here of a barcode. All right. Through the years, and especially in our modern times—let me set the stage with this here—in our modern times, people have looked at all kinds of digital, technological breakthroughs or systems as: “Is this the mark of the beast? Is this what the Bible is talking about?”

I can remember—I’ve been in the Church for more than 60 years now—and been hearing about this, as people in the Church talk about this, and the subject of sermons, and after-church discussions. And everybody wants to know about it.

And we rightly don’t want to take that mark or engage in any way with it. And so, as things have developed through the years, people would say, “Is this the mark of the beast?”

They would write to the Church: Is the zip code the mark of the beast? Literally. I’m that old—I remember when zip codes came in, all right? And in the Church, people would write to the Church, “Is the zip code—45103, or whatever it is—is that the mark of the beast?”

The Church would say, No.

All right. Credit cards became very, very popular. Believe it or not, there was a time when you did it the old-fashioned way with coins and dollar bills. And some of the first credit cards were kind of gas and oil cards by gas companies.

And—Is a credit card the mark of the beast? No. The Church would say, It’s not the mark of the beast.

Buying or selling, right? With a digital form.

Then barcodes come along. And you scan a barcode and up pops the price and what the item is, etc. And we all know how a barcode is used. Is that the mark of the beast? No. Barcode is not the mark of the beast—all by itself.

So technology has continued to develop, and into our current time we’ve got even far more technological breakthroughs that are an everyday part of our life, and have lent certain things to people wondering, Is this the mark of the beast?

And so as we look at this topic, we’ve got to understand what the Bible tells us on the subject and draw the appropriate conclusions.

And we’re going to have a highly digitized world—and it’s only going to get more so—to where I think all of us realize that you and I can be tracked anywhere, any place on the earth.

You use your credit card—you tap and go—they can find out where you are. You’ve seen the movies; they can trace a criminal by, you know, “They’ve used the credit card to get on the train here in Marseille or in Paris, and they’re on their way to Belgium,” and they could, you know, police can track all that.

You go to Europe especially—and it’s a lot in America too—I mean, cameras are everywhere. They’re chronicling every move you make wherever you are in public, and sometimes in what you think is privacy—the privacy.

And, you know, we use our credit cards, we use the internet. Every time you and I go out on a website, we leave a trail—and they can find out where we’ve gone.

And I don’t think we could probably erase that. And we—you know that if you use your little Kroger scan card, or some other market card you use, or whatever—they know that you’ve used it, and they’re going to send you an ad for whatever, you know, “a dollar off” what you just bought.

They’re tracking us. I mean, it’s done in commerce all the time. And, you know, you look at that reel that pops up on your feed, and then all of a sudden you start getting more reels like that. We all know how that works—I hope you know how that works.

We’re being tracked, and they know everything.

Now, is that the mark of the beast?

Well, let’s answer that question—while at the same time let’s realize that, hey, it is an interesting world we’re in, and it’s only going to get more interesting. And we need to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves as we approach this, and we certainly don’t want the mark of the beast.

So with this, where do we begin?

All right, let’s look at the concept here that is mentioned of receiving the mark—in verse 16—in your right hand or in your foreheads. Okay? Obvious reference to something that we actually should know quite well from Scripture, as it is used in other contexts.

So—good rule of Bible study—let’s begin in Scripture.

Already here in Revelation, we have seen references to the people of God being sealed in their foreheads with the name of God. Chapter 7 of Revelation.

We can go back to that—chapter 7 of Revelation—and read verses 2 to 3:

“Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’” (Revelation 7:2–3)

Okay? So there’s a reference there.

Chapter 14 and verse 1—we haven’t read that yet—but there’s another.

We could jump ahead to chapter 22 of Revelation and verse 4:

“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4)

All right?

If we go back to Revelation 7:1–4 again, we see that God, through the angels, holds back a destruction on the earth until God’s servants are sealed. All right? And we’ve already read that.

But that parallels a vision—and I think we’ve talked about that when we were going through chapter 7—found back in Ezekiel chapter 9, where we find God’s faithful people there who are resisting the evil society of that time in Ezekiel’s prophecy. And they receive a mark in their foreheads for protection from the destruction that is going to come upon Jerusalem.

This is back in Ezekiel 9:4–7. We won’t turn and read all of that, but you can reference that.

So again, God’s people are sealed with a mark in their foreheads.

There are other passages in Scripture that show God’s people are sealed with the Holy Spirit. All right? Let’s look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1, verses 21 and 22:

“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

All right? So we’re sealed with God’s Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at Ephesians chapter 1.

This is all positive here. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13:

“In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13)

So God’s Spirit gives us a sealing here, which is a guarantee of our inheritance. So God’s Spirit seals His people.

Chapter 4 of Ephesians, verse 30:

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

Again, very positive reference to what God’s Spirit does, and it is given to us—but it puts a seal, or in a sense a mark, upon us. But this is a positive, in that it is for God.

So there has to be an obedient mind frame—that from repentance we know to receive God’s Spirit, which seals us.

So that—we’ve gone through the Scriptures on that in other classes—that to receive that sealing and the gift of God’s Spirit requires obedience, faith, repentance.

But we come to knowledge in our mind—our forehead—and we also then begin to do, or live, with our hand—the actions of our life, the way of God. All right?

So to receive something with your right hand or in your forehead—your right hand is your hand of strength, typically, as it is used in the Scripture—and it is a symbol or a figure of our actions: how we live, what we do.

And in our forehead, then, is referencing what we believe, what we accept as true, what we follow, what we give allegiance to. We give allegiance to God and His Word and His eternal law and the whole way of God.

God’s Spirit helps us to do that and continues, in many of the Scriptures, to be to obey.

Ultimately, we know from Jeremiah 31:33—repeated also in Hebrews—that the sign of the New Covenant is God’s law being written on our heart as a result of our obedience.

And all of this, then, comes down to keeping God’s laws, following God, and obeying Him.

And so, with that, we have a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding regarding the way of God and what we have.

And so, as we look at this, there was one other passage that I want to talk about—this—and make sure we understand.

Okay, so if we go back to this slide here, let’s go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6. I have that in my notes here someplace. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 through 8:

Moses here writes, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6–9)

Well-known Scripture, talking about the Word of God.

But we take this in a figurative sense to know what it means. Now, Jewish custom will put a phylactery, and they’ll wrap things on their arms, and they’ll actually hang the law on their forehead to act this out—or to actually literally do that.

We don’t do that. That’s not what God is really getting to here.

With the receipt of the Spirit—all made possible because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ—through repentance, faith, and baptism and all, we can receive the Holy Spirit, by which that law then is internalized.

And it becomes a sign in our hand and a frontlet between our eyes as to how we act and live.

And we know that this is not talking literally—it’s talking figuratively.

Interestingly, if you go back to Exodus 13, Exodus 13, as it talks about unleavened bread—and as we’re talking here today, we’re just a few weeks away from the Days of Unleavened Bread—and so it may be good for us to look at this, what is said.

Beginning in verse 7:

“Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.”

“And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ And it shall be as a sign to you on your hand, and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.” (Exodus 13:7–10)

And so, looking at this—and it goes on in verses 11 through 16—but I won’t read all of that.

Verse 16:

“It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:16)

We keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. We know how we keep that—we put out the leaven, we eat unleavened bread during that period of time for seven days.

But look at what it says here: It will be a memorial between your eyes and in your mouth—for a strong hand, a sign to you on your hand, and as a memorial.

That’s figurative at that part of the verse because we don’t take a piece of unleavened bread, bind it in our hand, or tie it around our forehead, do we? Okay? I’ve never been taught that. We know that’s not our custom. But we know that that’s a figure—okay?—of, again, our willingness to obey God and to live an unleavened life, if you will, or to live with the life of Christ in us, who is the Bread of Life, as we understand it with the New Covenant aspect of it.

But even here, this is symbolizing our actions, and it’s really pointing to our thoughts and our deeds and our allegiance—to how we live.

And so, looking at these Scriptures as we put them together through the Bible, it’s clear that with our right hand, with our forehead, we obey God. We do what God says to do.

So now, when we come to, then, this mark of the beast that people take in their right hand and on their forehead—and we’re talking about a religious, civil system that will arise at the time of the end, unlike any that has ever been, but modeled on, patterned after, with roots in, all that has gone before—all the way back to the early days of Christianity: the second, third, fourth century—developing false system with pagan ideas, a church that sought to change times and laws and to make war upon the saints, as we’re told in Daniel, and to persecute, as we’re told in Revelation 12, and is a system that is against God, is this bestial system, this power—and it has a mark that people take.

How do we interpret, then, what we are looking at?

Well, if we look clearly at what we are told in Scripture, then we see, I think, the pattern that began to develop. Let’s look at the Sabbath—changing of time—according to what happened with the little horn back in Daniel 7, verse 25.

All right? The religious leadership of these systems that arose—very close to the description of the little horn in Daniel chapter 7, where terrible persecution is brought upon the people of God—and verse 25 of Daniel 7 says that it seeks to change times and laws.

Now, that’s a very big key for us to look at, because we’re told that this system of a papacy with a bestial power seeks to change the laws of God—not just in general, but even to specific laws relating to time—and its impact upon the Church, upon the saints, creating suffering and consequences for not going along with that.

We’ve already talked about, and we have this known from history, which we’ve already looked at and read into in many different ways—we are looking at a system, a false religious system, that is steeped in pagan-derived ideas, some of them coming from ancient forms of the worship of the sun, the worship even of a state.

And where these have happened, they were able to impose laws that changed even—as I’ve talked to earlier—the Sabbath and the biblical festivals.

The Council of Nicaea I mentioned, as well as the Council of Laodicea, labeling those and scorning those as Jewish teachings, and anyone who would keep the Sabbath or the Days of Unleavened Bread are Judaizing.

I could read you a sermon from a man named John Chrysostom of the ancient period, who was a bishop in Antioch that we studied already in the book of Acts, who got up one day in his church in the early fall or late summer and made the statement—he said, “The pitiable festivals of the Jews are about to come.”

He’s referring to the fall Holy Days. And he says, “Some of you,”—and he’s talking to his congregation; it’s a sermon recorded in history—“some of you will be with them to keep them.”

Which tells you an interesting situation, because he was preaching on Sunday, but some were still keeping, in some way, the festivals.

And he says, “I’m here to tell you I am going to drive that out of this church.”

That’s his quote—the “Golden Tongue,” John Chrysostom.

And so he threatens members in his congregation who were going to try, in some way, to keep a Sabbath or keep an annual Sabbath.

All of that was being changed, and those that took part in that had to deal with it.

This particular slide here is a famous quote from the late 1800s that shows the Catholic Church’s admission in changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week—from Saturday to Sunday, or the day of the sun—well known, recognized, admitted by them.

The Church, it says, “transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.”

And observance of that, the saying is, “shows allegiance to the Holy Catholic Church.”

“We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council at Laodicea, transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.”

Open admission as to what they did—and it’s a part of the record.

I’ve referenced this before, I think, maybe not here in this class, but in other classes. There was a well-known Seventh-day Adventist scholar named Samuel Bacchiocchi. He wrote his doctoral thesis through study at the Vatican University.

He got in—and they granted him a doctoral program there—the priests and the Catholic Church. And he’s a Seventh-day Adventist.

And he does a doctoral thesis, as he has access to all the archives of the Catholic Church and the Vatican libraries, and he chronicled how the Sabbath was changed from Sabbath to Sunday.

In fact, that’s the title of his book. We have a copy in our library—I have a copy. I met the man. I had him come and talk to my church back in ’95.

Actual Samuel Bakayoke was very helpful to us as we were coming out of the Worldwide Church of God, as they were changing the Sabbath. And his writings helped us to reinforce what we have always taught.

But he chronicled it through the histories, and the Vatican University granted him a Ph.D. in that. And the priest wrote the foreword to his book. It was accurate. They couldn’t deny it. It’s true. And so, it’s a matter of history in this particular case—of how this was changed through time—and that it centers those who followed after it have not fared too well.

The whole foundation of that religious system is paganism, and it was backed up by the power of the Roman state. The false church outlawed keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and the biblical festivals, calling them Jewish—imposing a weekly observance of the day of the unconquered sun, as they called it, Sunday—and other pagan festivals: Christmas, Easter, etc.

And it was a complete rejection of what God had given as an identifying sign between Him and His people.

Back in Exodus, the Sabbath becomes a sign between God and His people in a specific covenant and relationship there. And, of course, the treatment of these dissenters has come down.

I want to read you another quote at this point. Again, this is from the historian Will Durant. And he’s writing in this particular passage about the Code of Justinian.

And I didn’t erase this from the last class, but I do want to make a change there—that’s 554, for people to note. That has been pointed out, that I made that change.

But a couple of classes back, I talked to you about the Code of Justinian.

And again, Justinian being the Roman emperor in the East who healed the deadly wound, but also then sought to put together and simplify, revamp, the Roman Code of Law that, at that time, had been going for about a thousand years.

And he came out with this Code of Justinian. And a couple of classes back, I showed how that became the basis for European civil law—European civil law.

And essentially, the idea that is embedded in Roman law and continued with Justinian’s Code is that the state, or the king, or the emperor, the Caesar, the Czar—whatever it might be—the state is the holder of all things legal. All things legal.

And the properties belong to the state, and everybody else follows along with that.

That’s different from the civil law that we have in America, Great Britain, the English-speaking peoples, and now other parts of the world, where the king is subject to the same law as everybody else.

And if you read the Declaration of Independence and know anything about our American constitutional law, you know how we embedded that into our original founding documents—and it’s a completely different system of law.

But the Code of Justinian became, and is then, a justification for changing times and laws.

Here’s what Durant says—quote: “This code, Justinian’s, enacted Orthodox Christianity into law.”

It began by declaring for the Trinity. And so the point is, within the Code of Justinian, he wrote in the teaching of the Trinity—that it was to be followed.

This is a civil law, but it involves a spiritual component—a spiritual teaching that it is backing up.

Going on, “This code acknowledged the ecclesiastical leadership of the Roman Church and ordered all Christian groups to submit to her authority. Relapsed heretics were to be put to death.”

In other words, if you’ve been a heretic, and maybe they got you to talk your way back into the mother church, and then you relapsed—put them to death.

And he mentions various groups that were a part of that.

“They were all to suffer confiscation of their goods and were declared incompetent to buy or sell.”

The Code of Justinian, coming from the sixth century A.D., identified that heretics who did not follow the code—the laws of Rome, essentially—were declared, quote, “incompetent to buy or sell.”

We just read that in chapter 13, that the mark of the beast is going to keep people from buying or selling. Did we not read that? Yes or no?

Let’s read it again. Revelation 13:

“You receive a mark on your right hand or on your forehead, that no man may buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16–17)

Okay. Okay.

Now, here’s why this is important to at least note. I’m reading from Will Durant—this is Volume 4, page 112 of his History of Civilization.

Let me finish the quote. He said: “These people are excluded from public office, forbidden to meet, and disqualified from suing Orthodox Christians for debt.”

Very all-encompassing law. They could not buy or sell, could not hold property, couldn’t even meet.

They couldn’t meet even for their own worship. They couldn’t even sue another Christian—Catholic Christian—for debt. You’re really hamstrung. You’re handcuffed.

This is—here’s my point—this is the sixth century A.D., the ancient world, and they’re not… they can’t buy or sell.

What should you conclude from this? Here’s what we—here’s one thing we should conclude, among many things.

Remember I talked about—we had the picture of the lady with the barcode? Think about microchips, Bitcoin, all the digital currencies that are now coming on—credit cards, zip code—whatever you want to think about. Is this the mark of the beast?

All the technology, which we get worried about sometimes—and maybe rightly so—but in this world, without technology, no barcodes, no chips inserted in your body, or whatever else, they couldn’t buy or sell.

The system, going back into antiquity, controlled who could buy or sell without technology.

How did they do it?

They controlled the laws. They changed times and seasons.

We’re looking at a system that changes the law of God, and then enacts that into a civil code of law that they enforce—long before zip codes, microchips, or cryptocurrency—did I say cryptocurrency?—comes along.

Now, should we learn a little bit about digital chips? Okay, yeah.

But is that the mark of the beast? Well, if we’re looking at a system that fits the beast and the mark of people in the time of Justinian, and if they didn’t go along in their mind with the Catholic Church—if they didn’t go to church on Sunday with their feet or their hand—they couldn’t buy or sell.

It had nothing to do then with technology.

Will it have something to do with technology today? Possibly. I can allow for that. We all should.

I’ve been listening to one of my favorite podcasts. It’s a bunch of finance guys that get together and just talk for an hour and a half. And it’s amazing how podcasts are—and what you learn. But they talk a lot about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. And I’m learning a little bit about it.

But as you look—and the world’s going to a lot of that—but if we were to use even that in buying or selling, they’re going to trace everything.

I mean, and I think they trace everything right now. But if all of our buying and selling is then connected to Bitcoin, let’s say, we’re even more embedded into that system.

I’m not saying that’s the mark of the beast. What I’m saying is that this coming power can certainly use any tool at its disposal to control who buys or sells—just like the Catholic Church, the Roman Empire of Justinian’s time, and any other civil authority down through history used their technology—whether it was a club, a guillotine, a rack—to enforce worship of the Trinity with your forehead, observance of Sunday or Easter with your right hand, as you gave complete obedience to that system. Right?

And they used the technology to do it—whatever they had at that time.

So it certainly could be used into the future in some way to control who buys or sells.

Now, what is that? Think about the implications for that in your life and mine.

I mean, if we—look, I pull out my credit card. I use my credit card all the time. I don’t have my phone with me, but more often than not, I just use my Apple phone—Apple Pay—as much as I can. It’s easier.

Everything—I’ve got everything on my phone increasingly anymore. I’m just like everybody else.

And so, we are using that. I’m not worshiping the mark of the beast. I’m not taking that mark by doing so, or any other form of technology of and by itself.

And we all make our decisions as to what we do about anything—and read into that anything—whatever you want to read into.

But historically, scripturally, what we take—you know, we bind upon our forehead or with our right hand—comes down to what we believe in our heart and how we will live.

And that’s what we should keep in mind as we look ahead at everything.

There’s another example. This is from—well, this is from the Code of Justinian. It actually says, “Dissenters are to suffer confiscation of goods and to be declared incompetent to buy or sell.”

We’ve already talked about that.

I want to go to one other example. This is in the year 1163—another church council, the Council of Tours in what is France—Pope Alexander at that time.

He said, “It’s a damnable heresy that has lifted its head. Let there be no communication with them in buying or selling.”

This is from a quote taken from a book called The History of the Church by Waddington—I think it’s George Waddington.

And so, this is the Middle Ages—1163—Holy Roman Empire period. And we see the same pattern.

And that continued over hundreds of years more until the power of the Roman Catholic Church was broken—at the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance period.

Protestant Reformation, the printing press, the dissemination of the Bible into the common languages of people—and then printed and distributed in mass through that—that was a revolution that broke the power of the Catholic Church, along with a number of other wars and political events.

Henry VIII decided that he wanted to divorce his first wife and marry his second, to give him a son. And so he broke with the Church of Rome and started the Church of England.

So many, many events broke that power.

Then we come into the modern world, where we’re far more secular. And yet, these elements are still in the roots of the system that we talked about back in Daniel 4. Okay?

And so, with that, as we come down to here—this last verse—“Here is wisdom,” it says, “Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three score and six.” (Revelation 13:18)

So here’s the famous number. It’s been interpreted in many different ways, and there are probably multiple layers of meaning here.

We’re told here in Revelation to count—it’s like counting pebbles—to count the number of the name, which seems to be referring to the values that are given to the numbers, or numerical values that are given to the number, which was a very common practice at the time of John when he writes the book of Revelation.

Numbers were represented very often by letters in both Hebrew and in Greek, and in the Roman—through the Roman numeral system. Giving some totals, some total values of words, was part of the Hebrew practice called—it’s technically called gematria.

And there was a Greek equivalent called isopsephy, whereby a number was pointed to a letter and then put together into a name.

There’s an example of some graffiti writing on a wall in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii that has been excavated in modern years.

And here’s what the graffiti on a wall reads—quote—We’ve all seen graffiti, okay? The graffiti from the time of the 70s A.D., when Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius—quote, “I love her whose number is 545.”

“I love her whose number is 545.”

You ever seen somebody put their, “I love Jodi,” you know, “I’m in love with Richard,” on an overpass or carved on a tree or on a wall? I love—we use the name.

Then they—I’m in love with the one whose number is 545.

Girls, how would you like to be a number? Reduced to a number. I’m in love with… and they assign a numerical code to your name—545.

My point is, as John uses this—the number of this system, the number of a man—is 666. It’s taking something from the common culture of Rome and Greece at that time that we know.

When we come into the second century, there was a church writer named Irenaeus. He was a disciple of Polycarp, and Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John.

But Irenaeus, late in the second century, explains that 666 was the total in adding up the number values of the letters of the Greek word latinos—L-A-T-E-I-N-O-S—latinos, which meant “Latin man.” Latin man. Remember, it’s the number of a man, we’re told here.

And so the Greek name of the Roman Empire in the time of the Latin Kingdom—the name of it was H. Latinae Basilia. The numbers in the Greek added up to 666 of the Roman Empire during that time.

Revelation calls this the number of the beast and the number of a man, and says the number is of the name.

So here we have a Greek name of the empire—of every man in the empire, including its leader and its powerful church—and they all bear the name “Roman.” All right? Latin man.

And it’s very telling. It identifies us with the system, which is what we’ve been studying from the fourth beast of Daniel 7 to the beast here of Revelation 13, deriving from Rome and all of this.

It’s a pretty deep study, but it is identifying very clearly the powerful Roman system of rule and worship, which is all about sun worship, emperor worship, denying people the ability to obey God with their heart, with their right hand, and walking and believing what is truth—what is right.

And so the mark of the beast comes down to kind of a combination, multi-layered matter of things: the transfer of the weekly Christian worship from the biblical seventh day to the day of the sun, the first day of the week.

The Roman Church claiming that they did that, and changing many other aspects, and forbidding people to do that—or to even buy or sell—if they held such heretical views and any others.

How does that come down into our modern world?

Well, we’re looking at a system today that is obviously religious and civil. If we look at Europe, where we have always looked for this system to have its heart—let’s say its foundation—keeping in mind the tree that was cut down in Daniel 4, a band of iron put around it, the possibility that 2,520 years later that band is taken off and the roots grow back. We talked about that at that time as we were studying that.

We look at a very vastly secular European continent today—nowhere near what could be to arise to such a power. And yet, even with Europe today, we see a churn and changes that are being driven by a number of different factors: war, politics, leadership, etc.

And I think our prophetic narrative—I think, I know—is correct as we discern it from Daniel and Revelation. Even in parts of Germany today, in some very Catholic, very conservative pockets in Germany, you will go there and you will not find anything open on Sunday.

There are strict Sunday laws still in small sections of Europe.

Is that a root? Is that a little bit of a seed that could somehow, through many different circumstances and layers of activity, blossom into something at this period of time that has a spiritual renewal within a population where a beast rises—with miracle-working, deceptive powers—to catapult people from secularism to faith or a spiritual life?

Because everything else around them seems to be collapsing. The foundations are being ripped out.

And here comes a power—a political power—that promises to make the trains run on time, keep your credit cards working, protect your retirement accounts, and as I like to say, let you go to Disney World.

And that’s coupled with a miracle-working religious power.

What would people do? Well, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think about that.

Where will we who keep God’s laws be? Where will those be who want to hold to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ—as it says in Revelation 12:17—whom Satan will go after?

Satan will use his power to seek to eradicate any vestige of faith.

We’re warned not to take that into our hand or our forehead, and it’s speaking about how we live. It is speaking about how we believe.

We live by the truth. We live by the truth. We believe the truth. Always keep that in mind.

And where will technology be? Well, it’ll have some part, I’m sure, at that particular time.

But use the wisdom of the Scriptures. Use the story of history. And our traditional teaching in the Church, I think, holds up pretty good to that.

Well, that takes us to the end of chapter 13, and I think we’ve covered that adequately here. In the next class, we’ll pick up with chapter 14 and keep moving through.

So we’ll see you next time.