Rethinking 666: The Beast, Nero, and the Mark of Allegiance

Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where

we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters

of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.

Let's jump in to today's episode. All right,

we are back. This week we get to jump into the

discussion about 666. the Mark of the Beast.

I'm going to talk about that. Last week we covered

the Antichrist, so this week just fitting that

we would discuss this. Just a FYI for my listeners,

we're going to finish this series and then I'm

going to take a couple months off, probably take

off the months of July and August. That way I

can prep and record and do all that kind of fun

stuff as we dive into the next season. That'll

give me some plenty of time to work on some things,

get some stuff pre -recorded, get some notes

together. Plus August is a busy month for me.

That is my wife and I's anniversary. um as well

as her birthday is that month July is just you

know you got summertime I have three kids so

instead of me pushing trying to get all of this

um I'm going to take that time and still record

and move from that point but just to give you

a heads up uh what's going to be happening during

that time frame um just so you would know so

Let me get my notes together here. So again,

talking about, I want you to think about, because

when you think about the Mark of the Beast, I

want you to go back and think about what we've

discussed already as far as the beast in Revelation

representing an oppressive empire, an oppressive

empire power, most clearly the Roman Empire.

The number 666, as we're going to discuss today,

likely points to the Emperor Nero, and I will

explain that here in just a moment. So, when

you hear, I want you to just take a minute and

think about, when you hear 666, what comes to

your mind? Is it fear? Is it... Chips is it not

potato chips, but like microchips. Is it the

devil is it in times? Well, you know what comes

to mind when you hear the number six six six

or when you see the number six six six me I've

worked and then customer service before and it

used to I just get tickled Because people would

come up and ring something up and it would come

out to the total six dollars and sixty six cents

of which most people would say need to add something

to that we've got to change that number that

number is bad luck and I want to help you understand

that's just a number I actually took a picture

of my car at the time I was pulling in the driveway

one day and it had the mileage on it sixty six

thousand six hundred and sixty six so I snapped

a picture of it because I was tickled and sent

it to my wife but most people have been taught

to fear um the number 666 but again i want you

to remember something remember was written to

strengthen believers not to terrify them also

remember that revelation is filled with symbolism

completely filled with symbolism we take one

of the most symbolic books with all sorts of

symbolism and all sorts of mysteries and there's

things that we take very literal So again, let's

look at the beast, and we discussed it last week,

but again, repetition to me, I feel like is important.

So we're gonna read Revelation chapter 13, verses

Revelation 13 · chapter mention

one through 10. It says this, then I saw a wild

beast rising from the sea with 10 horns and seven

heads. On its horns were 10 royal crowns and

on its heads were blasphemous names. Now, Dr.

Simmons has a footnote on this verse and it says

the word beast, which is therawin, is used in

the Bible for an evil person or in describing

the sinful nature of man. It is found extensively

in classical Greek describing wicked or pathetic

people. A flatterer, excuse me, sorry, Plato

applies it to people and says a flatterer is

a horrid creature, therawin who does great harm.

I'm just scrolling through some of these notes.

I'm not gonna read them all. I think that's enough

for that verse. But continuing on to verse two,

it says, it was like a leopard with feet like

a bear's. It was like a leopard with feet like

a bear's and its mouth like the mouth of a lion.

The dragon shared his power, throne, and great

authority with the wild beast. One of the heads

of the wild beast seemed to have received a deathly

wound, but the wound had been healed. After this,

the whole world was filled with fascination and

followed the wild beast. They worshiped the dragon

because he had given the beast its ruling authority.

They also worshiped the wild beast, saying who

is like the wild beast and who is able to make

war against him. The wild beast was given the

mouth to speak boastful and blasphemous words,

and he was permitted to exercise authority for

42 months. So the wild beast began to blaspheme

against God, blaspheming his holy name and his

dwelling place, that is those who dwell in heaven.

The beast was given the authority to wage war

against the holy believers and he was given authority

over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

Everyone on earth will worship the wild beast,

those whose names have not been written from

the foundation of the world in the book of life

of the lamb who was slain. If anyone has ears

to hear, he better listen. For the one who leads

others into captivity, into captivity he goes.

The one who kills others by the sword, by the

sword he will be put to death. This is a call

for the endurance and faithfulness of holy believers.

And I want you to think about something again

when you hear things like sea and beast. I want

you to remember a lot of imagery is happening.

So what does a sea represent? Typically in the

scripture it would represent chaos and nations.

A beast would represent a kingdom or empire.

This is not talking about when it's using the

word beast. It's not monsters. It's talking about

empires. It's not talking about sci -fi movies.

It's talking about empires. So again, the beast

represents empire power, not a literal monster,

and I think that's really just important for

us to understand and get inside of our system,

that there's so much symbolism and how they would

have heard this scripture or these words then,

they would have known the symbolism of what was

being said. So let's remember just a couple of

things. Christians lived under Roman rule. Rome

would have demanded loyalty. They would have

demanded submission, emperor honor, and some

emperors even demanded worship. Rome would have

looked powerful, Rome would have looked unstoppable,

dominant, but Revelation reveals that Rome is

not ultimate, Christ is. So, now that we've talked

a little bit more about the beast, I wanna talk

about the number 666. Revelation 13, 18 says

this, this will require wisdom to understand.

Let the one with insight interpret the numbers.

the number of the wild beast, for it is humanity's

number 666. I'm gonna read Dr. Simmons' footnote

here. It says, or man's number. The Aramaic can

be translated the son of Adam's number. There's

no reference to the Antichrist in the book of

Revelation. We went over that last week. The

beast is equated to the nature of humanity. The

number 666 is the number of man, not an incarnation

of the devil, but human. nature and that's important

for us to remember and grab hold of the number

666 is the number of man not an incarnation of

the devil the number six is always equated sorry

the number six is always equated with man for

man was created on which day the sixth day the

wild beast rising out from the ground which Man

was made from is the sin of man that wars against

our souls and prevents the image of Christ from

emerging in fullness within believers Now this

is important. I want you to catch this the number

666 cannot be literal for a literal number would

need no wisdom to interpret Both the mark of

the beast and the mark of the foreheads of God's

faithful followers is a metaphor of the character

of the beast revealed by thoughts and by actions.

Thoughts would represent your forehead, actions

would represent your hands. So by associating

the wild beast with 666, John is pointing us

to the dimensions of Nebuchadnezzar's idol and

to Solomon's fall into sin. Daniel 3, 1, 1 Kings

10, 14 is some of your reference points there.

Now, let me give you some more information that

I think is helpful. because in the ancient world

letters had number values. Words could equal

numbers, like a code for instance. It was called

gematria. Gematria is an Assyrian Babylonian

later Jewish method of interpreting Hebrew scriptures

by assigning a numerical value to each letter.

adding them up to find connections between words

with identical sums. This was a widespread ancient

practice of assigning numerical values to letters.

It was used for secret communication such as

666 code for Nero Caesar in Revelation designed

to be interpreted by locals while avoiding detection.

So the Nero Caesar, if you take his Hebrew Letters

and you can Google this and research this yourself

If you take his Hebrew letters Each letter is

given a numerical value and if you add up his

name You have the number 666 this has been recognized

by many scholars that 666 would typically represent

Emperor Nero Nero's Caesar What was he known

for? Nero was known for persecution. He's known

for violence. He's known for oppression of Christians.

He became a symbol of imperial cruelty. So again,

666 likely pointed to Nero, a ruler who persecuted

believers. This is important for us to grab hold

of. Some ancient manuscripts say that it could

mean 616 which also equals Nero Caesar. It would

have a slightly different spelling to make that.

So I want you to think about the mark of the

beast. We have the whole 666 idea under our belt

and again I'm not asking you to agree with me.

I'm trying to give you a different thought to

cause you to rethink and have some better thoughts

and hope for the future and not looking for doom

and gloom. That is the hope here. So, again,

I mentioned it a while ago in Dr. Simmons' footnote.

If you look at the mark of the beast as far as

the forehead, forehead is a representation of

what? What happens in that area? It's thinking.

It's your thoughts, where your thoughts come

from. Then you have hand, which would be reference

to action. So what is the mark of the beast?

It means allegiance or loyalty, not microchips

and not technology. What? If you think about

the foreheads, where your decisions are made,

it's your mindsets, it's your convictions, the

hand, it's your deeds, it's your obedience. So

it's a mark of allegiance, it's a sign of loyalty.

This is not talking about 2026 technology and

a whole bunch of microchips. That is not what

it's asking for. Citizens in Rome were expected

to declare loyalty to Caesar. They would have

been expected to offer incense to honor the emperor.

That pressure would have created division. So

again, the mark represents loyalty, not technology.

Why does this matter? Because it's not Rome today,

but there are still systems of power, oppression,

false loyalty, all that stuff still exists. I

want you to ask yourself, What today demands

loyalty from you? Government? Money? Culture?

Power? Think about this. What in your life is

demanding loyalty that affects your thoughts

and your thoughts would affect your deeds with

your hands? So the danger is not number, just

not the number 666 appearing. And that's just

a number. The danger is misplaced allegiance.

And I want you to think about Think about this,

many things have been labeled the mark of the

beast. Credit cards, social security numbers,

vaccines, barcodes, UPC symbols, microchips,

RFID chips, COVID vaccine, passport, smartphones,

digital currency, government IDs, the internet.

All of this stuff was labeled at somewhere along

the line by different groups of people. This

is the mark of the beast. I specifically remember

hearing stuff like this during COVID. So it's

just really important for us to grab hold of.

These were predictions just like the whole Antichrist.

What has been referenced to the Antichrist? What

has been referenced to the mark of the beast?

And all these things have failed repeatedly.

And there's a contrast. Understand, there is

a difference between the beast mark and God's

mark. So Revelation shows two marks, not just

one. I'm gonna read it to you in Revelation chapter

seven, verses one through three. After this,

I saw four angels standing at the four corners

of the earth, and they were restraining the four

winds so that no wind would blow on the land,

on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another

angel ascending from the east who had the seal

of the living God He shouted out with a loud

voice to the four angels who had been given power

to damage earth and sea saying Do not damage

the earth the sea or the trees until we have

marked the loving servants of our God with our

seal on their foreheads So the seal is the mind

of dr. Simmons footnotes here The seal is the

mind of Christ for it goes on the forehead which

where your thoughts are Until we have the mind

of Christ, we are incapable of discerning properly.

Let me help you understand that you have been

given the mind of Christ. Tap into that. We are

incapable of discerning properly. Partaking of

Christ's mind empowers us to be righteous judges,

righteous kings, and righteous priests. This

seal is more than a seal of protection from the

coming judgments, but it's a seal that qualifies

them to bring the righteous judgments of God

to the earth then where is God's judgment always

aimed? It's aimed at whatever interferes between

us and the love of the love of the Father towards

us. This is the nature of God being written upon

the foreheads and minds of his holy ones. The

seal on their forehead is the mind of Christ

which is the mark of Christ. The wind of judgments

are held back until the sons of God have the

thoughts and mind of Christ. If you look at the

seal of the Lamb's blood on the doors of the

Israelites, protected them from the death angel,

the new covenant seal is the Holy Spirit, the

mind of Christ that opens our hearts to the restoration

of heaven. We are the seven sealed scroll that

is broken open so that the all conquering life

of Christ will subdue all things. I want you

to hear this, that we are living letters written

not with ink, but by the Spirit of God writing

truth upon our hearts. the volume of the book,

Scroll, it is written about Christ. So I want

you to think about this. You are a living epistle.

You are a scripture. You are a Bible for others

to read. They're reading your life. They're reading

your story. They're reading your reactions. um

that's why it's important to understand what

the seal of god means it means protection belonging

identity this is not literal ink it's not stamps

it's it's not symbolic it's it's symbolic ownership

that's what it is symbolic ownership you are

owned by the father so stop trying to get somewhere

that you actually already are what does the beast

mark represent opposition false allegiance submission

to empires the key is this every everyone is

marked by something the question is who do you

belong to that is the question that you and i

need to consider the problem is my friend and

this goes with anything fear grows when scripture

is disconnected from history and moments like

this. So I want you to hear three truths as we

begin to close this one out. And I hope this

helps you go back and listen to this, really

just allow this to give you a different point

of view. Number one, the beast represents empire

power. Number two, 666, it's just another my

friend. Don't freak out when you see it pop up

on the register. It points to human authority

opposing God like Emperor Nero in this time frame.

Number three, the mark is about loyalty, not

technology. Okay? The beast in Revelation was

not written to make believers afraid of numbers.

It was written to help believers. recognize oppressive

power and to remain faithful to Christ. The number

666 was not a mystery that was meant to terrify.

It was a symbol meant to expose empire and to

remind believers that even the most powerful

rulers are still under the authority of Jesus.

Think about that, my friend. It wasn't meant

to be. terror it wasn't meant to be something

afraid of he was they was communicating something

real to these people so think about this I hope

this helps give you some background on it Again

you can do a really deep dive into all this and

I encourage you to do that on your own free time

when you have that moment. This is just a teaching

to help give you different viewpoints, a different

point of view, a more hopeful outlook for the

future. Remember Romans 8 tells us that the earth

is groaning and traveling for the manifestation

of the sons and daughters of Yahweh. The world

around you is waiting for you to understand who

you are as a son. and daughter and for you to

become a word for the world around you. Think

about that and until next time be blessed. Thanks

for spending some time with me today on the Kingdom

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time, live love, live free, and live from the

life of the Kingdom.