Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

13:18
work throughout Revelation are the Seven Stars/
Angels of the Presence (8:2), led by the Holy Spirit
(the Seven Spirits, connected with the angels in 3:1).
The divine order is thus:
Father
Son (Image of the Father)
Angels/Bishops
Church (image of the Son)
The Satanic parody of this is:
Dragon
Beast (Image of the Dragon)
False Prophet
Synagogue of Satan (Image of the Beast)
Throughout the Book of Revelation the Church speaks
liturgically, and the angels then act in history to bind
and loose by Trumpet and Chalice, bringing judgment
on the disobedient; similarly, the Synagogue “speaks,”
and the False Prophet brings its false judgments upon
those who defy its authority. The Church has been
resurrected, brought to life by the very Spirit/Breath of
God (11:11; cf. Gen. 2:7; John 20:22); the Synagogue
of Satan was animated by a spirit/breath as well
(13:15). And, just as the Angel of God marked the
foreheads of the righteous for protection (7:3), so the
Beast’s “angel” stamped the wicked with its own
branding mark of evil. The leaders of Israel worked to
enforce worship, not of the true God, as in the
Christian churches, but of the Synagogue itself – the
Image of the Beast.
18 It was by now clear to St. John’s readers that the Sea
Beast was the Roman Empire. St. John now provides
his readers with an identification of the Beast in a very
different form: Here is wisdom. Let him who has
understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for
the number is that of a man; and his number is 666.
As we shall see, 666 (literally, cxv ) j
21 is the numerical
value of the name Nero Caesar. 22
While this is a convenient (and, so far as it goes,
perfectly correct) solution, it also poses several
problems. If the Beast is to be identified with the
Roman Empire as a whole, rather than with Nero
alone, does this not change the “number of the Beast”
when another Caesar is on the throne? Moreover, is
this not merely an example of “newspaper exegesis” –
using first-century newspapers? 23 The answer is that
Nero’s name is not the primary reference of 666; rather,
the number of the Beast is based on several strands of
Biblical data which point ultimately to the Roman
Empire. The name Nero Caesar by no means exhausts
the significance of the riddle. The Bible itself gives us
enough information to allow us to identify Rome as the
Beast, the fulfillment of 666.
We begin with the simple number 6, which is
associated with both Beast and Man from the
beginning, since they were both created on the sixth
day of the week (Gen. 1:24-31). Six days out of seven
are given to man and beast for labor (Ex. 20:8-11); the
Hebrew slave was in bondage for six years before his
release in the seventh year (Ex. 21:2); six cities of
refuge were appointed for the accidental slaying of a
man (Num. 35:9-15). Six is thus the number of Man,
i.e. a human number. Lenski explains: “John writes the
number not in words but in Greek letters: c’= 600, x’=
60, v’= 6, thus 666. This is the number 6, plus its
multiple by 10, namely 60, again plus its multiple by 10
x 10 (intensified completeness), namely 600 – thus 666,
three times falling short of the divine 7. In other words,
not 777, but competing with 777, seeking to obliterate
777, but doing so abortively, its failure being as
complete as was its expansion by puffing itself up from
6 to 666.” 24 Six is thus the number Man was born with,
the number of his creation; the repetition of the
number reveals Man in opposition to God, trying to
increase his number, attempting to transcend his
creaturehood. But, try as he might, he can be nothing
more than a six, or a series of sixes.
And this is exactly what we see in Scripture, as apostate
man attempts to deify himself. Goliath, the ancient
enemy of God’s people, is as tall as “six cubits and a
span” (l Sam. 17:4) –i.e., six, plus a hand grasping for
more; the head of his spear weighs 600 shekels of iron.
(Goliath is, on several counts, a Beast; as the seed of
the Dragon, he wears scale-armor, 1 Sam. 17:5; but the
Seed of the Woman destroys him by inflicting a headwound,
1 Sam. 17:49-51.) Another striking example of
this pattern takes place when King Nebuchadnezzar
erects an image of himself measuring 60 cubits high and
6 cubits across (Dan. 3:1). 25 The impact of this is
magnified when we consider that the numerical value
of the Hebrew letters 26 in Daniel 3:1 (which describes
Nebuchadnezzar’s image) add up to 4,683 – which is 7
times 666 (4,662), plus 21, the triangular of 6
(triangulation will be explained presently).
21. In New Testament times the obsolete letter v (stigma, which made the sound
st) was used for the numeral 6; see A. T. Robertson and W. Hersey Davis, A
New Short Grammar of the Greek Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1931, 1933) p. 109.
22. It is sometimes objected that, by using various systems of computation, it is
possible to give practically anyone’s name the value of 666; thus, interpreters
have identified the Beast with the Pope, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Adolf
Hitler, and Henry Kissinger (among a host of others). The point should be
understood, however, that “not any possible solution of the name, but rather a
relevant solution, is required. Having already shown that the Roman Empire is
the Beast described in verses 1-8 of this chapter, we naturally look for some
name that gives specific designation of that power” (Milton Terry, Biblical
Apocalyptic, p. 401).
23. There is, of course, some justification for a first-century “newspaper exegesis,”
for the Book of Revelation itself leads us to expect a first-century fulfillment
of its prophecies. We should look – carefully – for historical events in the first
century which correspond to the apocalyptic visions. This does not
necessarily lend itself to undue speculation, for it is simply taking John’s own
statements about his book seriously. He said it would be fulfilled “shortly.”
24. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1943, 196s), PP. 411f.
25. St. Irenaeus sees 666 as a combination of Noah’s age at the Flood (600) –
symbolizing “all the commixture of wickedness which took place previous to
the deluge” – with the 60+6 of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, symbolizing “every
error of devised idols since the flood, together with the slaying of the
prophets and the cutting off of the just.” Against Heresies, in Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1973 reprint), Vol. 1, p. 558.
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