Mark of the Beast

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I am just wondering… does the mark of the Beast in Revelation imply that the Beast will have microchips implanted in our forehead and the palm of our hand?
 
It has nothing to do with microchips.

Seven is a number which represented perfection. God rested on the seventh day.

Six was a number which represented something which had failed to achieve perfection, something which had fallen short of the goal. Lots of sixes - 666 - meant something which was very imperfect.

That’s all it means. Perfection vs Imperfection.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
It has nothing to do with microchips.

Seven is a number which represented perfection. God rested on the seventh day.

Six was a number which represented something which had failed to achieve perfection, something which had fallen short of the goal. Lots of sixes - 666 - meant something which was very imperfect.

That’s all it means. Perfection vs Imperfection.

-Tim-
Click to expand...
What about 666 being the numeric value of Nero’s name?
 
BListon said:
I am just wondering… does the mark of the Beast in Revelation imply that the Beast will have microchips implanted in our forehead and the palm of our hand?
Click to expand...
Forehead, could be our eyes, a number memorized in our head, or a actual mark
Hand- fingerprint, or a card like a visa card,

or microchips.
 
People who focus on the mark are missing the reality of the concept being displayed- idolatry directed towards a man possessed by Satan. The outright rejection of God.

Given everything we read, it could literally be “666” and the world would stupidly go along with it because they’d be led to believe the Bible is Satanic lies and God Himself is on earth and bringing everyone into a great golden age.

Why worry about the Anti-Christ when we have multiple anti-Christs running around all over, and, in times of pride or weakness, embody ourselves?

I’d posit that all methods of marking/IDing/etc could be forerunners to the MOB so as to tear down defenses.

With the hell on earth that the world will experience running up to this, people will be tripping over themselves to take it and will gladly kill anyone holding them back from “perfection”.
 
BListon said:
I am just wondering… does the mark of the Beast in Revelation imply that the Beast will have microchips implanted in our forehead and the palm of our hand?
Click to expand...
As with Scripture generally, it can speak across the generations. In Nero’s time, it may well have referred to him. It might have meant the Roman coins in use with Caesar’s visage on both sides.

Personally, I think it will be some sort of chip implanted in our forehead or the hand. For one thing you couldn’t steal it, particularly if it was hooked up to some sort of killing instrument, in case of interference.

I mean the conditions are that the anti-Christ has to be able to force the whole world to do his bidding. And there’s only one country that can do that at the moment - the USA.

It has to be possible for a one world government to exist, which is now possible with the global village.

It has to be possible to track everybody, and commercial exchange would have to be possible with this “mark” in the hand or palm, which could be done in an electronic or cashless society, backed up by super computers and satellites.

While it may not be possible for a chip to be read by a satellite (typically a 3 to 12 inch range is needed, as when a vet reads a pet’s implant with something like a large magnifiying glass), it’s only a matter of hooking the reader to a computer, then to a satellite for near instantaneous reading by something like the NSA. The requirement is to be able to “buy or sell”.

The potential is there for all these things to take place,and I think modern technology could already carry these things out on a limited basis. So I believe it crosses the generations. It could apply to Nero and the Roman Empire. It could also apply to a modern world dictatorship.

About all we’d need would be a really major crisis or crises for potential dictators to come crawling out of the woodwork. I could name at least 4 areas or events which could cause this.

That’s my opinion anyway. I think it speaks across the generations. And I do think it refers to a chip or something similar.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
What about 666 being the numeric value of Nero’s name?
Click to expand...
John uses numbers here very cleverly. It is interesting that you bring this up.

I think John meant this to be Nero, and by association, the entire empire of Rome and all of its religious practices as well as its persecution of the Church.

I’m not a big fan of quoting commentary, but the one in the NAB fits very well.

Each of the letters of the alphabet in Hebrew as well as in Greek has a numerical value. Many possible combinations of letters will add up to 666, and many candidates have been nominated for this infamous number. The most likely is the emperor Caesar Nero (see note on Rev 13:3), the Greek form of whose name in Hebrew letters gives the required sum. (The Latin form of this name equals 616, which is the reading of a few manuscripts.) Nero personifies the emperors who viciously persecuted the church. It has also been observed that “6” represents imperfection, falling short of the perfect number “7,” and is represented here in a triple or superlative form.

John is using the idea of imperfection or corruption (6) and perfection (7) and applies tripple sixes to the emperor of Rome. Remember, the emperor was thought to be a God.

6 = imperfect worship of the Old Testament
7 = perfect worship of the perfect Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
666 = really, really, really, REALLY corrupt worship of the emperor-god and his persecution of the Church.

John also cleverly applies the number 6 to the rules and regulations of the Jewish Law of Moses when he recounts the wedding feast at Cana.

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. (John 2:6)

Ever notice that? There are six jars of water which Jesus turns into wine. Remember that John wrote both the Gospel here and the book of Revelation and that he uses the number six in both, and remember that John was a Jew by race and culture and he and his audience understood the symbolism of these numbers.

The number of jars shows the imperfection, and even the corruption of the Law of Moses. Jesus turns it around by converting the water used in Jewish rituals which can never take away sin into wine - the wine of the Gospel and the wine that will be turned into his blood at the Last Supper and poured out for the sins of the world. Jesus converts the contents of the jars into wine, and later converts the contents of the imperfect Law of Moses into something better, into the perfect law of love.

It helps to have some understanding of how Jews used numbers to communicate things.

Here is another good one, one of my favorites.

When Jesus became aware of this he said, “You of little faith, why do you conclude among yourselves that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand, and do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many wicker baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?" (Matthew 16:8-10)

Whenever we see a number used in scripture we should slam on the brakes and ask ourselves, what is the author - what is God - trying to tell us?

Five loaves and five thousand? Seven loaves and four thousand? What is God trying to tell us?

Jesus feeds four thousand with seven loaves. Seven represents perfection and four represented the four corners of the earth. In feeding four thousand with seven loaves, Matthew is telling us that the Gentiles from the four corners of the earth (4000) will reach perfection (7 loaves).

Previous to this however, Jesus had fed *five thousand with five *loaves. Five represented the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which correspond to the first five books of the Christian Old Testament. Jesus feeds five thousand with five fish, showing that they are stuck in the laws of the Old Testament Pentateuch, the Laws of Moses from the first five books of the Bible.

It’s all very clever, and the Jewish authors used numbers to communicate very specific things to their audience, things which we miss because we have lost the perspective of first century Jews. It’s super fun to come across this stuff, to read something again for the 999th time and suddenly have a new meaning jump off the page and smack us in the face. 👍

But I still don’t see it having anything to do with microchips. 😃

-Tim-
 
FWIW, I’ve read that the number could also be 616, not just 666
 
Sounds like a lot of wild guessing going on here. Wonder what the church says about it?

Perhaps that would be a good place to start rather than folks doing their “own interpreting” of scripture like other folks do.
 
The trouble with most symbolic interpretations is that they ignore the business of being forced to have the mark on forehead or hand. It’s one thing to talk about ancient Roman coins bearing Caesar’s image (which it could hardly mean since Christ himself said, “Render unto Ceasar those things which are Ceasar’s, and give to God what is God’s”, and He was specifically holding up a Roman coin in his hand at that very time), but it’s another when there is mention of a mark being forced upon forehead or hand.

Most symbolic interpretations completely ignore this.
 
Couldn’t the mark on the hand and forehead really mean worship and service?
The mark on the forehead representing worship and the mark on the hand representing service.
 
The number 666 has been tied to its owner. Proof goes on and on concerning the identity of the owner.

Sorry…I can’t share the details due to the rules concerning spamming.

There is vast range of circumstances these days, all good in nature, that are still immediately classified as being nothing but obvious cases of spamming, even though in truth, neither of them had spamming as the actual intention.

It may take the passing of several generations before intellect grows beyond this unfortunate intellectual impairment.
 
BListon said:
I am just wondering… does the mark of the Beast in Revelation imply that the Beast will have microchips implanted in our forehead and the palm of our hand?
Click to expand...
I’m no Greek scholar but I don’t believe 1st century Greek had a word for microchip. The book of Revelation says it’s a mark on the hand or forehead. Here’s the text:

Rev 13:16-1 It compelled everyone – small and great alike, rich and poor, slave and citizen – to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead, and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name. (NJB)

Anything beyond this is pure speculation.
 
Luvtosew said:
Forehead, could be our eyes, a number memorized in our head, or a actual mark
Hand- fingerprint, or a card like a visa card,

or microchips.
Click to expand...
Why can’t it just believe what it says? Why do we have to read all kinds of things into the text?
 
Bob_Crowley said:
As with Scripture generally, it can speak across the generations. In Nero’s time, it may well have referred to him. It might have meant the Roman coins in use with Caesar’s visage on both sides.

Personally, I think it will be some sort of chip implanted in our forehead or the hand. For one thing you couldn’t steal it, particularly if it was hooked up to some sort of killing instrument, in case of interference.

I mean the conditions are that the anti-Christ has to be able to force the whole world to do his bidding. And there’s only one country that can do that at the moment - the USA.

It has to be possible for a one world government to exist, which is now possible with the global village.

It has to be possible to track everybody, and commercial exchange would have to be possible with this “mark” in the hand or palm, which could be done in an electronic or cashless society, backed up by super computers and satellites.

While it may not be possible for a chip to be read by a satellite (typically a 3 to 12 inch range is needed, as when a vet reads a pet’s implant with something like a large magnifiying glass), it’s only a matter of hooking the reader to a computer, then to a satellite for near instantaneous reading by something like the NSA. The requirement is to be able to “buy or sell”.

The potential is there for all these things to take place,and I think modern technology could already carry these things out on a limited basis. So I believe it crosses the generations. It could apply to Nero and the Roman Empire. It could also apply to a modern world dictatorship.

About all we’d need would be a really major crisis or crises for potential dictators to come crawling out of the woodwork. I could name at least 4 areas or events which could cause this.

That’s my opinion anyway. I think it speaks across the generations. And I do think it refers to a chip or something similar.
Click to expand...
If the mark of the beast is something implanted under the skin, how could John have seen it?
 
bauerice said:
Couldn’t the mark on the hand and forehead really mean worship and service?
The mark on the forehead representing worship and the mark on the hand representing service.
Click to expand...
That’s what I think it is.

According to the Catechism, Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. (1272).

I can imagine that perhaps the Antichrist will demand of his followers to take part in an initiation ritual, a sort of parody of Baptism, that imparts on their souls the Mark of the Beast.

However, unlike the mark of baptism, such a mark could not be indelible, as God always allows one to repent.
 
corsair said:
Sounds like a lot of wild guessing going on here. Wonder what the church says about it?

Perhaps that would be a good place to start rather than folks doing their “own interpreting” of scripture like other folks do.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind the Church does not have an opinion on every verse of Scripture. As long as you don’t get into the realm of being dogmatic about your opinions, you are quite free to have your own opinion. Even on those few passages on which the Church has spoken authoritatively, you are free to believe they also mean something additional as long as you don’t negate the official teaching.
 
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