Many interpret this to mean that every man in the world will be assigned a number (such as a social security number) so that "Big Brother" (the "beast") can keep track of him, and hence control man's life. In the age of personal computers and the internet, this seems very plausible, but if one studies the prophecies in the language it was written in (Hebrew), one will arrive at a much better theory as to what this 666 really is.

First, let us digress toward a little background on the subject.

In the ancient numerology of the day the text was written, the number 3 stood for divinity. The number 6 stood for man (who was viewed as inherently evil...without God, of course), and the number 9 stood for God and all that's holy. Therefore, the number 999 represents the trinity and divinity in God. The number 666 (also note that this is 999 "upside-down") represents a divinity in mankind and all the natural evils it embodies.

In the Hebrew language, a limited amount of symbols are used to represent numbers. Depending on context and symbol placement, the very exact same set of symbols may represent more than one unique number. This is what lead to a controversy within theological circles regarding a misinterpretation of the "mark" as the number 616. In actuality, the number in the Hebrew manuscripts could be interpreted to be the numbers 66, 666 and their products with various powers of 10 (660, 6600, 6660, 66600, etc.)!

In these recent times, man has earned himself a more evil place in the world. Mankind itself could very well be called a beast. As we say, it's our nature, or "the nature of the beast." What not if the prophecies foretell of man being individually numbered, but instead numbered as a whole entity...an entity of evil and corruption. Those who are "a part of the world" will be those receptive to the beast, hence, receiving its "mark." Those not marked will not be a part of the evil system of man, but instead of the holy God's system. Because of this, those not receiving the beast will be shunned by it, and not allowed to partake in its operations...thus, not allowed to buy or sell etc. (as the scriptures say).

One way to "mark" (or measure) mankind is to count him. Not necessarily assigning an identity number to each person, but counting the number of all those individuals. Therefore, the number represented in the Book of Revelation could be the WORLD'S POPULATION!

Since this scriptural number or "mark" of the "beast" could be the world population, one of the numbers it could represent is 6,660,000,000! That is, when the world population reaches 6.66 billion people, this may "mark" the beginning of the end. This may be an indicator of how near the Rapture is, as well as indicating the rise of a New World Order and/or a representative and ruler of the "beast"...a world dictator!

What a coincidence! In 1999 the WTO (World Trade Organization) met with extreme opposition. Protestors were beaten by the "beast" government as they rallied against a possible loss of the free market as the world moves toward a global cooperative enterprise. At the same time the world population was approaching 6.66 billion as we neared Y2K (the year 2000, which was believed by many fundamentalists to be the date of the return of Christ and/or the Rapture).

Visit this page again to keep an eye on the world population!

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