What is the "mark of the beast" described in the book of Revelation? How can Christians avoid receiving this mark? Today, W. Robert Godfrey delves into this apocalyptic imagery and shows how God's people are called to persevere in faith.
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Meet Today's Teacher:
W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
The idea is if you can get the right name and you can assign the numerical value to the letters in that name, and if those numerical values add up to 666, then you'll be able to know who it is. And there's a marvelous section in Leo Tolstoy's great novel War and Peace. Many people are saying Napoleon is the Antichrist. If you take the phrase in French, the Emperor Napoleon, and you assign it the value of Greek letters, and if you leave out just one letter, you get to 666. What could be more persuasive? Christians and non-Christians alike have heard of 666 and the mark of the beast. Throughout history, there have been a variety of calculations for 666, and as technology has advanced, some say we're getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast, but perhaps it's already here. It's good to have you with us for this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind, so you spend a few days in the Book of Revelation. As a new Christian, I had a fascination with this book, and there were many teachers willing to share how they had unlocked the secrets of this book, it seemingly God had hidden from Christians throughout the ages, and sadly, it led to missing the wonderful message and encouragement that's available for God's people when they understand this portion of Sacred Scripture. So, I hope you're being helped this week with this study from Dr. Godfrey. The mark of the beast, 666, what does it all mean? Here's Dr. Godfrey. Well, I left your hanging last time, didn't I? We had come to the end of the sixth vision of the fourth cycle, and we'd come to this famous statement, verse 18 of chapter 13 of the Book of the Revelation. This calls for wisdom. Obviously, that's referring to all that preceded, all about the beast from the earth and the beast from the sea and the dragon. What does all that mean? It calls for wisdom to understand it. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. Now, there are several things to note there. One is, once again, John is explaining a symbol to us. The beast is really a man. He's not a beast. It's a symbol, and it's a symbol referring to human realities, to people. And then he says, "Let the one who has understanding calculate the number." Now, understanding is not a special spiritual gift. When he talks about wisdom and understanding, he's not talking about someone special figuring this out. Those who fear the Lord have wisdom and understanding. The Proverbs say that. This is a truth that ought to be accessible to Christians who have understanding and wisdom. So, again, we're seeing, I hope, that this is not a mystery box to be solved. And surely, the implication here is that people who originally read the letter in the first century should be able to figure this out. They're called upon to calculate it with understanding. So, if this is a reference to Adolf Hitler, it would be pretty hard for first century people to calculate that. And it helps remind us that this image of the beast is not just an end time, as we like to say, experience. It's just not right before Jesus comes together. It's not a time of tribulation three and a half years at the end of history. But this beast is all through history. And therefore, 21st century people, as well as 1st century people, ought to be able to figure out who it is. Now, the temptation to Christians through the centuries has been to use what is called gametria. Gametria is assigning to Greek letters a numerical value. And in fact, Greeks used letters for numbers sometimes. So, the idea is if you can get the right name and you can assign the numerical value to the letters in that name, and if those numerical values add up to 666, then you'll be able to know who it is. And there's a marvelous section in Leo Tolstoy's great novel War and Peace, where the Russians are preparing for the French invasion, and many people are saying Napoleon is the Antichrist. And there's a discussion described that if you take the phrase "in French," now exactly how much French the apostle John knew is a question, but if you take the phrase "in French," the emperor Napoleon, and you assign it the value of Greek letters, does this already sound just a little peculiar? And if you leave out just one letter, you get to 666. What could be more persuasive? Well, you see, this is just silliness. This isn't what John is trying to help the church do. So do you want to know what 666 really means, or at least my theory? I think, also I should say, gametria is never used in the book of the Revelation. So this would be entirely unique. We have no encouragement to think this is what John intended here. So what's going on? Well, what do we find everywhere in the book of the Revelation? We find sevens as the number of completion, as the number of perfection, as we could say God's number. And so what did we find in this section? We found the evil one's constantly trying to ape Christ. And I think this number says he can never get to seven. The best he can do is get to six. And try and try as he might. All he can do is be 666. He can never be 777. Now maybe that's disappointing. It's more fun to think it's Napoleon or Hitler or somebody yet to come. But I think the promise here is we'll know what it means. It's not a mystery. It's not something that waits 2,000 years to be solved. This is all meant to be an encouragement. And the encouragement is the evil one at his very best is only 666. And Jesus always is 777. So here's the encouragement for us that although the beast will cause havoc for the people of God in all sorts of ways, he'll never succeed. He's only a 6. In our language he'll never be a 10. So that's the picture here. That's the encouragement here. Now then we come to the seventh of the episodes in this fourth cycle in verses 1 through 5 of chapter 14. And I've argued that there's a kind of parallel between the church in vision 1 and the church in vision 7. The church, the woman pregnant in labor in agony, is the church struggling. And now in vision 7 we see the church triumphant. And that's the pattern being laid out here in the central cycle from struggle to triumph. And it's beautifully expressed for us here then in chapter 14. Then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb. This is the only reference to Zion in the book of the Revelation. So we ask, is this the earthly Zion or is this the heavenly Zion? And rather clearly I think it has to be the heavenly Zion. This is a language already used in the book of Hebrews. And so this is a spiritual vision of the success and blessing and triumph of the church. Then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. Not the mark of the beast, but the name of God is on them. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunders, the voice I heard was like the sound of harpus playing their harps. And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. See, this is a heavenly reality being described. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins. It is these who follow the lamb, wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb and in their mouth no lie was found for they are blameless. So here's a picture of praise in heaven, of the redeemed in heaven, of those who have been marked for God and preserved by God and glorified by God. And again it's symbolic in all sorts of ways. And there are questions we like to ask. They are blameless. Well, as we saw when we studied the Psalms, the word blameless can have the sense of covenantally faithful, covenantally committed, not morally perfect, but covenantally faithful. And that's who these people are. They remain faithful to the Lord in the face of persecution and temptation. They have not given way to fear, but they have stood fast in faith. And they are described as virgins. Now this is a somewhat important point because not long after the apostolic era, not a short time, but not long. A few centuries after the apostolic era there will arise in Christianity a call for the most spiritual, not to Mary. And there will be the rise of a great movement that will produce monasteries and convents where men and women will go and pledge themselves to God and not to Mary. And in the Roman Catholic Church there will develop over time, takes quite a few centuries, but will develop over time a conviction that priests sought not to Mary. Is this a verse that supports the idea that virginity is a preferable state to being married? I don't think anyone would argue it's the primary purpose here, but is it saying that in some sense virginity is superior to the married state? Well, I think again what we're seeing is a symbol here. And I think we should read this in the same way that we would read Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2 where Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I feel a divine jealousy for you," writing to the whole church, "I feel a divine jealousy for you for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." I think that's what's really going on here. We are the bride of Christ. We're to be a virginal bride of Christ when we come to the Savior. And that's what's being called for here. That's what's being described here. I think that's important then to see this celebration at the end. And so the blessing of this fourth cycle to us is that although the church will have many struggles, Christ will triumph in and for his people. Again, we might say, well, there's a lot of imagery here for such a simple conclusion, but it's what the whole thing drives us to and should be the great encouragement for us. So that brings us then to cycle 5, which is actually the shortest cycle in the book. It's so short I don't need to write it on the board. Cycle 5 is Revelation 14 verse 6 through verse 20. So it's only about 15 verses. And initially we might ask, well, are you so sure that we're into a new cycle? Because at verse 6 of chapter 14 we read, then I saw another angel flying directly overhead. Well, are we sure that starts a new cycle? There's no number. There doesn't seem to be much of an introduction here. We just sort of plunge into it. How do we know this is just a continuation of cycle 4? Well, I think we're shown that if we turn over to verse 8, another angel, a second followed, and then verse 9, and another angel, a third. So all of a sudden John has started quoting these angels, so another angel of verse 6 has to be the first. Now after the third angel, he stops counting again. But if we go on counting, we probably have six angels, but I'm not allowing that to slow me down, because although there are only six angels, there are seven appearances of the angels. So one of the angels makes a redo. He comes back again. This cycle is not about seven angels. It's about seven angelic appearances. You see, I'm being very precise in the way I'm talking about this. And it brings us now to the beginning of the discussion of last judgment pictured for us by God. Up until this point, we've really been looking at the church's experience and the church's life, the church suffering, the church persevering, and now we're going to look at the church and final judgment. And it's introduced initially in this very short cycle. So this is almost the summary cycle. This is the beginning cycle. If we were to go back to our chiasm of the book as a whole, if we're now in the fifth cycle, we should expect the fifth cycle to correspond a little bit to the third cycle. And remember, the third cycle was on the suffering of the wicked in history. And so we'll see the fifth cycle focuses on the suffering of the wicked in final judgment. So there's a kind of focal focus, a focal look at a final judgment on the wicked here in this fifth cycle. So what do we see? Again, it's very brief. It's very succinct. Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water." Now this first angelic appearance then is a call to those who dwell on earth, to the wicked, a call to them saying, "Judgments coming, but it's not too late. Repent." And I think this is really important because it reminds us that when judgment comes, it does not come on those who never had a chance to respond, who were just ignorant, who never heard anything about God, who could never have been expected to know anything about God. And indeed, there is an appeal here. There is an appeal. Fear God and give him glory. This angel is described as bearing the eternal gospel. Now you remember at the beginning, you may not actually remember, but I'll remind you, at the beginning we said one of the approaches to this book at the time of the Reformation was the church historical approach. And so the question always being asked was, what chapter are we in in terms of the unfolding of history? And a number of Lutherans insisted that the angel bearing the eternal gospel is Martin Luther. Sort of a charming notion, but I don't think it's right. I don't think it's right. There are several things about this. This is the only use of the word the noun gospel in the book of the Revelation. It's used in a verbal form one other place, but it's the only noun. I think it's really maybe better translated here, eternal good news, because what the angel has to say is not the gospel specifically about the work of Jesus. This is good news more generally about the reality of God as Creator. And so I think what is in mind here is to remind us all that whether we hear a preacher who tells us about Jesus or not, the creation preaches to us that there is a Creator. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth showeth forth his handiwork. That's the reality that surrounds every creature. And that's why no creature will be able to say, I never knew anything. I never had an opportunity. I'm completely surprised. No creation itself bears witness to a Creator. And have you sought the Creator? Have you feared and given glory to God? And you see how God is described here? Worship Him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs. So the point here is that there is a testimony of what we call general revelation that surrounds everybody and points to God. And it is only in disobedience and rebellion that we refuse to listen and refuse to respond. So the first angelic appearance is a warning of judgment to come. And then the second angelic appearance, verse 8, another angel, a second followed saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great. She who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." This is really intriguing, I think. I keep saying I'm really intrigued. Our pastor in our church is forever telling us that the verse he's preaching is his favorite verse. And we all sort of smile. But we appreciate his enthusiasm. And this is intriguing. This is the first time Babylon is mentioned in the book of the Revelation. And particularly in cycles 6 and 7, Babylon is going to be very prominent. And we're going to be exposed to the power and the influence and the success of Babylon. But here, what's the first thing we're told about Babylon the Great? She's fallen. She's fallen. It's again the encouraging character of this book as it reveals itself to us. We could be terrified by Babylon. Babylon, I'm going to argue, is the representation of political power. Again, some interpreters have argued that Babylon is the representation of religious power. And Babylon is portrayed as the Great Harlot, the Great Prostitute, and often in the 16th century, this was applied to the Roman Catholic Church. I think that's a misreading of the image here. I think Babylon is presented as political power and as great political power, as serious, threatening political power. And the good thing to know is she's fallen. However powerful she may be appearing in history. A word of judgment is pronounced against her. Now again, we can ask, is this symbolic? Or is this literal? And again, the Bible really helps us make that distinction because in Isaiah 13, and again in Isaiah 21, the prophet says very unequivocally, Babylon will be destroyed and never rebuilt. And so it was in the ancient world. And so if we insist on a hyper-literal reading that Babylon will be rebuilt in the future, we'll end up with John contradicting Isaiah. And that's a very bad thing. We don't approve of that. And so clearly this is meant to be symbolic, symbolic of great military power. That's what ancient Babylon was, a great military power. And here that power is described to us as corrupt, as immoral, but most importantly, as fallen. And so we go on. And another angel, a third followed them saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on its forehead or its hand, he will also drink the wine of God's wrath poured out full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name." So here's again referring back to what we read in cycle 4 as to what was going to happen. And now comes the warning, if you let that happen to you, you're going to face the final judgment. So here the experience of the world is being brought into the focus of the final judgment and the wrath of the Lamb that will fall upon them. And again we read, "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." Again in Greek the word a call is not there. Again it's more a promise. When you hear this threat against idolaters, if you're a Christian, don't let it bother you. Don't let it worry you because there's a promise. Here is the endurance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and faith in the Lord Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed says the Spirit that they may rest from their labors and their deeds follow them." That's one of the great encouraging passages in the Scripture, isn't it? Often read it Christian funerals because it reminds us that the dead are not lost but are with the Lord. The rest of the dead, the resting from their labors is certain their deeds follow after them. Their life is a testimony to who they belong to. This isn't a life in terms of testimony of exactly how perfect you were but your life is a testimony to who you trusted, who you followed, who you believed. And so here at the end of this third angelic appearance is this kind of pausing on John's part. In the old days in Reformed preaching, you had the exposition of the Bible text and then they would actually sing a song and then you had the application of the Bible text. And that's kind of what's happening here. He's given us the explication of the angelic appearance and now is the application. In light of this terrible judgment to come, persevere, God's promise to preserve you, persevere. And then when you die, you can have this assurance that you're part of the blessed in the Lord, that you've rested from your labors and the testimony of your life follows after you to say, "Yeah, this one really belonged to Christ." So that's the great encouragement we derive here and we'll go on next time with the rest of these angelic appearances and the coming of judgment on a wicked world. God promised to preserve you, persevere, and when you die, you can have this assurance that you're part of the blessed in the Lord, a great encouragement from W. Robert Godfrey and his series, "Blessed Hope" on this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. So what did you think of Dr. Godfrey's interpretation of the meaning of 666? Throughout all 24 messages, he brings clarity and shares his views on a very vivid and vibrant book of the Bible. Study the book of Revelation with Dr. Godfrey when you request the DVD edition of "Blessed Hope" with your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Or when you call us at 800-435-4343. We'll send you the DVD, but also give you digital access to the messages and study guide. Perhaps Revelation could be your small group Bible study this fall. Give your gift at renewingyourmind.org and unlock digital access to the series and study guide and also receive the DVD. Be quick as this offer ends tomorrow. The imagery in the book of Revelation is vivid and so is the imagery of judgment. And that'll be our topic tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
