Session 9 What about the Mark of the Beast

Summary

In this session led by Greg Laskey, the focus is on understanding the infamous 'Mark of the Beast' and the number 666 from the Book of Revelation. Laskey explores the historical and cultural significance of this enigmatic number, debunking common misconceptions that link it to modern technology like microchips or vaccines. The discussion centers on the practice of gematria, a method of assigning numerical value to words, which historically connects 666 to the beast, as mentioned in Revelation, and highlights the ancient identity statement of allegiances such as with the Great Shama. Ultimately, Laskey challenges listeners to reflect on how their beliefs influence their actions, emphasizing that the true mark is reflected in daily living, not in the fear or fascination of numbers.

Highlights

• 666 has caused fear across cultures and time but it might be more simple than assumed. 😬
• John aimed to use a specific number to denote identity, not instill fear. 🕵️‍♂️
• The ancient practice of gematria can decode 666 to refer to 'the beast.' 🧮
• The mark of the beast is an identity statement, similar to modern branding. 🏷️
• Revelation urges us to live our beliefs daily, reflecting who we truly worship. 🙏

Key Takeaways

• 666 is not a modern technology symbol; it points to historical practices. 📜
• Gematria connects the number 666 to the word 'beast' through an ancient practice. 🔢
• The mark is about identity, not a barcode; it's about who you worship.👤
• Living with visible faith doesn't involve fear of numbers but is a daily commitment. 🌟
• Theology must reflect in every aspect of life, shaping actions and beliefs. 🧠

Overview

Greg Laskey delves into one of the most intriguing and often misunderstood symbols in the Book of Revelation—the Mark of the Beast. He begins by acknowledging the pervasive fear and misconceptions surrounding the number 666, which has sparked everything from apocalyptic theories to personal superstitions. Through a historical lens, Laskey dismantles these fears by elucidating the Greek and Hebrew practices of gematria, revealing that 666, when translated, correlates with 'the beast,' a direct reference from the scripture rather than a mysterious prophecy or a threat from future technologies.

The detailed explanation includes how early Christians, Jews, and Romans employed gematria not just as a linguistic curiosity but as a veil for secretive messaging. This approach was not foreign to John's audience and would not have conjured the technological fears of today. Laskey emphasizes that while the Book of Revelation contains this mystical number, it is surrounded by contextual clues that anchor it firmly within its historical setting rather than a futuristic horror.

Laskey invites the audience to refocus on what really matters—their identity in faith. He stresses that theology should be inseparable from daily actions and thoughts. The 'mark' one carries is reflected in how Christ's teachings manifest in their lives. Is our daily conduct a testament to worshiping God, or does it resemble the allegiances feared in John's time? Thus, the real challenge for believers is to authentically live out their faith, demonstrating through actions rather than getting entangled in numerical speculations.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:20: Introduction to the Fear of 666 The chapter 'Introduction to the Fear of 666' addresses the persistent and intriguing questions people have about the Book of Revelation, specifically focusing on the fear and curiosity surrounding the number 666. Despite discussions on context, genre, or structure, the interest in understanding and interpreting this enigmatic symbol endures. The session aims to explore this particular aspect of Revelation, aiming to provide insights or answers to these common and enduring questions.
• 03:20 - 09:00: The Role of Gamatria and Historical Context This chapter discusses the significance of the number 666, known as the mark of the beast, and its impact on individuals, whether or not they are Christian. It provides a historical and cultural context for why this number generates fear and how people, such as a man who quit his job over an ID ending with 666, react to it.
• 09:00 - 15:00: Theological Implications and Identity This chapter explores the intersection of religious beliefs and personal identity, particularly focusing on how theological interpretations can impact everyday decisions and behaviors. It uses examples such as a Christian individual who chose to resign from their job rather than deal with the number 666, traditionally seen as the 'number of the beast' in Christian eschatology. Another instance mentioned includes a McDonald's worker's reaction to a customer’s order totaling $6.66, highlighting how deeply held beliefs influence responses to seemingly mundane events. These anecdotes illustrate the complexities of navigating life while maintaining religious identities and the potential conflicts that arise when religious symbols appear unexpectedly in secular contexts.
• 15:00 - 17:37: Conclusion and Call for Wisdom The chapter discusses the fear and conspiracy theories surrounding the number 666, highlighting how it evokes sci-fi ideas like microchipping and controversial discussions around vaccines and technologies like the worldwide web. It concludes with a call for wisdom amidst these fears.

Session 9 What about the Mark of the Beast Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] There are certain questions when it comes to revelation that no matter how much you talk about context or genre or structure that that everyone still wants to know the answer. In this session, we're going to deal with one of those
• 00:30 - 01:00 questions. What do we do with the mark of the beast? Specifically, how do we engage 666? Now, that's a number that incites fear into people, whether they're Christian or not. As a matter of fact, not too long ago, I I was reading uh this article about this man that had quit his job because his worker ID that was given to him ended with 666. And he
• 01:00 - 01:30 said, "Listen, I'm a Christian. I reject this number. I will not accept it in any form." And he quit his job. He was terrified of the number. or like the McDonald's worker that I went through the drive-thru not too long ago and my order I don't even know what the combination of it was but my order to totaled to $6.66 66 cents. And this person handing the the the the receipt to me, they you could tell that they maybe were a Christian, but kind of on
• 01:30 - 02:00 the rough side. And they but they were terrified. They were like, "Whoa, do are you okay with this?" And I was like, "It's it's okay." The number itself incites this fear that then starts to evolve into some sci-fi type stuff like microchips put into the arms and and even you know the vaccine and maybe the worldwide web because in Hebrew va va vav is 666
• 02:00 - 02:30 and is John's goal giving us this number to incite this fear was that his purpose But you know another way that people have abused what John has used, they've taken this number and they've used it to hurt people. For example, in the Protestant Reformation, you're talking 500 years ago. The Catholics found a way to take Martin Luther's name and make it 666. But guess what? Martin Luther and
• 02:30 - 03:00 his gang found a way to take the Pope and make it 666. Matter of fact, every single world leader that people don't like typically get this number attached to them. Like for example, for a while, Ronald Wilson Reagan because each of his names has six letters in it. Matter of fact, every single president that's elected, I'll usually get an email from somebody saying, "Is this person the antichrist?" Because I found a way that their name equals 666. This number is either feared or abused. Both of which I
• 03:00 - 03:30 think John had bigger goals for. Matter of fact, I I'd even asked myself before, I wonder if John ever thought this number was going to get the amount of attention that it actually got. I mean, the book of Revelation has tons of numbers. 7 4 10,000 144,000 1,000 years, three and a half, 1,260. this number. Oh, this number takes the cake. This number
• 03:30 - 04:00 actually has a mind and a life of its own. So, here's what I want to do in this session. I want to kind of strip away all of the crazy. I want to simplify down and to give you a realistic option of what 666 could be pointing to. And I'm just going to let you know right now, you're going to be disappointed because honestly, the offer, the answer I'm going to offer you is just going to be too simple. And for some of you, it's going to be disappointing. So, you might as well get your expectations calibrated now. So,
• 04:00 - 04:30 that once you're disappointed, I will never say I told you so. But I might look at you and say, I'll let you say that I told you so. I just won't. All right, let's dive in. The difficulty with this number is that Revelation 13:18 is the only time in the Bible, old or new testament, where this number is ever mentioned. So, you know, our our different um tactics that we had of
• 04:30 - 05:00 engaging symbols that we didn't understand with reading the few verses before and the few verses after or or reading, you know, the Old Testament, they don't always help us here. the text itself can but you have to move a little bit more than just a couple before and a couple after in order to understand what is happening. So, so the first kind of move that we have here is that this number is a little bit of an anomaly. It is unique because it is only brought up here which might mean that John has a specific import something he's pointing
• 05:00 - 05:30 us to within his text with this number. Here's the second movement. So, the uniqueness of the number is number one. Number two, John does seem to attach it to the number of its name. Matter of fact, Revelation chapter 13:17, no one can buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the number of the beast or the number of its name. That's going to be a clue. The number of its name. As a matter of fact, chapter 15:2, at the very beginning
• 05:30 - 06:00 where the bowls are being introduced, chapter 15:2 says this, "And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire, and standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name." Those are textual clues. Yes, John is bringing up a number that doesn't have an Old Testament reference, but he's giving us clues within the text
• 06:00 - 06:30 to attach it to its name. I'm going to keep saying the word its because that's important. We'll get to that in a minute. The next thing we have to understand is that in the ancient world for the Romans, for the Jews, and for Christians, there was an ancient practice called gamatria. Gamatria was this practice where names or words were actually translated into numbers on a
• 06:30 - 07:00 pretty consistent basis. As a matter of fact, in both Greek and Hebrew, each of their letters of the alphabet corresponded to a number. It's actually how they taught their children to read and to do arithmetic at the same time. So in Greek alpha beta th those all were connected to one two in Hebrew alf bet one two gimmel three each letter was attached to a number. What they would do then is they would sometimes creatively
• 07:00 - 07:30 use the fact that the letters and numbers had a relationship to communicate messages that they wanted to keep somewhat shrouded. So for example in Pompei so you're talking a Roman context in Pompei which was covered in 79 by Mount Vuvius the city was preserved in pristine manner. As a matter of fact you actually have the the shape of a person in the corner as has been perfectly preserved by the lava
• 07:30 - 08:00 that came in so quickly solidified everything. Some of the things that was also solidified was graffiti on the walls. And in Pompei, we actually have on the graffiti picture almost like an overpass where people are writing things. But we have on the Pompei wall this message that says, "I love her whose name is 545." So if you knew who 545 their name and what it added up to, you could actually decode the message. kind of like, you know, on an overpass, M plus C
• 08:00 - 08:30 with a heart around it. The Romans used Gamatria, taking names or words and putting them into numbers. The Jews did this, too. As a matter of fact, there's some Jewish rabbis commenting on Genesis 14:14, where it mentions the number 318. And they began to wrestle with the interpretation that it referred to Abram's servants, Eleazar, because you can take that name
• 08:30 - 09:00 and add it up in Hebrew 23:18. The Romans used this, the Jews used this, even Christians used Gamatria. As a matter of fact, uh Christians in a book called Sibling Oracles, which is a later Jewish Christian text, the Christians in book one, they take the name of Jesus and they add it up to 888 because in the Christian numerology and Christian gamatria, 8 was a number of resurrection. So this was a common practice. It wasn't like John is
• 09:00 - 09:30 introducing something that would have been super foreign. They were used to this. So we have three movements. I want to summarize them again. Number one, we have this number that is only used in Revelation, not in the Old Testament. Can't get help outside of this. Number two, it is also attached in the text to the number of its name. Number three, Gamatria was something that was used in Roman, Jewish, and Christian context. With all of those in place, now I want to write another word on the board. I'm
• 09:30 - 10:00 going to write it in Greek, and I'm going to define it in English. The Greek word we pronounce this theion and that is the Greek word for beast. That's all that it means. So whenever John is talking about the beast, he's using this Greek word theion. Now here's what's interesting. If you take theionon and you put it into Hebrew, which is this theion, you get something fascinating
• 10:00 - 10:30 occurring because whenever you add up each of what the letters point to, you start to see something emerge that the Greek word for beast, theion, when translated into Hebrew, which what gamatria would be, and you add it up, guess what you get? 666. Here's also what's fascinating. The Greek word for beast is neuter. Which means that if you were going to refer to
• 10:30 - 11:00 the beast, you would use the pronoun its. The number of its name. Whose name? The beast. What does 666 refer to? The name beast. I told you you're going to be disappointed. I'm sorry. It's not a microchip. It's a matter of fact. It's one of those things where I'm going, you you have to understand, Christian, that your salvation, never once were you converted or saved because of whatever technology you engaged. And you're not
• 11:00 - 11:30 going to lose your salvation because of technology either. I've said this before in other settings, and people have gotten a little afraid, but you have to hear my heart. Honestly, if people came and said, "We're going to require microchips be put in your arm." And Christians started going crazy saying, "It's the mark of the beast." I go, "Listen, listen, listen. I'll be the first one to have a microchip put in my arm because I want to show you my salvation is not connected to technology. It's connected to Jesus Christ." And believe it or not, he's more powerful than a microchip. The mark of the beast is not
• 11:30 - 12:00 about technology. Because remember, the first century Christians, it has to make sense to them first. What did they hear? They heard a number translated into Gamatria that points centrally to the beast. the name beast. And notice this, that the name 666 was put on their forehead and on the back of their hands. That is huge from a Jewish perspective. Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great shama was something that Jews would
• 12:00 - 12:30 actually repeat almost every single day. And it'll sound familiar when I start to say it because even Jesus himself says it. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your mind and with all of your soul and with all of your strength. Deuteronomy 6. When Jesus was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" What did he quote? The great Shama. It was so important that whenever you read Deuteronomy 6, it says, "Now
• 12:30 - 13:00 this is who you are." This belief in the one God and that you are to give him all that you are. Whether you are awake or whether you are asleep, whether you are working or whether you are teaching, you give this to your children. You actually write it on your head and on your foreheads. Always have it a part of you. And this concept of the great shama being on the head and on the hands at all moments developed into a practice called felactories. Felactories. You even see them today in in in Israel today.
• 13:00 - 13:30 Felactories are usually tied to with leather strips tied with little boxes on the end and sometimes a leather strap that goes like this and has a little box on the head. Inside of the box is strips of the word of God. So that at all moments whether I'm working with my hands or I'm thinking the word of God is on my mind and on my hands just like the great Shama asks for it to be. Why? Because the great shama is not just something you repeat. It's an identity that you claim
• 13:30 - 14:00 that you are. You belong to God. Period. All of your body, all of your mind, all of your soul, all of your strength belongs to him. Even down to what you buy and sell belongs to him. And that should be so obvious. It's as if you're wearing it on your head. As a matter of fact, feltories were such a big deal. Jesus even brings it up in Matthew 23:5. He says, "Oh, you Pharisees, you have your big huge felactories because apparently you're just meditating on so much word of God."
• 14:00 - 14:30 And he's challenging them. But notice what it is that they are communicating with that practice. It's an identity statement. This is who I am. I belong to Yahweh. And it should be so obvious in everything that we say and do that it's as if we are broadcasting on our forehead like like the prostitute in Revelation 17 who broadcasts her services on her forehead. This is an identity thing. And let me just say this.
• 14:30 - 15:00 If your theology doesn't impact every single thing that you are, then your theology is worthless. If your theology doesn't impact how you speak to your neighbor or how you treat your enemy or how what it is that you even buy and sell, then what kind of game are we playing here? If Jesus doesn't get to have a say in everything about you, then we are playing some game that frankly I'm not
• 15:00 - 15:30 interested in playing. And the book of revelation rejects the game too. It says this. Whenever it comes to your worship of the trinity or the unholy trinity, it should be as obvious as what is emlazed on your head in your hands. Everything you do down to what you buy and sell is broadcasting who you belong to. And that's why I don't think it's accidental that in Revelation 14:1, we see another name or another
• 15:30 - 16:00 something emlazed on the foreheads of those that follow a different trinity. Chapter 14:1. Then I looked and there before me was the lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000. Revelation 7 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. It's an identity statement that says this is who I am and therefore my actions now
• 16:00 - 16:30 follow. As a matter of fact, this is interesting. But if you take the Greek word for lamb aron and the nominakra of the word god theos and you put those into Hebrew and you add it up, it equals 777. Like honestly, cracking the codes of the numbers is not hard. You know what's really hard? Living a life of worship in Babylon. You know what's really difficult? Refusing even down to what you buy and sell to be compromised by
• 16:30 - 17:00 your commitment to worship God and God alone. You see, the message of the mark of the beast has very little to do with technology or with vaccines or with anything in the modern world. This is what it has to do with. How are you treating people? Does it reflect how Christ treats you? Who are you worshiping? Do your actions reflect what branch you are connected with? What vine you are connected to? Because ultimately, if you are claiming to be a Christian, but you
• 17:00 - 17:30 look more like a mark of the beast, then you need to change what you are doing and do it immediately. Why? Because Revelation's not messing around. And chapter 18 does say this. Listen, this calls for wisdom. You have to be able to discern not just what the number is, but who God is calling you to be and to do. [Music]