Interesting study.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
I think it is clear that the antichrist will rule through finances, not necessarily military might, or even through a police force. A person will be forced to take the mark, else they will probably starve to death.
In Rev 13:17 it describes the mark in three ways, the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Knowing the technology we have today, it is almost certain technology will be used for this mark. Cash is almost obsolete now, as are personal checks. Credit and debit cards can be stolen. So, it is very possible that this mark will be placed on or in a person's forehead or hand. I know of businesses where a person punches in by simply placing their thumb on a monitor that reads their fingerprint, identifying them. So, it is very likely technology like this will be used.
Verse 14 shows a little different, the anti-christ will be able to perform actual miracles. So, the fire coming down from heaven in vs. 13, and giving life to the image of the beast in vs. 15 might be real miracles and not a technological trick. But that is speculation.
The number 666 is already on our dollar bill.
The numeral is MDCCLXXVI where
M= 1000
D= 500
C= 100
L= 50
X= 10
V= 5
I= 1
So MDCCLXXVI equals 1000 + 500 + 200 + 50 + 20 + 5 + 1 which equals 1776, the year the United States was founded.
But with any 3 digit number, the first number represents parts of a thousand, the second number represents parts of a hundred, and the third number represents parts of a ten. For instance we call .385" three hundred eighty five thousandths of an inch. And .20" would be twenty hundredths of an inch. Anyway...
If you take the number on our dollar bill you have 9 numbers total, which can be divided into three groups of three. The first group is headed by M, which stands for thousands, with the numbers D and C following. So this could stand for 600/1000. The second group of three is headed by C which stands for hundreds followed by L and X which would come to 60/100. And the third group would be headed by X which stands for tens, followed by V and I which would come to 6/10.
So it may be pure coincidence, but we would have 600, 60, and 6 on our dollar bill. Pretty amazing, because this is the only Roman numeral that will work out this way.
And though people like to say the mark of the beast will be 666, that is not what the Bible says. It says six hundred (600), threescore (60), and six (6). Rev 13:18 tells us to "count" the number of the beast, so apparently you arrive at this number by counting, so the number may not be directly obvious, but arrived at by addition or multiplying. Perhaps it is arrived at by subtraction or division, who knows?
It also says it is the "number" of a man, so somehow this number will seem to point out a specific man. I don't think it will be someone with 6 letters in each name as Ronald Wilson Reagan had. There are probably many thousands, even millions of people who have 6 letters in each of three names, this would not be a sure way of identifying this person.
