You've been watching to many "The Omen" movies !!!
666 (according to Revelations) - "... is the insignia that all men
[and women?[ must bare ; if they wish to do business in the Market
Place." - Nothing MORE (and nothing LESS).
It has nothing to do with any specific event OR someone's birth.
- But SATAN , you already knew that, didn't you ? }:-)~
8< |
"Satan" <francm@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1149562657.492971.106600@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Will The Antichrist Be
Born On 6-6-6, Or 6-16?
Or Has He Already Come On 6-1-6?
By Brad Steiger
6-5-6
The dreaded date June 6, 2006 (6-6-6) has many expectant
mothers-to-be
becoming hysterical when they learned that their child who was
scheduled to be born on that terrible day and might, indeed, be
the
Antichrist.
The association of the number 666 with the Antichrist is derived
from
Revelation 13:18, in which John the Revelator is told that that
the
number of the Beast is 666 and that this number stands for a
person.
If your child is to be delivered on June 6th, relax. Your baby is
not
the Antichrist.
However, if your progeny is born on June 16th, some folks will
probably
warn you to keep an eye on the little tot as he or she grows to
adolescence. Or maybe the demonic tyke has already been born on
June
1st. It all depends on how you want to read the numbers game.
On May 1, 2005, scholars revealed that a newly discovered fragment
of
the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating from the
third
century, indicates that later translators got it wrong: the Number
of
the Beast is 616. David Parker, professor of New Testament textual
criticism and paleography at the University of Birmingham, has
said
that the numerical value of The Beast given to John in Revelation
should actually be 616.
Those among you who never attended Sunday School or who have
managed to
surf past evangelical or fundamentalist Christian preachers
warning
about the Antichrist from their televised pulpits are asking,
what's
the big deal about this mysterious figure?
Although Jesus makes it very clear that no one knows the hour or
day of
his Second Coming, some Christian scholars have steadfastly viewed
the
rise of the Antichrist to earthly power as a kind of catalyst that
will
set in motion Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil,
the
ultimate clash between the armies of Jesus Christ and Satan.
Although commonly associated with the apocalyptic New Testament
book of
Revelation, the word antichrist is nowhere to be found within that
text. In 1 John 2:18, the epistle writer declares that the "enemy
of
Christ" has manifested and that many false teachers have
infiltrated
the Christian ranks. In verse 22, John names as the Antichrist
anyone
who would deny Jesus as the Christ and the Father and the Son, and
in 2
John 7 he declares that there are many deceivers already at work
among
the faithful.
The earliest form of the Antichrist is probably the warrior king
Gog,
who appears in the book of Ezekiel and reappears in Revelation
along
with his kingdom of Magog, representing those earthly minions of
Satan
who will attack the people of God in a final great battle of good
versus evil. Jewish writings about the "end of days" state that
the
armies of Gog and Magog will eventually be defeated and the world
will
finally be at peace.
In the prophecies of both Daniel and John the Revelator, the evil
king,
the Antichrist, is associated with ten rulers who give their power
and
allegiance to him in order to form a short-lived empire of
bloodshed
and destruction: "And the ten horns of this kingdom are ten kings
that
shall arise: and another shall rise after them, and he shall be
diverse
. . . and speak great words against the most high God and shall
wear
down the saints of the Highest One and think to make changes in
times
and laws: and they shall be given into his hand for three and one
half
years" (Daniel 7:24).
Throughout the centuries, Christians have attempted to determine
the
Antichrist from among the powerful and ruthless leaders of their
day.
It seems, though, that contemporary scholarship solved the mystery
quite some time ago. In John the Revelator's world of the first
century, the Beast who ruled the earth would have been the
emperor, the
caesar, of the Roman Empire, Nero. Using the Hebrew alphabet, the
numerical value of "Caesar Nero," the merciless persecutor of the
early
Christians, works out to the number 666. In 2005, David Parker,
professor of New Testament at the University of Birmingham, said
that
while earlier translators gave the numerical value of The Beast to
Nero, the correct number, 616, refers to another nemesis of the
early
Christians, the emperor Caligula. With Nero and Caligula long
turned to
dust, no one should have to worry any longer about the Beast 666
appearing to bring about Armageddon.
This, however, seems not to be the case. Those who maintain that
the
number 666 is still a potent predictor of the Antichrist will
continue
to name their contemporary candidates for the role.
The numerical value of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's name reportedly
added up to 666, and since he held the office of president of the
United States for twelve years-and during the Great Depression and
World War II-many of his conservative Christian critics began
thinking
of him as the Antichrist. And even Ronald Wilson Reagan, who in
the
estimation of many political analysts was one of our nation's most
popular presidents, had certain dissenters calling attention to
the
fact that he had six letters in each of his three names-666.
In recent decades, the term of Antichrist has been applied to so
many
individuals in popular culture that it has lost much of sense of
menace. However, those fundamentalist Christians who believe
strongly
in the coming time of the Tribulation, the Apocalypse, the
Rapture, and
the great final battle of good versus evil at Armageddon firmly
believe
that the title of Antichrist maintains its fear factor and that we
must
pay serious heed to the signs and warnings of the Beast as
prophesied
in the book of Revelation.
.
