NUMBER OF THE BEAST

Verse 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 three score and six.” Previous verses state, that men are also to be required to receive the number of the name of the beast, as well as the mark and name. On this subject we adopt the following:TBUS 63.3

1. The beast numbered is a definite beast.TBUS 63.4

2. It is a definite number: i.e., 666, hence it cannot refer to man’s mode of reckoning.TBUS 63.5

3. It is a definite man who is numbered. It is the number of a man, not of man or men; hence it cannot refer to the ancient mode of reckoning by letters; because that makes the number indefinite; as there have lived more than one man whose name numbered 666. Some have referred this number to the first Pope, others to Latinus, and others to Napoleon Buonaparte.TBUS 63.6

But if, as Adventists profess to believe, the Bible be its own expositor, we must find a clue to the man here spoken of, in some part of that book. What saith the Scriptures? Ans. They distinctly bring to view two definite men, as the heads of the two great antagonistical churches-the Christian and the Anti-christian. The one represented by the Man, Christ Jesus, and the other by the “man of Sin.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. That this man represents the Papal Anti-christian church, we all believe. And he will represent that church until the revelation of Christ. Verses 8,9. The church represented by this man, continued a unit nearly a thousand years after its foundation, when it commenced breaking up under Luther and Calvin, and these divisions have continued dividing and subdividing until, according to their own admissions, they now number about six hundred three score and six. We may trace the lineage of every Protestant church back to the mother of harlots, [Revelation 17:5,] and we can go no farther. Not only are they daughters by natural descent, but by imitation, And their number is the number of a man, (the man of sin,) and his number is six hundred three score and six. Those churches collectively or individually, have that number. The decree of this two-horned beast against which the third angel of Revelation 14, gives his solemn warning is to enforce alsoTBUS 64.1