Hello my friends!

I hope this finds you all so well!

So, I posted posted a small tweet about the mark of the beast this last week and I was surprised by how many of you messaged me asking for a deeper dive into this topic as well as "the rapture." So, this newsletter and next, I want to focus on these two topics and see if we can't think together a bit beyond so much of the ambiguity and fear that seems to shroud these topics.

But before we dive in, here are some resources I recommend for this topic.

RESOURCES TO DIG DEEPER

-As you might have guessed, I read a lot of Biblical commentaries. One of my most favorite commentaries on the Book of Revelation is called "Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation," by Michael Gorman. In this book, he has given both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own--and other people's--well-being. I highly recommend it.

-I am also really excited to learn that Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett have just recently released their book called, "Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple." McKnight addresses the popular misconceptions about the book, explaining what John means in his use of the images of dragons, lambs, and beasts; and how the symbolism of Revelation spoke in the days of Rome and still speaks powerfully to the present day—though not in the way most people think. I am excited to read this in the near future and see what insights it hold on this complex book of the Bible.

-I know I have recommended this book several times, but it really needs mentioning here again. You'll understand why by the end of this newsletter. It's called "Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery," by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah. In the fifteenth century, official church edicts gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they "discovered." This was institutionalized as an implicit national framework that justifies American triumphalism, white supremacy, and ongoing injustices. The result is that the dominant culture idealizes a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and equality, while minority communities have been traumatized by colonization, slavery, segregation, and dehumanization. Healing begins when deeply entrenched beliefs are unsettled. It is one of the most important books I have every read.

-The Bible Project also has a great, short two part series on the Book of Revelation. You can watch Part 1 here: Book of Revelation Summary: A Complete Animated Overview (Part 1)​

-Lastly, I also want to recommend "Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage: A Tradition And Trajectory Of Integrating Piety And Justice," by Donald Dayton. It not only shows how incredibly social justice oriented early American Evangelicals were, it shows how much "end times" theology influenced the movement after the civil war that contributed to the current political and theological character of the movement today. It is both an inspirational and enlightening read. You will not regret reading it yourself.

Okay, onto today's content!

Untwisting The Beast

There is probably no other book of the Bible that carries as much mystery, intrigue, and fear for as many people as the Book of Revelation.

One of the most popular focuses of that mystery, intrigue, and fear from the book of Revelation is the “mark of the beast” and that famous number, “666."

Even in my lifetime, I have witnessed widespread speculation and even panic over what this mark may be and who “the beast” might be.

When I was growing up, the mark of the beast was barcodes, changes to our money, changes to our credit cards, or even microchips imbedded in our wrists and foreheads (another image from Revelation 13). Most recently the Covid vaccines and following health guidelines that were the ones labeled as the mark of the beast. Especially since some businesses wouldn’t let you “buy or sell” as a customer without your vaccine card (yet another image from Revelation 13).

Working in food service during my college and seminary years, I had many customers who would tweak their order if their total landed on "$6.66."

The natural question then is, if these things are considered the mark of the beast, who is the beast? Well the one issuing these things of course. It would be the person mandating this mark upon people. So then, anyone in a position of power would be suspect of being “the beast.” Typically, it would be given to prominent world leaders.

This naturally coincides with the speculation of who the “antichrist” is, who is said will rise at the “last days.” In many ways, in this perspective, the antichrist and the beast are the same figure.

Figures throughout history from Adolph Hitler, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and various Popes have been labeled “the beast” or "the antichrist."

So what do we do with all this? There are so many layers here! How do we better make sense of “the beast” and its “mark” according to scripture?

Getting behind the Biblical Scenes

Well first, it is important to remember that the Greek word for “antichrist” appears nowhere in the Book of Revelation. In fact, it only appears in 1 and 2 John. In those books, it doesn’t refer to a specific single figure who will emerge at the end of days, but anyone who opposes Christ. The Greek word for antichrist (ἀντίχριστος) literally means “anyone who opposes Christ.” So, if you oppose Christ, you are an “antichrist.”

We can thank modern dispensational theology rather than the Bible for creating the specific mythical figure of the “antichrist.” This mythical figure is read into the Bible rather than something the Bible gives to us itself.

Second, Revelation 13 talks about two beasts, not just one. This is really important.

Probably one of the best ways I have learned to think about this passage is through word pictures. The author is inviting us into grand imagery to make a point. He is asking us to engage our imaginations fully. The “beasts” aren’t the point in and of themselves. What the beasts represent is the point.

So, in Revelation 13, it is best to compare them to the word pictures used in political cartoons. In American news media we find an elephant and donkey representing political parties. We even see a bull and a bear representing the stock market's trends.

In Revelation 13, the two beasts represent political authority (first beast) and political propaganda (second beast) that have become as destructive as “beasts” within the world. There is so much animal imagery in this chapter for the purposes of having the reader think of the character of those animals. All used to describe how these two “beasts” function.

For a small example, the second beast (political propaganda) has horns like a lamb, but speaks as a dragon (Rev 13:11). That is a very provocative way of presenting the silver tongues many publicans and dictators use to present their destructive messages as sly and “innocent.” They look like a lamb, but speak as a dragon. The lamb is also used to represent Jesus and the dragon is used to represent Satan. So this is essentially describing a "dragon dressed in sheep's clothing."

This is exactly what the author is wanting his readers to understand. John of Patmos is talking about Rome and its ruler(s), both of which had—and continued to—cruelly oppressed Christians and the world through its beast like use of political power and political propaganda. Its entire existence was owed to a predatory economy and violent force.

When we understand this, the imagery here in Revelation 13 begins to speak for itself.

There were pervasive rumors during that time that the most oppressive ruler against Christians in Roman history was going to come back from the dead: Nero Caesar. This is why in Revelation 13, you’ll see the beast from the sea described has having seven heads, representing the seven prominent mountains of Rome, and one of the heads looked to have a fatal wound (Rev 13:3). Nero was assassinated, hence the fatal wound.

This beast represents the entirety of the Roman empire, which had continued to embody the beast like ways of Nero, even without him ruling. He might as well have “risen from the dead.”

This context helps us to better understand why we started this whole conversation. “The mark of the beast” which is 666.

As we notice in Revelation 13:12, the second beast "exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed." Notice John of Patmos makes special mention of the head wound again.

This second beast is the one who orders all the inhabitants of the earth to receive the mark of the (first) beast, which John of Patmos clearly tells us what it means in Revelation 13:17: the mark "is the name of the beast or the number of its name."

Then verse 18: "This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666."

So, when we apply the ancient practice of gematria, which was the practice of that time of assigning significance to the mathematical sum of the letters in a word, we understand even more of what the author is trying to convey.

When you take the Greek for Nero Caesar, “Neron Kaisar” and transliterate it into Hebrew, it becomes NRWN QSR (reading right to left of course). Then when you add numerical value to each letter using gematria, you get the total of 666.

Some Greek manuscripts of the Book of Revelation also have 616, which is the same exact process, just without the final “n” in “neron,” which is Nero. This has convinced many Biblical scholars that 666 (and 616) is most likely referring to Emperor Nero.

There is another layer to this number as well. We all know the number of God from the Bible is “7.” Especially from Genesis. The number 7 represents the number of completion or perfection. Hence God resting on the 7th day. So, 666 is a massive parody of the number of perfection. It is not just 6, but 666 repeating itself on into infinity. Where 7 represents completion, 666 represents utter imperfection.

It harkens back to the 6th day of creation in the Genesis account when humanity was created (Gen 1:24-26). Without that 7th day, the day of God’s rest, humanity is utterly incomplete. We need rest. We need our purpose to be defined outside of what we do. We need to know who we are. We need to know that life is bigger than we can comprehend. We need to find that completion that only rest can bring.

Thus, the one who bears this mark of the beast is the one who pretends in vain to be divine, but instead embodies utter imperfection. Causing us to remember the common phrase in Rome at the time, "there is no Lord but Caesar." The god-king.

I was really thankful for this interpretation because it helped me understand the Bible as a whole better. Biblical interpretation isn’t about taking the words at face value and applying them to our own time. Biblical interpretation is about understanding what the authors of scripture meant in their own time, seeing what lessons they were learning and trying to convey for themselves, then seeing how those lessons might teach us about how to be wiser and more faithful in our own, very different, time.

The essential message John of Patmos is conveying here in Revelation 13 is that Rome and its rulers are “the beast.” Rome had set up an empire that was exploiting the poor and the most vulnerable through a predatory economy and violent force. This is why Rome is compared to “Babylon” all throughout the book, which was Israel's greatest enemy. Rome and its rulers were acting just like a bloodthirsty beast. Babylon reborn. It was not just imperfect, but utterly imperfect.

The placement of this “mark” is also very symbolic in this interpretation. Revelation 13:16 tells us that it would be forced on people’s wrists and foreheads.

This would hold a lot of mystery and speculation unless we take Deuteronomy 6:4-9 into account here. In this passage, God calls all people to bind God’s words on their wrists and their foreheads as a sign of fidelity and worship of God alone. The cultic power of Rome then subverts this fidelity by demanding total allegiance to itself and its ways alone, even above God. It wants all people to be bound by its words alone, not God's Word.

This right here is the essence of Revelation 13 and probably the whole book of Revelation. Who will Christians give their ultimate fidelity to? Who will Christians “pledge their allegiance” to? The beast or the lamb? The empire or the kingdom of God?

To be marked by the beast is to pledge allegiance to the utterly imperfect ways of the beast in such a way that you are not only marked by its practices of exploitation and violence, but you inflict that mark onto others as well.

The mark of the beast isn’t some microchip or vaccine. It is a way of being in this world that looks and acts like a beast rather than the crucified lamb of Jesus Christ.

Rather than something being injected or tattooed onto you, it is the fundamental motivation of the human heart.

Whenever Christians crawl into bed with the empire, whenever they follow leaders like Nero and carry out their ways, they are "marked by the beast." John of Patmos here is not only critiquing the imperial power of Rome, but he is also warning against the church forming an unholy relationship to civil and political power. Especially those powers that are intent on exploitation and violence as a way of maintaining ensuring its own definition of “peace” and “freedom,” like Rome was.

This is a message still deeply relevant today.

The book of Revelation has so much to say to Christians who are tempted by nationalism, imperialism, and the civil religion of the empire. Yet, its powerful message has been so drowned out by fiction, folk lore, and conspiracy theories that we are often not able to hear its prophetic words for the church today.

The church has been “marked by the beast” so often in its history. Like when it crawled into bed with the Roman Empire through Emperor Constantine in 313AD. Then through the heresy of “Christian empire,” it marked the world in beast like ways through the doctrine of discovery, crusades, inquisitions, genocides, slavery, and patriarchy. This heavily influenced and gave way to the manifest destiny and triumphalism of the British Empire and even the United States. (Read more about this here)

Yet, there has always been a Christian resistance, like John of Patmos, who are vocal opponents of Christians getting caught up in the beast like ways of empire. Christians who insist that they will be marked by the ways of the lamb and lift up others through the kingdom of God rather than oppress them through the ways of the empire (Rev 14:1).

When we understand the power of this message, we can hear how John of Patmos and his prophetic critique of the Roman Empire and his call for the church to maintain its fidelity to Christ alone in his time compels us Christians today to call out nationalism, authoritarianism, imperialism, and religious tyranny as the ways of the beast that have “marked” our present context.

Ways that have caused many in the American church to try to fuse their fidelity to God with the ways of our American empire.

When we see beneath the layers of modern ambiguity and fear over things like the mark of the beast and discern what scripture is actually trying to express, we find a very clear and powerful message for us Christians today. Fidelity to Christ and his ways. Resisting the temptation to act like the beasts of this world, especially in an attempt to compel others to follow Jesus too.

If you plan on reading more of the Book of Revelation, which I hope you do, it is important to remember that so much of our discussions around the "End Times" focuses on destruction, rather than redemption. Focuses on escaping the planet, rather than waiting and working towards its renewal. Focuses on the beast, rather than the lamb. Focuses on the antichrist, rather than Christ. Focuses on all the fear and none of the hope. The reality is, the reason why this book is called "revelation" is because of what is being "revealed." God in Christ Jesus! When we have our reading shaped by Jesus and his desire to redeem, restore, and heal, we come out the other side with a much healthier, and more hopeful view of his return. Moreover, it should give us a more hopeful view of the "endings" we all will experience in our own lives. It becomes less about how things will "end" and more about how all things will be made new (Revelation 21: 1-8).

It is Jesus after all. Any kind of theology of his second coming that makes his return seem anything less than joyful and restorative is one to be wary of.

Next week, I’ll be writing about the Rapture and its theology (dispensationalism). Be sure to stay tuned for that one.

If you have any questions that you’d like clarified or another aspect of the “end times” you’d like to discuss, let me know. It might be something we can all think about together.

I hope you’ve found this brief dive into Revelation 13 clarifying and helpful.

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Thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.

Sincerely,

Ben

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PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

​Resisting Reactionary Christianity​

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​How Should American Christians Use Religious Freedom?​

​Symbolic Christianity vs Substantive Christianity.​

​Trading Jesus for Barabbas​

​The Gun Problem is a Sin Problem​

​We Don't Define Power The Way Jesus Does.​

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