The following is an answer to a question a dear Christian brother had concerning the number 666 in Revelation 13:18. You can read this response in the comment section under the 'Antichrist' blog, but I thought I would make it more visible here as a blog post. Here's my answer:
666 has been commonly interpreted as representing the 'Satanic Trinity' which happens to be found in Revelation 13 where the number is mentioned.
Of course the number 6 is used to describe being short of 7 (a number of being divine or complete). But the Satanic Trinity (being represented by three sixes) would be The Dragon (or Satan), The Beast (which refers to the unified kingdom of the Antichrist and also the Antichrist himself since God usually sees a king and a kingdom as one in the same), and the False Prophet (who will use religion and supernatural miracles to lead people to worship the Beast).
It's interesting to read Daniel 3:1 where Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) had a golden image "whose height was threescore (sixty) cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits." This is important because Revelation 13 also mentions about an image of the Beast to be worshiped and no doubt the image in Daniel was one of Nebuchadnezzar himself. I say this because history has a funny way of repeating the past (read Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Also, 1 Samuel 17:4 mentions about Goliath "whose height was SIX cubits and a span." He also had "SIX hundred shekels of iron" (verse 7). No matter how big the enemy is, God seems to use this number to remind them that they still fall short of his glory. This is the best so far I can answer from the Scriptures without overly speculating.
Thank you for the answer Brother! On a side note my wife just had her cell phone number changed and her new number's ending was 6660. Five minutes after seeing the new number my wife had me go back in and change her number again. Anything that has a final total of 666 my wife will change because of the origin of the number in Revelations. The guy at the store just looked at me and laughed but his manager was over his shoulder and let us change the number. He said he understood our reason. I wonder how many people feel the same way as us. I don't want to put too much weight on the number being evil but it does creep us out. Thanks again.
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