Here is Wisdom - Revelation 13:18 (666)

There have probably been more things written in speculation about the meaning of following passage than Carter has Liver Pills:

"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."
(Revelation 13:18 KJV)

The verse is in reference to the Antichrist. And speculation about the meaning of the number runs the gambit from being a reference to Babylon's ancient ruler to certain Catholic Popes past present or future, to certain American Presidents, past and present, to Hitler and on and on ad nauseam. If you want to research or review the hype, type "666" into Google and have it. Or, if you want to know what the wisdom of the Holy Bible can you, keep reading here.

First, what does the Bible tell us about 'wisdom' and its source? Two verses come to mind:

"Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."
(Proverbs 9:9-10 KJV)

"That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
(Colossians 2:2-3 KJV)

Proverbs Chapter 8 also is a fascinating insight into the nature of wisdom and well worth reading. But the keys to finding that particular wisdom associated with the Antichrist and his number comes from Biblical knowledge; enlightenment is given to man by the Holy Spirit from the Holy Scriptures. And we will use that guidance to seek the holy "wisdom" spoken of in Revelation 13:18. We will begin by seeing what the King James Bible has to say about the number given, "Six hundred threescore and six" and see where that leads us. If we search for that EXACT phrase, only one Bible verse besides Revelation 13:18 has it:

"Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,"
(1 Kings 10:14 KJV)

If we search for a variation of how that number is also written in the Holy Bible we find:

"Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold;"
(2 Chronicles 9:13 KJV)

Both of the above verses point to separate accounts about King Solomon. Lastly, there is another very obscure verse found:

"The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six."
(Ezra 2:13 KJV)

Those are the only three other references to that exact number (666) in the Holy Bible. What do these three disparate Bible verses have to do with the identity of the Antichrist of Revelation 13:18? At this point, those that have done a similar search and pulled up the same results, but lack any depth of real Biblical wisdom, scratch their heads with a disappointed expression on their face. They have hit what they think is a steel wall that leads to nowhere, so they give up and go back to playing a game on their smartphone (an oxymoron). But there is an old expression that determined people say, "Shove the blade in until you hit steel, then shove harder." And that is exactly what we are going to do, but first, we need to provide some context concerning when and where the events of Revelation 13:18 will be unfolding.

The when is in the future, though exactly how far into the future is difficult to determine. It will be during a time that the Holy Bible refers to as the "Latter Days" of the Jewish people (see Nu 24:14; De 4:30; De 31:29; Jer 23:20; Jer 30:24; Jer 48:47; Jer 49:39; Eze 38:16; Da 2:28; Da 10:14; Ho 3:5 ). The where is Israel in the city of Jerusalem of that future day and time. We know this by the multiple references to a place called the "Great City" in Revelation, because the first such use of the term in Revelation clearly denotes its identity:

"And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified."
(Revelation 11:8 KJV)

We learn two things from this verse, the latter is the sure identity of the "great city" as Jerusalem. That is unmistakably clear. The former is a spiritual truth, with the "Great City" likened by the Spirit to Sodom and Egypt, which tells the reader something about the conditions in Jerusalem (full of sinners and a place of oppression of the Jewish people), at that future time. The other references to the "Great City" tell us more about Jerusalem's condition:

"And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
(Revelation 14:8 KJV)

Jerusalem is also spiritually called Babylon, which tells the reader that the Jewish people are in a place similar to conditions during the Babylonian captive. It is possible that the city may be occupied or politically and spiritually influenced at that time by the decedents of the Meads and Persians.

"And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."
(Revelation 16:19 KJV)

The Bible tells us that great wrath is going to fall upon Jerusalem in the future because of the wicked nature of the Great City in those end times.

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
(Revelation 17:5 KJV)

Jerusalem, not Rome, not the literal Babylon, but the future JERUSALEM is the "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." In addition, Jerusalem will become the principle city of religious, political and economic power in the future world, at that time:

"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."
(Revelation 17:18 KJV)

I'm sure this will come as a shock to many fundamentalist premillennial eschatologists, as it goes against the existing theological paradigm, but this is what the King James Bible is says. It is not an interpretation. In our website's chapter called, The Book of Daniel is Unsealing - Focus on the Middle East and Prophecy, we have already written extensively on this identification citing additional supporting verses and references. If you are not familiar with that material, I suggest you go and read it before continuing here, because you need to have a good understanding of this great Biblical truth to comprehend what follows in the rest of this discourse.

Sometime between now and the future times of the "Great City" that is Jerusalem in the book of Revelation, there will great political upheaval in the nation of Israel. Although the nation of Israel that exists today is a Parliamentarian Democracy, with a ceremonial Presidency and real political power vested in a Prime Minister, sometime in the future Israel will become a Theocratic Monarchy again. And, once again, it will be ruled by a line of kings and will become a political Kingdom in the way it is governed. And all this happens BEFORE the coming of the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. The LAST king, before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be the Antichrist -the FALSE MESSIAH. He will be a great king in the Great City of future Jerusalem. This is what the two references to King Solomon (1 Kings 10:14 & 2 Chronicles 9:13) concerning the number "six hundred threescore and six" talents of gold is all about. The Bible is telling you that ancient king Solomon, and the prosperity of Jerusalem under his reign during his time, is a TYPE of the majesty of the last prophetic king and the condition of the future Jerusalem. Let's compare the two for similarities:

Solomon was a great Jewish king who honored the God of his fathers. The Antichrist will be a great Jewish king who does not:

"Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things."
(Daniel 11:37-38 KJV)

In Solomon's day, he built a new Temple in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul tells us that, in the future Jerusalem, there will also be another new Temple:

"That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
(2 Thessalonians 2:2-4 KJV)

There were Merchants and much global trade going in Solomon's Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:28, 2 Chronicles 1:16, 9:14). The Jerusalem of the future will be a Great City of global trade:

"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies."
(Revelation 18:3 KJV)

"And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
(Revelation 18:11-13 KJV)

The TYPE comparison between Jerusalem of the days of Solomon and Jerusalem in the days of the Antichrist is unmistakable.

Like king Solomon of old, the Antichrist king will also be a Jewish king. He will not be some Catholic Pope or Persian or Arab invader from another land. He will be Jewish and come from the seed of the Jewish people, and that is where the obscure verse of Ezra comes into play:

"The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and six."
(Ezra 2:13 KJV)

There is the number of the children of Adonikam and they total 666. HOWEVER, there is another verse in Nehemiah, concerning the very same accounting event, that gives a slightly different total:

"The children of Adonikam, six hundred threescore and seven."
(Nehemiah 7:18 KJV)

This verse says that the children of Adonikam totaled 667. Why the apparent discrepancy and what is this telling us? Good question. Does it mean that the Antichrist will be from the seed line of Adonikam? Or does it mean that an extra being was detected being present in the head count of the children of Adonikam? Or is it telling us something else? I did note that the verse in Revelation where it talks about the number is Revelation 13:18. The number 13 is associated with Satan and the number 18 is 3x6 (666). Then I looked at the verse numbers of Ezra 2:13 and Nehemiah 7:18 and noted that if you put those two numbers together you get 13:18 which match's the chapter number of Revelation 13:18. Coincidence?

Regardless, the time of the Antichrist happens at the dawning of the prophesied "Day of the Lord" of the Holy Scripture:

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it."
(Isaiah 13:9 KJV)

A man who, although a descendent of one of the Jewish tribes, in the flesh, will be the spirit of Satan himself incarnate in the person of the Antichrist.

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
(2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV)

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