What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 34

"Let Him that Hath Understanding Calculate at Once the number of the Beast" (continued)

Now, the only sure way to calculate the number of the name of the beast is to follow the Holy Spirit's calculations through the Word of God as He reveals that which is not according to Christ. 666 is the number of the name of the beast, and as we have found out, his name is "blasphemy." So rather than trying to find a name which in some way might add up to 666, let us find out what lies behind this blasphemous trinity of sixes. Let us see how the Holy Spirit uses, and interprets, the number 666. Let us see how the Holy Spirit calculates its sums, its multiples, its combinations, and its results through the Word of God.

The Bible tells us that 666 is the number of the name of a man, or it is the number of man; and this takes us right back to the sixth day of creation, for it was on the sixth day that God created man. Then we are told, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He has rested from all His work which God created and made". So here we have a Divine principle set down by God: man was to begin his life, and live his life, in the Finished Word of God. Man, which speaks of both male and female, was to live a life totally dependent upon God, for He had blessed them with all thins that would sustain their life in spirit, soul and body - And all of this, of course, points to all that Christ is, and all that Christ accomplished for He IS the Finished Work of God.

So man began his life being totally dependent upon God for all things. But through the treacherous work of the serpent, called the devil, and satan, something happened: man fell. Man chose to live his life independently of God. Therefore, the number six has come to represent the human number, the number of fallen man. It is the number of imperfection, the number of fallen man destitute of God and without Christ. The number six is also the number of man's independence of God; six is the number of man's attempt to reach perfection independent of God. Therefore, six is the number of the natural man, of the carnal human nature. In the book "Numbers In Scriptures", by E. W. Bullinger, w find the definition of the number six and its evil sums and multiples:

If 6 is the number of secular or human perfection, then 66 is a more emphatic expression of it; 666 is therefore the trinity of human perfection; the perfection of imperfection; the culmination of human pride in independence of God and opposition to His Christ."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 35)