The number 666 has come to be associated with anything evil or relating to the end of the world. This triple six is associated with the Antichrist because Revelation 13:8 says the beast has some sort of cryptic number: “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
This code has been hotly debated for centuries, and I do not aim to weigh in on what I think the Apostle John was trying to convey; the reality is that the prophecy will make sense only to those who are alive to watch it unfold.
Rather than attempting to crack the mysterious code, I want to focus on the number itself. People are always looking in every nook and cranny to find recurring sixes, and then branding that thing as the mark of the beast. For all that we do not understand, we all seem to agree that 666 is bad. So I thought it would be fun to look at the only verse in the Bible that is a 6:66, and that is found in John’s gospel (the chapter and verse numbers are man made, so please understand I am not making too much of this; I just find it to be interesting).
He wrote, “After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.”
That happened after Jesus declared Himself to be the bread of life that came down from heaven, and that people would need to feed on that bread in order to have eternal life. That statement did not sit well even with some of the disciples that were following Him (there were more than just the twelve we know by name). They followed Jesus as long as He was multiplying food and healing ailments, but this was too much.
Jesus essentially equated Himself with God when He said He came down from heaven. God had sent bread from heaven to nourish the wandering Israelites in the Exodus, but that manna was a temporary feeding. Jesus offered an eternal filling, something only the divine could provide. Rather than eagerly receiving this bread, many of the people who were following Jesus decided to turn back and no longer walk with Him. As far as we know, they never made a decision to trust in Jesus as their Savior.
That makes the 6:66 a chilling passage. Let’s look at another 666 in the Bible, this time a 66:6 from the prophet Isaiah: “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the Lord, rendering recompense to his enemies!”
In this verse the prophet is foretelling punishment for those who oppress God’s people. That was true in Isaiah’s time, but it will also be true in the Great Tribulation.
The 6:66 shows us that some people reject Jesus because they do not believe His message, and the 66:6 shows us that those who reject Him will one day be held to account. We like to try to crack the code of Revelation’s 666, but John’s 6:66 and Isaiah’s 66:6 are straightforward. Put your trust in Jesus in order to avoid His enteral punishment.
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