The Meaning of 666: Deeper, not Shallow

Have you seen this? and someone posted the following on Twitter:

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Such things are popular today, in the realm of conspiracy theory. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, necessarily, or right, but it is in the realm on conspiracy theory. The main trouble with conspiracy theories is that, once a few of them have proved true, you tend to swallow anything that comes down the pipe. Yikes! Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter and given journalists access to previously hidden staff communication, he says, “Frankly, just about every conspiracy theory you have head about Twitter has turned out to be true.”

But the above picture doesn’t have to do with Twitter. I don’t even know if it’s genuine or modified, and don’t care enough to find out. See how the arcing red crosses the three Os, as though making a 666. What could that mean?

On that Twitter thread were submissions from others. This, for example, over these recent years of especial upheaval:

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Or this, over pandemic concerns:

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As expert on all things JW, I was flooded with inquiries. Or at least you never know when they might start. So let us weigh in.

Our people don’t put much truck in them. They are curiosities. Whether you can concoct similar things over just about anything, I don’t know. I’ve heard you can. Some things are coincidence, such as . . . gasp! . . . this inventory of Solomon’s wealth:

“And the weight of the gold that came to Solʹo·mon in one year amounted to 666 talents of gold.”  (2 Chronicles 9:13)

As for Jehovah’s Witnesses, we have explained it that 7 is a number frequently conveying heavenly perfection, 6 (one short) conveying earthly imperfection, and anything repeated three times conveys emphasis. For example, how you might respond to Vic Vomodog intruding with something outrageous, the way he does?

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Therefore, 666, is more or less ‘doing things the human way’ emphasized, as though on steroids, deliberately rejecting godliness. The fact that the number is used in Revelation can be taken that the overall world will be (and/or is) going that way, posing a real test for anyone who doesn’t.

(The photo is from IMDb of Jack Luden, an actor of very old Westerns, with whose generation I overlap. He is nephew to the inventor of Luden’s Cough Drops.)

Frankly, numbers being what they are in the Bible—12s, 40s, and 60s show up a lot—you almost wonder if they don’t assume more significance than the strictly ‘counting mode’ they have today. Almost like the six things Jehovah hates listed in Proverbs 6:16 that bizarrely becomes seven.

******  The bookstore

Comments

One response to “The Meaning of 666: Deeper, not Shallow”

  1. Cory Avatar
    Cory

    I think, for me, some of these issues are a matter of ‘how far will wicked spirit forces go to mislead the entire inhabited earth’? I think some Witnesses believe the ‘misleading’ begins and ends with false religion and human wisdom/morals/entertainment. But it seems like behind-the-scenes conspiracies in government and in business (including medical) would be too good an opportunity to pass up.
    But then what about these stranger things, like the numbers you mention, or the explosion in UFO stuff? Just coincidences? Things like that are definitely more interesting to some people than simple Bible truths.
    [Tom: Yeah, you can easily get caught up in rat holes and wild goose chases that are in the end ‘so whats?’ One theory holds that the UFO stuff exists just to distract people from other nasty stuff going down.]

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