Unveiled: Decoding 666

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666.
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You know the number.
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You've seen the documentaries.
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Over the last 50 years, that number has been pinned on barcodes, social security numbers, credit cards, microchips, vaccines, and at least four American presidents.
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Now, here's where it comes from.
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If you open up your Bibles to Revelation chapter 13, verse 18, this is literally what it says.
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This calls for wisdom.
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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.
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Now read that again.
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This is what it says.
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Let the one who has understanding calculate it.
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Friend, that's not writing or warning somebody about a distant future.
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That's a riddle.
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And John hands it to seven churches, fully expecting that somebody in the room is going to work it out before the reading's finished.
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So today I'm going to show you how they solved it.
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I'm going to show you why there's an ancient manuscript, okay, that says 616 instead of 666, and why that variant, which ought to be a problem, is actually the best evidence we have for what that number means.
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And then I'm going to do something that you might not expect.
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I'm going to tell you why I'm not going to name the beast for you today.
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Not because I'm scared to, but because I think naming is the trap.
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Okay.
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So let's jump into this.
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Okay, real quick before we jump in, I want to tell you about a book that I wrote back in 2023 with the destiny image called Carriers of His Presence.
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This is a book that I wrote back in 2023 where I took a lot of the lessons that I've walked through over the past several years and where the Lord began to show me since 2015 that America has three parallels of leadership that become the backdrop for one of the greatest kings to come forth, who is King David.
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I talked to you in this book about the compromised priesthood, the traveling prophets, the political kings, and how David comes and restores the protocol for how people can carry presence back into their city and nation.
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I believe God's raising up a generation of carriers of his presence.
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This book, I believe, is going to absolutely change your life.
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So if you want a copy of it, I'm getting ready to take a whole series on this on my YouTube channel, and I'm going to teach throughout the book.
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And so now would be a good time to click that link below.
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Go order a copy.
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I'll sign that copy and ship it to you myself.
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Guys, it would be greatly appreciated.
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You're supporting our ministry, and I know the book's going to be a blessing to you.
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Before we touch chapter 13, we have to go back up one chapter because if you start at 13, you're going to spend the whole hour looking at the wrong character.
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So go back to Revelation chapter 12, actually starting in verse one.
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And this is what it says and a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.
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So I want you to look at this sun, moon, 12 stars.
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Well, friend, if you know the Bible at all, you can go back to Genesis chapter 37.
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This is literally speaking to Joseph's dream.
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The sun and the moon and the 11 stars are bowing down.
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That's the family.
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That's Israel.
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Okay.
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So this is the covenant people.
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And she's giving birth to the Messiah.
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And then there's a dragon standing in front of her, waiting to devour the child the moment it's born.
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So now here's the question: Who's the dragon?
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Well, you don't have to guess.
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Look at verse 9, okay?
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And it says, and the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil in Satan, the deceiver of the world.
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Okay.
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So he just tells you no decoding here, no chart, no gamatria.
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When John wants you to be certain, and I've said this before in this series, he says it out loud.
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So I want you to hold this because it really reorganizes the whole chapter that you're about to read.
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See, the beast in chapter 13 is not the top of the organizational chart.
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Okay.
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The beast comes up out of the sea, and the first thing that it does in verse 2 is listen to this, is receive its power and its throne from the dragon.
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Okay.
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Now listen to this.
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Every organization has two people.
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There's the one whose name is on the door and whose face is on the billboard.
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And then there are the one, there's the one who actually decides what's going to happen.
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And if you spend all of your energy fighting the guy on the billboard, you can win.
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You can absolutely take him down and discover that nothing changed because he was never the one making the calls.
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He was just the guy out front.
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So I want to tell you guys right now, the beast is not the villain of Revelation.
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The beast is an employee of the great villain.
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And one more verse before we move on, because everything else gets answered by it, um, is chapter 12, verse 11.
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Okay, so if you go into chapter 12, verse 11, it says, And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives even unto death.
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Okay.
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Now I want you to flag that and write it down because we're going to come back at the end.
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And when we do, it's going to be the entire answer to everything this chapter is about to throw at you.
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Okay.
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Now, now let's step into chapter 13, verse 1.
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Okay.
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This is what chapter 13, verse 1 says.
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It says, And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads.
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And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet was like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.
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Okay.
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So we've got some animals here.
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We've got a leopard, we've got a bear, we've got a lion.
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Now, if you have the key that we that I gave you in week one, you already know where we are.
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You ready?
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Daniel chapter seven.
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Daniel sees four beasts coming out of the sea: a lion, a bear, a leopard, and guess what?
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Listen, and a fourth one so terrible he doesn't even have an animal for it.
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So there's four beasts, and those four beasts represent four kingdoms.
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So John takes Daniel's four and then he welds them into one.
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Okay.
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Now, I'm gonna give you an illustration of what's happening here.
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There's this thing that photographers do where they take a stack of portraits and they layer them on top of each other until you get one face.
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And that face that comes out isn't any of the individual people, it's all of them at once.
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It's the type.
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You look at it and you're not looking at a person, you're looking at what they all have in common.
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See, friend, that's the beast.
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John isn't describing an animal.
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He isn't describing one man.
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He's showing you every empire that Daniel ever saw layered into one being, into one face.
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And notice where it comes from.
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This beast comes up from the sea.
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So in the Hebrew imagery, the sea is chaos, the deep, the churning, the unstable, dangerous place.
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Empires come up out of chaos.
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So I want you to keep that in your pocket because next week we get into Revelation 21, and the very first thing it says is the sea was no more.
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Okay.
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This is really powerful, man.
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I I wish I would have known this when I first was born again because Revelation scared the mess out of me.
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And now as I begin to read this, there's so much understanding to it.
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So now, okay, two details that almost everybody reads straight past.
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Okay.
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One is in verse five, talking about the number 42 months.
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Now, this is big.
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42 months is three and a half years.
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It's the same figure as the 1260 days elsewhere in this book.
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And it's the same as Daniel's time, times, and a half of time.
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Okay.
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And here's what it's made of.
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Okay, we all know that seven in the scripture, in the Bible's number, um, in biblical numerology, seven is for completeness, for wholeness, for the finished thing.
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Okay.
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So what does three and a half mean?
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Well, three and a half is seven broken in half.
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So it's not a calendar, it's really a way of saying two things at once.
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So what John is saying is this is real suffering, but this is not the whole story.
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So it's a broken seven, cut off, incomplete by design.
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So 42 months isn't a countdown.
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It's God's way of saying this is real and it is not forever.
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Okay.
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Second point, and this is this one's really like buried in the grammar.
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Verse five says, authority was given to it.
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Verse seven says it was allowed to make war.
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Verse seven again, authority was given to it over every tribe and people.
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So this is written in a passive voice over and over in this chapter.
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Was given, was allowed.
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Okay.
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But given by whom?
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That's the question.
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Well, John never spells it out, and he doesn't have to.
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There's only one answer available in a book that spent all of chapter four establishing who is on the throne.
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See, friend, the beast is terrifying, and yet the beast is on a leash.
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Friend, I know you've walked past a fence where something enormous came at you.
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The noise, the impact on the boards, the whole fence moving.
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And what does your body do?
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It reacts before your brain does every time.
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So you'll flinch or whatever.
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And then your brain catches up and tells you the thing that you already knew.
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There's a chain on that dog.
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And friend, it didn't get quieter, it didn't get smaller, but the size of it and the reach of it turn out to be two completely different questions.
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Okay.
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And one last thing in this chapter, verse three.
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One of the heads has a mortal wound that has been healed.
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So a death and then a coming back.
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Do you see what that is?
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Friend, that's a counterfeit resurrection.
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So put the dragon, the beast, and the second beast together, and you've got a parody, uh, you've got a how do I say it?
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A parody trinity.
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Okay.
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So everything, single thing that the beast has, it's imitating.
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It has no original material.
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It's a knockoff all the way down.
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Now, one for the comments here because I love hearing from you guys.
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Had you ever been told that Revelation 13 is built out of Daniel 7?
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Yes or no?
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Keep it simple.
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I just want to see where you're at.
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All right.
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Now, this is the part that you came for.
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So let's do it carefully because precision matters here more than anywhere else in this series.
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So let's start with something we've lost.
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Okay.
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Ancient languages didn't have a separate set of numerals the way that we do.
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Okay.
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The letters were the numbers.
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Hebrew did it, Greek did it, alpha was one, beta was two, and so on.
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Okay.
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Which means every single name had a number automatically.
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You didn't have to do anything with it.
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Okay.
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And people played with this constantly.
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There's graffiti preserved literally preserved from Pompeii, buried in 79 AD.
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So this is the exact world that we're talking about, where somebody scratched a message about a girl and gave her number instead of her name.
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See, friend, that's a first century teenager flirting in code.
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And everybody reading that wall knew exactly what was happening.
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So when John says calculate the number, nobody in those seven churches thought, what a strange and impossible instruction.
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They thought, oh, it's one of those.
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Now let's run it.
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Okay.
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Take the name Neron Caesar, okay?
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The Emperor Nero.
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Okay.
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Written the way that it was commonly written, transliterated into Hebrew letters.
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If you add the values up, it would be 50 plus 200 plus 6 plus 50 plus 100 plus 60 plus 200.
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What does that equal?
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666.
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Now, here's the part that almost nobody in your audience has ever heard.
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I guarantee it.
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And where you go to church or whatever audience maybe you preach to or teach to, and it's the strongest card in the deck.
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Okay.
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Some of the oldest surviving manuscripts of Revelation don't actually say 666.
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They say 616.
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Now, normally, okay, a variant like that is a problem for a theory.
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Here, it's actually the opposite.
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Here it's really the fingerprint because watch what happens.
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The Hebrew spelling of Neron ends with a letter called none, and none is worth 50.
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So spell the name the Latin way instead.
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Guess what?
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Nero.
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Without that final N, which is exactly how a Latin speaker would write it.
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And you drop that letter.
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Okay.
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666 minus 50 equals what?
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616.
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Okay.
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Listen, two different spellings of the same name, both preserved in the manuscript tradition, both landing exactly where you'd expect it.
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Friend, there's an ancient copy of Revelation that says 616 instead of 666.
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Friend, that's not a mistake in the text.
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That's the same name, one spelled in Latin instead of Hebrew.
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Okay.
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So now let me be honest about how hard I'll push this.
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Okay.
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This is the majority view among scholars who work on Revelation.
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And I think it's the best explanation available by a wide margin.
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Okay.
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So I'm not going to tell you it's mathematically proven.
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I'll tell you this.
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The riddle had a first century answer.
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It was a first century answer that the first readers could solve.
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And the best candidate we have is Nero.
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Now, let's talk about the mark itself because this is where I believe the pastoral work is.
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So if you're going to look in verses 16 and 17, again, we're in chapter 13, a mark on the right hand or the forehead, and without it you can't buy or sell.
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Now, put that beside chapter 7, verse 3, and chapter 14, verse 1, where the servants of God are sealed on the forehead.
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Okay.
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So two marks, same locations, one from the beast and one from the lamb.
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Friend, this is not about technology.
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This is the language of ownership.
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Whose name is on you?
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Whose are you?
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Who you'll bow to in order to keep your shop open.
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Now think about what it means when somebody's wearing a jersey.
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Okay.
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Nobody thinks the fabric is magic.
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Nobody thinks the logo has power in it.
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The jersey isn't doing anything to them.
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What it's doing is announcing something.
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It says, I'm with them.
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When they win, I win.
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Put me in the column.
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Okay.
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That's the mark.
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It was never a chip.
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It was never a barcode.
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It's a jersey.
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It's a declaration of who you belong to in a world that makes your ability to eat depend on that answer.
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And here's why I want you to hear this clearly today, because I think people have lost sleep over it for decades.
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Listen, write this down.
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The mark of the beast was never about technology, it's about who owns you, and you cannot get it by accident.
00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:40.879
So stop with this fear-mongering, talking about the mark of the beast and connecting it to technology.
00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:42.240
It's nonsense.
00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:47.519
Nobody has ever stumbled into the mark of the beast at a checkout counter.
00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:53.120
The pressure John's readers faced was economic and social and completely legible.
00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:53.600
Okay.
00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:59.360
So go along, say the words, burn the pinch of incense, keep your business.
00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:01.519
That's what was happening in that day.
00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:04.160
Who, who, who's who is your God?
00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:06.079
Who whose jersey do you have on?
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.400
Who's got the mark on your hand in the forehead?
00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:09.599
Are you going to go along with it?
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:10.640
Are you going to say the words?
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:16.000
You're going to go through the ritual, you're going to use the burn the pinch of incense and keep your business open?
00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:21.039
Friends, Christians have faced that in every century since, including this one.
00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.319
It's never once required a chip.
00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:27.599
This is talking about who owns you.
00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:28.319
Okay.
00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:34.160
Now, if we go look into chapter 17, okay, let's move on from chapter 13.
00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:35.920
Let's move into chapter 17.
00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:38.160
Okay, here's another symbol.
00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:43.759
There's a woman on a scarlet beast dressed in purple, holding a golden cup.
00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.559
And John does the thing that he does.
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.480
He's going to tell you, quit trying to miss make this mystical.
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:56.240
He's going to tell you, verse 9, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.
00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:03.279
Verse 18, the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the entire earth.
00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:10.079
So every single person in that empire reading that sentence knew what city sets on seven hills.
00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.519
This was not subtle.
00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:14.160
This was about as subtle as it could safely be.
00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:16.000
So why not just say Rome?
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:16.960
Two reasons.
00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:17.359
Okay.
00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:18.960
The first one's practical.
00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:21.519
John is a prisoner on Patmos.
00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:27.680
He's writing to churches inside an empire that executes people over exactly this question.
00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:31.359
I want to tell you about something that we call the family table.
00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.480
Almost everything we make here, we give away.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:41.279
The teaching, the resources, the tools that we put in the hands of pastors and church leaders who are running on empty.
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:43.920
It's free because we believe it should be free.
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.240
And it's free because a group of people quietly decided to pay for it.
00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:50.319
Friend, that's the family table.
00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:57.920
Monthly partners who fund this work so that somebody who could never afford it can walk in wholeness, anyways.
00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.000
Your giving does three things.
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:04.240
It gets free resources into the hands of individuals and churches.
00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:08.160
It plants family table communities all across the country.
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:14.640
And it helps pastors and church leaders find the wholeness that they've been handing to everybody but themselves.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:30.480
Friend, family table members get exclusive content, early access to new resources, and a monthly Zoom call with me and my wife, a real one where we talk about what we're actually doing, a little behind the scenes and casting vision for the future.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:41.519
So if that's you, you want to be a part of the family table, want you to go to marcasto.co backslash donate, set up your recurring gift, and we'll send you the details shortly.
00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:44.799
We'd love to have you at the family table.
00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.440
Guys, you know how people write when the letter is going to be read by somebody else first.
00:19:49.599 --> 00:20:00.319
So you write about the weather, you mention Aunt Rose, you say something that means one thing to the censor and something completely to your family, completely different to your family.
00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:00.720
Okay.
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:03.039
So that's a riddle with a purpose.
00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:06.319
John isn't being mysterious for the fun of it.
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:12.000
He's writing so that the churches understand and the empire doesn't have a sentence to hang him with.
00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:16.480
And the second reason I think is bigger, and it's the one that matters for you and I.
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:16.880
Okay.
00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:22.240
He calls it Babylon because Babylon already meant something.
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.400
Jeremiah wrote against Babylon.
00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:26.720
Isaiah wrote against Babylon.
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:36.799
Centuries before John, there were whole oracles about a city that gathered the world's wealth and crushed the world's people and thought it would stand forever.
00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:37.279
Okay.
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:43.519
So when John looks at Rome and calls it Babylon, he is saying, this is the same thing.
00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:47.599
This is Rome is Babylon, but it's just wearing new clothes.
00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:49.920
So, friend, I hope you understand by now.
00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:51.200
Babylon's not a place.
00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:55.119
Yes, it was at one point a physical place, but but you got to hear this.
00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:56.640
Babylon's not a place.
00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:58.720
Babylon is a spirit.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:03.519
Babylon is a costume that gets handed down through the generations.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:05.920
So now get to chapter 18.
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:12.880
The merchants lament, and I want you to hear the whole list because this list is the sermon.
00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:13.200
Okay.
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:38.319
Cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, spice, um, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, listen to this, and slaves.
00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:41.519
That is human souls.
00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:44.079
So that's the last item.
00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:50.960
After the cinnamon, after the horses, same list, same manifest, same counter.
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:51.440
Okay?
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:56.559
So nobody in that supply chain thought of themselves as evil.
00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.279
They were merchants, they were moving product.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:09.359
The product at the bottom of the invoice was people, and the system that had gotten so used to it that it didn't even require a separate page.
00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:12.160
Friend, if you're taking notes, write this down.
00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:16.400
The cargo list ends with human souls right after the sentiment.
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:21.119
That's the whole indictment of the empire in one line.
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:28.400
That's the reason why God hates Babylon, because it has reduced people down to money.
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:32.400
And then look at why the merchants are weeping in chapters 18.
00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:33.039
Read it.
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:34.720
It's not grief.
00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:38.960
Nobody's mourning a person, they're mourning the market.
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:42.640
Verse 11 says, No one buys their cargo anymore.
00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:44.720
That's a revenue statement.
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:47.680
And into that, verse 4.
00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:51.519
God says, Come out of her, my people.
00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:53.519
Friend, that's not geography.
00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:55.359
Nobody's being told to move.
00:22:55.599 --> 00:22:57.440
He's talking about allegiance.
00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:02.079
Come out from under what it wants from you and be mine.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:02.799
Okay?
00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:08.400
Now, let me put my position on the table in one breath.
00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:10.559
No hedging here, okay?
00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:17.039
This had a first century address, and it has a permanent pattern.
00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:18.160
So I want you to hear this.
00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:21.839
The book of Revelation has a first century meaning.
00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.160
That's why I say first century address.
00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:29.920
But also with it is an unfolding permanent pattern.
00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:37.680
So John was writing about Rome, and John was not only writing about Rome, here's why it has to be both.
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:38.160
Okay.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:47.599
If it were only about Rome, then this book died somewhere in the second century, and we're reading somebody else's mail for no reason at all.
00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:54.400
So a historical curiosity with a blessing attached for some reason doesn't really make sense.
00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:59.680
But if it were only about the future, then this is just cruel.
00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:03.599
Useless to the very people who were bleeding when it was written.
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:12.640
Imagine handing a church under persecution a coded document about events 2,000 years away and calling that pastoral care.
00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:20.880
Friend, the book of Revelation was written as both a real empire and the shape that empire always takes.
00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:21.359
Okay?
00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:25.119
And the shape is remarkably consistent.
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.920
Empire always demands worship.
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:32.799
In some form, one way or another, an empire always demands worship.
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:36.640
It always attaches that worship to your ability to eat.
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:42.559
It always turns people into inventory somewhere in the supply chain and then calls it something else.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:46.400
It always looks unbeatable from underneath.
00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:50.720
And it always, always has a mortal wound.
00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:58.799
Now, here's where I'm going to do something that you might not have expected when you clicked on this video with a 666 in the title.
00:24:58.960 --> 00:24:59.279
Okay.
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:03.200
I am not going to tell you who the beast is today.
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:11.279
And I want to be clear that it's not because I'm nervous or because I'm scared, and it's not because I don't have opinions about the world.
00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:15.519
It's because I believe naming the beast is the trap.
00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:19.920
Why don't you think about what we what we've done for 150 years?
00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:35.359
Every generation has confidently identified him: Napoleon, the Kaiser, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, a Pope, a president, a Secretary of State, sincere people every time with charts and verses and real convictions.
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:36.480
And guess what?
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.880
With all of those real convictions, every generation was wrong.
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:43.680
But here's the part that actually costs something.
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:44.160
Okay.
00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:49.279
It isn't just that the answers were wrong, it's what the searching does to you.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:58.480
So while you're scanning the headlines for the Antichrist, you stop examining what you're actually being asked to bow to.
00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:05.359
And listen, I know what I did in module three was satisfying: a riddle, a calculation, a manuscript variant, a name.
00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:06.079
That clicks.
00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:08.480
It feels like mastery, okay?
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:12.559
And that feeling is exactly what got sold to all of us.
00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:16.160
The decoder ring is the product.
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:24.640
If all I've done today is hand you a better decoder ring, I've failed because I taught you the same habit with more accurate answers.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:28.559
Here's the difference that I want in teaching you the book of Revelation.
00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:42.079
You spent a long time at the window watching, scanning the street, trying to work out which one of them it is and who's the beast, who's the false prophet, who's the Antichrist, who's the dragon, and whether it's started yet.
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:48.480
Friend, and this text walks over, closes the blind, and hands you a mirror.
00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:54.559
Not to condemn you, to ask you the only question that was ever actually on the table.
00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:59.119
What are you bowing to in order to keep buying and selling?
00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:02.640
Now, friend, I understand that's not a comfortable question.
00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:06.240
It's a much better one than who is he?
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:07.839
And you have to admit that.
00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:13.279
The beast isn't a prediction that you decode, it's a mirror that you check.
00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:14.720
Do you get that?
00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:22.559
Like we're looking at the problems instead of the mirror, going, Do I have the mark on my forehead and on my wrist?
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:27.279
Do I have allegiance to the beast or to the lamb?
00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:30.640
Okay, now, chapter 12, verse 11.
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:34.880
Let's go back for a second, the verse I told you to flag at the very beginning.
00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:36.160
This is what it says.
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:37.759
Most of you can quote it.
00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:46.960
And they overcame him, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives even unto death.
00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:50.240
Now, I want you to look at what the saints are not given.
00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:51.839
They're not given an army.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:52.240
Okay.
00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:54.319
I hope you're tracking here with this.
00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:56.960
They are not given an army, okay?
00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.440
That's not, that's not what they were given here.
00:27:59.599 --> 00:27:59.920
Okay.
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:01.920
They're not given an army.
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:05.200
There's no army anywhere in this book on our side of it.
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:07.119
They're not given an escape plan.
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:09.680
Nobody's getting evacuated in chapter 13.
00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:13.039
They're not given a date, not a single one.
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:19.680
What they're given is the blood of the lamb, which we did two weeks ago, and it's the finished work.
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:21.279
It's not their performance.
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:23.359
It was never about their performance.
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:30.319
And the word of their testimony, which means a faithful witness, out loud, and there's a cost attached to that.
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:31.200
That's it.
00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:34.880
That's the whole strategy the church has ever been issued.
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:38.880
And I want you to notice it's the same way the Lamb won.
00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:44.559
He didn't outpower anybody, he testified, and it cost him everything.
00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.200
And that actually turned out to be a victory.
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:48.640
And guess what, friend?
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.160
The saints just do what he did.
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:57.119
Friend, I'm going to say this to you, and this is going to help you with the book of Revelation.
00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:04.640
Every generation gets a beast, and every generation gets the same solution.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:05.200
Okay.
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:09.039
And Rome fell, not to an army of Christians.
00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:10.160
There wasn't one.
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:12.319
It fell the way they all fall.
00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:18.400
And the church had no army, no escape plan, no date that was there.
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:24.880
But they were still telling the truth out loud, and we're still telling the truth out loud 2,000 years later.
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.160
So again, here's another one for the comments.
00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:30.319
And I want you to take this very seriously.
00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:32.559
Forget the headlines for a second, okay?
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:42.559
What's the thing in your actual life that's asking you to bow a little to keep things comfortable?
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:44.880
You don't have to name it specifically.
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.200
Just say that you know what it is.
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:47.599
Okay?
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:49.440
I want to see that in the comments.
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:55.039
Okay, now in closing, 666 was a riddle.
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:56.799
It had an answer.
00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:00.960
The the the first people to read this book could solve it.
00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:04.240
And most likely his name was Nero.
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:07.440
And he's been dead for nearly 2,000 years.
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:08.720
But guess what?
00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:11.119
The pattern outlived him.
00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:13.759
Babylon is just a costume, okay?
00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:18.559
And it keeps getting handed down, and every generation meets it wearing something new.
00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:22.640
And the answer has not changed once in 2,000 years.
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:25.680
Not an army, not a bunker, not a date.
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:36.160
The blood of the lamb, the word of your testimony, and a people who love the truth more than they love being comfortable.
00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:46.480
Now, friend, next week is the last part of this series that we've done called Unveiled, helping you understand how to read the book of Revelation.
00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:49.200
And guys, we're going to read the ending.
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:53.279
And I'm telling you right now, it is not the world burning down.
00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:54.640
I want you to hear this.
00:30:54.880 --> 00:31:01.440
It's a city coming down and a river running out of the throne and gates that never close.
00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:05.200
Friend, stop looking out the window looking for the crisis.
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:09.920
Stop looking out the window looking to interpret end time events.
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:11.680
Go look in the mirror.
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:13.599
Be honest with yourself.
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:18.000
Ask who's my allegiance to?
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:20.240
Tell yourself the truth.
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:21.680
I'll see you next week.