So this number 666:
Is trying to be what you are not;
Is trying to blend in to the culture;
Is trying to justify your compromise which comes from a corrupted heart.
And here is the final thought:
666 is trying to offer utopia but it will never get there, it always falls short.
“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” (Revelation 13 v 18)
666 is not the Pope. Martin Luther, Ronal Reagan, a bar code, a social security number or any of the endless definites that people assume.
But it could be (but not exclusively) Antiochus IV Epiphanes (look him up!), Caligula, Nero, Domitian …. Hitler! (The point is those followers of Jesus going through hell because of an Anti-Christ figure are right in saying 666 is that individual) Maybe the readers of John’s vision know exactly who the 666 was referring to. Maybe it was an individual like a Nero or Domitian.
This beast of the earth who mimics the Holy Spirit ( ‘the seven Spirits of God’ meaning perfect and complete) is seen throughout the history of the world as incomplete and not perfect in anyway. The number 3 is also the number of completeness. So perhaps John is saying this beast of the earth may promise everything, tempt with utopia, but will always deliver short of that. The beast of the earth is totally imperfect, completely incomplete and falls short not once, not twice but continually and totally, hence three times!
Missions Paul 