Is the book of Revelation something that already occurred? Was it written prior to 70AD and the destruction the temple and meant as prophecy that pointed to that destruction? Many would say yes, and this view is called a pretarist or post-millennial view. In essence, it means that the millennial reign of Christ has already occurred (post-millennial), or that we are currently within it (amillennial), and things are simply moving closer and closer to a heavenly Christian-World state. They believe that the tribulation period of the scrolls, trumpets, and bowls has already occurred in 70AD, and that we now live in a post-tribulation world within the last two chapters of the book, either after the millennial reign or within it, now awaiting the white throne judgment.
The alternative view is that the book of Revelation was written after the destruction of the temple in 70AD, and that these verses are written for a future generation. In other words, the scrolls, trumpets, and bowls have yet to occur, and we are still in a ‘pre-millennial’ reign time frame. After the future tribulation, Christ returns and brings in His millennial reign prior to the white-throne judgement. This is termed a futurist approach to eschatology, vs the pretarist approach described above. In other words, the futurist believes the mark of the beast as described in Revelation 13 is yet to come, while the pretarist believes it already occurred.
So who is right?
Well, if the mark of the beast already occurred thousands of years ago, why would a 666 resurface today? Indeed, the most damning evidence against a pretarist or post-millennial/amillennial view is that we live in a society today that is utterly saturated with a 666 on every product. Virtually nothing today is bought or sold without a 666 being utilized. It seems strange that such an occurrence would arise after, or within, the millennial reign of Christ. Furthermore, it is my argument that while there may be some physical tattoo or engraving on one’s body that signifies an official allegiance to the Beast or Beast system at some point, today’s smart phone payments may fulfill the tenets of the mark through the right hand and forehead.
We will expand on these ideas below.
First, let’s first see where the 666 is imprinted on every product that is bought and sold today. To begin, have a look at the standard UPC, or Universal Product Code Barcode invented in 1973:
Photo Credit: https://dark-mountain.net/the-barcode-moment-part-1/
Note the 3 guard bars without identifiable numbers, and examine the 6th digit in the sequence. The guard bars represent the number 6 (see the red bars below). And to prove that this guard bar sequence represents a 6, one simply finds an identifiable 6 and compares it to the guard bars. They are always identical (see blue bar below). The two narrow strips are always the markings of a 6:
Photo Credit: https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/blog/where-would-we-be-without-the-barcode
The inventor of the UPC, George Laurer, had to make a statement on the 6’s because of initial uproar when found out, but the clarification simply stated that the 6’s were merely coincidence and not to worry about.
Here is the statement from wikipedia, which is sourced from http://204.13.85.155/laurergj/upc/666quest.html:
“The Universal Product Code has bit patterns at the beginning, middle and end of the barcode called “guard bars” and these have been interpreted as the digits 666. When he first developed the code, Laurer noticed that the digit 6 appeared several times and that this might be interpreted as the number of the Beast, as his daughter was studying the Book of Revelation. When the codes started to appear in stores, there were protests and an urban legend developed. Laurer addressed this on his website:
Answer – “Yes, they do RESEMBLE the code for a six. An even parity 6 is:1 module wide black bar 1 module wide white space 1 module/ wide black bar 4 module wide white space. There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible’s “mark of the beast” (The New Testament, The Revelation, Chapter 13, paragraph 18). It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. There is no connection with an international money code either.”
So even if assuming George Laurer’s intent was innocent for the UPC, there still remains the fact that indeed, it is a 666, and indeed, it is on virtually everything bought and sold. If you look at virtually any product in your house with its barcode still intact (can goods, cookies, etc), you will see the markers. Everything bought or sold has the code today, and that should give the thinking person pause. The other products in your house that may not have it, were likely scanned with bar codes for purchase at one point, but no longer have the UPC itself. Regardless, it should be somewhat disturbing that such a system has been devised for virtually all of our products today.
Carrying forward from 1973, the QR Code, or ‘Quick Response code’ invented 21 years later in 1994, is quickly supplanting the UPC/Bar Code. But in reality, the QR code is nothing more than a barcode reimagined. The QR code simply adopted the 666 in a new way. If one thinks of a barcode being read in one dimension horizontally, the QR Code simply represents a bar code that is read both horizontally AND vertically.
Photo Credit: https://www.qrcode-tiger.com/qr-code-vs-barcode
The 6’s are still there in the QR Code, they have simply been wrapped in the same horizontal + vertical configuration. If you take the 2 vertical lines of the barcode’s ‘6’ and simply fold them over each other into two dimensions, you get two boxes, or a box within a box (like a rudimentary pagan tesseract no less):
The one dimensional bar code folds to two dimensions to represent the QR Code, and the 3 guard bars that represent a 6, fold into a box within a box when done so. These images represent the 3 boxes on every QR code. They are simply the guard bars rewritten.
Virtually everything we know is becoming known by a QR Code. Your restaurant menu, your business cards, your advertisements on TV, etc. I think it would be safe to say that virtually nothing today is bought or sold without a QR code or UPC Barcode being utilized.
But what of the person buying and selling? He/she is supposed to be using the mark on their forehead and/or right hand.
Let’s read Revelation 13:
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 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.”
Revelation 13:16-18 ESV
Before saying that all must be tattooed with the mark, lets allow scripture to interpret scripture. When promising the promised land to Israel, we see the hand and forehead invoked similarly:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-8 ESV
The Biblical figurative right hand is where one places their trust. It is their action hand, the method by which they perform an action, or hold the ability to perform action. It represents the ‘doing’ of something. From the Blue Letter Bible and Easton’s Bible Dictionary:
Hand/Right Hand:
“Called by Galen “the instrument of instruments.” It is the symbol of human action (Psa 9:16; Job 9:30; Isa 1:15; 1Ti 2:8)… The right hand was lifted up in taking an oath (Gen 14:22, etc.). The hand is frequently mentioned, particularly the right hand, as a symbol of power and strength (Psa 60:5; Isa 28:2)…. A position at the right hand was regarded as the chief place of honour and power (Psa 45:9; 80:17; 110:1; Mat 26:64).”
The Biblical figurative forehead is where one places their thoughts. In metaphysical terms, it is their sense of purpose and determination. In essence, it represents their intentions. From the Blue Letter Bible and International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:
Forehead:
“In a metaphorical sense the expression, “a harlot’s forehead,” is used (Jer 3:3) to describe the shameless apostasy and faithlessness of Israel. Eze speaks of the stiff-necked obstinacy and the persistent unwillingness of Israel to hear the message of Yahweh: “All the house of Israel are of a hard forehead and of a stiff heart” (Jer 3:7), and God makes his prophet’s “forehead hard…. as an adamant harder than flint,” whereby an unflinching loyalty to God and a complete disregard of opposition is meant (Jer 3:8,9).”
So in symbolic terms, we have a mark that people use to buy and sell through action and intention. This seems pretty broad, so a more literal mark may need considering, but it may not represent something marked on the skin, but rather read from it. In other words, it could represent a simple reading of the skin itself. In practical terms, the mark could be utilized through reading the forehead (face ID) and/or hand (thumbprint). The use of such bio markers is already in full use. In a sense, a person using face ID and/or fingerprint verification through a smart device such as a phone, could represent participation in the beast system.
That said, the Bible does seem to imply that this mark is a mark of strict allegiance and intention to defy God. More than likely it does represent a marking or etching that one takes, but it is interesting to note that all the pieces are in place, and an etched mark that identifies you by your individualized QR code could be implemented any day.
Regardless of how the mark actually takes shape, one must seriously consider their theological position as it relates to current events. Does this 666 code that defines how all items are bought and sold line up with all the events in Revelation 13 having already occurred in 70AD? Does it make sense to hold a post-millennial or amillennial view? It would seem odd that such geo-political and technological maneuvering for the 666 would be present within Christ’s millennial reign, or afterward. The millennium comes after the mark, and the makings of the mark are here today.
Of interest, Rev 13:18 may also be interpreted such that the name of the beast is the same as the man whose number is 666. In other words, that the man whose number is 666, is Solomon, or Shelomah.
1 Kings 10:14, and 2 Chronicles 9:13 mention Solomon (or Shelomah in Hebrew) as the man who can be identified with 666, for it was the weight of Gold talents that came to him yearly in the form of tribute.
“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold,”
1 Kings 10:14 ESV, 2 Chronicles 9:13 ESV
Solomon (Shelomah) is the key Biblical figure who divided Israel into its two houses, dividing God’s people. Solomon did 3 things that Israel’s kings were warned specifically not to do in the Torah:
““When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”
Deuteronomy 17:14-17 ESV
Solomon is warned by his father David not to forsake God in 1 Chronicles 28:9, but we see that he violates the rules of God for Israel’s kings in 1 Kings 10:26-28 and 1 Kings 11:1-3, by taking Horses from Egypt, gathering excessive silver/gold, and taking many foreign wives which turned away his heart toward pagan gods.
“And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price.”
1 Kings 10:26-28 ESV
“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.”
1 Kings 11:1-3 ESV
Furthermore, to use Hebraic gematria for Solomon’s name in Hebrew (Shelomah), one finds his gematria number is actually 212, which translates to english gematria as QR Code or Digital Code: https://www.gematrix.org/?word=shelomah#Hebrew-results
In essence, this would be translating Rev 13:18 a bit differently, as through it were stating that the number of the beast system is the same as the name of the man, and the man’s name is identifiable Biblically by the number 666. Under such an interpretation, the name of the man whose number is 666, is Solomon (Shelomah), and his Hebreic gematria is 212. That translates to english in a number of terms, but two interesting ones, are ‘QR Code’ and ‘Digital Code’.
While interesting, such an interpretation is not necessary, however, for the barcode digitized code and QR Code already contain the 666. It merely confirms the interpretation a second way.
Of note, recently during the COVID-19 saga, many decided to take a green pass QR Code in the nationstate of Israel (and elsewhere) which designated them as being vaccinated. This vaccination permanently marked a person through reverse transcription of mRNA within their body, or Biblical temple. The mRNA vaccine used aborted stem cells in their developmental research, and by partaking in such technology, one may find themselves complicit in the immoral act. This represents a potential abomination that brings desolation from God, but time will tell.
By numerous measures, we see a QR Code or some form of Digitized Code as potentially representing the mark of the beast, and out of fear and admiration of God, one should steer well clear of anything that may represent allegiance to such a system, even if it means turning off the thumb print and facial ID features of your phone to make QR code/Barcode payments. An abundance of caution and discernment is needed today.
Finally, please note that the mark of a beast is the mark of a system in Biblical terms, for beasts are ruling systems in prophecy. That said, this system can still be represented figuratively by a singular man or system leader at the top. It is yet to be determined whether this man be a future end times Anti-Christ figure or False-Prophet figure, or, for instance, an AI reincarnation of a figure from the past, such as a ‘wise-Solomon’. This would be in keeping with someone who the world universally reveres, someone already described to us in scripture as being responsible for dividing God’s people, and someone represented Biblically by the number 666.
Next Section: The 1st Beast from the Sea