Is Mankind the Beast of Rev 13_18?

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Hi J____,

Thank you for your question asking why I say there in no article in Rev 13:18. I make no claim or pretense at being a Greek or Hebrew scholar, but I do claim to diligently follow Biblical principles in making such statements.

One such principle is “the sum of thy word is Truth”, another is “in the multitude of counselors there is safety”, and another is “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Pro 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

So I am careful to seek the counsel of a multitude of so- called scholars and compare their offerings with these Biblical principles before I make a statement like ‘there is no article in Rev 13:18’.

I am well aware that most of the translations have the article there in verse 18, but most translations ignore the Biblical principles mentioned above.

Far too many so called ‘Bible Scholars’ depend upon the oldest manuscripts which have been preserved by the apostate church, instead of depending upon what appears in the majority of the thousands of manuscripts [“multitude of counselors”] which are in our possession.

But even some of the scholars who depend upon the oldest manuscripts acknowledge that there is no article in Rev 13:18. For example the Concordant scholars claim to make their decisions about such questions based upon the three oldest manuscripts, and here is the Concordant Version of that verse:

Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has a mind calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is the number of mankind, and its number is six hundred sixty- six.

The Complete Word Study New Testament by Zodhiates while quoting the King James with the article, also declares in their overhead symbols that there is no article in Rev 13:18. According to BibleStudyTools. com, which insists that the article belongs in an English translation, the article is not in verse 18. Here is the URL on that verse:

http:// www. biblestudytools. com/ commentaries/ revelation/Rev-13/Rev-13-18. html

And here is what they say is really in that verse:

the number of a manριθμςνθρπου [ Arithmos anthr pou] , simply number of man. The definite article (“the”) is not found in the Greek text. Wallace sees the missing article as an indication that the number is not of a man, but the number of humankind.1 While this may account for the grammar, it fails to account for the previous verse wherein the article appears before both number and man: τνριθμντονματοςατο [ ton arithmon tou onomatos autou] , the number of the name of him (cf. Rev. Rev. 14:11+). Thus, the number seems inextricably tied to the individual. Some explain of a man as designating a number as men count.2

Going back to the principle of “the sum of thy word” “the number of the name” is no problem at all when we know that that name is ‘adam’ in the Hebrew, and ‘anthropos’ in the Greek, both meaning mankind. So we do not have to depend solely on the opinions of disagreeing so- called Biblical scholars. The Pharisees knew both Greek and Hebrew, and yet were as spiritually blind as most so- called Biblical scholars and ‘great men of God’ today. Here is just a little taste of who the scriptures reveal to us is the beast of Rev 13:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves [ mankind] are beasts.

Now if mankind is a beast, having been created on the sixth day along with all beasts, it follows that his Biblical number would be 6, the number which is used throughout scripture as the figure of that which is not yet spiritually finished or completed, and is therefore the image of mankind in the form of “the first man Adam”.

Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Dan 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits [60 cubits high], and the breadth thereof six cubit s: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul [ not the completed product]; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual [ complete] , but that which is natural [ incomplete]; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Six is the Biblical number of “that which is natural” and devoid of spiritual eyes, ears or spiritual understanding. Those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear “the things of the spirit” see clearly that this “beast” of Rev 13 who demands the worship of all men, is the same as the “man of sin” who “sits in the temple of God” claiming to be God”.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

The one person we all just naturally worship and adore most is the beast we see in the mirror. It is our natural man who is just naturally a man of sin:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

If that is not worship and adoration, then what is it? Where is this ‘man of sin’ who is worshiped?

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [ the day of the Lord, verse 2] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

Where is this “temple of God”, and what were the things Paul had told these Thessalonians when he was yet with them? He told them the same things he told the Corinthians and all those to whom he was sent. Paul knew exactly where the temple of God was, and he knew exactly who this “man of sin” was. He had already written Rom 7, and he had already written these words also:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The one place we are clearly told God does not dwell is in temples made with man’s hands, and the one place we know He does dwell is within His people.

Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

So while the whole world is looking outward toward the middle east, Rome, Europe, in the past or in the future, the Truth of God’s Word is that the man of sin has been sitting securely on the throne of our hearts and minds all along chuckling at every new speculative guess that is made as to who he is and when and where He will appear, based upon every vain imagination of man’s deceived and wicked heart.

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

“That… deceitful… heart” of mankind will receive any and every speculation but the scriptural truth that mankind himself is the Biblical beast who is sitting in the Biblical “temple of God” in every generation of mankind since Adam, and this entire struggle is taking place within “the heavens” of the hearts and minds of God’s people in “the kingdom of God” which Christ plainly tells us is within us all in whom He dwells in every generation since His death and resurrection:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God [ with its temple and it’s throne] is within you.

So when we come to see that we are both that temple and that beast, where the man of sin sits and demands our worship, we now know from “the sum of [ God’s] Word” that there is no article in Rev 13:18, because 666 is the number of mankind, not ‘a’ or any particular man. It is mankind who is this “man of sin” who ‘opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God’, and who is being destroyed at the brightness of the coming of these truths when Christ begins to come into our temple and dethrone that beastly man of sin.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth [ these spiritual words of Truth, Joh 6:63], and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words [ like the words ‘beast’ and ‘temple’ and all the rest of God’s Words] that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
1Co 2:14 But the natural [ minded] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I hope all these verses of scripture dealing with who and what is the beast, along with all the Biblical principles we are given to know how to handle the Word of God, will give you a better understanding of why I say “the article is not in Rev 13:18, and why I can say with the authority of “the sum of thy Word” behind me that “the man of sin is sitting” on the throne of God in “the temple of God which temple ye are” and is no particular man needing the article in that verse.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike>

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