Strange, bizzare pronouncements

Few things have gripped the imagination of believers as much as has the number 666.

John the Revelator says in Revelation 13: 18: “This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

Over the centuries a number of historical figures have been associated, by overenthusiastic apocalyptic ‘prophets’, with the number 666. Adolf Hitler was, according to some of these ‘prophets’, a definite anti-Christ.

They devised a mathematical scheme which put Hitler squarely on 666. If you assign the number 100 to the letter A so that B is 101, C 103 and so on, you end up with the name Hitler, starting with 107 followed by 108 (since H is the 8th letter in the alphabet and I the ninth) and if you decode all the six letters and add them up what you get is 666. Eureka!

Using a clever scheme, the name Hitler was equated to the number which was given as the mark of a beast in the book of Revelation. There was no doubt in the minds of these schemers that Hitler had come to herald the end of times. Their belief was consolidated by what appears in verse 13 of the same chapter, which reads: “It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men.” Hitler was one of the first humans to use bomber planes in warfare (making fire descend from heaven).

It is not difficult to punch holes into this scheme because there are so many other words which add up to 666. Most of them are plan innocuous and some even respectable in Christian belief. ‘Choirs’, ‘couple’ and ‘liquid’ are among such words.

Other figures in history have been associated with 666. An interesting theory purports that some Roman Catholic Popes have used the title Vicarius Filii Dei, which is Latin for “Representative of the Son of God”.

Now, if you replace the letter u with v in Vicarius, the title becomes Vicarivs Filii Dei. In Roman numerals, v is 5, i is 1, c is 100, L is 50, d is 500 and the rest of the letters in the title are not used in Roman numerals, so each one has a value of 0. It you take the values of the letters in the title and add them up, you get 666. Try it, and you will appreciate the brilliance of this scheme. 

Many scholars have shown that the title Vicarius Filii Dei, associated with the Papacy, is a fake one.

We have no shortage of overenthusiastic Bible interpreters even in our time. Corona virus, some say, is a man-made calamity intended to usher in a New World Order. It is being propagated, so they claim, by 5G technology. I spent some time and space trying to show the fallacy of this belief in my last article and will not dwell on it now. Suffice to say that it is a theory that does not stand up to honest scrutiny.

Another theory says the world powers are planning to implant electronic chips into our bodies through the so-called anti-corona viruses which they are developing. Once we have these chips in our bodies, so the argument goes, we will become partly humans and partly machines and they can easily control us by sending signals to us the way we use a remote control unit to control a television set.

While it is true that people are now having electronic chips embedded under skins, it is absurd to think that such chips can be liquified and introduced into the body through an injection. Those who get chips implanted in their bodies do so out of choice. It is unthinkable that some elites would force this kind of thing on unconsenting individuals under the guise of vaccines.

It is good and certainly desirable to interpret the mysterious scripture for the benefit of believers, but when untruths and half truths are thrown into the interpretation, the whole purpose of interpreting scripture faithfully is lost. Those who claim to have words of wisdom must give such words in honesty and truth. If they do not understand anything they should be honest enough to say so and concentrate on the bits that they can easily explain.

Searching within scripture, one comes across a verse from Revelation, which says: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.” Hear, hear!