Introduction
A study of the number six, or any number, seems a little like Sesame Street at first. Yet it is the Biblical significance of the number six that makes it important. While “every word of God proves true” (Prov 30:5), not every biblical number has the same importance or weight. We believe the numbers in the Bible are significant because God’s Word is perfect. It contains no more or less than what the Most Perfect Communicator intended. Therefore, as Jesus stated, there is eternal importance to each jot and tittle (Matt 5:18). So, every number in the Bible is important too, but some have greater significance. The number six is one of those numbers in Scripture that has meaning. It is, in a word, “man’s” number.
The Number Six is Man’s Number
In the Word of God, we find the meaning of the number six, both in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament. From Genesis to Revelation, we see the number six has both positive and negative connotations, mostly negative. The number six is man’s number because God created man on the sixth day of the creation week. There are three important things to notice about man’s creation on the 6th day.
The Number Six in Man’s Creation, as Well as the Land Animals
God made man on the same day as land animals (beasts), on the sixth day of creation. Man’s creation on the same day as other creatures is meaningless by itself. Yet, as we work through Scripture, after man has sinned, we see him falling short of God’s glory. More and more, Scripture compares him to beasts. As originally created, there is nothing wrong with man or beast; God pronounces all good (Gen 1:31). However, God created man to be more than the animals. Therefore “six” eventually becomes symbolic of man’s failures and limitations, his sinful beastliness.
Man in God’s Image Is a Creature of Both 6 and 7
God created man in his image and gave him dominion over the creatures (Gen 1:26–28). Although God made man on the same day as the other creatures, man is clearly higher than the animals. Part of man’s call is to set aside the seventh day. To worship and have an intimate relationship with God is all part of his being in God’s image. He is a sixth-day creature to whom God gives a seventh day gift. As such, man is both privileged and princely; he has a connection to God, which he should have maintained by obedience. Yet, in sin he forfeits his privilege.
Created in God’s Image above the Animals in Knowledge, Righteousness and Holiness
In what ways is man above the animals? As created in God’s image, man is superior to animals in knowledge. This is easy to see, as even apes (considered by evolutionists close to man) do not write or even read books. The greatest of these books is the Bible, by which we learn about God, from God.
Regarding righteousness, animals do not have a complex understanding of right and wrong.
As to holiness, are animals close to God? They can be holy, but only if we make them so. In the Old Testament God’s people set them aside to make sacrifices. But they were not conscious of being holy, whereas we can and should be (1 Pet 1:14-16).
Man Created in God’s Image Was Part of our Popular Culture
The teaching that God created man in his own image was, a short time ago, not only common among Christians, but also more broadly in popular culture.
Stephen King, the horror writer, is an example of this. In his book The Eye of the Dragon, we find Peter, the king’s five-year-old son, eating a meal with his father and the nobles. The book gives a brief history of the sloppy eating practices of kings, which included food fights and worse. Peter’s mother Sasha, desiring Peter to be the exception and exceptional as a king when he grows up, takes him aside after one such meal.
Even though he was young, he was better mannered than most of the adults. His mother praises him for this, but she scolds him for his failure to use his napkin and, instead, choosing to wipe himself on his shirt.
She tells him to get his slate. On the slate, Sasha spells out two words: “God” and “dog” (“God” backwards). Sasha teaches Peter that these are the two natures of man: God and dog.
King speaks of God as part of the nature of man because Christianity pervaded culture in his youth. He grew up in the 1950’s and went to school when the Bible and prayer still played a role in schools. The salt and light of Christianity, mentioned in Matthew 5, influenced his life and at least some of his writing.
I still remember when most of our nation’s businesses were closed on Sunday, the Christian sabbath. God’s number – seven – still had relevance to our culture. Now, I have a standing offer from Amazon to have packages delivered on Sunday. Restaurants, with the exception of Chick-fil-A, and maybe a few others, are nearly always open on Sundays.
The Numbers Six and Seven Have Significance for Man’s Work and Rest
In addition to creating man on the sixth day, God also commanded him to work only six days. Adam’s original work was to keep the garden. The seventh-day rest is God’s gift to men, following the six-day work week.
After man sins, Adam thought he could clothe himself and Eve with his works as they put some fig leaves together. Because he was as a gardener, his first thought about clothing was to use a plant. Most of our thoughts about clothing ourselves morally or spiritually concern our doing “good works.”
The seventh day rest reminds us that we are God’s creation. He created us for himself, to glorify him, and to worship him consciously. Genesis 1 records man’s creation in the final verses of Genesis 1, on the sixth day. The importance of the Sabbath, the seventh day, appears immediately after that in Genesis 2:2-3. It’s importance is carved in stone, as this seventh day is also part of God’s Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:6-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15.
Our nation once considered a seventh day rest “holy” and “sacred,” even when it did not fully understand it or universally practice it. Man’s life numbers were six and seven. Before sin, man was perfect, in relation to God and the beasts.
What man is, before sin came into the world, before human imperfection, was part of what God pronounced “good” and even “very good.” At the end of the account of God’s creative work, we read, “ Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen 1:31a).
Man’s Uprightness
Ecclesiastes 7 tells us that God made man upright. “Upright” as a word, describes man’s moral condition as created by God, but in relation to the beasts it also pertains to man’s physical stance. We stand on two legs – “upright” – while most “beasts” creep or crawl on four. Genesis 1:25 speaks of “everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind.” But of man, it says that he is “upright.” “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Eccl 7:29). The seeking out of many schemes, a negative statement about man in contrast to being “upright,” seems to indicate a moral crawling, a moral beastliness.
From New Testament teachings about our re-creation in Jesus Christ, we can deduce that God originally created us in his image in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism explains (see Eph 4:24 and Col 3:10). In these three things we are superior to animals.
Considering our creation in God’s image we might see six as the closest number to seven, the number of God and the number of God’s perfection. We are, as Psalm 8 says, a little lower than the angels and given dominion over earthly creatures (Ps 8:5–6). Our creation being last on the sixth day, and after the previous days, even after glorious stars, seems to be an argument for our being the pinnacle of God’s creation, his masterpiece. But sin makes six a symbol of beastliness.
The Number Seven Is Significant as God’s Number
In the Book of Revelation, the number seven points to the perfection and completion of God’s Kingdom. Teaching in the Book of Revelation about seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, proclaims God’s eternal kingdom.
In the Book of Revelation, the number seven appears repeatedly. It is the number of God’s coming kingdom. First, on the seventh day, God rested from his work of creation. In Revelation 4, we see that all creation is to be for God’s glory. Similarly, Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Commandments connects the hallowing of the sabbath to redemption, escape from bondage in Egypt (Exod 1-15) and redemption from sin. This corresponds to Revelation 5, where Christ the little Lamb is slain, that we might be redeemed and made kings and priests to our God.
Psalm 1 tells us, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful” (Ps 1:1). But he delights in God’s law (Ps 1:2). This meditating on and delighting in God’s law improves the mind (Rom 12:2).
Man as created in God’s image is a six and seven being. Redeemed man is such also because Christ remakes him in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.
The Number Six without the Number Seven Becomes the Symbol of Man’s Rebellion
When Adam and Eve sin, the number six becomes symbolic of man’s separation from and rebellion against God. After man sins, God kicks man out of the Garden of Eden. We see this downfall in the symbolism of 666 in the Book of Revelation, which contrasts with God’s number seven, which is the number of divine perfection.
The number 666 symbolizes God’s judgment of, and the corresponding height of, man’s kingdom (apart from God). Thus, 666 is the number of man. 666 = “man,” repeated three times for emphasis, falling short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). The repetition of the number six in “666” carries with it an emphasis on man’s rebellion and godlessness. 666 is the mark of the beast, because of the distortion of the image of God in man. Knowledge becomes ignorance. Righteousness gives way to lawlessness. And holiness becomes spiritual adultery and idolatry. “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: his number is 666” (Rev 13:18).
The Number 666 Is the Number of the Beast (Animal)
On the sixth day God created animals, according to God’s word in Genesis 1 “the beast of the earth…cattle and everything that creeps on the earth” (Gen 1:25). Man without God devolves into a beast, and even worse, he worships beasts. The theory of evolution is a sort of worship of beasts, as the animals (lower than us), and even the supposed lightning-struck pond scum are our supposed creators.
Remember it was a beast that tempted man: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field” (Gen 3:1). Remember, the children of Israel’s great sin in the wilderness was making a golden calf, a beast as an image of their “god.”
The Number 666 Is the Number of Beastly, Brute-force Rule
Remember, just as 666 is the number of the beast, Daniel compared man’s godless empires to beasts (Dan 7:3–8:17). Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which “arise out of the earth” (Dan 7:17). The nature of these kingdoms is brutal and beastly, as is the force they use.
This Brute Force Rule Is Mindless, Contrasted to Craftsmen (Who Build)
Zechariah 1 uses the symbol of the horns, like the horns of a male lamb or bighorn sheep. These animals establish dominance by brute force. They bang their heads and horns together, not using, but abusing their poor little brains. Men who are like beasts do the same. Zechariah 1:18-21 contrasts the horns with craftsmen; craftsmen use their minds and build. Here, however, beasts with horns (and also sharp teeth and claws) bash, slash, bite and seek to dominate and destroy.
The Beastly Reject, Despise and/or Misunderstand “Truth”
In the New Testament, in John’s Gospel, Pontius Pilate interrogates Jesus, not believing this humble man could be a king. “Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’” (John 18:33; italics added). The “you” in Pilate’s question referring to Jesus is emphatic, Pilate cannot believe Jesus is a king, or any kind of threat to the Roman Empire. Jesus’ appearance, a soon-to-be sin offering, was nothing like a Roman Centurion. He would be a peace offering, a grain offering (John 12:24), a drink offering, a trespass offering and a burnt offering. His human nature would be sacrificed as a lamb of the first year. His work was God’s work: redeeming work (Isa 53:6). Christ would build his church, but the beast wars against it; the beast even has temporary power over the church (Rev 13:7a).
Imperfect man, by sin, having fallen to the level of a beast, could, according to the deep study of the Scriptures, be restored to the image of God in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Jesus as the Truth King would bring about that restoration. His truth has freeing, saving power (John 8:31). Jesus’ answer to Pilate’s “are you a king question” is telling. “Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’” (John 18:37). Jesus is the king of truth and the true king, not the brute force beast king.
Pilate says. “‘What is truth?” (John 18:38). Pilate asks this question of Jesus without waiting for an answer. What was Pilate asking? Is he asking about the essence of truth? Maybe. Or maybe he is asking, “What is the power of truth?” In other words, what is the power of truth in a world seemingly ruled by beastly brutality and lies? Whatever Pilate might have thought or known of truth, it did not carry weight with him, like a lie potentially told to Caesar did: ”Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar” (John 19:12).
The Beastly Worship Beasts
It should not surprise us, then, that the Gentiles worshiped beasts: “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:22–23).
We do the same thing today. Consider in its broadest definition worship means to ascribe worth to someone or something. We ascribe worth to the brute strength of animals (beasts) by naming our sports teams after them: Lions, Tigers, Bears. However, in the theory of evolution we have ascribed creative power to nature and to the beasts.
Belief in molecules-to-man evolution makes all counsel or education ungodly, because it removes God from the debate. I remember being online before the legalization of same-sex marriage, arguing against it with God’s words and laws! But the argument for, and the moral authority my opposition claimed for homosexuality was the animals. They would say the animals (the beasts) do it. Even if the beasts did not do it, that was their beast-based argument.
The current furries craze, children identifying as animals in schools, and teachers allowing this, fits with the idea of worshiping beasts.
The title Christ means anointed one. There were three anointed offices in the Old Testament: prophet, priest, and king. Christ rolled all three of these into one, as He would redeem us from our beastly state. As Christ He would restore our image of God identity: Knowledge of God is what Christ gives as a prophet. Righteousness is what He gains for us through his work as our High Priest. Holiness we gain through God’s grace as we dwell in that Kingdom of the Grace of God, where we see Christ’s face shine as King.
Are We Created in God’s Image, or Do We Create Our Own?
We should note some characteristics of the 666 Beast from Revelation 13. The first is the presence of heads and horns, with crowns: “And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns” (Rev 13:1a NKJV). Heads, Horns and Crowns are all symbolic of great political power. Part of his description includes “a blasphemous name” (Rev 13:1b). This signifies an anti-God reputation and reality.
“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Rev 13:2). In this description, we see sneakiness, speed, power, and ferocity. Each of these has Satanic backing and power.
In Revelation 13:4, the beast (along with Satan the Dragon) is worshiped by the world, because of seeming invincibility. Oh, how opposite this is of Exodus 15:11:
“Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exo 15:11).
In opposition to the number seven (God’s Kingdom and rule), the number six becomes the symbol of man’s sin and shortcomings, his rebellion against God’s Kingdom. Those who acknowledge God and obey him are part of the kingdom represented by God’s number seven (Rev 22:14). Those in extreme rebellion are the 666 people, whom Revelation 22:15, calls “dogs.” The wages of sin is death, and six becomes the number of the dead body, and Paul’s body of death. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23a ) The next verse continues, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24).
The Beast’s Deception
The beast is a loudmouth. He (it) speaks against God. But his authority is temporary! His kingdom, his rule is short-lived! “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Rev 13:5–6).
He/it is characterized by deception! ”And he deceives those who dwell on the earth (Rev 13:14a). The image itself is a deception. What we have here is a marketing of evil, plus murder! “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Rev 13:15; italics added).
In his book The Marketing of Evil, David Kupelian quotes Dr. M. Scott Peck, quoting his own, at the time, 8-year-old son, “Evil is ‘live’ spelled backwards.” Likewise, “dog” is “God” spelled backward. Those who will choose 666 are choosing the beast over God. Therefore, they choose and worship beasts, and the qualities of beasts: brute strength and animal passions. For them, these beastly characteristics rule, not God’s Word or Wisdom. They have life backward or upside down.
The Number of the Beast Today
The move has ever been toward the six-ness of man. “Man, man, man” makes man more and more a beast. The sanctity of human life is destroyed (John 10:10). We have already addressed this as it pertains to evolution. Another abhorrent manifestation is in abortion (baby killing). This too is a mark of the beast.
In fact, abortion pulls us down under the beasts (see Job 39:13–17). This passage remarks that an ostrich lacks wisdom because it neglects to protect its unborn. How much more depraved of mind and heart are we if we intentionally aim to kill our unborn?
O what evil spirits are ruling when a major political party is offering free abortions next to their National Convention. What evil spirits are ruling when a population calls abortion “healthcare” and makes it a winning part of its party’s platform. The number 666 is “Man, Man, Man,” but we might also say that it is “Death, Death, Death.” “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” (Prov 14:12; Prov 16:25). Death may seem a solution in man’s eyes, but it is not such in God’s. The sixth commandment says, “You shall not murder” (Exod 20:13).
Conclusion
The significance of the number six is that, apart from the number seven, it is the number of man’s imperfection. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
- God created us in his image (Gen 1:26-28);
- Sin distorted that image (Isa 52:14);
- Christ and God’s Holy Spirit restores us in that image (Col 3:10; Eph 4:24).
This is true salvation, not just from hell, or even from sin, but also to restoration to the image of God in Jesus Christ (Rom 8:28-29).
The number 666 in Revelation depicts the height of man’s rebellion against God by emphasizing “Man, Man, Man,” man’s labor for himself, his own glory and kingdoms. We see the great truth of the number 666 in Psalm 60:11: “The help of man is useless.” Conversely, our salvation, according to Psalm 60:12 is from God: “through God we shall do valiantly.”
Those who drink from the mark of the Beast, the 666 cup, are trusting in and depending on godless men; they will be sorry that they did (Rev 14:9–12).
Recommended Reading:
The Book of Revelation by G. K. Beale
“What Is the Mark of the Beast” by Thomas R. Schreiner
Behold, He Cometh! An Exposition of the Book of Revelation by Herman Hoeksema