A constant theme in Revelation is the two-fold witness: 1) Keeping the testimony (name) of Jesus and 2) obeying God’s commands (works). The seven churches were judged along a scale of how well they kept that two-fold witness.
Similarly, the mark of the beast is described as the name of the beast or the number of his name. The mark is on the forehead (name) or on the right hand (works). Since 666 is the number of the beast’s name, it is associated with the deeds of a particular man.
People have been trying to use gematra to decipher it, but I think that might be an incorrect interpretive method (although it was common long before Revelation was written). Perhaps the number of his name is more closely associated with his deeds and not a numerical value of his name. Daniel 7:25 says the little horn will change the times and the laws. To my understanding, there were 613 commands that are not authorized to be altered. Could 666 be pointing to the lawless deeds of the lawless one, the false messiah that will be revealed as a result of apostasy in Israel?
I have yet to find solid evidence of this interpretation. Just getting the hampster wheel spinning. Thoughts?
God only numbered one set of law, that He personally wrote.
Exo 32:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant,
the Ten Commandments
Deut 4:13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the
Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
Out of the Ten Commandments only one of those is both a time and a law Dan 7:25, the Sabbath commandment
Exo 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates. 11 For
in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it
God had the foresight to use Remember- because He knew everyone would forget and it was changed just as predicted that sadly most people follow instead of obeying God.
The Catholic church takes credit for this change that the whole world wondered after (have the same mindset)
It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church,
and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.
—Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ ‘News’ on March 18, 1903.
Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
A.
Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her; —she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.
—Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism; New York in 1857, page 174
They even go on to say when one observes Sunday in lieu of the Sabbath commandment it is a
mark of their authority (over God’s) which is what the mark of the beast is about. On whose authority do we worship. Scripture tells us whoever we obey is who we serve Rom 6:16 Should we obey God the way He said, or those who changed God’s times and laws
Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. And the act is a
mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.
—C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, in answer to a letter regarding the change of the Sabbath, November 11, 1895.
The Sabbath commandment carries God’s seal- has His name title and territory and He said when keeping its a
sign between Him and us Eze 20:12 Eze 20:20 Exo 31:13
This is the problem
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have
no rest day or night,
who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
And God gives us the solution but will we believe
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here
are those who keep
the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
The commandments of God is His version Exo 20, not what was changed by man that sadly most follow. Its always best to obey God the way He said than to follow the popular traditions of man. Jesus speaks of this very thing and defines
in vain false worship is keeping our rules over obeying the commandments of God quoting directly from the Ten Commandments Mat 15:3-14