Question for Christians?

Question

What do you think the number 666 stands for? Also what are your opinions on Revelations 20:1-3? I don't know why but I am really interested in these three verses. "And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil or satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from decieving the nations anymore untill the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time."

When do you think the thousand years is? Do you think it has already happened or in the future? Are we in the middle of it right now? Were do you think the Abyss is ? Do you think it is the one in space?

Answer 1

In the Scriptures, certain numbers have symbolic significance. The number seven, for example, is often used to symbolize that which is complete, or perfect, in God’s eyes.

Six is one short of seven. Would it not be a fitting symbol of something imperfect, or defective, in God’s eyes? Yes, indeed! (1 Chronicles 20:6, 7) Moreover, six repeated three times, as 666, powerfully stresses that imperfection. That this is the correct view is supported by the fact that 666 is “a human number,”. Thus, the beast’s record, its “human number,” and the number 666 itself all point to one unmistakable conclusion—gross shortcoming and failure in the eyes of Jehovah.
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Who is this angel? He must have tremendous power to be able to dispose of Jehovah’s archenemy. He has “the key of the abyss and a great chain.” Does this not remind us of an earlier vision? Why, yes, the king over the locusts is called “the angel of the abyss”! (Revelation 9:11) So here we again observe Jehovah’s Chief Vindicator, the glorified Jesus Christ, in action. This archangel that cast Satan out of heaven, that judged Babylon the Great, and that disposed of “the kings of the earth and their armies” at Armageddon would surely not step aside to let a lesser angel deliver the masterstroke in abyssing Satan!—Revelation 12:7-9; 18:1, 2; 19:11-21.
When the great fiery-colored dragon was hurled down from heaven, he was spoken of as “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Revelation 12:3, 9) Now, at the point of being seized and abyssed, he is described again in full as “the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan.” This infamous devourer, deceiver, slanderer, and opposer is chained and hurled “into the abyss,” which is closed and sealed off tightly, “that he might not mislead the nations anymore.” This abyssing of Satan is for a thousand years, during which time his influence on mankind will be no more than that of a prisoner in a deep dungeon. The angel of the abyss removes Satan completely from any contact with the Kingdom of righteousness. What a relief for mankind!

Answer 2

There are 3 different major views on this. Some say it has already happened (the preterist view) but the problem with this is they have to change the date of the writing of the book of Revelation; some say that the 1000 years is just an unspecified time period that is long (amillennial and postmillennial view) and others say that since the Bible has a pattern of literal fulfillment to prophecy, it will be the future literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth.

666 is the only number in the book of Revelation that is clearly symbolic. It is not known what it means exactly. Many attempts have been made to match it to a name, or whatever, but when the person arrives, it will be clear.

A good book that deals with all of these views is "Understanding End Times Prophecy" by Paul Benware

Answer 3

666 was seen by John most likely as the Roman numeral DCLXVI or DCXVI because some early manuscripts write 616 due to the drop of the L. This lettering probably is relevant and may be an acronym like YHWH, so watch for it.

The abyss is the current hell (the place for the spirits of those who shall be condemned until the Judgment), after the Judgment the lake of fire will consume all in it including Satan and the Antichrist. Satan was not thrown into hell when the angels fell, he was cast down to earth and it is upon earth where he has authority over the earthy hearts and minds of men. But he has no power over the spiritual hearts received through Baptism. But he will be cast into the current hell for a time. Most people think this was sometime after the rise of Islam (a deception of Satan) and before the Reformation (which led to deceptive Christian groups such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses). The period was coincidentally approximately 1000 years.

The term "thousand years" means "the entire years" because the concept of doubling or tripling something (10*10*10) in the first century was synonymous with the whole or all. It could be exactly a thousand years but in fact probably refers to a shorter period. It may have also been the time of the Holy Roman Empire 843-1806AD (963 years). It has most likely occurred especially after the horrendous events of the 20th century: WW1, the Holocaust, WW2, nuclear weapons, Israel rebuilt.

Answer 4

"666" is Nero Caesar. If you write "Nero Caesar" (actually "Neron Caesar" because of Hebrew grammar) in Hebrew letters (which also had numerical values) and add up the total, you get 666 (this is why some text read "616", because if you leave off the grammatical "n', you get the alternative number). The "Great Whore of Babylon" is the Roman Empire.
The purpose of the book was to give Christians hope about the continuing persecution by Rome, it was not meant to be read as some kind of prophecy of present times.

The "thousand years" is not literal, it simply means a "long time", presumably now.

You have to keep in mind that Revelation is a form of literature called apocalyptic literature, and it is filled with symbols which usually stand for something else (kind of like reading Nostradamus's prophecies, something is supposed to stand for something else). You can not take it literally. The New Oxford Annotated Bible has a great commentary on Revelation and is highly annotated.

Answer 5

The book of Revelation of Jesus Christ was to show his servants what was going to happen in the future. Jesus allowed John to see it all. 666 is the mark of the beast. The abyss (the bottomless pit in the King James Version) is Hell. The thousand years is after the tribulation. No, we are not going through it right now. That will happen after Jesus comes back. I am so thankful that I will not be around to see that! Revelation is a very complicated book. I hope I helped you.

Revelation 13:18
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Answer 6

666 is the number of the Antichrist. As for the scripture, this is my take on it, an angel will bound satan for a thousand years. The thousand years will be during the reign on Chrsit after HIs Glorious Appearing. It will be in the future. The Abyss is a pit either in, under or on hell.

Answer 7

perceived that the set of the numbers of the popes, when added up would total somewhere near 666.
then examined the Scriptures in regard to what is the wisdom in the counting of the beast whose number is 666. In Rev. 13:18, it reads; ``Here is wisdom...'' and again in Rev. 17:9; ``And here is the mind which hath wisdom...'' Both verses are referring to the same beast.
After I had gathering the list of the popes' names, I realized that there are the same number of the names of the popes since 1798 to the present, as there are heads and mountains in Rev.17:9.The use of the term ``mountains'' to denote heads, had indicated to me, to count the numbers of the names of the whole mountain of each head. The first of the seven heads is Pope Pius VII, following the transition that occurred in 1798 at the end of the 1,260 year period allotted to the beast's rule over the kings of the earth; the beast ``that was, and is not.'' From 1798, the beast becomes; ``and is not,'' and each name used for the popes, constitutes one of the seven mountains of the beast.
While it has been surmised by Protestants for a long time that the 666 Antichrist will arise from within the papacy, and even feared by Catholics alike, the available knowledge of its fulfillment is limited to the end time perspective. Neither did our early church pioneers predict the papal line so as to know their names and their count. Only since the time given in Rev. 17:10 with the observer at the time of the sixth head (1963-1978), do we perceive the papal line that identifies the seven heads and the count that they represent. Did the numbers that the popes use on their names have anything to do with the count of the number 666? There are only two possible answers to this; Yes, or No. To determine this, it must be seen in the papal record that the number is there. Only the correct count could prove the answer as a ``Yes.'' In all probability, it is harder to find any one specific number such as 666, than to find a thousand other possible numbers without a match to 666. A ``Yes'' is by odds harder to find than a ``No.'' There have been seven papal names used since Napoleon declared the papacy dead. These are the seven papal names whose numbers are added together to obtain the count.

The count comes to 665. The prophecy brings forth an eighth, after the seven, who would complete the count to 666. The context of the Greek indicates that this eighth follows in succession after the seven. I began to realize that I was finding more things about this prophecy than I had even thought to look for. The eight is the final one who enters perdition and is the one who makes the count complete. Once the first element of this prophecy was discovered to fit, all subsequent elements of the prophecy came together by their own weight and merit, thus allowing the Bible to interpret itself. It is as though this research wrote itself because every subsequent element of the prophecy also finds its answer from this same papal list. There are more than thirty separate elements found in this prophecy which are all answered by this one list. In contrast, every other interpretation takes a radical diversion in search of something that might seem to fit, but upon closer examination, fails. They do not demonstrate that they have any connection to the Bible's own chiastic links. You can read the rest at this link! it gives all the names and numbers of the popes.

Answer 8

Honestly people have been debating things in Revelation for centuries and 99.999999% of the time they are wrong. All you can do is pick a millenial belief and try not to take it too seriously. Some believe that 1000 years of peace is figurative, some believe that 1000 years is literal and either has already come, in it, or is yet to come. Honestly the wisest people Ive ever talked to in higher Christian Ed have no definate clue what is what and when is when. Is all part of the mystery and ambiguity of apocolyptic literature.

Answer 9

The number 666 stands for man. 7 is the number for perfection or completeness.

I don't beieve the 1,000 years is now, because the devil is definitely not bound. I believe it is future.

The abyss is a place of great depth to which they will descend, not ascend.

Answer 10

Fascinating and colorful answers as I read through them. I'll call 666 a symbol of "not quite 7 (perfect number), not quite 7, not quite 7" which would mean the failure of Man to attain heaven on his own merits. I look at scripture as applying to every person across time, and therefore it must have meaning for me -- it's not simply a fortune-telling puzzle. While it could be very literal, we just don't know.