Nothing, it seems, divides true Christians more than End-Times prophecy. And there is nothing that true Christians want to know more than what is the Mark of the Beast. According to the Book of Revelation the Mark is both a name and a number. We will know the Beast when we know the Mark.
I spent a lot of time investigating the Mark of the Beast prior to making the all-important realization that will be revealed here. Like most other Christians, I looked at tattoos, RFID chips and Nanotechnology. It seemed so obvious that any of these could fulfill the prophecies as marks that go "in" the forehead and the hands. This is the first criteria that Bible believers look for when searching for the Mark of the Beast. While we are correct in doing this, it makes more sense to look at the mark as literally that – a mark.
Do you remember the Mark of Cain? I used to ask every preacher I ran into about the nature of it. I wanted to know what it looked like. None could answer me. It wasn't until I began studying the Bible from a Jewish and Jerusalem-centric viewpoint that I learned something critical about the Mark of Cain. Rabbinical literature teaches that it was the Hebrew letter "Tav".
The "Tav" looks this: +. The Jews referred to it as "the sign" during the time before Yeshua the Messiah was born. Those with ears to hear and eyes to see were able to discern that he was the Messiah because they were looking for the + – "the sign". That is one of the reasons so many Jews converted to the Jewish Sect called "The Way" that is so called in the Book of Acts.
The + is the symbol for sin. We see it in the beginning and the middle of Jerusalem-centric history, and now we will see that same mark in the end. The sign + is what the Rabbis believe marked Cain. It was the sign of his sin. It is also accepted in so-called Christianity as the symbol for the cross where the Messiah took upon himself the sins of Israel and died. Of course, the crucifixion cross and the cross that marked Cain would be the same – they are both symbols of sin. One is a man marked with sin and the other is the Son of God removing sin. The cross stands for both. It is the visible symbol of the entry of sin into the world and the symbol of its removal. So, if the end of the world is like the beginning, we can expect to see this mark again…and we do!
John was told to write what he saw. I believe he did just that. I believe he wrote exactly what he "saw". It is as literal, simple and direct as that. He said people would wear a "666" on their foreheads and right arms. But what, exactly, did John see? Did he see "666" as we do today? No. We use Arabic numerals. In the Greek text, "666" is represented by Greek letters that also have numerical values, specifically: Chi Xi Stigma, or "Six-hundred, three-score and six".
So what John saw was something that looked like "Chi Xi Stigma" being worn on the foreheads and right arms of the "multitude" who belong to the Beast. What does "666" mean? Is it something we can look at today and say, "There it is!". Is it something we can see? And the answer is – "yes you can"!
The Greek letters Chi Xi Stigma also spell a phrase in another language. And that language is Arabic. The word it spells is "Bismillah" which means (literally) "In the name of Allah".
Next to it is a something from the beginning – from Cain. See the "mark"? The cross? Tilt it about 45 degrees – because it is just enough off kilter to be like what Satan does to the truth of YEHOVAH God. The mark in Revelation 13 is like that of Cain. It is contained within the symbol that is the name of the Beast itself. The mark of Cain is coded inside the Chi Xi Stigma that spells "in the name of allah"!
Now, let's go back and re-read 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"
By inserting "bismillah" in place of Chi Xi Stigma, it reads:
"Here is knowledge! Let him with understanding decipher the multitude of the beast, for it is a multitude of people and is the same as the number of a man, and his number is "in the name of Allah".