“You need wisdom to understand the number of the beast! But if you are smart enough, you can figure this out. Its number is six hundred sixty-six, and it stands for a person.” (Revelation 13:18; Contemporary English Version)
The headline in the Associated Press article was: “Candidates brace for unholy contest.” What followed centered around the race for governor in the state of California. The primary election happens to fall on this coming Tuesday, June 6, 2006. And if you didn’t happen to notice it, that’s 06-06-06, my friends! Ah oh. Right? Isn’t six-six-six somewhere in the Bible? ******* And it always amazes me when I watch how people react to things like this. In the aforementioned article, Democratic political strategist Darrell Sragow had this to say, “I guess [the election falling on 6-6-6] just confirms some people’s suspicion that politics is going to hell.” (My thought: Did we really need that to confirm it?) And then there’s the other side of the aisle that chimed in this way (was it with tongue in cheek? – I’m not sure): “I predict the Democratic nominee for governor will be cursed with an overwhelming defeat in November. It will be revealed in due time that the Democratic nominee is in fact the spawn of Satan. And it’s awfully hard to elect the spawn of Satan, even for the Democrats.” But all politics and politicians aside, where did it ever happen that we thought we should be afraid of a number? I know it’s associated with some pretty dark things in the Bible, but it really amounts to nothing short of superstition and paranoia to act in such a way. And especially if you’re a Christian! Does somebody need to hear this? You can throw all the triple sixes at me that you want. You can whisper it in my ear: “6-6-6.” You can write it down on a piece of paper and mail it to me in the mail (or email!). You can sell me a house that has it as the address. You can even point out the time on the clock when it’s six minutes and six seconds past six. And do you know how I’ll react? ******* If I want to get a charge out of you, I’ll say, “Ahhhhhh!” ******* But really instead what I’ll really say (after I slap you a couple times?) is, “Quit being silly. It’s just a number. Who’s in control of your life anyway?” And now isn’t that just so weird? The number of words in my note today is – take a wild guess. AHH!