The Mark of the Beast: 666

Ever wonder what "the mark of the Beast" means? Consider this:

"The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land.” (1 Kings 10:14-15)

The mark of the Beast in Revelations refers to the amount of gold King Solomon made in a year.

"Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." (Revelation 13:18)

Which man was Revelations 13:18 referring to? Robert Krajenke tells all in "Edgar Cayce's Story of the Bible," pp. 375-376:

"Solomon was the wisest ruler in the world, yet one of the most greedy and ambitious... Indeed, the weight of gold talents he received in one year－666－became the symbolic 'code number of the beast' in the Book of Revelations. This 'code number' ... indicated that a person who served 'the beast of self-aggrandizement, self-indulgence, self-glorification had his days 'numbered'... A man marked with the number 666 'lacks that consciousness of God and God alone directing.' (281-34)"

Based upon the average income of that time, King Solomon would have earned an income equivalent to about 200,000 laborers and more. His annual income would be closer to an equivalent of $8 to $10 billion per year in US dollar terms. As the Bible confirms, no other king was as rich as he was during that time. King Solomon was wise but also greedy and materialistic. His dependence on a prosperous, materialistic economy ended badly.

666 As a Pattern

The mystery of 666 in Revelations was decoded by renowned seer, Edgar Cayce. When asked, "In what form does the antichrist come, spoken of in Revelation?" Edgar Cayce replied while in trance:

"In the spirit of that opposed to the spirit of truth. The fruits of the spirit of the Christ are love, joy, obedience, long suffering, brotherly love, kindness... The spirit of hate, the anti-christ, is contention, strife, fault-finding, lovers of praise." (281-16)

John Van Auken, a Cayce researcher, gave his interpretation of the above Cayce Reading:

"Mark of the Beast: This strange mark, 666, represents vows and obligations we have made to the work of the Beast and how we condemn rather than help any effort to overcome the Beast’s influence. The Beast is like our ego and egocentric interests. It represents the work of self alone, without God’s influence. The mark is erased when the work of our hands and thoughts of our minds are cooperating with God, rather than simply being self-driven. The Beast is our lower nature at our most selfish, self-centered, self-gratifying, self-glorifying point of existence."