Probably the most famous of the New Testament prophecies, known even to absolutely unbelieving people, is the prophecy of the Antichrist, who will appear at the end of human history, unite all earthly states under his rule and will do everything to make people finally forget about Christ. On the hands and foreheads of people, special "traces" will be applied, after which a person will no longer be able to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Instead of the name of God, a person will bear the name of the beast - the mysterious and frightening three sixes:
What does it mean?
The entire book of Revelation is mysterious: there are more allegories and symbols in it than explicit predictions. But some characters are relatively easy to decipher. For example, the image of an apocalyptic beast with seven heads is clearly a symbol of the Antichrist, who will rule the nations for a short time (forty-two months, that is, three and a half years). And another beast with horns like a lamb symbolizes a false prophet or, as St. Andrew of Caesarea says, the forerunner of the Antichrist, whose task will be to reinforce the Antichrist's claims to world domination with various external effects and miracles, for which people are so greedy. Outwardly, he will be like Christ (the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29), but in reality it will be His complete opposite.
But the number 666, the mark of which will be applied by the order of the false prophet on the right hand or on the forehead of a person, and the very method of applying this number remains a subject of discussion to this day. Are we talking about tattoos? Or about the massive chipping of people? Until recently, some Orthodox Christians tried to discern the notorious "seal of antichrist" in individual tax numbers (TIN), barcodes, electronic passports, etc. Therefore, it is worthwhile to figure out what the prophecy of John the Theologian actually says, and where are our conjectures.
You heard that the Antichrist will come, and now there are many Antichrists, - writes the holy Apostle John (1 John 2:18), and further clarifies: Antichrist is a liar who denies that Jesus is Christ. This is the Antichrist, rejecting the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22). If we follow this understanding, then it must be said that antichrists exist in every era. And different antichrists used different "seals", writes the holy martyr Hippolytus of Rome.
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Antichrist and his followers. Germany, 1367.
He cites the example of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes (II century BC), who captured Jerusalem and brutally persecuted the Jews, ordering them to put altars to the pagan gods in front of the doors of their houses, bring sacrifices to them, and then, crowned with ivy, arrange celebrations in honor of Dionysus. Those who did not want to obey, he commanded to torture, interrogate and ultimately put to death.
Obviously, Antiochus Epiphanes can hardly be called the Antichrist in the exact sense of the word (in his time there were simply no Christians yet), but it is quite possible to be a predecessor.
Subsequently, the Roman emperors forced Christians, under threat of death, to make offerings to statues of pagan gods - and this act of demonstrating loyalty can also be called the seal of the Antichrist, because it symbolized the rejection of Christ.
The seal of antichrist - everything that leads to a conscious renunciation of Christ, wrote in the late 1990s one of the most authoritative confessors of the Russian Church, the "All-Russian elder" John (Krestyankin): "The seal will only follow a person's personal renunciation of God, and not deceit. Deception makes no sense. The Lord needs our heart to love Him. " Now TIN and other electronic documents “are not dangerous for us. But of course, this is one of the stages in preparing for future fear."
In 2000, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (The Holy Synod is the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church in the period between the Councils of Bishops, is a meeting of nine bishops who sit constantly, and five more participating on a temporary basis. The Chairman of the Holy Synod is the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia - Ed.) Adopted a special statement regarding barcodes, which the state just at that time began to actively introduce in trade, statistics, accounting for the movement of goods, etc. This statement shows serious concern: after all, every bar the code, depicting numbers in the form of lines of different thickness, “contains three dividing lines that graphically coincide with the symbol adopted for the number“6”.” numbers 666,which is mentioned in the book of Revelation of St. John the Theologian as the number of Antichrist. " There was no need to use the digit “6” as the dividing line, which means “knowingly or unknowingly, but the developers of the global barcode system … chose a symbol that is offensive and disturbing to Christians, which looks at least like a daring mockery” - declared the Holy Synod. Nevertheless, he called on all Orthodox people to “keep Christian sobriety” and not be afraid of external symbols and signs, because “nothing and no one can shake a person's faith if he truly abides with Christ and resorts to the sacraments of the Church”."Knowingly or unknowingly, but the developers of the global barcode system … have chosen a symbol that is offensive and disturbing to Christians, which looks at least like an impudent mockery," the Holy Synod said. Nevertheless, he called on all Orthodox people to “keep Christian sobriety” and not be afraid of external symbols and signs, because “nothing and no one can shake a person's faith if he truly abides with Christ and resorts to the sacraments of the Church”."Knowingly or unknowingly, but the developers of the global barcode system … have chosen a symbol that is offensive and disturbing to Christians, which looks at least like an impudent mockery," the Holy Synod said. Nevertheless, he called on all Orthodox people to "keep Christian sobriety" and not be afraid of external symbols and signs, because "nothing and no one can shake a person's faith if he truly abides with Christ and resorts to the sacraments of the Church."after all, "nothing and no one can shake a person's faith if he truly abides with Christ and resorts to the sacraments of the church."after all, "nothing and no one can shake a person's faith if he truly abides with Christ and resorts to the sacraments of the church."
For example, St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote: “That seal will read:“I renounce the Creator of heaven and earth; I renounce Baptism; I renounce my service to God and join you and believe in you.” Any external sign does not violate the spiritual health of a person, if it does not become the result of conscious betrayal of Christ and desecration of the faith, the Holy Synod summed up, but called on the authorities to give people the opportunity to use alternative technologies without ambiguous designations.
Why is this prophecy important?
Like many other prophecies of the Bible, it is not intended to instill in us the horror of the coming disasters, but to remind us of the need to be more vigilant and attentive, above all - to ourselves. As the apostle Paul put it well in 1 Corinthians, everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial (1 Cor. 6:12). It is unhelpful - and, moreover, very dangerous - everything that takes our attention away from Christ, which pushes us to reject the gospel truth, which makes a person less and less human. And these can be very different things. Perhaps that is why the author of Revelation did not specify what these three sixes represent. We must ourselves follow Christ's call: Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation (Matt 26:41).
Where else does this prophecy sound?
The Book of Revelation of John the Theologian is the only one in the Bible that is not read during worship. There is no definite answer to the question of why this is so; there is only an assumption (one of many) that, given the complexity of the interpretation of many images of this book, the Church chose not to lead her flock into unnecessary temptations.
So, we will not be able to hear this prophecy from the book of Revelation during the service in the temple. But in a series of apostolic readings that sound during the Divine Liturgy (before the reading of the Gospel), there is, among other things, a fragment from the Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, which says, albeit in slightly different words, about the same:
Author: TSUKANOV Igor
The editors would like to thank the Associate Professor of the Department of Biblical Studies of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities, Candidate of Theology Mikhail Anatolyevich Skobelev for help in preparing the material
