Saint Hippolytus of Rome wrote that “of those who have received the seal there will be many who will read Holy Scripture,” and “those who will heed the Scriptures and ponder over them will avoid printing” St. Hippolytus of Rome TSL Creations, 1997 vol. 2 p. 77.
After reading attentively just three verses of the Apocalypse, we can conclude that EVERYTHING needed to recognize the seal fits in them. An accurate understanding of the meaning of these verses of Revelation will allow us to give a correct assessment of the truly apocalyptic events taking place today.
There are two incorrect attitudes in the interpretation of this passage of the Apocalypse. The first is the striving of the interpreters at all costs to decipher the "number of the antichrist" and get his name.
The Apocalypse says: “the mark (not the seal, but the mark), or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation of John the Theologian 13:17). Since ancient times, a lot of efforts have been used to unravel the meaning of these words.
How many attempts were made to guess, to name the "name of the beast" (in response to the call "count the number of the beast")! All these attempts were based on various kinds of calculations, when the letters of the supposed name of the Antichrist were brought under the number 666 (the so-called gematria).
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In Revelation, it is not about the personal name of the Antichrist, not about how he will be called! There is a different meaning here. "The name of the beast" (not the antichrist, but the beast) is the name of the beast given to man by the beast (not the antichrist), that is, the very anti-Christian system of worldwide, total electronic control and management of society under the conditions of the "new world order".
The system of the beast, depersonalizing man.
Therefore, it will not be the proper name of the Antichrist that will be “engraved”, but the individual, personal name of a person.
But the Apostle John knew nothing about the coming electronics and computer technology and could not, of course, say that the name would be electronic, just as he could not say that all people would be assigned “identification numbers”.
But he knew that there are numbers and there are names, and therefore he simply said: "or the number of his name." And computers differ in that they record and process information in numerical form, so today they even talk about the “numerical revolution”.
The apostle John is not talking about what will be "inscribed" or the name or number. This is not a division, not a choice of option, one of the two. The expression "or the number of his name" should be understood as a clarification, namely: this name will be numeric (electronic, computer).
The union "or" in this case is used in an explanatory sense, in the meaning of "in other words", "differently", that is, it does not separate existing objects by themselves, but unites, brings together various qualities, designations of the same object.
So, the concepts "name" (ονομα) and "number of a name" (αριφμος του ονοματος) are synonyms, they are equivalent in their content.
In other words, an individual name, a name that identifies a person (for the system), will be a number, a personal code. And it will be read as an "outline" (from the word "line") - strokes, BAR CODE.
That is, the face is already a graphic representation of a numeric name. The apostle John called the future electronic name an outline in order to show that it will have not only a digital, but also a dashed form of expression.
The Apocalypse was originally written in Greek, where the word "inscribe" (χαράσσω) literally means to draw deep straight lines, cut them out, scribble. The term "seal", which is familiar to us, inaccurately conveys the meaning of the word χάραγμα ("drawing"), which is the same root with such words as scratch, stake, pillar, that is, palisad - fence, palisade.
The international spelling of the word "barcode" is bar-code, and the word bar in translation from English is bar (ok), bolt, rod, strip, line, pillar (ik), stick, stand (hence the Russian word "bar"), lattice, barrier, hedge, fence, etc.
Considering that the barcode really looks like a set of scratches (stripes) or stakes (bars), its identity with the apocalyptic style is undeniable. This is the very “grid” behind which they want to drive all of humanity.
It is very important to note here that the word "seal", supplemented by the word "antichrist", eventually replaced the expression of the Holy Scriptures "the mark of the beast." A new phrase was formed - "the seal of the antichrist", which brought into the consciousness of Christians a slightly different idea of this apocalyptic sign. The concept of "the seal of antichrist" is also found in patristic creations, along with the concept of the mark of the beast, as a synonym for the latter.
However, in the old days, there was no semantic difference between these concepts: although the word "seal" was used, it only gave general ideas about the coming anti-Christ system, without inclusion in which it would be impossible to buy or sell.
Today, such a substitution of concepts is already the reason for a misunderstanding of the essence of the ongoing processes of building the kingdom of the beast and can lead to great delusions.
Therefore, it is better and safer when interpreting this passage of Revelation to proceed from the wording of the word of God itself - "the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
The second misconception in the interpretation of the Apocalypse is the identification of the “number of the name” from the 17th verse with the number 666. This is not “666”, but the number of the name. And everyone has their own name - an individual number.
But before they thought differently: they tried to guess the “name of the beast”, but they did not see any riddles in the “number of his name”, because they believed that in the 18th verse this number is called 666.
What is "666"? The answer can be found if we analyze in detail the words of the 17th and 18th verses, comparing them with each other and pondering the meaning of the call “count the number of the beast”. The Apostle warns that it will take "intelligence" to "count" the "number of the beast."
"Count" - that is, reveal, look, find. Here we mean not divine, higher wisdom, but earthly wisdom: "who has a mind" (ό έχων νουν) practical (and not theoretical, contemplative mind), that is, a certain skill, special knowledge, common sense, ingenuity, like this and corresponds to the purely earthly subject of this understanding.
This is accessible to humans, because the animal number is still “human” (a slightly different version of the explanation of this word is also possible: “human number” means the number, the number of a person).
There is an animal number ("the number of the beast", 666), and there is an animal name (received from the beast) - in the form of a number.
In other words, Saint John the Theologian distinguishes between two numbers:
Here you need to grasp the very meaning of the story of the Apostle John about the mark of the beast. He constructs this story as follows. First, he says that at the end of times, all people will be supposed to have an inscription on their right hand or forehead.
“Small and great, rich and poor, free and slaves …” - that is, this system will be global and will be designed for everyone without exception, including infants and old people, entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, employers and employees. This is the 16th verse. Further, in the 17th verse, the apostle explains what this mark itself will represent and gives its description (signs), namely:
Saint John also pointed to the source from which the mark will proceed. This is the "beast" system, the kingdom of the Antichrist. Now it is already clear that the name of this animal kingdom is globalization (as a process) and "new world order" (as a result of this process).
And in verse 18, the beloved disciple of Christ reveals to the faithful, whom the Lord has judged to live in anti-Christ times, another sign, a "special sign" of the outline.
Finding it will allow them to make an unambiguous conclusion that this is the very apocalyptic outline.
This sign consists in the fact that in the mark given by the "beast" - the system, the number of the beast itself will be present - 666. But it will not be present explicitly, but invisibly, so that only the one who applies it will be able to "count" it special knowledge, skill: "who has a mind."
Indeed, no matter how much we look at the barcode, TIN or other similar number, we will not see three sixes there. But we know about their presence from those people who, possessing special knowledge in the field of computer technology (having this very practical "mind"), bring to our attention that 666 is a universal computer code, a "key sequence" of three sixes.
Doubting the use of the number 666 in computer technologies of universal identification is simply ridiculous. This has been proven, including by scientists who have drawn up detailed expert opinions on this issue.
The worldwide widespread EAN bar coding standard does indeed include the number 666 in the bar form of each identification number.
But the main thing is not even that.
We repeat once again that the Apocalypse does not say about putting on each person the same name of antichrist or the number 666, but about individual name codes (numbers, numbers), that all people will be assigned depersonalizing (animal) digital names. This is the main thought of John the Theologian!
The main thing is a numeric name - an identifier - a personal number. Without it, globalization cannot take place, since the computer system cannot bind and swallow a free person. Without him, the Antichrist himself will not be able to reign and rule over humanity.
The mark on the arm or forehead from verse 16 is a microchip implanted under the skin.
This is the same mark as in the 17th verse, only reaching the last stage of its development. Therefore, we can talk about three stages of the inclusion of each person in the system of Antichrist:
Elder Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) spoke very accurately a few years ago, when the "INN problem" just appeared: "Today is a number, tomorrow is a card, the day after tomorrow is a seal."
Priest Andrey (Gorbunov) "The Mystery of the Beast" with abbreviations