Great discussion is going forward and has gone on concerning the number of the beast. With economic times as they are, and that on a global scale, the time has come to confront the issue and see it for what it really is.
Revelation 13:17 says:
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 (or 666).
The key words of this scripture are the number of a man. Most people have understood this and have tried to determine through all manner of means whose name could add up to 666 or represent 666 in some way. We need to look at this another way, in the light of the full counsel of Scripture.
Anyone who has read concerning The Gap Theory understands that this present earth is the remains of the first earth that suffered a cataclysmic judgment of God, wherein all light and life was extinguished. It takes place between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.
Carbon is formed through the inefficient or incomplete combustion of something burnable. In essence, the source of the fire goes out and it continues to smolder, creating carbon. This would very accurately picture what happened to this earth during the first judgment of God.
In Genesis 2:7 we are told that Adam was made from the dust of the ground. That ground was the ground of the first creation that endured the judgment of God wherein life and light was extinguished, creating carbon. Biology has declared that man is a carbon based lifeform. His metabolic cycle is based on something called the carbon cycle. We date the artifacts of our history through some process called carbon dating. Carbon is an essential component of what man is.
We are told that the number of the beast is the number of a man and that number is 666. Here is the number of the beast. The atomic weight of carbon, the primary component of which man is made of is 6. That translates to:

The number of the beast is fallen man, a man wherein the light of life has not been rekindled in Jesus Christ. Before all Christendom sighs a huge sigh of relief, there is more.
There have been many arguments concerning the King James Bible as the bible of choice. I for one believe that any bible that has suffered as many persecutions as did the Christ it reveals is used of God and is God’s choice. Be that as it may, Strong’s concordance is based upon the KJV bible and there is an amazing fact here which I refuse to accept as mere coincidence.
The number that Strongs has assigned to the Hebrew word translated as righteousness is:

Man without the gift of righteousness abides as the number of the beast. Man with the gift of righteousness is the man that is safe. Note here as a warning that we are speaking of the gift of righteousness. The gift is not the same as being called righteous. THAT is what your salvation is all about, and what it means when Peter says to make your calling and election sure. That is what it means to have the day star arise in your heart. That is what it means to have an abundance of grace AND the gift of righteousness spoken of in Romans 5:17.
Jeremiah 31:27 says:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
The seed of beast will be those who call upon the name of Jesus, but not in truth. These will be those who will fall away in times of persecution or pressure to the ways of this world and the seductions of the enemy, the ones who did not make it through the thorns and briers of the cares and issues of the world to become the fruitful ground of God. These are those who will lead the great apostasy away from God, for they will be the ones who will pervert the grace of God unto all manner of lasciviousness, the ones spoken of in Jude, in 2 Timothy, in 2 Peter, and throughout the Scriptures.
The verse in Jeremiah of God sowing the seed of man and the seed of beast to the house of Israel and Judah is followed by the great promise of the new covenant that God will make with us, the covenant of which Jesus Christ is the surety for, in Jeremiah 31:33:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Note that this promise, this new covenant that we hold to in Christ declares that He will write His laws in our heart and in our minds. He does this through Christ Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of righteousness. The gift is not the same as the baptism. The baptism is to bring forth the day star in your heart, according to John 14:23:
If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love Him and WE will come unto him, and make OUR abode with him.
That means that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to the light of the laws and commandments of God that we might judge ourselves, repent and be cleansed of unrighteousness, that His righteousness might be fulfilled in us.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, THAT I MAY WIN CHRIST.
If Paul, the greatest of the apostles, the one whose letters comprise the greater bulk of the new testament, the one who helped establish the Church of Jesus Christ in this world understood that he had to WIN Christ, and that he might ATTAIN unto the resurrection from the dead, I think Christendom as a whole ought to radically reassess what it is preaching as salvation and the grace of God.
The stated ministry of the Holy Spirit according to Jesus Christ was to convince the world, that means the flesh, the carnal nature of your life, of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come.
We have reduced the glory of the Holy Spirit to ’soaking’, falling out in the Spirit, signs, wonders and miracles, healing and prosperity, and in the process rebuking every effort He makes to bring us to the light of the truth, calling it the work of Satan. Therein lies the great blasphemy and the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit.
It is written that the beast will come in with many great signs and wonders. All Christendom is held in a bondage of fear of calling any sign or wonder a work of Satan. This is not what the blasphemy is all about. Jesus did not judge anyone who would not receive a miracle from Him. He didn’t go about offering them in the first place. Those who sought Him found what the sought Him for.
The great blasphemy is to call the ministry of the Holy Spirit the work of Satan. We do this every time we ‘rebuke’ the enemy who seeks to remind us of unconfessed sin, or wrongful judgments against others, for all of these things are transgressions against love along with a host of other sins we commit daily.
Church, there had better be a mighty shaking of the earth from the thud of saints falling to the ground on their knees with contrition for their unconfessed sins if you hope to preserve yourself through the coming tribulation that is even now upon us.
Those who will not repent will find their candlestick removed [Rev. 2:5]. Those who defile their garments stand in jeopardy of having their name blotted out of the Lambs book of life [Rev. 3:5]. Those who cling fast to their fears, and their idolatries, their lies and their adulteries will be refused access to the tree of life, and will abide on the other side of the gates of the holy city of God [Rev. 22:14-15] These are only a few of the coming judgments upon a gainsaying and rebellious people who will not forsake their own ways but will paint them as the ways of God instead. Humanism in the name of Jesus is not the grace of God nor the ministry of the Holy Spirit!
The grace of God was given to us for a purpose. It was not to realize our own purposes in God, but God’s purposes in us. The only thing that will avail with God is a new creature, and your baptism of the Holy Spirit will avail you nothing if you do not use the grace that you have been given to mortify the lusts, appetites and deeds of the flesh unto the end of becoming a new creation. [Romans 8:13-14].
Those who will not be chastised, those who rebuke the Holy Spirit as the enemy, those who turn to the ways of this world with its antidepressants, and escapisms will perish, for by these things they show themselves to be without chastisement, meaning they will not be rebuked, and these are not the sons of God [Heb. 12:6-8].
If Paul can warn us to not receive the grace of God in vain, then it is entirely possible to do so. If Peter warns us to make our calling and election sure, then it is something that needs to done. If you have the least doubt concerning your salvation, instead of spending all your time and effort trying to convince yourself of it, get before God and find out why you do not have the assurance of it. You are saved by faith, not persuasion.
If you are being dragged around, find out why! If you are being attacked, find out why! If you are not overcoming, find out why.
We are called to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. If you have any agenda other than this, you’d better get before God while you still have time and opportunity, for as it is popularly spoken of in business offices:
It is difficult to keep your eyes on the objective of draining the swamp when you are up to your butt in alligators.
The days of tribulation are here, and it’s purpose is to purify and refine you. If you will not be purified and refined, you will be burnt. The process is the same for all. You decide if you will become gold or merely burnt toast.