Secrets Unsealed

ANCHOR School of Theology

Stephen Bohr

1. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 1

2. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 2

3. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 3

4. Notes on Daniel 2

5. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 1

6. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 2

7. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 1

8. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 2

9. A Providential Election

10. The Sabbath and Redemption

11. The Son (God) and the number 666

12. Who’s Hero Is Jesus Christ?

13. What Was Literal & Local is Spiritual & Global

14. The Flood Story As An Illustration of Historical Typology

15. The Year-Day Principle

16. God’s Israel: Understood Globally and Spiritually

17. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 1

18. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 2

19. The Stoning of Steven.. The Last Straw

20. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 1

21. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 2

22. The Sanctuary Sequence in the Book of Revelation

23. Daniel’s Little Sealed Book

24. Revelation 10

25. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 1

26. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 2

27. Revelation 12-22

28. How All the Books of the Bible Meet and End in Revelation

29. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 1

30. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 2

We're moving along real fine, we are dealing with principle number 7 and so I hope that everything that we've been studying has been a blessing and that it's going to help us in our personal study of Scripture.

Now in the next hour we are going to study the topic titled The Son, God and the number 666.

We're going to do a comparison between Daniel 3 and Revelation 13 and we're going to see that Jesus is not only a spiritual deliverer from sin, but at the end of time Jesus will have to be a deliverer, a physical literal deliverer from death, because God's people will be under the sentence of death.

So we're going to follow this material very closely and I know that you all have this material so let's go to it, The Son God and the Number 666.

Now we all know about the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar received in Daniel chapter 2.

He received the dream of the golden head and the breast and arms of silver, the belly of bronze, the legs of iron, the feet of iron and clay, the stone that hit the feet and broke the image into smithereens, and then the stone became a great mountain.

In this dream God was showing Nebuchadnezzar the future not only of his kingdom, he was showing him the future of the world basically, and when God did this Nebuchadnezzar was not a happy camper because he believed that Babylon was going to exist forever.

And so by the advice of his religious advisors he decided that he would build an image just like the 1 that he had seen in his dream but with 1 difference, and that is that instead of having different metals the image would be totally and completely of gold.

And so he built this gigantic image that is referred to in Daniel chapter 3, it was a direct act of rebellion on the part of Nebuchadnezzar, he was saying you say that my kingdom is only going to be the head of gold?

Well I have news for you, my kingdom is all of gold and it will exist forever.

The 2 chapters are linked by certain words, the word gold is used in both of these chapters, the word image is identical in both chapters, and the expression set up that is used in both of these chapters is identical as well.

You remember that in chapter 2 God said that He would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed.

So Nebuchadnezzar sets up this gigantic image saying that it's not going to be in that way.

Now the first thing that we want to take a look at is the Old Testament type.

The Old Testament story becomes the foundation for the New Testament application, just like we've been studying.

We took a look at the rock and we took a look at the manna and we noticed that these Old Testament types are fulfilled on a broader scale in the New Testament.

The same is true with the story of Daniel chapter 3.

What was the ruling power in Daniel chapter 3?

It was Babylon, you can notice this in Daniel 3 verse 1, I'm not going to read all of the verses because we don't have the time to do so.

And God's people at this time were captive in Babylon, this is known as the 70-year captivity.

Have you ever heard of the 70-year captivity?

So the ruling power is Babylon and God's people are in captivity in Babylon.

You can read that in Jeremiah 51 and verse 45.

Now we all know that Nebuchadnezzar for a while lived like a beast didn't he?

He thought he was a beast, he acted like a beast, and he ate grass like an ox, you know he became a vegan, and perhaps that he became a vegan and that helped give him clarity of thought because he came out of it at the end of the 7 years.

I'm not making any theological application to that by the way, but he went and he acted like a beast, and he grew big nails, and his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle the Bible says, and he thought that he was a beast.

And then Nebuchadnezzar the beast so to speak raised up an image and he commanded everyone to worship the image that he had raised up, and he said anyone who does not worship this image that I have raised up here in Babylon will be killed.

Now let's study a little bit about this particular image in Daniel chapter 3.

If what Herodotus, the Greek historian has to say is true, the image weighed 800 talents of gold, which would be equivalent to 30 tons of gold, that is a lot of gold.

Now there's a few details that we need to take into account when we discuss the dimensions and the composition of this image.

First of all we know that the sexagesimal system of numeration originated in Babylon.

What do you say, you say what is the sexagesimal system?

It's the system based on the number 6, like for example we have 60 seconds, we have 60 minutes, we have 24 hours, we have 360 days, we have 360 degrees that reflect the circle, the entire circle of space, all of that sexagesimal system comes from ancient Babylon.

Now the Babylonians divided the universe into 360 degrees of space and they divided the year into 360 days, So in other words the whole circle of space was 360 degrees and the whole cycle of time of the year was 360 days.

Now it's interesting that the Babylonians what they did is that they would place 1 God of their pantheon to rule over 10 degrees of space and over 10 days of time, and so the 36 gods of the pantheon each ruled over 10 days and 10 degrees and of course 36 times 10 is 360, so these gods basically ruled over all time and over all space.

Now the sum total of the numbers 1 through 36 is very interesting.

If you add 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 5 all the way up to the number 36 the result is 666.

And so when the Babylonians placed 1 God to rule over 10 degrees of space and over 10 days of time, and all 36 God ruled over all space and all time, the summary number in which all of the 36 gods were contained was the number 666.

Now there was 1 God that was not included among the 36, He was the great God above all gods, His name was Marduk, and his number was 666 because he was the ruler over all of the gods, and through them he was ruler over all time and over all space.

Now the Babylonian priestly system had an interesting way of expressing this idea of Marduk, whose number is 666, ruling over the 36 gods, each ruling over 10 degrees of space and 10 days of time, representing the fact that they ruled over all space and over all time.

The priests of Babylon used amulets or medallions on a chain around their necks, and I have pictures of these that I can show you.

The medallions were made of pure gold because gold is the color of the sun.

In fact the ancients called gold the dew of the sun because in a pre-scientific society they believed that gold had dripped down from the sun.

It's no coincidence that in Isaiah 14 verse 4 Babylon is called the golden kingdom and that in Daniel 2 the symbol for Babylon is gold, because gold is the color of Babylon, and the sun god is the god Marduk whose number is 666 and he is the summary number of the numbers 1 through 36 he rules over all the pantheon that rules over all space and over all time.

Now it's interesting to notice that these amulets were round, what shape is the sun?

The sun is round and they were made of gold which is the color of the sun.

Now in the middle of these amulets there was a square, a large square, and inside that large square were 36 smaller squares with the numbers 1 through 36 never repeated within those smaller squares within that large square.

In other words you have the 36 gods of the pantheon in Babylon represented by this square with 36 smaller squares in the middle or inside that larger square.

The interesting thing is that underneath this large square with the 36 squares frequently you find the number 666 which is the summary number of all of the 36 numbers that appear in the squares.

Now if you look at the obverse side of the medallion because it not only had 1 side it had also some information on the obverse side or on the opposite side, many times what you find is a raging lion with wings and the raging lion of course is yellow, and his mane forms the rays of the sun.

Have you ever seen a lion when he's infuriated?

His mane stands up and his face looks like the sun.

And so it's interesting that in Daniel chapter 7 you have a lion and what does the lion have?

The lion has wings, and so Daniel is speaking within the context that he lives in.

Nebuchadnezzar would have easily identified with what Daniel was presenting from the dream that he had.

Now there's more information too, and that is that the sign of the zodiac, which by the way the signs of the zodiac come from ancient Babylon, the sign of the zodiac that rules over the hottest period of the year is Leo the Lion from July 23 to August 22.

Very interesting, why would you have Leo the Lion governing during this period?

Simply because it is the hottest period of the year, it's when the sun shines the brightest.

Is there any relationship between the sun and ancient Babylon?

Now the Romans acquired much of their religious system from ancient Babylon but they established a different number system, They established that all of the numbers would be written with 6 specific letters of the alphabet, and you say no there's actually 7.

There's I, there's a V, there's an X, there's an L, there's a D, and there's an M, there's a C, that's a hundred, yes, and then there's an M.

But the M did not exist in the original numerical system, it was added during the Middle Ages.

The way in which it was written before that was that they would place 2 D's side by side, in other words the Romans only established a number system with 6 characters from the alphabet, and lo and behold if you add those 6 numbers 1 plus 5 plus 10 plus 50 plus 100 plus 500 the total is 666.

So basically what I'm saying is that this image that Nebuchadnezzar raised up of pure gold whose dimensions is 60 by 6, do you know how much 60 by 6 is?

360 was actually a solar symbol in ancient Babylon, it was an image in honor of Marduk the sun god, so whoever worshiped the image would be worshiping the sun god whose number is 666.

Now what was the primary issue involved in this conflict in the valley of Dura?

Clearly the issue has to do with worship, that is the central issue has to do with worship.

In fact the word worship in Daniel chapter 3 is used 10 times and you have it in your material, it's used in verses 5 through 7, verses 10 through 12, verse 14, verse 15, verse 18, and verse 28.

Almost ad nauseam is the word worship used in the chapters repeated over and over again because the issue is over worship.

Will you worship the image who represents the sun God whose number is 666 or will you worship God the Creator?

That is the big issue in the Valley of Dura.

Which table of the law is particularly involved here?

Would it be having other gods before God if the young men had bowed to worship the image?

Does the second commandment forbid them from worshiping idols?

Does the fourth commandment says only to honor the Creator?

This trial had to do with the first table of the law, it had to do with worship, it had to do with the commandments of God versus the commandments of men.

We worship the Creator, we worship God because He is the Creator, And what is the sign of the Creator?

The sign of the Creator is the Holy Sabbath.

So the primary issue is an issue of worship and also an issue having to do with whether the commandments of God would be obeyed or the commandments of men, the commandment that was given by the king.

Was there a union of church and state in the Valley of Dura?

Let's go to Daniel chapter 3, we'll read a few of these verses, Daniel chapter 3 and let's read Daniel 3 and verse 2.

This is the king and he's making a religious decree, it says there.

And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, are these all political positions?

Yes they are, to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So all of the administrators of the kingdom of Babylon are called to the dedication of this image and to worship this image, and incidentally they're presented in order of rank in this verse, we don't have time to go into all of the ranks of civil officials in Babylon but they're all in order.

So this is a case of the civil power enforcing a religious decree or establishing religion, to refuse to worship was considered treason against the civil power.

Daniel 3 and 6 are illustrations, this is important, of the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Let me ask you, was Nebuchadnezzar the king?

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ANCHOR School of Theology

11. The Son (God) and the number 666

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