nice knowin' y'all...

[wowie]

Apocalypse tomorrow? 666 arrives

By Seth Borenstein
ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 5, 2006

Is tomorrow's date -- 6-6-6 -- merely a curious number, or could it mean our number is up?
    There's a devilishly odd nexus of theology, mathematics and commercialism on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year. OK, it's just the sixth year of this millennium, but insisting on calling it 2006 takes the devil-may-care fun out of calendar-gazing.
    Something about the number 666 brings out the worry, the hope and even the humor in people, said the Rev. Felix Just, a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco. A Jesuit priest, Father Just has taught both apocalyptic theory and mathematics and maintains a "666-Numbers of the Beast" Web site that contains history, theology, math and precisely 66 one-line jokes about 666.
    One can even make sport of it, betting online if the apocalypse will happen on that date. The good news is that one online oddsmaker has made the world a 100,000-to-1 favorite to survive tomorrow -- something that Father Just said is supported by theology.
    "Many people avoid the number. They're afraid of it almost, and there's absolutely no reason to be afraid of it," he said. "It is not a prediction of future events. It is not supposed to be taken as a timetable for when the world is going to end."
    It all started with Revelation 13:18 in the Bible: "This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six."
    The beast is also known as the Antichrist, according to some apocalyptic theories.
    Many scholars, such as Father Just, say the beast is really a coded reference -- using Hebrew letters for numbers -- for the despotic Roman emperor Nero, and 616 appears instead of 666 in some ancient manuscripts. The Book of Revelation isn't prophesying a specific end of times but "is about the overall cosmic struggle of good versus evil," Father Just said.
    But for some more apocalyptic theologians, the end of times is coming, even if not specifically tomorrow. The evangelical Raptureready.com Web site puts its "rapture index" at 156, calling that "fasten your seat belts" time.
    It's not the date June 6 that's worrisome, but the signs in our society of the approach of the 666 Antichrist, said the Rev. Tim LaHaye, founder of a self-named ministry and co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic novels.
    "I don't think that people understand that 666 is not a good time," Mr. LaHaye said. He said he sees signs of an upcoming "tribulation period" that leads to the Antichrist's arrival in a movement toward one-world government, a single economic system and single religion.
    Apocalyptic culture and theology, especially those surrounding 666, "is especially appealing for people in an underdog situation," said Father Just.
    So people have looked for -- and found -- 666 in all sorts of places. Believers in the number's power have used a biblical letter-numeric code to convert the names of countless political leaders, including many popes, to come out 666, marking them as that generation's Antichrist. That includes Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
    The math of 666 is also open to biblical interpretation and manipulation. Father Just points out that 666 is the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel. Other oddities include variations on pi and products of prime number multiplication.
    There's also something special about the number 6, which in the Bible stands for man, said Brian C. Jones, a religion professor at Wartburg College in Iowa.
    "People need to lighten up about this," Mr. Jones said, adding that it's hard to take tomorrow seriously as a day of reckoning. "Monday, we always hate Mondays. Wednesday is hump day. Friday sometimes has the 13th attached to it. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, they don't ring for me as days when bad things happen or good things happen. They're filler days."
    

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060605-121953-9265r.htm

Comments

[foona.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow is my parents 53rd anniversary. My dad claims never to have considered divorce, murder on the other hand...

Apocalypse? Nope. But I could be wrong;)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

The world can't end into Marianne gets 'hers', and well Amy gets 'some'. LOL

[fomocobaby.livejournal.com]

There was an English pub in San Francisco that used to do Pub Quiz nights. Players had to choose names for their teams, and one winning group called themselves "668 - The Neighbor of the Beast"

:-D

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

ah. same side of the street, hm?

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna be awfully upset if the world ends before I see Alatriste....

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Hey wanna make a date? I don't care if it's this far in advance...

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

Name it, and I'll be there! (So far, all my vacation days this year have been devoted to Viggo -- what can I say....)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

We just need to find out the when and where...

[rangerfromlotr.livejournal.com]

Yeah what wowie said about marianne and amy! So there!

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I keep hearing December 22, but heaven knows if that means New York and LA, or if they'll spread the joy around.... And by that time, half the world will have seen it already. :(

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Oh so we might have a bootleg copy ;-)? (Or who knows, maybe the video release will be a lot sooner? You never know!)

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

I have a sneaking suspicion that there could be rather complete "previews" floating around rather quickly. I do not expect that to dampen enthusiasm at the box office, however! ;-)

[dpitman.livejournal.com]

I love your icon! It goes very well with the date of tomorrow!! lol!

[pusspower.livejournal.com]

My lucky number is 13 and I love black cats, so I'm not particularly worried...

[gueststar70.livejournal.com]

I was actually discussing this with a couple of my students. We all decided that armageddon will not happen this year (one theorized that 07/07/07 is a more likely date)

Now I just have to hope one of those student doesn't end up in jail for his plans tomorrow (going to beat up anyone 'celebrating' that day out in the open or take black coats (like druids have been know to wear) off of people.

[hotch2.livejournal.com]

Not to be morbid, but a couple of weeks ago We had a 17 year old that committed suicide, partly because of some garbage she read on the internet about tomorrows date. She was admitted to us brain dead. She overdosed on her anti-depressants. It was a sad day at work, not a dry eye among us.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Oh how sad. These kids - no everyone - need to learn to take what they read online with a grain of salt.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Lucifer may not be the 'beast', but he is one helluva devil. ;-)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Let me rephrase that... do you walk under ladders too?

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

I've read online there are folks celebrating tomorrow's date. Bizarre!

[pusspower.livejournal.com]

Doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do, but I don't have any superstition about ladders.

[vigwig.livejournal.com]

Ah 666, beware the third eye of the beast [aka the TV]! ;-)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

So we should keep the TV off tomorrow?

(How go-est Spidey?)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

My only superstition about ladders involves getting to the top. Oy!

[kisli.livejournal.com]

OK, y'all haven't walked in my shoes, this shit about 666 is beginning to freak me out. You see, I have family from Texas who are "born again" (not that there's anything wrong with that). They are all into, "the mark of the beast" and the idea that seven people control the world. Yup, someday, we'll all walk around with computer chips in our arms and the main computer that controls the world has the numbers "666" in it. I can't believe I'm related to these people.

I don't believe in any of this crap. But it's fun watching people who do get freaked out by it. I guess the only thing that concerns me is the loons who do stupid things on days like this one.

But, the apocalypse may be upon us, as vigwigs favorite Republican Anne Coulter releases her new book tomorrow. Who says the anti-Christ has to be a male!!!! OK, I'm off to douse myself with holy water and pray a rosary!!!

[gutentag1.livejournal.com]

I am amazed at how many people I have heard where I live that are actually scared of tomorrow. Seems to me that they forget that part of the Bible that says that no man knows the date or the time of the rapture. My own daughter is freaking out over it, which is why I made the sigpics that pertained to it that I showed two of them on my LJ. It is no different than people's fears of Friday the 13th or the elusive Y2K bug. I think some people just thrive off of fearing things and trying to force their fears onto others. To me, it does seem that the people that are taking this the most serious (? don't know if that is the right word... maybe the hardest?) are teenagers. They seem to lose hope in things so quickly and take everything they are told as absolute truth. It is odd how perceptions overrule common sense at times too.

[vigwig.livejournal.com]

Republican Anne Coulter releases her new book tomorrow...

And from her fecund loins will emerge the anti-Christ in the form of a book and when she does a book signing her head will revolve 360 degrees and she will puke green bile which will spell the name Bush upon the floor,
BWA HA HA.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

I teased my son about this and he took it personally so we had a nice little discussion about the end of the world & reality etc.

[phoebiebell.livejournal.com]

Can I be really geeky?

Imagine me in my parent's basement, dressed in a sweater with a loud motif I got from an aunt for Christmas, wearing Mr. Spock ears and, if possible, that I am saying this in Klingon (I am, of course, fluent).

The actual number of the devil is 616 not 666.

*Runs for cover*

Phoebs

[fernande.livejournal.com]

Well of course it's all complete bollocks isn't it?

*rearranges strands of crucifixes, bottles of holy water and garlic strung round neck*

[phoebiebell.livejournal.com]

From The Independent.....

"Last year brought a rather disappointing revelation (ahem) for theological scholars, telly evangelists and death metal bands. A newly discovered scrap of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament seemed to suggest that when it came to the mark of the beast, they had the wrong number. Infact it was the rather less ominous 616.

Magus Peter H Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, New York, responded, saying Satanists were happy to start using 616 as the number of the beast if that scared Christians more.

If the classicists are right and the hullabaloo about 666 is a two thousand-year-old mistranslation, then we ought to turn up for work today."

Phoebs

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

then we ought to turn up for work today.


Well I went. And I swear that beast was there. Not fun!