The image, mark, name and number of the beast talked about in the book of Revelation is not some futuristic mark on our foreheads and hands. It is spiritual or symbolic of a mindset, conforming to a certain nature, in other words, it talks about people having the same mindset or character as the beast, being a reflection of him. There are more instances talked about in the Book of Revelation about the mark of God on His saints than that of the beast, all speaking symbolically of a mindset, character, actions and state of heart, not a physical mark. What John was writing about in the book of Revelation was an empire with an emperor with a religious order attached to it with the devil behind it that is influencing religious and secular rulers so that people would take on the image of this anti-Christ system. The number 666 is the number of man (or a group of men) elevating himself and putting himself in the place of God, to be worshipped as god. It is a body of people, an empire (as seen in the statue which king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about in the book of Daniel and all of the beasts, also in the Book of Daniel as well as in the Book of Revelation) aligned with religion and energized by the devil, against the Messiah. The Anti-Christ has been in the world from the beginning, trying to destroy the seed that would eventually crush it. The Kingdom of God, however, is forever – world without end, amen.
