What if “the mark of the beast isn’t the number 666. It’s numbers, period"?

Most readers brave enough to be around this corner of the blogosphere already know that the obvious answer to "Who does Revelation mean by '666'?"  is Nero Caeser (see this article, or read"This is going to be helpful for people 2000 years from now who don’t want to get left behind”)but check this..

 HT to Paul Wikinson (a vital blogger and thinker, support him) for this post (excerpted):

.....Online, I ran into Tim Jamz.  In a post on March 28th, 2008, he suggested that “the mark of the beast” isn’t the number 666.   It’s numbers, period.    Our preoccupation with them.   Our can’t live without them.  Commenting in another forum, Tim said, “Our focus on our own contrived systems of analysis, and the reliance on these systems, separates us from our Creator.”

The road he takes to get to there, an examination of themes occurring in both Genesis and Revelation is going to seem murky to some readers, but you should read it anyway.  Here’s the highlight:

The “Mark of the Beast” is 666, right? Technically, it is “six-hundred, three-score, and six,” according to the King James Version of the Bible. Well, a friend I hung out with many moons ago … brought this up; it’s stuck with me ever since, and the more I think about it, it really makes sense.

The Book of Revelation, where the Mark is referenced, was written during the reign of the Roman Empire, in a region, which was primarily ruled by Rome. Naturally, the original text, and the number written to mean the “Mark of the Beast” would have been written in the Roman language… enter: Roman Numerals. We’ve all learned these in grade school, and most television shows and other “scholarly” works use them to denote dates, et al.

If you write out the number 666 in Roman Numerals, it comes out: DCLXVI. (500+ 100+ 50+ 10+ 5+ 1= 666) That’s right, one of each Roman Number, in descending order. So, it could be surmised that “numbers,” in general, are the Mark of the Beast. Before you exorcise your computer, think about this.

Modern civilizations are wholly dependent on numbers; for currency, for architecture, for science…. EVERYTHING! Everything except God, that is. Our quest for knowledge between good and evil… our ultimate desire and preconception that our minds are able to make determinations in general… these are what separate us from simple existence, and one-ness with the Creator.

I found the conclusion resonated more than the premise, but make your own decision.   To go directly to that post, titled ‘Lost in Translation,’use this link.

-Paul Wikinson, link:  A Rather Unique Explanation of ’666′

PS: Paul begins his post with some backstory on credit/debit cards and the mark...If fixation with numbers is a candidate for 666, it of course raises questions about

•  church growth at all costs, 
• "mine is bigger than yours" pastor games,
• the sexualization of the22nd pewsitter,
•  the edifice complex 

etc...
But also about the Fresno Drop..
...Gee, I hope the Beast doesn't have his throne here in Fresno (: