The number of the beast

In all the commotion around the upcoming war in the Middle East, people regain new interest in all the biblical and other mystical prophecies that surrounds these global events of epic proportions.

Although I consider myself not religious in a biblical sense, I do find these prophecies – or better said: the interpretations of the prophecies – very interesting (one look at my DVD collection will reveal some movies with a very religious theme).

So I dug up some interesting things on the net. Let’s start with the bible, King James Edition in English, and look up Revelations:

    • “16:13: And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
    • 14: For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
    • 16: And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”

Now, off course we can interpret this in various ways, but some say Armageddon is placed in the Middle East and the three spirits are the armies of the US, England and Iraq. So they are there to spread the war all over our world.

Fascinating stuff.

One of the countless websites that says its on too the explanation of these things is this one: Count the Number of the Beast: Who is the Antichrist, The Beast of Revelation 13?. The author is also a guy who developed “(…)a new holistic method of prophecy(…) to do his own prophecies.

Off course (and this is pretty obvious) he has a page stating Osama Bin Laden is the antichrist: Count the Number of the Beast: Who is the Antichrist, The Beast of Revelation 13? Osama the “Destroyer”. How lame can you get? I also think that the picture of the painting has been tampered with (I will try and verify this, since it’s a Dutch painting).

TCPA, TPM, DRM and the number of the beast?

Again a quote to start with:

    • “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads (Rev 13:16):
    • And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Rev 13:17).
    • 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 (Rev 13:18).”

“Ok,” you ask yourself, “how the hell – pardon my French – did this guy mix computers and religion together?”. Well, hang on this is an interesting theory that actually binds Microsoft, the US government and computers together.

When I hypostasize (hmm, I had to look up that word in a dictionary) about the number of the beast, I must say I rather believe the Mark or number of the Beast will be a (financial) identification system that the Antichrist will establish during the tribulation then a person. He will use the Mark as a tool for controlling all aspects of society.

Well as I see it, TCPA, TPM, DRM might be part of that.

First let me explain the terms TCPA, TPM, DRM;

TCPA = Trusted Computing Platform Alliance

TPM = Trusted Platform Module

DRM = Digital Rights Management

In short this is how it works;

TCPA will make copying software (or digital assets in general) impossible whether or not the copying itself is legal or illegal. In Holland for instance, the law says that anyone is entitled to make a copy or backup for personal use of any medium (CD, video, DVD whatever), as long as I am the owner.

TCPA will block anything the owner of the original (i.e. Microsnot software or music) doesn’t want you to do. TCPA will also prevent (the same) software from running on more than one computer.

The core of it is a chip called Trusted Platform Module or TPM. TPM is just a super-CPU-ID that will also contain – next to a unique identification number – a cryptographic key and some checksums. Its like a mega-dongle (a dongle being a hardware key. It’s a secure, copy-protected device supplied with software that plugs into a computer port).

Just like with a steel ball on a demolition crane the TPM in itself is harmless: it’s the chain connected to it that makes it dangerous. The chain in this case is called Palladium and is propagated by … Microsnot!

By matching serial numbers of software with the PC it runs on, the same serial will never work on another PC. Music, movies and other files will be chained to your PC by use of the TPM chip. Copying or trading these files to another PC will be impossible; copying to systems without TMP won’t work either.

Did I say PC? Well TPM is not just good for PC’s. Mobile phones, PDA’s and anything else more or less electronically can have a TPM chip.

Which brings me to the part that says: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”

And that number is not 666, it’s the unique identification number TPM will give you! And it will make it impossible for you to buy or sell something unless you have a TPM!

Other views please?

Some folks believed the Beast number was to be a certain year. Because of this, the year 666 AD was looked on as the date for the advent of the Antichrist. When that date came and went, the year 1666 was then looked on with dread. Nostradamus pointed to the year 1999 as an inverted 666 year.

Because the Beast number will have something to do with the Antichrist’s name, people all over the world have been busy working equations to figure out if every world leader of their day has a name that can be made to equal 666 in some way. Guess what: depending on how you figure it, 666 can be made to add up to just about anyone’s name.

I even have heard about a number of superstitions or phobias about this number (all from the Internet). One person refused to ride in a car because the license plate had 666 on it. Supposedly whenever some people go shopping, and the cash register reads triple six in anyway, they add something like a stick of gum to go past the unholy number.

When President and Mrs. Reagan moved out to California their house number was, you guessed it, Six Six Six. They had it changed to 668. When a governing body, like the UN or Congress, produces a bill numbered 666, it receives a good going over by prophecy watchers to see if it has a connection with end time events.

Now on the other hand, the next time you receive your water bill and upon opening it, you discover it comes to Euro or $ 6.66 or you realize you’ve used 666 cubic feet or cubic meters of water – don’t go pulling your hair out. Unless it has a direct connection to the Antichrist or is some special message from God, 666 is just another number that randomly comes up.

What can I say: I just love conspiracy theories!

Next time I have time for it I will focus on the Pale Rider.

    • (…)and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth(…)

 

Ps: if these ramblings don’t make any sense: don’t worry, I wrote them while doing lots of other things during this day, like cooking, cleaning, eating, ironing and watching some movies.

By Conspiracy theory, Thoughts