666 is coming

While June is traditionally a popular month for marriage ceremonies worldwide, officials in the Netherlands are noticing an unusual number of couples setting their wedding date for June 6, 2006, giving them an anniversary of 666, a number often associated with an end-time beast power of the Bible. June 6 this year falls on a Tuesday, which is usually less busy for weddings than Saturdays and Sundays.

While one explanation is that 666 would be an easy date to remember for anniversaries, others suggest a more sinister meaning.

For centuries, people have been intrigued by the number 666, the "number of the beast" from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.

Not only is it mentioned in Scripture, it has been associated with the Satanism, universal price codes and the game of roulette, as the numbers on the wheel add up to 666.

According to Revelation, the number "666" is associated with an end-time beast power.
"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." (Revelation 13:18.)

While many Bibles have footnotes saying the number translated from the original Greek could be 616, experts say new photographic evidence of an ancient fragment of papyrus from Revelation indeed indicates the number is 616, instead of 666.

Scholars in England have been using modern technology to scour some 400,000 bits of papyri which were discovered in 1895 at a dump outside the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Many of the sections have been damaged and discolored, but an imaging process is shedding new light on the sacred text, believed to have originally been penned by John, one of Jesus' 12 apostles.

WorldNetDaily.com