Keep sharing good news without ads.
When was Revelation written?
Else. One of you gentlemen like to open this up with a word of prayer.
Father, we come before you this morning. Thank you for the ability to come in and listen to your word. Thank you for the teachers that teach us but our elders. Thank you that we're here. Lord, give us a mind to hear you.
Lord God that the Holy Spirit speak to us through your word and we pray all this in Jesus mighty name.
Well, we are going to begin the study through the book of Revelation. And it's revelation, not revelations. I see all his revelations on. If you ever seen the movie, Tombstone, that's one of my favorite movies, Ringo at the beginning of the movie, he says, it's a quote from revelations, he should have been shot then for this quote.
When I texted you yesterday, I had to remember I said, is it revelations or revelations?
It's not the revelations of Jesus Christ. It's the revelation. So, so we're going to have a book like this, we're going to have some introductory lessons as we move forward. I don't know how long we'll see how fast I can talk.
I know it at least be two weeks. There is much disagreement between Christian brothers on the book. So I just want to make sure that I'm clear so that as I lay the groundwork, how we understand the book, how I understand the dating, and we'll do that today, we're going to talk about the authorship and and the date and you go, oh, well, it's a no brainer.
We know who wrote it in the front of my Bible tells me when it was written. Well, it's probably not as easy as you think. Because our most of our modern Bibles from about 1900 on in the 19th century, moving forward, give one date, but if you would have been born 200 years ago, you would have certainly been acquainted with the book being written at another day.
If you read a lot of the Puritans, you would have had a different understanding of how the book would have been. So there is much to go through. And I'm fully aware that the vast majority in this room are probably more acquainted with the futurism view of Revelation.
How many of you think it's about the end of the world? Oh, that will be done. It will be done this today. It is about the end of the world. It's just how you put that in. Okay, is it going to be applied to the end of the world?
Or is it pointing to something greater at the Day of Judgment? All those things? How many of y 'all were told that the tribulation, the great tribulation and the rapture of the church is in Revelation?
Now we're got you were gonna say something to Kelly or throw something like this.
I've been taught a lot of different things. Church I go to.
Everyone has their own views. Sure. And there and there is a lot like I said, there is a lot of disagreement. But I want you to understand we cannot we can just like when we got to the prophetic and part of the apocalyptic parts of Daniel, we as Christian brothers and sisters, we can disagree.
And if you show charity to me, I promise I'll show charity to you. If you want to argue with me, we'll do it after class. Okay, I'm fine with the debate. If you want to debate with me about how I come to that conclusion, we'll do it after class so that we don't cloud everybody else's mind.
I do want you if you do have a question as we move forward, I do want you to stop me then. Like, hey, Mike, I didn't understand what you said. My mind is filled with information. Okay, so we were at dinner.
We were at dinner the other night. And we were talking and she immediately changed subject and it just went my mind and she's like, where does it all fit? We actually would start with how we were talking about revelation.
She said, you know, there's a lot of stuff that has to be people have to defrag their mind. So when you come to some of these texts and go, Oh, wow, this is maybe not how I've been taught. We took the kids when they were little, but mostly Zach and his friends, we would have, you know, the Christian haunted house and baby.
Oh, yeah. Tribulation house. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's exactly what they were gonna do. They're gonna scare the Sam Hill out of everybody. So we would take the kids to that. It was kind of cool. I mean, yet one place we went had the they had wrecked a plane in the back there people hang up.
You know, blood poured on it is awesome, but wasn't real. Then they take kids into the room. And it's Hey, if you ask Jesus into your heart today, you'll be saved from the Antichrist. Well, that's not what revelations about.
Revelation is not about the beast. Revelation is not about the Antichrist. It's not about seven years of tribulation. And you can search far and wide high and low shake your Bible upside down. You ain't gonna find the rapture of the church in there either.
It's about one man. The God man. The revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what the book is about. Now we fix and say something. I've seen you take a deep breath. No, you prepare yourself for impact.
No, this is experience. Concerning that the it's a show that it was a show basically, what's that? You know, that promotion that with a plane? Oh, yeah, dude, it was cool. But I thought it was baloney.
But but I was just thinking, as a kid, maybe a young adult, or maybe even adult. I mean, yeah, who wants to go through that? They're just trying to scare the literal. Sure. You know, out of you. And that's a false sense.
Of salvation. I don't know how you if y 'all how many were in youth groups in the 80s and 90s. But I mean, they would do the tribulation house or something play the wood left behind series and then they go in the back room and they play the backward masking.
Y 'all remember that? But turn the record backwards. Devil was saying, y 'all remember that? I'm like, Hey, we can't hear Ford. Did you? Hey, do you hear what he said? Yes. What he said? Yeah. So Mac, what is happening?
Somebody needs to let Max sit on her lap. So if I say something you don't understand, stop, because somebody else might not understand either. And remember, like I said, I had the information in my brain.
And sometimes it don't go from here to here. Not always like I want. So stop, don't ask me for notes, because I don't keep notes. Somebody asked me about nuts from Daniel. I'll keep notes. That's why I'm asking if you need to ask me now so that my mind doesn't move on and no pun intended, but you left behind.
Okay. All right. So let's do the the author of the book. How many of us say is john? Oh, everybody in the room because he says my name is john, john, who? And you go, well, this shouldn't be that big of a deal.
It is a big deal. Because if we don't know who this john is, this will determine whether this book should even be in the cannon or not. And that was a disagreement for nearly four centuries. If you think that what you have in your, in your hand was fully accepted in six, well, my person, my 68 ad, or most of your Bible say 95 or something and 95.
It's not that's not all altogether accurate. There was much disagreement. Some people believe it was john of Patmos. And why would they come to that conclusion? He wrote it on that. That's right. So they made a distinction between john, the apostle, and john of Patmos.
Okay. Then there was one that was john, Presbyterian, Presbyterian, but Presbyterian or L. And then you had one group that said it was the apostle. And then you had some other group over here. It was just some dude named john.
Okay, so we have to understand how do we know who it is? When the author of the book, it would be easy if did like in Paul's writings when he would say, Hey, by and Paul, the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a bond servant, and then he goes on, he goes, I was a Pharisee of a Pharisee, when it comes to the law of blameless, you know who that person is, right?
Or you get to Jude or James, I, the bond servant, the brother of Jesus, or you know, those, those things, you know exactly who it is. But when you get to john, you don't get that in the book of Revelation.
And it makes it difficult to understand from the from the textual criticism part of who the author was is because you do have other books. What were the other books that we have by john the apostle? Who said it?
Yep. 123. And then we had the gospel. And for our English reading of it. They're very easily to read. Very well put together. And our English translation, sometimes if it's hard to read, they try to do they do some interpreting for you.
So it's easy to read. Bert has taught Greek for many years. I'm a Greek scholar, we'll have to lean on him for scholarly stuff. But if you do read any of it, the original language, these are much better Greek than whoever wrote the bread with the apocalypse.
It's very, there's incomplete sentences, bad grammar, which led people to believe in early on in church history, early on, I would say after the second century, that whoever wrote these who was very polished in their Greek did not write this.
That's why that's why it's part of it was not fully accepted. So we can whoever. So what we have to do is we say, Okay, how did church history or the church fathers see it? And if this is more like a seminary class, I'm sorry, it's gonna be like this way next week to say, Clement, Clement of Rome, the dates I'm going to put after their names when they died, because it's easier to remember when they died.
98 to 99. And all these are going to be ad stuff. What did the Clement say about the book? Or did he even quote the book? Yeah. Clement said it was john, john, who john the apostle, john, the apostle wrote the book.
Remember, he would have been depending on your day. If you believe the book was written in 95. Look out, he was pretty close, right? He'd been reliable. He believed it was written 68. He'd have still been close enough to know the road, right?
You agree? Yes. All right. Then you had another man, Ignatius, he said, john, john, the apostle, this guy quoted it. Although they said, Hey, man, there's some, there's some weird stuff in this book. There's some some strange visions going on in here.
Then you had after him, you had Polly car. Most of us are probably aware of who Polly car was, right? I mean, who Polly carp is. All right, not a carp fish. But good.
He was the first elder of the church in Ephesus.
Wouldn't say he was the first elder because he wasn't actually in Ephesus. He was actually in Smyrna. Okay. And it's going to be one of those churches we'll talk about. But he wasn't a bishop. Try this.
Let me clear. That sounds too Catholic like he was the pastor of that church. And he was around one or 155. We'll spend a little bit of time on him when we do get to church Smyrna. Polly car was actually martyred.
He was, I would say probably around 86 years old based on the the writing that we have we one of the existing documents we do have is we have from the church in Smyrna, his actual description from the church of how he was martyred.
A miraculous thing did happen to him. Oh, he was taken, they finally captured him. We're going to burn him at the stake. And they took him to the arena in Smyrna. They built up whatever it was they were going to do to to kill him to burn him and gave him an opportunity one more time.
They had Christians behind him. They said all you have to do is say away with these atheists. Because remember, that they saw the Christians as atheists because they weren't polytheistic. And he he looked out to all pagans, and he said away with you, atheist.
And they said, we'll give you one more time before we light it. He said 86 years, the Lord has been nothing but good to me. Why would I deny his name today? They lit the they lit the stubble to try to get it to light.
Remember, it wasn't actually burned to death. It's to suck the oxygen out of you. They lit it didn't work. They lit it didn't work. He's in there singing. Glories to the Lord. And I light it and wouldn't like it.
Well, one of the one of the officers ran up there, shoved a dagger into his heart. And he killed him. And we have that document today that happened in 155. You can they're free on CCEL, Christian, Contemporary Christian Ethereal Library, whatever.
I mean, you can you can polycar said, john, the apostle wrote, what's cool about him saying it is this guy. And this guy had direct contact with john, the apostle. So I think I'm pretty reliable. He actually, from what we know from we don't obviously not from inspired text, but church history.
And what we know from church fathers is it was it was john that ordained polycar. That may be why you thought emphasis because that's where john spent his latter years. So polycar said that he he wrote the book.
Then you have just the mark. No, but just a martyr. Martyrs a dead giveaway. What's his last name? He was a martyr for the church. Same thing. He said, john wrote the book. Then you have another I'm running out of room.
Can y 'all see over there? Do I need to erase this and move it up? And you had another man that was discipled by polycar new Justin Martyr. Here's where it's gonna get a little interesting era. May. I think he died.
Here next. He believed that john wrote the book. But then it gets tricky. It's because now it goes when he thought john wrote the book. Now you see we had no problem with so far who wrote it. It was when Ernest said that he knew polycar polycar new john.
And concerning the Antichrist, which is what it that's how they were talking about the beast. If if he would have wanted us to know who the Antichrist was, he would have told us because he weeks people have seen him in our time, not too far along.
And Domitian drained. Now here this is why it gets a little tricky. Nero rain from 54 to 68. Domitian rain from 96. Titus 81. You knew Titus 87. No, it would have been maybe 83. Maybe 81 83. What there is a translation from Aaron as you know what, let me just read the translation.
Let me let me call him. Let me read so that you understand how the confusion on the date arose. Understand, as we go through this, depending on your date will change how you understand the book. In most books, it doesn't matter.
Okay, most books, it doesn't matter. Whether Philippians was written in 62 or 64. It really wouldn't matter. Whether Romans was written and 56 or 60 would make a difference. Depending on when these two are written will depend on how you understand the book.
So let me talk to here and I guess the other day. Let's see what he said. That's no, this is this is the mark of the beast phone. He says this had there been any need for his name to be named and now announced openly meaning concerning 666 it would have been stated by the one who saw the actual revelation.
So who is he speaking of? John? Yeah. For it was seen a long time back, but almost in my own life at the end of Domitian's reign. So what does that sound like? Sounds like he's saying it was written in the 90s.
That's what it sounds like. That's what it sounds like. The Greek word that is translated here is this right here. Don't pick on me about how my Greek looks. He's like, what is that? And it is translated.
You hear what it said? It was seen. Okay, this can be translated that it or this is weird. How can these he was so the way that it was translated, was it translated correctly this Greek word that it or he if you say that was seen almost in my own time, then that would mean the what the vision that's correct.
The revelation. If you say it, what does that mean? Revelation as well translated he john which means john didn't get the revelation. In the time of Domitian's reign, john was seen in the time of Domitian's reign.
How many of us have heard that john lived to be maybe in his 80s or 90s? I mean, yeah, well, certainly if you believe he wrote it 90 he'd have to be almost that that old. If he had Jesus commissioned him as a disciple.
Let's just lowball it. I personally think he was probably around 16 or 17 years old. Okay. And I'll tell you why in just a second. So if that if he was 16 or 17 years old, when he when Jesus began his ministry at 30, he was living three years, okay, that makes him what?
What's that? 19 or 20? Yeah. And how can I come to that conclusion? Because when Jesus is on the cross, who does he entrust his mother to? A person of age would have been recognized by the by the the community, which will how old did a person have to be to pay the temple tax?
20. When Jesus's men are walking through the city in the in the the in Capernaum, and they come up to him and say, Hey, you guys don't pay this temple tax. I don't know if you ever caught this. There's only two people that wound up paying that temple tax.
Peter, and Jesus. Now say, Hey, that's honorable. I don't buy that. Okay. I said, Are your men going to pay the temple tax? And Jesus told Peter, you go out there and you grab a fish out of the water and it's gonna be in his mouth.
And he paid it for Jesus and himself. Now you can disagree. One, we know that john was was young enough that he was he was snuggling up on Jesus's bosom at the night he he was betrayed. And if there was anybody decided I could be forgetting Revelation say he didn't even have a man I would love to be john.
That was Jesus's favorite. That would have been awesome to go man I was his favorite. He hugged on john and even when john would want to call down fire from heaven to consume the very people that were being Jesus rebuked him lovingly and kindly.
And then when he wanted to be set on the right hand or the left in the kingdom and he is what did he do? He was very kind to him. He was very kind and what that's another reason why I think they were young to hot headed teenagers.
Hey, disrespect my buddy. I'm gonna call fire down from heaven. I'll consume the whole city. Now, if that's the case, he was 1620 years old when he took when when Jesus died 1920. And then he had another 40 or so years 30 to 40 years that he lived that put him around 80 years old at 60 at 68 when he got the vision, or if you believe you got in the 90s, he was close to 100 probably late 90s.
So Irenaeus is we don't have the original writing of Irenaeus. All we have is a translation from the Latin which then had to be back translated into the Greek. And that's where the confusion lies. There was a man after this guy.
Some of you may have heard of this guy. Eusebius. Anybody heard of Eusebius? Good. No. If you Google it, don't do Nicodemus. He's a full blown heretic. He's an Aryan. I'm talking about who area. Okay, I'm talking I'm talking about area and who believe that Jesus wasn't God area, areas, the area and controversy.
He would have been Eusebius of Caesarea. He other than the Book of Acts, which Andy and Bert are doing and at a seminary would have been the first ecclesiastical history. He's believed that john wrote, he believed that john wrote it here.
So now you see where the confusion lies. Nobody denied in early first century that john, the apostle wrote, okay. There was a man, there was a man, there was a man, Dionysius. Dionysius. Let me let me correct something real quick.
Eusebius believe that john wrote the book, but Eusebius didn't believe it should be in the canon. Okay. You believe that john wrote the book. He just didn't believe should be the canon. Yes, ma 'am. Dionysius.
You want me what do you want me spell it? Are y 'all taking pictures? Well, some of the academy come to believe something we couldn't hear. Okay, you said he didn't believe something he he didn't believe it should be in the canon.
That's what I'm sorry. I apologize. He didn't believe it should be in the canon. And his reason for not wanting it to be in the canon is because the book was weird. It's weird. I mean, if you ever read Ezekiel, I think the two hardest books to study in all of Scripture, Old Testament, I believe it's Ezekiel, New Testament is the book we'll be going through and I promise it won't take seven years of tribulation for us to get through.
Okay. But it is very difficult, because you have signs and images. And we'll talk about the genre, the apocalyptic part of it, and it makes it difficult. Okay. I mean, if you're just wanting to read it and go, Oh, I think it means this, this, this, this and this, well, then you'll come up with the left behind series and a guy gets shot in the head by in a black suit looking like men in black, he's raised from the dead and all that you can come up with that.
But that's not exegetical. That's reading into an idea that you're presupposed to. So I can't find anywhere where there was an argument on the date. Here we when you get to those men, you're then dealing with tradition of well, john was at Patmos and we're trying to make the distinction of when was he at Patmos and we'll get to that ain't gonna be today.
When was he at Patmos? Why was he at Patmos? I would say most of us in this room and not throw pipe bomb in your thoughts. Most of us in this room go Oh, he was there because he was exiled. He was sent there to bust rocks.
It was a it was a penal colony just to let you know. Patmos was not a penal colony. It was not Alcatraz. Now, he was there for the testimony of Christ. Was he there to bust rocks? Don't know. Was he there?
Because he had professed Christ and exiled maybe from some those of the city of Ephesus where he had supposedly had been maybe Tertullian, his name will go up here in a minute. He tells us that's how he's the historian that tells us about the the death of Paul, the death of Peter and the death of john.
He says that Peter was beheaded, like john the baptist. That's how we know we didn't say but he suffered the same as john the baptist Paul did. So what does that mean? He got his head cut off. And he talks about Peter.
He says Peter suffered the same passion of his. I think it's quoted he suffered the same passion of his of his of his Lord in reverse. That's where we get that. Peter was crucified upside down. And then he says, but the judge of the beloved apostle was thrown in boiling oil and came out unharmed.
Imagine that get thrown in boiling oil. I can just see john. Yeah. Yeah. Got me some soap in here. Yeah, he gets out. Now this is this is how we understand it. If that's how he got to patents. He was putting there.
He didn't die. Get this dude away from me. We just threw him in boiling water. His skin didn't come off. He came out completely unharmed. Just get him away. That's why many believe that's how he got to patents.
Okay. Back to Dionysus. He believed is a weird book. He just said, Hey, the writing of first, second, third john, like we talked about a minute ago, the writing isn't consistent with whoever wrote the book of Revelation.
Therefore, he says, I can't say that it's not divine. I'm not saying it's not real. I'm saying it ain't the same author. So then you have this guy. Say that. This guy saying it was a spurious book. Okay, this would have been around 323 four ish.
Okay, ad, Sam's a spurious book just didn't understand he didn't say it wasn't divine didn't say it wasn't inspired. He just said it shouldn't be in the camp. And you go, well, that's weird. Shouldn't be in a cannon.
Hold your horses. There are other men who said it shouldn't be in the cannon that you're probably more familiar with. Martin Luther, swingly. Okay, so just be careful. And we'll talk about them as we go through the historic dispute.
So that's where when these men come along, that's when this debate really begins to happen. When was the book written? Now, you have internal from the from the document itself, okay? When what does the document the book of Revelation say about itself?
If we're going to do come to our own conclusion about when it was written, what does the reveal about the time it was read? So if we're going to do that, we have to say, what does it.
Actually say? So just real quick, yes, sir. On the thing there was it's a very minority view and say that it was not the apostle based off of what kind of the guys you're taught they.
All in the church, the apostolic, the apostolic fathers, the one the generation right after john, okay? They would have no question, john wrote it. And you know, how do they know? Because john talked to what is weird, which is a weird is when asked, or people had the opportunity to ask john about who this number of the man 666 was nothing.
He even said it. I mean, he said, Hey, we had the opportunity to ask him who this person was. And he never said, now I'll draw the conclusion at that point, it don't matter because he's dead. Not john, the person he's talking about this referencing the sixes.
And that's where. Yeah, we're gonna talk about you have internal you have the internal reasons to date the book. Okay. The internal reasons for dating the book, in my opinion, there's other men that are in here that study the Word of God, they feel differently, they can raise their hand.
I'm weighs heavier than external. What I mean by external is I'm gonna be quite honest with you. At the end of the day. I don't care what this guy said. At the end of the day. I don't care what this guy said.
I think what they have to offer was valuable for understanding and as close as he was to polycarp at the end of the day. I care what he had to say. I want to know what the if you want to open your Bibles, we'll we've got not long, but we'll look at a few.
I think the most compelling one I'll say for last, and we don't have time to go through all of them. Turn your Bible over to Revelation. We'll go 17. Now let's do two first. Because I'll get three, try to get the three of them.
I haven't lost anybody yet. Sure. Okay, I want you to understand how we got to where we're at. Revelation chapter 11, verse two. I'll begin. It says then there was given a measuring rod like a staff. And someone said, get up, measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it, but leave out the outside of the court, which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the nations and they will trample it underfoot, the Holy City for 42 months.
Okay. What does that sound like? It's still erect. The temple, the temple, you have the temples, it sounds as if it's erect. So if we're going to use this to say, okay, and many scholars use this passage here say, Hey, this is it sounds as if the temple still wreck he's john, although it's in a vision, I want you to understand he's on path is he walking around Jerusalem with a measuring rod.
It's innovation, but he's telling him measure the inner sanctuary, leave the outside alone, because it's going to be trampled on by who? The Gentiles? Who else made this statement about the outside of the temple going to be trampled out by the Gentiles?
Jesus himself. Jesus himself said it would be given over to the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles was over. I think it's in Luke chapter 21. Somebody could fact check. It's 21. We're in all of it discourse.
That's what he says. So if we go okay, he's telling him to measure the temple and if it and if this is a legitimate reason to understand that the temple is still erect, and that means this book was written before when before 70 ad.
So that at least means 69 and a half. Okay. All right. Now, turn over to 17 and go down. I'll just read verse eight through the end of 10. But it's specifically it'll deal with nine and 10. It says the beast that you saw wasn't is not and is about to come out of the abyss and go to destruction.
And those who dwell on the earth whose name has not been written in the book of life and the foundation of the world will wonder when they see the beast that he was and is not and will to come. That's, that's plain, isn't it?
Now, here's the mind of one which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are seven kings, five have fallen. One is the other is yet to come. And when he comes, he will remain for a little while.
That's a no brainer, but understood that, didn't it? Like, wait a minute. Now we got to go. The beast is what where does it say the beast sits on on seven, okay, seven, seven mountains or seven hills.
There are two understandings of the seven hills. It is believed that Rome was a map the city on seven hills. But there are extra biblical writings and rabbinical writings that said that Jerusalem was a city on seven hills, you go, Oh, wow, what were they?
You had new Mount Zion, Mount Zion, the all of it, scopus, malcorruption, Ophiel, and I forget the other, but they're all there. These are mounts, seven mounts. So you go, Okay, so now he's speaking of Jerusalem.
This is speaking of Jerusalem. Now he taught then he goes, but five kings. Okay. Anybody know the five kings of five emperors were first five of Rome. Yet Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and then who was the last guy we're talking about?
Nero. Oh, but like it says five have come and then one has fallen. Because most people but Julius as the first so this dating is correct. Who would have been in power when the book was written? Nero. Which now puts the dating of the book before 68.
Why would it be before 68? Anybody remember? Who is a guy when he killed himself? Remember why he killed himself? Depressed? Was he having a bad day? Well, I guess it is a bad day when you're deemed enemy of the state of Rome.
I guess that is a bad day. That's why they were going to reason that we're going to kill him is because he was an absolute madman. So now that's not dead ringers. Okay, there is some, you know, some debate on how we get it.
Okay. But if you turn over to man, we're not gonna turn over to chapter 13. Verse 18. Here's wisdom. Once again, he's saying use wisdom. Let him who who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for the number of the for that number is that of a man is number is 666.
Hey, it is not 666. It's 666. That's how it's supposed to be translated. That's how it's supposed to be said. Because it's talking about the numerical value of a man's name. Numerical, it says the number of his name, whether you do it in Greek, or whether you do it in Latin, it's going to come up to Kaiser Nero, or Nero Kaiser, however you want to pronounce it, which means the book was written when.
Before 68 before 68. I did not pick up on that. You got the.
Six, the number of this name, each each letter has an equivalent. Let's say let's take Roman numerals or Latin, right? Each one of them. I mean, look at our Super Bowls, right? Okay, they're done in that each letter of the name has a numerical value.
You add those up to to Neron Kaiser. Even in Hebrew, there is a textual variant 616. You add that up in Aramaic, and you know what it is still comes to Kaiser Neron.
Yeah, there's a there's a thing on here says some manuscripts have 616. Yep.
Does it say which one on yours? Does it give that? No, it doesn't say it just says some. Yeah, some of them will give a will give a MSS number or whatever. Okay, so.
You're saying that 666 is 666. That's it. And the 600 means something. The 60 means something in the six.
Yeah, next week, I don't have time because I got about 35 seconds to finish. Next, next week, I will put it up here on the board. I will show you each one of those numbers how they come up to their equivalent and what they do and how you add them up because it's not you're thinking of it.
This may tell you have the old Iron Maiden song number of the beast. I don't know if y 'all remember who Iron Maiden was. And it was 666 or the old Ozzy Osbourne. Sorry. Listen, that's what they that's how they did it.
That's not it. It's 666 666. That's it. That's how it comes. What what makes it difficult? If you want to say it was in Demetrius time is there's nobody in the reign of Demetrius the time of Demetrius any in this time frame or a contemporary of this time frame that they can point to 666.
There are other men that say, Hey, this is just a number of a man and it just means they're falling up up up up up up up up. Okay, that's not dealing with how the text says it. Well, I'll put it up on the board next week show you how it is member in Hebrew.
There's no vowels. So it'll just be consonants. But we'll do it. We'll do it next week. Okay. One of you gentlemen want to pray us out of here. Sorry, I got to cut us off. He's got to preach.
You what? Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this study. We just ask that you will open our minds, our hearts to the things that are true according to that word, and to that word only. We thank you for Mike and his obvious study, Lord.
We just ask that you will bless us today. Let's keep as he comes to preach in a few minutes. Lord, forgive us for our sins and where we feel the most of all we thank you for your son Jesus Christ. Amen.