The idolatrous intent of religion is evidenced as the second beast tells people "to make an image to the beast" (13:14). The Greek word for "image" is eikon from which we get the English word "icon." Religion specializes in making external and idolatrous "graven images." Unable to accept that "Christ is the image of God" (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4), and that God desires that His divine character be visibly expressed in the behavior of man, religion instead seeks to construct an external visible expression. These may take the form of tangible likenesses of creatures or men as well as religious buildings, or they may be intangible constructs of belief-systems and morality, or the ecclesiastical organizations of institutional religion. Idols all the same! Religion proceeds to attempt "to give breath to the image of the beast" (13:15), to make it "come alive," and invest it with spiritual life and activity, while also making it "speak" (13:15) with pompous pronouncements of piety. Those who "do not worship the image of the beast are killed" (13:15). Religion will tolerate no refusal to conform to its tenets. The intolerance of religion is well documented in its destruction and death of nonconformists.
This second beastly form of religion "causes all to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead" (13:16). Conformity of outward identification is important to religion. Religious adherents must be identified by what they do with their "hands" in moral activity and by what they think with their "heads" in an epistemological belief-system. Religion "brands" people so that the whole of society will be "stamped" by their religious adherence and it will "mark" everything they do. This includes the right to economic exchange, for "no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, of the name of the beast or the number of his name" (13:17). Religion creates an in-bred favoritism for conformists who bear the "mark" of the "name" of the beast, perhaps by expressing the diabolic character of the one who energizes religion, for "name" often represents character. The "number of his name" also represents the character of the devil in "self-effort." Those who do not share the "mark" are stigmatized for economic ostracism and boycott. History adequately records these repressive economic actions of religion, and such can still be seen today in the exclusivistic economic practices of evangelicals with their "sign of the fish" on business cards and advertising.
Christians constantly need the wisdom of Christ (I Cor. 1:24,30) to discern Satan's activity from Christ's activity, to distinguish between religion and genuine Christianity. "Here is wisdom," declares the risen Lord Jesus. "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six" (13:18). Throughout the Revelation numbers have symbolic significance. Seven is the number of divine perfection, and if the number seven were triplicated as seven hundred and seventy-seven it would represent the triune perfection of the Godhead. The number six falls short of that which is of God. Man certainly falls short of that which is of God and brings glory to God (Rom. 3:23). Six hundred and sixty-six is a number that comes short of perfection. It is a parody on the divine trinity of perfection represented by seven hundred and seventy-seven. It is a number that represents the beast of religion, which though inspired and energized by the self-oriented, rebellious activity of Satan, is evidenced by man's self-effort to appease and please God apart from Jesus Christ. Religion is man's best efforts to construct moral systems and theological formulations and institutional structures. It is the best that man can do as he tries to reach God, just as he did at Babel (Gen. 11:1-9).
The "number of the beast" is explicitly identified as "the number of man" (13:18). Many translations and interpretations of this text supply an indefinite article which indicates that the number of the beast is "a man." The original Greek language of the Revelation has no indefinite article, and proper hermeneutic principles allow us to supply such in English translation only if the context demands such for clarity of expression. Such is not the case in this instance. When the indefinite article is supplied it gives the impression that the second beast is to be identified as a singular and particular individual man. This has led to much religious obsession with decoding the cryptographic number of "six hundred and sixty-six" in order to identify a particular person. Speculations have included Nero, Caligula, other Roman emperors, Mohammed, various Roman Catholic popes, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, various United States presidents, leaders of Russia, etc. The numbers can arbitrarily and subjectively be twisted in order to apply to anyone! When such a procedure is employed the primary emphasis of the vision is missed. There is no need to identify this number as a particular historical individual. When the indefinite article is not supplied, a consistent contextual meaning is evident as the "number of the beast" is explained to be the "number of man" or the "number of mankind" as he engages in religious endeavors. Those who would demand a translation and interpretation that supplies the indefinite article identifying the number of the beast as "a man," must also allow the Jehovah's Witnesses to do the same in their translation of John 1:1, wherein they indicate that the Word was "a god." Few Christian religionists would want to allow such, but equity of translation technique would demand such.