Readers of Revelation 13.11–18 feel their attention immediately drawn to the last words of the passage: “let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” They speculate endlessly on what that number means. And few public figures of any consequence have escaped being identified as the beast, including Nero Caesar in the first century and Ronald Reagan in the last. (The latter’s full name is Ronald Wilson Reagan—a supposedly ominous six letters in each name.)
We will, for the moment, resist the attention-drawing power of 666 in order to focus on the main point of Revelation 13.11–18, which is an explicit description of and implicit warning about the second beast, the false prophet.
You have no doubt heard of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This second beast is a dragon in lamb’s skin, a devilish imitation of Jesus Christ. “It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.” Of the twenty-nine times John uses the word lamb (Greek, arnion) in his Revelation, only here does it refer someone other than Christ. His point is inescapable: The devil uses a parody of religion to draw men and women away from real faith. It looks godly, even Christlike, but it is not.
The false prophet has amazing power. “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of all people.” But that power is directed toward an ungodly purpose: to deceive “those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived,” that is, the antichrist. It also has the power of capital punishment, to kill those who refuse to worship the antichrist, and the power of economic incentives, to help or hurt those who are “marked on the right or the forehead” with “the name of the beast or the number of its name.”
The power of the false prophet, in other words, is the power of politicized religion in the service of deified government. We Americans are accustomed to a separation of the institutions of religion and government, but this custom is of modern vintage. In the ancient world, especially the Roman one, temple and palace reinforced one another. Indeed, the Romans accused the early Christians of atheism because they refused to offer incense to the genius of Caesar, a religious act fraught with political significance.
John envisions something similar here, although we cannot be too sure of the specifics. That is why the interpretation of 666 is so interesting. Likely, it is a numerical symbol of someone’s name, for in Greek, the letters of the alphabet have numerical significance. The number might reveal the identity of a particular government leader. Unfortunately, there never has been widespread agreement on what his name is. It is unlikely that 666 will be tattooed on anyone’s head or hand, however. Like the seal of God on the forehead of believers (7.2–3, 9.4), the mark of the beast is symbolic rather than literal. It signifies whom one worships, and thus to whom one belongs.
And that, it seems to me, is the point of application of Revelation 13.11–18: not endless speculation about numbers but the live question of faith and allegiance. Do we acknowledge Jesus as Christ and Teacher, or do we follow an antichrist and false prophet?
To answer such a question rightly, we need discernment—the ability to sniff out politicized religion and sacralized politics—and, more importantly, the courage to resist them both.
GeorgePWood.com 
BILL WILSON – FALSE PROPHET
It is important to note that Bill Wilson’s [Alcoholics Anonymous] faith system was not based on Jesus Christ and Him crucified; nor is there any mention of Jesus Christ being the Savior from his sin. Both he and Bob Smith (co-founder of AA) embraced and promoted a variety of spiritual experiences, which included practicing spiritualism and conversing with the dead (which the Bible forbids) and being heavily involved in séances. Wilson also acted as a medium or channeler. It was while involved in these types of religious experiences, not Biblical Christianity, that Wilson developed his Twelve Steps (Pass It On, pp 156, 198, 275, 278).
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY