There are many evangelical Christians on the web who are called "Preterists" and they argue that the Mark of the Beast refers to Nero, a famous Roman Emperor who persecuted Christians. In fact the Mark of the Beast is 666 in some copies of Revelation and 616 in other copies, and the letters of "Neron Ceaser" add up to 666 in Greek and 616 in Latin. Preterists go into great detail concerning this matter since it separates their view from that of Dispensationalists. If you google (
www.google.com) Mark of the Beast Preterism (type all those words into the google search box) you will come up with lots of matches and explanations. Preterism is one way that some Evangelicals explain the delay of Jesus' prophecied return, their explanation is that most of the prophecies and predictions refer to things happening in the days of the apostles like the "destruction of Jerusalem," and hence do not refer to things happened in our own day. Preterists and Dispensationalists have been going at it now for a long time with their different interpretations of Scripture.
(The mainstream scholarship view is that Jesus was influenced by the apocalyptic end of the world expectations held by some folks in his day, and that Jesus simply made a false prediction and that Jesus predicted the final judgment soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, but few Evangelicals want a failable Jesus, so they resort to either Dispensationalism or Preterism. When in doubt, play them off one another, invite your husband read both sides, since the Preterists and Dispensationalists both agree that the Bible is Holy and God does not lie, and that the Holy Spirit "leads them into all truth."
Here's one Preterist article on why the mark of the beast refers to Nero, an ancient roman Emperor, not to today:
http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/beast.html
You can google more such articles
And the mainstream view is given in my article on the web, "THE LOWDOWN ON GOD'S SHOWDOWN," that many have said they enjoyed and that helped them get over their fears of Bible predictions being applied to today's latest headlines.
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=86
Also see my letter to someone who asked me about the modern state of Israel and other "prophecies" of the Bible.
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/latest_2003/prophetic-passages.html
)
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