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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Devilish debate on end for Church of England

2008-01-10

Eyebrows were raised in the House of Commons on Thursday when a motion calling for the Church of England to be disestablished was listed with the number 666, symbol of the AntiChrist.
"This number is supposed to be the mark of the Devil. It looks as though God or the Devil have been moving in mysterious ways," said Bob Russell, a Liberal Democrat MP among those proposing the motion for debate.

"What is even stranger is that this motion was tabled last night when MPs were debating blasphemy," he added.

The motion calls for an end to the formal link between Church and State in England -- embodied in the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is both head of state and head of the Church of England.

The number 666 is referred to in the Book of Revelations in the Bible: "Here is wisdom. 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, three score and six."

"It is is incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number," said Russell.

Under the rules of the House of Commons the motion by backbenchers has little chance of actually being debated in parliament.

Posted by:anonymous5089

#5 It would be extraordinarily good for the CofE to be disentangled from English politics. To start with, they would no longer get bishops and archbishops who were atheists or Muslims.

The bishops would be removed from the House of Lords and would no longer be titled. The biggest debate would be over the ownership of the national cathedrals.

The primacy of Canterbury in the Anglican church would be challenged, and their bishops might be inclined to conform with the rest of the church.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-01-10 17:33

#4 I derived a lot of amusement from that when I temped at a fairly large department store in the fur salon concession... yes, I sold fur coats for a while, after I retired from the Air Force and before I began writing genre fiction.

The in-store telephone extension for the warehouse loading dock was "666" and when I pointed out solemnly that it was the so-called 'mark of the beast' the other sales associates agreed that yes, that was a very fair discription of some of the guys who worked on the dock!

Also, '666' is the telephone area code for San Marcos, Texas, known mostly for being the home of a University of Texas campus notorious as a party-hearty school. Local evangelicals do not find this amusing at all.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2008-01-10 17:30

#3 The representation of the number is in "Arabic numerals, known formally as Hindu-Arabic numerals"... The numerals arose in India between 400 BC and 400 CE... The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing press, and they became commonly known during the 15th century. -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numbers

When the Emperor Constantine directed the commission of fifty Bibles in 331CE, I doubt very much that '666' would have been the symbol of the beast so described.

Many Scholars believe that 666 refers to a Roman Emperor such as Nero(whose name, written in Aramaic, was valued at 666, using the Hebrew numerology of gematria, a manner of speaking against the emperor without the Roman authorities knowing)...
In May 2005, it was reported that scholars at Oxford University using advanced imaging techniques[9] had been able to read previously illegible portions of the earliest known record of the Book of Revelation, from the Oxyrhynchus site, Papyrus 115 or P115, dating to the mid to late third century. The fragment gives the Number of the Beast as 616 (chi, iota, stigma), rather than the majority text 666 (chi, xi, stigma).[1] The other early witness Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) has it written in full: hexakosiai deka hex(lit. six hundred sixteen).[10]

Significantly, P115 aligns with Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) which are generally regarded as providing the best testimony to Revelation. Thus, P115 has superior testimony to that of P47 which aligns with Codex Sinaiticus and together form the second-best witness to the Book of Revelation. This has led some scholars to conclude that 616 is the original number of the beast. -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

616. That's a big oops. :)

Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-01-10 16:31

#2 who hath understanding, not hat. Nobody understands hats these days especially Eddie.

Posted by: Eddie 2008-01-10 13:20

#1 "Here is wisdom. 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, three score and six."

That's not how it goes on the song. "Let him who hat understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, this number is six hundred and sixty six!" Maiden rocks.

Posted by: Eddie 2008-01-10 13:19

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