Title: I Saw The Number 666
Bible Book: Revelation 13 : 18
Author: Scott Nute
Subject: Satanism; 666; Devil; Satan
Objective:
Introduction
“Hey Scott…can we have a small get-together in your room tonight?” My dormitory neighbor asked me that question. I replied, “Sure.” This was October 31st, Halloween night, 1985. I had just arrived at my dorm room after baseball practice at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM. I ran to take a shower and returned, and within a few minutes four of my dorm friends came to my room. The one who arranged this meeting was a guy from Dallas, TX, named Jim. And to this day, I don’t know why he asked to have this meeting in my room. What happened that evening in my dorm room was perhaps the most “unusual” and internally disturbing spiritual experience of my life…and it ended up changing my life—FOREVER!
Jim had us sit in a line on the floor, and he sat in front of the four of us. He gave each of us a piece of paper, a pen, and a white candle. He told us to write down what “good things” we wanted to happen in our lives that school year, and we did. Next, Jim had us get on our knees as if praying, and starting with the first person in line (I just happened to be last) Jim told this person to take the candle and stick it through the piece of paper on which we had written our list of “good things.” Then, Jim lit the candle and instructed the first person to drip wax on their paper. Down the line it went. When they got to me I was freaking out! I felt UTTERLY & COMPLETELY uncomfortable! An extremely uneasy “feeling” rushed over and through me during this “meeting.” Well, I did what Jim said and lit the white candle and dripped the wax on my paper. As we finished, I looked down the line at my friends who were involved in this “meeting” with me, and each of them had this “look” on their faces…no expressions, very stoic, lifeless! I have no idea if those guys knew what was actually going on or not? Suddenly, Jim stood up, turned on the lights, and instantly they all changed expressions like nothing had happened. I was frozen in stunned silence!
The guys left my dorm room but Jim remained for a few more minutes, so it was just him and me. I said, “Jim, what was that…what did we just do?” He replied, “We were praying for ‘good luck’…prayers with the white candle makes good things to happen to us.” Jim also had a red candle and he then told me, “The red candle is to put curses on people.” At first I thought (or perhaps hoped) he was joking, but the seriousness of his facial expression clearly said that he was dead serious! He laid both candles on my desk, and I actually picked them up to look at them. I looked closely at the top of the red candle, it was a thin dinner candle with grooves twisting around it. At the top of the candle it was smooth, and Jim had taken a knife and carved a circle around the top of the candle, and in that circle was the number “666.”
“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666” (Revelation 13:18).
I was 18 years old when this happened. Now, 31 years later, it is still crystal clear in my mind! I had naively been involved in a satanic “white magic” séance. I was petrified when I saw that “666” on the red candle! Then, I asked Jim, “Where did you learn how to do this stuff?” He answered, “My father taught me.” Now, I don’t know if he meant his biological father, or his spiritual father, Satan. What I do know is I kept my distance from Jim from that night on.
What happened in my dorm room that night was 100% real with no exaggerations whatsoever! There was “something” in my room with us that night … a clear, powerful, intangible, and frightening “presence”… and it scared me! In retrospect, this event was at least the 4th “satanic” experience I had encountered, but this one was by far the most direct. Once I went to a rock concert to hear the band, “Iron Maiden,” and they were famous for their song, “666, The Number of the Beast.” I can say there was an obvious “power & worship” taking place in that concert. Another time, I had a “bad trip” on the hallucinogenic drug, “mushrooms.” At a party, while listening to the rock band “Led Zeppelin,” I literally began to see everything in different shades of red, and people had to take care of me because I was in a panic. They almost took me to the emergency room to get my stomach pumped for a potential drug overdose. After several hours, the drugs faded and I was “okay.” And another time, one night in high school, some devil-worshipers crashed our outdoor keg party. After everyone left, the leader of this cult began to hypnotically dance around the fire and chant. As he danced, I sensed that same eerie “presence” that I did in my college dorm room the following year. All of these experiences were subtle exposures to, and invitations to choose to get more directly involved with, Satanism.
Satan is constantly at work in our society, especially on young people! It seems the devil can be blunter with young people through rock music, drugs, and such things. These methods, along with countless others, lure and bait people into his dark world. I have noticed that people from broken and abusive homes may be more vulnerable to Satanism; however, we are all targets of satanic attacks. Whether it is direct exposure like what happened to me, or a more indirect, and subtle, “friendly” exposure to Satan’s invitations to dabble in his ways. Whether we dabble just a little, or if we choose to get heavily involved in living for lucifer and his world system, we are all constantly exposed to Satan’s world. I won’t ask if Satan is working in your life and tempting you. Rather, I will ask HOW is Satan working in your life and tempting you, and how are you dealing with it?
There are a few things I learned from the naïve dabbling I did in Satan’s world. And, I think these characteristics below, along with others, are what lure, bait, and tempt people to become involved in Satanism.
I. ACCEPTANCE
People involved in Satanism have found “acceptance” in their so-called satanic family. We all need acceptance, and if we don’t find it in “normal” ways, such as a stable family, we will drift toward anything, even dangerous things, that will provide the acceptance we desperately need.
II. ATTENTION
A common trait with a fair number of Satanists is “outlandish” behaviors and lifestyles, such as dressing all in black, or having extremely bright hair color, or bizarre clothing, tattoos, earrings, etc. At their core, Satanists are extremely broken, hurt, confused, and lonely people. In an attempt to compensate for the unbearable void and pain inside of their hearts, they choose Satanism as an extreme attention gaining magnet, which eventually makes their lives worse.
III. ESCAPE
The night the devil worshipers danced around the fire at our party, before he danced, the leader of their satanic cult came to me alone and said, “I am on the ultimate drug!” Like a “drug,” Satanism provides a temporary delusional escape from the pain and realities of life. The leader of the cult was offering this “drug” to me and my friends in an attempt to recruit us into his devil-worshipping group.
IV. POWER
People like the “power” that Satan’s spirit gives them. As the devil-worshippers danced around the fire, one of our friends yelled at them and said, “Get out of here you devil-worshipers!” They stopped dancing around the fire, and their facial expressions changed, and with sheer hate in their eyes they just stared at us for several seconds…it was a wordless “threat!” Then, they turned and left. They felt powerful!
V. ANGER
Satanism gives people a “justified” outlet for their anger, which commonly manifests in various forms of acting out and rebellion, such as drugs, violence, scaring people, animal or human sacrifice, etc. Blunt and/or subtle hate, anger, and vengeance are common characteristics of Satanists. It seems Satanists are angry from life, which includes any imperfect and distorted expressions of God, Christianity, and “religion” that have been thrown at them during their lives.
VI. CONTROL
What it comes down to is people enter Satanism because it gives them a powerful and intoxicating “illusion" of having “control” over their lives, and control over other people, and control over their destinies. They trade their souls for this “control.”
Conclusion
I believe a big reason I was so extremely uncomfortable the night of that satanic séance in my dorm room is because my mom had accepted Jesus Christ, and she was praying for me and had begun to share about Jesus Christ with me! One year after the satanic séance in my dorm room, in the dorm room right above that one, I repented of my sin and I asked Jesus Christ to be my personal Lord and Savior! I renounced Satan and his work in my life!
A major difference between God and Satan is that when we are serving God through Jesus Christ, we know it! With Satan, a vast majority of people who are serving him don’t know it because they are spiritually blind. Let’s reach out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they, too, can be set free from “his” darkness and brought into “HIS” light!
“Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.” – Jesus Christ (Luke 10:19).
For Jesus Christ,
Scott Nute - http://www.scottnute.org/
