The person who fears God (takes God seriously) can and should use his head to think through the evidence before him. In so doing he can calculate
(figure out) the number of the beast, that bullyish, hell-bent people, despite all their force and aggression, are never more than only people—dust, mortal. So much evidence exists in the course of history as well as in the world today that mankind is determined to eradicate God and his people from this life and try to be God himself. Yet history old and new reassures the child of God repeatedly that man can never succeed. The wise man understands this.
18 This calls for wisdom: 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.