It's true, the number, the mark and the beast are three different thing.

One way of figuring out what these three things are is to compare Christian and Hopi Indian prophecy on the subject'

The Hopi predicted that a time would come when no one would be able to barter or trade goods unless they carried the mark of the bear. A bear marks its territory by standing up next to a tree and drawing its claws down it from as high as it can leaving a series of moreorless parallel lines.

The Book of Revelations says that the time will come when no one will be able to buy or sell goods unless they carry the mark of the beast and that six sixty-six is the number of the mark of the beast.

All you have to do is look at most (not all are the same) International Product Codes (IPCs) or the computer scannable barcode that is attached to everything you buy. You will see right away that it is a series of parallel lines and that a different combination of thin and thick lines represents each digit from 1 to 9 and that the combination that represents 6 is two thin lines. There are also three other pairs of thin divisionary lines in each barcode, one at the beginning, one in the middle and one at the end.

So there you have it. Each barcode, in addition to the numbers that describe the product also contains 6 at the beginning, 6 in the middle and 6 at the end. The number of each mark (the barcode) of the beast (the computer - a non-human intelligence comparable only to a beast by a 1st century mystic) is therefore 666.

"Taking the mark of the beast" would be having a scannable RFID chip implanted and the message is very clear.

Don't do it!