Thanks for your input. I guess I am the one that confused the question by not better clarifying my thoughts.
I was looking for responses refuting the idea that The Revelation, more specifically, the passage relating to 666, is not literal and was only written as code to identify Nero among 1st century christians. It is not my belief but someone else's idea. I was kind of hoping someone knew of the author that originated this line of thinking/interpretation.
Personally, I feel it is nonproductive and an excercise in futility for christians to attempt to discover the identity of the Beast during this dispensation. Also, I am well aware of the symbolisms relating to numbers as found in scriptures.
On a side note, as this thread seems to have went off on a tangent, I will offer an alternative to the following...
The four beast (living creatures), not angels, surrounding the throne of God saying Holy, Holy, Holy day and night could be representative of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I am of the opinion that the Greek language in which the passage was written was one more descriptive and capable of relating ideas better than our English does and the use of repetitive words for emphasis would not be necessary.
"They stop at three...three being the maximum usage for maximum impact." - Where has it been determined that three (3) is "the maximum" number of times a word shall be used to achieve this desired effect? If this line of reasoning is correct, I should rather use seven (7), it being the number of completion or perfection as relating to God. As in, "The Buck Stops Here." One can't achieve much more maximum emphasis than that for impact. In other words, it is debatable.
Please don't misconstrue my response here. I'm not being sarcastic. I am still hoping to get input on my original post.
