You cannot rent a home or purchase government mandated auto insurance without it. Americans can not get a job, get a drivers license, have a bank account, get a loan, or vote without a Social Security number. Without that number, none may sell their services.
In America, we have already been forced by law and circumstance to receive a number, which has been attached to our names. But what is the Beast? It doesn’t take much imagination in the times in which we live to understand this Beast is government. It is a behemoth which consumes all with which it comes into contact.
One cannot reason with it nor enter into dialogue with it. Who can make war with it? If the government is indeed the Beast, what could the name of the Beast? be Simply stated, it is the corporate version of your name and it is indeed here and in use today.
But what is the name of the Beast?
The generally accepted meaning of the preposition "of" as used in ordinary conversation, is generally translated as referring to a belonging to, or of ownership. The phrase "time of day" for instance, relates to a particular period, which is associated, or belongs to a particular portion of the day. When we refer to "9:00am" as the "time of day", we speak of that period of time which "belongs to" what we call the morning. The same is true when we speak of a personal possession we may have. One "of" your suits, or shirts, or dresses, refers to your possession "of" it.
There is however, a more derivative meaning of the word. It is this definition which gives the prophecy in Revelation 13:17 a clear meaning.
That derivative meaning can be defined by the word "from". This definition of the word is listed first in the dictionary, which gives the meaning as "from" or "being derived from something." When you speak of people "of" Ohio, you speak of those who "come from" that state. When you state that a certain city is 30 miles East "of" another, you are saying that it is located 30 miles "from" the other city. We see the same usage in the bible when the apostle Paul is referred to in the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 9, verse 11 (before God changed his name), as "Saul 'of' Tarsus" , that is to say Saul "from" the area of Tarsus.
Given this basic meaning of the word, the phrase "the name of the Beast" means the Name "from" the Beast. This name of the Beast is the corporate name you have been given by the corporate entity known as the Federal government. It's pronunciation is identical to that of your given name, and with the exception of the use of all upper case letters, it is spelled identically also.
How it works
When a child is born in captivity (that is to say, in a hospital), the hospital sends the original record of live birth to the State Bureau of Vital Statistics, sometimes called the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. This is not a copy such as the document you may receive, but the actual original document. Each State is required by government mandate, to supply the United States with birth, death, and health statistics. The State agency that receives the original record of live birth keeps it and then issues a Birth Certificate in the corporate format, recording the child's name using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. This is the same format used by all corporate entities, including the Beast itself.
Every corporation you might have noticed, uses this all capital letter format that you see on your driver license, any communication you might receive from any government agency, or other corporation. RADIO SHACK CORPORATION for example, uses the all capital letter format when presenting their name in their logo, communications, and signage. The same is true for SONY CORPORATION, CHEVROLET CORPORATION, and your local incorporated grocery store chain outlet. Even the local incorporated "Christian" denomination church follows this rule.
In the case of these commercial entities, an artificial, fictitious person is created, for the sake of registration and regulation of the activities of the entity. It is this incorporation process which can be said to give life to a non-animated (dead) being.
In the case of real persons, we are created, as were our first parents, in the image of God. We are real, living, breathing beings, having life, not through action of law, but through the power of God. In an attempt to bring real persons under the thralldom of the system of man's law, the State has implemented a system of registering live births, that they might benefit from our labors, by the issuance of a Certificate. The whole idea that we are somehow not real individuals, having no proof of birth without being Certified is of course ludicrous. Nonetheless, the State has decreed that this must be so.