There is a great deal of speculation about the beast, the image of the beast, and the mark of the beast. The beast is natural man. The image of the beast is the computer/calculator. The mark of the beast is the German swastika. The swastika portrays the distortion(shift) that has taken place in the mind of man.

When man falls from grace, soon after birth, a shift takes place in his mind. Existence(one/all) is moved, to make room for non existence(zero/nothing). From this moment on, man's mind is distorted, he becomes deluded, double minded. Natural man is irrational, he fabricates a fantasy world which is totally divorced from the real world. This shift has a profound effect on the life of man and the world we live in.

The mark of the beast is the symbol which signifies the shift(distortion) that has taken place in the mind of man. The mark of the beast is derived from the time clock. Conceptually the one is moved one position to the right, to make room for the zero. ( Mark 13:14 )

Fig 1 shows how the clock face looks before the shift has taken place. Fig 2 shows the clock face after the shift has taken place. The twelve is a convenient number because it hides the zero. The military time system starts with zero hour and ends with twenty three hours. Each number on the clock face represent a line (not duration), instead of a hour, which is duration(extension).

This means instead of reading duration(time), natural man reads the division lines(not time). The practical implication is that instead of reading the time as " the third hour and the tenth minute"(3:10), we distort reality by saying: ' it is nine minutes past two'(2:09).

"And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour " Luke 23:44

The present day clock is an extension of natural man, it is the mark of the beast. It is no coincidence that Hitler(Apollyon) chose the swastika as his trademark(symbol).