Absolutely fascinating.. as we go plowing headlong into the 21st century..so many are being dragged, kicking and screaming out of the middle ages...
Bible college shuns 666 phone number
Saturday, January 18, 2003 Posted: 4:31 AM EST (0931 GMT)
VANCLEVE, Kentucky (AP) -- A small Appalachian Bible college is fighting to change its telephone number because the 666 prefix is disturbing to Christians who recognize it as the biblical mark of the beast.
"People say, 'You're a Bible college and you have 666 in your phone number?"' said Carlene Light, an office worker at Kentucky Mountain Bible College. "It's the connotation. No one wants to be part of the mark of the beast."
The conservative, non-denominational Christian college on a hillside in eastern Kentucky has been trying for months to persuade a telephone company to change the number.
Rob Roy MacGregor, the college's vice president for business affairs, said staff and students want the number changed to a second prefix, 693, that recently was added after all the 666 numbers were taken.
In the biblical book of Revelation, "666" is stamped by Satan into the foreheads or hands of those marked for eternal damnation during the last days.
MacGregor said he asked Access Point, a North Carolina-based telephone company that serves the college, to change the number about six months ago.
Kentucky Mountain Bible College serves 85 students.
"In the secular world, 666 is not a problem," he said. "It is for us."
Kaye Davis, general counsel for the company, said Friday the phone company intends to change the number as soon as possible.
"I certainly understand, being a Bible college, that the number 666 would cause some questions," she said.
Christina McBride, 24, a student from Ranier, Oregon, said she remembers being shocked the first time she heard the phone number. She's one of 85 students at the school, which is located 75 miles southeast of Lexington.
