By ROGER ALFORD
The Associated Press

VANCLEVE, Ky. -- 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, nondenominational 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, the mark of the beast, is stamped into people's foreheads or right hands during the last days. Those who receive the mark, according to Scripture, are damned to eternal punishment.

"The beast represents Satan, and Satan will put the mark on everybody who does secular trade," MacGregor said. "True Christians will not accept the mark of the beast."

MacGregor said he asked Access Point, a North Carolina-based telephone company that serves the college, to change the number about six months ago.

Kaye Davis, general counsel for the company, said Friday that she would make every effort to get the phone number changed.

"I certainly understand, being a Bible college, that the number 666 would cause some questions," Davis said.

MacGregor said the college, which has graduates serving as missionaries in 51 countries, lists only a toll-free number on its Web site so that visitors aren't turned off by the 666 prefix.

"In the secular world, 666 is not a problem," MacGregor said. "It is for us."

Angie Combs, city clerk in nearby Jackson, said the telephone prefix shocks everyone who calls from outside the county.

"They say "Oh, no, how did you get that number?' " Combs said. "It's like a black cloud over us."

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/0103/18beast.html

*laughs* oh that's grand...maybe it's symbolic of something, even though they are denying it...heheee...oh the fates are cruel! I don't think it should be changed...should they be allowed special allowances because they're christian? How many other people do you think like having that number? *giggles some more* maybe the phone company is the anti christ.

*dies laughing*