Giving the devil his due date

“Speak of the devil and he’s sure to appear.”

If there’s a splinter of truth to that folksy reproach, we may find out very soon.

Last month, as I sat in stalled traffic outside the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, I found myself staring at a stark black billboard bearing a riddle in crude white type: “6+6+06: The signs are all around you.”

While I inched my car toward the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood, I wondered, what the devil does that mean? It took me longer than it should’ve to get to “Ah-hah.”

Sixth month. Sixth day. Sixth year of this millennium.

Put them together and what have you got? 666. The number, according to Revelation 13:18, of the beast.

You know the one. The beast believed by more than a few followers of Jesus Christ to be the Antichrist.

“Here is wisdom,” penned Jesus’ disciple John after an ecstatic vision. “Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”

Whatever that means. Some who think they’re wise think they know.

There are Protestant authors, would-be prophets of the apocalypse, who envision the Antichrist as a Roman Catholic pope, or, as in the hot Tim LaHaye series “Left Behind,” an American cardinal.

R. Stephen Hanchett, who keeps a last-days-of-the-world watch on isbushantichrist.blogspot.com, thinks George Bush is the Antichrist. For him it adds up. In more ways than one.

Take the numerical values for each letter in Bush’s name: G=3, e=5, o=70, r=200, g=3, e=5, B=2, u=70, s=300, and h=8. That totals ? drum roll, please ? 666.

Or how about this: George has six letters; Walker has six letters; Bush Jr. has six letters (forget the period). Which bring us back to ? by George, you’ve got it ? 666.

Whatever or whoever the Antichrist might be, not to worry. When he shows up, we’ve got his number.

Maybe that’s why the approach of 6/6/06 hasn’t inspired quite the same hoopla as Y2K. But the folks who keep raptureready.com know we may be underrating it.

Their rapture (that day when some Christians think the faithful will be beamed up to heaven just as all hell breaks loose here on earth) index has reached 156, which by “rapturometer” standards, the website ominously notes, means “Hang on to your seat belts.”

Meanwhile, hawkers of films, books and records are counting on the day as a ticket to ride.

From what I can tell, the billboard I spotted in Westwood is a teaser for the June 6 release of “The Omen,” a rehash of the classic 1976 horror-mystery-thriller. Both films are based on David Seltzer’s tale of a boy, the son of an American government official, who turns out to be the Antichrist.

Or it could be foretelling the June 6 release of “Decemberunderground,” the seventh album from California rock band AFI.

Or maybe Crown Forum peppered it around town before unleashing Ann Coulter’s latest volume of hyperbole, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” which will appear on the shelves of local booksellers and at Amazon.com on ? da da da dum ? June 6.

Whatever the cryptic billboard is for, Brian Fleming’s film “The Beast” (which appears to have been renamed “Danielle”) might profit from riding in on its waves. This film, too, is rumored to debut on June 6.

Fleming, a former fundamentalist Christian, is now a self-described atheist Christian.

“The Beast” is a fiction that, a la Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” lays claim to supposed historical facts, known among scholars but concealed from the rest of us. It’s the story of Danielle, a Christian teen whose archeologist father inexplicably disappears. As she searches for him, Danielle discovers that her father has apparently uncovered Christianity’s darkest secret ? that Jesus Christ never existed. She must then face down dual antagonists: a posse of fundamentalist Christians who will do anything to suppress what she now knows, and her own deep need for Jesus to be real.

Watch out, Ron Howard. The “Code” is about to meet its competition.

Interest in June 6, 2006 isn’t confined to the commerce of art and wares. Nor is it confined to the United States.

The Times of London has reported that pregnant women given a due date of June 6 are reacting to the prospect in ways, I suppose, that are not too surprising.

At least one woman, who must have seen Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby,” has sought her physician’s help to prevent giving birth on June 6.

Others have taken a shine to the idea. Some have chosen such monikers for their offspring as Damien, the name of the child Antichrist in “The Omen,” and Regan, the name of the possessed, head-ratcheting, green-gunk-puking girl in “The Exorcist.”

Thrash metal band Slayer had plans to kick off its “Unholy Alliance Tour: Preaching to the Perverted” on June 6 at San Diego’s iPayOne Center but, as it was at other arenas, the date was postponed until July 20 ? I assume for obvious reasons.

A website titled “National Day of Slayer” is encouraging fans to celebrate the once-in-a-thousand-years date in ways that might give the beast fresh ideas.

“Do you really want those evangelical Neo-Cons to have all the fun with their ‘National Day of Prayer?,’ the website asks. “National holidays in America aren’t just about celebrating; they’re about forcing it upon nonparticipants.”

A red banner on the site urges, “America, listen to Slayer, June 6, 2006. ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.’ Psalm 116:15.”

Among the website’s suggestions: “Have a huge block party that clogs up a street in your neighborhood. Blast Slayer albums all evening. Get police cruisers and helicopters on the scene. Finish with a full-scale riot; spray-paint Slayer logos on churches, synagogues or cemeteries; kill the neighbor’s dog and blame it on Slayer.”

It’s a joke, right?

There’s evidence “Speak of the devil and he’s sure to appear” was never meant literally.

“‘Talk of the devil and he is bound to appear’ contains a very needful warning against curiosity about evil,” wrote Anglican bishop and poet Richard Chenevix Trench in the mid-1800s.

A century and a half later, how bold we have become.