Why is Andreas Helwig’s calculation involving Vicarius Filii Dei considered misleading?

Andreas Helwig’s calculation involving the phrase Vicarius Filii Dei is considered misleading because it relies on a selective and arbitrary application of numerology to force a specific result.12

To arrive at the number 666, Helwig—a 17th-century Protestant theologian—added the values of the letters that function as Roman numerals (I=1, V=5, L=50, C=100, D=500) while intentionally omitting all other letters in the phrase that do not represent numerical values. This method is fundamentally flawed because it ignores the linguistic integrity of the phrase to achieve a predetermined conclusion, which in this case was an attempt to associate the Roman Catholic Church with the biblical number of the beast.12

Such practices are common in arithmomancy, where the malleability of the system allows individuals to manipulate calculations to support various biases. Similar arbitrary methods have been used by others to derive 666 from names like Martin Luther or Adolf Hitler, demonstrating that these numerical exercises are often subjective rather than objective or divinely ordained.321