End Times Prophecy Study - Lesson 3, Part 1 – Revelation 13 - Beast out of the Sea and 666

Lesson 3, Part 1 – Revelation 13 – Beast out of the Sea & 666

Ok now we will dive into the Revelation portion of this study I’m sharing with you. You will find that Daniel and Revelation run parallel with each other like I have told you before. God shares with John the same visions as Daniel, only using different imagery and also going much deeper. This section of our study is one of the most misinterpreted prophecies in the entire Bible, yet it is so important to correctly understand it. Is the mark of the beast a tattooed number?....a computer chip under the skin?....or something more subtle? Who is the beast out of the Sea? Who is the Beast out of the Earth? Well let’s see what the Bible says and let the Bible Identify them for us.

In order to know what the “Mark of the Beast” is we must first identify the two beasts. Read Revelation 13: 1-18 which is the whole chapter. Verses 1-10 focus on the beast from the sea, while verses 11-18 focus on the beast out of the earth and the mark of the beast. Revelation 13:1-8 and verses 16-18 provide 11 identifying characteristics to identify the beast which I’m sure you picked out yourself as you read the chapter. I’m going to list them here below:

1.       Rises from the sea (verse 1).

2.       Composite of the four beasts of Daniel chapter 7 (verses 1 and 2).

3.       Dragon gives it power and authority  (verse 2).

4.       Receives a deadly wound  (verse 3).

5.       Deadly wound healed  (verse 3).

6.       Strong political power (verses 3 and 7).

7.       Strong religious power (verses 3 and 8).

8.       Guilty of blasphemy (verses 1, 5, and 6).

9.       Wars with and overcomes the saints (verse 7).

10.   Rules for 42 months (verse 5).

11.   Has mysterious number 666 (verse 18).

Do some of these points have a familiar ring? Well they should. We encountered many of them earlier when we studied about the Antichrist in Daniel chapter 7. The "beast" of Revelation 13 is simply another name for the "Antichrist," which we learned from Daniel 7 is the papacy. 

Like I said before, prophecies of Daniel and Revelation often cover the same ground as prior prophecies, but each time new features are added that help make the prophecies certain. Now let's consider these 11 points I just listed one by one that describe the beast.

1.       It would rise from the sea (Revelation 13:1).

The sea (or water) in prophecy refers to people, or a populated area according to Revelations 17:15. So the beast, or Antichrist, would arise from amid the established nations of the then-known world. The Papacy, as we all know, arose in western Europe according to world history, so it fits this point perfectly.

2.       It would be a composite of the four beasts of Daniel Chapter 7 (Revelations 13:2).

Daniel Chapter 7             Revelation Chapter 13

Babylon
              Lion like beast (verse 4)     “mouth of                                                                  lion” (verse 2)

Medo Persia
               Bear like beast (verse 5)     “Feet of a                                                                bear” (verse 2)

Greece
            Leopard like beast (verse 6) “Like unto a                                                          leopard” (verse 2)

Rome
          Ten horned beast (verse 7) “having ten                                                                 horns”  (verse 1)

The four beasts of Daniel 7 are depicted as part of the Antichrist, or the beast, because the papacy incorporated pagan beliefs and practices from all four empires over history. She clothed them in spiritual garb and spread them to the world as Christian teachings. Here is one of many supporting statements from history that I found: "In a certain respect, she [the papacy] has copied her organization from that of the Roman Empire, has preserved and made fruitful the philosophical intuitions of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, borrowed from both Barbarians and the Byzantine Roman Empire, but always remains herself, thoroughly digesting all elements drawn from external sources”.

3.       The beast must received it’s power, seat (capital), and authority from the dragon (Revelation 13:2).

To identify the dragon, we go to Revelation chapter 12, where God's end-time church is pictured as a pure woman. In prophecy, a pure woman represents God's true people or church (Jeremiah 6:2 and Isaiah 51:16). The pure woman is portrayed as pregnant and about to deliver. The dragon crouches nearby, hoping to "devour" the baby at birth. However, when the baby is born He evades the dragon, fulfills His mission, and then ascends to heaven. Obviously the baby is Jesus, whom Herod tried to destroy by killing all the babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). So the dragon represents pagan Rome, of which Herod was a king. The power behind Herod's plot was, of course, the devil (Revelation 12:7-9). Satan acts through various governments to accomplish his ugly work in this case it's, pagan Rome.

I am going to quote just two supportive references from history that I found online, though there are many: (1) "The Roman Church ... pushed itself into the place of the Roman World-Empire, of which it is the actual continuation. ...The Pope ... is Caesar's successor." (2) "The mighty Catholic Church was little more than the Roman Empire baptized. Rome was transformed as well as converted. The very capital of the old Empire became the capital of the Christian Empire. The office of Pontifex Maximus was continued in that of Pope." So this point also fits the papacy. She received her capital city and power from pagan Rome.

4.       It would receive a deadly wound (Revelation 13:3).

As I have already shared with you before in previous postings, the deadly wound was inflicted when Napoleon's general, Alexander Berthier, He entered Rome and took Pope Pius VI captive in February of 1798. Napoleon decreed that at the death of the pope, the papacy would be discontinued. The pope died in France in August of 1799. "Half Europe thought ... that without the Pope the Papacy was dead." So this point also fits the papacy.

5.       The deadly wound would be healed, and the entire world would give homage to the beast (Revelations 13:3).

Since its healing, the strength of the papacy has grown and increased until today and she is one of the most powerful religio-political organizations and influence-centers in the world. Malachi Martin, consummate Vatican insider and intelligence expert, reveals the following in his best-selling book The Keys of This Blood (page numbers in parentheses):

About the Pope:  “He is as determined to be world ruler as was Constantine in his day (49). He is protected by four governments (120). He is the best-known person of the 20^th century (123). He is personal friends with the leaders of 91 countries (490). People of the world seem to him ready for strong worldwide moral government with control (160). Sixteen thousand journalists covered his American visit (490)”.

About the Papacy:  The American ambassador says the Vatican is unmatched as a “listening post” (120). The Vatican knows by Saturday what will happen on Monday anywhere in the world (439). Papal structure is prepared for worldwide rule now (143).

Ok so with this quote it’s obviously, the wound is healing and the eyes of the nations are upon the Vatican, so this point also fits with the papacy.

6.       It would become a strong political power (Revelation 13:3, 7).

It’s safe to say over history and from the above quote, and even still today, that the papacy is still a strong political power.

7.       It would become a very powerful religious organization (Revelation 13:3, 8).

It’s safe to say over history and from the above quote, and even still today, that the papacy is still a strong religious organization.

8.       It would be guilty of blasphemy (Revelation 13:5, 6).

The papacy is of course guilty of blasphemy because her priests claim to forgive sins and her popes claim to be Christ on earth.

9.       It would war with and persecute the saints (Revelations 13:7).

The Papacy did persecute and destroy millions of God’s saints (true people) during the Dark Ages and Christian Crusades over the course of world history.

10.   It would reign for 42 months (Revelation 13:5)

The Papacy reigned for 42 prophetic months, which equals 1,260 years, from A.D 538-1798.

11.   It would have the mysterious number 666 (Revelation 13:18).

This verse says, "It is the number of a man," and (Revelations 15:2) says it is "the number of his name." What man do you think of when you think of the papacy? If your like me you think of the pope. What is his official name? Here is a Catholic quote: "The title of the pope of Rome is "Vicarius Filii Dei" (English: "Vicar of the Son of God").Again using Malachi Martin, in The Keys of This Blood, uses the same title for the pope on pages 114, 122. A footnote for (Revelation 13:8) in some Douay [Catholic] versions of the Bible says, " The numeral letters of his name shall make up this number." 

The values of the letters of the pope’s name is “Vicarius Filii Dei” which means "God on Earth"…..well they add up to 666, exactly as predicted in Revelation 13:18. Remember that in Roman numeral’s the value of I is one. The value of V is five. The value of X is ten. The value of L is 50. The value of C is 100. The value of D is 500. There was no “U” in the Latin alphabet. If there was no value for a letter then a zero was assigned. So with that being said please see below:

V = 5                F = 0                 D = 500

I = 1                  I = 1                 E = 0

C = 100            L = 50              I = 1

A= 0                 I = 1                    = 501

R=0                  I = 1

I = 1                    = 53

V = 5

S = 0

=  112

Vicarius:  112

Filii:            53

Dei:          501

                  =666