Our Past and Future Hope – Chapter Seven: A Closer Look at the Beast and its Mark

Revelation 13 and 17

This is chapter seven of Our Past and Future Hope: Reintroducing a Traditional Faith-Building Eschatology by Jason Giles. The Contents page is here.

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Quite a bit can be learned about the beast and Antichrist1 before ever leaving the pages of the Old Testament. In the vision of the statue in Daniel 2 (covered in the first chapter of this book), we learn that there would be four world Empires before the Kingdom of God was inaugurated, starting with Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and ending with the Roman Empire. In the vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7 (covered in chapter five of this book), we learn more about the fate of the Roman Empire, and are introduced to the ‘little horn’ who will persecute the saints until the Son of Man comes again.

Through a close study of Daniel 7, the early church could see that Christ would not return until the Roman Empire was gone (see chapter six of this book). With incredible foresight, they realized that one day it would be split into ten kingdoms. They knew that an apostate would then grow powerful, eventually claiming three of the ten kingdoms. This enemy from within the church would blaspheme God by claiming all authority, while making war against the true church. Only after the time allotted to this little horn would the Son of Man come again and consummate the Kingdom of God, taking hold of all authority in heaven and on earth.

History has proven just how accurate their conjectures were. The Roman Empire-once thought to be ‘eternal’- did fall and was split into ten kingdoms. The Papacy began to grow in its authority over both church and state in the ensuing power vacuum. Eventually, they were recognized as head of all churches, and given power over three of the ten kingdoms. They gladly accepted and used blasphemous titles such as “Our Lord God the Pope; another God upon earth; king of kings and lord of lords,” claiming in their own words that “everything created in the human universe is subject to the Roman Pontiff.”2 The number of those killed after refusing to acknowledge such claims is in the millions.3

As we jump to the New Testament in Revelation, the same beast and Antichrist are reintroduced, but with more details confirming their identity, their method of exercising authority, and their final destruction. This closer look is found in Revelation 13 and 17.

The Beast Out of the Sea

Revelation 13 starts with a nearly identical description of the fourth beast in Daniel 7, signifying the different stages of the Roman Empire in its relation to Antichrist:

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names. 2 The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

5 A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him. 6 He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his dwelling, those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed. (Revelation 13:1-8, WEB)

Here is the same fourth beast of Daniel 7, having characteristics of each of the three beastly empires that came before it: generally resembling a leopard like Greece; feet like those of a bear matching Persia; the mouth of a lion like Babylon. It also came from the sea, representing the nations in commotion, as in the other passage. It has ten horns, just as before, symbolizing the eventual splitting of the united Roman Empire into ten kingdoms. It is given authority to make war for the same amount of time, as 42 months is another way of saying the ‘times, time, and half a time’ of Daniel 7. This beast is the terrifying might of the Roman Empire, just as powerful and blasphemous as before.

Seven Heads, Seven Governments

The extra details we are given in Revelation 13 and 17 reveal the changes the Roman Empire would undergo in its relationship with the Antichrist. In both passages, it is written that the beast has seven heads. In Revelation 17, an angel explains what these seven heads symbolize:

9 Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 They are seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must continue a little while. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction. (Revelation 17:9-11, WEB)

So the angel says that these seven heads represent two different things:

Seven Mountains– Or more accurately, ‘seven hills’ as translated in the NIV. This is an allusion to Rome, which was built on seven hills. “Rome was built, as is well known, on seven hills… and was called the seven-hilled city (Septicollis), from having been originally built on seven hills.”4 The seven heads of the beast represent the seat of its power, the city of Rome.

Seven Kings– Additionally, the angel said the seven heads of the beast represent seven kings. The word translated as ‘kings’ also means governments, or forms of government. The common traditional interpretation is that Rome had seven different forms of government in its history:

  1. Kings
  2. Republic
  3. Council of 10
  4. Military Triumites
  5. Dictators
  6. Imperial
  7. Exarchate

When John wrote Revelation, the first five of those governments had passed, and they were then under the imperial form- emperors ruled the Roman Empire. It was just as the angel told John, “Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not yet come” (Revelation 17:10b, WEB). This was common knowledge in John’s day, and contemporary classical historians even marked the dates of these six forms of Roman government they had witnessed.5

The seventh form of government would appear after the sixth was ‘wounded’- the Roman emperors could not withstand the barbarian invasions that eventually caused the fall of the Empire in 476. Rome would then be ruled from the outside (the meaning of exarchate) by the Byzantine emperors, called the Exarchate of Ravenna. This was the seventh head, the final official form of government of the beast who was (Revelation 17:8, 11). It was to rule for “only a little while” (Revelation 17:10), less than 200 years. And so the beast who was is the Roman Empire, ruled by outsiders, fighting to stay alive, breathing its dying breath. It was about to become the beast who is not, lying as if in death, waiting for the eighth ‘king’ to give it new life.

The Beast out of the Earth

The first beast in Revelation 13 is nearly identical to the description given in Daniel 7, but there is one missing detail: the little horn is not mentioned. Instead, we are shown a different image of that same power: another beast, the beast out of the earth.

I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. 12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. 14 He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast, saying to those who dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. 15 It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:11-15, WEB)

Here is the same ‘little horn,’ the same ‘man of sin,’ now symbolized in the form of a beast who comes out of the earth. By the time this new beast rises, the Roman Empire is all but dead, already divided into ten kingdoms, and ruled from outside its own territory. So what does this new beast do? He makes an image of the first beast- the fallen Roman Empire- and gives it breath. He resurrects the Roman Empire in its imperial form of government, healing the fatally wounded head. He makes a spitting image of the Roman Empire and exercises all of the same authority. He unites the power of the ten kingdoms again, adding only one word to the same name: The Holy Roman Empire.

The facts of history confirm this new perspective of the beast and the little horn in Revelation 13. The creation of the Holy Roman Empire is stated so simply, and yet as if it were written with these very prophecies in mind:

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476.6

The slogan of the day was renovatio Romanorum imperii (“renewal of the empire of the Romans”), which Charlemagne used in his imperial seal.

A monk that wrote about the newly crowned Emperor Charlemagne just 44 years after this event obviously has the statue of Daniel 2 in mind, but didn’t realize it was closer to the beast in Revelation 13! He likens it to the creation of a new image of the Roman Empire:

He who ordains the fate of kingdoms and the march of the centuries, the all-powerful Disposer of events, having destroyed one extraordinary image, that of the Romans, which had, it was true, feet of iron, or even feet of clay, then raised up, among the Franks, the golden head of a second image, equally remarkable, in the person of the illustrious Charlemagne.7

This was the ultimate integration of Church and State, the beginning of an imperium Christianum– a Christian Empire. The beastly Roman Empire was alive again, or at least an image of it was. The papacy healed the wounded sixth head of the beast by bestowing the title of Emperor and giving the beast new breath. The Holy Roman Empire would go on to become the most powerful force in Europe and rule for 1000 years, and the little horn would be the power behind the throne, killing all who would not bow down before them.

The Mark of the Beast

The last part of Revelation 13 is about the mark of the beast:

He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; 17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six. (Revelation 13:16-18, WEB)

Earlier in Revelation, the servants of God had been sealed: “I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Don’t harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!’” (Revelation 7:2-3, WEB). This seal of God is said to be the name of the Lamb and the Father in Revelation 14: “I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads” (14:1, WEB). So the mark of the beast is a mockery of this seal, as it is the name of the beast written on their right hand or forehead.

In symbolic prophecy like this, these marks are a figure of ownership. “This ‘mark’ on their foreheads or on their right hand is simply Satan’s way of mimicking the seal of God on God’s people. If you have the name of Jesus and God the Father written on your forehead, it simply means that they own you, that you belong to them, that you are loyal to the Lord God Almighty. But if you have ‘the name of the beast’ (Rev. 13:17) written on your forehead, it signifies that he owns you, that you belong to him, that you are loyal to the Antichrist.”8 It would not need to be a visible mark, because the actions of our obedience and loyalty will clearly show who we belong to.

This symbolic mark of ownership is given in the form of a code: “the number of his name” (Revelation 13:17). This type of code is called gematria, where each letter of the Greek alphabet is given a number value. As it turns out, early Christians were able to guess the name of the beast based on their interpretation of this chapter as well as Daniel 7. Both Irenaeus and Hippolytus mention Lateinos (ΛΑΤΕΙΝΟΣ)- Greek for ‘Roman’- as being the probable solution, because it was the name of the beast in their own day.9 They wrote this centuries before the Roman Empire was revived or the Roman bishops were declared to have universal authority over the church.

As mentioned in the previous chapter of this book on 2 Thessalonians 2, it is given in a cryptic form like this rather than being written out explicitly, so that the persecution of the early church was not made even worse than it already was:

The Roman Empire waged ten official persecutions against the church for almost 300 years. These were legally sanctioned by the senate and carried out under the Roman legal system. The Christians were tortured, whipped, burned, torn apart, beheaded, thrown to lions, and crucified by official Roman authority according to law, for three centuries. Pastors were killed, Bibles confiscated and burned, church buildings destroyed, and the flocks scattered.

How much worse might the Roman persecutors have been if they found their nation named by name as a beast in the Holy writings of those they persecuted? The conditions were bad enough without adding more fuel to the fire. So God couched the name in a mystery. He called the fourth beast 666, so no one could know it except the mind that has wisdom.10

The number 666 has many other solutions in gematria, but none of them match the simplicity and fullness of context that ‘Roman’ does. It is simply “the name of the beast” (Revelation 13:17). In every major interpretation, the beast in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 is identified as the Roman Empire, at least at one stage or another. It also meets all of the criteria of the passage: “Roman is the name of both the empire, the beast, and a citizen, a single person, who is also a Roman.”11 Everything the papacy did was ‘romanized’ through using the Latin language:

They latinize in every thing. Mass, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, and bulls are conceived in Latin. The papal councils speak in Latin. Women themselves pray in Latin. Nor is the Scripture read in any other language under popery, than Latin. Wherefore the council of Trent commanded the vulgar Latin to be the only authentic version. Nor do their doctors doubt to prefer it to the Hebrew and Greek text itself, which was written by the prophets and apostles. In short all things are Latin: the pope having communicated his language to the people under this dominion, as the mark and character of his empire.12

Gematria is also a code used in the Hebrew language, and the name for Roman beast or Roman kingdom (Romiith) also has the exact number 666. Concerning this remarkable fact, Thomas Newton writes, “It is really surprising that there should be such a fatal coincidence in both names in both languages… no other word in any language whatever, can be found to express both the same number, and the same thing.”13 This must be more than mere coincidence.

The Beast and the Whore

In Revelation chapter 17, the beast makes another appearance in much the same form, but the Antichrist is now shown as a prostitute that rides the beast:

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality. Those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.”

3 He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. 5 And on her forehead a name was written,

“MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

6 I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement. (Revelation 17:1-6, WEB)

Specifically, here the prostitute is a representation of the seat of Antichrist’s power, the city of Rome. The last verse of this chapter reads, “The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18, WEB). The papacy has always ruled from Rome, and still holds some civil authority there in Vatican City, their independent city-state in the middle of Rome.

How can we be sure that Rome is meant here, instead of Babylon or some other city? There are several reasons:

  • When Revelation was written, Babylon was no longer a city; it was desolate. But it was the symbol of a power that set itself against God, and was judged because of it.
  • The interpretation given by the angel in this chapter points to Rome. “Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits” (Revelation 17:9, WEB). In other versions, the word ‘mountains’ here is translated as ‘hills.’ Rome is known as the city of seven hills. 
  • The description of “the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” fits Rome’s historical status.
  • The context of Revelation and Daniel 7 points to Rome. These chapters have always been interpreted as the Roman Empire, and a power that comes from within it. The papacy fulfills the descriptions of that power, and has always operated from Rome.
  • The Apostle Peter confirms that the early church called Rome ‘Babylon.’ At the end of his first epistle, he gives these closing remarks: “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you” (1 Peter 5:13a, WEB). For him, Babylon is code for Rome. Keener writes regarding this verse: 

Jewish people by this period viewed Rome as the fourth of the four kingdoms in Daniel 7 that would oppress Israel, a successor to Babylon. Some elements of contemporary Judaism had readily transferred prophecies of Babylon’s demise in the Old Testament to the new empire of Rome (a transferral readily highlighted after A.D. 70). “Babylon” had thus become a fairly common cryptogram for Rome (although “Edom” was more popular with later rabbis).14

This chapter must have been a big clue for the early Christian church that the Antichrist would be an apostate- an enemy that rises up from within the church- because the Scriptures have often represented the unfaithful among God’s people as a prostitute. Israel is likened to one multiple times in Hosea and Jeremiah. The city of Jerusalem is also called a harlot in Ezekiel and Isaiah. Barnes writes about the use of such imagery in this chapter:

It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to represent a city under the image of a woman – a pure and holy city under the image of a virgin or chaste female; a corrupt, idolatrous, and wicked city under the image of an abandoned or lewd woman… and the design here is to represent it as resembling an abandoned female – fit representative of an apostate, corrupt, unfaithful church.15

Antichrist would not literally be a female prostitute, or just any great city in the world. Instead, they would be corrupt, unfaithful leaders from within the church.

This is precisely what happened when the papacy sought spiritual and political power at all costs, altogether abandoning the servant leadership Jesus called the church to. Remember, it was a pope who warned against seeking such authority: “Now I confidently say that whosoever calls himself, or desires to be called, Universal Priest, is in his elation the precursor of antichrist, because he proudly puts himself above all others.”16 Gregory’s successors ignored this warning, cozying up to kings and emperors to secure power in Rome, and the Bishop of Rome was called exactly that just a few years after it was penned.

Not too long after claiming spiritual authority over all churches, the papacy secured political power. This was prophesied in Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and here in Revelation 17- the leaders of the church of Rome would gain real political power over kingdoms, likened to committing adultery with the kings of the earth in this chapter. As shown in chapter 5 of this book, many Popes were also literally sexually depraved throughout their history in periods called the pornacracies. Because of their unfaithfulness to God, Rome would be considered “THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:5). She was “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Revelation 17:6) because many Christians would refuse to bow before this wicked power, and were killed for standing against them.

The Fate of the Prostitute

While Daniel 7 introduces us to the papal Antichrist, and Revelation 13 expands on its rule, this chapter reveals its ultimate fate. Explaining what John saw, the angel continues:

The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13 These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”

15 He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. 16 The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire. 17 For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. 18 The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:12-18, WEB)

The papacy in Rome today is a shadow of what it once was, but it still hangs on to real political power as a city-state, the smallest sovereign country in the world. This is because it has already faced many of the judgments prepared for it as written in Revelation 16, covered in more detail later in this book. The same ten kingdoms that gave the papacy its political power will also destroy it. “These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast” (Revelation 17:13, WEB), and yet “these will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire” (Revelation 17:16b, WEB). Commenting on this verse, Albert Barnes writes:

This statement will be accomplished if these same powers, represented by the ten horns, that were formerly in alliance with the papacy, shall become its enemy, and contribute to its final overthrow. That is, it will be accomplished if the nations of Europe, embraced within the limits of those ten kingdoms, shall become hostile to the papacy, and shall combine for its overthrow.17

He had seen much of it happen already in his day:

Is anything more probable than this? France has already struck more than one heavy blow on that power; England has been detached from it; many of the states of Italy are weary of it, and are ready to rise up against it; and nothing is more probable than that Spain, Portugal, France, Lombardy, and the papal States themselves, will yet throw off the yoke forever, and put an end to a power that has so long ruled over people. It was with the utmost difficulty, in 1848, that the papal power was sustained, and this was done only by foreign swords; the papacy could not probably be protected in another such outbreak.18

How right he was. In the year of Barnes’ death (1870), the Italian army captured Rome and ended the Papal States, which had existed since 756. However, the papacy would not let go of its claim to temporal power, and was granted control of only Vatican City nearly 60 years later, in 1929.

So the destruction of the great prostitute is not entirely fulfilled, as would be expected by the symbols of being made desolate, stripped naked, flesh eaten, and the rest burned utterly with fire. Popes still rule from Rome. Perhaps this end will come soon, as the papacy gained control over the three kingdoms by 800 under Charlemagne. The little horn and the beast are given a time limit of 1260 years, bringing us to 2060 if that is the correct date.

In any case, it is not too difficult to imagine how this will happen. The Roman Catholic Church is embroiled in sexual and even genocidal scandals that only seem to get worse year after year as more is revealed. The kingdoms of the world grow more and more secular, and also in their hatred of all religions, but especially the prostitute. What shocking deed will be uncovered next that will cause them to finally snap? Eventually they will band together in their fury and strip the Roman Catholic Church of all wealth, lands, and titles- or simply make them pay taxes- and in some way, the papacy will lose temporal power for good.

Traditional Vs. Modern Interpretation

In the modern popular futurist interpretation of Revelation 13 and 17, the Roman Empire is identified as only the beginning of the beast out of the sea, or the beast that the prostitute rides. The rest of the vision has been paused for over a millennium until the ten ‘kings’ are revealed, whom a personal Antichrist will overpower through charm and deceit. This Antichrist will go on to create a New World Order or alliance among nations, and shortly after claim to be God in a yet-to-be-built third Temple in Jerusalem. The Antichrist is bound to be someone with political or religious power, and fingers are pointed at every president, king, Imam, or single Pope the world over.

There is much anxiety and paranoia over the identity of the mark of the beast. Technology is usually considered to be the culprit. The most common speculation is a payment method embedded in our skin. A newer favorite is vaccines, sometimes said to include ‘RNA-modifying transhumanism nanotechnology.’ Fear-mongering is rampant as we try our hardest to avoid ‘accidentally’ taking the mark of the beast and damning our souls.

Very few of us learn enough church history to understand how the fulfillment of these visions is not ‘paused,’ but that there are recognizable events that correspond with how these symbols are used in the Bible. We understand the Roman Empire as the beast’s beginning well enough, but do we realize it split into ten kingdoms when it fell, or that an apostate power from within the church claimed authority over three of them? How many of us are aware of the papacy’s hand in creating an image of the wounded beast, revived in the Holy Roman Empire? What about the persecution and death of millions of ‘heretics’ who would not bow to that power? These are not hidden or obscure events, but it’s easy enough to get through our education by only giving them a cursory glance and then quickly forgetting about them.

Instead, we believe the currently popular interpretation we’re taught by the people we trust, without even realizing there was ever anything else. There is little incentive to understand the history of the church when all of these prophecies are yet to come. What often results is either an unnatural obsession over the ‘end times’ filled with speculation, or on the opposite end, a deep aversion to that tendency and to the unknown.

As you continue to read this book, my hope is that you will understand that there has been a very different yet cohesive understanding of these prophecies in the church throughout history. The papacy was not simply a villain that Protestants called Antichrist in order to defame them- rather, they genuinely saw the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation fulfilled in them, and for good reason. The Scriptures pointed to their rise to power, and they have predicted their imminent downfall. Sooner or later, God’s people will look back in wonder at how he has sovereignly revealed these things to us before they happened.

  1. ‘Antichrist’ has become a catch-all term for what the Scriptures call the ‘little horn’ in the Old Testament, and ‘the man of sin/lawlessness’ and the ‘beast out of the earth’ in the New Testament. ↩︎
  2. Malachi Martin, “The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Church”, 94.
    Available online at https://archive.org/details/TheDeclineAndFallOfTheRomMalachiMartin/page/n93/mode/2up ↩︎
  3. This number may seem sensational, and it would be if the scope was limited to specific events and regions (like the Spanish Inquisition). Historical theologian Nathan Busenitz remarks, “If the term is used in a broad sense—to represent all Roman Catholic activity against non-Catholics—then the numbers rise dramatically. If the historian includes forms of torture and killing that did not involve a formal trial, along with religious wars and other forms of Catholic violence enacted against Protestants and other non-Catholics (in areas outside of Spain and Portugal), then one can easily speak in terms of millions of people who were killed.”
    Available online at https://thecripplegate.com/how-many-people-died-in-the-inquisition/
    For a detailed view of these numbers, see David A. Plaisted’s “Estimates of the Number Killed by the Papacy in the Middle Ages and Later”.
    Available online at https://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/827989/15116787/1321289366180/50+million+protestants+killed.pdf ↩︎
  4. Albert Barnes, “Notes, Critical, Illustrative, and Practical”, Revelation 12:3.
    Available online at https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/barnes/rev012.htm ↩︎
  5. The historians Livy and Tacitus are quoted in Fred Miller, “Revelation: A Panorama of the Gospel Age”, 154.
    Available online at http://moellerhaus.com/scar-wom.htm ↩︎
  6. Wikipedia, “Holy Roman Empire”.
    Available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire ↩︎
  7. Einhard and Notker the Stammerer (Lewis Thorpe, Trans.), “Two Lives of Charlemagne”, 93.
    Another translation is available online at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/stgall-charlemagne.asp ↩︎
  8. Sam Storms, “Perplexing Passages: What Is the Mark of the Beast in Revelation 13?”.
    Available online at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/perplexing-passages-what-is-the-mark-of-the-beast/ ↩︎
  9. See more on this in the previous chapter of this book. ↩︎
  10. Miller, ibid, 44-45. ↩︎
  11. Miller, ibid, 43. ↩︎
  12. Henry Moore quoted in Thomas Newton, “Dissertations on the Prophecies”, 539. The footnote there reads: “Moore’s Mystery of Iniquity, Part ii. B. i. chap. xv. sect. i. et Petri Molinæi Vates p. 500, & c. Missa, preces, hymni, litaniæ, canones, decreta, bullæ, Latine conceptæ sunt. Concilia papalia Latine loquuntur. Ipsæ Mulierculæ precantur Latine. Nec alio sermone scriptura legitur sub papismo quam Latino. Quapropter Concilium Tridentinum jussit solam versionem vulgatam Latinam esse authenticam. Nec dubitant doctores eam præferre ipsi textui Hebraico et Græco ab ipsis apostolis et prophetis exarato. Denique sunt omnia Latina; nempe Papa populis a se subactis dedit suam linguam, ut sui imperii notam et characterem. [Translated in the text.]” ↩︎
  13. Thomas Newton, also quoting a ‘Mr. Pyle’, ibid, 540. The full quote is “It is really surprising that there should be such a fatal coincidence in both names in both languages. Mr. Pyle asserts, and I believe he may assert very truly, that no other word, in any language whatever, can be found to express both the same number and the same thing.” The footnote reads “See Pyle’s Paraphrase, p. 104.” ↩︎
  14. Craig Keener, “The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament”, 697. ↩︎
  15. Barnes, ibid, Revelation 17:1. ↩︎
  16. Gregory the Great (James Barmby, Trans.), “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12”, Book VII, Letter 33.
    Available online at https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360207033.htm ↩︎
  17. Barnes, ibid, Revelation 17:16. ↩︎
  18. Barnes, ibid, Revelation 17:16. ↩︎