Revelation is surely the most intriguing book for a student of the scriptures. Surely
it is the book that more than others challenges
the human intellect to try to understand the meaning of the symbols there contained. One
of the most intriguing is the famous 666, but of it we will speak later. At the beginning
I'd like to focus my attention on something more important, in my opinion: the warning that revelation gives to the
true believers.
The book opens with these words:"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto
him" and here we have the distinction between Jesus and the Father, "to shew
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass;"
So this book contains the future in it for John. We have to consider anyway that some of
the future for John could now be our
past .
The first 3 chapters contain warnings for
7 churches. It is interesting that in these seven churches Rome is not mentioned. Surely
these warnings were directed to the churches in Asia, but if it was true like the Catholic
church maintains that there was a pope in Rome,
like a leader of the church he was supposed to
receive this revelation, but there was no pope and John, like the last Apostle
alive ,was in charge.
It is very interesting to note that all those churches were receiving warnings regarding
to do good works, otherwise their name should be removed. So it is pretty clear here that
salvation just by faith it is a misunderstanding.
Revelation 2:2,5
"Know thy works, and thy labour, and thy
patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or
else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent."
Revelation 2:10-11
"Fear none of those things which thou shalt
suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and
ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life."
Revelation 2:11
11" He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death.
Revelation 2:13 maintains that
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, [even] where Satan's seat [is]: and thou
holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas
[was] my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
but at the verses 16-17
Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth.
Revelation 2:17
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in
the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it].
Revelation 2:19-26
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works;
and the last [to be] more than the first.
Revelation 2:20
20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman
Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit
fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Revelation 2:21
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Revelation 2:22
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Revelation 2:23
23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he
which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to
your works.
Revelation 2:24
24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine,
and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none
other burden.
Revelation 2:25
25 But that which ye have [already] hold fast till I come.
Revelation 2:26
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations:
Revelation 3:1-5
AND unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the
seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that
thou livest, and art dead.
Revelation 3:2
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have
not found thy works perfect before God.
Revelation 3:3
3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If
therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know
what hour I will come upon thee.
Revelation 3:4
4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they
shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Revelation 3:5
5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out
his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before
his angels."
and so on.
In chapter 3:14 there is a wonderfould declaration from Jesus Himself.
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God;
We have another proof here that the Son was generated from the Father and that they are
NOT the same person.
In Revelation 5 a book is open, and this book is written inside and out. It means that
this book contains the past history inner and the
future history outside. The past is written
inner because is done. Outside the words that should be fulfilled in the future and when
the future will come they will be inner like the other ones.
We have to keep in mind that for God there is
no past and no future, but for John he should understand the point.
The first six seals were open. They contained
the history for six thousand years. Since my talk is about the beast, the false prophet
and apostasy I will jump directly to chapter 13. Chapter 12 is already discussed in my
study "The Bible and the Book of Mormon" in "The churches of God".
Chapter 13 begins with a beast, to which the dragon, or Satan, gave his power. In verse
seven it is written:
"And it was given unto him to make war with
the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues,
and nations. "
So here we have proof that in the future, for John, there would have been an
apostasy because "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:" is
clear on this. I was talking about this with the web master of "Saints in
shock" . She said:" That is true, but probably will happen in the future". She
didn't like to admit a past apostasy and consequential restoration. I told her it doesn't'
change anything to say that it will happen in the future, because you maintain that Jesus
is at the door for the second coming. But saying that the apostasy should happen in the
future, and consequential restoration, makes you
foolish to think that Jesus is at the door
before the apostasy should happen. It would be better to warn your believers that it is useless, so far, to await for Jesus, but
just to look for the apostasy. She didn't write me back on that topic. I have all her
letters on hand.
I don't want to try to identify the first beast because is not important on this topic,
instead the beast coming up in verse 11 is very interesting for this topic.
"And I beheld another beast coming up out of
the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. "
This is what it makes it so intriguing: "and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as
a dragon. "
It seems it is clearly speaking about a false religion, and it says:"And he
exerciseth all the power of the first beast "
So it says here that after the saints were defeated from the first beast came up this
second that was trying to be like the Lamb, but in reality was very different. "And
causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast." This
beast will make the saints worship their own
enemy. I have an idea about " whose deadly
wound was healed ", but since I am not
completely confident I will not express it. This false religion will perform great
miracles to deceive the believers, but fortunately John received a way to identify this
false religion. "Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his
number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six. "
Another important thing to keep in mind is
that by this number:"to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast,
or the number of his name.
So we have several clues here.
We will see later what they mean.
Chapter 14:6-8
Everybody knows the story of Moroni and the book of Mormon. Anyway you could take a look at Galatians 1:8
and who is the author of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 17 starts with a whore sitting on many waters. Why is the word "whore" used? The whore is a woman that sells herself to gain a reward. What she is trading it is the thing that should be the most sacred thing for her. The gift to bring life pertains to the family and the marriage and is the most sacred institution given from God to mankind. Adam couldn't be obedient to the commandment to be fruitful and replenish the earth without the woman. For that particular reason God said in Genesis 2:18 "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him AN HELP MEET FOR HIM."
Therefore the whore is the absolute denial of his entire plan. When He is using this word it is with a sense of disgust and sadness. We should keep in mind that to a prophet of old to show the state of apostasy of His chosen people, He asked to take for wife a whore. Let's read what the scriptures say in Revelation 17:1-6
"AND there came one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I
will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet coloured beast, full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
From these verses we can assume that this false religion or church would have had a
great temporal and political power, because with her prostituted the kings of the earth
and the nations of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. "
According to this scripture the leaders of this church or religion would have dressed in purple and scarlet color. Have you ever looked at the Cardinals? They dress just in that way and are the body in charge to choose the pope. And the pope ,before he becomes a pope, is a cardinal. "And decked with gold and precious stones and pearls". Take a look at the hands of them, Pope included, and you will see how many rings they have and their crosses on the neck are full of jewels.
"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. "
Maybe here he is speaking about the "Holy inquisition?"
The "Holy inquisition" was a practice during the dark ages in which the Catholic killed dissenters, not just in Spain, like many people like to say ,but in Italy too. Girolamo Savonarola was burnt in Piazza della Signoria in the dark ages, because the people of Florence loved him so much and he was a danger for the church.
"With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." Have you ever thought about indulgences? Rich people paid a certain amount of money to be forgiven of their sins and this was the problem that the Protestants brought up. The King of England deserted the Pope because He was too slow in giving him the divorce he wanted, so he made his own church to avoid the Pope's authority. Have you ever heard about masses for the dead? People could pay a certain amount of money to transfer a person from purgatory to the celestial Kingdom. This has nothing to do with religion. This is just a trade or commerce. Anyway, I am real sorry for the people that are paying for this commerce because I am sure that it will not work and that it is not "money back guaranteed" like the American people love to say.
Let's go ahead because this chapter has much to give us. John seems to foresee the curiosity of the readers so he starts to give more details.
"And the angel said unto
me, "Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will
tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the
seven heads and ten horns."
Revelation 17:8
8 "The beast that thou sawest was, and
is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that
dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
Revelation 17:9
9 "And here [is] the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. "
It seems that this church is in a city where are seven hills. We can't say right now for sure the name of this
city because this clue is interesting ,but
not conclusive. Rome has seven hills ,but even Moscow and maybe some other cities do also. But if we go to verse
18 we have surety about this:
"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. "
No doubt this is Rome! The Catholic people maintain that the Roman empire was the beast in question. But when there was a Roman empire, almost the entire known world was part of the empire! There were no kings. And also the phrase :"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. " If it was the Roman empire they (Catholics) should keep in mind that Constantine the great, the emperor, gave them the freedom to worship and made THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, the church of the empire, so anyway they came out from THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Anyway chapter 18 speaks all regarding this woman but calls her Babylon, the city in which the Hebrew were deported. But the bride of Jesus is another city, Jerusalem ,not Rome in fact Revelation 21:9-10
"And there came unto me one
of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked
with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. "
Revelation 21:10
10 "And he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God"
We have to remember that the covenant that God made with Israel is still in effect. We, (LDS )know that we are adopted in the house of Israel. So in 92 a.d the Whore prophesied (in Revelation) was in Rome and Revelation was speaking about the future, and the Bride was always Jerusalem. If it is true that the first ones will become the last ones it is true also that the last ones will become the first ones.
At this point I'd like to remark something very weird and strange but still very interesting on my opinion to support the idea given on this page about the beast and the false religion.
According to Revelation "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six. "
and also "to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast,
or the number of his name."
At that time there were 2 tongues, Latin and Hebrew, in which was possible to count some letters like numbers. I don't know Hebrew, but I know Latin.
The Latin letters that have a number are:
I = 1
V= 5 we have to keep in mind that the Romans used this letter for U and V, the difference was easy for them. In English you have many words that they have the same spelling but different meanings(Fine=good or I received a fine).
X = 10
L =50
C =100
D =500
M = 1000
We have to consider that Romans spoke Latin and they were the dominant people in the world at that time. So it is easy to assume and the story confirms that the other nations were aware of their language and their way to count. They had to pay taxes to the Romans so they have to know their way to count. Today English is the language to trade in all the world, so you need to know it.
Now I will quote 3 different phrases that are well known referring to the Catholic church. I will count the number like Revelation asks and I will go deeper on the rest of the letters that don't have any number related to them.. I want to make it clear that I am not using this as a final proof to show something, but just something very interesting to note, as Revelation is asking to do......
Revelation says:"to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
On the pope's crown (Tiara or forehead) there is written in Latin :"VICARIVS FILII DEI" that in English means:"SUBSTITUTE OF THE SON OF GOD"
V= 5 I=1 C=100 A(0) R(0) I=1 V=5 S(0) F(0) I=1 L=50 I=1 I=1 D=500 E(0) I=1
The total amount is 666
The letters without number are:" ARSFE". IF YOU PUT THEM IN ORDER YOU WILL HAVE FERAS, in Latin this word means BEAST. So here we have the number and the name of the beast.
The Catholic church loves to name itself :"SANCTA LVX DEI" that in English means "Holy light of God"
S (0) A (0) N (0) C=100 T(0) A(0) L=50 V=5 X=10 D=500 E(0) I=1 the total amount is the same 666
The letters without number are :"SANTAE" If you put them in order you will have "SATANE". I am pretty sure that you know perfectly well what this means even if it is in Latin. Even in this case we have the number and the name of the Beast.
The pope is well know as " REX LATINVS SACERDOS", that in English means "King of the Roman priests"
R(0) E(0) X=10 L=50 A(0) T(0) I=1 N(0) V=5 S(0) S(0) A(0) C=100 E(0) R(0) D=500 O(0) S(0)
The total amount is still the same 666
The letters without number are:"REATNSSAEROS". If you put them in order you will have:" SORSE SATANE", that in English means "Satan arises".
Another very interesting thing is this:" And that no man might buy
or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Did you know that every UPC bar code found on every product sold
commercially nowadays has at the beginning of the bar code 6, in the middle
is 6, and the last number of the bar code is 6?
The time has not yet come that we take a mark in our right hand or forehead
or be killed, but everywhere in the world now we are using this system to
buy and sell almost everything.
What I am trying to say is: "The 666 could be in many places and have many
meanings but still is the power of Satan that it is manifested in it, for
this reason the scripture is warning:" And here [is] the mind which hath
wisdom"
I hope we could have this wisdom to stay alert and ready because the
time is ripe and the Groom is at the door. 
bsp;
