SDA Book The Truth About 666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy Three Volumes in One by Edwin de Kock Synopsis

Date: May 30, 2014

RE: SDA Book The Truth About 666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy Three Volumes in One by Edwin de Kock Synopsis

Date: May 30, 2014

Appendix III

Mostly Protestant, Non-Seventh-day Adventist Publications

In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Mentioning Vicarius Filii Dei

As a Title of the Pope,

A Majority of Which Equate It with 666

1. 1715. Michael Geddes, Chancellor of the Church of Sarum, considered the artful ways in which the Catholic hierarchy had elevated and advanced itself at the expense of those who truly sought to serve the Lord. Among the pieces considered was Constantines Donation, which he quoted in Latin, as it lies in a Letter of Pope Leo IXs written about the Year 1050. In its first two lines, we find the words: Ut sicut B. Petrus in terris vicarius Filii Dei videtur esse constitutus (As the blessed Peter is seen to have been constituted Vicar of the Son of God on earth) (emphasis added).1

2. c. 1726. John Richardson (1647-1725?) delivered a series of thirtynine ecclesiastic lectures in Latin. The nineteenth one was entitled Edictum Constantini, quo Romam & occiduas Provincias Pontifici concessisse dicitur, spurium est & fictitium (The edict of Constantine, by which Rome and the Western provinces are said to have been handed over to the Pontiff, is spurious and fictitious). This was part of the ongoing debate with the Roman Church that had begun when Lorenzo Valla first debunked the so-called Donation in 1440. It was still raging, now between Catholics and Protestants. Richardson quoted from it, including the words Sanctus Petrus Vicarius Filii Dei (Saint Peter the Vicar of the Son of God). He was indignant about the pretension that the Roman pontiff supposedly had authority over omnes Regiones Occidentales (all Western Regions).2 Because of their Classical education, well-educated people in eighteenthcentury Britain were generally able to read Latin.

3. 1735. Thomas Pyle, Minister of Lynn Regis in Norfolk and Prebendary of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, England, demonstratedwith the aid of two tablesthat the Greek word Lateinos and the Hebrew Romiith both had the numerical value of 666. Quoting the words Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast (Rev. 13:18), he remarked that this did not mean the Man of deep Learning, or the great Philosopher, but the honest and good Man. Along with the Apocalyptic Secret there is a Rule to find it out by, viz. counting the Number, or finding out that Word, or Words, the several Letters whereof, (being so many distinct Numbers,) added together, will show that

the Name, Title and Character by which this Beast, or corrupt persecuting Power, was usually known. What he did not refer to was Vicarius Filii Dei, yet he set an example for subsequent writers in English, who sometimes cited him.3

4. 1735. In Hamburg, a Latin work appeared by a German writer, Johann Christopher Wolf, who styled himself Wolfius. This book, Jo. Christophori Wolfii Curae Philologicae et Criticae in SS. Apostolorum Jacobi Petri Judae et Johannes Epistolas Hujusque Apocal., contains both philological and critical notes on the writings of James, Peter, Jude, and John. Concerning the latter, Wolf dealt with the Epistles as well as the Revelation. Amongst other writers, he referred to Helwig, whose work for the first time appeared under the pseudonym of M. Carolus Aglaeonius Irenochoraeus in 1600 (Gryphiswaldiae) as Apodictica tractatio quaestionis, Num certum aliquid Anti-Christi nomen existet, cui numerus illi Apocalypticus DCLXVI respondeat? (An apodictic treatise on the question whether there exists any certain name of Anti-Christ which agrees with the Apocalyptic number 666?). Wolf, to highlight Helwigs discovery, had the title printed as VICarIVs fILII DeI, which gives prominence to the letters that have numerical values.4 It was probably through this book that Helwigs ideas were brought to the attention of British writers. Another factor could well have been the close relations between Germany and England, which had monarchs of largely German extraction from the time of George I (1660-1727) to the First World War, when the British public became infuriated by the fighting in the trenches and the horrific death toll. George V (1865-1936) belonged to the House of Wettin von Saxe-Coburn and Gotha and was even a cousin of the hated Kaiser Wilhelm II. He quickly renamed his family Windsor, after a castle of no particular renown.

5. 1751. The learned Charles Chais (17011785), born and educated in Geneva, was a gifted pastor of the French Reformed congregation at the Hague. On the occasion of the 1750 Catholic jubilee in Rome, he wrote a series of letters especially against the indulgences proclaimed by Benedict XIV (17401758). Chais held that the doctrine which they represented was as absurd as it was dangerous and unchristian.5 There is no such thing, he said, as an immense treasury of merits derived from both Jesus Christ and the saints that the Saviour has committed to the Roman pontiff, as the Vicaire du Fils de Dieu, to dispense at his pleasure. We should rather, through the blood of Christ, have full confidence in the indulgence of the Supreme Judge, who will forgive us as a Father forgives his child who serves him. of self-education. Famous for inventing and improving astronomical as well as other scientific instruments, this Scot was accorded a high honor: membership in the Royal Society of London.He also sometimes turned his attention to theological subjects. Because of his outstanding ability in calculation, these included prophecy and the question of the NAME AND NUMBER OF THE BEAST. His biographer, Ebenezer Henderson, copied it in 1831 from a MS of Fergusons in the possession of the late William Upcott, Esq., Islington, London. Ferguson included three tables establishing the numerical value of Romiith, Lateinos, and Vicarius Filii Dei. He pointed out that in his time this last mentioned was a title recognized by Catholics: The Papists call the Pope VICARIUS FILII DEI (The Vicar of the Son of God). And, if we take the sum of all the numeral letters in these three words, we shall find it also to be 666.10 Ferguson may have been the first in Britain to equate Vicarius Filii Dei with 666. His biographer also wrote: Ferguson introduces the motto on the Palace of the Pope at Rome, viz. Vicarivs Dei Generalis in Terris, (the Vicar General of God on Earth), whichas Ferguson demonstratedlikewise has a numerical value of 666.11

Date: May 30, 2014

from ch 10 end notes

10. The Primacy of Peter?

1. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Commonwealth

Ecclesiasticall and Civill, 1651, ed. A.R. Waller. (Cambridge UP, 1904), p. 516.

2. EB 08, s.v. Hobbes, Thomas.

3. Hobbes, Leviathan, pp. 516517, p. 491.

4. EB 10, s.v. Domitian.

5. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism

in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, trans. from German by Adrian J. Walker (New

York: Doubleday, 2007), pp. 335, 338339.

6. Lucio Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridico-Moralis Theologia,

Vol. 6, art. Papa (Venice, Italy: Apud Frasciscum Storti, et Jo: Baptistam Recurti,

1746), p. 33.

7. Hobbes, Leviathan, pp. 490491. 8. Ibid., 489.

9. Ibid., pp. 489490. 10. Ibid., p. 508.

11. GC, 1888 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1940),

pp. 4950.

12. Hobbes, Leviathan, p. 510.

13. Froom, PFF, Vol. I, pp. 478479.

14. Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words (San

Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), pp. 290291.

15. Ibid., p. 291. 16. Ibid.

17. Wikipedia, s.v. Biblical canon, www.en.wikipedia.org, downloaded

04/10/08.

18. Norman F. Cantor and Richard I. Schneider, How to Study History (Arlington

Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1967), p. 22.

19. Ibid., p. 23. 20. Ibid., p. 26.

21. Part II. The Hierarchical Constitution of the Church, Section I. The Supreme

Authority of the Church, Chapter 1. The Roman Pontiff and the College of Bishops,

Canon 330, Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition (Washington, D.C.: Canon Law

Society of America, 1999), p. 105.

22. Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy (New York:

Crown Publishers, 1988), p. 24.

23. Ibid.

24. A Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, Compiled by the

Theologians Assembled at Smalcald, 1537, The Book of Concord,

www.bookofconcord.org, downloaded 03/08/08.

25. Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity. 1976 (London: Penguin Books, 1990),

p. 166.

26. Ibid., p. 168. 27. Ibid., pp. 169170.

28. EB 08, s.v. StolbergStolberg, Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu.

29. Fried. Leop. Grafen zu Stolberg, Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi, Vol. 7.

new ed. (Vienna: Carl Gezold, 1817), p. 47.

30. Ibid. p. 48.

31. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX (New York: Robert Appleton Company,

1910) s.v. Pope St. Linus, downloaded 05/09/08.

32. Paul Johnson, The Papacy, ed. Michael Walsh (New York: Barnes and

Noble, 1997), p. 210.

33. Von Stolberg (Grafen zu Stolberg), Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi, Vol.

VII, p. 48.

34. EB 09, s.v. Diocese.

35. EB 09, s.v. Vicar.

36. EB 07, s.v. Clement I, Saint.

37. Peters Primacy, Catholic Answers, www.catholic.com, downloaded

07/03/07.

38. EB 08, s.v. Victor I, Saint.

39. EB 08, s.v. Irenaeus, Saint.

40. EB 08, s.v. Victor I, Saint.

41. Martin Luther, Einer aus den Hohen Artikeln des Allerheiligesten

Bepstlichen Glaubens Genant Donatio Constantini (Wittemberg: Hans Lusst,

1537), pp. 3738.

42. Edwin de Kock, 1.1 From Jesus to the Middle Ages in 1. Two Thousand

Years of Prophetic Interpretation, The Use and Abuse of Prophecy: History,

Methodology, and Myth (Edinburg, TX: Author Publisher, 2007), pp. 1318.

43. Peters Primacy, Catholic Answers, www.catholic.com, downloaded

07/03/07.

44. Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ, p. 36. 45. Ibid.

46. David Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast ( Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1994), p.

46.

47. EB 07, s.v. Constantine I.

48. John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1997), p. 18.

49. Maurizio Fagiolo DellArco, ed. The Art of the Popes: From the Vatican

Collection. Trans. from the Italian (New York: Greenwich House, 1983), p. 19.

50. John P. Beal, James A. Corriden, and Thomas J. Green, eds. Papal Titles,

by Knut Walf, New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, Commissioned by the

Canon Law Society of America (New York: Paulist Press, 2000), p. 432.

Date: May 30, 2014

back to appendix III

6. 1753. A Deist publication opposing atheism, referred to various religious leaders and said this about the pope: The Bishop of Rome stiles himself Vicarius Filii Dei, the Vicar of the Son of God. It also hinted at, though it did not discuss, the number of the Beast, Apoc. xiii. 18.8

7. 1759. James Ferguson (1710-1776) was a most remarkable example of self-education. Famous for inventing and improving astronomical as of self-education. Famous for inventing and improving astronomical as well as other scientific instruments, this Scot was accorded a high honor: membership in the Royal Society of London.9 He also sometimes turned his attention to theological subjects. Because of his outstanding ability in calculation, these included prophecy and the question of the NAME AND NUMBER OF THE BEAST. His biographer, Ebenezer Henderson, copied it in 1831 from a MS of Fergusons in the possession of the late William Upcott, Esq., Islington, London. Ferguson included three tables establishing the numerical value of Romiith, Lateinos, and Vicarius Filii Dei. He pointed out that in his time this last mentioned was a title recognized by Catholics: The Papists call the Pope VICARIUS FILII DEI (The Vicar of the Son of God). And, if we take the sum of all the numeral letters in these three words, we shall find it also to be 666.10 Ferguson may have been the first in Britain to equate Vicarius Filii Dei with 666. His biographer also wrote: Ferguson introduces the motto on the Palace of the Pope at Rome, viz. Vicarivs Dei Generalis in Terris, (the Vicar General of God on Earth), whichas Ferguson demonstratedlikewise has a numerical value of 666.11

8. 1765. A Jew, who with a glance at Shakespeares Merchant of Venice derisively called himself Rabby Shylock, mentioned in verse an idea that was current in the England of his day:

The title, say they, assumd by the pope, Is th undoubted proof of his being the beast. Vicarius Dei Filii, forsooth, he is stild, Which Gods Sons vicar in English implies: The Roman cyphers if we but pick out, Six hundred they will make three-score and six.

Shylock skeptically thought he could also, if he manipulated it a little, find that number in a title of the king; but for us that is beside the point. He witnessed to what Protestants were teaching at that time.12

9. 1766. Apocalypsis Revelata (The Apocalypse Revealed) was published at Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Its author, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), thereby and on that date became a great gainsayer of Historicist prophetic interpreters. turned his back on science after April 1745, when a personage who said he was Christ in a waking vision told him to abandon worldly learning.13 This being first appeared to him in a strong shining light, and saying, I am the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer. I have chosen thee to explain to men the interior senses of the sacred writings. I will dictate to thee what thou oughtest to write. Swedenborg had many supernatural communications, often in a trance. As he put it, I have conversed with apostles, departed popes, emperors, and kings; with the late reformers of the Church, Luther, Calvin and Melanchthon, and with others from distant countries.14

Those who believed that Swedenborg was inspired and accepted his teachings founded the Church of the New Jerusalem, also known as the New Church. This body denies the doctrine of the Trinity and understands

redemption in ways that are alien to traditional Christian theology. Also according to Swedenborg, the Second Coming predicted in Rev. 1:7 would not be literal but the Lords revealing of himself. As for the statement and

every eye shall see Him, it signifies, that all who are in the understanding of Divine Truth from affection will acknowledge Him. In the spiritual sense, an eye does not mean the eye, but the understanding . . .15 And death is the casting off by man of his material body which has no share in the resurrection.16

Using allegorical methods of interpretation much like Origen (c. 185-c. 254), Swedenborg was able with large-scale spiritualizing to make anything mean anything else. His most notable contribution was applying this peculiar method to numbers as well as other entities. Far from using the formula Vicarius Filii Dei = 666, he thought the Beast was not the papacy; instead, the name referred to the Reformed Church, and the number symbolized perfection subverted. He wrote: The Number six hundred and sixty six is used, because in that number six is tripled . . . (emphasis added).17 Based on Arabic numerals, this idea inherently clashes with the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman number systems employed in the time of John, who wrote the Apocalypseas also afterwards by Western Europeans for many centuries to come. With such reasoning, Swedenborg seems to have fathered much of present-day prophetic Idealism for RomanCatholics and Protestants alike, including some Seventh-day Adventists.

10. 1768. Thomas Newton (1704-1782) was the bishop of Bristol. His redactor explained that in 1754 he lost both his father and his wife. He distracted his mind from his grief by composing his Dissertations on the Prophecies, which ran through eighteen editions, and was translated into German and Danish.18 Seeking to understand Rev. 13:18, Newton especially favored Lateinos, first proposed by Irenaeus, but he also mentioned both Romiith and Vicarius Filii Dei. The latter, inserted by Newtons redactor, refers to Pyles Paraphrase, p. 104. In tabular form, as a footnote, Lateinos and Vicarius Filii Dei are shown to have a numerical value of 666.19

11. 1769. The Town and Country Magazine published a brief letter from F. J. Guion, a correspondent of Bath, England, worded as follows:

To the Printer of the Town and Country Magazine.

SOME time ago I met with the following curious observation, which (if you think proper) you may insert in your entertaining Miscellany.

The popes inscription is vicarius Filii Dei; or, vicar of the son of God: the numerical letters in which, if valued and summed up, make the exact number in Revelations. chap. xiii. verse 18. thus, . . .

After these words, a narrow vertical table on the right side displays the title with number values next to the letters V, I, C, U, and D, wherever they occur, as well as a total of 666.20

12. 1778. John James Bachmair pondered the meaning of 666 and pointed out that Ludovicus, the Latin for Louis, had this numerical value, although he was a little doubtful: Who would say, that the king of France is Antichrist? Bachmair also said, however, that other learned men had someone else in mind to whom they applied the prophecy and to find this number in the letters of his name, or in his title, or in both. So, for instance, as the pope calls himself the vicar of Christ, they formed his title thus: VICARIUS FILII DEI. It is true, the number of 666 is contained in these words . . .21

Date: May 30, 2014

13. 1780. Preaching on Isa. 59:19, Thomas Bell made very sensible remarks about names with a numerical value. If any mans name among us had the letters J, V, X L, C, D. they would amount precisely to 666; but what relation would this have to the subject? Surely, none at all. For we must argue, not from the name only, but from the name joined to other marks of the beast; which cannot be said of other names. For, in vain is any other name sought containing the number 666, unless it be also the name of the beast. A name of that nature, joined with other characters of the beast, must strike strong with conviction; but separated from them it amounts to nothing . . .22 In this way, more than two hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Bell enunciated the vital principle of context.

14. 1782. John Moxon, a compiler of interesting odds and ends, asserted: The Pope styles himself VICARIUS FILII DEI. [period sic] that is, Vicar of the Son of God. Now the numerical letters contained in such title, being sumd together, just make up the number of the beast;as per example, . . . whereupon he provided a vertical table with the name and its numerical letter equivalents, totaling 666.23

15. 1790, July. The New Magazine of Knowledge Concerning Heaven and Hell, and the Universal World of Nature, carries a query from J. J., about the correct method of calculating the number of the Beast, according to Rev. 13:17, and 18.24 In response, Robert Hindmarsh (1759-1835), the owner and printer of this paper, declared: It has generally been supposed, that the beast spoken of in the 16th chapter [sic] is the Pope of Rome; and in this many have been confirmed by the circumstance of the Popes name, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, making the number 666. But Hindmarsh, an ex-Methodist, who during the previous two years had led out in the formal founding of Swedenborgianism and whose priest he now officially was,25 would have none of that. He was a gainsayer, who thought this was a trifling mode of explanation, since it may be extended to an hundred other names. According to him, The book of Revelation treats solely of the destruction of the present Christian church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants; and afterwards of the establishment of a new church, called the New Jerusalem. Everything in the Apocalypse was figurative. Therefore, By the name of the beast, and the number of his name, is meant the quality of the doctrine; and by the beast itself is meant the doctrine of faith alone, as received among the laity; for the beast here alluded to, is the beast that rose out of the sea, verse 1 of this chapter, by which is signified that faith among the laity, or common people of the church; whereas by the beast that rose out of the earth, verse 11, is signified the same faith as received by the clergy.26 Replicating Swedenborgs interpretation, Hindmarsh wrote:

And his number is six hundred threescore and six, signifies that every truth of the Word is falsified by the Protestant doctrine of faith separate from good works. The number 666 signifies all falses and evils in one mass; the reason of which signification is as follows. All numbers in the Word signify things and their qualities: thus the number 6 denotes full, being predicated particularly of truths and goods thence derived; but in the opposite sense, of falses and evils thence derived; for that number is compounded of 2 and 3 multiplied together, and the number 2 is predicated either of goods or evils, and the number 3 either of truths or falses, according to the subject treated of. Now every compounded number bears the same signification, as the original simple numbers from which it arises either by addition, multiplication, or triplication . . . in order that this signification might be extended to its full complement, or highest pitch, therefore the number 6 is tripled so as to produce 666; for 6 multiplied by 1, is 6; 6 multiplied by 10 is 60; and 6 multiplied by 100, is 600; which added together amount exactly to 666: by which triplication is signified the full, total, and complete measure of falses and evils from beginning to end, so that in the present Christian church, as a church, there no longer remains the smallest degree of genuine truth or good.27

But 666 can be 6 tripled only when figures are written in positional notation, with numerals 1 to 9 plus the zero sign, which the Arabs derived from the Hindu system and later transmitted to the West. With Roman numerals, this procedure is impossible.

16. 1791, 3 August. A correspondent of the New Jersey Journal, under the initials A. B., wrote to Mr. Shepard Kollock: As the beast described in the 13th Chapter of Revelations, is generally supposed to mean the Pope of Rome; this opinion seems well supported by the numbers in the name assumed by the Pope when compared with the last verse, which he proceeded to quote. Then he continued by saying, The name or title assumed by the Pope is VICARIUS FILII DEI in English Vicar of the Son of God. Then he set out the table analyzing the numerical value of the letters that make up these words, the total being 666.28

17. 1792. Robert Hindmarsh was at it again, in conflict with Historicism. According to him: Many commentators have puzzled both themselves and their readers in attempting to unfold the signification of the number 666: but I believe they are all agreed in applying it to the Romish church exclusively. Herein, however, they are much mistaken; for the whole chapter, in the spiritual sense treats of the Reformed churches only.29

I remember to have read, some years ago, many curious explanations of the number 666, all having reference to the titles of the pope, in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, or in some other way alluding to the church of Rome. The words, Lateinos, Romiith, Vicarius Generalis in Terris, Vicarius Filii Dei, with various others, were by dint of numeral powers, and such like calculations, all made to produce the exact complement 666. At that time I thought some attention was due to those ingenious speculations; but on further inquiry I soon found, that not only the names above mentioned would make up the required number, but perhaps an hundred and fifty other names, that could no more be supposed to have any connection with the contents of the Apocalypse, than the man in the moon. I then saw, that all such explications could not be the effect of that wisdom spoken of in the 13th chapter, and to which we are invited; but that there must be some other hidden meaning, with which the learned were unacquainted. It did not satisfy me, that Lateinos, Romiith, Vicarius Filii Dei, or even Ludovicus, made up the complement 666, when other words were to be found, that did the same, such as Joseph Smith, Tomkins, Benjamin Bennet, and what is singular enough, the Rev. Jos. Priestley; for by the magical power of numerals I can bring them all to sing the same song, six hundred and sixty six.30

Actually, none of these English names qualifies, if Roman numerals are used; the first three all total more than 1,000, as guaranteed by the letter m, while Rev. Jos. Priestley produces a measly 52. The general argument is more impressive: according to the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman methods of reckoning, too many names can have a numerical value of 666although, as is shown elsewhere in this book, contextuality eliminates them all, except Vicarius Filii Dei.

But Hindmarsh had a very subtle mind. He also said: The Apocalypse, like every other book of divine inspiration, is couched in natural terms, to represent and point out spiritual things; and here is as great a distinction between the type and antitype. Now the antitype and type ought never to be understood as existing in one and the same gradus, but in two distinct, discrete modes of being.31 By spiritual he meant symbolic. He illustrated his point as follows: Thus, when in scripture it is said, that seven or ten kings shall arise; that a beast had seven heads and ten horns, &c. &c. we are not to understand, that in the accomplishment of this prophecy there shall literally arise seven or ten kings, or there shall be any real beast with seven heads and ten horns, for this would be confounding the antitype with the type in the same gradus, or same mode of existence; but we are to understand, that the prophecy will be accomplished when what is signified by seven or ten kings, and when what is signified by seven heads and ten horns, shall take place in the church; and this is placing the antitype in a degree or mode of existence above the type.32

To Historicists, most of this is more or less acceptable, though words like type and antitype may cause them to raise their eyebrows. But according to Hindmarsh: All the prophecies in the Apocalypse are of this sort (emphasis added) and I believe there is not a single prophecy either in the Old or New Testament, but what its [sic] accomplishment ought to be understood as principally belonging to the internal sense; though I will admit, that many of them have also been literally fulfilled.33 Thereupon he cunningly suggested that the numbers were also symbolic, by referring his readers to Swedenborgs writings and his own explanation in the Magazine of Knowledge,34 cited above.

18. 1793. The redactor of Apocalyptical Key, a well-known book by Scottish pastor Robert Fleming, Jr. (1660-1716), appended a supplemental statement in which he assigned to 666 the numerical value of the name Vicarius Filii Dei, which the popes have assumed to themselves and caused to be inscribed over the door of the Vatican. 35 ( sounds like a job for Google Images to locate .)

19. 1793. During the French Revolution, William Linn, D.D. (17521808), Presbyterian minister, first chaplain in the U.S. House of Representatives and college president, in a series of discourses published the next year maintained that Daniels Little Horn, Pauls Man of Sin, and Johns Beast were, as is generally agreed by all Protestant interpreters the same. Linn cited the Greek Lateinos, the Hebrew Romiith, and the Latin Vicarius Filii Dei, and for each provided a vertical tabulation that works out the same numerical value, with a total of 666.36.

Date: May 31, 2014

Thank you for the long posts, Ed. While there were a few factual errors in the first part, the last part looked to be good.

I wonder if you could help distill down into a one or two paragraph statement something to refute the idea that the popes today are an unbroken line from Peter. Many Catholics like to use that to show that their church must be the correct one, but of course that thinking is not correct.

Date: May 31, 2014

John 13:

10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

Ephesians 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

1 Peter 2:

21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

1 Corinthians 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Christ of the ONLY LORD, BISHOP, HEAD of the Church, not even Peter was named such, even Peter himself names Christ as the only Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Date: Sep 20, 2019

Satan is the author of sin, but the son of perdition had two manifestations , 1. An Apostle turned traitor - Judas Iscariot, 2. A Christian Bishop turned Antichrist - the office of Pope (whether in the visible office of white pope, or two more hidden offices of black pope, red pope ), and the designation "Man of Sin" specifically points to the office of Pope. A living Pope will be killed by the brightness of the Second Coming, not the Devil & Satan who is shown to be the author of sin.

It is the man of sin and his kingdom that Satan gives his seat, power, great authority. Satan could not do that with Judas , because he is dead, and even if he had done it with Judas, Judas was not a progression of people in office across centuries, there would be no human infrastructure to accomplish Satan's purposes.