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Hi drjme! I will break down the entire 13th chapter here. Keep in mind that an apostle of the Lord has confirmed by revelation already that the "mark of the beast" is the sign of the cross. The is the same personal revelation which I received when I was working on my commentary for the Book of Revelation, without even knowing at that time that Bruce McConkie had also received the same revelation before me!

Revelation 13 interpretation:

verse 1) The apostle John sees a vision in which the sea (representing peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues -see Revelation 17:15- forms the Roman Empire. The seven heads refer to the kingdoms prior to Rome, as well as the Roman empire itself, and the ten horns represent ten countries which came out of the Roman Empire. The crowns refer to ten countries which come later out of the old Roman Empire that are ruled by actual monarchies, and it is in "the days of these kings" (see Daniel 2:44) that the church and kingdom of God are restored. Obviously, these "heads" have committed much blasphemy.

verse 2) The characteristics of this beast are depicted as similar to the three kingdoms prior to it (see Daniel 7: 1-7). The dragon, or Satan (see Revelation 12:3-4), gives this kingdom and it's rulers their power, seat, and authority.

verse 3) One of the heads (Rome itself) receives an apparent mortal wound, but the deadly wound was healed, or in other words, the Roman rule is revived through the Catholic church at which the world wonders or marvels. There is famous painting showing the Emperor Constantine kneeling before the bishop of Rome and giving him a figure representing the power of Rome. The emperor then gives his seat of authority to the bishop of Rome to exercise his power, and then he moves his throne to Constanople.

verse 4) And they (much of the world) worship the dragon, or Satan, unknowingly of course (see 1 Nephi 14:10) and they say who can contend against this kingdom.

verse 5) This revived Roman kingdom, or Catholic church, is given a mouth, or in other words a leader who speaks for it, which is the bishop of Rome or the pope, and this "mouth" has been recorded over the centuries as stating many bold things and blasphemies concerning God, heaven, and the true gospel of Christ. The 42 month period is a prophetic time period in which each day represents one year. Therefore, the actual time period according to the Jewish calender (360 day year) is 1260 years, which is the same period spoken of in the previous chapter. The previous chapter refers to a woman which represents the bride of Christ, or the church, being "driven into the wilderness" because of this evil empire controlled by Satan (see Revelation 12:6 and the Joseph Smith translation, Revelation 12:5).

verse 6) The blasphemy is described further.

verse 7) This verse tells of the false church's war against the saints, or true church, it's temporary victory, and it's great dominions.

verse 8) All those who belong to this corrupt church, or any other false church or religion, cannot be written in the Lamb's (Christ's) Book of Life as long as they belong to such (see 1 Nephi 14:10, 1 Nephi 13:26, and Alma 5:58).

verse 9) This verse admonishes all to open their ears to hear the whisperings of the Spirit of God.

verse 10) This is a warning to all those who oppress. It is estimated that during the middle ages 50,000,000 were put to death by this wicked empire. This figure does not include the many saints who were martyred by the Roman empire during the days of the original apostles and shortly afterward. John closes this verse by mentioning the patience and faith of the saints.

verse 11) John sees another beast coming out of the earth which represents this church. He is describing it before it splits. The two horns represent the Roman and Greek branches, and they are depicted as being "like a lamb," or in other words Christlike. However, it speaks as a dragon, or Satan, deceitfully.

verse 12) This beast is said to exercise all the power of the beast before "him." This simply means that it rises to power in the place of Rome (see verse 3). The last part of this verse means that the people who worship this evil ecclesiastical empire, are still worshiping this evil system established by Satan, it just has a new face.

verse 13) This verse refers to the false miracles which Satan has used through this church to deceive. These miracles often serve no useful purpose, but instead the purpose is to deceive; for example, blood coming from the eyes of a statue of Mary.

verse 14) These miracles deceive many on earth "in the sight of the beast," in other words, where the dominions of this church are upon the earth. The "image" or likeness means that the papacy is established in the likeness of the emperors, only they were to appear more Christlike.

verse 15) "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast," refers to Constantine giving power to his "image," the bishop of Rome promoting him over all the other bishops and giving him his seat just as Satan gave the emperors their seat (see verse 2). Those being put to death for not upholding this false worship was an all too common practice.

verse 16) Somehow, the phrase "in their right hand, or in their foreheads," whether by error or deliberately, was changed from "with their right hand and forehead" (see the reference under "Sign of the Cross," "Mormon Doctrine," 2nd edition, by Bruce R. McConkie). This verse is a reference to the mark of this beast, or the sign of this kingdom which is the sign of Christ's death, or the sign of the cross. Constantine claimed to have seen a vision of a bright cross in the sky and a personage whom he believed to be Christ (probably Satan) instructed him to follow that sign and conquer.

verse 17) This verse refers to a practice during the inquisition. The phrase "name of the beast" refers to a person being known to be a Catholic. The phrase "number of his name" refers to a persons allegiance to the papacy, of whom the number refers to (see the next verse).

verse 18) The man mentioned in this verse is the bishop of Rome, or the pope. An inscription on a mitre worn by the bishop of Rome previously had the Roman numerals "DCLXVI" on the front which, of course, totals 666.

I don't have my commentary with me, this was written just from some notes, but, anyway, I hope that it will be interesting to you.

Before you get too far along there hoss cat:

gdemetz wrote:verse 1) The apostle John sees a vision in which the sea (representing peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues -see Revelation 17:15- forms the Roman Empire. The seven heads refer to the kingdoms prior to Rome, as well as the Roman empire itself, and the ten horns represent ten countries which came out of the Roman Empire. The crowns refer to ten countries which come later out of the old Roman Empire that are ruled by actual monarchies, and it is in "the days of these kings" (see Daniel 2:44) that the church and kingdom of God are restored. It is also interesting to note, that one of these countries, Greece was only ruled by a monarchy from 1828 AD to 1831 AD, and the church was restored in 1830 AD during this time period. Obviously, these "heads" have committed much blesphemy.

7 Kingdom's prior to Rome? Name them because I myself can think of (in the Near East alone) the Egyptians, Hittites, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Mycenaean, Sumerians, and Phoenicians off the top of my head which is eight.

Ten countries to come out of the Roman Empire? Name them. I can think of England, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal (or together as the Visigoths), Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Albania, Romania, as well as most of the North African countries [I'd say Gaul, Germania, Britannia, Carthage, Byzantine Empire, Palestine etc but you probably don't want to get into that.]

Greece had a king from 1832-1924 and 1935-1973. The 1828-32 period Greece (which had revolted against the Ottoman Empire) was largely supervised by the European powers, an extension of the idea of "balance of power" canonized at Venice in 1814-1815.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ki ... .931973.29

verse 3) One of the heads (Rome itself) receives an apparent mortal wound, but the deadly wound was healed, or in other words, the Roman rule is revived through the Catholic church at which the world wonders or marvels. There is famous painting showing the Emperor Constantine kneeling before the bishop of Rome and giving him a figure representing the power of Rome. The emperor then gives his seat of authority to the bishop of Rome to exercise his power, and then he moves his throne to Constanople.

The Catholic Church wasn't in power until centuries after the Book of Revelation was written. Christianity was a marginal religion that got lucky. And I'm finished with my response.

The prophets may have been referring to kingdoms which had exercised power over God's people, and I think they referred to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media- Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the Catholic church is referred to as being the seventh, and the Roman Catholic church as being the eighth. I know there were many other countries besides those named, but I am referring to the prophetic view. For example, in Daniel chapter 2, even though there were other countries, Daniel prophesies that the image which was seen by the king had parts which referred to the Babylonian, Media-Persia, Greek,and Roman empires, and then it refers to latter times when there was no controlling empire over Israel, even though, of course, there were other empires.

Hi Bond,I am looking into Greece before Otto, and also information concerning those ten countries. I have them somewhere in my many papers. Maybe you can help me with this.

Yes, I see your point about the Catholic church. John was also prophesying of things which would "shortly" come to pass.

It is well known that in chapter 13 John is referring to and going after the Roman Empire and the Emporer. Rome was the power of the day and unloved to put it mildly by many of those it ruled. There isn't much more to read into it than that. Most of the symbolism is aimed at them here.

Yes, John really hit them hard.

Here is how I break it down in general (the specific symbols are up to debate):
v1-4 Roman Empire, the near collapse of the Empire around 70AD and its revival
v5 the Emporer in an unflattering reference
v6 the temple of God has been destroyed in Jerusalem - now the Emporer is sitting in his tabernacle blaspheming God
v7 persecution of the saints by Rome
v8 all the known world worship this false evil God, the Emporer
v9 ok now pay attention
v10 the types of things that Rome is going to do to the saints
v11 the arrival of a new religious beast, it looks like the lamb of God, but it is a dragon
v12 the religious beast exercises the power of Rome
v13 the religious beast works miracles like unto God
v14 the religious beast take the place of the old Roman Emporer and is worshipped instead
v15-17 the religious beast rules and marks everyone with a mark
v18 John explains this mark - 666. 7 is the God number. 6 is a deceit. It represents being cunning, calculating, and accusatory - like unto the thinking of Satan.

gdemetz wrote:Hi drjme! I will break down the entire 13th chapter here. Keep in mind that an apostle of the Lord has confirmed by revelation already that the "mark of the beast" is the sign of the cross.

CFR

(It's not that I don't believe you, I've just never heard this one)

The whole Book of Revelation is a drug induced trip. John was no doubt a drug addict and a nut. He was trying to one-up Isaiah and Daniel by making all that stuff up and wooing who ever would read that stuff. His experience was no more real than Joseph Smith's Egyptian translations of Facsimile No. 3. He made it up. It's a big show. Those things will never happen and if they do they can only happen in any way you like them to happen in your thoughts. Just close your eyes and start dreaming up ideas and those things are suddenly happening.

Good luck with the Book of Revelation. Come, lord Jesus.

Paul O