THE POPE, NERO OR DIOCLETIAN: Who is the 666?

      

The Pope’s official title in Latin is VICARIVS FILII DEI (Vicar of the Son of God). These are words composed of letters and when you spell them out you have to take them letter by separate letter, not by group of letters. Take the letters one by one, assign the Arabic numeral equivalent to each one and we have: V=5; I=1; C=100; A=0; R=0; I=1; U or V=5; S=0; F=0; I=1; L=50; I=1; I=1; D=500; E=0; I=1; for a total of 666. Codes and riddles were both Greek and Hebrew by using numbers for letters according to their order in the alphabet. Thus, some commentators have claimed that 666 is also the total number values of the name of Roman Emperor Nero who launched the first persecution against the Christians in the Roman Empire. In the Hebrew alphabet, the name Nero is written thus: NRON QSR. Putting numbers of Hebrew equivalent on the letters we have: N=50; R=200; O=6; N=50; Q=100; S=60; R=200 for a total of 666. Emperor Diocletian, the last Roman emperor to persecute the Christians has the name DIOCLES AVGVSTVS and again putting numerical equivalents to his name we have: D=500; I=1; O=0; C=100; L=50; E=0; S=0; A=0; V=5; G=0; V=5; S=0; T=0; V=5; S=0 for a total of 666. Which of the three: the Pope, Nero, or Diocletian, is the biblical beast 666? The beast has many attributes enumerated in Revelation 13:11-18. This beast has two horns, like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon (Rev. 13:11). Beast means king (Dan. 7:17, KJV) and horns means power or authority (Amos 6:13). The Pope is the temporal ruler of the Vatican state crowned with a tiara and also the spiritual head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is Pontifex Maximus, just as Nero and Diocletian were. Pontifex Maximus is the title or name of the supreme high priest of the state religion of pagan Rome, the same title appropriated by the Pope. Thus, all the three rulers with the number 666 can still be said to have two horns, two powers—political (temporal) and religious. The beast is like a lamb (not any other two-horned animal) and the Lamb is Christ (John 1:29) and the Pope who is a priest is dressed like Christ. The beast spoke like a dragon. The dragon is Satan, the Devil (Rev. 12:9). The Devil has doctrines (I Tim. 4:1-3) two of which are taught and imposed by the Pope, namely, forbidding to marry (celibacy) for priest and nuns and commanding to abstain from meats for all Catholics during the Lenten season. In these ways the beast spoke like a dragon—taught lies and doctrines of devils, done by the Pope and not by the Roman Emperor Nero and Diocletian. Thus, Nero and Diocletian are not the beast 666!

The beast exercises all the power of the first beast before him (Rev. 13:12). The Pope became as powerful as the Roman Emperor whom he succeeded and whose administrative system he adopted. The beast does great wonders or miracles, by means of which he deceives people, make them worship the image of the beast, and kills those who refuse to follow (Rev. 13:13-15). The Catholic Church, headed by the Pope, is noted for many miracles and images and its Holy Inquisition killed millions of what it called heretics. F.H.Sills, in his book Roman Catholicism Investigated and Exposed, page 16, says that the Catholic Church headed by the Pope has killed 50 million people!

The beast forced a mark on the right hand or forehead of all levels of people and no one can buy or sell unless he has that mark (Rev. 13:16-17). Catholics who obey the Pope have a mark on their foreheads, visible on Ash Wednesday, the sign of the cross which they make with the use of their right hands. History tells of how Catholic missionaries, accompanied by soldiers in the Middle Ages, forced people at swordpoint to become Catholics. The Philippine experience showed how the Spaniards came armed with sword on their right hands and the cross on their left to propagate Catholicism. During the Middle Ages, a Catholic who had sinned but reconciled on Holy Thursday was still bound by certain disabilities; for example he was not free to marry, or if he was already married, he could not resume marital relations; he was not permitted to engaged in public trade. The same period portrays how the Spanish Inquisition drove out highly skilled Moorish artisans and Jewish merchants from Spain because of economic and trade restrictions imposed on them due to their being non-Catholics.

Thus, all the characteristics of the Beast enumerated in the Book of Revelation are found in the Pope of the Catholic Church. He is, thus, the fulfillment of the Beast whose number is 666. Catholics feel hurt when they learned about this, but the truth is the truth and sometimes it hurts.