Other Articles on the Antichrist
Man of Sin

Can We Identify

The Antichrist?

Wounded to Death —

And Then Healed

Revelation 13:3, 14

Chapter 7

Some, wrongly expect a superman Antichrist at the end of the Age who is wounded—then healed—based on Revelation 13:12-15. Is this reasonable? According to this scenario, the Antichrist superman is killed. Then this Antichrist superman is miraculously raised from death to life. How preposterous. Only the power of the Heavenly Father can raise a being to life. (Even Jesus had to pray for the Father’s power to raise Lazarus. John 11:41-44) Certainly, the Heavenly Father would not raise an Antichrist superman to life! And no amount of satanic power can raise the dead to life. (In view of this obvious problem, some conclude the Antichrist man will just seem to die and then be revived.)

Then according to this scenario, the Two-Horned Beast/False Prophet—another individual who possesses great satanic power— makes an “image of the beast.” They claim the image will be a statue likeness of the superman Antichrist. Using satanic power, the Two-Horned Beast/False Prophet will then cause this statue to come to life and speak. All who would not worship him would be killed. The absurdity grows…this scenario is not anticipating a statue becoming mechanically or electronically animated. (That would not be a miraculous phenomenon.) The claim is satanic power will infuse life into this statue transforming it into a living creature—a human-type being. This is impossible. Only the power of God can create a living being.

Reason returns to interpretation when we realize that these prophecies in Revelation are highly symbolic. The language of Revelation is consistently symbolic. Just as the Leopard Beast is symbolic of Papacy, a system, so the Two-Horned Beast and the Image of the Beast are also church-state systems. Exercising similar power as the Papacy and working together with the Papacy, the Image of the Beast will probably be a Protestant federation united with civil government.

While it is unreasonable to suppose satanic power creating a human-type being, it is customary to speak of organizations “dying” or one organization putting “life” into another organization. The Papal Leopard Beast, the Two-Horned Beast and the Image of the Beast interpreted as organizations, harmonizes with the highly symbolic terminology of Revelation 13. A literal superman Antichrist scenario does not.

Papacy’s Deadly Wound

The Papal Leopard Beast was to be wounded, “And I saw one of his [Leopard Beast’s] heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:3). Has this happened?

Many believe that the Protestant Reformation inflicted this deadly wound that was eventually healed. Just prior to the Protestant Reformation, it is interesting to note by contrast the unchallenged position Papacy enjoyed:^[31]

Just prior to Luther’s movement, the Pope, in a bull closing the Laternal Council, A.D. 1517, felicitated himself and his bishops, because the unity of the Catholic church was at the moment untroubled by a single heresy. There was an end of all resistance to Papal tyranny.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg with a resounding blow of the hammer that severed Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and England from Papal Europe. The Protestant Reformation succeeded in wounding the Papal Beast!

But when the Protestant churches united with the state... Reformation and cleansing for a time ceased, and, instead of progressing with the cleansing, the reformers gave attention to organizing themselves, and to revamping and repolishing many of the old Papal dogmas, at first so loudly condemned. Thus did Satan decoy the reformers into the very "harlotry" (union of church and state) which they had denounced in the Church of Rome. And thus the deadly wound which Papacy had received was for a time healed. Rev. 13:3^[32]

666——The Number of the Beast

The fascinating identifying number of Antichrist is 666, “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” (Revelation 13:18). What does this number signify?

The number seven is the most frequently used number in the Bible and has long been thought to denote completeness or perfection. Three sevens (777) would signify the ultimate in perfection. (“Holy, holy, holy” denotes God’s holiness to the greatest magnitude. Revelation 4:8) Six, on the other hand, is symbolic of human imperfection. Therefore, 666 would denote the ultimate of human imperfection—great depravity. Just as the Little Horn had the “eyes of a man,” Antichrist is the creation of imperfect man’s wisdom. When an institution of imperfect man attempts to replace God (2 Thessalonians 2:4), the result can only be an ingenious deception of greatest corruption—symbolized by 666.

This number 666 is not going to be displayed prominently on worshippers like a barcode on everybody’s forehead—or even on I.D. cards that everyone has to carry in his or her wallet. The number of Antichrist will only be discerned by “wisdom.” “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast.” The numerical value of the letters of many names have been found to total 666. How can it be determined which name is correct? First, the “wisdom from above” will enable one to Scripturally confirm that Papacy is the Antichrist. Then with this “understanding,” one can sift through the many numerical interpretations and correctly calculate the numerical value of its name.

Interpretations are many. But once Papacy has been Scripturally identified as Antichrist, the number of Antichrist’s name becomes apparent. There is one title that the Popes of Rome have assumed to themselves and caused to be inscribed over the door of the Vatican, which exactly fits the number 666. That title is Vicar of the Son of God, “Vicarivs Filii Dei”^[33] This title refers to the Pope as reigning vicariously in the place of the Son of God—which coincides exactly with the meaning of Antichrist—in the place of Christ. This confirms that the organization the Pope heads—Papacy—is the Antichrist.

Vicar									of the Son						of God
V	I	C	A	R	I	V	S		F	I	L	I	I		D	E	I
5	1	100	-	-	1	5	-		-	1	50	1	1		500	-	1

When the numerical values of the letters of this title are added together, the irresistible conclusion points to the Vatican as the Antichrist Beast of Revelation:

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
Number of the Beast	666

This prophetic, numerical identification of Papacy is further confirmation that the Antichrist is really the Papacy. The Papacy’s career also fits the description of being “wounded,” then recovered. Papacy, the Antichrist, is very much alive—ready for its end-time role in prophecy.

[31] H. Grattan Guinness, Light For The Last Days (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1887), 74.

[32] Thy Kingdom Come (New Brunswick: Bible Students Congregation of New Brunswick, 1977), 110, 111.

[33] Robert Fleming, The Rise And Fall Of Rome Papal (London: Houlston & Stoneman, Pateroster Row, 1849), 47, 48.