reply to post by Thurisaz
I can pretty much say that he is not a beast in the biblical sense of the word, though he could potentially be an antichirst. There are three lines of
thought on the prophecies in the bible, and two of them came from the group that the third accuses of being one of the beasts. Personally, I believe
the third is the true way to read the prophecies, though today it is not the most popular for various political reasons. Preterism, and Futurism are
the two schools that originated in the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic Church, in response to the Protestant Reformation. These schools teach that
the Beast is a one time, all powerful, Antichrist “Man” that will appear at some point in history. These two schools where written in response to
Martin Luthers accusation that the Pope was in fact the “Little Horn” of Daniel. Anyway, the third school, teaches that that beasts are all world
Empires, and the “Little Horn” is a powerful antichrist figure that will reside within one of those beasts.
The beasts go back beyond just Revelations in the Bible, and are based on the prophetic language used by Daniel. If you want to study Prophecy, you
need to start out by understanding Daniel, and history very thoroughly. I do not recommend that you start there if you are just beginning to reading
the Bible, it is some of the most difficult to understand information in the book, and requires a lot of background information. If you still want to
proceed with studying Prophecy anyway you need to know that there is more then one interpretation and why, here is a link to the three schools of
interpretation and some of their background info:
The Catholic Origins of Futurism and Preterism
Christian eschatology
It will also help you to know a lot about Rome, as they are one of the biggest players in Revelations and Daniel, especially the
Pontifex Maximus, the person who would later become the Holy Pontiff.
I hope that helps.
Have a nice night.