[Nate] (Revelation 13:1-7) And I, (John the Apostle), stood on the sand of the sea, and saw a Beast (Government) rise up out of the Sea (Mass of humanity), having seven (7) heads (Completeness) and ten (10) horns (World Power as a whole), and upon his horns ten (10) crowns and on his heads the name of Blasphemy!

[Nate] The Beast (government) which I saw was like unto the Leopard (Savage); and his feet were as the feet of the Bear (Cruelty); and his mouth as the mouth of the a Lion (Fear): and the Dragon GAVE him his Power, and his Seat and Great Authority...It was given to him (the Beast) to make War with the Saints, and to overcome them: and Power was given him over All inhabitants of the earth, who will worship the Beast, All whose names are not written in the book of life...

[Nate] The Red Dragon in (Revelation 12: 9-17 ) is Cleary [sic] Satan who Deceives the Whole World..

[Nate] (Rev. 13) introduces us to Two Beasts, through which Satan establishes control over the multitudes of earth's people. The First beast seems to be a Political Figure, and the Second beast appears to be a Religious Figure. Both receive their Power and Direction from Satan, the Great Deceiver and Imitator.

[Nate] However, the resemblance to the Leopard, Bear, and Lion may very well be in Nonphysical Characteristics, such as being a Cunning hunter, someone who Camouflages himself well in his setting.

[Nate] The great Whore or Prostitute (Rev. 17:1) who sits on Many Waters, is the worldwide ecumenical religious system that develops during the Gentiles area [sic], the gospel of Grace (31/2 years, 42 months, 1260 days) and is led by the false prophets (who receives his power from Satan). Her name is Mystery of Babylon the Great (Rev. 17:5). The Many waters are the multitude of People on the earth who are deceived and led into Spiritual adultery through this Worldly religion, which requires worshiping the Antichrist instead of the One True Christ.

[Nate] The angel makes this clear to John the Apostle in (A.D.95) (Rev. 17: 5) " the waters you Saw, where the Prostitute sits, Are People, Multitudes, Nations and Languages." The Prostitute (the false prophets and the entire ungodly system) is seated on a scarlet beast (the Empire in which the Great whore plays an important part), with seven (7) heads (Completeness) and ten (10) horns (World Power, as a Whole) covered with blasphemous names.

[Nate] The False prophet and her idolatrous Religious System---Mystery Babylon--- is dressed in Purple and Scarlet and fine Jewels, the Pay received for her prostitution. Purple and Scarlet are often the colors worn by Rulers and Religious Leaders, and the fine Jewels likely represented the Wealth the false religion collects and lavishes selfishly on the false prophets.

[Nate] She is holding a golden cup filled with abominations and filthiness.

[Nate] She is the Mother of ALL abomination, and is drunk with the Blood of the Saints. Here again we see Satan, the Great Imitator, at work trying to make his Lamb/Beast LOOK and ACT like the Bride of Christ.

[Nate] Ministers became Priests. The term "Priest" was not applied to Christian ministers before A.D. 200. It was borrowed from the Jewish system, and from the example of heathen Priesthood. (Leo I 440-461) Prohibited priests from marrying and Celibacy of priests became a law of the Roman Church.

[Nate] The Papacy is an Italian Institution. It arose on the Ruins of the Roman Empire, in the name of Christ occupying the Throne of the Caesars, a Revile [sic] of the Image of the Roman Empire inheriting the Spirit thereof; "The Ghost of the Roman Empire come to Life in the Grab of Christianity."

[Nate] The Popes mostly have been Italians.

[Nate] The Papacy's methods. It brought itself to Power through the Prestige of Rome, and the Name of Christ, and by shrewd Political Alliances, and by Deception, and by Armed Force and Bloodshed has maintained itself in power.

[Nate] Papal revenues: Through a large part of its history the Papacy, by the sale of ecclesiastical office, and its shameless traffic in Indulgences, has received vast revenues that enable it to maintain, for much of the time the most Luxurious Court in Europe.

[Nate] Personal character of the Popes: some of the Popes have been good men; some of them unspeakably vile, the most of them have been absorbed in the Pursuit of Secular Power.

[Nate] The Roman Catholic Church and the last days by Dave Hunt Chapter 6. (Revelation 17:18,9) John the Apostle wrote, "The Woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the Kings of the earth...Here is the mind which hath Wisdom: The seven (7) Heads are seven (7) Mountains on which the Woman sitteth."

[Nate] The woman rides the Beast, and that Woman is a city built on seven (7) Hills that reigns over the kings of the earth! The Woman is a City! Furthermore, She is a city built on seven (7) Hills. That city is Rome. Only One City has, for more than 2000 years, been known as the City on Seven Hills. That City is Rome. The Catholic Encyclopedia states "It is within the City of Rome, Called the City of Seven Hills, that the Entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined ."

[Nate] Even Catholic apologist Karl Keating admits that Rome has long been known as Babylon. Keating claims that Peter's statement "The church here in Babylon... sends you her greeting" (I Peter 5:13) proves that Peter was writing from Rome. Babylon is a Code Word for Rome.

[Nate] Who is the Whore? The first thing we are told about the woman is that she is a "Whore" (Rev. 17:1), that earthly kings "have committed fornication" with her (Verse 2), and that "All the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (Verse 3). Fornication and adultery are used in the Bible in both physical and the spiritual sense.

[Nate] The Number of the Beast "666". (Rev.13: 10-18)... The beast (World Government) causes ALL, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the Mark in their hand (Worship), or in their foreheads (Minds) that no man might buy or sell, except he had the mark of the, or the name of the Beast, or the Number of his name... For it is a number of a Man; and his number is "666". This number represents the name of a Man, or possibly a Group of men, or an Institution headed by a man or group of men. It seems to mean a Name, the letters of which, when regarded as numerals, total "666".

[Nate] Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, who was a pupil of John the Apostles, who saw the vision, understood the "666" to be the Greek word "Latenios": L, 30: A, 1: T, 300: E, 5: I, 10: N, 50: S, 200. These total "666" "Latenios" means "Latin Kingdom." Papal Rome made Latin its official language. And it still is, Rome Cannon, Missals, prayers, decrees, bulls, blessings, cursings, are in LATIN.

[Nate] The significance, then, is that the beast, powerful as he is, and no matter how powerful, he may become is still NOT powerful as God.

[Nate] Wealth from ill-gotten gain! (Rev. 17:4) The incredible wealth of this Prostitute caught John's attention next. She was dressed "In Purple and Scarlet color, and Decked with gold and precious Stones and Pearls, having golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications." The colors of Purple and Scarlet once again identify the Prostitute Woman with Both Pagan and Christian Rome. The Woman's colors are literally still the colors of the Catholic clergy! Catholic Encyclopedia quoted above states: Cappa Magna: "A cloak with a long train and a hooted shoulder cape it was Purple wool for Bishops; for Cardinals, it was Scarlet water silk (for Advent, Lent, Good Friday, and the conclave, purple wool); and for the Pope, it was Red velvet for Christmas martins [sic], Red serge at other times."

[Nate] Rome has practiced Evil to gather her Wealth, for the "Golden cup" is filled with "abominations and filthiness." Much of the wealth of Roman Catholic Church was acquired through the confiscation of the Property of the pitiful Victims of the Inquisitions. Even the dead were exhumed to face trial and the Church took property from their heirs. One historian writes: "The punishment of the Inquisition did not cease when the Victim was burned to ashes, or immured for life in the Inquisition dungeons. His relatives were reduced to beggary by the law that all his possessions were forfeited. The System offered unlimited opportunities for loot..." (William S.Kerr, A handbook of the Papacy)

[Nate] Untold billions of dollars have been paid to her by those who thought they were purchasing heaven on the installations [sic] plan for themselves or loved ones.

[Nate] The practice continues to this day---blatantly where Catholicism is in control, less obviously here in the United States.

[Nate] There are further abominations of Corrupt banking practices, laundering of drugs [sic] money, trading in counterfeit securities, and dealings with the Mafia (fully documents [sic] in police and court records), which the Vatican and her representatives around the world have long employed. Nino Lo Bello, former business Week correspondent in Rome and Rome bureau chief for New York Journal of Commerce, writes that the Vatican is so Closely allied with the Mafia in Italy "many people believe that Sicily is nothing more than a Vatican building." (Nino Lo Bello, the Vatican Empire, Trident press, 1968; David A. Yallop, in God's name, Bantam Books, 1984; Richard Hammers, the Vatican Connection, Penguin books, 1983).

[Nate] The Roman Catholic Church is by far the Wealthiest Institution on earth. Yes, one hears from Rome periodic Pleas for money---persuasive appeals, claiming that the Vatican cannot maintance itself on its limited budget and needs monetary assistance. Such pleas are unconscionable ploys. The value of innumerable sculptures by such masters as Michelangelo, paintings by the world's greatest artists, and countless other art Treasures and Ancient documents which Rome possesses (not only at the Vatican but in Cathedrals around the world) is Beyond Calculation. At the World Synod of Bishops in Rome, England's Cardinal Heenan proposed that the Church sell some of these Superfluous Treasures and give the proceeds to the Poor. His suggestion was not Well-received.

[Nate] Christ told His disciples to live in Poverty. He told His disciples not to lay up treasures on this earth but in Heaven. The Roman Catholic's have disobeyed that command and have accumulated a Plethora of riches. There is no Church, no City, which is a spiritual entity, no Religious institution past, or present, which comes close to possessing the Wealth of the Roman Catholic Church.

[Nate] Drunk with the Martyr's blood. (Rev. 17:6). John the Apostles (95 A.D.) notices that the Prostitute Woman is drunk---and not with Alcoholic beverages. She is drunk with "The blood of the Saints, and with blood of Martyrs of Jesus." The picture is a horrible one. It is not merely her hands that are Red with this blood, but she is drunk with it! One thinks immediately of the Inquisition, which for Centuries held Europe in their terrible grip. In his History of the Inquisition, Canon Llorentte [sic], who was a secretary to the Inquisition in Madrid from 1790-1792 and his access to the archives of all the tribunals, estimated that in Spain alone the number of condemned exceed [sic] 3 millions, with about 300,000 burned at the stake. (R.W. Thompson, the Papacy and the Civil Power, New York, 1876). A Catholic historian comments upon events leading up to the suppression of the Spanish Inquisition in 1809..

[Nate] "When Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, a Polish officer in his army, Colonel Lemanouski, reported that the Dominicans (in charge of the Inquisition) blockaded themselves in their monastery in Marid [sic]. When Lemanouski's troops forced an entry, the Inquisitions denied the existence of any torture chambers. The soldiers searched the monastery and discovered them under the floors. The chambers were full of prisoners, all naked, many insane. The French troops, use to cruelty and blood, could not stomach the sight. They emptied the torture-chambers, laid the gunpowder to the monastery and blew up the place. "The most ghastly abomination of all was the system of torture. The accounts of it cold-blood operations make one shudder at the capacity of human beings for cruelty. And it was decreed and regulated by the Popes who claim to represent Christ on the earth." "Careful notes, were taken not only of all that was confessed by the victim, but of his shrieks, cries, lamentations, broken interjections and Appeals for mercy. The most moving things in the literature of the Inquisition are not the accounts of their sufferings left by the victims but the sober memoranda kept by the officers of the tribunals. We were distressed and horrified just because there is no intentions to shock us." The remnants of some of the Chambers of horror remain in Europe and may visit today.

[Nate] As for the claims of the Roman Catholic Church that its history can be traced back to Jesus Christ. The true Church of Jesus Christ was not founded upon Peter, but upon Peter's confession of Christ [sic] deity as recorded in (Matthew 16:16 "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

[Nate] Peter was not the first Pope, nor is there any scriptural justification whatever for such an office.

[Nate] Peter's own inspired testimony, as to his position and ministry, is given (I Peter 5:1-4). He then identifies himself in (II Peter 1:1) as "a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ..."

[Nate] History confirms the fact that there were no Popes in the early churches during the first centuries.