ŦHE MARK OF ŦHE NUMBER OF ŦHE

BEASŦA PROTESTANT REFORMATION PUBLICATION

By

RAND WINBURN

TO GO FORWARD

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

P A R Ŧ Ø N E

In A. D. 1582, the Jesuits published, for the first time, a Roman Catholic English translation of the New Testament, commonly called the Rheims version. The Latin Vulgate was its basis.

This Bible contained annotations whose purpose was to counteract the teachings of the Protestants which were in direct opposition to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

As part of their Counter-Reformation, the Jesuits wished to prove, using their Bible version, that their Church was the true Church, while the Reformers were the false, even the precursors to Antichrist.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The Protestants had translated the New Testament into the language of the common people, contrary to the command of the Catholic authorities. The Protestant annotations explained salvation and prophecy in ways the people had never before heard. Because of Protestant teachings, untold numbers left the Catholic Church to worship God in spirit and truth.

In this slide presentation, we shall concentrate on one important point of contention between the Roman Catholic Jesuits and Protestant Reformers………

……….the Cross of Christ as the very Mark of the Beast prophesied in the Revelation. By recognizing this ‘mark’ we are to understand the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, to be the very Antichrist, his church, Mystery Babylon.

Specifically, in this slide presentation we will prove the mark of the number of the Beast, Rev. 15:2, is the Cross.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

To begin, let us review what the Jesuit annotation on Rev. 13:17 declared:

“…..And here it must be noted that the Protestants, plucking down the image of Christ out of all Churches, as well as prohibiting the sign of the Cross to be placed on men’s foreheads, in addition to taking away the honor and reverence due the name of Jesus, by so doing prepare themselves for receiving Antichrist’s image, mark and name. And when Christ’s images and ensigns or arms shall be abolished, and the Idol of Antichrist set up instead, as it is beginning to already, then will be the fulfillment of the prophecy of the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel and our Savior.”

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The reader need note that by the phrase ‘Christ’s ensigns’ is meant the innumerable ways the Cross of Christ is utilized by the Roman Catholic Church in their rituals, oaths and idols. Examples will be forthcoming.

The Roman Catholic Church deemed their use of the Cross of Christ as godly and biblical. The Protestants deemed it as abusive and blasphemous, positing magical powers in an inanimate object. By so doing, the Roman Catholic clergy proved themselves to be advocates of Sorcery and Witchcraft, not biblical Christianity.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

It is of great import the reader grasp a fundamental truth regarding the different translations of the noun, ‘mark,’ as in mark of the beast, Rev. 13:16-17.

The Jesuit Rheims NT translates mark of the beast as ‘character’ of the beast.

This is due to use of the Latin Vulgate as their source for translation. The Vulgate Latin term for mark of the beast is ‘characterem’ of the beast.

All Bible versions, both Catholic and Protestant, ultimately find their origin in Greek manuscripts, not Latin or English.

All Greek manuscripts use the Greek noun, caragma, ‘charagma.’

All English Protestant Bibles, beginning with Tyndale, translate this Greek noun as ‘mark.’

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

Essentially the two terms, ‘character’ and ‘mark’ denote the same thing:

that mysterious symbol or sign by which Christians may identify the Antichrist; that unique thing which characterizes him and his followers, by which they may be marked out, avoided and set apart as damned.

Greek lexicons (dictionaries) will testify to similar definitions of the noun, ‘charagma.’ The common theme is that of a stamp, an imprinted mark which is recognizable, either engraved or burned into the person or object, distinguishing one from another.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The Roman Catholic Church openly admits to giving an indelible ‘character’ to those initiated into its mysteries or ‘sacraments’ of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders.

The Roman Catholic opinion concerning the Mark of the Beast differed radically from the Protestants. The Jesuits refused to speculate on what it was exactly. In their view, the Mark or Character could not be known until the Antichrist appeared. Their interpretation was Futurist. The Antichrist had not yet appeared, and would not be revealed until the last 3 ½ years of the world. Thus, until the Antichrist appears to give his Mark or Character, it cannot be known what that Mark or Character will actually be.

This false Jesuitical view, called ‘Futurism,’ is predominate in Evangelical Christianity today thanks to the efforts of Tim LaHaye, Hal Lindsey and other false prophets.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The Protestant Reformers, on the other hand, understood the Antichrist to be in their very midst, and his Mark clearly evident.

They believed, proved and taught that Antichrist was the dynasty of Popes in office, one man at a time, all of whom claimed to be the Vicars of Christ, rulers of the Christian Church, usurping Christ’s Headship and rule. Though the Popes came in the name of Christ, they opposed Christ, and were enemies of Christ.

The Mark of the Beast was the Cross of Christ used extensively to perpetuate the myth that the Antichrist was Christian. Feigning piety and faith in the atonement of Christ, the Antichrist and his false church used the Cross of Christ to deceive the ignorant and proud. Furthermore, the Antichrist incorporated it into religious rituals and oaths, all of which were necessary to prove one’s obedience to Antichrist and his false church.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The history of Christianity is filled with instances of true Christians who, demanding purity in worship, destroyed the graven images brought into the churches, many of which included crosses and crucifixes.

Beginning with the Paulicians in the 7th & 8th centuries, these Christians were called Iconoclasts, meaning ‘image destroyers.’ They frequently died as martyrs for their faith.

In the year 1025, an assembly of true Christians were deemed ‘heretics’ by the Roman Catholic Council of Arras, France. They were accused of many so-called ‘heresies,’ including disapproval of the adoration of relics, images and the cross.

In A. D. 1126 a true Christian, Peter de Bruys, was burned in France by an angry mob for the crime of heresy. Among his so-called ‘heretical’ beliefs was the doctrine that crosses should be broken and burned, not worshipped as objects of veneration, since they symbolize that upon which Christ was so cruelly tortured and killed. He was burned along with a broken wooden cross he had removed from a local church.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The Iconoclast movement continued from the first millennium through the second millennium, culminating in the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers’ loathing of Cross Worship – called ‘Staurolatry’ - is reflected in the Jesuits’ Rheims Bible annotation cited earlier.

In 1593, Scottish Protestant and Mathematician, Lord John Napier, inventor of logarithms, published A Plaine Discovery of the whole Revelation of St. John.

In this work, Napier confirmed the Protestant belief that the Pope was the Antichrist, his church, Mystery Babylon. However, Napier went beyond conventional wisdom when he discovered the Holy Spirit had hidden the Mark of the Beast in the Number of the Beast, 666.

It is the purpose of this presentation to explain how the Spirit accomplished this and to prove its credibility.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

By using a Greek Interlinear Bible, in this case one which uses the Textus Receptus, i.e., Received Text, utilized by the Reformers, we see that the number 666 is actually represented by three Greek letters: Chi – Xi – Stigma.

The Greeks, like the Romans after them, invented a numbering system based on their existing alphabet. Thus, they did not use numerals as we do today.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The graphic above depicts the Greek alphabet - numeric system. The reader need note the Greek alphabet is composed of only 24 letters, yet 27 letters were necessary to complete the numerals. Thus, the three [bracketed] letters over the numerals 6, 90, 900 were additions, completing the number series. By the first century A. D., when John wrote his Revelation, the Greeks represented the numeral 6 by the invented letter STIGMA, whose origin, linguists say, is from the combining of two Greek letters: Sigma and Tau.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

The Three Missing Numbers(6, 90, 900)

Another View of Greek Alpha-Numeric System

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

Strong’s Concordance

The reader need note Strong’s connects the letter stigma with a ‘cross.’

We will address this important point later.LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

It is possible to transliterate the Greek alphabet into the Latin alphabet. This is necessary because by so doing we will prove the mark of the number of

the Beast, 666, is the Cross of Christ profaned by the Roman Catholic Church, whose headquarters is the City of 7 Hills, Rome, and whose official

ecclesiastical language is Latin.

To review, the original Greek letters representing 666, the number of the Beast, are:

Ϛ

Ϛ

= 600

= 60

= 6

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

GREEK LATIN

= CH

= X

Ϛ Ϛ = S T

These three letters symbolize crosses.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

=

=

St. Andrew’s CrossAccording to tradition, St. Andrew felt unworthy to be crucified like his Lord, so he begged that his cross be made differently. It is allegedly a symbol of humility and suffering.

The Tau CrossThe Tau Cross is the least ornate of all crosses. It is often used as the cross of prophecy or to represent the traditional sign the Israelites made with lamb’s blood on their doorposts in Egypt the night of the Passover.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

There are further evidences of the Holy Spirit’s divine providence at work.

The Greek letter stigma is a ligature of sigma and tau . These are the first two

letters of the Greek word for ‘cross,’ stauros, σταυρόϛ .

This noun is # 4716 in Strong’s Concordance.

The Greek verb for ‘crucify’ has stauros as its root. It is # 4717 in Strong’s.

Our English noun ‘CROSS’ has its origin in the Latin noun ‘CRUX.’

The Latin ‘CRUX’ is not derived from the Greek ‘stauros.’

Yet it contains the sign of the cross, St. Andrew’s Cross, X.

LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

Thus, the letter stigma is directly linked to both Christ’s cross and His crucifixion.

Thus, the Latin word ‘CRUX’ is directly linked to both the Greek ‘Χ’ - whose

number is 600, and the Greek ‘Ξ’– whose number is 60.

GREEK LATIN

= C

=

XϚ

= S TLEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

Ϛ

H R U

Furthermore, the Latin Church is directly linked to the number of the Beast through its CRUCIFIXES of CHRIST.

A crucifix is a graven idol representing Christ crucified.

The words cross, crucify and crucifix all have their origin and root in the Latin word CRUX, which we just proved contains the number of the Beast.

Our English proper noun, CHRIST, has its origin in the Greek noun,

CHRISTOS – Χριστός.The Latin noun for CHRIST is CHRISTUS. It, too, contains the number of the Beast.

GREEK

=

LATIN

CHRI LEFT CLICK ON SLIDE

Ϛ

Ϛ = STUS

END PART ONE