Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666 (Revelation 13:18 NKJV).

The final attribute of the sea beast is that it has a number, and this number is the number of a man.

We must remember that this attribute is not the most important, but is rather just a small piece of the description Scripture gives of this beast.

Modern interpretations of this prophecy apply the 666 to a computer in Brussels. This implies that 666 represents registration of every citizen of Earth who is to be subjected to the new economic policies of the new world order.

However, this computer did not persecute the saints for 1260 years. It did not say it was God. And, it does not claim to forgive sins. These are all attributes of the Antichrist.

Before we can call any entity the Antichrist, we must be sure that it fulfills every descriptor that the Bible gives. 


The text clearly states that the number is a man’s, but also the Beast’s. The number 666 applies to the Papacy (a kingdom represented by a beast in Bible typology) as shown in the chart of papal titles below, and is the number of a man (the supreme ruler of that kingdom), bringing it in line with the “man of sin” recorded in the Scriptures.

If the official secular and religious titles of the Roman Church are examined, then the number 666 is prominent. Latin letters have a numerical value, as we can see in the following chart:ⁱ

The Vicarius Filii Dei Controversy

One of the official titles of the Pope, Vicarius Filii Dei or "Vicar of the Son of God," is at times disputed by Catholic theologians, but can be verified in papal canons and other Catholic publications.

Catholic F. Lucii Ferraris, in his Latin encyclopedia called Prompta Bibliotheca canonica juridica moralis theologica said this:

Ut sicut Beatus Petrus in terris vicarius Filii Dei fuit constitutus, ita et Potifices eius successores in terris principatus potestatem amplius, quam terrence imperialis nostræ serenitatis mansuetudo habere videtur (emphasis added).ⁱⁱ

The English translation is as follows:

As the blessed Peter was constituted Vicar of the Son of God on earth, so it is seen that the Pontiffs, his successors, hold for us and our empire the power of a supremacy on the earth greater than the clemency of our earthly imperial serenity.ⁱⁱⁱ

Our Sunday Visitor, a Jesuit publication, published two admissions that Vicarius Filii Dei is in fact a title for the pope—on November 15, 1914, and April 18, 1915. The November 15, 1914, issue, as shown in the picture, tells us this:

The title of the Pope of Rome is Vicarius Filii Dei. This is inscribed on his mitre; and if you take the letters of his title (printed large) and add them together they come to 666...add these together and the total will be 666.

Note what our Protestant forefathers had to say about Vicarius Filii Dei:

Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness, in Babylon and the Beast, said this:

An English officer of high rank, who in 1799 by a special favor, was given the special opportunity, while in Rome, to get a close look at the Pope's jewels and precious things, discovered thereby, that the papal tiara bore this inscription: 'Vicarivs Filii Dei.'

When you take out the Latin letters, which have a numerical value, and which still are used to represent numbers, and which are: V, I, C, L, and D, these letters form the number given below.In these Latin words there are two V's, which letter denotes 5, six I's denoting 1, one C which denotes 100, one L, which denotes 50, and one D, which denotes 500, thus, V,V=10; I,I,I,I,I,I=6; C=100; L=50; and D=500, the sum 666.^iv

Richard Cunningham Shimeall (1803 - 1874), wrote this in his book Our Bible Chronology:

It is to be observed as a singular circumstance, that the title vicarius filii dei (Vicar of the Son of God), which the Popes of Rome have assumed to themselves, and caused to be inscribed over the door of the Vatican, exactly makes the number 666, when deciphered with the numeral signification of its constituent letters...^v

Many in the Protestant Church today would wish to apply the number 666 to the whole of humanity rather than the Papacy specifically. But if both Catholics and Protestants agree on the title, and even the Jesuits—the society sworn to protect the Pope at any cost—confirmed the title and number twice in their own publication, can we doubt its validity?

Ahead to The Second Beast of Revelation 13

Back to The Two Beasts of Revelation 13