The Bible gives 11 marks: A. It rises from the sea (verse 1) — amid established nations (Revelation 17:15). B. It is a composite of the four beasts of Daniel 7 (verse 2). C. The dragon gives it power and authority (verse 2). D. It receives a deadly wound (verse 3). E. Its wound is healed (verse 3). F. It is a strong political power. G. It is a strong religious power. H. It is guilty of blasphemy (verses 5,6). I. It wars with and overcomes the saints (verse 7). J. It rules for 42 months (verse 5). K. It has a mysterious number — 666 (verse 18). All these points fit the papacy — the same power we identified as the antichrist in Daniel 7.

In Revelation 12 a pure woman represents God’s true people (Jeremiah 6:2; Isaiah 51:16). The dragon waits to “devour” the baby at birth. The baby is Jesus, whom Herod tried to destroy (Matthew 2:16). So the dragon represents pagan Rome, of which Herod was a king, and the power behind it is the devil (Revelation 12:7–9). Thus the papacy received its capital and power from pagan Rome.

The deadly wound was inflicted when Napoleon’s general Berthier entered Rome and took Pope Pius VI captive in February 1798. Since then the wound has healed: today the papacy is one of the most influential religious-political powers in the world, and the eyes of the nations are on the Vatican, just as prophecy predicted.

The verse speaks of the number of a man and of the number of the beast’s name. The pope’s official title is Vicarius Filii Dei (vicar of the Son of God). Adding up the Roman-numeral values of the letters of this title yields 666. So the papacy fits this identifying point too. No other power in history could fit all 11 divine descriptive points.

God gave His Sabbath as a sign of His power to create and to sanctify (save) us (Ezekiel 20:12; Exodus 31:17). In the Bible the words seal, sign, mark, and token are used interchangeably (Romans 4:11). Revelation 7:1–3 says this sign will be written on the foreheads (minds — Hebrews 10:16) of His people. Since God’s mark of authority is His holy Sabbath, it is likely that the mark of His challenger — the beast — also involves a holy day.

In its catechisms the papacy claims it changed the observance of the Sabbath (the seventh day) to Sunday (the first day) and that this change is the mark of its authority and power. So the papacy names Sunday as a holy day as its mark. This is exactly the change of times and law God predicted of the antichrist (Daniel 7:25).

The law: in its catechisms the papacy (1) omitted the second commandment against image worship, (2) shortened the fourth (Sabbath) commandment, removing the reference to the seventh day (Exodus 20:8–11), and (3) divided the tenth commandment into two. The times: (1) it attempted to move the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first, and (2) to change the reckoning of the day — from evening to evening, as God commanded (Leviticus 23:32), to midnight-to-midnight after the pagan Roman custom.

God warns religious leaders who cause people to stumble by saying some commandments do not matter (Malachi 2:7–9). He warns those who want smooth fables instead of truth (Isaiah 30:9,10), who harden their hearts against His law (Zechariah 7:12), and reminds us that earth’s woes come because people have broken His law and tried to change it (Isaiah 24:4–6). Leaders who erase the difference between the sacred (the Sabbath) and the common (Sunday) will face His indignation (Ezekiel 22:26,31).

The forehead represents the mind (Hebrews 10:16): a person is marked in the forehead by deciding to keep Sunday as a holy day. The hand is a symbol of work (Ecclesiastes 9:10): a person is marked in the hand by working on God’s holy Sabbath or going along with Sunday laws for practical reasons. The mark — for God or the beast — will be invisible to people, but God will know who has which mark (2 Timothy 2:19).

Absolutely not! No one has the mark of the beast until Sunday worship becomes an issue forced by law. Then those who decide to follow the beast’s false teachings will receive his mark, while those who follow Jesus will keep His Sabbath and receive His mark. Those who wish to refuse the beast’s mark in the future must step under Jesus’ Sabbath banner now. Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5); with Him all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

Jesus said that those who follow Him will have the light of life (John 8:12). If we follow Him, we will not end up in darkness but have glorious truth. Following Him and keeping His Sabbath will put God’s mark on our foreheads and protect us from the plagues (Psalm 91:10) that will fall upon the disobedient. It also marks us as ready for translation at Jesus’ second coming.