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The Antichrist Most Definitely Is Not a Person! 11

the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shat-
ters all things; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the
others.

In the 8th chapter, Daniel describes in a vision the amazingly accurate occurrence of the
Medo-Persian struggle with the rise of the Greeks. The first kingdom of the Greek Empire defeats
the Medo-Persians inside their own territory and then, at the height of its power, the first kingdom is
broken and divided into four horns or kingdoms. The amazing part is that Daniel not only gives this
precise outline many years before 325 B.C. when the events happened -- but he also names the par-
ticipants by name, before they had even risen to power!

The ram which you saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the
rough goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first
king (Daniel 8:20-21).

Thus are the first three empires of the four named by name in the Bible.

Now since the fourth beast is described in Daniel 2 and 7 in much greater detail than the first
three, why is it not named? Surely, if YEHOVAH God inspired Daniel to name 1. Babylon; 2.
Medo-Persia; 3. Greece; he could have named the fourth beast. The fourth beast is described in
even greater length in the Book of Revelation where, once again, it is not named. Why?

There is a very good reason why the fourth beast is named in code in the Book of Revela-
tion. The number 666 is the number of the name of the fourth beast -- which is the fourth kingdom.
Your Bible says so -- no matter how many ministers or pastors see some mysterious person arising
during the last seven years of the world’s history who will have the number. The number is clearly
stated to be the name of the fourth beast. Therefore, 666 ought to be the name Roman. Significantly,
the Biblical text rules out the name being Rome. It must be Roman -- because it is the name of a sin-
gle person as well as the name of the beast. Rome is a place. Roman is the name of both the empire,
the beast, and a citizen, a single person, who is also a Roman.

Our society now uses the Arabic numbering system with numerals 1 through 9 and then
adding a zero -- invented by the Arabs in the 8th century. Previous to that time numbers were attrib-
uted to each letter of the alphabet. A=1, B=2, C=3,...J=10 then K would not be 11 but 20 and L=30
etc. Continuing, R would be 90, S would be 100, T=200 and so on. Any name could, therefore, have
a numerical value. Both Hebrew and Greek alphabets used this system.

It is well known -- and has been for centuries -- that the name “Roman” in both Greek and
Hebrew has the number we are looking for. Every historical interpreter, with few exceptions, from
Irenaeus forward, has recorded this fact. In the old world Tertullian and Hippolytus did. Isaac New-
ton, the scientist, did in the 17th century; Robert Fleming at the turn of the 17th century; Bishop
Newton in the 18th century; Faber, Barnes, Elliott, Cunningham, Johnson, and a host of others from
almost every denomination of Protestantism in the 19th century. The number is the name of the
beast, and the name of the beast is “Roman.”

The Berean Voice July-August 2002