I will stop short of making any claims here, except to present what I've discovered for myself. May all who read take the time to search and determine their own conclusions.
I want to draw everyone's attention to two simple, familiar scriptures.
Matthew 24:4-5. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
The first observation I want to make is that Jesus says these false teachers will come in His name. This means they will proclaim the name of Jesus--that is, they will claim to be Christians. How then can someone claim to be a follower of Jesus and at the same time declare himself to be Christ? The answer lies in the meaning of Christ--the Annointed of God, the chosen redeemer, God's chosen king. I conclude therefore that those Jesus warned of will profess to be Christians and claim divine appointment of God. Granted, many may fall into this category, and some have asserted that the Pope is one such person. However, observe the following quote:
"God made me President" -- George W. Bush, May 21, 2003.
Draw your own conclusion.
Revelation 13:18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (666).
I invite anyone who wishes to challenge the following to do so. It is a chart of true Greek numerology, the code which would have been used by the Apostle John in the first century. It can be found in numerous places online and in print and is 100% accurate. (I say this because many use a false system omitting digamma, koppa and sampi--which are now obsolte but remain in the numerological system--and number the remaining 24 letters 1-24.)
alpha-1; beta-2; gamma-3; delta-4;epsilon-5; digamma-6; zeta-7; eta-8; theta-9; iota-10; kappa-20; lambda-30; mu-40; nu-50; xi-60; omicron-70; pi-80; koppa-90; rho-100;
sigma-200; tau-300; upsilon-400; phi-500; chi-600; psi-700; omega-800; sampi-900;
The simple way to denote 666 would be chi, xi, digamma (transliterated chxng). Obvioiusly this has no vowel and thus no meaning. However our focus is numerology, so that all names have a value. Jesus, for example has a numerical value of iota+eta+sigma+upsilon+sigma (10+8+200+400+200 = 818). Enter as many names as you like into the system to see what you get, but don't neglect this one:
Cheney = Chi+eta+nu+eta = 600+8+50+8 = 666.
Are Bush and Cheney the first and second beast of Revelation? Again, draw your own conclusions.
Also check out "
trance-formation.org/index2.htm" and click "The Most Dangerous Game."