I believe that much of revelations refers to the Catholic Church or to say in another form, Rome. We are taught in history that Rome fell, leaving Europe in the "Dark Ages" However, just prior to Rome's "fall" they "converted" to Christianity through Constantine.. who while he never converted to Christianity during his life (not til his deathbed), he managed to do quite a bit to fundamentally change Christianity during his life. One thing was he made a declaration that in Rome the Sabbath shall be on the day of the sun (sunday, the 1st day of the week, day of creation) as opposed to the traditional Sabbath which is on Saturday (the 7th day of the week, the day God rested, and the day which God commanded us to "*Remember* the Sabbath and keep it holy"). This alteration of the Sabbath was not done by a Christian Emperor of Rome, but rather by a Roman Emperor who later converted to Catholicism. That would be like the US President declaring that Ramadan is a different time than it is.. even if he later converted to Islam, it doesn't make sense that he should have had the power to change something which he was neither a part of, nor given authority over (scripturally). And indeed he did change it.. because of this change Christians and Jews have a different Sabbath to this day.. one of these days was commanded by God to God's people who have kept it to this day.. the other was commanded by a non-christian Roman Emperor and is still practiced not only by Catholics but also by most "Protestant" denominations. I think it's worth remembering what it is we are protesting and why.. There were other changes that he did prior to coming to faith at his deathbed. But it all boils down to (in my opinion) making Christianity void of truth where ever possible. Soon thereafter Catholicism (which means "Universal") was adopted by the Roman Empire as their official religion.. and though it was not "Christian" but rather a universal religion of Rome intended to put Christians and Pagans all under the same roof.. they all followed the same authority (not God, the Pope.. who hails from Rome no less). This "universal" church still hails from Rome to this day, and it has never ceased operations.. so I ask did Rome really fall? I have heard someone tell me (with much scriptural evidence shown) that it is the nature of the beast to cause people to sin. By making people forget the Sabbath (among other things), the beast intends to perpetuate our sin forever.. but in the modern era God countered by giving people reason, reason which ultimately leads us back to his grace. I have also heard it said that the Papacy created Islam. It is historically evident that there was much cooperation between Catholicism and Islam. In fact to this day many muslims believe that only Catholics are true christians (in fact I had one who now lives with a friend of mine tell me that very thing not 3 weeks ago), who they respect because it's the branch formed by Yeshua (Jesus), but all others who say they are christians are not. In todays world christian countries know how to defend themselves.... but in days passed this essentially led to the slaughter of countless truly faithful christians, who parted ways with Catholicism in order to please God. Islam killed non catholics in Islamic territory, and Catholicism (or Pope appointed rulers, ie Charlemange) killed non Catholics in Catholic controlled territory. Which is why it took so long for a movement to separate themselves from Catholicism while remaining christians (and not instantly being killed, churches burned, and writings destroyed). It's intuitive to me that the Papacy is one of the beasts, given that the nature of the beast is to cause people to sin. Killing people for believing differently, not a christian thing to do, was what Catholicism did under the banner of Christianity for centuries.. to this day people say stuff like Christians killed anyone who didn't convert.. no.. Christians were void of any power whatsoever until the Protestant Reformation (which only began to give them a little bit of power, which the King of England wanted to hold as a scepter in his hand, like the pope did before him, until America came).