In a way, it makes sense. Until Constantine, the apostate church grew right along with the real church, sharing most of the same bible, minus the extra books the catholic church added to the old testament, and some of the same belief in prophecy. When Constantine reversed the ten persecutions, and gave the catholic church its power, seat, and great authority, it was viewed as a miracle, and some version of that false interpretation of prophecy continued to be repeated and footnoted, so even now you can pick up a catholic bible and find that Babylon is Rome, that Rome is the city of the seven hills, that the beast is restored to life by or as the roman empire, and that the ten horns have to do with ten persecutions, which everyone will understand to be the ten persecutions as commonly taught. I footnoted some of those verses below. And all the world was amazed, and worshiped that seven headed ten horned beast, the roman catholic church in the seven hilled city and its ten persecutions and ten*thousand martyrs whose bones it put in its alters and worshiped in its blasphemous rites.

    It isn't a big step to make the other connections. Like both Judas and Satan were responsible for killing Christ, so Rome and Satan were responsible. Luke 22:3, Rev 12:4. Satan was cast out of heaven, but continued to operate on the earth, Rev 12. It was the Roman Empire that crucified Jesus Christ at the urging of Jewish leaders, attacked the apostle church, destroyed Jerusalem in three and a half years, and carried on ten persecutions against the early church, before the beast even came. Rev 12.

    Revelation 13:2 says the dragon gave the beast its seat. This exactly dates this verse. This only occurred once in history, when Constantine moved the entire capitol of the roman empire to Constantinople, built the roman catholic churches, and literally gave the roman catholic church its seat, authority, and great power.

    From this it isn't too hard to see the rest, the time of the rise of the pope as sole ruler over the whole church, occurring at the same time the pope adopted a two horned miter hat symbolizing 'the horns of the testaments' to differentiate itself from the eastern churches, the inquisitions and killing of all those that wouldn't worship it, the newer re-interpretation of mass as 'bringing Christ down from heaven and re-sacrificing him', or bringing fire down from heaven, the literal mark everyone must have on their forehead or literal right hand to receive this blasphemous sacrament or make the sign, all the fathers that the catholic church has, instead of the one Father God above, making the catholic church literally a great whore who has many fathers for her children, the golden cup it uses in its communion service, and all the people it ex communion-cated and murdered, literally drinking their blood, and lastly, even the comparison of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and his 144,000 to the anti-Christ who looks like a sheep but speaks like a dragon and his 666.

    In short, it’s possible to use even a Roman Catholic bible to see God's warning against it. 

Revelation 18:4

    And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

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A beast, symbolizing the Roman empire, then becomes the dragon's agent, mortally wounded but restored to life and worshiped by all the world (Rev 13:1-10).