Once again, I find myself thinking about those four small, smooth, white stones on the cover of the seventh edition of Hurley's, A Concise Introduction to Logic. And, I'm thinking about how similar small stones were used to calculate in the days of the Apostle John.

What does this have to do with Bible prophecy? Well, in chapter 13 of the book of Revelation we read about the coming Antichrist and his kingdom. The chapter begins by describing his geopolitical rise. And, it ends by adding a mysterious identifying number.

In the first verse it says:

And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names (Revelation 13:1 New American Standard Bible).

And, in the last verse it says:

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six (Revelation 13:18). 

As I point out in my book, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says the Greek word for "calculate" used in the above verse is unique. It means, "to use pebbles in enumeration." The implication to me seems to be, if our pebbles -- in this case the prophecies -- have been lined up correctly, they'll lead us, when the time comes, to the person whose rise is identified with the number. That identifying number, of course, is 666.

This was the reason I named my book, Recommendation 666: The Rise of the Beast From the Sea. When, in December of 2000, I discovered that the man who I had just witness rise from among a 10-nations alliance in Europe was also identified with that number, I knew I couldn't stay silent. Whether it turned out I was right or wrong, I had to find a way to get the information out. This is why I wrote my book and how FulfilledProphecy.Com was born.

Almost four years have gone by now and I'm still adding pebbles. And, with the signing of the EU's new Constitution, there's not many left to add. You see, even the three kings who are to be subdued according to Daniel 7:7-8, 24 may have become a geopolitical reality. The EU's big three -- France, Germany and Britain -- have become Solana's big headache. These three members of Solana's 10-nation alliance have formed an EU directorate and will have to be overcome for Solana to take his full seat of power.

 Friends, we're running out of pebbles.