The evidence
The Scorecard: Watching in Real Time
A proposal that can never be wrong cannot be tested. Here Fr. John's reading is held to Scripture one mark at a time, with the evidence against set down as faithfully as the evidence for.
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How the scorecard works
Each row takes one mark: something Scripture says about the beasts and the frogs. It gives Fr. John's reading of how the mark is met, the evidence so far on each side, what would strengthen or weaken the reading, and where it stands now. Only what is on the public record or in Fr. John's own writing is entered; current events are added only with a cited, reputable source.
| Standing | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Seen | The mark is plainly met, on evidence a skeptical reader would accept. |
| Partly seen | Some features are met, others not yet, or the fit depends on Fr. John's reading. |
| Not yet seen | Nothing so far meets it. This is expected for marks of the final stage, and does not count against the proposal unless the order is broken (see the checks below). |
| Against | The evidence or the text weighs against Fr. John's reading. |
| To assess | Evidence still to be gathered and sourced. |
Rules for evidence. Each item gives the claim, its source and how reliable it is, the mark it bears on, and whether it strengthens or weakens the case. Fringe sources appear only as low-weight “claims circulating,” never as evidence. Words and deeds are tested, never souls. Political loyalty, admiration or a vote is never counted as worship or as the mark. Evidence against is entered as faithfully as evidence for.
Each person named below is linked once to a Wikipedia biography, so readers know who is meant. Wikipedia is an independent public reference; linking to it is not an endorsement of everything it says. Here, as everywhere on this site, words and deeds are weighed, never souls (CCC 1861).
The first beast
Fr. John's proposal: the first beast is Donald J. Trump. The seventh head is his first term (the 45th presidency) and the eighth his second (the 47th). Fr. John grades each mark possible or probable, never settled, and is more convinced of this identification and of the second beast than of the frogs.
The first three marks are now set out in full, with the evidence and the case against, on The First Beast: my reading, mark by mark.
| # | Mark | Fr. John's reading | For so far | Against so far | Would strengthen | Would weaken | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seven heads; an eighth that belongs to the seven (Revelation 17:9–11) | The seventh and eighth heads are his two terms; “the last head reigns twice” | A return to power after an interval is rare, and fits an eighth king who “belongs to the seven” | The Fathers and Catholic commentary read the heads as Roman emperors or as successive empires ending with Rome; the United States as the seventh head is Fr. John's own step (card 2) | Wider agreement that the first six heads are the world empires Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, as card 2 sets out | No coherent account of them can be given | Partly seen |
| 2 | A wound that seemed mortal, healed (Revelation 13:3, 12, 14) | The loss of office (January 2021) is the wound; the re-election (November 2024) and return to power (January 2025) are its healing | The loss and the return are public record | Revelation does not claim a mortal wound, only that one of the heads “seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed” (13:3). It does, however, call the beast the one “wounded by the sword” (13:14), and whether a lost election is such a wound is a judgment. Others read the wound instead as the assassination attempt of July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he was shot and wounded; that reading is closer to a wound “by the sword” but was not mortal and involved no loss of power | The whole earth marveling and following after the healing (Revelation 13:3) | The return seen worldwide as ordinary politics | Partly seen |
| 3 | Power and throne from the dragon (Revelation 13:2, 4) | He receives the dragon's power, because “Satan cannot become incarnate” | Evidence to be cited | Holding power is not itself a mark; the text joins the beast's authority to worship of the dragon (Revelation 13:4) | Words or acts that join honor of the man with rejection of God | — | To assess |
| 4 | Boasting and blasphemy (Revelation 13:1, 5–6; Daniel 7:8) | “This beast is all about himself”; arrogant and boastful | Evidence to be cited | Boasting about oneself is not yet blasphemy against God, his name, his dwelling and those in heaven (Revelation 13:6) | Words that blaspheme God or mock the saints | — | To assess |
| 5 | Worship demanded (Revelation 13:4, 8, 12; CCC 675) | His “primary characteristic”: he demands to be worshiped, with a messianic self-presentation and a skewing of Scripture and Tradition | Evidence to be cited | Political loyalty, admiration and rallies are not worship in the sense of Revelation 13:8 | A claim to divine status, or religious honor required by law or pressure | No religious claim made for him or by him | To assess |
| 6 | The forty-two months (Revelation 13:5) | Tested only backward, as a test against history; both ways of counting graded possible | See the timing, as a test of the theory, with the questions a careful reader will ask. It names years only for steps already past, and never counts forward. | Under test | |||
| 7 | Universal reach (Revelation 13:7–8) | Not yet stated | — | His authority is over one nation, limited by a constitution, courts, elections and other powers | Authority over “every tribe, people, tongue and nation” | Power that stays national and limited | Not yet seen |
| 8 | War on the holy ones (Revelation 13:7, 15; Daniel 7:21) | Not yet stated | — | No persecution of Christians for refusing worship | Christians punished for refusing honor to him | — | Not yet seen |
| 9 | Changes times and law (Daniel 7:25) | Not yet stated | — | Feasts and Sunday are untouched | Suppression of Christian feasts or of Sunday | — | Not yet seen |
| 10 | Seated in the temple, claiming to be God (2 Thess 2:3–4) | He is the Lawless One of 2 Thessalonians 2 | Evidence to be cited | No claim to be God has been made | A claim to divinity or to be above every god | — | Not yet seen |
| 11 | Lying signs and wonders (2 Thess 2:9) | Not yet stated | — | No such signs | Apparent wonders used to win belief | — | Not yet seen |
The second beast, the False Prophet
Fr. John's proposal: the second beast is Jared Kushner.
His marks are being set out in full, with the evidence and the case against, on The Second Beast: my reading, mark by mark.
Revelation 17, the harlot who rides the beast and the ten kings, is set out on The Harlot and the Ten Kings: my reading.
| # | Mark | Fr. John's reading | For so far | Against so far | Would strengthen | Would weaken | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Horns like a lamb, speaks like the dragon (Revelation 13:11) | “He seems mild-mannered like a lamb, yet he speaks for the Antichrist” | Evidence to be cited | Speaking for a leader as an adviser or envoy is ordinary; “like a dragon” needs content: words that serve the dragon | Gentle public manner joined to words that lead people from God | — | To assess |
| 13 | Makes the world worship the first beast (Revelation 13:12) | “His primary responsibility is getting people to worship” the first beast | Evidence to be cited | No effort to win worship (as distinct from political support) is on record | Promotion of religious honor for the first beast | — | Not yet seen |
| 14 | Great signs, even fire from heaven (Revelation 13:13–14) | Not yet stated | — | No such signs | Apparent wonders used to win belief in the first beast | — | Not yet seen |
| 15 | An image that speaks (Revelation 13:14–15) | Open: whether AI is the image, the means of the mark, or both | Speaking AI systems exist and are spreading | No image of the beast has been given breath and worshiped, and no one is killed for refusing | An image of the man, made to speak, honored by command | — | Not yet seen |
| 16 | The mark of buying and selling (Revelation 13:16–17) | “We will recognize it when we realize that we cannot buy or sell without it, and to receive it we must worship the Antichrist” | Technologies that could control buying and selling (digital ID, digital currency) exist | Neither of his two conditions is met: no such system is required, and none requires worship | A required system joined to an act of worship or allegiance | — | Not yet seen |
| 17 | 666, the number of a man (Revelation 13:18) | Linked to his 2007 purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue; also read through John 6:66 | The purchase is public record | The verse gives the number to the first beast, not the second; it is “the number of a man,” which the Fathers took as a name, not an address (Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.30) | A reading that ties the number to the first beast's name | — | Against, as now argued |
The three frogs
Fr. John's proposal, held with less confidence: Elon Musk (from the mouth of the dragon), Mike Johnson (from the mouth of the beast) and Steve Witkoff (from the mouth of the false prophet).
| # | Mark | Fr. John's reading | For so far | Against so far | Would strengthen | Would weaken | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Three unclean spirits from three mouths (Revelation 16:13) | Each figure speaks for one of the three | Not yet stated | The text calls them “demonic spirits,” not men | A clear account of what each says that serves dragon, beast or false prophet | — | To assess |
| 19 | They perform signs (Revelation 16:14) | Not yet stated | — | — | Apparent wonders used to persuade rulers | — | Not yet seen |
| 20 | They gather the kings of the whole world for battle (Revelation 16:14, 16) | Not yet stated | — | — | Each figure drawing the world's rulers together against God's people | — | To assess |
Signs of the time
These marks concern the world and the Church rather than one person. Several fix the order of events, so they serve as checks on the whole proposal.
| # | Mark | Fr. John's reading | For so far | Against so far | Would strengthen | Would weaken | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | The apostasy comes first (2 Thess 2:3; CCC 675) | Already here “on a grand scale” | Evidence to be cited: Mass attendance, disaffiliation, vocations | Great defections have come before: the Arian crisis, the Reformation, the French Revolution | Defection worldwide, including among the Church's teachers | A renewal of faith | To assess |
| 22 | The daily sacrifice taken away (Daniel 12:11) | The suppression of the Mass, which Fr. John holds will come only after universal dominion (Arminjon, p. 51); the pandemic was a foreshadowing | — | The Mass is offered freely every day across the world | Public Masses forbidden by law | — | Not yet seen |
| 23 | The Gospel preached to all nations (Matthew 24:14) | Not yet stated | — | The Fathers differ on whether this means a summary preaching or the Church established among every people (Arminjon, pp. 16–18) | — | — | To assess |
| 24 | Two witnesses for 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3–12) | Not yet stated | — | — | Two prophets appearing during the beast's reign | — | Not yet seen |
| 25 | Israel's recognition of Christ (Romans 11:25–26; CCC 674) | Not yet stated | — | — | — | — | Not yet seen |
Checks set in advance
These checks are written down now, before events, so that readers can hold the proposal to them. None of them names a date. They draw on Scripture's own order and on the Fathers and Fr. Charles Arminjon. A prophecy that does not come true is “a word the LORD did not speak” (Deuteronomy 18:22).
- Universal rule before the end of the Mass. Arminjon holds that the Mass ceases only after the Antichrist has universal dominion (The End of the Present World, p. 51). If public Masses were suppressed without such rule, that would be another foreshadowing, not the fulfillment. If universal rule never comes, the proposal is weakened.
- Worship before the mark. The mark is joined to worship (Revelation 13:15–17; 14:9). A control system without worship is not the mark, and does not by itself strengthen the proposal.
- The world marvels at the healing. Revelation says the whole earth followed the beast in amazement after the wound was healed (Revelation 13:3). If the return to power is not met with something beyond ordinary politics, the reading of the wound is weakened.
- The second beast's order. Signs (Revelation 13:13) come before the image (13:14–15), and the image before the mark (13:16–17).
- The witnesses during his reign. Revelation 11 places two witnesses in the time of the beast; the Fathers and Arminjon expect them before his fall (pp. 52–56).
- The decisive check. The proposal stands or falls on the marks of the final stage: universal reach (7), war on the holy ones (8), worship demanded (5), the image (15) and the mark (16). If he leaves power by ordinary means without these having appeared, the proposal is weakened decisively, and this site will say so.
Update log
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | Scorecard published: 25 rows from Fr. John's writing and the framework of marks; six checks set in advance. |