You know, it's strange, I went to Sunday School almost every week for about 15 years, and no one ever happened to mention that Revelation was political in nature. And especially not a joke. Are those widely held beliefs? I mean, among biblical scholars? Fun fact: the sign of the beast... sin(666)... is exactly the negative of half of the golden ratio, phi (1.6180337889...). So we're all going to heaven, basically
I went to Sunday school but in Episcopal church, which is more like just learning that white people are rich and live in big houses and no one really takes the Jesus thing seriously we just don't really like Catholics. I never really heard of Revelation when I was a kid. The first time I remember hearing about the Rapture was on an episode of the Simpsons when Flanders' family gets Raptured. This is a decent primer into the political nature of Revelation: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/03/05/big-reveal Also, WTF?!??! How is that even possible about the golden ratio? That can't be a coincidence, right? Was that part of the joke? Was the golden ratio even discussed in Roman times? Did they use degrees? I'm so confused right now.
I never did manage to figure out a possible explanation for the 666 thing. Any research using the internet typically devolves into batshit craycray very quickly.