6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.
Here we are shown that this dragon-empowered beast is beginning to blaspheme against God and to persecute His most devoted followers. Many of the commentaries I read pointed out that blasphemy is not only speaking against God but also pretending to be God, such as the anti-Christ is predicted to do.
Matthew Poole's commentary on these verses at biblehub.com says, "That is, antichrist opened his mouth to blaspheme God. Mr. Mede noteth
well, that antichrist’s time must not be counted from his beginning to
persecute, but from his beginning to blaspheme, either by maintaining
pernicious doctrine, or setting up idolatrous worship; for till the year
1206, when the Inquisition was set up, (the doctrine of
transubstantiation having been about that time decreed by Innocent the
Third, and confirmed by the council of Lateran), the persecution was not
great." It is pretty common for writings of this time to refer to the Roman Catholic Church as the Anti-Christ.
It seems more rare in modern times to find the papacy or the Muslim religion cited as the anti-Christ, but in older writings it is very common. One imagines that in every time period there might be several candidates for the figure of the anti-Christ; in our modern era we have many like Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and so on, who set themselves up as absolute rulers and who were responsible for the deaths of millions. In any event, it's important for Christians to know and understand that there will always be potential candidates who set themselves up as Gods on earth in order to serve the devil. All we have to do is focus our attention on the Gospels to understand the value system of Christ and God; in this way, we can recognize these worldly, demonic agents for what they are, and understand the values of love, obedience, and righteousness that Christ and God want us to live by.
A Prayer for Salvation from Christ:
Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Please come into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Take complete control of my life and help me to walk in Your footsteps daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for saving me and for answering my prayer.
A more detailed step by step process:
https://www.wikihow.com/Accept-Jesus-Into-Your-Life
