Identity of the BEAST: Baptized Paganism

"After the typical sanctuary of the first covenant had given place to the true sanctuary of God, 

Satan baptized his pagan sanctuary 

and heathen rites and ceremonies, 

calling them Christianity. 

Thenceforward he had at Rome a “temple of God” and in that temple, a being exalted above all that is called God or that is worshiped. 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

And this papal abomination has trodden underfoot the holy city (Revelation 11:2; 21:2), by persuading a large portion of the human family that Rome, the place of this counterfeit temple of God, was “the eternal city.” 

And it has trodden under foot and blasphemed God’s sanctuary or tabernacle (Rev. 13: 6; Heb. 8:2) by calling its own sanctuary the temple of God, and by turning away the worship of them that dwell on the earth, from “ the temple of God in Heaven,” to the sanctuary of Satan at Rome." 

J.N. Andrews

This occurred with the "conversion" of Emperor Constantine.

--He tasked Lactantius with making Christianity more appealing to pagans.
--Then came Emperor Justin the Apostate, who tasked Iamblichus with modeling a paganism in the mold of Christianity.
--What emerged after these 2 back-to-back events gave us many of the paganistic rituals within Catholicism, and some Protestantism still, today.