End times series:
Revelation 17
By Liaf
These next two chapters of Revelation deal with religious Babylon (which corresponds to the false prophet’s religion) and commercial Babylon (which corresponds to the beast’s political and economic kingdom). These chapters fill in the details of Babylon. As usual, we shall turn our King James Bibles to Revelation chapter 17 and understand God’s Word to us:
Revelation 17:1-6: And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
This woman represents the FALSE CHURCH. Notice she is ON THE BACK OF THE SCARLET COLORED BEAST. She is in alignment with GOVERNMENT (the seven heads and ten horns show it’s Antichrist’s Kingdom). We must be careful of any religious system that aligns itself with the goals of this world and with government. This is the nature of the FALSE CHURCH. Don’t ever give up your constitutional rights for government security! This is the message of the false prophet! A character such as Antichrist cannot operate as long as the Bill of Rights is present. However, we are slowly seeing our freedoms being eroded away (and people are falling for this, too). When the Bill of Rights goes out of the window, a character such as Antichrist can take hold and a false church represented by the woman can teach this to the masses. She has a very impressive Biblical title. That’s because she is the epitome of everything detestable. She’s the reason the saints were martyred as we said earlier. The passage that says John "wondered with great admiration" literally means total astonishment. John was so astonished that such a religion that persecutes the saints could ever arise (and pass itself off as the true church). In today’s colloquial language, we’d say that John’s eyes popped open and his jaw hung down. Let’s continue reading this interesting chapter:
Revelation 17:7-13: And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
Now the angel will explain the meaning of the woman and the beast. Actually, the angel starts his explanation as to what the beast is (which agrees with what we’ve been teaching thus far). The beast is a creature that "was, and is not, and yet is". What does that mean? First off, we must remember that the beast is empowered by Satan. Powerful demonic entities empowered each world ruler and empire. This is a way of simply saying that the beast once existed as a ruler/empire, but it does not now (in John’s day). In the future, he will again exist. What was the empire in John’s day? The Roman Empire. This beast is not of the Roman Empire. It had to be one of the previous ones. Yet, One of these Empires will arise again the angel says. Again, there is symbolism in the "The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." These are not the Seven Hills of Rome (or whatever) that some claim they are (thus supporting the assertion that the harlot is the Catholic Church). I do not believe that for one moment. Rather, the seven heads or mountains (nations or empires) were the seven we’ve already covered in the book of Daniel. These represent KINGS (leaders over the Empires) in which five are fallen in John’s days: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. "One Is", i.e., the present Roman Empire and "the other is not yet come." That’s the end-time Roman Empire (the ten-nation confederacy) which will then be headed by Antichrist (from the Seleucid portion of the GRECIAN EMPIRE). That is why he is referred to as the eighth, the seventh represents the ten-nation confederacy, but they (the leaders) give power to Antichrist and reign with him for a short time. We’ve covered all this in the book of Daniel. I hope this is clear to all of you. Like mud I’m sure J . I’ll wager that the same demon that empowered Alexander the Great empowers Antichrist (thus ‘was, and is not, and yet is’). I better not wager. My fundamentalist friends don’t like when I gamble with the Bible.
Re:17:14-18: These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Ultimately, the Lamb shall defeat them. But we already knew that. One time a theology student saw a guy (I believe he was a janitor in the building or something to that effect) reading the book of Revelation. The theology student asked the guy, "Do you understand what you are reading?" "Yep, sure do." he replied. The theology student asked him in disbelief, "What then does it all mean?" The guy replied, "It means Jesus is going to win!" We may debate the meaning of a lot of stuff here in the book of Revelation. We have our beliefs and are sharing them with you. Of course we believe we are right or else we would not believe what we do. Objectively, it does not mean we are right in everything. We learned through Bible study, listening to others teach, and the study of books. But we still may get things wrong through misunderstanding. However, I must applaud this fellow’s simple but acute insight. Who can disagree with that?
In these passages, the waters represent peoples, nations, and tongues. Earlier we saw that Antichrist (the beast) came from the sea in Revelation 13:1--- this is a sea of confusion amongst the people. They are ever changing like the waves in the sea. As we’ve already discussed, Antichrist comes on the scene as an apparent problem solver whom many people hold in high esteem. (However, I hope I made it clear that Antichrist does have some enemies such as the Egyptian issues and the tidings out of the north and east at the end as we’ve covered in the book of Daniel). The symbolism has political overtones by its context here. Then an interesting thing happens. Notice the beast turns on the whore. They turn against the false religious system of the world (which the last verse identifies her with the "great city", Babylon). Her doctrine is from there and this same city (v5) as I have already said is a literal Babylon that will one day be rebuilt. The reason for this turning against her is stated in verse 17: For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will… She took an active part with the beast and his Kingdom in shedding the blood of the saints. Now it’s her turn to "get it" and we don’t mean something fun that whores like to do this time (the beast and false prophet will later get the lake of fire).
In the next message, we will focus on commercial Babylon and its fall.