REVELATION 17
The Woman & the Beast
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Further Study: TDR: A World Union of Church and State
17. Quiz and Summary Sheet:
“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.” Revelation 17:1-3
In chapter 17, John is shown something by one of the angels of the plagues. The scene is in the wilderness; this brings our minds to the 1260 years the Roman church ruled the world, and the persecuted people of God were forced into obscurity. Now we see this persecuting power drunken with the blood of martyrs. She has already committed fornication with the kings of the earth, and the people of earth have been deceived and made drunk by the wine of her false teachings. So this indicates the time very accurately at the end of the 1260 year period of Papal Rule in the Dark Ages. The timing is important to rightly interpret the message this chapter has for us today.
What does he see? A woman, which symbolizes a church, and she is riding on a savage beast, which represents the world governments and powers used by Satan to persecute God’s people. She is called a whore, a woman that goes out with other men, not her husband, for money.
The true church is a pure woman, and she is the bride of Christ. But this woman, though she claims to belong to Jesus, has relations with all the kings and governments, and she does it for money and power. That is why she is called the Great Whore.
“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.” Revelation 17:4-6
What a clear description of the Roman church. See her colors, purple and scarlet; look at her riches and jewels, and she has a golden cup in her hand full of false doctrines, which make people spiritually drunk when they believe them.
She is a mother church; this is exactly what the Roman power claims to be. The Protestant churches are her daughters. And she is indeed drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs for Jesus, as she has persecuted and killed them by the millions. Jesus never wants His church to use the power of earthly governments and courts to make others obey her wishes.
As John sees this scene, he is amazed at the sight.
“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.” Revelation 17:7.
Now the angel proceeds to give to John a detailed explanation of the strange scene he is looking at. This explanation is very important to us, as these things are happening in our world, right now before our very eyes.
“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.” Revelation 17:8
Notice the words, this beast ‘was’; it was ruling during the 1260 years; but now, at the time the vision is shown to John, he is told it ‘is not’. But he is told it will come back; it will ascend out of the bottomless pit.
Now we have heard the expression ‘bottomless pit’ before in the prophecies. What it means here is out of the depths of wickedness and sin of this world. Every time this expression is mentioned in prophecy it shows us that here is some new demonstration of Satan’s power; some different form of wickedness than he has used before.
We saw the ‘smoke out of the bottomless pit’ which was a dark religion which arose in the deserts. We saw a beast from the bottomless pit arise to kill the two witnesses in the French Revolution, which was a form of atheism, not before known in Europe. Now we see that this beast, when it comes back again, will arise from the bottomless pit. As wicked and cruel as it was before in the 1260 years, it will be worse and a slightly different form when it comes again.
“And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” Revelation 17:9
Rome is often referred to as the city on seven hills or mountains. The city of Rome is built on seven literal mountains or hills: “It is within the city of Rome, called The City on Seven Hills, that the entire area of Vatican State Proper is now confined” The Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 529.
But also another meaning can be seen here, as in prophecy a ‘mountain’ refers to a church or religious power, and seven, means complete or total. So this power sits on, or influences and tries to control all religious organizations.
“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.” Revelation 17:10
These heads, and the seven kings are the same. They represent all the powers Satan has used to fight against God and His truth and His faithful people throughout world history.
1: BABYLON: from the time of Nimrod on.
2: MEDO-PERSIA:
3: GREECE:
4: PAGAN ROME:
5: PAPAL ROME: this being the head that was wounded or ‘killed to death’ in 1798.
6: ONE IS: this is the Lamb-like beast or USA; with its two horns of civil and religious liberty. How do we know this for sure? Because Revelation 13:12 tells us it exercises all the power of the leopard-like Beast ‘before it’, so we know the two horned USA beast/head follows the Leopard-like Papal beast/head. In this prophecy the Papal head is not yet ‘killed to death’ but it is so close to this time that prophecy states it is already fallen.
In Daniel 8:1, Daniel is given a vision during the reign of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. The vision sets forth the kingdoms of Bible prophecy, except that Babylon is not included. Daniel’s vision leaves out Babylon as a kingdom of Bible prophecy, even though Babylon was still ruling the earth, and Belshazzar was still on the throne; but it was about to fall. It was past its power and glory. It was fallen, though it still reigned. This is the condition of the papacy in the 25 years before 1798. Yes, it still had not received the deadly wound, but prophetically, it had fallen.
7: ONE IS NOT YET COME: this, as we will see, is what we are now hearing a lot about in our word; the ‘New World Order’. This is actually the U.N. activated and backed up by the might of the USA. When it comes into power it will be using as its ‘moral authority’ the:
8: RESURRECTED PAPAL ROMAN HEAD:
“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” Revelation 17:11
We also see that when the Roman power’s deadly wound is healed, it can once again persecute heretics. It was one of the seven, but now here it comes again. We are told it shall go into perdition; in other words it will continue until the end of all things and be destroyed by the plagues and the brightness of Jesus’ coming.
“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.” Revelation 17:12, 13.
It is most interesting that in the plans which
the UN has drawn up for the ‘New World Order’, they have the world
divided up into exactly ten parts. The leaders designated for these
ten regions will agree to let this Beast power rule, as this is one
way they can best get the people under control, by using religious
power.
There are many things happening in this time of
the ‘Seventh Angel’. The scourges of Islam is only one aspect that
has created unrest and anger in the nations. The ‘second woe’ had
more than one part to it and It seems this third woe may have many.
As we look over the history from mid 1800s to the present, it seems
there has been little or no time when some kind of trouble wasn’t
happening. As the people are stirred up more and more by trouble and
deception they will start looking to religious leaders for answers.
Some of the recent papal leaders have led the
world to believe that Rome is a good and moral power, and it would
be easy for the people to agree to give their support to the ‘beast
power’. Sadly they have forgotten how Rome used such power in the
past when she had it, and also that it is Rome’s boast that she
never changes. The papacy, supposedly, gives the government of the
UN, moral authority, and the third player, the USA is what gives the
financial and military power to this final triune government that
leads the world to Armageddon.
“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.” Revelation 17:14
This is what Armageddon is all about; making ‘war with the Lamb’. How can an earthly power make war with the Lamb? By persecuting His true followers on earth. Jesus has said that what anyone does to His children is the same as if they did it to Him.
We see here that God knows all about what these powers are planning to do and He told His people about it long centuries before any of it happened. So we can know that He is in charge and if we stay obedient to Jesus,we will be kept safe.
“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.” Revelation 17:15-17
Isn’t this interesting? These ‘horns’ agree to let the whore/beast power rule; but inside they really hate her and can’t wait until they can destroy her, and rule by themselves. But it is really no mystery; people who don’t have Jesus in their heart, have no choice but to act like Satan, and he just wants to destroy and rule everybody and everything.
Notice that the ten horns here mentioned are not the same ten horns on the terrible beast of Daniel 7; those were the divided up Roman Empire and represented the nations of Europe.
These horns are the same as the ten toes in Daniel 2. These horns ‘have no kingdom yet’, but will rule with the Papal beast, when the two horned beast speaks like a dragon.
In other words, we see again another three-fold union; the same as the Beast, the False Prophet and the Dragon. This is the Papacy, Apostate-Americanized Protestantism, and Spiritualism, represented by the United Nations. Babylon the Great is made up of these three parts joined together by agreement for the one purpose of destroying God’s people and truth from off the earth, and each intending to eliminate the other two as soon as possible.
“And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:18.
Here is another clear clue as to what power this is; there is only one ‘city’ that claims to reign over the kings of the earth and that is the Roman Vatican. Also a ‘woman’ in prophecy is a church or religious power; no other church claims the right to reign over the kings of earth. So just what is the destiny of this three-fold Babylon the Great?