Revelation 17 and Commentary - Chapter 23

 

Revelation 17 and Commentary

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sits 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 colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.[1]

After becoming a Christian in 1971, I attended a three-month Bible course in Ellenville, upstate New York, which I mentioned in the beginning of this book. At the end of the course, we went on a faith-sharing weekend to Greenwich Village, a popular youth area of New York City at that time. We traveled by bus into New York City. Descending the Catskill Mountains some one hundred miles north of the city, the city loomed before us. It was night and the George Washington Bridge was decked with many brightly-colored lights. The lights also from the many high buildings of the city were awe-inspiring and we gazed with wonder upon this great city. One of our Bible teachers started to read from Revelation 17 and 18. A musician then followed with a song called Filthy City Babylon. At that moment, I felt as if I was traveling into the Biblical Babylon the Great. It was an ominous feeling.

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. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore did thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou saw 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.[2]

Here we see that the beast has a spiritual element from the dark side as it ascends out of the bottomless pit.

And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.[3]

Are the seven heads or mountains the seven world empires which have carried this whore throughout the course of history? Some prophecy scholars, trying to fix the Vatican as the seat of the Antichrist, claim that since Rome was built on seven hills, this prophecy is therefore referring to those seven Vatican hills. I recently read an intriguing book about the Vatican titled The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church by Malachi Martin.[4] The author reveals the sad state of the Catholic Church and how the Jesuits have abandoned their traditional Christian faith for modernism. Fr. Martin has also written other revealing books about the Vatican. At the time of his death, he was working on a new book showing how the Catholic Church had become an instrument of the New World Order. His closest friends believed he was killed for the truths he was exposing.

Though the Catholic Church may very well be controlled by the New World Order masters, it is not the Whore of Revelation 17 and 18 at this present time. At the time the book was written around 90 AD, Rome may very well have seemed like the fulfillment of Babylon the Whore. But as it is today another entity seems to fit the description more accurately. The Bible says that the seven heads are seven mountains, and not seven hills. We need to use the Bible to interpret itself. Often the symbol of a mountain is used in the Bible to represent a kingdom. For example, Mount Zion is often used to refer to God’s kingdom or people. Isaiah, when talking about the future millennium reign of God on earth says,

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.[5]

In Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar has his End-time dream, he sees a stone strike an enormous image at its feet. The image represents the various world government of man.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.[6]

So again we see a mountain representing, in this case, the Kingdom of God. Mountains often represent kingdoms, and kingdoms have kings. So the seven heads which are seven mountains should have seven kings and that is exactly what we have in the next verse in Revelation:

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.[7]

Are these seven kings, the seven kingdoms or empires of world history? The five fallen kings or kingdoms could represent Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia and Greece; the five nations who had been world empires before Rome. Rome was the world empire that “is” at the time Revelation was given. The final One World Government could be the one that “is not yet come,” which will exist for only a short time according to this prophecy.

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seventh, and goes into perdition.[8]

Out of the One World Government, the seventh, will come the Antichrist totalitarian government, the eighth.

And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast.[9]

Could these ten horns or kings be ten nations or land areas or free trade regions which collaborate or form the Antichrist world government?

These have one mind, and give their power and strength unto the beast.[10]

“One mind” seems to indicate they are a collective or group or a political union of some kind, like the European Union or United Nations.

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.[11]

The Lamb represents Jesus. So somehow, the newly-united nations make war with Christianity. Jesus Himself, when talking about the end of the world, predicted a period of Great Tribulation just prior to His return. He said,

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whosoever reads, let him understand:) For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.[12]

In the New Testament, when it is talking about the “elect,” it is talking about the Church of believing Christians. It is not referring to the state of Israel, nor the Jewish people, but to believers in Jesus Christ, whether Gentile or Jew.[13]

Christians have been persecuted and killed by atheistic regimes such as Stalin and Mao. The false “Christian” church has also at times persecuted and killed true believing Christians. John Huss and many others protesters were burned at the stake as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church before the Reformation. The Inquisition period afterwards also persecuted believers whose ideas differed with those of the Church. Even in modern times true believing Christians have and are suffering persecution.

It should not surprise us to find that the Bible predicts another period of great worldwide persecution against Christian believers. The famous Romanian Christian Richard Wurmbrand, author of Tortured for Christ, who suffered years in prison under the communists, has warned the American church that persecution can and will come to Christians in America.[14]

In Revelation we read,

And he said unto me, The waters which thou saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.[15]

The waters represent peoples or nations. We see here that the Bible will usually interpret itself. So from verse one we see that the whore Babylon sits or rides upon the nations of the earth and sucks their wealth from them and makes them drunk through their intercourse with her. Strangely enough, the term intercourse has had in the past economic significance. In early American documents, it was used when talking about inter-state commerce. In Portugal the term “fornecedores” is used for salesmen. It has the same root as the word “fornicadores” which means fornicators. The Latin root has to do with “buying and selling” which could apply to products as well as to sex.

And the ten horns which thou saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.[16]

If the Beast is the Antichrist and the whore’s modern fulfillment is the capitalistic, materialistic system epitomized today in the United States, then the Antichrist will destroy America in one hour with the help of the ten nations or political regions that align themselves with him. Let’s read the next verse.

For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.[17]

Remember God’s judgments are falling on “Babylon” because she has forsaken her Maker. Like Israel of old, Babylon the Whore knew God, but has forsaken Him, for the gods of this world. America, once a great Christian nation, has forsaken her Maker and worshiped materialism and money. She has worshiped wealth, the traditional god of Mammon, and has influenced the rest of the world to do the same.

And the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.[18]

At the moment, the great city that seems to fit the bill both politically and militarily and financially is none other than New York City and the United States of America. But as every great nation or empire of the past has come to its demise because of moral and spiritual decay from within, it seems that America is headed for the same fate. As Toynbee, the great British historian said, quoting Hegel,

The only thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history.[19]

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Notes:

[1] Revelation 17:1-4
[2] Revelation 17: 5-8
[3] Revelation 17:9
[4] Malachi Martin, The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church, New York, 1987. http://www.amazon.com/The-Jesuits-Malachi-Martin/dp/067165716X (accessed 03/2016)
[5] Isaiah 11:9
[6] Daniel 2:35
[7] Revelation 17:10
[8] Revelation 17:11
[9] Revelation 17:12
[10] Revelation 17:13
[11] Revelation 17:14
[12] Matthew 24:15-22
[13] http://www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/elect.html (accessed 03/2016)
[14] http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=18360&forum=34 (accessed 03/2016)
[15] Revelation 17:15
[16] Revelation 17:16
[17] Revelation 17:17
[18] Revelation 17:18
[19] http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6188.Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel (accessed 03/2016)

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