When we look at a passage
that has specific terminology, e.g.
The great harlot in chapter
seventeen is the system of infidelity to God that governs the affairs of man,
the kingdom of man. It is what we call in some places human viewpoint, in
others the worldly or cosmic thinking that governs the world, all of the
thought systems that come together to give man the rationale for living life
apart from God, rejecting God, ignoring God, and taking God out of his
periphery. The focus is on infidelity, and that indicates the mentality of man,
the religious-political system that man adopts in his thinking to try to
justify his existence apart from God.
The beast in Revelation 17:3 represents a kingdom, not a king, and it is
under the influence of the great harlot.
The kingdom of man is
expressing the thought system of Satan which is characterized by two things:
arrogance and antagonism. Arrogance is when the creature asserts his authority,
his ability over God. He thinks he knows more than God does. That leads to
antagonism toward God and rejection of whatever God says and whatever God
stands for. Anytime someone is operating in the cosmic system, the world
system, and they are in complete arrogance then they will also be hostile to
the truth and hostile to God. So whenever anyone comes along and says anything
or does anything that emphasizes truth they are going to react in an extreme
manner to that because they have been trying to stuff God into a corner or back
into the deepest, darkest place in a closet in their brain, in their thinking,
and as soon as anyone comes along and talks about God then they get all angry
and upset. When we live in a culture that has become increasingly antagonistic
to Christianity and the Bible then it doesn’t take much for some people to get
really irritated and hostile towards Christians.
Revelation 13:1 NASB
“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a
beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his
horns {were} ten diadems, and on his heads {were} blasphemous names.” Here the
blasphemous names are on the heads. It depicts the Antichrist as the
personification of the kingdom of man as historically against God. So when we
begin to read here about this beast coming out of the sea, this is the time
when this beast is coming forth. It sounds initially as though we are talking
about the kingdom here, but when we start looking at what is described about
the head wound. And there are those who teach that the head wound is the
destruction of the kingdom, not a personal, fatal wound for the king himself.
But that seems to run contrary to what is said about the false prophet who is
described in 13:11ff where we are told that the second beast (the false
prophet) causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast
whose deadly wound was healed. So that doesn’t necessarily fit a kingdom. The
focus in 13:3ff really seems to be on the beast as an individual. Revelation
13:1-10 depicts the Antichrist as the personification of the kingdom of man. He
is the ruler, and the focus there is on an individual.
Revelation 13:7 NASB
“It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and
authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.”
That is a very strong statement because it comes after he comes out of the sea.
The point is that the beast coming out of the sea is related to the second
period of his career which is after the abomination of desolation, immediately
after his being healed and restored after the fatal head wound.
We see four beasts described
in Revelation. The first is the beast out of the abyss, mentioned in
Revelation 17:3 NASB
“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman
sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and
ten horns.” Here the blasphemous names aren’t on the horns, they just describe
the beast in general. The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet which
indicates wealth, power, authority, prestige. [4] “The woman was clothed in
purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,
having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of
her immorality.” The term “abomination” in Scripture is almost always associated
with idolatry, and “the unclean things of her immorality” reinforces the
infidelity of her religious loyalty. This is further explained in verse 12 NASB
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom,
but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour [short time].”
So the ten kings are distinct from the beast.
Revelation 17:5 NASB
“and on her forehead a name {was} written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’” This is the
source of all infidelity toward God. There is something mysterious that will be
revealed about
We get into new territory in
verse 6 where John says, NASB “And I saw the woman drunk with the
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw
her, I wondered greatly.” The word “saints” doesn’t indicate necessarily church
age believers. A saint is a sanctified one, it refers to any believer. In the
Old Testament there were saints who belonged to
Verses 7 & 8 define for
us what this mystery is a little further. NASB “And the angel said
to me, ‘Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the
beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.’” John is
astounded. “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out
of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose
name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,
will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.” So
there is the future revival of the old Babylonian system as an interconnected
political, social, economic and religious system. It is the finest expression
of human rebellious thought ever to exist in history. They will have their
golden age for an extremely short period of time.
When we stop and think about
verse 8, what is the time reference? John is living in 95 AD, so present tense
for John is 95 AD and “the beast that was” would indicate the past tense at
John’s time; “is not” would indicate that it didn’t exist in John’s time; “will
ascend” would indicate a future resurrection of that kingdom. But that doesn’t
fit because the kingdom is the second stage of the fourth beast, the revived
The point here is that if
verse 8 is referring to the career of the Antichrist and his resurrection or
resuscitation occurs when the second beast brings him back to life then what
this shows is that through demon possession there is a different aspect to his
reign after the mid-point of the Tribulation. He is going to be personally
empowered by either some demon or Abaddon who is the leader of those demons who
were imprisoned in the abyss, according to chapter nine. Or he is going to be
indwelt by Satan if indeed that is who that person is. Those who dwell on the
earth will marvel. They are not going to marvel as John did; he was shocked at
what happens on the earth and the hostility toward God. The earth dwellers
marvel because they are so impressed by the miracle of the beast being brought
back to life, and for them this means that he is the one who is really the
Messiah. So it just reaffirms his
credentials as a substitute Christ. The Greek anti
means substitute. But we see that also in how there is the play-off for the
title for God the Father that we see all through Revelation. God the Father is
the one who is and who was and who is to come. But here the beast is the one
who was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit. So it is a
play-off for the title for God because it shows that he is trying to be a
substitute for God. That is the historic role of Satan. The earth dwellers will
marvel when they see the beast coming back to life.
Revelation 17:9 NASB
“Here is the mind which has wisdom….” The explanation of what is seen. “… The
seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, [10] and they are
seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he
comes, he must remain a little while.” Here is the question: What do these
seven hills refer to? Many people down through the ages thought that this
relates to the
Historically there have been
seven kingdoms that have had power over
Daniel 17:23, 24 NASB
“Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which
will be different from all the {other} kingdoms and will devour the whole earth
and tread it down and crush it.
Revelation 17:12 NASB
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom,
but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.” So we have
gotten an understanding of what all these images represent. The beast
represents the fourth kingdom and the king in the end time of that kingdom that
was and is not and will ascend from the abyss. The seven heads on the beast
represent seven mountains or seven historical manifestations of the kingdom of
man. The beast that was and is not is the eighth king but he comes out of one
of the seven heads/kingdoms. The ten horns then equal ten kings that will get
their kingdoms in the future, the waters are the peoples, the multitudes, the
nations and tongues—representing the gentiles. Then in the last verse we are
going to be told that the woman equals the great city which reigns over the
kings of the earth. This is something that unifies all of the kingdoms of man.
What is it that is the same for all these kingdoms from the ancient Egyptians
right up to the future revived Roman empire? The one thing that they all have
in common is their assertion of their power and ability to make life work apart
from God and to bring in a kingdom on earth that is totally independent of God.
We see from this that the woman represents the religious-political-economic
philosophy of the cosmic system that unifies all of these different kingdoms
down through history.
When we get into the
Tribulation verse 13 says, “These have one purpose, and they give their power
and authority to the beast.” They are unanimous in their support for the
Antichrist. The beast is such a powerful charismatic figure that they are just
going to indiscriminately give over to him all of their power and authority and
let him rule the world. As part of that they are going to be in complete
antagonism to all Christians and Christianity in the end times. Revelation
Revelation
In verse 17 we are given the
divine viewpoint of God and what He is doing in the end time scenario.
Revelation 17:17 NASB “For God has put it in their hearts to execute
His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the
beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.” God has so removed the
restraint of evil that they are going to now demonstrate to its fullest extent
that the creature cannot be successful when he is living independently of the
creator. When he does it will always eventuate in the self-destruction of the
creature. Here God is allowing them in His permissive will to push their evil
desires to the fullest extent and the result is that the kingdom of the beast
utterly collapses. This will bring to completion all of the prophecies that God
has given down through the ages.
Revelation