Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Chapter 17 does not follow 16 in a chronological order, it is another one of those parenthetical chapters that we talked about in an earlier chapter. It will give us some very important information. Chapter 17 and 18 are treated by some people as two totally different subjects. Some treat 17 a Mystery Babylon the great harlot religion, and they treat Chapter 18 as a commercially rebuilt Babylon located in Iraq. Personally, I think Chapter 17 and 18 are talking about the same identical thing. Chapter 17 we are introduced to Mystery Babylon, Chapter 18 we see her judgment, and the first few verses of Chapter 19 tell us who would be in Heaven at the time that she has been judged. Rev. 17:1 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: 2 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. 3 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. 4 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: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 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. 7 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. Now we see a very mysterious thing, we see a woman dressed in scarlet color. Throughout the world's history this color has seemed to follow harlots. This one happens to be a high priestess of Babylonian worship, so she has the name Mystery and Blasphemy upon her.
This woman has a great golden cup in her hand. Who is the woman? She is riding on the back of a strange beast, on the heads of that beast are written the names of blasphemy. He is also scarlet colored. He has seven heads and ten horns. Who is he? The scripture is going to tell us who they are. It seems that wherever this beast goes he carries the woman. The beast gets to go wherever he wants because the woman helps him to go there. So they have this partnership. This woman is riding on a dangerous beast, she should have listened to what Confuses said: "He who rides tiger must not get off." She is going to have trouble. Who is the woman? She is the Babylonian religion that is found in the Roman Catholic Church of today. By this time in the future the Roman Catholic Church will dominate the entire religious scene. Who is the beast? It is the revived Roman Empire. Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Rev. 17:8 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. 9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 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. The beast is the same beast that we have been seeing all through our study. It is the gentile world power system. The identities of the heads are as follows Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the final head is the New revived Roman Empire. Rome s leader is a "beast that was, and is not, and yet is." This is a reference to the Antichrist that will die and then come to life again. This beast is taking its final form right now. Remember how the whole world united to kick Sadam out of Kuwait? I have suggested that the Antichrist will come from there, do you see how easy it would be for a leader of that little country to get the world to unite? There are a few more things that I want to point out in our text. If we look at the people who dominated the world we have seven different mountains in history, every one of them had this in common, the Babylonian religion dominated all of them, making their rulers into gods. The rulers couldn't rule their dynasties without the support and aid of the priests. A man that can make you a god can turn you right back into a human being. These kings would have to sell their souls to Babylonian whore. There are seven kings. Five are fallen, (We are looking through the eyes of John, we are seeing this during his life time.), Five are fallen, the Egyptians are gone, the Assyrians are gone, the Babylonians are gone, the Persians are gone, and the Greeks have passed from the scene. The only one of the seven still existed during John s time was the Roman Caesar. Seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come. The Antichrist and his form of the Roman Empire had not yet come, and it would be a good while before he makes it on the scene. Then the text says, "when he cometh, he must continue a short space." The Roman Empire lasted almost a thousand years, and in the East it lasted longer than that. Alexander the Great's empire lasted about 300 years before that had been gobbled up, and the others lasted a few hundred years. The Antichrist is only going to get a kingdom that lasts only seven years. He continues for a very short space. Now in verse eleven we see that the "beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth." When we hear about "the beast that was and is not," remember an earlier chapter when the Antichrist was wounded to death. When he receives the deadly wound, he is not. But then he is resurrected, he is. He is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. Perdition meaning Hell.
Rev. 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12 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. This sounds like a riddle doesn't it? The Antichrist is the creator of an eighth empire. He wants to make everybody worship him as God. He is taking this final Roman Empire with the ten kings and tries to turn it into a global empire. Almost everybody on the face of the earth is under him, this new empire. It will be like Julius Caesar who came to a Republic ruled by Senators, where the ruler must answer to the senate and its laws. Julius Caesar using his armies forced the senate to make decisions that changed the Republic into an Empire. The place was still Rome but instead of a republic. It is now an Empire. Caesar now reigns all powerful. This would be like the president of the United States declaring a national emergency today and invoke certain laws, declaring "I am your leader until this problem is solved." He would turn the republic into an empire. He could then make the armies do his bidding. The law is on his side because of executive order. Our whole society would be turned upside down and we would not have one constitutional right left. Until that man declared the emergency is over, he has that power. From this verse we get this impression that the kingdom of these ten kings doesn't even exist at this moment (the moment of John's vision), but their kingdom will exist in the future when Rome has split into many nations. We also get the impression that as the Antichrist is to come into power, there are also ten very special individuals waiting to take control of ten different governments. In this whole process they all arrive on the scene at about the same time and they decide to pull all of the kingdoms together. All of them gain glory, authority and power by empowering this one man (Antichrist). Rev. 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 14 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. They will gather together and make war against Jesus Christ. Understand that Jesus Christ is coming back. It might be possible if they all laid their swords down, bowed down and said we know that you (Jesus) are the rightful ruler of this planet, our creator, we have all been wrong, we are laying down our swords, and we are asking you to forgive us, then the whole outcome would be different. God already knows that they are not going to do that, they are literally going to go to war against Jesus Christ.
Now when the Lord comes, he is going to have an army with him. Who makes up this army? The scripture tells us, "they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." The scripture is not talking about angels. Do you know whom it is talking about? These are the believers. Every man or woman that God saves, he has given a calling. We are all called, maybe to different positions and responsibilities. A person can be called to be a prayer warrior, a person can be called to be a tither, a person can be called a church attendee (I wish God would call more of those). Notice the verse says "faithful," faithful to God in everything, life and work. "Called Faithful and chosen," God calls everybody but it is up to you to be faithful to do what God has called you to do. God is going to choose you, here is how it starts, first God chooses you to be saved. Then calls you to be faithful to come to church, read your Bible and live a Christian life. God will do more choosing. Choose you to teach a Sunday School class, to sing a special song, and then if you are faithful in that God might choose something else for you to do. He may send you to be a pastor or a missionary somewhere. He just keeps calling you to a larger and larger responsibility in the service in the Lord. Maybe one man who is faithful to be a Pastor might find himself in a church administration position somewhere overseeing a hundred churches, insuring that they are doing well. One of these days Jesus is going make the final choice in rapturing the chosen out of the earth. He is going to rapture the faithful not the unfaithful, he will choose the faithful and they will go to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Our works will follow us up. He chooses the faithful and gives them ten cities, five cities, to have responsibility over. So the people that will come back with Him are the faithful ones that he can count on. When you go into battle you don't the cowards behind you, they might get shaking so badly that they could shoot you in the back. You want a man that is proven faithful in the battle, a man that will protect your life more than his own, the man that you can depend on. The Lord has given us a lifetime to show how dependable that we are. Rev. 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. We are talking about the Whore here, and we have heard some things about her earlier. We have heard that she is a great city, and she is sitting over many waters, that she rules from ocean to ocean, sea to sea over many people, by this end time she is ruling practically over everybody. Rev. 17:16 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. 17 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. 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Who is the woman that rides the beast? We have looked at the beast and seen world Gentile powers starting from Egypt continues to the Roman Empire followed by the Antichrist's eighth kingdom, (which we refer to as the revived Roman Empire). This woman has a golden cup, we have seen her during our study of the Seven Churches in the church of Pergamos and Thyatira (Chapter 2 of this study guide). We have a woman known as the Mona Lisa of Nimrod, or Semiramis. Most of the Madonna's that you see in different churches and cultures are just Mystery Babylon under different guises. Wherever the Catholic church went they just renamed whatever fertility goddess they encountered "Mary." That is why so many different customs and rituals are wrapped around Mary in so many different countries. They were all fertility goddesses that were worshipped in their own way. The local people wouldn't give up their fertility goddess. Semiramis Nimrod's Mona Lisa Nimrod Mother and Son Ruling Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult
Goddess Dianna Mystery Before and After the Flood Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult Mother/Child Cult This is the beginnings of all the Mystery religion, and she moves from Babylon over a period of time to Rome and became the Roman Catholicism as we know it today Notice that the woman on the beast has a gold cup in her hand. Here we have a statue of a woman from Babylon and they are worshiping her and she has a cup in her hand. This woman still has that cup in her hand. Look at this picture, it is a coin made by the Roman Catholic Church, you see Leo the twelfth on one side and the other side is a woman with a cup in her hand. Does this look like the Statue of Liberty to anyone? It does because that woman that you see there was the fertility goddess of Egypt and the man in France that designed the Statue of Liberty used her as a model for the Statue of Liberty. The Roman Catholic Church uses that woman to represent themselves with the cup in her hand. Now you see this woman, and she is a city (Rome), she rules over many peoples. No matter where you go in this world the Roman Catholic church has churches, priests, authority, power, and a material wealth. This is why the Antichrist will desire to take her.
Her final leader will be the man that declares that the Antichrist is God. He will divorce himself from the Roman Church. The Roman Church has a bureaucracy that is entrenched. They do not care who the Pope is, they have their own ambitions and they will use him to get those ambitions. This man is going to leave them. What will happen to this religious system after he leaves them? This system by this time has created the one world religion. If you don't believe in a One World Church then you better look at all of the church unity movements going on around the world. Even within the Charismatic and Pentecostal groups there is a push for unity, it has even had its hand in the holiness groups and they should know better. I am not for getting together with just anyone, I just want to worship God, do what I feel he is leading me to do. I do not want the overlords of religion to get between me and what God is trying to tell me. You need to be careful, the larger the organizations the less sensitive are the people over you. Unspiritual people are going to start controlling you and telling you how you are going to worship God. This is why the Protestant Reformation came. The almighty infallible Pope came telling us that we couldn't read our Bible that we had to believe that piece of bread was God. Protestants wanted to be able to base their Christianity solely on faith and scripture. Just join one of those groups and see if you lose that right. There is a one world religion is forming right now. Pope & Arafat Pope & Greek Orthodox Pope & Anglican Pope & Dalai Lama Pope & Barak Pope & Weizman
This is the woman, clothed in scarlet. Scarlet is the color of the cardinals robes. Do you know why they have that color scarlet on their robes? It dates back from the Babylonian Priests. These men were called "Men of Vermin" meaning "the men that wore red robes." Do you know why they wore red? Red robes don't show blood as bad as other colors. They were slaying little babies with knives, so they had these red robes. The name cardinal is also a pagan title that means "keeper of the hens." This is Saint Peters all decked out in scarlet. This church is the woman of the cup, if we had this wall of communion cups we would build a cathedral ourselves, and I can guarantee the worth of these jeweled beauties is worth more than the church building of the church that I pastor right now.
We will see how she has lived deliciously, and how this woman is drunk with the blood of the saints. Sixty eight-million Protestants were put to death under her hand during the two hundred years of the Reformation. Here again is William Tyndale who was killed by the Roman Catholic Church for no other crime then bringing us the Bible in the English Language. The church didn't want the Bible in just the common mans hand. From pagan Rome the Christians are thrown to the lions in the Coliseum to the current time Rome continues to persecute the true believer. Rome is opposing true Christianity anywhere and everywhere she can, so it is a city literally where the streets were built on the blood of Protestant saints. This is from the Reformation and it stems from the fact that they say it this bread is the body of Jesus and we say it is a representation of his body, if we believe it is really the body of Christ and we eat it we are committing an act of idolatry. We are worshiping it, we are assigning Christ's divinity to it, if we eat it with this belief in our hearts and minds we are committing idolatry. Do you know what God's word says, "do not make an image of anything in heaven, in earth, or under the earth?" If the bread is Christ then we have created an idol.
This is from a wall in the presidential palace in Mexico City and it gives a little bit if the history of Mexico. The heretics (Protestants) being tortured during the inquisition, they are burning them at the stake because they will not agree with the Catholic faith.
We are told that Mystery Babylon is a great city. We are told that the ten kings are going to turn against it and destroy the city. It will only take an hour to do this. To destroy a city in such a short amount of time would have to have something like a nuclear bomb exploded upon it. It happens suddenly and quickly.