THE REVELATION OF JESUS
REVELATION 17
"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 that had the plagues. He see it in the wilderness— this brings our minds to the period of the 1260 years the Roman church ruled the world when the persecuted people of God were forced into obscurity in the wilderness. Now as we see this scene this persecuting power is drunken with the blood of martyrs, she has already committed the 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 pegs our time very accurately to the end of the 1260 year period of Papal Rule in the Dark Ages, The timing is important so we can get the message this chapter has for us today. What does he see? A woman, which represents 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, which is 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, who claims to belong to Jesus, has relations with all these 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 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!! This also tell us that this scene takes place just at the end of the 1260 years when she persecuted God's true people as she is seen drunken with their blood. 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 showing to John, it is towards the end of the 1260 years. 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; and what it means is 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; and now we see that this beast, when it comes 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. It is interesting to note that Rome is often referred to as the city on 7 hills or mountains. 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, verse 7, and 7 kings are the same. They represent all the powers Satan has used to fight against God and His truth and His faithful people throughout the 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 2 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 2 horned USA beast/head follows the Leopard-like Papal beast/head. In this prophecy the Papal head is just about to be 'killed to death'. 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 Belshazar, the last
king of Babylon. The vision he is given 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. (Belshazar was still on the throne.)
Daniel's
vision disregards Babylon as one of the kingdoms of Bible prophecy because
it was in its very final moments of ruling the world. 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 about; the 'One World Government' aka 'New World Order'. This is actually the U.N. activated and backed up by the might of the USA, and 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 and it can once again persecute heretics— it was one of the seven and now —it comes again, it shall go into perdition; in other words it will continue until the end of all things and be destroyed by 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 world leaders and powers have 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 the way they can best get the people under control— by using a religious power. 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 all 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 hearts 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 'have no kingdom yet'-—but will rule with the Papal beast under the say-so of the two horned beast speaking like a dragon. In other words, we see here again another 3 fold union and it is the same as the Beast, the False Prophet and the Dragon— the Papacy, Apostate- Americanized Protestantism- 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? |
