Revelation

17.1-18

If reading of the end times chronologically, you would go from Revelation chapter 16, directly to chapter 19, skipping chapters 17 and 18. The seventh bowl judgment at the end of Revelation chapter 16 occurs immediately before Christ's glorious return on a white horse to "strike down the nations" in chapter 19. But in God's perfect way, while revealing to John the final days of before Christ claims His bride (19:7) and exerts the final wrath of God (19:15), He delivers a final glimpse of the world and what has become a world religion, depicted as a harlot. This chapter exposes the harlot and details her demise. An angel having one of the seven bowls from the previous chapter spoke to John saying, "Come here," to show him (v1). John was then carried away in spirit to a wilderness we can associate with the desert land where modern Babylon is located (today), observing this metaphorical harlot. She is not to be understood as a person, but as the religion enforced by the beast (Antichrist) identified with the seven heads and ten horns (v3). The name written on her forehead is the name of the religion and should read as "mystery BABYLON" to indicate that Babylon in this context does not refer to a geographic location. Babylon is the symbol of all worldly resistance to God (v5). The imagery of this vision is easier to understand when placing it accurately in history. From verse 10, the kings (kingdoms) represented are the same as from Revelation 12:3 (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Antichrist's future empire), but the timing being that of Christ's first coming makes the one that is ("one is") to be "Rome." The beast from verse 11 is one of the kings, who "was and is not" refering to Antichrist's faked death and resurrection. The final king/kingdom of the beast will last but for one hour (v12), which in actuality, is only 42 months. In verse 18, the woman is identified as "the great city." The angel's repeated reference to Babylon throughout chapters 17-18 indicates this is how we should also interpret this reference. Babylon will be closely identified with Antichrist's world empire, and obviously too with the world religion that worships him.

CHAPTER 17

The Woman and the Beast

1 Then one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.”
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; then I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And 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 sexual immorality,
5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
6 Then 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.
7 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.
8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and ego 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.
9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom. 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.
11 “And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.
12 “And 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.
13 “These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
14 “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and elect and faithful.”
15 And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and crowds and nations and tongues.
16 “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will lay waste to her and make her naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.
17 “For God gave it in their hearts to do His purpose both by doing their own common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be finished.
18 “And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.”