“The Woman & The Beast”
Last week we looked at the seven bowls which were God’s final judgments for man on earth.
This would be the end of the Tribulation period, which would end with Jesus coming back to earth and stopping the Battle of Armageddon.
Up until now John has revealed the events that were given to him in chronological order, or in the order that they would happen.
But in chapter 17 he goes away from this and looks back to the rise to power of the Antichrist and the world church.
It is sort of like he tells us what is going to happen and then goes into detail of events.
Revelation 17:1-8
The two main characters in this chapter are a woman and a beast.
Joke: One in the same
Most of you are probably reading from the NIV Bible and in verse 1 John says one of the 7 angels who had the seven bowls shows him the punishment of the prostitute.
Now the NIV calls her a prostitute because it sounds better to use in our churches today.
But when the angel who was sent from God spoke to John she was called a much stronger term which I am sure you know what it is. Dragnet!
If you are not clear of the term just look in the King James and you will find it.
The angel labeled this woman with this name because it is the worse thing that anyone can call a woman.
The Bible uses this awful term to symbolize a spiritual departure of God and His Truth by individuals, by cities, and by nations.
The absolute worse thing anyone can ever do in his or her lifetime is to depart from God.
So this awful term coincides with this awful act.
When John sees her he finds her repulsive and why not? Look at the way she appears and in verse 5 we are told she has her title on her forehead.
Illustration: Tattoos
But who is this woman than John finds repulsive?
The woman is Babylon and the most disgusting thing that John finds about her is that she is drunk.
Not on alcohol but on the blood of the saints. What does this mean?
Do you remember how the false prophet convinced the people to follow his teaching which eventually led them to accepting the Antichrist?
In other words Babylon is reeling in the fact that it was the church that was led astray.
It was the believers, the Christians, those who followed Christ, the saints that the Antichrist thrived on.
Illustration: The Prodigal Son
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
This happened because of those people who love the world more that they love God.
Illustration: People do this everyday.
And this woman Babylon was able to lure world leaders as well as the common man.
Years ago Protestant Reformers used to think that the Pope was the Antichrist and the Roman Catholic Church was Babylon.
That is why they called themselves Protestants, because they protested the Catholic Church.
They accused the Catholic Church was trying to draw all religions to them to form a one world religion.
They stated the reason that church attendance was down was due to the Catholic Religion drawing from other religions.
That had nothing to do with it. The reason there has been a decline in attendance is because of watered down Christianity.
Illustration: Afraid of telling the truth to the people. Example: Ray Boltz
So when was the birth of this Babylon?
Babylon had always practiced sorcery and astrology and it’s first dictator was Nimrod which means "We will revolt".
Daniel was in Babylon when the King had a dream and the king called in magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and chaldeans to interpret the dream.
We know that Babylon was ruled by this occult influence and the religion of Babylon passed from empire to empire.
The mystery of the woman is that she will have the same occult practices as Babylon.
This is what John is referring to when he says in verse 2 that the kings all had adultery with her.
Thus luring the world leaders to follow the false prophet and the Antichrist.
Revelation 17:9-18
The woman sat on the beast and in verse 9&10 we are told that the beast had seven heads.
These are the seven hills or the seven kingdoms of the city of Rome.
The Babylon religions were controlling Rome in John’s day and Rome was the center of pagan worship.
John tells us that 5 have fallen, one is, and the other is still to come.
He is referring to those great world empires from the time of Nimrod.
1. Assyria
2. Egypt
3. Babylon of Daniels day
4. Medo-Persia
5. Greece
All these cities were filled occultic beliefs that originated in Babylon.
When he says "one is" he is referring to the great empire of his day which was Rome.
"The other is not yet to come" is the seventh head or kingdom which will be the revival of the Roman empire.
The seventh head is different from the other six because it has ten horns on it.
This indicates that this seventh will be made up of ten nations which will unite.
But this revived Roman Empire will become dominated by the same Babylonian religion.
Although the beast we are looking at in this chapter has only 7 heads, John says it briefly sprouts another.
The 8th head speaks of both the Antichrist himself and his kingdom which emerges during the last half of the Tribulation.
When the Antichrist comes together with Satan in the middle of the Tribulation his kingdom at that point will take on a different tone.
The world will worship the beast instead of the harlot and the Antichrist will destroy the harlot.
