So last week we looked at the first part of Revelation 17. It was about the harlot woman riding the beast with seven heads and ten horns.

• We discovered that we were given more detail about this harlot woman whom we know already to be the Roman Catholic Church.
• It didn’t focus on the beast with seven heads and ten horns at all except for one detail. It seems to indicate that they are the kings of the earth.
• But this picture of the woman and the beast is not a picture familiar to us. The beast by itself is familiar which we have seen in Revelation 12 and Revelation 13.
• However, the harlot woman in Revelation 17 is Roman Catholic church and the beast of Revelation 13 with seven heads and ten horns is the Roman Catholic Church.
• What we want to look at today is the beast of Revelation 17 that carries this woman. Who is it.

Revelation 17:7
But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? 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.

• The angel is about to give the details of the woman and the beast. But as I said last week, the rest of the chapter is focused on the beast as we already know who this woman is without any doubt.
• So let’s have a look at the beast now.

Revelation 17:8
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Notice the verse is all about timing. The first sentence in the verse has past present and future.

• The beast that you saw was – that is past.
• And is not – that is present.
• And will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition – that is future.

And then the next sentence has a sense of timing to it as well.

• And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
• That is future tense.

So let’s view this on a table.

• We have the verse on the very left. And then we have the past, present and future columns after that.
• And in the past column, we put “was”.
• Present column, we put “is not”.
• In the future column we put the rest. It will ascend out of the bottomless pit. And when it comes out of the bottomless pit, those on the earth will wonder after it. And then it will go into perdition.
• Clearly there is more detail given in the future.

However, before we move on, what we need to establish is timing.

• You see the present tense. What present day is that?
• Is that John’s day? It is our day? Is it a time yet in the future to us? How do we know where we are in the timing of all of this?

Let’s go back to something we already looked at last week.

• Revelation 17:6
  I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
• This is a present tense statement.
• John sees the woman that she is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs.
• So this puts us after 1798 for sure.
• Could it put us after the mark of the beast time? Possibly.
• Except that we see this detail that is in the future in verse 7.
  • One day this beast will arise out of the bottomless pit. And when it comes out of the bottomless pit, all those who dwell on the earth will marvel.
• Where do we see this similar phrase?
  • Revelation 13:3
    And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
  • You see that word marveled? It is the same Greek word as the word marvel in Revelation 17:8.
• What is Revelation 13 here describing? How one day the deadly would of that beast would be healed.
• And what is the result of the healing of this deadly wound?
  • Revelation 13:12
    And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
  • When the deadly wound is healed, all the world is going to be forced to worship the first beast, the Roman Catholic Church.
• That there is talking about the mark of the beast that will come in at the end of time.

So coming back to our table.

• When we see there that “those who dwell on the earth will marvel,” that is referring to the mark of the beast situation.
• So we know the timing of the present. It is after 1798, but before the time when the mark of the beast comes in, the healing of the deadly wound.
• Which means that is after 1798 up until even our time right now. That is the present in this prophecy.

There is another present situation that we need to have a look at in Revelation 17 that we’ve already read before but probably didn’t mean much when we read it.

• Revelation 17:3
  So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
• Where does John see this woman and the beast? They are in the wilderness. Both the woman and the beast are in the wilderness together.

What is the meaning of the wilderness experience? Where have we seen the wilderness mentioned before in Revelation?

• Revelation 12:6
  Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
• God’s true church, God’s people, during the dark ages, they ran into the wilderness where God would protect them and feed them.
• What did the wilderness experience represent? It was a place of hiding.
• Notice, the wilderness is not a time period. It is not referring to 1260 years, 538 to 1798 AD.
• God’s people were basically in hiding. You couldn’t find them. You could walk down the main street in town and find God’s church set up there.
• Basically, they were not there.

Coming back to Revelation 17. We see the woman and the beast in the wilderness.

• What does that mean? The woman and the beast are in hiding. Basically, it is as if they don’t exist.
• What does exist during this time between 1798 and the time leading up to the mark of the beast? The woman does exist.
• Remember, this chart is mapping out the description of the beast.
• It was and then it is NOT.
• You can’t see the beast! It is not with the woman. All we see is the woman, the church, during this time. All we see even right now is the Roman Catholic Church.

There is another detail that we need to look at here before we move on to the next verse. It is something on the table already that is in the future.

• It says that one day it will ascend out of the bottomless pit.
• What does the word bottomless pit mean? We have actually seen these words used before in Revelation.
• The word bottomless pit means abyss.
• Where have we see this word abyss before?
• Genesis 1:2
  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
• The word deep there is the word abyss. Before God created anything on the earth, it was without form, it was void. It was desolate. It was basically a wilderness.
• The woman and the beast were in the wilderness. They are in It is as if they are not together. Only the woman is visible.
• So the bottomless pit experience that the beast will ascend out of one day is the wilderness experience which it is currently in.

Lastly, before moving on. The last detail there mentioned is that it will go into perdition one day.

• The word perdition simply means destruction. So the beast will come to an end. This is the last act, it’s last dance. After that it will be destroyed. Afterall, this is the judgment of the great harlot.
• We are brought to the pouring out of the seven last plagues and even hellfire. This power will no longer rule the earth anymore.

Revelation 17:9
“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.

This could be literal, this could be symbolic. Do we see seven mountains that are literally connected with the Roman Catholic Church and in particular the Vatican city? They are more like seven hills.

• However, Constantinople was also on seven hills. And likewise Moscow is also situation on seven hills.
• We’re not going to go into the literal application of this. But we do see that a mountain can also represent a kingdom.
• Jeremiah 51:25
  “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth,” says the LORD. “And I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.
• This prophecy is referring to the kingdom of Babylon. You can read that in context in the previous verse. So therefore a mountain can also represent a kingdom.

This is exactly what we see in the next verse in Revelation 17.

Revelation 17:10
There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

Now we see seven kings. This is most likely the application that we see in regards to the mountains.

• There is proof of this earlier in the chapter as well.
• We see in verse 1 that the harlot sits on many waters. And in verse 2, the kings of the earth are the ones who have committed fornication with her.
• And this woman in verse 9 is sitting on the seven mountains.
• So it’s not a stretch to say that the 7 kings that are mentioned in verse 10 are the 7 mountains.

However, we also see timing in verse 10 as well. Past, present and future.

• Five are fallen – that’s past.
• One is – that’s the present.
• The other has not yet come, but when he comes he will continue only a short time – all that is in the future.

This is how it looks on our table.

Who are these kings?

• Note, they are political powers because they are kings.
• And all that we have seen of kings so far in prophecy is that they represent world powers.
• Let’s start with the world power we are familiar with in this time. The world superpower that came up around 1798 and is a big part of Bible prophecy at the end of time.
• The United States of America.
• Then what are the five kings that we have seen in the past that have ruled the world?
  • Babylon.
  • Medo-Persia.
  • Greece.
  • Rome.
  • Roman Catholic Church.

Who is the seventh head?

• We will see that later in the chapter.

Now let’s continue for now.

Revelation 17:11
The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

Notice the description that is given here.

• The beast that was, and is not.
  • That is the beast with the first six heads.
  • Because was – that is five that are fallen.
  • Is not – that is one that currently is.
  • So the total is only six heads.
• And then it says: “is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.”
  • This eighth head goes into perdition.
  • Where have we seen any head go into perdition?
  • That is in the future. The seventh head will go into perdition.
  • So all this description that we see here in verse 11 is also in the future.

But wait a minute, where did this eighth head come from? I thought there were only seven heads.

What does the number eight represent in the Bible?

• The number eight represents resurrection.
• Jesus was resurrected on the eighth day. Yes, it was the first day of the week but it was also the eighth.
• Noah and his family were 8 people. The flood represents baptism. So when they came out of the ark, it was like a resurrection. The earth was made new.

So this eighth head is not really a new head that has suddenly come into the picture. This head is a resurrection of one of the seven heads.

• However, it really is only a resurrection of one of the six heads.
• The eighth head is not the seventh head. We will still look at the seventh head in a little bit.
• However, you can’t resurrect something that is already alive and in the present. It will be a revival of one of the past 6 heads.
• Remember the description given in Revelation 17:11?
• Revelation 17:11
  The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
  • The beast that was, and is not – that is the past and also the present that we see here on our table.
  • Was – the five that are fallen.
  • Is not – the one that is.
• We will see one of these heads revived.

Which head is resurrected or revived?

• Well this is an easy answer.
• Which head was it that received a deadly wound and which would one day be healed?
• That’s the head of the papacy!
• But this is not the religious part of the Roman Catholic church. It’s the political part.
• Remember, in Revelation 13 we read this.
  • Revelation 13:2
    Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
  • This is where the deadly wound was inflicted. The political power was taken away.
  • That political power will be healed in the future one day.
  • We see that in Revelation 13 as USA speaking like a dragon.

Revelation 17:12
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.

Notice that there is present tense and future tense in this verse.

• The ten horns (who are the ten kings) have received no kingdom as yet.
  • This is present tense.
• The ten kings will receive a kingdom one day and also receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
  • This is future tense.
• So this is how we see it on our table.
• However, really this is focusing on the future. The Bible is simply telling us that the ten horns will exist in the future.
• So this seventh head is simply ruled by the ten horns that sit on the top of it.

Who are the ten horns?

• Let’s read the next verse first.
• Revelation 17:13
  These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
• The ten horns have one mind and they will give their power and authority to the beast one day.
• This is all in the future.
• So you see on our table that most of what Revelation 17 describes is in the future when the mark of the beast issue comes in.
• So who are the ten horns?
  • It is all the kingdoms of the world united with one mind.
  • We don’t believe in one world order today – one kingdom ruling the whole world.
  • Even today with USA as a world superpower, it doesn’t rule the whole world.
  • But other nations will be united with them. Have the same mind and purpose with them.
• This is what will happen at the end of time.
• Philippians 2:5
  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
  • Just as Christ wants us to have the same mind as Him, He is not making us all the same entity. We are still separate entities.
• John 17:22
  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
  • Would the disciples be literally one? No. But they would be one in mind.
• These are separate kingdoms but they are united in their minds to give their power and strength to the beast.
• This is what we call New World Order.

These 10 horns line up more clearly with what we see in Daniel 2.

• Daniel 2:42
  And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
  • The ten toes. They represent all the kingdoms of the world united at the end of time.
  • Notice that is says “kingdom” – singular.
  • It is not the 10 horns in Daniel 7. That is clearly the 10 tribes that pulled Pagan Roman empire apart. Not the same timeline.
• And these ten horns at the end of time will have one mind and will give their power and authority to the beast.

We are at verse 13, but we skipped an important element in verse 12.

• They would receive power as king for how long?
  • One hour with the beast.
• How long is one hour in prophetic time? It is 15 days.
• Not only will the seven last plagues be short, but the time of the mark of the beast will be short as well.
  • This is referring to the time when the death decree has been put forth already.
• There are stages to the Sunday law. It doesn’t start straight away with a death decree.
  • There will be fines and imprisonment.
  • And there will be inducements as well.
• But the final part of the Sunday law will be the death decree. And this is what that time is referring to.
• All the kingdoms of the world will be united with one purpose. To put to death all of God’s saints who are not worshipping with them at that time.

What are the ten horns doing by giving this beast all their power?

Revelation 17:14
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

They will make war with the Lamb.

• They are fully under the banner of Satan to war against Christ.
• But how do they war against the Lamb?
  • By persecuting and killing the saints of God.
  • They cannot touch God in heaven, but they will hurt Him by attacking His children on earth.

However, all their effort will be in vain. The Bible says that the Lamb will overcome them.

• We have seen this already in the seven last plagues.
• We have seen this in Revelation 14 where there is presented the 2 harvests.
• God’s word is sure. And the outcome will be certain.

However, we are given characteristics of those that will overcome with Christ.

• They are called, chosen and faithful.
• What does this mean?
• These characteristics are so important, we will spend a study on this. It applies to us. We want to be part of that group. We want to know what it will take to be overcomers with Christ.

Revelation 17:15-16
15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. 16 And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

We have seen what the water represents already in verse 15.

But notice what it says in verse 16. The ten horns that are on the beast will turn around and hate the whore and make her desolate.

• It sounds like total destruction.
• These are the ten horns that just a moment before we read this.
• Revelation 17:12-13
  12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
• They will give their power and strength to the beast upon which the woman is riding and in total control.
• But at the end, they will turn around and attack the harlot that is riding the beast.

Just like during the dark ages, it was a French king that gave power to the papacy to give him total dominion over the then known world. And it would be another French king that would take away the dominion and power of the papacy.

• Revelation 13:10
  He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword…

Revelation 17:17-18
17 For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

This is the judgment of the harlot that rides the beast with seven heads and ten horns.

• That great city which will reign over the kings of the earth is the Vatican city.
• There will be a unity of all the kings of the earth. They will have one mind. There will be a new world order.
• That day is soon to come.
• And God’s people need to understand what it means to be called, chosen and faithful.