In our previous episode, we began a study of Revelation 17, titled “Mystery Babylon.” I stated that this text records scenes from John’s vision of the final world religion, pictured as a prostitute, and God’s judgment upon her. We looked at the first scene, Mystery Babylon identified, and then began exploring the second scene, Mystery Babylon explained. We didn’t finish that discussion, so that’s where we’ll pick up this time.

Verse 9 begins with the sentence, “Here is the intelligence which has wisdom.” This is similar to the expression in 13:18, where discernment is needed to identify the Antichrist by his name and the number of his name. This tells us that what follows is a difficult and complex aspect of the vision. Perhaps only those alive at the time will fully understand it.

“The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.” Many commentators assume the angel is speaking of Rome, a city built on seven hills, and that the woman is the Roman Catholic Church. However, this seems to narrow the scope of the revelation; the Antichrist’s empire is worldwide. Nor can the woman be the Roman Catholic Church, since, as noted [earlier], verse 18 identifies her as the city of Babylon. Also, “when the woman sits on the ‘many waters,’ this must be taken as metaphorical since it is interpreted in verse 15; when the woman sits upon ‘a scarlet-colored beast,’ this again is symbolic; thus, when she sits upon the ‘seven mountains,’ this too must be figurative.” Finally, the angel’s call for spiritual discernment would have been pointless if the seven mountains were an obvious geographical reference to Rome.[1]

We should also note that the symbolic use of mountains in the Old Testament typically refers to world empires (Zechariah 4:7; Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:35). The best rendering of verses 9 and 10 is, “…the seven heads are seven mountains, where the Woman sits upon them, and are seven kings (or personified kingdoms).” The mountains, then, are not piles of material rocks and earth at all, but royal or imperial powers, declared to be such by the angel himself. When the Scripture interprets itself for us, we are not free to add our own interpretation!

This woman, the prostitute, rides upon empires, kings, and powers of the world, and inspires, leads, and controls them. She herself is not one of them, and is above all of them so that they seek her favor, and are bewitched and governed by her, lured by her fornication. This Woman is longer-lived than any one empire. She bears the name of Babylon, and is not destroyed until the day of judgment. The seven imperial mountains on which she rides must therefore fill up the whole interval. Seven is itself the number of fullness, which includes the whole of its kind. The reference here is to kings, to mountains of temporal dominion, to empires. It must therefore take in all of them.[2]

The angel says that five of the seven kings have fallen, or more literally, fell. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word is constantly used to describe the violent fall or overthrow of kings or kingdoms (Ezek. 29:5, 30:6; Isa. 21:9; Jer. 50:15, 51:8). One king (kingdom) is currently reigning (at the time John was writing), and one is yet to come.

So, what are we to make of this? First, we know only the Roman Empire existed when John was writing the Revelation. That means five kingdoms or empires had already fallen. Preceding Rome, the world had but five great names likened to imperial Rome. They are Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. These were all imperial powers like Rome, and all were involved in idolatrous religious practices. Here, then, are six of these regal mountains; the seventh has not yet come. However, when the 7^th one comes, he must continue in power for a short time. That seems to imply that the others, before him, endured for longer periods of time.

Surely other great kingdoms of the world existed, like China, India, and the Incas. However, they only had peripheral contact with the Word of God and the chosen people. Only six kingdoms met both criteria up to the time of Christ and the apostles. Furthermore, all six of these were not only legitimate heirs of political Babel but also of religious Babel as well. Babylonia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome were all strongholds of the world religion of evolutionary pantheism and idolatrous polytheism. Thus, they appropriately are represented as six heads on the great beast that supports the harlot.[3]

That raises the question: what about the four kingdoms mentioned in Daniel 7? Daniel makes the number less because he started with his own time. He only looked forward. Here, the account looks backward as well as forward. Daniel’s first is the third here, and what is the sixth here is the fourth in Daniel. Only the beginning point differs. The visions of Daniel and the visions of John are from the same Divine source, and they perfectly harmonize, only that John’s visions are fuller. That shouldn’t surprise us since John lived approximately 600 years after Daniel, and Daniel was not permitted to see or know things that were later revealed to John.

 As surely as Rome in John’s day, and Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt before Rome, existed and ruled on earth as regal mountains, so surely were they each and all ridden by this great Harlot. Those kingdoms were the lovers, supporters, and defenders of organized falsehood in religion, the patrons of idolatry, the friends of all manner of spiritual harlotry. Nimrod, the hunter of Genesis 10 and author of tyrannical government, established his idolatrous inventions as the crown and glory of his empire, Babylon. He intertwined idol worship with the standards of his power. The same was true of all of the succeeding empires.

Further, the angel said, “The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and [belongs to] the seven, and is going to perdition” (verse 11). The “eighth” king (a masculine noun) can only be that of the beast himself. He encompasses all the evil characteristics of the seven before him, but especially those of the founder of all seven, the first Babel.

One may ask, “How can the beast (Antichrist) be an eighth king and also one of the seven?” The answer lies in the phrase the beast … was and is not. Antichrist will be one of the seven kings before his supposed fatal wounding and resurrection and an eighth king afterward during the second phase of his rule. As noted earlier in verse 8, Antichrist will go to destruction—eternal damnation in the lake of fire. Unlike the first six, God will directly destroy his empire.

The final form of world government, symbolized by the eighth beast itself, is the world empire of the great tribulation time. Remember, Daniel’s fourth empire, the revived Roman Empire, will “devour the whole earth.” None of the previous empires ruled the entire world. This final empire, which will rule immediately after the rapture of the church, is apparently indicated by the seventh head. At the same time, the beast, described in verse 11 as the eighth, is the world empire, which Jesus Christ destroys at His second coming. Verses 8 through 11 describe the final form of Gentile world power in alliance with apostate religion, symbolized by the harlot.

The closing verses of the chapter take us to the final scene…

In the Final SCENE is,

            She is Judged

            John is informed that the 10 horns he saw on the beast were “ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings [along] with the beast.” It is these ten kings who will ultimately decide the fate of the prostitute, Mystery Babylon.

These kings do not rule in succession but simultaneously at the end time. Their rule as kings is subject to that of the beast itself, and their area of power is brief. They are a phase in the spread of power from the various kingdoms to the beast itself. This is shown by verse 13, where it is said that these have one mind and shall give their power and strength to the beast. Just as the dragon gave both power and authority to the beast (Rev. 13:2), so they are wholly at the service of the beast. They will “hand over” their power/authority to him.

Further, they “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.” Revelation 16:13-14 records this gathering for war. “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”

The Lamb is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ultimate subjugation of these kings under the Lamb is destined to be fulfilled at the second coming. This triumph is anticipated in verse 14, where the Lamb is prophesied to overcome them. John describes this battle in detail in chapter 19.

Those on the side of the Lamb, ultimately the winning side, are called, chosen, and faithful. The terms are rich in their definition of believers as the elect, chosen in the Son before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4); the called, summoned in time by the Father to repentance and faith that saves (John 6:44); and faithful, demonstrating the true saving faith, the genuine eternal life that endures by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:9).[4]

John was told, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” The great harlot that will be judged is not an actual prostitute. The term is a metaphor for false religion, idolatry, and religious apostasy. The situation described here is one of great political power for the beast, but a shared rule with the woman who controls the world’s multitudes. However, this shared rule will not last. These 10 kings and the beast will turn on the prostitute with a divinely motivated vengeance.

John was told, “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot [Mystery Babylon], make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.” The destruction of the harlot reduces all her expensive jewelry and gorgeous robes to ashes. She is stripped of them, her flesh is eaten, and she is burned with fire. Incidentally, this was the same punishment prescribed in Leviticus 21:9 for the daughter of a priest who profaned her father by becoming a harlot. These graphic words clearly picture the downfall of the apostate church.

After using the prostitute to help him gain control of the world, the beast (Antichrist) will discard her. Since he worships the god of military power (Daniel 11:38), he will likely covet the harlot’s vast wealth to finance his military buildup. Thus, he will turn on the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire. That graphic language of extreme violence makes clear that Antichrist and his followers will utterly destroy all traces of the false religious system.

The divine judgment inflicted upon apostate Christendom follows a pattern evident in other judgments upon wicked nations and ungodly rulers. Ancient Babylon was used to bring affliction upon the people of Israel, as were Assyria and Egypt. But in due time, the same nations that inflicted divine judgment became the objects of God’s wrath. The principle involved is plainly stated in verse 17. Their action is inspired by a blasphemous attempt to institute a world religion contrary to divine revelation; nevertheless, it fulfills God’s will that the kingdoms of the world should come under the domain of the beast, “until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” So, God’s plan for the ages unfolds majestically, and Scripture indicates that God sovereignly permits the increase of wickedness until the cup of iniquity is full and overflowing.

By comparing scriptures, the time of this event may be placed approximately at the midpoint of the seven years of Daniel’s seventieth week. During the first half of the seven years, apostate Christendom flourishes and establishes its power over all the world. During this period there is a measure of religious freedom as indicated by the fact that the Jews are allowed to worship and renew their sacrifices (Dan. 9:27). There may also be widespread preaching of the gospel, as it would hardly seem possible to extend religious freedom to the Jews without doing the same for all.

However, the seeming triumph of the ecumenical movement occurs at the same time as this final effort. All religions, apart from the true faith in Christ, gather in one great world church. Only those who are truly saved, whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life and who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, seem to escape this movement toward unification. The climax of this series of events appears in the early part of chapter 17, where the woman, in all her pomp and wickedness, rides the beast.

However, with the beginning of the second half of the week, the ruler of the revived Roman Empire, who is the political head of the empire and is himself designated also as “the beast,” can proclaim himself dictator of the whole world. Then he no longer needs the help and power of the church, so he destroys her and, in place of this religious apostasy, substitutes the final form of wickedness in religion: the worship of himself. According to 13:8, all men will worship the beast except true believers in Christ. We find a parallel revelation in Daniel 11:36-39, where the arrogant king likewise puts aside all other deities in favor of worshiping himself.

Antichrist’s satanically inspired actions, however, fall within God’s sovereign plan. God will put it in the hearts of Antichrist’s followers to fulfill His purpose by giving them a common goal and by giving their kingdom to the beast. God’s power is behind the destruction and consolidation of the evil empire; as always, Satan is the instrument of God’s purposes. The one-world government so long sought by the humanists will finally arrive, only to be destroyed in one great act of divine judgment. All the words of God—every prophecy of Christ’s return and the setting up of His kingdom—will be fulfilled completely.

While MYSTERY BABYLON, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH will reach the fullest glory of her power in that end time, she is very much at work in our world today in the apostate church. Many are being lulled to sleep by “giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” May we not be among those who are deceived!

[1] Allen, What the Bible Teaches; Revelation, p. 424

[2] Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, pp. 391-94.

[3] Morris, Revelation Record, p. 337.

[4] MacArthur, New Testament Commentary on Revelation, p. 871