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Introduction to the 17^th Chapter:

The 17^th chapter will give us a picture of the beast and what the Word calls the Harlot, or mystery Babylon. We see a picture of her wickedness and how that God will finally destroy her in the end through the very ones that she is using to advance her purpose.

We are also given deeper insights as to understanding the nations of the Antichrist.

1: 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:
One of the seven angels having a vial of wrath began to talk to John. He told him to come here and I will show you the judgment of the great whore. This is showing us someone that God is calling a harlot, it also shows what God’s wrath is going to be on this harlot.

He described this woman as sitting upon many waters. This is explained in verse 15 of this same chapter. This is what the angel said, "the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." This will also identify the seven heads or seven mountains that she is sitting on, because the waters and the heads, or mountains are one and the same.

2: 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.
There have been many kings of the earth commit fornication because of this woman. The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. This is a natural and spiritual thing. This woman has lead many people into apostasy and into false religious beliefs concerning Christianity. They have become drunken in the sense that they have lost touch with reality and find it hard to have a sound mind when it comes to their experience with religion.

This woman is the Papal system of religious belief that prays to Mary and the Saints. They have already murdered many true Christians in the past and will once again take this stand as they support the Antichrist in his time of power. Because the Catholic church believes that it has replaced Israel it has no problem warring against the Jews and the true Church that belongs to God.

3: 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.
So John was carried away in the spirit into the wilderness, this is speaking of another vision. He sees a woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast, the same color as the great red dragon in Revelation the 12^th chapter. Notice where she is sitting because we have been told that where she was sitting was nations and people who spoke different languages. This place is not the whole world but the ten nations of the Antichrist.

The beast she is riding is full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. It is the same beast that we saw in Revelation the 13^th chapter. The beast has become red because of his becoming so much like Satan in his wickedness, in fact he is possessed by Satan. Red is the color of the blood that belongs to the Saints and the innocent. This will occur during the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation. She is not in command of this beast but is riding it, or using it to her advantage. The beast that is made of the ten nations of the Antichrist despises her, and will use her to their advantage instead.

This is an alliance that is made in the ten nations of the Antichrist between the Muslims and the Catholics that live in these nations. These nations are Muslim for the most part, but the Antichrist will see an advantage to using them since they hate the Jews as much as they do. This is the Iron and the Clay that is in the feet of the image in Daniel. The Iron is the Roman Catholic Religion, the Clay is the Muslim religion. The two have a difficult time working together. In the end the clay will destroy the Iron and burn her city.

4: 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 filthiness of her fornication:
She is rich with carnal wealth, beautiful temples. She is wearing purple and scarlet. The purple represents her wealth since purple was so expensive in those days. The red is the symbol of her status as a harlot. She at one time was the faithful wife that the Apostle Paul, Peter and Clement once knew. The Church that was built on the Word of God and faithful even unto death for his namesake. Now she has a golden cup full of abomination and the filthiness of her fornication, which is the symbol of her idolatry and corrupt teachings. She has forsaken Christ for the world and its riches. She has written her own Gospel and is leading others into the very hell that she is headed.

5: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
It is no wonder that this is engraved in her forehead, for as all harlots like to advertise, this is set upon her forehead so that all can see. She is unashamed and is the mother of all the other churches who follow after her hatred for Israel and pervert God’s word with their own opinion of what is right and wrong rather than the scriptures.

The engraving in her forehead is also symbolic of a seal. As all Christians who like the 144,000 are sealed in their foreheads, a symbol of faith in God, this woman is sealed with deception, not only for others but for herself.

6: 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.
The woman is drunken with the blood of the saints, she loves it. She is so in tune with the Antichrist and his hatred for Israel and the Christians who stand with Israel. She is consumed with destroying God’s true Church. John is amazed because he cannot believe someone doing something such as this with such devotion to it.

7: 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.
The angel is getting ready to reveal the mystery of the woman and the beasts that has the seven heads and ten horns.

8: 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.
The angel begins to explain to John the revelation of the mystery of this beast. The beast was and is not but will come some day from the bottomless pit itself. There are two things that are consistent about this beast and one is that it has seven heads and the other is that it has ten horns. The seven heads are the nations that we see in the book of Daniel. The heads of each of the beasts that we see in the 7^th chapter of Daniel is a head on this beast, this is the reason we see the leopards body, the bears feet and the mouth of the lion on this same beast in Revelation 13^th chapter. There is one from the Lion, the Bear, four heads from the Leopard and one head from the Beast that comes out of the sea.

Notice that in this verse it says that all the earth will wonder after the beast except for one group of people. Those whose names were in the book of life are not included in all the earth will wonder. This means that Christians will not be deceived by the Antichrist. God will not allow it, because he promises to keep his elect from being deceived. We also find this in Revelation 13:
8: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9: And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Remember in the beginning of this chapter, in verse one that the woman was sitting on the waters. Here is wisdom, the waters and the mountains and the heads are one and the same. They are a group of nations that are controlled and lead by the Antichrist.

The reason that many commentaries say that the seven mountains are the seven hills of Rome is because it would support their belief that the beast itself is the Roman Empire in a revised state. But, if we believe that the heads on these beasts are mountains, then we would also have to believe that Babylon was sitting on one mountain, that the medo-Persian empire was sitting on one mountain, that Alexander the Greats’ four headed beast would be sitting on four mountains and so forth. God is consistent in Bible types and shadows and there is not much variance. I believe that the woman who is riding the beast is Rome, but the beast itself is the beast of Revelation 13. I believe strongly that the heads are nations, in fact the same nations that make up the heads on the beast in Revelation 13.

10: 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.
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persian, and Greece all of these who were enemies of Israel had fallen. The one that "is," is speaking of the nation of Rome who is the sixth and was in power at the time of John. The seventh is the Ottoman (Muslim) Empire that would take over all of the area that the Grecian Empire had under it's control.

All of these are persecutors of Israel. The Kings of these empires are Pharoah, Sennecarib, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, and Alexander. All of these kings had fallen. The sixth King was Domitian the emperor of Rome at the time that John received this message. The seventh king was Sultan Mehmed II, ruler of the Ottoman Turks who captured Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Constantinople at that time was over the Eastern Roman Empire which was Christian at this time. This blow caused the Roman Empire to become weakened to the point of losing it's status as an Empire.

11: And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
The eighth is the Leader of the ten nations of the old Grecian Empire territories "that was, and is not" at the time of John but is of the seven and will be the regions that the Antichrist actually comes from. Remember in Daniel the 8:8-25 the goat with four horns that was to represent the four nations of the Grecian Empire? Remember the horn that comes up out of one of these four horns? This is the horn that has eyes like a man and speaks great things from Daniel 7:8. The four headed leopard in Daniel 7:6 was the same nations as the goat with four horns in Daniel 8:8. The leopard was the four-headed beast of the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great. This is why we see the body of the beast in Revelation 13:1 as a leopard.

The interesting thing is that these territories were included in the Ottoman Empire. They were an Empire made up of Muslims. They were very much like the extremist in the Islamic faith today. They are the seventh that was to come. Many people saw the fall of this Empire in the early 1900's and thought that it would never come back to power again. There are many Muslims today that are looking forward to the re-establishment of a Muslim confederacy. This is what the Antichrist will rule over and use to come against Israel and the Western World.

12: 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.
Then we see ten horns and are told that they are ten kings. Since they have not received power of yet the angel tells us so. They will only last a short time, not one literal hour but a short space of time that will last for 3 ½ years. The Antichrist gives his approval of them. These are the same horns that we see in Daniel the 7^th chapter that comes up out of the sea having ten horns.

Three of these horns or kings will be overthrown by the Antichrist when he comes into power and he will replace them with his own kings. We see this in Rev. 12 it shows the Great Red Dragon as having ten horns but only seven crowns. This is because before Israel is invaded the Antichrist does not approve of three of these kings. But all three nations of these kings will serve him. The ten horns in this scripture are the same ten horns we see in Revelation 13:1 who are all crowned at this time. This shows that at the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist will have overthrown all three kings and will be ready to war against everything that belongs to God.

13: These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These ten kings will be in one mind and one accord to obey everything that the Antichrist commands them to do. The ten kings are the beasts of the earth from the fourth seal that the Antichrist uses to bring death.

14: 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.
Although the Antichrist and these ten kings make war against Jesus because Jesus is the Lord of lords and King of kings. All must obey him, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. When Christ returns he will have a heavenly host with him to help defeat the enemies of God. He calls them the called, because they are called to salvation. He calls them chosen because out of the nations that have been called these have been chosen. He calls them faithful because they have stood the test and have overcome the Devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

15: And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
"The waters which thou sawest," ? It is hard to determine whether John actually saw the waters in this vision because the angel in the first verse said that he was going to show him the woman that was sitting upon many waters. What John saw was a woman sitting on a beast. Unless this beast was standing on the waters it would be apparent that the waters and the beast were the same thing. If this is the case then the waters that the woman was sitting on was one and the same with the beast and represented the nations and peoples and tongues that were in his ten nation confederation.

16: 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.
The ten horns that were explained by the angel as being ten kings hate the harlot. They will eventually turn on her at the end of the Tribulation period and will set her city on fire. Her city is Rome. We will see a better picture of this in chapter 18. Remember the ten nations are of Muslim faith and the Harlot is the Catholic Religion, they simply cannot dwell under the same leadership.

17: 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.
It is God that has put it in their hearts to destroy the Harlot. God has used these ten kings to bring destruction to the woman and to themselves as well, because God has used these unclean vessels for his purpose the same as used Pharaoh in Egypt to bring about it’s destruction.

18: And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
No matter how hard we try to stretch our minds and imaginations to believe that this woman is someone in the future, God said "is." "The woman which thou sawest is that great city," Jesus told John in Revelation 1: 19: Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

God was speaking about things in the past, present and future. Had this city been a city in the future he would have said so. In verse 10 of this same chapter John was told: "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." He was explaining that there were seven kings: five are in the past, one of them was in existence at the time John was being told this, and another would be in the future. He did this in verse 12 of this chapter as well concerning the ten kings that did not exist at the time of John. He told them that they were in the future. Had this city been a future city somewhere else in the world, he would have told him. It would be totally out of character in the way the Lord was revealing this for the word "is" not to mean just exactly that.

The city in this verse was the city that ruled over the kings of the earth at the time that God was showing these things to John, it was Rome. The reason this woman is a mystery is because at the time of John the Roman authorities were not Christians although some of it's citizens were. The Roman leaders would become Christians at a later time and then they would lead the Church into Apostasy. God was showing John that the Rome that was killing Christians at that time would be the harlot riding on the back of the Beast or anti-Christ nations at the time of the end. Another thing to consider is that John had been told in verse seven that God was going to reveal the mystery of the harlot to him. That is exactly what he did.

God Bless You
Tommie Spurgeon

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