Chapter Seventeen
God’s Judgment of
17:1 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:
After the seven vials of God’s wrath had been poured out, one of the angels
bearing the vials came and spoke to John. His purpose
was to show John more details about the papacy which he refers to here as “the
great whore that sitteth upon many waters.”
The reason the woman is spoken of as a whore is that the papacy has been
guilty of false worship and idolatry which is quite often referred to as
fornication or adultery in the Bible. The
Children of Israel did the same thing. “Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of
my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images
of men, and didst commit whoredom with them” (Ezekiel 16:17). The Catholics also practiced idolatry and
other abominations which prompted God to call them “the great whore.” The “many waters” which the woman is
seen sitting upon will be explained in verse fifteen to be a multitude of
people. To sit on something means that
it acts as a base or foundation. The
papacy could not exist without the support, financially and otherwise, from a
great number of people around the world.
So all who have the mark of the beast and support the papacy are those
upon which this whore sits.
17:2 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.
For many centuries the papacy managed to get world leaders to submit to her. These world leaders committed spiritual
fornication with
“The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication.” Not only were the
leaders seduced, but the general populace as well. They were duped into believing and following
the false doctrines of the Catholics. Their
condition is likened here to drunkenness.
Rome had in essence, gotten them drunk and taken advantage of them, as an
unscrupulous man will often try to do with a woman. But the people were ultimately at fault, just
as a woman will only find herself in that position if she gets drunk in the
first place. It was her decision to
drink, therefore what happened to her was ultimately her responsibility. Likewise, these people could have resisted
the false doctrines that were given them to “drink” but they chose not to do so. They are the ones who chose to drink, no one
forced it on them. And because of the
weakness of the people and their leaders the papacy was able to dominate the
entire Western world for over a millennium.
17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a
woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
seven heads and ten horns.
The angel now carries John away into the
wilderness where you expect to find wild beasts. Here he shows John a very horrific beast that
has seven heads and ten horns. We were
first introduced to this beast in chapter twelve, but will be given a clearer
picture of him here in chapter seventeen.
Seated upon this beast was a woman.
We can tell immediately that this woman is not the one mentioned in
chapter twelve. That woman was
righteous, while this one is sitting upon an evil beast which is “full of
names of blasphemy.” This is the
same beast we saw in chapter thirteen and it was stated there that he was full
of the names of blasphemy. This shows
that the seven powers which the heads represent behaved in a disrespectful and
blasphemous manner towards God. They persecuted
His people and corrupted His worship. They
acted as though He did not even exist. They
showed absolutely no regard or respect for God.
The beast is said to be scarlet colored which may well be a reference to
the blood of the righteous he has shed countless times throughout history.
17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of
abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Our attention is now turned to the woman riding upon the hideous beast. The woman is described as being beautifully
and richly attired. She was wearing
garments of purple and scarlet. “Purple
raiment was costly, and consequently its use was the privilege of the rich
exclusively. It was worn by persons of
wealth and high official position, and especially by kings. Indeed, it was a sign of royalty, and was put
on Jesus in mockery of
his claims.”[1] “The color
(scarlet) and the method of obtaining it were early known. It was much used in the hangings of the
tabernacle and in the high priest’s vestments. It
was employed in the ceremony attending the purification of the leper, and in
the preparation of the water of separation.”[2] From the first
color we receive the impression of power and authority. From the second we get the idea of religious
meaning and significance. Together we
have a picture of the papacy with her great spiritual authority.
The woman was further adorned with “gold and precious stones and pearls.” This is a further indication of her wealth. At the height of its power the papacy was
unbelievably wealthy. Of course much of
this wealth was obtained at the expense of her own people. The woman also had a golden cup in her hand. It was normal for royalty to drink from
vessels of silver and gold so this also adds to her aura of power and wealth. But in this cup was the “abominations and
filthiness of her fornication.” Everything
we had seen to this point has pointed to a wonderful and wealthy woman, but
here we see her true character. She was
similar in character to the scribes and Pharisees of Christ’s day. “Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and
of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which
is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matthew
17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY,
This beautifully attired woman had a name written on her forehead, a name that
described her as she really was and betrayed her marvelous appearance. Back in chapter ten, as preparation was being
made for the pouring out of the seven vials of God’s wrath, which was to
destroy the papacy, the statement was made “the mystery of God should be
finished.” The term mystery is
applied to the apostate Roman Church. And indeed
her origins and practices are mysterious, having no basis in scripture
whatsoever. At one time in history
“THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Today there are literally hundreds of groups
practicing spiritual harlotry. Groups that
have splintered off from the Catholic Church because of ideological
differences, but they too practice false doctrines of one type or another. These are the so-called “denominations.” The word denomination implies division, but
the Lord’s Church is not divided. These
churches are also guilty of spiritual fornication like
This woman’s name was written on her forehead where everyone should have been
able to see it. This denotes the fact
that
The entire world was exactly as Jesus described the Jews during His day “For
this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15). Even today, most people fail to see the
apostasy of
17:6 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.
We have already seen that this woman is of very bad character. Here we see just how bad she is. She is said to be “drunken with the blood
of the saints.” Of course blood
would not actually make a person drunk, but we are not talking about a literal
woman anyway. The thought is that this
woman has slaughtered so many of Christ’s servants that she did not just have a taste of
their blood, but was a glutton. She
drank of the blood of the saints until she could not drink any more.
After having given us a description of this hideous woman, John now tells us
how he reacted. He “wondered with
great admiration.” This does not
mean that he admired the woman in the way we would use the word today. He wondered and marveled at this woman who
was so richly attired, and yet was of such an evil character. In short, John was amazed at what he saw, and
did not fully understand the identity or meaning of this woman.
17:7 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 that is talking with John now asks him
why he marveled or wondered after this woman and the grotesque beast upon which
she was riding. The angel then offers to
tell John about these two evil creatures, which he proceeds to do in the next
verse.
17:8 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 seven headed beast is spoken of here as something that “was, and is not.” This indicates that it has died. This is further supported by the statement “and
shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition.” The bottomless pit is where we saw the Arabs
arise from in chapter nine. It is the
dwelling place of Satan and of all things which are evil. Certainly, then, it is the place where this
woman and the seven-headed beast came from.
The beast originally came from the pit but then was destroyed. This is the meaning of the word perdition. It comes from the Greek word “apoleia,”
which Strong’s defines as “ruin or loss (physical, spiritual or
eternal):-damnable (-nation), destruction, die, perdition, X perish, pernicious
ways, waste.”[3] Thus we see
that this beast was killed, which refers to the overthrow of
The beast is now dead, but something very unexpected happened. The beast was resurrected. This is what is meant by the last phrase of
the verse, “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” This has reference to the revival of
The reason Christians will not wonder after the beast is because they should
understand what is going on. They had
these very same prophesies which we are presently studying to help them
understand the events as they occurred. Therefore
there was no reason for them to wonder after the beast.
17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom.
The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
The phrase “and here is the mind which hath wisdom,” is similar to the
phrase in chapter thirteen “Here is wisdom.” The idea is that a very important statement
is about to be made, and careful attention should be paid to it. The important message is that “the seven
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” The question is whether this is meant literally
or figuratively. The Lord has already
put us on alert that something unusual is going on in this verse with the
statement “here is the mind which hath wisdom.”
In prophesy mountains represent powerful nations and governments. The seven heads of the beast are seven world
empires which Satan has used as his instruments in an attempt to destroy God’s
people. The woman will be shown in verse
eighteen to be
But here the seven heads also have another meaning. It is pointing to the fact that this seventh
head sits on seven literal mountains. We
already know that it is
The reference to seven kings here is not referring to seven individuals, but to
seven thrones, which were each occupied by numerous men. These kings stand for the seven kingdoms
shown as mountains in the previous verse.
The Bible has often used the term king when actually referring to a
kingdom. A good example is found in
Daniel chapter two. There Daniel is
interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about a great image. The image is divided up into four parts which
represent the four kingdoms of
The seven kingdoms which are under consideration here are
Again we see the idea of a resurrected kingdom.
A kingdom “that was, and is not, even he is the eighth.” How can their be an eighth when there are
only seven heads? Notice that it says
the eighth “is of the seven.” This
refers us back to chapter thirteen where we saw the seven-headed beast and
another beast that “had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” We identified this second beast as the
“The later emperors, all rulers of
17:12 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.
We are now told the meaning of the ten horns of the beast. The horns represent ten kings. As we saw in verse ten the term king is used
to refer to a kingdom and not to individual rulers. So the horns are actually ten kingdoms. We see here that these kingdoms have not come
into being as yet, but will receive power and work with the beast at some time
in the future. They will have “power
as kings one hour with the beast.” Here
hour comes from the Greek word “hora,”
which Strong’s defines as “an ‘hour’ (literally or figuratively):-day, hour,
instant, season, X short, [even-] tide, (high) time.”[7] This
definition indicates that the meaning of this word does not have to be specific. One meaning that is given is “season.” This implies an indefinite period of time. So we are not looking for a definite period
of time for these kingdoms to have power with the beast. Also, since the 1,260 year period is not
mentioned here we can assume that these ten kingdoms will not exist throughout
this entire period. If they were to
exist throughout that whole era we would almost certainly be told of this.
Back in chapter thirteen we introduced some related prophesies of Daniel. One part of that prophesy in particular is
very relevant to our discussion here. “And
the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another
shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue
three kings” (Daniel
Notice how in Daniel’s prophesy the little horn is seen rising AFTER the first
ten. This shows us that these ten
kingdoms were in existence in A.D. 533 when the papacy officially began. Later in this chapter we will see that the
ten horns we are currently dealing with are present at the end of the papacy’s
power. The problem is that not one
single kingdom extant at the origin of the papacy survived until her demise. So obviously we must be looking at two
different groups of ten. They serve the
same purpose, they support the papacy, but the names will be different for the
two sets.
The task of identifying the ten kingdoms spoken of here is not a particularly
easy task. The map of
1. It must be
an independent or sovereign kingdom. In
other words it is not simply a province or colony of some greater power.
2. It must possess at least a moderate
measure of power. Verse thirteen tells
us that these nations “shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” A kingdom which was extremely weak would have
no power to give to the papacy.
3. It must be a Catholic nation, that
is, a nation which has Catholicism as its national religion and supports the
papacy.
4. The first three criteria must have
all been met simultaneously during some part of the 1,260 year period of the
papacy’s power.
5. All ten nations must have existed at
the same time.
6. All of the nations must have remained
in existence up to the time of the Reformation.
Verse sixteen tells us that “these shall hate the whore, and shall
make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” So these ten nations will eventually begin to
turn away from the papacy, and this did not happen until the Reformation.
One
method of searching for kingdoms which meet these criteria is to examine the
histories of present-day European nations.
We will restrict our search to
Many of the nations on our list only came into existence in the last 200 years,
which is too late for our purposes. Others
were not Catholic nations, but
belonged to the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christendom and thus do not
fit our criteria. The following
countries can therefore be removed from consideration because of one or both of
these reasons:
“During the 8th century, after fratricidal strife
among the Germans, the Franks secured the throne of
The Magyars, a nomadic people migrating slowly from the east, advanced easily
along the Danube R. valley until they
were finally defeated by the German king Otto I at
The death of the last Babenberg was followed by a period of trial and unrest. King Ottokar II (1230?-78) of
The rise of the house of Hapsburg is closely linked to the rise of
The Austrian rulers enlarged their holdings by political agreements and by
marriage. It was said that while other
states made war, it was the good fortune of
From
this we can see that
“About A.D. 950, all
During the late 1100’s and early 1200’s, Danish power expanded along the
southern coast of the
In 1536, during the Reformation, King Christian III established Lutheranism as
the official religion of
“In the 1000’s,
During the 1100’s and 1200’s,
From
this we can see that
“By the mid-600’s, the Merovingian kings had become
weak rulers, interested chiefly in personal pleasures. Pepin the Herstal, the chief royal advisor,
gradually took over most of the royal powers.
His son, Charles Martel, extended the family’s power. Charles received the title Martel (the
Hammer) after defeating an invading Arab army in 732. The battle began near
Charles Martel’s son, Pepin the Short, overthrew the last Merovingian ruler and
became king of the Franks in 751. He
founded the Carolingian dynasty, and enlarged the Frankish kingdom. He also helped develop the political power of
the pope by giving Pope Stephen II a large gift of land north of
Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, was one of the mightiest conquerors of all time. After Charlemagne became king of the Franks,
he went on over fifty military campaigns and expanded his kingdom far beyond
the borders of what is now
Charlemagne died in 814, and his three grandsons later fought among themselves
for control of his huge empire. They
divided it into three kingdoms in 843. In
the Treaty of Verdun, one grandson, Charles the Bald, received most of what is
now
By the late 900’s, the Carolingian kings had lost much power, and the strength
of the nobles had increased. The kings
became little more than feudal lords chosen by the other feudal nobles to lead
them in war. But in peacetime, most of
their authority extended only over their personal estates. In 987, the nobles ended the Carolingian line
of kings and chose Hugh Capet as their king.
He started the Capetian dynasty. Many
historians mark the beginning of the French nation from the coronation of Hugh
Capet.”[12]
This
shows the beginnings of the French nation.
“In 843, the Treaty of Verdun divided Charlemagne’s
empire into three kingdoms, one for each of his grandsons. Louis II (called the German) received lands
east of the
In 911, The German branch of the Frankish royal family died out. By then, the German kingdom consisted of five
powerful duchies (territories ruled by a duke)-
Henry’s son, Otto I (the Great), drove invading Hungarians out of southern
Groups known as the Angles and Saxons invaded
From this we can see that
“The history of the Hungarian state began in the late
800’s. At that time tribes of Magyars
swept from the east into the middle
During the early 900’s, Magyar armies looted towns throughout much of
About 970, Árpád’s great-grandson Géza became leader of the Magyars. Géza began to organize the various Magyar
tribes into a united nation. After Géza
died, his son, Stephen, carried on the work.
Stephen, who was a Roman Catholic, asked Pope Sylvester II to give him the title king
of
Árpád’s descendants ruled