The interpretation of the vision Revelation 17v7-18.
"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 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 of the Revelation appeals to John not to marvel at the sight he sees; he goes on to explain the two fold mystery, devoting verses 7-14 to the beast and verses15-18 to the woman. He begins with an interpretation of the beast.
- The beast he saw was. By now we understand that the woman and the beast do not refer to individuals but to large corporate entities. This makes it simpler to understand what we have here. What we are talking of is a past world empire, something significant that has existed in the past. The mention of seven heads and ten horns refers to its past form, and its future form respectively. These refer to world empires. It is generally accepted that, as the bible spans the course of time, there has existed at the time of John writing, five world empires. One was in existence when John wrote, and another (the seventh) is the future world empire. They are as follows:
- Egypt 2167BC - 1100BC.
- Assyria 1100BC - 612BC.
- Babylon 625BC - 539BC
- Medo-Persia 539BC - 331BC
- Greece 331BC - 63BC.
- Rome 1 63BC - 476AD.
- Rome 2 Future unknown.
In some cases these empires overlapped. Common to all of the above is that these major civilisations have disputed, and will dispute Israel's claim to the land as given to Abraham. We shall see in each case this dispute will be futile.
- The beast that thou sawest is not. We must think carefully here. The beast must come from one of the first seven mentioned in the above table, but it is further cut down by declaring that at the time of John's writing the beast was not in existence. Therefore Rome is not the beast, because the Roman empire was still in existence when John wrote. This should clear away much misunderstanding. We turn now to Daniel chaptern7 for more enlightenment. In both Daniel chapter 2 and chapter 7, reference is made to four great kingdoms; Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Attention is drawn in chapter 7v7 to the fourth beast and a reading of chapter 7 will make clear that this Roman empire will have a future form under the description of "the ten horns." Out of the revived Roman empire (the ten horns) will come "a little horn" who will overcome the ten powers and set up a kingdom such as has never been seen in all of earth's history. Therefore the beast that John saw is not Rome, nor is it the revived Roman empire, but he will come out of the revived empire in the end times. This is further bolstered by a reading of Daniel 9v26 "......the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary............." Therefore the "coming prince"(the future world ruler) comes out of Rome 2.
- The beast shall arise from the abyss. This is speaking of its demonic origins. What has inspired the rise of this monstrosity to the height of world power is nothing less than the foulest angels in the abyss. We have already seen that the abyss was reserved for the most corrupt of angels. No human being will enter the abyss but in some miraculous way these demons have been allowed influence in the world of the worst kind. This final government is inspired by the filth of hell. The same is said of the beast in chapter11v7 "He arises out of the abyss and makes war with the saints". This final world empire will be demonically inspired!
There will now be no holds barred on what this beast will do, but we take comfort from the next phrase "and go into perdition" the subject that we will discuss next.
Amazon bookshelf George Neilly
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