Revelation Lesson 43: Woman on the Mountains with the Kings
“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. 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.
9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 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. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. 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. 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.’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. 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.’”
Thank you for your responses to the previous article about the Catholic Church. I must address a question that was posed. Someone asked if I thought the Pope was the Anti-Christ. I do not think so. First of all, as far as I can tell, the Anti-Christ is an unknown man. He seems to come out of nowhere. I do believe that the Catholic church, and Islam for that matter, have a large part in the global power that the Anti-Christ will have, and it may be that the Pope (whoever that is at the time) will have some degree of leadership in the new government. Maybe, he will be the (or at least a) ‘spiritual’ prophet for the Anti-Christ – a false prophet. Once the chaos of the rapture happens people will need ‘spiritual’ guidance.
Just look at what church attendance was like after 9-11; for three months churches were packed. The aftermath of the Rapture will pack religious establishments as well, and the two dominant religions will be Islam and Catholicism. They will have infrastructure all over the world. Think of how many Catholic church buildings there are, and think of how fast the construction of mosques have exploded in North America and Western Europe.
John sees the Woman on the Beast; she is clothed in scarlet (red) and purple, the picture of royalty and wealth; she has adorned herself (like a prostitute) to meet her suitors and she is wealthy; she holds a golden cup.
The Woman’s Three Names, verse 5
Back in verse 5 the Woman is seen with three names on her forehead: Mystery, Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. A mystery is something that was hidden but is now being revealed. The New Testament tells us of a mystery that was revealed in Jesus. That His first coming was to die and take away our sins. In John 12:27-36; Mark 10:32-34; Matthew 20:17-19, Jesus told the apostles over and over again about His death, burial and resurrection but they did not understand it until it happened and they saw it. But these events had been prophesied for thousands of years; and yet, to most, it was a mystery. The coming of the Anti-Christ will be like a mystery to many people, but the truth is that it has been prophesied and planned for since the days in Genesis 11 on the plains of Shinar.
The system of religious harlotry has been built where God has been replaced with statues and rituals. I used to think that the physical Babylon had to be rebuilt, and I had read in several places that the US was undertaking the reconstruction of the city of Babylon when they invaded Iraq the second time following 9-11. It would appear that this has not happened, but we know that there is a Babylon at the end. Rather than a city, it is the over-riding system of idolatry. It began with people building a tower to worship the heavens, and it has morphed into multiple religions that worship all manner of gods using everything from sexual perversion to child sacrifice.
Anyone living in North America can see that the influences of these religions are permeating our society. We are surrounded by sexual perversion, and the rate of abortion is staggering. We have some areas in North America where there are more abortions than live births. Let that sink in. We sacrifice our babies as a part of the religion that was identified for us in the book of the Judges (see 17:6 and 21:25).
This is a part of the system that God told us was already in the world but that has come to the full fruition in our time (Romans 1:18-32). We see sexual perversion which is the fruit of worshiping the creation and not the Creator. This mystery is going to become more and more prevalent as the Rapture takes the Holy Spirit out and the restraining power of God is gone. But you and I can see this mystery playing out in front of us every day.
Imagine that there seems to be entire political parties in the USA and in just about every nation in the Western world that wholeheartedly endorses abortion, even to the point of infanticide, to kill a baby once it is born. Worse, there are people that will vote for these parties, revealing to us that these leaders are just the symptoms of the issues that lie beneath.
Part of being the Mother of Harlots is that she, this religious entity, hates the truth. Some have accused me of not believing in the Pre-Trib Rapture because I warn that we Christians may face severe persecution before we are raptured. In a report from CBN news on March 20, 2019, we see that Islamic groups have killed some 300 Christians in Nigeria. According to an article in OpendoorsUSA.org: in North Korea, apparently Christians are the number 1 enemy of the state; in Somalia, Christians are considered ‘high value’ targets; in Afghanistan, it is illegal to be a Christian; even in India there is serious persecution of Christians; and on we can go.
The predominant idea in the West is that it can’t happen here. Yes, it can. If and when there is a hardcore liberal elected who can get enough votes to squash free speech and make Christianity illegal, or at least not wanted, we will suffer like these other folks. Sadly, churches are not preparing people to suffer if need be for the Lord. I don’t want to suffer, but we must understand that it is a possibility.
Notice that this Harlot is drunk with the blood of the saints. At one time, the Catholic Church was the major enemy of the Christians. Now it is Islam – same persecution, just a different arm of the Mystery of Babylon.
Seven Mountains, verses 9-11
This can be looked at in two ways: the Greek word for mountains is often used in describing hills; Rome, the city, sits on seven hills. We know that the final false kingdom will be the revised Roman empire. The iron in the feet of Daniel’s statue is Rome, and the toes made of iron and clay show us some kind of morphed kingdom that still includes the Roman Empire. The other way, and seemingly the one that is more readily accepted, is that the seven mountains represent the seven (7) kingdoms and their kings, them being Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and then the Anti-Christ.
At the time that John wrote at the end of the first century after Jesus, 5 had already fallen: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. Rome was ruling at the time of the writing, and then the final kingdom was to come. We are at the dawn of the final kingdom. In verse 11 we see that the Beast will follow the 7th kingdom and set up an 8th kingdom that will be extremely short lived – just an hour, we are told.
The 7th and 8th kingdoms are separated by an event that is told of in Revelation 13:3; it talks of the Anti-Christ being wounded in the head and apparently dying and coming back to life. When we couple this with Daniel 8:23-25…
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive; He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. Through his cunning He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; But he shall be broken without human means.”
Notice that this king that arises has power, BUT not of his own power. It appears that a demon or maybe even Satan himself will bring this man back to life after what is a mortal wound to the head. We are told that he is cunning, so Satan simply makes it appear that there has been a resurrection. And the final clue that this is most likely Satan: in verse 25, he exalts himself in his heart. Satan so wants to be God, but He cannot be God. His end is told in verse 25; he shall be broken without human hands. Jesus will break him.
The system of kingdoms that are all human kingdoms, these seven (7) that are all pagan kingdoms – their kings all think they are gods. From Pharaoh to the Caesar of Rome, they all wanted their citizens to revere them as gods. They were just men who all died and turned to dust. Even the last vestige of the Roman Empire in the Vatican wants her followers to revere the Pope an ‘Il Papa,’ The Father, or God. He is not and never will be. The true God has never been replaced. The Pope has been replaced many times.
The Kings, verses 12-18
We are clearly told that these seven kings will exist and they will be given a kingdom for a short period of time. In the agreements that are made following the chaos of the Rapture, the governments of the world will divide the earth into ten (10) kingdoms. Lest you think some corner of the earth is saved from this system, we are told in verse 15, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” This system of kingdoms will engulf the whole world. Further, we are told that the kings will give their power and authority to the beast; they are all of one mind, verse 13. The Beast will hold some sway over them, or more likely, make some arrangement with them that binds together as one for a short time. Not long after this agreement, in verse 16, we are told that the kings hate the harlot and attack her to kill her. So, these kings along with the Anti-Christ – remember, he comes out of the ten kings, according to Daniel 7:24 – he will subdue three kingdoms and ascend to the place of the Anti-Christ, this unholy band will turn on the woman and attack her.
We will explore more of this fall of Babylon in another article. But verse 17 is the verse that I want to leave you with.
God is in charge. There are no words more comforting to the believer than to know that God is in complete control even of what appears to be chaos. Notice that God put in their hearts to fulfill His purpose and that God’s words will be fulfilled.
As we hurtle towards the end and we see the rise of evil in our midst, we see our corrupt governments and the corrupt religions around us. We see politicians proudly and unashamedly touting that they are for infanticide and abortion, when they promote the rise of sexual deviancy, and lately have begun to promote that people should receive a wage even if they are unwilling to work, in bold defiance of the Scripture that says that a man who does not work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
We know that it is not long to the end. It may seem that the course has gone off the rails and that just maybe God has allowed this to run too far to correct, but nothing could be farther from the truth. God has every detail mapped out to the most minute detail. When he is ready, his glory will be revealed. And one day soon, this defiant and rebellious world will bend the knee, every last one of them, to worship Jesus the Son of God, the Christ. God is in control, Luke 21:28,
“But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near!”
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