Revelation 17:1-11 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, (2) with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (3) So, he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (4) The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. (5) And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. (6) I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marvelled with great amazement. (7) 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.”
In this section we want to discuss the anti-Christ and his kingdom as revealed to the apostle John, i.e. its origin, and its present state. In the above quoted passage of scripture the angel showed the apostle John a symbolic vision of a great harlot sitting on a scarlet beast having seven heads and ten horns. Because it falls outside the scope of this teaching, we will not discuss the symbolism of the great harlot at this time. Rather, we will concentrate our discussion on the scarlet beast, because clearly the scarlet beast represents the person of the anti-Christ; for he is the one who “was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition”. And so we see that both John and Daniel were shown visions of the anti-Christ and his kingdom. The ten horns mentioned in this passage are the same horns that were on the fourth beast shown to Daniel. However, the beast shown to John differs from the beast shown to Daniel, in that this beast has seven heads. So why does the Lord show this beast as having seven heads? He does that to help us identify the kingdom of the anti-Christ. We know that because the angel reveals very specific details about the seven heads of this beast; referring to them as seven mountains and also as seven kings. The angel goes on in this passage to reveal to us that the seven kings follow each other in succession, and he gives us the specific timeline of each succession. The angel then goes on in this passage to reveal to us that the beast himself will follow the seven in succession, thus becoming the eighth in line. And so we see from this passage that the angel has given us a very clear trail which we can follow, which ultimately leads us to the identity of the anti-Christ and his kingdom.
Isaiah 2:2 “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.”
Very often in scripture mountains represent kingdoms and hills represent nations. For example in the above quoted passage of scripture the mountains mentioned represent both the Lord’s kingdom and the various kingdoms of the earth, while the hills mentioned in this passage represent the various nations of the earth. And so it would not do the passage an injustice to record it in the following manner, “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the kingdom of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the kingdoms, and shall be exalted above the nations; and all nations shall flow to it”. In that light and the fact that the angel has told us that the seven mountains are also seven kings, we can therefore confidently interpret the seven heads of the beast to also represent seven kingdoms. Therefore, because we know that the angel was speaking about seven kingdoms, the information he has given us helps us to identify which kingdoms he was referring to; for the angel tells us that at the time that John was shown the vision, which was approximately in the year 96 AD[1], that five of the kingdoms had already ceased to exist, that the sixth kingdom was still in place, and that the seventh kingdom had not yet been manifested. And so the question arises; of the numerous kingdoms in the earth at that time, how do we establish which kingdoms the angel was referring to? To answer that question we need to understand the central importance that God attaches to two specific geographic locations when it comes to bible prophecy of end time events. In other words all bible prophecy about end time events is centred almost exclusively on these two locations. The first geographic location is the state of Israel and more specifically the city of Jerusalem. The second geographic location is the Babylonian kingdom and more specifically the city of Babylon. While most bible scholars recognise the importance of Jerusalem as it pertains to bible prophecy, not many recognise the importance of Babylon. An obvious clue as to the significance of Babylon however, is the name written on the forehead of the great harlot i.e. Babylon the Great. But also when we examine bible prophecy about end time events, we see that most of it originated from the Lord’s prophets that either prophesied specifically about Babylon or were living during the period when Israel fell under Babylonian rule, i.e. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai and Zechariah. The reason why God began revealing end time events to us during that period was to highlight the importance of Babylon as it pertains to bible prophecy. So why are the cities of Jerusalem and Babylon so important in relation to bible prophecy? The reason is because the city of Jerusalem is linked to the coming of Christ, and the city of Babylon is linked to the coming of the anti-Christ. And so in light of that truth we will see in this section that the seven kingdoms referred to in John’s vision are all centred on the geographic region of the Babylonian kingdom and the city of Babylon, i.e. the city which is linked to the coming of the anti-Christ.
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] https://christiancourier.com/articles/when-was-the-book-of-revelation-written
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