Rev 17: Woman, 7 Heads, 10 Horns

April 24, 2023 at 2:01 PM Leave a comment

Video for this article here with PDF transcript: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

In Revelation 17:8-18, John witnesses several things that tend to confuse him. In fact, at one point, the angel talking with John tells him that understanding the events calls for “…a mind of wisdom” (v9). John understood what the imagery was showing him, but some of it made little sense. Hence the need to have various things explained to him so that he could fully understand God’s meaning. Let’s take a look at things.

7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. 8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. 9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. 11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. 14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, 17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:7-18 ESV)

In verse 7, we see that John marvels at what he sees. He was trying to grasp the meaning of what he saw. While John may have seen a woman riding a beast, in reality, the woman and beast are representations of what will come to pass in this world. The woman is the overarching false religious system that infiltrates and props up the many empires that have come before the present day and will continue into at least the first half of the Tribulation. The beast is the various empires that have existed since Egypt and in that sense, provide a through line of continuity even though the empires themselves changed and were ruled by various rulers. These empires will culminate in the coming Tribulation period and even be somewhat changed during the second half of the coming Tribulation by the Antichrist himself.

The beast was, is not, will rise from the pit, and go to destruction is the pinnacle of the empires in totality. In essence, the coming Antichrist will somewhat resurrect the old Roman Empire, what many commentators refer to as the revised Roman Empire. It is revived because it is raised again but it changes as well in its final form under Antichrist. This is clearly seen in Daniel 2 where Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about the statue, with Babylon being the head of gold, all the way to the feet and ten toes. The ten toes corresponds with the ten horns (kings) here in Revelation 17 and clearly shows that at some point, this revived and eventually revised Roman Empire that will most likely start in Europe will be ruled over by ten “kings” or powerful globalists. Once Antichrist begins his rise to power after the revived Roman Empire comes into existence, he will then wrest control from these ten kings (three of which he will likely get rid of either by deposing them or killing them), and take charge as sole ruler and at that point, his kingdom will incorporate the entire world.

In verse 9, the angel tells John that wisdom is necessary to understand what he was seeing and how those things would work out in real time. There is the woman, then there is the beast with 7 heads and 10 horns that the woman sits on. While the woman controls the beast to an extent, it must be pointed out that the beast supports the woman. As a horse supports its rider, it is also true that at any point, the horse can throw the rider or trip and the rider may go flying off the horse. The woman is only supported for as long as the beast allows her to sit atop him.

Verse 9 is a bit confusing. Let’s take another look at it by itself.

This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.

The angel says “the seven heads are seven mountains” and “they are also seven kings...” Okay, so right there, we know that the “hills/mountains” refer to seven people, not actual hills or mountains. What about them?

The angel continues by stating that “five of whom have fallen…” Okay, so this is referencing John’s day. By the time we get to the end of John’s life as he was exiled on the Island of Patmos, off Asia Minor (Turkey), five of the kings had already come and gone. Remember, a king also represents a power or empire. So who were these five kings? Most conservative Bible scholars who take the Bible in its most plain and ordinary sense believe these were the empires referred to:

Egypt
Assyria
Babylon
Persia, and
Greece

The above were understood to be “world” powers even though at that point, they did not incorporate the entire world, but the then known world. Notice also that according to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2, the statue he saw began with Babylon as the head of gold and progressed from there.

So if these were the five kings the angel referred to, the one that “is” was ruling at the time of John and in fact that particular ruler of the then Roman Empire was the one who exiled John to Patmos, Titus Flavius Domitianus. Nice guy, but that’s okay because it was part of God’s plan and this was a very heavy time of persecution late in the first century.

So the 6th “king” was actually the Roman Empire. Each empire you’ll note had numerous rulers, not just one, though the empire itself remained for a while. Rome took the longest time to end and before it did, went through a variety of stages and rulers.

Dr. John Walvoord, in his commentary on Revelation, lists the kingdoms as such:

Egypt
Assyria
Babylon
Medo-Persia
Greece
Historical Roman Empire
Revived Roman Empire (of Revelation)
Eighth Kingdom: Antichrist

All this allows us to see something interesting. The Revived Roman Empire listed above is likely to be in place at the start of (or shortly after), the coming Tribulation and will also likely be contained in Europe (the EU possibly?). It will be ruled over by the 10 kings mentioned in verse 12.

12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

These 10 kings correspond to the 10 toes on the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream (Daniel 2). Once the Tribulation begins, either at the beginning or shortly after the Tribulation starts, the Revived Roman Empire will come into existence. I believe it will occur after a major cataclysmic event occurs throughout the world. Personally, I believe that event is the Rapture of the Church because once the Church is gone, the immediate and direct influence of the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the way. This will allow the world to go whole hog after ungodliness. Now, we are seeing a foretaste of it but the Church is still here with the Holy Spirit residing within the Church restraining evil. Once the Church is gone and the Holy Spirit steps aside, the flood gates will open and hell will begin emptying onto the earth in all its evil and ungodliness.

Now, I could be wrong about the Rapture of course. Arguments related to the PreTrib Rapture being “recent” are simply not true, though it may appear to be the case. A bit of research bears this out. Margaret MacDonald did not invent the PreTrib Rapture. In fact, if we look closely at her testimony, it appears she supported a PostTrib Rapture, not a PreTrib Rapture. Moreover, mentions of the PreTrib Rapture actually date back to the first century in writings like the Book of Ephraim and numerous others.[1, 2, 3, 4]

Neither Darby or Scofield created the PreTrib Rapture theory. It’s either taught in Scripture or it isn’t and no amount of man made arguments will negate or prove it from the Bible. One of the major reasons why the Rapture as well as other doctrines disappeared from Church history for hundreds of years has everything to do with the Roman Catholic Church, especially during the Middle Ages (from roughly the 3rd century). People did not have access to the Bible. They were told what it said and what it meant by priests. The Roman Catholic Church normally allegorizes any and all prophetic sections of Scripture. This eventually led to the Reformation because of all the error taught by the Roman Catholic Church, which in turn, led to major persecution and martyrdom of many believers. Much of the error resident within Roman Catholicism continues to this day in spite of the Reformation.

It seems to me that something truly catastrophic needs to occur in the world in order for people to clamor for a Revived Roman Empire or at least welcome it. What could be more catastrophic than having millions of people vanish from the earth in a twinkling of an eye at the same exact time? Imagine what this would leave in its wake. Leaders then would step up to announce that no one need worry because what happened was directed by aliens, who gathered the millions of “malcontents” off the planet and took them to another planet where they could spiritually evolve or not at their own pace, leaving the earth itself finally free to move onto the next spiritual plane. There is more and more talk of aliens now with even the Pentagon admitting some things they previously denied. Where is it all leading?

Whether it’s the Rapture or some other major earth-shaking event, I believe something will be needed as the catalyst to usher in this Revived Roman Empire at the start of the Tribulation. People will need to have major fear (worse than under CV), in order to clamor for a global empire (starting in Europe), that will homogenize the entire world under 10 rulers at first, and ultimately only one. This is the way rulers of the past did it too. They were the main rulers who placed vassals under them in various territories to keep control of things. If that vassal began to turn against the ruler, he was dealt with and replaced. This is what Antichrist will do as well.

Verse 11 is interesting as well.

11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.

The Antichrist “is an eighth,” as we note from the above Walvoord list. But he also “belongs to the seven.” How? Because Antichrist is like the rulers who ruled those previous empires. They were all godless (or started that way), and ruled over an empire that ruled the (known) world. The coming Revised Roman Empire will also eventually do that, but first, as noted it will exist in Europe. Antichrist will have something to do with that resurrection of Rome. However, he will ultimately move beyond that, taking power from the 10 kings to be sole supreme imperialistic ruler. Though he starts out with a Roman-like empire, he morphs it into absolute imperialism, fascism and tyranny and in that way, breaks away from the previous seven empires becoming the sole eighth. His truly worldwide kingdom will, unlike all previous kingdoms, be destroyed by the physical return of our Lord Jesus. All previous kingdoms were destroyed by other empires, simply fell apart or both.

It is interesting that in Matthew 4, Satan tried to turn Jesus into Antichrist by tempting Him to worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. Satan failed, but he will ask the man who turns out to be Antichrist the same question and will hear a resounding “YES!”

So what do Christians do? Trust the Lord. I’ll say it again, trust the Lord. We are on the side of the Creator. We trust Him to provide for us. We trust Him to help us navigate the uncharted waters ahead. We trust Him to never leave or forsake us and by the way, we are obligated to never leave or forsake Him as well.

[1] https://calvarycedarrapids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Pre-Tribulation-Rapture.pdf

[2] https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=pretrib_arch

[3] http://www.essentialchristianity.com/21918

[4] https://prophecywatchers.com/ten-clear-pre-trib-rapture-references-from-ephraim-the-syrian-by-lee-brainard/