Revelation 17 - Verse by Verse Bible Study

By Pastor Steven L Anderson

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January, 2013

Now Revelation 17, verse 1, the Bible reads "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: 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. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:

and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having

seven heads and ten horns." Now, we just finished up with the seven vials of God's wrath in

chapter , and now we're going to see the judgment upon Babylon. Now that judgment is

actually going to be carried out in chapter , but in chapter , we're just seeing the

details of who the whore is and other details about that. Now if you would, go to chapter

. I want you to put your finger in chapter , and flip over to chapter . Because it's

interesting when you look at the first three verses of chapter , and compare them to

chapter , verses and , you will see that they're worded almost exactly the same.

And so there is a great contrast that we can draw here, to help us understand who the great

whore of Revelation is. It says in Revelation :, "And there came unto me one of the seven

angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues". And that's pretty much

what it said in chapter . And it says that (he) "talked with me, saying, Come hither,

I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a

great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending

out of heaven from God". So in chapter , the one that came and talked with him, was

one of the seven angels that had the seven vials. They said the exact same thing "come

hither, I will shew unto thee"... The difference is in chapter , he says "I am going to shew

thee the Lamb's wife". Chapter he said "I am going to shew thee the judgment of the

great whore." And then in chapter , verse it says "he carried me away in the spirit

into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast". In chapter

, verse , it says "he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain."

So you can see there is a very strong connection between these two viewings, where John is

showed basically, a woman in both cases. Obviously this is symbolic, but in one case he is shown

a great WHORE, and in the other case he is shown a BRIDE. Now, these are two contrary

things. These are two opposite things. When we think of a bride in a white wedding dress,

and we think of a whore, you are thinking of two things that really couldn't be any

more different. One is a legitimate partner. One is a legitimate life companion. The other

is something that God has told us to flee from. He said "flee fornication". To not be

a whoremonger. So what does this represent? Well, if we can understand who the BRIDE represents,

that'll help us understand who the WHORE represents. Flip over if you would to Revelation . And

let's see who the bride represents. It said in verse , "he carried me away in the spirit

to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending

out of heaven from God", and then if we go down to verse for sake of time, it says

"And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it", saying that they're

going to walk in the light of the city. "And the kings of the earth do bring their glory

and honour into it." Now if you would, flip over to Revelation . So in Revelation ,

when he is shown the bride, he is shown the great city, the heavenly Jerusalem descending

out of heaven from God. And it says of that city, that the nations of them which are SAVED,

shall walk in the light of it. Look at Revelation , verse . It says "Let us be glad and rejoice,

and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself

ready." So here we have the bride again, or the wife. And it says "And to her was granted

that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the

righteousness of", of who? Of saints. So in Revelation , we see that the Lamb's wife

is clothed in white linen which represents the righteousness of SAINTS. And then in chapter

, we see the heavenly Jerusalem come down. And if you would, look at chapter , verse

. It says "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of

heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." So in chapter , it's the CITY,

the heavenly Jerusalem, and the nations of them which are saved are walking in the light

of it. And in Revelation , we see that the bride, or the Lamb's wife is clothed in white

linen, which is the righteousness of saints. So it's clear that this "woman" represents

a group of people. In the case of the bride, it represents the saved, or the saints. That's

who we're dealing with when we deal with the Lamb's wife, or the "bride of Christ". The

saved, or the saints. Now, alot of people today will say that the church is the bride

of Christ. Well, the wedding hasn't happened yet. The wedding will happen in Revelation

, where the Bible says "let us be glad and rejoice, the marriage of the Lamb IS COME",

meaning right now, here it is. That's at the end of the seven years, that's in Revelation

. There is no bride of Christ today on this earth. There WILL BE a bride at the marriage,

at the wedding. So when we understand that the bride of Christ, or the Lamb's wife represents

a group of people, and that group are the SAINTS, the SAVED, those who are believers

on the Lord Jesus Christ... Now let's look at chapter with that in mind. It says in

verse number , "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". You say, "well what does it mean that the

great whore sitteth upon many waters?" Well if you jump down to verse , it interprets

that for us. It says "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore

sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." What the Bible is teaching

here, is that the great whore sits upon many waters. Meaning that the great whore is not

localised to a certain geographic location. The great whore is a worldwide group of people.

Because the waters upon which the whore sitteth are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,

and tongues. Now if you would, look at verse number , it says "And here is the mind which

hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." So, the woman

is seated both upon seven mountains, but also upon MANY waters, meaning all these nations,

kindreds, tongues and peoples throughout the entire world. So basically, there is a headquarters

that has seven mountains, but then there is also influence all over the entire world.

The people who make up this group represented by the great whore, are all over the world.

All different nations, tongues and peoples. Because those are the two different seatings

that we see. So it says at the end of verse , that the great whore sitteth upon many

waters. Verse says "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. So

he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet

coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns", which is

obviously very familiar from chapter . "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet

colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in

her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead

was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF

THE EARTH. 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." So who

is this whore? What is represented here by "the great whore, or "Mystery Babylon"? Well,

it's simple. The bride of Christ represents the saints, or the saved. The true believers

on the Lord Jesus Christ. The great whore basically represents apostate christianity.

False religion. A counterfeit, a fraud of the real thing when it comes to biblical christianity.

You see we can get some of the clues here about what is being dealt with when see that

first of all, it says in verse that the kings of the earth have committed fornication

with the whore. And then it also says that they've been made drunk with the wine of her

fornication. Then we see in verse , the statement toward the end of the verse, "full of names

of blasphemy". Then we see in verse , scarlet colour, gold, precious stones. At the bottom

there, fornication, Mystery Babylon. Now if we put all this evidence together, first of

all we can paint a picture of the Roman Catholic church. Now I don't believe that that's all

that this chapter is referring to. And many preachers have preached on this, and exposed

the similarities between Revelation and what we see with our eyes and through the

historical record of the Roman Catholic church. And I believe that. But there is more to this

chapter than just that. But let's examine that connection first of all. The Bible says

in verse , "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains,

on which the woman sitteth." Well, Rome is universally known as the city of seven hills.

Even when I was in public school as a sixth grader, our textbook for history had a chapter

called "Rome, the city on seven hills". So there is a connection there Rome. If you look

at verse , it says "And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth

over the kings of the earth." And historically, the city of Rome, or Vatican city which is

in Rome has been a seat of power that has ruled over kings of the earth. For example

in the middle ages, in the dark ages, the kings of Europe were crowned by the Pope.

He was the one who gave them their authority. He would literally put the crown on their

head. Which shows that he has more power than them. Because the Bible says "without all

contradiction, the less is blessed of the better." And so he had more power than them,

he's the one crowning them. And of course, the famous moment in history where Napoleon

crowned himself. The Pope was going to crown Napoleon, and he took the crown out of his

hand and put it on his own head. So we see that throughout the middle ages, throughout

the dark ages, Rome, Vatican city, the Pope, the Roman Catholic church ruled over the kings

of the earth. So we see that similarity. We see the city of seven hills being Rome. And

then when we look at the wine, the "wine of her fornication". What is a religion that

heavily emphasises wine? The Roman Catholic Church. I mean you can't go to a Roman Catholic

service without there being wine involved. Because their whole service and their whole

religion is based upon the Eucharist. Where they believe that they are literally eating

and drinking the blood of Christ, which is obviously a very strange doctrine indeed,

to think that they are literally consuming Christ's body and blood, and that it's not

figurative whatsoever. But anyway, we see the wine, we see the seven hills. We see the

martyrs of Jesus in verse . Look down if you would. "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." Has the Roman Catholic church killed the saints? Or

killed martyrs for the cause of Christ? Absolutely. All throughout the middle ages again, and

the dark ages, we see them burning people at the stake just for trying to translate

the Bible into the language of the common man. We see them putting people to death as

heretics for rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation. For rejecting the doctrines of baptism of

the Roman Catholic church. And so that fits the bill perfectly when you think of the MILLIONS

and MILLIONS of people executed because of their beliefs by the Roman Catholic church

throughout the dark ages, throughout the spanish inquisition etc. Also we see here in verse

, "full of names of blasphemy". Does the Roman Catholic church use names of blasphemy?

Well every single Catholic priest is called "father". And the Bible says "call no man

father upon the earth, for ONE is your father, which is in heaven." It is blasphemous to

give that title of "father" unto a man. Because we only have one Father, that is God and the

Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have a father that's a religious figure that we go to to

get our sins forgiven and confess unto him. He ought to confess his sins back to us. Because

he is just a man. He is just a human being. He is not the representative of God on earth.

He is just a human being. In fact, he is promoting a false religion. In fact, he needs to put

on a pair of pants and dress like a man. But these guys are not teaching the gospel of

Jesus Christ, they are elevating THEMSELVES to a position where they have the power to

forgive your sins, instead of all forgiveness coming through the Lord Jesus Christ. The

Bible says "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus".

I don't need to go to a Catholic priest who calls himself "father", as a mediator between

myself and God. And I definately don't need to go to the "mediatrix", which is what they

call Mary. And they say "she's the mediator, she's the mediatrix". No, there is one mediator

between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So these things are all fitting the bill perfectly.

Then when we get to verse , "the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and

decked with gold and precious stones and pearls". And we see that that fits the bill perfectly,

because we see the Roman Catholic Church of course, adorned in these exact colours. And

having all kinds of lavish luxury about their buildings, about their cathedrals, about their

churches. About the Pope. And when the Pope comes to town, he is dressed in scarlet colour,

he has got all the gold and silver and precious stones adorning him. He has got all the riches

that come with preaching a false religion. The Bible talks about people who teach things

which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. For the financial gain. And throughout history

the Roman Catholic church has compromised doctrine for financial gain. Like when they

sold "indulgences". And said "here, pay us money, and we will forgive your sins." And

they raked in all kinds of treasure and wealth as a result. Also we see here in Revelation

number , it says that she had "a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness

of her fornication". And you know, there's alot of filthy fornication that goes on within

the ranks of the Roman Catholic clergy. I mean, how many times do you hear about the

bastard sons that are fathered, and the molestation, and the sodomy, and all the wicked fornication

that goes on with these celibate Catholic priests, which is obviously totally unnatural,

since the Bible commands that the Bishop MUST BE the husband of one wife. The Bible commands

in st Timothy and Titus , that a Bishop MUST BE married. The Roman Catholic Church

teaches the opposite. It says the Bishop CANNOT be married. Well guess what, when you're not

married, and you're a heathen like these Catholic priests are, you're going to be committing

fornication. It's that simple. And they even go after strange flesh in many cases as we

have seen all the different stories about. So when we look at verses through , there's

alot of really strong correlation between what we're seeing here with the great whore,

Mystery Babylon, and what we see with the Roman Catholic church, which makes perfect

sense, because the Roman Catholic church is the largest apostate "christian" religion

in the world. The largest false, fake, fraud of Christianity. And goodnight, there are

all kinds of false denominations and false cults, and variations and twistings of the

gospel. But what's the biggest one? What's the biggest phony "christian" church that

there is? The Roman Catholic church. So it makes perfect sense that when we're looking

at a discussion of apostasy, a fraud- not the true bride of Christ, not the saints or

the saved, but rather when we look at a twisted version of that, the whore, the false religion,

the impostor... It makes sense that it would mirror the largest example of that, and that

that would be the headquarters... And not only that, look at verse , it says "And upon

her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND

ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." You say, "well, what does the Roman Catholic church have to

do with Babylon? Well, Babylon comes from the root word of "Babel", which is where the

tower of Babel was. And if we go back to Genesis and look at the tower of Babel, we see

that there were two main things about the tower of Babel. Number , was that God wanted

them to scatter throughout the earth to overspread the earth, to divide into nations and families

and replenish the earth. He did not want them all to be joined together and united. He wanted

them to be in separate families, nations etc. So we see at the tower of Babel, they all

joined together, contrary to God's wishes, and said "we want to stay together, we want

to be united, we want one government, one name, one place where we're all going to be

joined together." And the other thing that we see is that they said "let's build a tower

whose top may reach unto heaven." Now you say, "you can't build a tower to get to heaven."

Well, I know that. I know that you can't build a tower to get to heaven where God lives.

And you say, "well, that's ridiculous. That's foolish to actually think that you could actually

build a tower to get high enough to get..." But you know what? That actually represents

man building his own way to heaven. Working his own way to heaven. Instead of just trusting

in the Lord Jesus Christ to get him there. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou

shalt be saved." They were trying to build their own way. And what does false religion,

or apostate christianity teach? It teaches a works based salvation. It teaches that salvation

that says "well, yeah, Jesus died on the cross for you, BUT, to get to heaven, you have to

do X, Y and Z. You have to work your way to heaven. You have to do all these good works,

and righteous acts, and you have to go to church, you have to go to church, you have

to put money in the plate, you have to confess to the priest, you have to pray this prayer

every day, hail Mary and our Father, and you have to do all these good deeds to work your

own way to heaven." That is the Babel religion. And you say "well, it's just so foolish that

anyone would think they could physically build a tower to..." But you know what? It's foolish

to think your works are going to get you to heaven. Because the Bible says "all our righteousnesses

are as filthy rags before God." And so to think that your filthy rags are going to get

you to heaven, is just as foolish as thinking that you're going to build a physical building

that is going to get you there. It makes no sense. So we see those two things about the

tower of Babel that match perfectly with the Roman Catholic means "universal". It means

"Universal". So a one world religion and a one world government, and a one world population

there in the tower of Babel... Is a perfect picture of the Roman Catholic church, which

is basically seeking to have a universal church. A universal religion. God has mandated separate

churches. God has mandated all throughout the New Testament, the churches of Galatia,

the church of Corinth etc. And I had a guy who was out soul-winning one time, and I had

a guy say "you Baptists, you think that there are all these churches. There is ONLY ONE

church." And I said to him, I said "okay, then why in the New Testament, scores of times,

do we see the word "churches", plural? In fact, the word "churches", PLURAL, I believe

is used more often than "church", SINGULAR. What do you do with the letter of Galatians

that's written to the CHURCHES of Galatia??? That doesn't sound like one to me. That's

multiple churches in various locations. And here is the thing. If you look at the letters

that Jesus Christ sends out to the seven churches which are in Asia, Revelation and , where

he gives a different message to each church... He threatens each one individually that had

problems. He says I will remove your candlestick out of his place. And the Bible says the candlesticks

are the seven churches. He says "I am going to remove your candlestick out of it's place".

But let me ask you this. If the candlestick is removed from Ephesus, does Smyrna have

to go down? No! Just because Ephesus lost their first love, that doesn't mean Smyrna

did. And if God removed a candlestick from Ephesus, that doesn't mean that Smyrna or

one of the other churches couldn't continue to thrive and be a great Bible believing church,

because they're separate. But what if all seven of them were united together into a

denomination? With a Pope over them? Then the corruption is going to spread within the

organisation. And it's all going to filter down from the top. Whereas in Revelation

and , we see independent churches that have different doctrine, because some of them were

going into false doctrine, others weren't. They have their own doctrine, their own problems,

their own strengths, their own weaknesses. We see seven separate churches. All throughout

the New Testament we see separate churches. But the Catholic church teaches that there

is only one true church. "Catholic" means "universal"! And what do we see going into

the endtimes? When we study Revelation , and when we study the whole book of Revelation,

we see global government, universal political structure. A universal system of money. A

universal religion. A one world religion. A one world government, seeking to unite everything.

Instead of having separate sovereign nations, no, it's all united. And it's NOT God's plan,

it's not God's will. God ordained separate families, separate nations, and separate churches.

Not just this universal church that all Christians... And you know "if you're a true Christian,

you're a part of that one true church". No, that's not true. That's not biblical. The

word "church" means "congregation". In Psalm : t says "in the midst of the CONGREGATION

will I sing praise unto thee." In the the Old Testament it says "in the midst of the

CONGREGATION will I sing praise unto thee." When Psalm is quoted in Hebrews :, it

says "in the midst of the CHURCH will I sing praise unto thee." Showing that "church" and

"congregation" are two synonymous words. So a church is not this big over-arching organisation,

but rather, it's a local congregation, a local assembly of believers, whether it be Ephesus,

Smyrna or Tempe, Arizona. Wherever it happens to be located. So we see here, apostate religion

exemplified in the Catholic church. The Catholic church is the archtypical apostate church.

Perfect example of an apostate church. And keep in mind, for hundreds and hundreds of

years, people were reading the Bible throughout the dark ages, and I'm sure they were able

really to relate to this passage as they looked at the catholic church, they looked at the

political structure of the day. They looked at what that false religion was doing. They

looked at the martyrs of Jesus, they saw people being tortured, being burned at the stake,

killed, they saw all the false religion and apostasy, and all the wealth of the Catholic

church as the common man starved to death. They see all this, and it made perfect sense

to them, that the Catholic church is the great whore of Revelation . But here's what we

need to understand. It says at the end of verse , that this apostate church, or false

group of saints, not the true saints of the bride of Christ, but rather a fraud... It

says here that mystery Babylon the great is the MOTHER of harlots and abominations of

the earth. Therefore what we see here, is that this group of people or this organisation,

or this city... Or all the different levels on which Revelation is interpreted, is

not the only harlot out there. Is not the only whore that's out there, and is not the

only abomination that's out there. Because it says here that the GREAT WHORE is also

the mother of other harlots and abominations. So, I don't believe it's a good interpretation

of Revelation to just interpret this as "it's just the Roman Catholic church, that's

it, case closed." There's more to it than that, because there are OTHER apostate churches,

there are other forms of apostate religion and apostate Christianity, and counterfeits

of true biblical Christianity, that also fit the bill, that also teach a works based salvation,

a tower of Babel type salvation, where you get there on your own works, instead of just

trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that also believe in a universal church. I mean,

most of your apostate Christian churches teach the doctrine of the universal church. They

just maybe package it in a different way. But if you asked your average liberal mega-church

and said "do you believe in the universal church?" They're going to tell you "yes".

In fact, churches that recite the "apostles creed", which are presbyterian churches, which

is most of your mainline protestant churches... And I've been in baptist churches where people

recite it, it's unbelievable. But they will recite it and say "we believe in the holy

Catholic church". But they'll change it, because they'll say "well, we're not Catholic". So

they'll say "we believe in the holy universal church". So when they recite the "apostles

creed", which is not biblical, which is not something that the apostles had anything to

do with... When they recite that thing, they say "we believe in the universal church".

That's what they are saying they believe in. So is the Catholic church the only one that

fits this bill of false religion, of using false doctrine and false teaching about the

word of God, for financial gain to adorn themselves in gold and silver and precious stones, and

pearls? Are they the only ones who have names of blasphemy? Are they the only ones who teach

this kind of false doctrine? Are they the only ones who have persecuted and killed the

true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? No they're not. And so yes, the great whore,

the mother, based on the city of seven hills, I believe is a clear reference to the Catholic

church. But, we see alot of other harlots and abominations that have sprung forth from

the Roman Catholic church. And if you think about it, it says here that the great whore

is the mother of abominations. When you look at the false doctrines today, of churches...

For example, here is a major false doctrine- infant baptism. That's something that the

Bible never teaches, and usually of course this is done by sprinkling. Well in the Bible,

it says we are buried with him by baptism into his death, that like as Christ was raised

up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so, we also should walk in newness of

life. It talks about Jesus going down into the water, coming up out of the water. It

talks about John baptising in Aenon near to Salem, because there was much water there.

If you're sprinkling, you don't need much water. But he had to go to a place where there

was deep water, where he could actually baptise people by immersing them. Dunking them underwater,

signifying the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Buried with him by baptism into

his death. But when we see churches today that baptise by sprinkling, churches that

baptise BABIES, when the Bible says that before you get baptised, you have to believe with

all your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ- Acts :- "if thou believest with all thine heart

thou mayest". When we see churches teaching infant baptism and baptism by sprinkling,

you have to ask yourself, "where is this coming from?" You didn't get this from the Bible,

as Paul said. "This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you". And you know exactly

where it came from. It came from the Roman Catholic church. Because you are not just

going to read the Bible and come up with that on your own. "Oh, let's baptise with sprinkling

instead of immersion. Oh, let's baptise babies." It comes from the Roman Catholic church. And

see, alot of your mainline protestant denominations, go back and research where they came from.

Find the roots of it. Go back and figure out where John Calvin came from, and where Martin

Luther came from. And you know what you're going to find? That they were Catholic priests.

And that's why they brought alot of this false doctrine with them. That's why when you find

lutherans today baptising by sprinkling, or baptising a baby, you wonder "where are these

lutherans getting it?" From the Roman Catholic church. Because the Roman Catholic church

is the mother of these doctrines. They're the source and origination of these doctrines.

And they have filtered down from the Catholic church to all these other apostate Christian

denominations. Whether it be works salvation, whether it be the doctrine of purgatory, whether

it be a teaching of infant baptism or baptism by sprinkling. And I don't want to go on an

on about that, because I want to preach the whole chapter here. But you can see that the

Catholic church is the source of alot of these false doctrines amongst various brands of

apostate Christianity today. But we see that this apostate religion, or apostate church,

or apostate group is based on a city with seven hills. Now you say "well okay, are there

other cities with seven hills? Are there other cities that would fit that bill?" People have

brought up Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Or even Jerusalem, as places where there are seven

mountains, or seven hills. And they say "couldn't it be a different city, a different place?"

Well, think about this for a moment. The Bible is teaching here that the great whore is on

seven mountains where the woman sitteth and is known as Mystery Babylon. Well, if we go

back to Daniel... And I did this on my sermon on Revelation , but when we go back to Daniel,

there's a prophecy that keeps coming up about the endtimes. And some of it had to do with

things that were going on back in Daniel's day. Some of it had a futuristic application

that is still to come. But remember the four kingdoms keep coming up over and over again.

In chapter , we have the image with the head of gold, and then it goes to silver, bronze

and iron. Those four kingdoms, if you remember the sermon on chapter were Babylon, then

the Medo-Persian empire, then Greece, and then Rome. And when we saw the antichrist,

or the beast having seven heads and ten horns in Revelation , that beast is described

as having the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear. And it's likened unto a leopard, a bear and

a lion. And it's those four same kingdoms that we saw described in Daniel . I'm not

going to repreach the chapter sermon. But we see that Babylon and Rome are connected,

aren't they? If we think about it, and we see that these four beasts of Daniel ...

The lion representing Babylon, the bear representing the Medo-Persian empire, the leopard representing

Greece, and the fourth beast was the dreadful beast that was unlike the others that crushed

everything with iron, that was the Roman empire. So we see that in Revelation , in the endtimes,

the one world government that emerges is like an amalgamation of all four beasts- from Babylon,

Persia, Greece and the Roman empire all combined into one. So therefore, there is a link that

ties in Babylon with Rome, moreso than with Jerusalem or with Rio De Janeiro Brazil, for

example. We see that there is a biblical strong connection in the book of Daniel between Babylon

and Rome. Here is why. Because at one time, Babylon was the empire that ruled over the

civilised world, right? And when Babylon ruled over the civilised world, there was a man

at it's head who basically thought of himself higher than he ought to have thought, and

there is a great image made and people HAD to worship that image that image in Daniel

chapter , and if they wouldn't the image, what happened to them? They were killed, right?

Okay, what happens in Revelation ? The antichrist, the man who is the head of that global government,

he basically has an image made... If you don't worship the image, you are going to be killed.

It's exactly like what we saw in Daniel chapter . So, the Babylonian empire was a precursor,

or a foreshadowing of the global government thats going to come in the endtimes. And king

Nebechudnezzar foreshadowed the antichrist as being a leader that's commanding you to

worship his image or die. So we see that connection don't we? Then we also see the connection

between Rome and the global government of the endtimes. Because when Jesus Christ came

the first time, the Roman empire was there, ruling and reigning over the world at that

time. The leaders of the Roman empire thought of themselves as God. They thought of themselves

as greater than just a normal human being. And they also caused people to be killed for

their beliefs. And thrown to the lions and so forth. So we can see a very strong connection

between Babylon, and Rome. And those are both used as pictures or symbols of this global

government in the end time. So we see, yes a global government in the end time, but we

also see a global religion, a universal religion. A one world religion. Now, don't mistake this,

because we don't want you to think that I'm saying "hey, in the end times, everybody is

going to become Catholic, and the antichrist is going to be the next Pope", or something.

I don't believe that. Because I believe that the one world religion in the endtime is going

to include more than just the Catholic church. That's why I think sometimes people get too

carried away when they're looking at Revelation . They get so fixated on the imagery and

the symbolism and the link with the Catholic church, that they misunderstand the fact that

this isn't just the Catholic church, this is the GLOBAL false religion that's going

to be around the antichrist. Or that's going to basically put the antichrist into power.

There's going to be other apostate Christians that join with the Catholic church in believing

this. Now, let's keep reading. It says in verse , "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". Now again, if you study your Bible, that term

"is not", is referring to someone being dead. "Joseph is not", is what Jacob said when he

thought his son was dead. And so when he talks about the beast that "WAS, and IS NOT", it's

talking about the beast was alive, now is dead, AND shall ascend out of the bottomless

pit. So basically, the beast has died, gone to hell, and is going to ascend out of hell.

And I covered that in Revelation . And go into perdition. Eventually to go back to damnation,

or perdition. It says "and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder". Of course people

are going to be amazed when someone dies and comes back to life, right? Which is what we

saw in Revelation . But it doesn't say that everyone who dwells on earth will wonder.

It says that those who 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 one that was, and is not, and YET IS- comes back to

life is what that's basically saying. Now, let's look at that phrase that says "whose

names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world". What's

interesting is that if you study the book of life from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible

never talks about people's names being added to the book of life. We often get this idea

that when a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and gets saved, that moment their name

is added to the book of life. That's actually never found in the Bible, believe it or not.

And in fact, the only reference to when those names made it into the book of life, is basically

right here when it says that these names were "written in the book of life from the foundation

of the world." Meaning that if you are saved today, your name was already written in the

book of life from the foundation of the world. It did not get added the moment you got saved.

Your name was written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Now the

Bible does often talk about people's names being removed from the book of life. You'll

find plenty of references to being blotted out of the book of life, being removed from

the book of life. But you'll never find someone being added to the book of life. And so what

I believe and what I take from that, as I study the Bible, is that everybody's name

starts out in the book of life. And what we see is that in Revelation for example, it

says "to him that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not

blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father

and before his angels". So again, we don't see that it's being added, we just see that

it's not being removed, it's not being blotted out. So there does come a time when people's

names are removed from the book of life, are blotted out from the book of life. Go to Revelation

for a classic example of this. In Revelation , the famous verse says "For I testify

unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add

unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take

away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things

which are written in this book." So this curse upon those who would remove from God's word,

and take away part of God's word, he said "I will take away his part out of the book

of life". So, if a person is to tamper with God's word, that's what's going to happen.

Now, is there anything else that a person can do that will cause that person to basically

have permanently sealed their fate to where they can never be saved? I mean this guy,

he is going to hell. He tampered with God's word, he is done. An unsaved person obviously,

seeks to pervert and to change God's word. Remove stuff, add stuff... He is going to

hell. End of story. His part has been blotted out of the book of life. Now people will say

"he's lost his salvation". He didn't lose his salvation. He never was saved, but rather,

his part is taken out the book of life. Now he doesn't even have the opportunity to get

saved. He's done. It's a done deal. Well think about this. What about when someone worships

the antichrist and recieves his mark in his forehead or in his hand? What did the Bible

say about those people in Revelation : and ? That they're for sure going to hell,

right? So think about this. If somebody worships the beast, they're done. Just like if they

tamper with God's word. Just like when the Pharisees of Jesus' day, who of course NEVER

believed on him, they didn't "lose their salvation", they were never saved! You can't lose your

salvation, it's eternal life. It's everlasting life. He promised to never leave us nor forsake

us, we've been passed from death unto life. But remember how it said that if you take

the mark of the beast you're done, the Pharisees of Jesus' day blasphemed the Holy Ghost, they

were done. He said "you have no forgiveness neither in this world, neither in the world

to come". You've gone too far, you are blinded at that point. You are reprobate at that point.

You are rejected at that point. Those who worship the antichrist are the same way. So

it makes sense that their names are not in the book of life anymore. Anybody who worship

the antichrist. All the people who dwell on the earth who are worshipping him are people

whose names and... Let's read it again in Revelation there. "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." Now some people

will look at the grammar there, and they'll say these people's names were NEVER in the

book. "Their name was never in the book. It's not that it was removed or blotted out, it's

just that it was never there." Well, there are two ways to understand the word "were"

there. And I'm not trying to be like Bill Clinton and define the word "is" here, but

I'm just saying there are multiple ways to understand these verb tenses. Because if we

look at this as "whose names WERE NOT WRITTEN", okay, if we were to look at that "were" as

a helping verb of "written", "were written", then I would see where they were coming from,

to say "okay, this is saying that the name was never there." But what I believe it's

saying when it's says the names were not written, I think it's saying "at this time their names

were not written". And when it says that their names were not written in the book of life

from the foundation of the world, what you have to understand is that ANYBODY whose names

are written in the book of life, it's there from the foundation of the world. These people's

names were not in the book of life from the foundation of the world, because their name

has been removed. That's the way I interpret that. And that's what I believe it's saying

because that's the only way that it would be consistent with what the rest of what the

Bible teaches about the book of life. You see, my name is in the book of life. And it's

there from the foundation of the world. My name is in the book of life from the foundation

of the world. It's always been there. The person whose not saved, their name is NOT

in the book from the foundation of the world. My name is in the book of life from the foundation

of the world. Their name is not in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

Another way that some people have interpreted this, is just that when God removes your part

from the book of life, it's like it was never there. But that's not the way I interpret

it. I interpret it grammatically the way that I just explained it. Because the Bible talks

so much about people's names being removed. And so much about being blotted out. And that's

a whole other study in and of itself. But let's keep going. It says in verse , "And

here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman

sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet

come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and

is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." Now, what

I believe this is referring to, that the seventh king, that continues for a short space...

Well if you think about it, if the eighth king is going to be the beast or the antichrist,

wouldn't it make sense that the seventh king would only continue for a short space, if

perhaps he is somebody who fill in during the three days or however long the antichrist

is dead. Think about that. Because remember, the antichrist was and is not, and shall ascend

out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. The Bible talks about in Revelation , him

receiving a deadly wound to his head, his deadly wound is healed, and all the world

wonders after the beast. They're all amazed at the fact that this deadly wound is healed.

And it talks about in chapter , and in chapter , and also I think you can derive it from

nd Thessalonians , that he is going to die and come back. So while he is dead, somebody

has got to be running the show, as far as whatever the antichrist was ruling over at

that time. He is not necessarily "the antichrist" until he comes back. But that man of sin obviously

was in power, he was in authority, he was one of those seven heads, and then when he

basically dies, somebody else is going to fill in for a short space, I think is what

that's referring to. And it says in verse , "And the beast that was, and is not, even

he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." So he WAS one of the

seven. And then he comes back. Again, more evidence that he is dying and coming back

from the bottomless pit. Trying to mimic or counterfeit what Jesus Christ did with the

death, burial and resurrection. It says in verse , "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. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."

So, we're not talking about the whore at this time. Did you notice that we switched from

talking about the whore, to talking about the beast? The first six verses were talking

about the whore. We're explaining everything about the whore, and all the different identifying

features of the scarlet colour, the names of blasphemy, the gold and silver, the precious

stones, the fornication, the wine, all that. But now we've switched. We're learning about

the beast that carrieth her. Partway down verse . We're learning about the beast that

carrieth her. And we're seeing these sevens and tens, because remember... The chapter

sermon is critical. But in the sermon on chapter , I went over the fact that when

the Bible talks about the beast, it represents NOT JUST the man, it represents both the king

and the kingdom. We proved that in the sermon on chapter . And so the seven heads and

ten horns that the beast is pictured as having are different people. One of the seven heads

is wounded to death. That's the one who becomes the antichrist, and he is also just known

as "the beast", personally. But also the whole government, the whole global government is

called "the beast". And it has these seven heads, which are these seven kings. And these

ten horns, which are ten kings. Also the seven heads represent the seven mountains and so

forth. There are alot of different layers of imagery here, it's not just one interpretation.

So these ten horns are ten kings which have recieved no kingdom as yet, but receive power

as kings one hour with the beast. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength

unto the beast." So what I see here is ten kings or ten... We probably wouldn't use the

word king that much today, we would probably call them "a world leader". We would think

of men who are basically rulers of various countries. For the United States, you would

think of the President of the United States. And unfortunately, he behaves very much like

a King. It wasn't set up that way in the early days. It wasn't set up that way in with

the constitution. But today, he is giving all kinds of executive orders, he is ruling

and reigning as a king. He is making all kinds of decisions unilaterally. His wife Michelle

Antionette, basically lives in the lavish luxury like a queen, right? Going on all these

vacations and having multitudes of servants, and millions and millions of dollars of this,

that and the other. So we have a king. Just because you call him the President doesn't

mean that he is not the king, because that is what he is. We have King Obama at this

time. And and these ten kings are basically ten world leaders. We could think of Putin,

or whoever. Just whatever people across the world who rule, China or Russia, or the United

States, or France, or England. Basically the big power players. For example, you think

of in the United Nations, right? There are all these different nations, something

nations. However many there are. This number of nations that are supposedly ruling through

the United Nations and making policy... But really, it's the security council that really

calls the shots. And the Security council is made up of members. But it's FIVE of

those members that are the ones who really call the shots. They're the PERMANENT members

of the security council. And they're the ones who have veto power in the security council.

China, Russia, the United States, England, and France. Those five are the permanent members.

The other ten, they get cycled through, just to make them feel good. Zimbabwe, you know...

New Zealand. They're not really the ones that are making policy on the security council.

It's not like Argentina is going to be the one who really makes the final decision. It's

the five big ones. But then there are other major nations. Obviously Germany has alot

of power and sway. So I think these are going to be ten world leaders that represent all

regions of the world. Something similar to a UN Security Council, that are going to basically

give up their power unto the beast. So it's like they have their own sovereignty. President

Obama, he rules over the United States, and someone else rules over China, Russia, England,

whatever. These guys have their own power over their own sphere, but they're all going

to have one mind, they're all going to agree, and they're going to give their power and

strength unto the beast. They're going to hand over the power. Look, we already see

our President handing over power to the United Nations. So is it far fetched to believe that

in the future there is going to be a leader of America that's going to hand all the power

to the world government? It's coming. We're losing more and more of our sovereignty as

nation, and we're going into a global government. And so that's what we see here. The global

political system. We saw the whore, which is like a global religious system, a global

apostate religion. And then we see the global political system where ten world leaders hand

off all their power unto the beast, and give him the power. They rule with him for one

hour, and then they have one mind and they give all their power and strength unto him.

It says in verse , "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome

them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called,

and chosen, and faithful." Now remember in Revelation , we learnt that the antichrist

is taking power of the entire world at the midpoint of the seven years. That's where

he takes power of the whole world, and he continues that way for forty two months. Well,

the war with the Lord Jesus Christ, where they come to make war with the Lord Jesus

Christ when he comes on the white horse, that takes place in Revelation at the END of

the seven years. So that show that these ten kings, they're still there in power. Basically

they give all their power unto the antichrist as the head. He becomes the ruler. But obviously

no ruler just rules alone. He's got other sub-rulers under him, right? He's got his

own beauracracy under him. And these ten kings, these ten rulers, they still retain some power

during the time that the antichrist is reigning, all the way up to the point where they go

out to make war with the antichrist. Go to chapter if you would. And I will prove

that to you. It says in verse , "the sixth angel", this is toward the end of the week,

when the vials of God's wrath are being poured out. It says "And the sixth angel poured out

his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way

of the kings of the east might be prepared." So there still are kings on the earth, aren't

there? And it says here, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the

mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the

false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto

the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great

day of God Almighty." So you see again, the same thing we saw in chapter , of these

kings coming make war with Jesus Christ. The antichrist is over them. He is the guy at

the top. But there are still these kings obviously running things on a more local basis, the

beauracracy if you will. It says in verse of chapter , "These shall make war with

the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings:

and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me,

The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and

nations, and tongues." So now we're just getting back to talking about the whore aren't we?

And it says "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the

whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with

fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their

kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which

thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Now, think about

this. When we're talking about the destruction of Babylon in chapter - and of course there

is going to be a whole other sermon on chapter that goes into that in great detail. But

when we think about the destruction of Babylon in chapter , when is that taking place?

This is AFTER the seventh vial is poured out. And it only takes one hour. The destruction

of Babylon will take place in one hour. It will be destroyed with fire. This is taking

place at the very END of Daniel's th week. It's the last thing. It's after the seven

vials. Now think about this. If the theory- because the theory is out there that the great

whore is Jerusalem. That basically Jerusalem is also on seven hills. Well think about this...

When is Jerusalem destroyed? When does the antichrist turn on Jerusalem? When does the

beast turn and attack Jerusalem? Well, Luke taught us it's at the midpoint that Jerusalem

is basically... That's where the abomination of desolation takes place. That's where alot

of Jews are killed with the sword at that place. At the midpoint. That's where Jerusalem

is attacked. This is Babylon being attacked. This is NOT at the midpoint. This is at the

very end, this is a separate event. And it says that basically, at the end of this all...

Because that's the timing of where we're at. Because remember, this all goes back to chapter

verse . Halfway through the verse, after the seventh vial was poured out, where it

says "great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine

of the fierceness of his wrath." It's happening at the very end. It's in detail in chapter

. But look at chapter , verse . It says "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon

the beast", who are the ten horns? The ten kings, right? "These shall hate the whore,

and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom

unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." And the words of God being

fulfilled there are the destruction of Babylon. "And the woman which thou sawest is that great

city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Now when we get into chapter , it

talks about Babylon fallen. And it says in verse of chapter , "For all nations have

drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication". Similar things to what was said about the

great whore. Later on in chapter , it talks about her being utterly burnt with fire. Her

flesh being the same exact type of terminology. So you can't really separate these events.

So to put it all together, to tie it all together here, what we see. If we look at the great

whore, historically... Because in the first verses we are talking about the great whore

PAST TENSE, the kings of the earth HAVE committed fornication with her. She has BEEN DRUNK with

the blood of the saints, and with the martyrs of Jesus. We are seeing stuff HISTORICALLY

about the great whore. So this is not a new entity, this is something that has existed

side by side with Christianity throughout the ages. We mention the dark ages, we mention

the middle ages. We mentioned the tower of Babel, we mentioned the Roman empire. The

paganism of the Roman empire also of course spilled into the Roman Catholic church, with

all it's paganism. And all the things that it picked up from Pagan religion, which goes

back to the tower of Babel. So we see historically, the great whore has been the Catholic church.

And I think if you were preaching this hundreds of years ago in the dark ages, you would be

right on, comparing this to the Catholic Church, and calling the Catholic church the great

whore. And obviously the Catholic church is still in existence, still a great whore, still

preaching false doctrine, STILL corrupting the world with it's abominations and fornications.

STILL exerting power over governments. But not as much as it used to. I mean, can anyone

really argue today that the Catholic church has the same power today that it had over

Europe in the dark ages? I don't think so. But historically, yes, I don't want to discount

that. But what I am saying is that I think that today in , the great whore is seated

in the United States. I mean, that is where the headquarters, or the hub, or the base

of the great whore is, or apostate religion, or apostate Christianity, global government,

this global system... I think is based physically today in the United States. Was it based on

seven mountains in John's day? Yes. Was it based on seven mountains in the times of the

dark ages, when you look at the apostate Christian church, the Roman Catholic church? Yes. Not

discounting the historical aspect, but today, we see the great whore seated- I believe-

in the United States. Which is why when we get into chapter , I believe that we are

talking about the physical destruction of the United States. And I am going to prove

that alot of different ways in the sermon on chapter . So if you are skeptical about

that, just wait until the Revelation sermon, before you discount what I am saying. Listen

to the sermon on Revelation , and then decide whether you agree with me on the United States

correlation. But I just wanted to plant that seed in your mind right now, of understanding

that the whore sits on many waters. Not restricted to one geographical location. At one point,

it was the tower of Babel, in the plains of Shinar. Then it was Babylon. Then it was Rome.

I believe now, it's the United States. United States is the new Rome. The United States

is the new Babylon. We see the United States as being the place where the United Nations

is based. We see the United States as being a global power, but also a global force for

apostate Christianity. When we get to chapter , it talks about Babylon as being the place

that consumes all the world's goods. And when it's destroyed, people say "nobody is going

to destroy our merchandise anymore". I mean, if this happened today, what nation could

you possible destroy, where people would say "no man buyeth our merchandise anymore"? The

United States consumes all the goods. And if you think about the fact that today, all

of the phony Christian organisations... It's all based out of the United States, if you

think about it. You go to Colorado Springs, Colorado, that's where there are hundreds

of these church organisations, and so-called "Christian" organisations that teach a universal

church, that teach works salvation. All these different organisations, and para-church ministries,

are all based out of Colorado. They're all based out of the United States. And basically,

who is the one who sends missionaries all over the entire world? More than any other

nation? The United States. There is no question about that. And look, are all those missionaries

preaching the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? What percentage of them is? Probably

most of them are obviously bringing false religion. So the United States is spreading

false apostate Christianity all over the world. We're the ones that have the TV preachers.

We're the ones who have polluted the world with our sorceries, and television. All the

movies, everything is coming from the United States. And so I believe that if we were to

fast forward to , the modern day Babylon is the United States. And so, stay tuned for

the chapter sermon, because that's the one where I am going to tie this in, and put

it all together. But I just want to kind of plant that seed in your mind right now at

the end of the chapter sermon, to try to understand the great whore. Yes the great

whore is apostate religion, a false religion. But, the place that's going to be destroyed,

the place that the ten kings are going to turn on and destroy and nuke to high heaven,

with fire and brimstone, is going to be, I believe the United States. Let's bow our heads

and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and we thank you

for the chance to study it and to try to understand it. Of course, we see through a glass darkly

when it come to some of these events, because this could happen far off into the future.

Geopolitical landscapes could change. Perhaps some day, another nation could rise, that

would be similar to the United States in that it consumes all the goods, decieves all the

nations through TV, and hollywood, decieves all the nations through false religions and

apostate missionaries and apostate religion, but Father help us to understand and to know

the times, and to study our Bibles to get as close as we can to being accurate about

how these things will be playing out, and

in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.