Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God”. And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to his work. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."”
Rev. 17: 6-13
“And I saw a woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and I marveled greatly at that which I saw her. "
So far we have explained who and what a "harlot" is, and now we see that John sees a woman drunk but "of the blood of the witnesses of Jesus;" and this confirms to us what we have said that .. the spirit of Babylon "is still alive because the" witnesses of Jesus "are members of the Church of Christ who lived from the day of Pentecost to the present day and they in the future until the great tribulations. "Witnesses" were persecuted and many were killed, let's just mention the Inquisition which was very "zealous" on this issue but it is no wonder because it is written:
,, "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”
John 16: 2
and this persecution will intensify again in the time of great tribulation and when John saw it, "and I marveled at the great miracle when I saw it." John probably could not comprehend this "spirit of Babylon" and how a small group of Jesus' followers his time now a "woman" has grown into such a "monster" with so much pomp and splendor that it still haunts believers even in great trouble.
It still says, “And the angel said unto me, Why marvel ye? I will tell you the secret of this woman, and the beast that bears her, and has seven heads and ten horns. "And that is exactly what we have been talking about since the beginning of the seventeenth chapter.
And now the angel explains to John:
"The beast you saw was and is not, and it will come out of the abyss and go to ruin; and they that dwell on the earth shall be astonished, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they shall see the beast that was, and is not, and shall come again.
This beast, "The beast you saw was and is not, and will come out of the abyss" this is the beast we studied in the thirteenth chapter coming out of the sea
,, I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.”
Rev. 13: 3
And we have already said that this is the Antichrist and he will get a mortal wound somewhere in the middle of the great troubles, but also that this mortal wound will heal and in all this a false prophet who will be the head of the "Babylonian religion" will play a big role. They said. The kingdom or rule of the Antichrist can be divided into two parts until the death wound is inflicted. to "amaze" the then unfaithful world is therefore written:
,, I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"”
Rev. 13: 3-4
and in our text:
"And they that dwell on the earth shall be astonished, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they shall see the beast that was, and is not, and shall come again."
It will be a time when the wishes of many who seek and want to see signs and miracles will be fulfilled. The Antichrist and the false prophet will enable them to do so.
,, "For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
Mt.24: 24
It goes on to say:
"Here is the mind, which has wisdom. Seven heads, those are the seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings. Five of them have fallen, and one has, and the other has not yet come; and when it comes, it will remain for a little while.
In this vision of the "seven heads" we can say that they represent two things first, they are the seven mountains on which Rome was built (because we are talking about the restored Roman Empire in the future) but it represents something else
"And there are seven kings. Five of them fell, "and here we have the Revelation of the Holy Spirit representing the worldly, pagan kingdoms that worked in opposition to Christ's kingdom. These worldly pagan kingdoms were shown to the prophet Daniel in the form of a man and a beast. passed five empires of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Mido-Persia and, the Greek empire, "Five of them fell," but it still says "and one is" and that is the Roman Empire and it is six empires but it says "seven heads "and that is why John continues, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he will stay for a while "and here we now mean the kingdom of the Antichrist.
"And the beast that was and is not, and it is the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perish." we have eight kingdoms: Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Mido-Persia, Greece, Rome, the Antichrist before the death wound, and the Antichrist after the death wound.
"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have not yet received kingdoms; but shall receive the kingdom as kings for a time with beasts." These have one will, and will give power and authority to the beast.
What John saw for him was a distant future and we can see this develop.
To the prophet Daniel, the world empires were shown in the form of a human figure until the Millennial Empire, and that figure had ten toes, which are also represented by ten horns. When he described the Roman Empire, Daniel wrote:
,, "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. "I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.”
Daniel 7: 7-8
Ten countries will spring from the "ruins of the Roman Empire" and a horn will "emerge" from these ten countries, and that is the Antichrist.
"And the ten horns which thou sawest are the ten kings, which have not yet received kingdoms; but shall receive the kingdom as kings for a time from the beast." , at the same time "and this kingdom will have a" special power "after the taking of the Church and their leader will be the Antichrist who will have the economic, geographical and military power to be able to" control everything "for them, he writes:
"These have one will, and will give power and authority to the beast."