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Revelation chapter 17 commentary by Don Koenig
http://www.thepropheticyears.com/The%20book%20of%20Revelation/Revelation%20Chapter%2017.htm

EXCERPTS (Much much more at link. I implore you to read the whole thing)

“...John is taken to see much more detail about the life, deeds and end fate of the religious and political systems that had control over the world since the rebellion against God became formal at Babylon in the days of Nimrod...

Rev 17:3 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.

...the woman on the scarlet colored beast is being carried along by Satan... ...We are told the harlot woman rides this Beast, meaning she has some control over the direction of all seven world governments. There is only one entity that fits that description and that entity is “world religion”. Man rebelled against the God of heaven when he started worshiping created beings rather than the creator (Satan is the chief of created beings). This paganism became a formal mystery religion at the tower of Babel under the rule of Nimrod. Most of mankind remains under the influence of Babylonian pagan practices today.

Rev 17:4-5 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.

The woman has the name “Mystery Babylon”. Mystery Babylon is not the same as the physical place of Babylon in Iraq. Mystery Babylon is the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. She is a seen as a harlot because she has a relationship with someone other than God. She is the mother of all abominations because she is playing the harlot with Satan who is the prime source of all evil on the earth. The clothing the woman wears and the wealth she displays reflects that she thinks that she is a queen instead of a whore. The priests of formal religions often wear similar colors today. Many of them also use golden cups for the practice of their religious rituals. In her hand is a cup that is full of abominations that comes from her fornication with Satan.

Purple was the color of Roman imperialism and scarlet is the main color adopted by Roman Catholicism. The Vatican is the chief entity that speaks for religion on the earth and that is not just a coincidence. The Vatican is the only religious state and it has embassies in most nations of the world and has a non-voting seat at the UN as a consultant to this world body. In the end times, she will be the head of the harlot world religion when she and many other religions merge into a one-world religion with its headquarters being at the Vatican in Rome.

Rev 17:6 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.

The woman is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the martyrs of Jesus. The saints are Old Testament people who were put to death by the religious whore. They include all the prophets and Old Testament believers who were persecuted and killed by the religions system (Judaism) that fornicated with Babylonian demonic gods. Most members of the leadership of Israel’s religious system were controlled by “their father the Devil” according to Jesus (Joh 8:44). This proves that the harlot was in existence and was well established in Judaism even at that time. These satanic leaders of Israel killed the husbandmen of the vineyard (the prophets) and even the Son of the owner of the vineyard (Jesus) so that God would get nothing out of His field (Luk 20:13).

The martyrs of Jesus are the followers of Jesus who died for their faith in Him. Martyrdom of the true followers of Jesus will continue to take place under the hand of the whore until the day the great whore is devoured by the Beast she rides. After Judaism, most of martyrdom was by the hands of satanic leaders that rose to the top of Christian and later Islamic religion. In the future, martyrdom will be by the hands of the World Church. Finally, the whore herself will be devoured and burned with fire by the Babylonian pagan Beast she prostituted herself with.

Why did John marvel about her? John marveled because until the angel explains it to him, the woman and the beast she rides is a hidden mystery. Maybe John also marveled because God’s plan that allows Satan to play God through the religions of the world is simply astounding. John must have realized that through death, these martyrs actually won victory over the Devil and obtained eternal life and glory. Thus, the satanically inspired desire of the harlot to kill the children of the promise actually brought the elect children to eternal salvation and rewards. The plan of God is a mystery simply beyond human understanding.

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

...The angel tells John that the woman that rides the Beast will sit on seven mountains (mountains, mounts or hills). Rome sits on seven hills. The harlot woman that becomes the World Church will rule from the Vatican....

15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

...The phrase “sitting upon many waters” means the whore sits over many nations or peoples of the earth... ...the waters where the whore sits actually represents the people she has influenced that come from many nations and languages. Only religion fills that role.

18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

This is a key passage that tells us the identity of the “woman that rides the beast”. “Mystery Babylon” is the great city that is ruling over the earth. Rome was ruling over the earth in the time of John and fits the bill but Mystery Babylon could not be the city of Rome or the Roman Empire. “The woman rides the beast”, so the woman could not at the same time “be the beast”. The woman could not be the church at Rome at the time of John because the church was not ruling over the earth at that time. The religious system reigning over the earth in the time of John was Babylonian paganism and Caesar worship. The city in this passage is a city that reigns over the earth. At the time of John, that city was Rome. The city may also be a city that reigns over the earth at the end time judgment of the woman. That also is likely to be fulfilled by Rome. For these reasons, the woman in this prophecy can only be identified as a world religion that has also been infiltrated by Babylonian paganism and that is located at Rome.

So we can be sure of the true identity of the woman we will examine this a little closer. We are told the woman sits on a seven hilled city (Rome) and is drunk with the blood of the martyred saints and from that we can determined that “Mystery Babylon” is a religious system that claims to worship God but has incorporated Babylonian religious practices (that is why she is described as a harlot). She has to be at a physical location that not only had Babylonian practices in the time of John but the religious system “must martyr all the saints” (verse 6). The Roman Empire did kill saints but all the blood of the saints and martyrs cannot be placed at the hands of the political and religious powers of the Roman Empire. The harlot was obviously born before Rome (in Babylon) and she did not die in Rome in 312AD when the Church joined with the political system of the Roman Empire. After the Jewish and then the Roman Empire persecutions ended, only the religion that identified with Christianity could be blamed for true Christians being martyred (e.g. the inquisitions). That remained true until Islam took over the leadership role of the slaughter of true Christians.

There is only one location and religious entity on earth that makes sense of this prophecy and its greater fulfillment in the last days. The harlot woman of the last days has to be all organized religion that at the fulfillment of this prophecy will be headquartered in Rome. It should be obvious that I am not saying the present Roman Catholic Church can be named as the denomination that fulfills the end time role of the woman. All Babylonian influenced world religion makes up this woman on the Beast. The world religion that will become headquartered at the Vatican may take on an entirely different name from Roman Catholicism in the last days. However, there is little doubt in my mind that this woman who rides the Antichrist Beast will be a pagan Babylonian infiltrated harlot headquartered at the location that is now called the Vatican in Rome.

If more clarification of the woman is still necessary let me further explain. The Babylonian harlot was born in the time of Nimrod in Babylon and eventually corrupted Judaism. The pagan Babylonian religious practices actually moved from Babylon to Pergamos. (where Satan’s throne is — Rev 2:13). After the church merged with the state in 312 AD, the harlot took residence in the top ranks of the Christian church. At this point, the Babylon priest system had already joined with the Roman system. By approximately 600 AD, the Christian institutional church became what we know today as the Roman Catholic Church. During this period of Christianity mingled with pagan practices the inquisitions took place and killed many more true Christians than did any prior persecution of God’s people. After the inquisitions, the woman can be seen within the Protestant churches who had their own persecutions and witch-hunts in which many took part in their own holocausts against God’s people. Today the woman’s attributes are seen in Islam as the primary murderer of God’s people. In the end time, the woman will ride a one world religious system. The woman actually never leaves Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism or Islam because the woman is in fact all harlot religion of all eras. However, the woman rides the Beast as the religion that has the most influence on the governmental empire that happens to control the earth. Today the Vatican represents the religion that has the most influence on the earth but Protestantism also has world influence and Islam is rapidly coming to the forefront. All harlot religion will play a part and complete the fulfillment of the prophecy about the woman who rides the beast.

When the rapture of the true Church of Jesus Christ takes place, true Christians from many different denominations including faithful Catholics will be taken to be with Jesus. The apostate Christians left behind in all denominations will form a world religion led at the headquarters of the largest Christian denomination.

I want to make one thing clear here: By mentioning the Vatican as the future headquarters of the world harlot, I am not Catholic bashing. There are many practices in the Catholic Church that I believe are heresies but there are just as many or more heresies in most mainline Protestant Churches today. For a thousand years, there was only one church government on earth and that was the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is still the largest Christian denomination in the world by far. Therefore, if there is going to be harlotry throughout history since Babylon and the harlotry is among those who claim to know the God of creation, it has to be among the only organized Christian Church that exists during this period.

The harlot woman was among this organized body called Catholics, but so were true Christians as wheat among the tares. Today Islam has taken over the role of the chief harlot religion that persecutes the saints. Islam is founded on paganism and in our time has actively martyred millions of Christians. The end time harlot religious system that John is seeing is headed in Rome in the last days and it was founded in Babylon, but all major organized world religions in the last days that reject true Christianity are part of the harlot. Even Islam in the end will join with this world religion leadership in Rome although it may take a great religious war first.

The church that identifies with Christianity, like ancient Israel, has true believers and phonies. That is why Paul said that not all Israel is true Israel, and that is why not all named Christians are true Christians. The new covenant promise to Israel and the Church is to believers but a large part of the Church like Israel is in unbelief. In the eyes of God, she has committed harlotry with the world of paganism.

The tale of two nations or two women. The struggle between the woman from the flesh (harlot woman) and the woman from the promise (those who believe and trust God) can be followed in the following timeline (This is only a sample to help you understand and it is not meant to be all conclusive):

* The Babylonian rebellion against God by Nimrod - the mystery religion and the Babylonian priesthood is founded at Babylon.
* Abraham is taken out to be the father of all who live by faith in the true Creator. He believes God’s promise.
* Ishmael is born of the flesh from Abraham’s slave girl - Ishmael mingles with the pagans of Babylon.
* Isaac is born of the promise and follows the God of his father (Abraham).
* Esau is the first son of Isaac but Esau puts no value on the promise of his birthright and sells it to Jacob for a meal.
* Jacob becomes Israel and becomes a nation that is to keep the oracles and promise of God for the benefit of all the people of the promise.
* Israel’s son Joseph speaks of the vision God gave him for the people of promise.
* Joseph is sold into slavery to Egypt by jealous half brothers.
* Joseph becomes prime minister of Egypt with the help of God and saves the descendents of Israel from physical starvation.
* The Egyptian world government forgets Joseph, becomes totally corrupted by Babylonian pagan practices, and enslaves and persecutes the descendents of Israel.
* God raises up Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt and the Law is given to Israel to lead them to the promised Savior.
* Judaism becomes corrupted by harlotry with pagan gods.
* The world empire of Babylon enslaves Israel.
* The Mystical Brotherhood of the Babylonian order moves its headship to Pergamos after the fall of Babylon.
* Some of the Jews return to Israel and rebuild God’s temple.
* The Babylonian priesthood is moved to Rome by the last will of Attalus king of Pergamos.
* Julius Caesar becomes supreme Pontiff (high priest) of the Babylonian Order in BC 63.
* John the Baptist is born to restore Israel so they are ready to receive their promise.
* Jesus “is the promise” and comes to save all mankind.
* The Babylonian influenced Jewish priesthood and the Roman world system kill Jesus. The priests rejected the promise for adultery with Rome.
* Jesus rises from the dead and the promise is given to all who by faith trust in this risen Savior.
* There is a secession of Pontiffs from Julius Caesar to the year when the Babylonian Order becomes the ruler of the Roman Church in 378 AD (a very long story).
* The wheat grows in the same field (the institutional church) as the harlot tares and grows up with them.
* Islam is born and it teaches the sons of Ishmael and Esau to worship a single pagan God that persecutes those born of the promise.
* The tares in the institutional church choke to death many of the people of the promise in the inquisitions.
* The Protestant reformation is born by those who teach that salvation comes from trusting in the promise of Jesus alone.
* Most of Protestantism plays the harlot with philosophy, psychology, new age paganism, humanism, pragmatism and materialism.
* The people of the promise are now the wheat among the tares in the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
* The printed Bible becomes available to the public. Smaller fields grow so much wheat the tares find little room to root.
* Higher critical thinking philosophies war against those who believe the promise in God’s word.
* The people of the promise are removed in the rapture and all the wheat not entangled with the tares (harlot) is removed from the earth.
* All religions of the world unite after a great world religious war to form a world religion led by the Vatican at Rome. This woman will ride the Beast into her end time role.
* The Beast devours the woman that rode on his back (world religious institutions and leaders). The tares are burned.
* Satan through the lying wonders of His Beast and False Prophet sets himself up as God, declares the Kingdom of God has come, and he moves the political and religious capitol of the world to Babylon where he builds a city of gold for himself.
* The wheat bound with paganism is threshed during the great tribulation the Beast brings on the earth.
* All people of the promise that were in adultery return to her husband - the true God of heaven - and are gathered into His barn.
* God avenges all the people of promise by destroying the Beast and by setting up the real kingdom of God on the earth ruled by Jesus.

The woman who rides the Beast has actually existed since the days of Babylon but she will play her major role in the last days. She in the end will be eaten by the Beast she rides because he will claim to be God and will not tolerate the worship of anyone or anything other that himself. Many who were in harlotry will come to understand the truth in those days through the teaching and the judgments that take place in this time of trial for the whole world. These who come out of Babylon will not worship the Beast and these along with a remnant in Israel will return to the true God of heaven but it will cost many of them their mortal lives. In those days all who seek to save their lives by worshiping the Beast will lose their soul and those who lose their life for Jesus’ sake will gain eternal life.

Mat 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

For a more detailed study on the history and future of the woman who rides the Beast I highly recommend the book “A Woman Rides the Beast” by Dave Hunt, Harvest House, 1994.”