Page 137 - Eschatology - Masters revised

It is obvious that the Whore of Babylon is actively engaged in the deception and destruction of God’s
people. She rides upon “the beast.” In other words, she is supported by the government of the
antichrist.

We have come to the end of the Revelation so obviously this woman is descriptive of a person who is
associated with the antichrist and who has some connection to religion. This person, empowered by the
antichrist’s government, persecutes those who are believers in Jesus Christ.

To determine who this whore is, we must first go back to Revelation 17:1-2:

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I
will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the
earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her
fornication.’”

A further description is found in verse 5:

“And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

Revelation 17:3 gives this description:

“Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet
beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.” The beast
mentioned in this verse is the same beast as in Revelation chapter 13:1, “And I saw a beast coming out
of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a
blasphemous name.”

The beast in Chapter 13 is clearly the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness mentioned in 2 Thessalonians
2:3-4 and in Daniel 9:27. Whether this whore is the Antichrist, or closely associated with him is a matter
of debate.

The term describing her is that she is a mystery. That perhaps means we cannot without a doubt
identify who this person is, but we do know that her association with Babylon identifies her with the
prideful arrogance, self-indulgence, and brutality of the Babylonian empire.

Bible scholars have attempted to identify who this whore is. Revelation 17:9 says that this woman sits
on seven hills.

9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;

Many commentators link this passage with the Roman Catholic Church since Rome, the home of the
Catholic Church, has seven prominent hills that surround the city. However, continuing on to verse 10
we read:

10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he
11
does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it

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