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. Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me The angel is going to tell John what it is he has been seeing so far. There are many examples in scripture of a prophet seeing a vision that they did not fully understand until an angel interprets the vision for them. We find examples of this in Daniel, Zechariah and several times in the book of Revelation. I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. It is so important to keep in mind that there are two distinct characters in this vision, the woman known as Mystery Babylon and the seven headed, ten horned beast that she rides. Mystery Babylon which the angel will later say is a city, is riding the seven headed ten horned beast, which is the antichrist, this seven headed, ten horned beast will later turn on her and kill her. Rev 17:12-16. I emphasize that these two are distinct because some folks, when studying the passages we will be talking about today forget this distinction, and failing to see that can cause and incorrect understanding of this prophecy. Moving on to verse 8: The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and 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. – Rev 17:8 So the angel begins to talk to John about the seven headed 10 horned beast that it mentioned in the previous verse. Let’s also go back to the beginning of this particular vision in Rev 17, so we can see the full description John gives to this seven headed ten horned beast: …scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. – Rev 17:3b Here we also pick up the additional information that this seven headed ten horned beast was also scarlet and was “full of names of blasphemy” This is the same description given to the beast four chapters earlier in Revelation chapter 13, which is about the antichrist. The beast in that chapter also has seven heads, ten horns, and has “names of blasphemy” This is not coincidental, nor is it the only time in our verse, Revelation 17:8, that there is an explicit reference to Revelation 13 (about the antichrist beast.) In fact, I intend to show that almost no new information is given by the angel in this verse, The new information from the angel about this beast will come after this verse, but verse 8 here almost serves as a very long re-introduction to the antichrist beast of Revelation 13 using titles and descriptions of him already clearly established. Take for example the part of this verse that says that those that “dwell on the earth”, or the earth dwellers, which is kind of a technical term for those that are unsaved, as it clarifies here by adding that “their names are not written in the book of life,” These earth dwellers will worship the beast that was and is not and yet is. This was not new information to John in Revelation 17 because he wrote the exact same description of the beast in Revelation 13 using identical language. For example: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. – Rev 13:8 The Angel back in our verse is calling to remembrance the beast that John has already seen with these exact phrases and descriptions. We will see that even the little things like the earth dwellers “wondering“ in 17: 8, is also a reference to them “wondering” at the beast in chapter 13. Was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: This phrase gives people a great deal of difficulty, and so we will spend a bit of time on it: I intend to show that this idea of “was, and is not, and coming out of the bottomless pit” is a title referring to the antichrist’s having been miraculously healed or resurrected from the dead. The last phrase in this verse; “The beast that was, and is not, and yet is” being another way to say the exact same thing. That is he lives, he dies, and he seems to rise again, and will ultimately go to destruction or perdition. It’s sort of a chronology of his entire career on earth and it functions as a title on several occasions in the book of Revelation. Before I begin to explain the details of this we need to refresh our memories to the significance that the bible puts on the seeming resurrection of the antichrist from the dead. Let’s review Revelation 13 which is primarily about the antichrist, to make sure we understand this preliminary idea. In the relatively short chapter of Revelation 13 it mentions three times the fatal wound of the a

• published: 12 Oct 2011
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