K-17. THE BOOK OF REVELATION CHAPTER 17.
Rev. 17:1. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters:
Let us go back to verse 1 where we see that the angel will plainly SHOW us what several things MEAN so that we do not have to INTERPRET what they mean.
Here in this verse the angel tells us that he will SHOW us what is going to happen to this GREAT whore that SITS upon MANY waters. For now I want to point out that we will be looking at TWO whores in this chapter and that it is this GREAT whore that HATES the other WHORE, other wise it can get a bit confusing if you only see ONE whore being talked about. Let us move on to verse 2, which shows us that this great whore has caused the kings of the earth or perhaps more precisely the kings of the LAND to commit fornication WITH her.
Rev. 17:2. "With whom the kings of the earth (or the kings of the LAND and not the entire earth) have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth (or that LAND) have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."
In other words, the inhabitants of the THAT part of the world were and are being DECEIVED by her lies, the deception of ISLAM, and joined in with what she was doing thinking it was alright to do. The idea of getting DRUNK to ME, speaks of being DECEIVED little by little until one is completely deceived. You do not get drunk by drinking just one glass of wine. And in the same way it takes many subtle lies before one is fully DECEIVED. This is one interpretation of this verse. Another interpretation is that Saudi Arabia is the great whore and her WINE is the OIL which cause the nations of the entire world to be drunk with GREED wanting the oil of Saudi Arabia. Again BOTH interpretations may be correct. Some prophecies of God have two meanings or a dual fulfillment. Let us take a look at the next verse.
Rev. 17:3. "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a WOMAN SIT upon a scarlet colored BEAST, full of names of blasphemy, having SEVEN heads and TEN horns."
We will see more about this later. Again it is not that one interpretation is wrong and the other is right, because sometimes two different interpretations may have a little truth and both interpretations together may give us the true picture of what is being said. Now we will be plainly told by the angel as to WHAT these seven heads and ten horns represent and who the woman is that sits upon the beast with no interpretation needed, so be patient. Now let us look at the next three verses together.
Rev. 17:4. "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a GOLDEN CUP in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:"
Please read Jeremiah 51:6-12, which describes Babylon as a GOLDEN CUP in the Lord's hand. So then, to ME, a cup is something that is a MEANS to accomplish a task. Remember Jesus asked God to take his CUP from him if there be another way to accomplish the task of saving mankind. Jeremiah 51:6-12.
7. Babylon has been a GOLDEN CUP in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.(in other words, God will USE the Muslim nation to help TURN Israel back to him, but God still yet wants the Muslims to REPENT of their hatred toward God's people the Jews. The Hebrew word translated as MAD here means proud, arrogant, to rail against like a madman. So to ME this speaks more of the nations or countries of the LAND of the Middle east, who have been DECEIVED or made DRUNK with the wine of the false religion of ISLAM.) 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed (in other words, have compassion for the Muslims for they are being DECEIVED by Satan. Pray for the Muslims that they will COME OUT of ISLAM and accept Jesus and their savior. Their are many Muslims coming to Jesus in these last days. But sadly their are some Christians who are DENYING the Lord Jesus and becoming Muslims.) 9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is NOT healed (meaning that not all of the Muslims will see the TRUTH and come to Jesus to be saved): forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 10. The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. 11. Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple."
Here in verse 11 of Jeremiah chapter 51 we see that in the end God will use the kings of the MEDES, which is modern day Iran to destroy the great whore BABYLON. This is why some Christians are seeing the great whore of Babylon as being Saudi Arabia. But to me Saudi Arabia is just ONE single nation and the Bible itself says that when that great city is fallen the cities of the NATIONS plural will fall. The Bible at times speaks of the world as being centered around Israel in the Middle east. So the plural of nations may be speaking of the Islamic Muslim dominated countries in the Middle east. Let us move on to verse 5.
Rev 17:5. "And upon her FOREHEAD was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
The Muslims have on the FOREHEADS a badge of SERVITUDE that says in the name of Allah, which to ME is an ABOMINATION, because this FALSE god Allah by the FALSE prophet Muhammad teaches Muslims to KILL the Christians and the Jews, which Almighty God is leading and drawing to himself. Also Islam DENIES the Jesus is the SON of God. And Muslims DENY that Jesus is the Messiah.
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."
Some Christians say that this HARLOT is the Roman Catholic church, because of all the MARTYRS that have died by her hand in the dark ages, and because verse 4 says that she is clothed in purple and red, which are the colors of the Roman Catholic church. But this verse is speaking of the very time of the END. So unless the Catholic church starts killing both Christians and the Jews AGAIN, then I myself have to rule out the Catholic church as being the fulfillment of this passage of scripture. Now it may be that the Catholic church may play a role in trying to unite Christians and Muslims to form one religion, but I still see Islam as being the beast system. For you see, ISLAM on the other hand has killed many Christians in these later days as well as killing Christians and the Jew during the Islamic Muslim Ottoman empire. Also all the signs seem to point to the fact the Islam will only continue to grow and kill more and more of God's people as the days go by, so do NOT be DECEIVED by ISLAM claiming to be a religion of peace. The Bible prophesies that the antichrist will come in with peace. As a whole Muslims hate the Jews and the radical Muslim basically hate everyone who is not a Muslim and even hate some Muslims who do not join their fight against that Christians and the Jews. Keep reading this study and you will see more and more evidence that ISLAM is the beast system that Satan gives his power to in these last days.
Rev. 17:7. "And the angel said unto me, Wherefore did you marvel? I will TELL you the MYSTERY of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the SEVEN heads and TEN horns."
Here we see that the angel will TELL us the MYSTERY of WHO this woman is that sits upon MANY WATERS. Now the Bible itself does not specifically state that the beast is Islam, but the word of God does make it plain that the beast is a kingdom. Let us continue this study in God's word by reading Revelation 17:8, which says,
Rev. 17:8. "The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into PERDITION (This tells us that the spirit behind this beast system is Satan, the Devil): 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."
Certainly the world BEHOLDS the religion of Islam and wrongly believes that the Muslims worship the SAME one true and only Almighty God that we as Christians worship. But WE, who have our name written in the book of life are NOT DECEIVED by this LIE of the enemy Satan. The one true God would NOT choose the Jews as his people and then call the Gentiles to come to him and then turn around and raise up another people called Muslims to have them KILL his people the Christians and the Jews. And if God was to do this he ALWAYS prophesies in his word what he is going to do, but yet there is no prophecy in the Holy Bible, the only word of truth, where God foretells that he will reject Christians and his people the Jews to raise up yet another people to himself. Yes God did prophesy that he would turn to the Gentiles, which were NOT his people to provoke the Jews to jealousy. This is NOT a prophesy about the Muslims. Let us continue with the next two verses in chapter 17.
Rev. 17:9. "And here is the mind which has WISDOM.(in other words, PAY ATTENTION for you are about to be TOLD who the BEAST IS.) The SEVEN heads ARE seven mountains (the word "MOUNTAIN" in the Bible sometimes refers to KINGDOM. This is confirmed in the very next verse where we see SEVEN KINGS), on which the woman sits." Rev. 17:10. "AND there are SEVEN KINGS (which teaches us that these SEVEN HEADS ARE seven KINGDOMS): five are FALLEN (or FIVE of these KINGDOMS have already come and gone) , and ONE IS (or ONE of these KINGDOMS is or was present in John's day, which we know was the ROMAN empire), and the OTHER is NOT YET come (or the SEVENTH KINGDOM is not yet come. In other words, there would arise a SEVENTH KINGDOM AFTER the Roman empire FELL); and when he comes (or when this SEVENTH KINGDOM shall come), he must continue a short space."
Now this matches what we were told in Revelation 13, but here we see it stated in a different way. We were told that ONE of these seven heads would be WOUNDED with a SWORD and be killed. And this is exactly what has already taken place with the ISLAMIC KINGDOM of the Ottoman empire, which rose in great power, but was "KILLED" or brought to an end with WAR where the weapon of that day when Islam began was a SWORD, and ALSO this may mean by the SWORD of the Spirit, which is the WORD of Almighty God that prophesied this would happen. The Christian crusade also fought against this ISLAMIC BEAST kingdom with a sword. And it may be as well that in the future the Islamic prophet foretold to come may be slain with a sword and be healed. We are ALSO told in Revelation 13 that this HEAD that was killed with the SWORD would be HEALED or brought back to life. In other words this SEVENTH kingdom of ISLAM will once again rise to a great power, and this is EXACTLY what is happening in these last days. Lets us continue with the next verse.
Rev.17:11. " And the beast that was, and is not, EVEN HE is the EIGHT, and is OF the SEVEN, and goes into PERDITION."
In other words, Satan will give his power to this EIGHT KINGDOM, which we now know arises from the SEVENTH kingdom that was wounded by the sword and is now REVIVED and become strong once again. Also this EIGHTH kingdom coming out of the seven tells us that it covers the SAME area of rule as ALL seven previous empire. This basically rules out this eighth kingdom be the United Nations reviving to old Roman empire. The New world order may play a role in stirring UP this hornets nest in the Middle East, but I personally do not see some computer chip being the Mark of the beast. If it is we are still years away. And when ISLAM becomes strong enough to DOMINATE and change to sharia law she will go into PERDITION. The word "PERDITION" means a condition that is come to to full in WICKEDNESS and will NOT TURN from this wickedness. This is what is meant when the Bible says and NONE are righteous and NONE SEEK after God, NO, NOT ONE! There will come a time when those who are follow the teachings of ISLAM that they will one day reach a point when they will NOT REPENT of their EVIL of KILLING God's people the Christians and the Jews, and God's WRATH must be poured out upon them as one last attempt for them to REPENT of their EVIL of worshiping the FALSE god Allah. Let us move on to the next three verses.
Rev. 17:12. "And the ten horns which you saw ARE ten KINGS, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one HOUR with the beast."
Rev. 17:13. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."
Rev. 17:14. "These shall make WAR with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall over come them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him (speaking of they that are with Jesus) are called, and chosen, and faithful."
Notice that the TEN HORN are ten KINGS. AND that these TEN kings of ten nations, or ten countries, or ten tribes of people make WAR with Jesus when he comes again. Now with this is in mind let us turn our Bibles to Psalm 83 and read about TEN tribes of people that seek to wipe ISRAEL off the face of the earth just like the MUSLIM people want to do TODAY in this present time we are living in NOW. Yes it may only be the radical extreme Muslims NOW, but just wait! This is PROPHECY being FULFILLED before our eyes my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Psalm 83. "1 Keep not you silence, O God: hold not your peace, and be not still, O God. (a prayer of both Christians and Jews crying out to God to avenge his people) 2. For, lo, YOUR ENEMIES make a tumult (Jesus said what you DO unto these little ones you DO unto ME/ So any enemy against the Christians and the Jews is an enemy of Almighty God and his Son Jesus): and they (speaking of these TEN MUSLIM nations or tribes) that HATE YOU (the word of TRUTH, the Holy Bible teaches us that if we HATE our fellow man then we HATE God. In other words, if we LOVE NOT or fellow man, then we LOVE NOT God and the TRUTH is NOT in us) have lifted up the head. 3. They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted against your hidden ones. 4. They have SAID, Come, and let us CUT THEM OFF from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.(this is EXACTLY what the radical Muslims are SAYING in this PRESENT Time we are living) 5. For they have consulted together with one consent:(more and more we see the different Muslim countries uniting even though they have differences between each other. This describes the TEN toes of CLAY and IRON that do not thoroughly MIX well together.) they are confederate against you: 6. The tabernacles of #1 EDOM,(or the descendants of ESAU, the Edomites ) and # 2 the ISHMAELITES;(The descendants of ISHMAEL, which the Arab Muslims proudly BOAST.) #3 of Moab,(or the Moabites) and #4 the Hagarenes;(or the descendants of Hagar) 7. #5 Gebal, and #6 Ammon, and #7 Amalek; #8 the Philistines with the inhabitants of #9 Tyre; 8. #10 Assur also is joined with them: they have helped the children of Lot. Selah. 9. Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: 10. Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth. 11. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: 12. Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. 13. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. 14. As the fire burns a wood, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire; 15. So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with your storm. 16. Fill their faces with shame; THAT (or so that) they may SEEK YOUR NAME, O LORD. 17. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: 18. That men may know that YOU, whose name ALONE is JEHOVAH, are the MOST HIGH over all the earth."
God desire that ALL men everywhere REPENT and turn to him by calling upon the NAME of his SON Jesus. But if they do not repent then Jesus will come again and FIGHT AGAINST those NATION the fight AGAINST ISRAEL. Please read Zechariah 14:1-3 which teaches us that the Lord will use these ten Muslim nation to fight against Israel to bring his people Israel back to himself, but then will FIGHT AGAINST these ten Muslims nations that fight AGAINST Israel.
Zechariah 14:1-3
"Behold, the day of the LORD comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you. 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall NOT be cut off from the city. 3. Then shall the LORD go forth, and FIGHT AGAINST THOSE NATIONS (speaking of those nations that FIGHT AGAINST Jerusalem or Israel), as when he fought in the day of battle."
Now it may be that ISLAM will DECEIVE other nations to join her as she tries to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, but for SURE these TEN kings or these TEN Muslims tribes of countries that are descendants of these tribes will fight against Israel in these last days. Let us move on to the next verse in Revelation chapter 17.
Rev. 17:15. "And he saith unto me, The WATERS which you saw, where the whore sits (speaking of the GREAT WHORE of Babylon sitting upon MANY WATERS), ARE peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."
In other words, this great whore of Babylon rules or has control of MANY people, many multitudes of people of different nations and even different languages. Islam today has many under her power of DECEPTION in many different countries. Some say that Islam is growing faster than Christianity depending upon who you get your information. But no matter Islam is growing and SPREADING to all parts of the world. To ME, there is NO doubt the Islam IS the MARK of the BEAST. Please read the study: "ISLAM IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST!" for a deeper understanding on this subject, but for now let us continue with the next three verses.
Rev. 17:16. "And the ten horns which thou saw upon the beast, these (speaking of the great whore which sits upon the beast, which are ten kings, which we now know are ten Muslim kingdoms) shall hate the WHORE (which is ISRAEL that is also called a WHOLE, because she has REJECT Jesus as her Messiah), and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall EAT her FLESH (believe it or not there are some radical Muslims who eat the rare flesh of those they behead. These radical Muslims are "MAD". They cut their own flesh on their heads and let the blood run down their faces. They are filled with HATE for Israel and all who OPPOSE them. I am simple WARNING you NOT to be DECEIVED by this false religion of ISLAM. These ten nations of Islam will FIGHT AGAINST Jerusalem and Israel), and burn her with fire."
Rev 17:17. "For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the BEAST (or unto SATAN), until the words of God shall be fulfilled."
Rev. 17:18. "And the woman which you saw is that great city (speaking of that great city Babylon or possesses that spirit of ANTICHRIST), which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Islam does NOT believe that Jesus DIED on the cross and therefore does NOT believe that God raised his SON, Jesus from the dead. Islam does NOT believe that Jesus is the SON of Almighty God. This is ANTICHRIST according to the WORD of TRUTH, the Holy Bible, the WORD of Almighty God. This brings us to the end of chapter 17, so let us move on to Revelation chapter 18. |