Chapter 17 takes place before the plagues mentioned in chapter 16 are poured out!  One of the plague carrying angels calls to John the Revelator and says, “Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore ..." Verse 1.  This is the subject matter of this revealing chapter in the Revelation of Jesus Christ!

1.  What does this great whore sit upon?  See verse 1 again.

Answer: .

As we have learned, water represents multitudes of people.  For many centuries the Roman harlot has "rode" the political powers and kingdoms of this world.  Even now she has religious control over all those who follow her beliefs no matter what country they are a citizen of!

2.  What have the kings of the earth done with the great whore? verse 2.

Answer: They have committed with her.

Fornication is an immoral intimate sexual relationship with someone outside of marriage.  Babylon the Great, the whore church, has in times past had immoral relationships with governments of the world.  As a result of this, the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with hot false doctrines that they were forced to accept!  As we learned in chapter 13, the papal church lost its political power in 1798 when Berthier, Napoleon’s general abolished the political government of the papacy.  Political power will be restored in the end of time when the great harlot once again "rides" the nations of the earth! 

3.  What did John see in the spirit?  See verse 3.

Answer: A upon a colored , full of of , having and .

This beast, like the one in Revelation 13, has seven heads, ten horns, and the names of blasphemy written upon it.  The woman riding the beast represents the same Papal power as chapter 13. The added dimension is that the harlot is now seen riding the beast.  This great harlot personifies the false church in contrast to the virtuous woman of chapter 12 which personified the true church!

4.  What color clothing was the woman John saw in vision wearing?  verse 4.

Answer: She was arrayed in and .

These are the official colors of the Roman priesthood!

5.  Was this woman pictured in the vision "decked" out in jewelry?  See verse 4 again.

Answer: .

Jesus is the One who "signified" the revelation and gave it to the angel to give to John.  He is the One who painted this picture of what He thought a wicked, harlot type woman should look like! And He put on her gold, pearls and precious stones!  This ought to give us an idea of how the Lord feels about ornamental jewelry! Notice in chapter 12, verse 1, where the true church is pictured as a woman, she wears NO jewelry of any kind!

6.  This woman represented BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.  What was this woman drunk with?  See verses 5-6.

Answer: The of the .

The fact that the Roman Church has murdered 50 million saints who refused to believe and follow her false doctrines surely qualifies her to be “drunk with the blood of the saints"!

John said he "marveled” when he saw her.  Her pomp and ceremony and prestige makes people marvel, but it is all for the purpose of deception!

7.  What did the angel say he would tell John after he asked him why he was marveling?  See verse 7.

Answer: The of the , and of the that her, which had the seven and ten .

8.  What did he say about the beast?  See verse 8.

Answer: The beast that thou sawest , and and shall out of the pit.

When John says the beast ridden by the woman WAS past tense he is speaking about the 1260 years during which time the Papacy and the governments of the world were unlawfully united together!  This began in 538 A.D. and continued unbroken until 1798 A.D.!

The IS NOT phase refers to the time since 1798 after the papacy received its deadly head wound and lost its political power.  The harlot has not been permitted to ride the beast for the last 197 years!  She has been mainly a religious power.  She will be in the IS NOT state until she once again rides or controls the nations and kingdoms of the world!  Then she will be completely restored! Since 1798 the papacy has steadily been healing and will once again have full alliance with the kings of the earth at the end of time!  This is what John refers to in the rising out of the bottomless pit phase!  Ultimately the harlot and the beast and all who follow her will ‘go into perdition.’  See verse 11.

9.  Will those who “wonder" after the beast have their names in the Lamb’s book of life?  See verse 8.

Answer: .

This is the same thing it said about those who worship the beast in chapter 13, verse 8.  This is further proof that the beast of chapter 13 is the same blasphemous religious power as the woman on the beast of chapter 17!

10.  What do the “seven heads” of the beast represent?  See verse 9.

Answer: on which the sitteth.

The woman sits on seven mountains. This is a perfect identifying point here. The city of Rome in Italy has been known for many years as the “city of seven hills”!

11.  What did the angel say about the “seven kings” (the seven heads represent seven mountains and ALSO seven kings)?  See verse 10.

Answer: are fallen, and one , and the other is come.

There had been five world powers that had come and gone prior to this period mentioned in Revelation 17.  These were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Pagan Rome, and Papal Rome’s political kingdom that ended in 1798 with the deadly head wound!  He said “one is.”  We learned in lesson 13 that the United States was rising up out of the earth in 1798.  It can therefore be designated as the sixth head of the beast, the one that IS at this point in the prophecy.  This country will lead the rest of the world to worship the Roman beast by enforcing her false doctrines and false Sabbath!  When the kings of the earth unite against the God of heaven and His truths, the seventh head will be formed!  This will happen just before the end of time when the world enforces the “mark of the beast!”  This seventh one is still “yet to come”!

12.  How long did it say the revived church and state union dominated by the papacy would last?  Same verse.

Answer: a space.

13.  How can the beast be the “eight,” when it says five have fallen, one is, and one has not yet come?  Wouldn’t that make it the seventh?

Answer:  No because five of these kings are fallen: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the religious kingdom of church and state ruled by the papacy from 538 to 1798.  The sixth is the United States as we mentioned earlier.  The New World Order, the confederacy of nations that will support the harlot being formed today is the seventh.  When the papacy is fully healed from the deadly wound and is once more restored to worldwide political union with the kings of the earth, it will be the “eighth”, but really will still be of the seven because the
religio-political kingdom of the papacy that causes the world to worship it already existed in the centuries from 538 to 1798!!

14.  Were the kingdoms represented by the “ten horns” formed yet in John's day?  See verse 12.

Answer: .

These ten horns represented not only the nations that formed after the breakup of the Roman Empire, but they also represent the confederacy on nations in the end of time that will align themselves, and then eventually be controlled by the harlot church!  The “one hour” mentioned in the prophecy is probably symbolic of the short time when all the nations of the world join in to enforce the mark of the beast!  Read verse 13.   It says they have “one mind” to support and give power to the beast!  Here again we see how the image of the beast will use government “power” to enforce her ways as Papal Rome has done for centuries!

15.  Who will this union of governments and fallen religion make war with?  See verse 14.

Answer: The .

They make war against Jesus by making war against His people! When Paul was persecuting the believers in the early church, Jesus said he was persecuting Him!  See Acts 9:1-5.   When the mark of the beast is enforced, and the death decree against all those who will not receive this mark is to be carried out, Jesus comes to wage war against the beast and nations of the earth that have rejected His truth!  This is the real Battle of Armageddon!  It will not be against Israel literally, but rather spiritual Israel -- the believers in Jesus!  Literal Israel was left desolate when they rejected Jesus as the Messiah!  See Matthew 23:38.

All the books sold today teaching that the Battle of Armageddon will be a battle between Russia and Israel are way off the mark.  The authors do not understand the prophecies of Revelation!  It may be that the devil will try to make it appear that these false prophecies (which he no doubt originated) may be coming true, but the sure word of God cannot be broken!  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords will come and fight against the beast and the dragon and the false prophet!  See chapter 19, verse 20.

16.  Once again, what does water represent in the prophecy of Revelation?  See verse 15.

Answer: Many .

The “whore sitteth” upon many peoples of the earth!  The false church has adherents in all nations on the earth!

17.  In verse 12 it says that the ten horns (the nations) will join with the whore for a short time.  But what happens when they realize they have been deceived?  See verse 16.

Answer: They will the whore, and shall make her and , and shall her , and her with .

This is also what chapter 16, verse 12 was referring to when it said the “waters” of the Euphrates River would be “dried up!”

18.  Who is the One that allows nations, and even the beast, to form and rule for a time, to test the people of the earth, and to carry out His great plans which are past our understanding?  See verse 17.

Answer: .

19.  Who does the woman represent?  See verse 18.

Fill in: “That great , which reigneth over the of the ."

The woman represents the religious part of the papacy, the beast she rides is the political part of her kingdom of darkness!  The woman not only represents the fallen harlot church, but she also represents the city of Rome, the headquarters of the beast!  The Vatican is the heart of the Roman Church’s empire!  She rides the beast so to speak!  There is no other city on earth whose ruler claims dominion over all nations and even over kings!  Can you name one?  But the Pope of Rome claims to be the “Vicar of Christ” and to be the greatest authority on earth!  How clear the word of God is!

The things you are learning during these sessions are of great importance.  It is recommended that you study these things for yourself.  Check these subjects out for yourself!  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.  Check the history books, and compare what you find to what the word of God says.  See John 7:17.

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