1. Supernatural Angel- Lets head back to Rev 11:7And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,
We saw here that the beast came from the bottomless pit or the abyss, waged war on the 2 witnesses and finally killed them. Now in this verse 17:8The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
This is the same beast from the abyss, and will now return to enter into perdition (go to destruction).
2. A mortal man- We have discussed this before: See Revelation 13:1 and 18. in Revelation 13:2 he received his power from Satan. Sounding familiar? If not, just go back to that blog.
3. A kingdom- This is something that we are getting ready to discuss. One past thing to remember:
One of the heads is killed in Rev 13:3, and made alive again Rev.13:3-14.
Back to verse 8. Those persons who are not written in the book of life will sit back in amazement! They will be in awe of the evil one and what he can do. So many people today are that way. In wonder and awe of our free will and the destruction and mindless pain it can cause. Praise God that He is here for us and that all we need to is keep our eyes and mind on Him. He will keep our paths straight.
9This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
We are told here that the 7 heads are 7 mountains. The 7 mountains are the 7 kings or kingdoms living along with Israel up to the forming of the 8th kingdom starting here.
10they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while11As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.
We are then told that 5 have fallen. In my research there are 2 ideas. One explanation follows as this:
The 5 that have fallen are persons:
Agustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudis, Nero
The one who is: Vespasian
The one who is to last for a little while: Titus
The final one, the one who has not yet come will be Nero again, from the dead.
I find this hard to accept, that the whore riding the beast is not a real person but the 7 heads are? It is not likely for there to be cross symbolism like that.
Possible but, I am more inclined to think they are as follows:
5 Fallen are , Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Meso-Persia, and Greece.
The one that is would be Roman Empire (remember John's time) and the one is not yet come is the 7th kingdom, made from the 10 kingdoms that are yet formed....lets call it the "new" Roman Empire. that makes the seven. All of the first 6 have oppressed Israel, and all in "the time of the Gentiles" The "new Rome will be the next empire oppressing Israel.
The "new Rome" Will be made up of 10 kingdoms inside the Roman territory. Daniel calls this 10 toes (Ch 2) and then 10 horns (ch 7) and we will see they could be the 10 horns mentioned here in Revelation.
This is quite allot to ponder so, I will finish here for now.
Blessing on all!
Calabash
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