Rapture & Wrath, Part 12: “Three Epic Visions, Two Evil Adversaries, & One Satanic Strategy”

Formidable Journey
 
In the previous post in this series (Rapture & Wrath, Part 11), we embarked on a formidable
journey in search of the hidden identity of a sinister and infamous lady of the night.

She is no ordinary seductress. She is alluring, and her cunning words, warm embrace, and abundance of delicacies have the power to entrap both kings and commoners. In Revelation chapter 17, she is identified as Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.

Since the time of John’s writing, many have searched and speculated as to the mysterious identity of the prostitute. But nearly 2,000 years later, she still remains elusive. However, the same cannot be said of the beast she rides. The beast’s identity is clearly revealed to John in a vision he receives 5 chapters earlier.

This earlier vision is the first of 2 paired together in Revelation 12 and 13. In light of the fact  both of these visions are foundational for understanding the symbolic significance of the beast and for identifying its mysterious harlot rider in Revelation 17, we’ll take a brief look back at these pivotal chapters.

The Vision of a Woman and a Dragon (Revelation 12)

In Chapter 12, the first of these tandem visions unfolds. John sees a wondrous scene in Heaven; a pregnant woman clothed with the sun, and a great red dragon with 7 heads, 10 horns, and 7 crowns on his heads. As the woman travails to give birth, the dragon stands ready to devour her child.

The identity of this pregnant woman is not overtly stated in the text, but it should be understood with certainty that she symbolizes historic Israel and her national struggle to give birth to Jesus Christ.

The dragon, whose identity is clearly revealed by John, seeks to kill the Christ Child. Thus, the first part of the vision is a summary of Christ’s first coming and Satan’s attempt to destroy the Savior at His birth.

Read the words of John in Revelation 12 (with added clarifications) as he describes the scene:

Verse 1: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman [Israel] clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars [symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel].”

Verse 2: “And she being with child [Jesus] cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”

Verse 3: “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon [Satan], having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”

Verse 4: “... and the dragon [Satan] stood before the woman [Israel] which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child [Jesus] as soon as it was born.”

Verse 5: “And she [Israel] brought forth a man child [Jesus, at His first coming], who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron [Jesus, at His second coming]: and her child [Jesus, the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior] was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”

The graphic depiction of Satan as a red dragon with 7 heads – each with a crown – and 10 horns, is both hideous and shocking. However, as I mentioned in the previous article in this series, this symbolism reveals something deeper and far more sinister regarding Satan’s strategic goals.

Since the dawn of creation and the fall of humanity, the wicked one’s ultimate objective has been to undermine God’s redemptive plan for the salvation of the human race and elevate himself as king of the earth.

God sovereignly chose the nation of Israel to be the vessel through which the Promised Seed, Jesus Christ, would be born to pay sin’s price on the cross. Jesus, who came the first time as “the Lamb of God” to offer Himself as the sacrifice for the sin of humanity, will return a second time as “the Lion of Judah” to crush the head of Satan and take His rightful place as King of Israel and Ruler of Earth.

In seeking to counter God’s plan, Satan initiated a wicked strategy to target Israel – the nation that would give birth to the Promised Seed.

Throughout history, Satan has used 7 Gentile kingdoms as pawns in his campaign against the Jews for two specific reasons: to either assimilate God’s chosen people into pagan cultures through intermarriage (with the intent that Jews lose their religious distinctiveness and cease to exist as an identifiable people group) or to annihilate them through repeated attacks by marching armies (thereby wiping them from the earth forever).

This obsessive pursuit by Satan is the reason Jewish people have been the most persecuted on Earth. Living in the constant crosshairs of the Devil, their long and storied history is one of enduring relentless anti-Semitic hatred and threats of extinction.

The ongoing war against them is a spiritual one. It is a war that has been waged by Satan since God sovereignly determined Abraham’s descendants – through Isaac and Jacob – would be privileged to give birth to the Savior of the world.

For this reason, the depiction of Satan in Revelation 12 as a fearsome, 7-headed, scarlet-colored dragon is an accurate and revealing symbol of him and his 7 “Beast Empires.”

In summary, then, the first 5 verses of John’s vision in Revelation 12 symbolize the important role of Israel and the strategy of Satan in connection with Christ’s first coming. In contrast, the very next verse leaps ahead at least 2,000 years to a future time just prior to Christ’s second coming.

Beginning in verse 6 and extending to the end of Chapter 12, John’s vision reveals the sequence of end-time events associated with Satan’s relentless pursuit of both a faithful remnant within Israel and Christians throughout the world:

Verse 6: “And the woman [the persecuted remnant of Israel] fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there [1,260] days [a period of 3½ years during the second half of Daniel’s 70th Week].”

Verse 7: “And there was war in heaven: Michael [the archangel] and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan]; and the dragon fought and his angels [demons].”

Verse 8: “And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.”

Verse 9: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Verse 12: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

Verse 13: “And when the dragon [Satan] saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [Israel] which brought forth the man child [Jesus, the Savior].”

Verse 17: “And the dragon [Satan] was [filled with rage at] the woman [the remnant of Israel], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [faithful Christians], which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

This portion of the vision details a horrific end-time scenario that will occur near the middle of Daniel’s 70th Week (during the second half of the final 7 years of this age of human history) when the remnant of Israel will flee into the wilderness to escape the wrath of Satan.

In light of all these things, a crucial question must be asked at this point: “By what means will Satan persecute the remnant of Israel and faithful Christians after he is banished from Heaven and cast down to Earth?”

The sobering answer is revealed in the second of John’s visions, which is recorded in the next chapter.

The Vision of a Beast Out of the Sea (Revelation 13)

In Revelation 13, John recounts a second, stunning visionary scene. Again he sees a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns. At first glance, it may appear this second beast is identical to the dragon in Revelation 12, but upon further inspection, it becomes clear there are important distinctions between the two.

This beast is unique in that it rises up from the sea, has 10 crowns on his horns, and is depicted with the distinct features of three wild animals:

Verse 1: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast [the Antichrist] rise up out of the sea [the Gentile nations], having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy [against God].”

Verse 2: “And the beast [the Antichrist] which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon [Satan] gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

Verse 3: “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”

Verse 4: “And they worshipped the dragon [Satan] which gave power unto the beast [the Antichrist]: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

Verse 5: “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies [against God]; and power was given unto him to continue [42] months [for 3 ½ years – during the second half of Daniel’s 70th Week]”

Verse 7: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints [the faithful followers of Christ], and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

In response to the earlier question: “By what means will Satan persecute [the saints in the last days]?” the answer is revealed: By a ravenous, bloodthirsty beast who rises from the dead, amasses power, deceives the nations, blasphemes God, and demands that he be worshiped.

He will be a cunning and corrupt individual who evidences a depth of depravity seen only in Satan himself. But this shouldn’t be surprising. The obvious symbolic similarities between the dragon and the beast in John’s 2 visions make it clear that Satan will indwell and empower this beast that rises from the dead – emerging a second time from among the Gentile nations in the Last Days.

This blasphemous beast is the seed of Satan – the man of sin and lawlessness – the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 John 2:18). He is “cut from the same cloth” as Satan. Just as Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, so too will Satan seek to produce a counterfeit resurrection to authenticate his counterfeit messiah.

And just as God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are 3e in 1, so too will the “father of lies” seek to counterfeit this triune relationship in an unholy alliance with himself at the head, his Antichrist, and his false prophet.

After initiating a so-called covenant of “peace” with Israel at the start of the 70th Week, Satan’s counterfeit christ will abandon the agreement and break the covenant.

At the midpoint of the Week, he will erect an image of himself at the rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Scriptures refer to this event as the Abomination of Desolation (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15), and it will trigger “The Time of Jacob’s [Israel’s] Trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) or what Jesus  referred to as “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21).

The “Man of Sin” will pursue God’s people with a vengeance. Tragically, this will be an unprecedented time of severe persecution by the Antichrist – first against the Jews, and
then against Christians.

Two Evil Adversaries and One Satanic Strategy

These 2 ominous visions by John in Revelation chapters 12 and 13 are deeply troubling. But they are also vitally important. The first vision characterizes Satan through the use of descriptive symbols that reveal his strategy to use 7 historic empires in his effort to destroy Israel and thwart the redemptive plan of God.

Through the symbolism of John’s second vision we have evidence of a coming 8th empire led by a counterfeit christ that will arise in the Last Days. He will be directly empowered by Satan.

The dragon (Satan) and the beast (the Antichrist) are clearly distinct, yet they will work as one with unity of purpose. Together they will take center-stage, along with the mysterious harlot mother of Babylon, in John’s epic vision in Revelation 17.

The Vision of the 7-Headed Beast and Its Harlot Rider (Revelation 17)
 
In the opening verses of Chapter 17, the Apostle John is carried into the wilderness where he is given yet another prophetic vision. He is astonished by what he sees: a licentious harlot, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, riding on the back of a gruesome, scarlet-colored beast that has seven heads and 10 horns.

After describing the great harlot to John, the angel turns to an explanation of the beast’s heads:

Verse 9: “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.”

Verse 10: “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”

Follow the progression of the angel’s crucial words to John in verses 9 and 10:

First: He revealed, “The seven heads are seven mountains.” As I explained in the previous post in this series, Scripture repeatedly speaks of mountains symbolically as kingdoms, or empires.

Second: The angel then indicated the 7 mountains represent 7 notable kings, each associated with a kingdom throughout the course of history. This is evidenced in the angel’s next phrase: “And there are seven kings: five are fallen ...”

By the time of John’s writing, the first 5 empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece had already risen and fallen from their dominant positions of power. The Roman Empire was the 6th empire in sequence and was the dominant power at the time of John’s writing. Therefore, the angel’s words to John were simply, “… one is ...”.

Third: The angel continued, “… and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” In other words, the 7th empire in sequence would rise sometime later – after the fall of the Roman Empire. Curiously, the angel indicated that after the 7th empire and its associated king rose to power, it would not endure for long.

The identity of the specific kings associated with each “Beast Empire” is debated. Based upon our understanding of the anti-Semitic character of the dragon and his ongoing quest to assimilate and/or annihilate the Jews, it seems consistent to reason that the 7 ancient kings in view here are notable not simply due to their status in a long line of royals, but rather for their hatred of Israel and their historic persecution of the Jews.

As such, within each successive kingdom there emerged a powerful new nemesis against Israel. In essence, these 7 forms a crescendo of 7 kings and kingdoms that will give rise to the 8th and ultimate kingdom of Satan’s Antichrist.

However, before moving into a discussion of the 8th and final beast empire, the difficult task remains of identifying the 7th head. Bible scholars and students of Scripture have struggled with this identification – and for good reason.

Was the 7th kingdom the historic Islamic Empire – birthed by the “Prophet Mohammed” and ruled by Muslim caliphs? Was the 7th kingdom the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over Israel and the Middle East for more than 400 years through a series of Islamic sultans?

Was the 7th kingdom the Third Reich of the Nazis under the dictatorship of the madman named Adolf Hitler? Or, is it possible the 7th empire, symbolized by the 7th head on the beast of Revelation 17, has not yet come?

In the next post, we’ll seek to answer these questions as we take a closer look at each of the 7 beast empires, their historic kings, and their connection to the soon-coming 8th and final beast empire of the Antichrist.

It is these empires upon which the prostitute sits. As such, they are foundational in the quest to de-mystify the Great Harlot of Babylon.