December 3: ROME: THE SCARLET BEAST

So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Revelation 17:3

It was by the Holy Spirit’s power that the angel could unfold this sight for John to see. This verse contains an incredible amount of detail. John was enabled to see another woman who is very different from the faithful woman he saw earlier (chapter 12) whose offspring keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (12:17).

In the Bible, a woman is the symbol for a congregation, a church. This very different woman has amassed an enormous congregation of followers in the world. She is the false church attempting to counterfeit the true one. Proverbs 9 illustrates the two women. The first one, called Wisdom, issues an invitation to everyone who wants to gain understanding while advising them to forsake foolishness and live (v.6). The second one embodies foolishness. She also issues an invitation that counterfeits Wisdom’s invitation. But the hearers do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell (v.18).

There are three points of description of the beast that the woman is riding: blasphemous names, seven heads and ten horns. Clearly, this is the same beast that John saw rising up out of the sea (13:1). We know from Daniel that this beast is Rome (see Daniel 7 and count the heads). Rome is a conglomerate beast (the symbol for a kingdom), that incorporates Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Greek philosophies, the “trickle-down effect” of the kingdoms that preceded Rome. This woman sitting on a scarlet beast reveals the infrastructure of the papacy. Notice that the beast and its description closely match the description of Satan himself: a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns (12:3). Satan gives his power, his throne, and great authority to this beast (13:2) through which he accomplishes much of his evil work.

We saw in chapter 12 that the faithful woman had to flee for her life to the wilderness (vv.6,14) during the Dark Ages. The children of Israel had a wilderness experience (Joshua 5:6) before they entered the Promised Land. Jesus Himself had a wilderness experience between His baptism and His earthly ministry. And during the final plagues that will befall the earth, God’s last-day people will have a wilderness experience which, as we are shown in history, will involve persecution. Our fallen world in its entirety has become a wilderness of desolation and depravity. It is very likely that the true Christians will be blamed for all the trouble during the great time of trouble (Daniel 12:1, Matthew 24:21), yet our faith in the coming Redeemer must not wane.

[The Ancient of Days] said: The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom, And another shall arise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Daniel 7:23-25a