Lesson 36: Explanations, part 1.

Revelation 17:1-8
1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
8 The 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.

In this chapter and also in chapter 18 we will see God’s specific judgment on three world-systems. One is called the “beast” and the other two are called “the great prostitute” though there are two separate judgments for this “prostitute.”


In this chapter, the “prostitute” is the one-world religious system. The “scarlet beast” is the False Prophet, leader of the world’s religious system. The religious system is called a prostitute because everything she does is for the sake of wealth (verse 4). Note also that the great wealth is paired with sexual immorality. How tragic it is to watch leaders from every religious system in the world turn toward all kinds of drugs or sexual impurity as their power and wealth increases! But Romans 1:18-32 tells us that God allows people to make choices regarding whom they will worship. Worship of someone other than Himself will always turn toward this kind of evil because every wrong kind of worship is centered around our self and our own desires.

Verse 6 says the woman – the religious system – is drunk with the blood of the saints. This has been true all through history as well. Religious systems who do not want to be reminded of God’s truth will kill those who stand for God and show them their error. God will specifically judge this false religious system.

Note again the past, present, and future in verse 8 as the beast is described. We will see more of this in our next lesson.

*How do you see a one-world religious system trying to take over today?