The Whore of Babylon rides a scarlet colored beast
and sits on seven mountains with seven heads.
The seventh head also becomes the eighth head. On the heads are written the names of
blasphemy. Revelation 17:3 describes the beast.
3 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.
In Revelation 17: 9 we are given the additional
detail of the seven mountains and more specifics on the seventh and eight heads
it reads:
9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom:
The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 There are also seven
kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the
other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11 The beast that was,
and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to
perdition.
We
look at the seven hills and along with the seven hills are the seven heads or
kings.
In
two verses in the book of Revelation we are given a description of the beast of
Revelation, which is the final world empire as having on its heads blasphemous
names or as the Bible describes the “names of blasphemy.”
You may have never asked what the names of blasphemy are or you may have viewed them as having a broad meaning. On the contrary the names of blasphemy are actual names that lend meaning to the scarlet colored beast ridden by the Whore of Revelation and also to its location. To first understand the names we will look at the verses that tell us of the names of blasphemy.
Revelation 13:1 tells us that the name is
on each of the heads:
Then I stood on the sand
of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and
ten horns,[ and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a
blasphemous name.
Revelation
17:3 emphasizes by stating that the beast is “full of the names of
blasphemy”, this is because the heads take up a good portion of the beat of
Revelation and the names are written on each head.
Revelation 17:3 reads:
3 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.
In
identifying the names of blasphemy we must first identify the heads. Revelation 17:9 gives us
a major clue:
9 “Here is the
mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman
sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have
fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come.
While not all expositors disagree on the identity of the seven heads, several have agreed that it is those empires that have conquered or taken captive the people of God since the book of Exodus.
These are:
1. Egypt
2. Assyria
3. Babylon
4. Medo -Persia
5. Greece (these are the five that are
fallen)
6. Rome (this is the one that is)
7. Yet Future under Antichrist
8. Yet Future under Antichrist
This also lines with the
book of Revelation’s description at the time that “one is”, which was Rome because the Roman Empire ruled during the
writing of the book of Revelation. Some expositors have interpreted this
passage as only including the kingdoms from Babylon as given in the book of
Daniel, but the book of Daniel only takes into account its current place and
predictions going forward. The book of Daniel does not look to the past
empires of Egypt or Assyria, which kingdoms impacted the children of Israel
before Babylon.
When you know the names
of blasphemy and why they are there, you understand the significance of the
description of the image and it helps to decipher the 7th and 8th head
with the 8th head being the Antichrist after his fatal head wound
when Satan himself enters his body and rules the world in the second half of
the Tribulation known as the Great Tribulation.
Each of the empires have
something major in common. They were tied in with false gods and idolatry. Their
king or whatever he called himself took on the belief that he was a descendant
or a chosen one of the gods. The names they took are names that are reserved
for the one true God and His Son Jesus Christ.
1. KINGDOM-Egypt-
NAME OF BLASPHEMY Pharaoh=the good
god the good shepherd
god = Ra
Ra was the major god of
Egypt, associated with the sun. He merged with the god Horus to rule the
world. He is associated with the falcon and hawk. Along with being
represented as a man with the head of a hawk
and a solar disk on top and a coiled serpent around the disk, he was
depicted as a man with the head of a beetle or a man with the head of a ram. Ra
was also pictured as a full-bodied ram, beetle, phoenix, heron, serpent, bull,
cat, or lion.
The Mnevis bull was worshiped as an
embodiment of Ra. In Heliopolis is the formal burial ground for
the sacrificed bulls north of the city. The rulers of the fifth dynasty
believed they were the sons of Ra, and the deities their father. They equated themselves with gods and referred to themselves as the good god, the
good shepherd Thus we have the first name of blasphemy and its kingdom
intertwined with false religion.
2. KINGDOM-Assyria
NAME OF BLASPHEMY King = son of god ,
father of gods
god= Asher
Kings names often
included Ashur.
The Assyrian flag
contained an image of Ashur
The Kingship was a sacred institution rooted in heaven, the king was the son of god in human form. His
Mother was Mullissu also identified with Ishtar the Queen of heaven of
Nineveh. Ashur was represented as a solar disc, a winged disc with horns,
with rays shooting from the disc, a circle or wheel suspended from wings with a
centered warrior drawing a bow, or the warrior carries the bow in his left hand
and uplifts his right hand to heaven. The disc was also mounted on a bulls head
with horns among other depictions.
3. KINGDOM Babylonia
NAME OF BLASPHEMY King=god My
son of god
Kings took name of Marduk
or Nebo the son of the god Marduk
Marduk was represented as a snake-dragon and also the young bull or calf of Sumas (Utu) the Sun god. Violation of Babylonian laws was also an offense against the gods.
4. KINGDOM -Medo-Persia
god= Ahura Mazda-god of good
words, good thoughts, good deeds
Zoroastrianism- magus =
followers of Zoroastrianism believed in the god Ahura Mazda
In Jeremiah 39:11-14,
which relays the account of Nebuchadnezzar looking after Jeremiah in 39:13 is
the mention of Rabmag, which means chief of the magus.
11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard, saying, 12 “Take him and look after him, and
do him no harm; but do to him just as he says to you.” 13 So
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent Nebushasban, Rabsaris,
Nergal-Sharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s chief officers; 14 then
they sent someone to take Jeremiah from the court of the prison, and
committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should
take him home. So he dwelt among the people.
Ahura Mazda is depicted as a winged symbol with a male figure. It was customary for every emperor from Cyrus until Darius III to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses as a place for Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army on battles.
While Darius was a
follower of Ahura Mazda, Cyrus acknowledged all gods and referenced in the
Cyrus cylinder his pleasing Marduk. He believed he was chosen by Marduk (Bel)
to restore peace and order to the Babylonians.
While Cyrus did not see himself as a son of god, he viewed himself as a king of kings and as ordained by the gods, within the cylinder it states, “ "I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters [of the earth], son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, the perpetual seed of kingship, whose reign Bel] and Nebo love, and with whose kingship, to their joy, they concern themselves."
Cyrus's Cylinder is considered the first human rights charter, and although Cyrus’s deeds were not evil and his subjects revered him to the point of referring to him as “the father.” He rulers of the Achaemenid Empire and especially Darius held the belief of having been given power because of the gods.
5. KINGDOM-Greece
NAME OF BLASPHEMY- King-son of god
NAME OF BLASPHEMY- King-son of god
god= Zeus and other
Egyptian, Persian and Greek gods
Alexander the great
believed he was the son of Zeus conceived by a virgin birth and that
he was a demi-god linked to the blood line of Achilles and Herakles. He honored Egyptian, Persian and Greek gods and used religion to inspire loyalty.
6. KINGDOM-Rome-consolidation of
Roman, Greek and absorbed all other pagan gods, also like Babylon steeped in superstition,
divination and omens.
NAME OF BLASPHEMY Emperor- deliverer,
savior, god on earth
god-Roman gods and Greek gods
sometimes overlapped, so they combined those gods into one. Romans were open to
other gods from around the world they did not hear of.
In knowing the names of blasphemy we in
part understand the reason the beast is scarlet colored. The red color is
the blood of the saints, martyrs and the bloodshed in war We
see red in the second horseman of the Revelation and it is red because it
symbolizes blood from violent death. There is more on why she is on a red
beast in a later chapter.
Revelation 17 tells us that the Whore is drunk with the blood of the Saints and the martyrs of Jesus. Verse 6 states: 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
The blood of the saints
can possibly refer to the kingdoms before Christ with martyrs of Jesus
referring to at the time of Christ or afterwards, considering the time frame
each of these kingdoms ruled.
Notice also that each of
the heads or governments conquered and absorbed the nation of Israel into its
territory. Each differed slightly on their god and what was expected of
the subjects. The Medo-Persian empire seemed to fit the least because it was
under Cyrus that the Jews were allowed to rebuild the temple and he returned
the temple implements, but based on Cyrus’s cylinder he served all different
gods and sought to get each of their favor. His chief god, Ahura Mazda
was a god of goodness and Cyrus was performing the actions he felt would please
his god. He took on the blasphemous name “king of kings and king of the
world”
In our looking to the
future revived Roman mpire or the final world empire, which ever you chose to
call it, we have a view to its future based on these past kingdoms. We also see the place of Rome in the time of
the writing of the Revelation and at the time of the end.
It should be noted that the depiction of the Whore of Babylon riding the seven to eight headed beast with names of blasphemy is astounding both in its accuracy of the picture of these empires and her role as well as aiding in identifying her.
This is an excerpt from the free online version of my book Whore of Babylon in Bible Prophecy: A Book of
Revelation Mystery Revealed
To Continue Reading see the articles below
Whore
of Babylon All Your Questions Answered, Free version of the Whore of Babylon in
Bible Prophecy" A Book of Revelation Mystery Revealed.
5-Zechariah
5 Predicts Whore of Babylon's Temple 6-The
Little Horn of Daniel Points to Revived Roman Empire 7-The
Seven Heads on the Beast of Revelation
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