A Harlot Woman sits on the Scarlet Beast
Revelation 17:1–18; 18:2–24, (cf. Rev. 14:8; 16:19); 19:2–3.
There is a change of focus in Revelation Chapter 17, which directs our attention (not so much toward the God-opposing Beast entity that is apparently still operating), but toward the harlot woman who is sitting on the scarlet beast; therefore we should attempt to see exactly what else she is sitting on, which will determine who or what she is! [i]
First, she sits on many waters: i.e., these waters are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues (Rev. 17:1 and 17:15), not rivers or seas!
Subsequently, Rev. 18: verses 9, 15 and 17 tell us (three times) that the kings of the earth, the merchants who traded with her, and all who earn their living from the sea will stand far off when they see the smoke of her burning. They obviously view this smoke from a distant port, i.e., Jeddah (the gateway to Mecca), the provincial Capital of Makkah Province and the commercial centre for the Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is the second largest and second busiest Port in the Middle East: situated 40 miles west from Mecca on the Red Sea coast.
Second, she sits on a scarlet beast that is full of blasphemous (idolatrous) names. Thus the woman and beast are seen together in the wilderness (Rev. 17:3).
This scarlet (sinful, idolatrous) beast has seven heads, and ten horns, but this time we are told that the ten horns John sees on this later occasion, represent 10 kings who have received no kingdom as yet, who are in cahoots with the Islamist beast (Rev. 17:12–13). This means they are not the same ten (sovereign) crowned horns (i.e., legitimate Muslim nations) described in Revelation 13:1, which populated and formed the beast’s territorial shape. Instead, they are ‘non-state’ Islamist militias/FTO’s (mostly arising from the former 10 legitimate Muslim crowned horn nations that surround Israel), who receive authority from the eighth head on the Islamist beast (i.e., SHIA IRAN), for one terrible hour with the beast (after they have become of one mind), and together they make war against the Lamb and His followers.
See my additional post … The Seventh and Eighth Heads on the beast… Jan. 14, 2024.
Third, she sits on seven heads that are also seven mountains! (Rev. 17:9) These mountains are the seven empires/kingdoms (that constitute the beast’s history and its various locations) during the whole biblical period when Mystery, Babylon the Great has reigned over the kings of the earth (cf. Rev. 17:18, see Fourth item below). Although she has dominated them all, via her idolatrous spirit brought from Babel to Mecca (prior to the seventh and eighth iteration heads on the beast), she also sits on the seven mountains—where she exists with the beast in the wilderness—i.e., based in the mountainous narrow valley that surrounds the Great (religious) City of Mecca.
7 Historical Islamic Mountains In Makkah You Must Visit (theislamicinformation.com)
Fourth, she is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. (Rev. 17:18)
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. (Rev. 17:10) [ii] She has been sitting on all seven ‘kingdoms’ during Biblical history until the present time, and (via Mecca) she is still reigning over the Muslim ‘kings’ in the Middle East today, during the seventh and eighth ‘head’ iterations of the beast.
See the diagrams on p. 3–4 of the post: The Seventh and Eighth Heads on the beast - Jan.14, 2024.
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Now, that’s a lot of sitting around for a harlot! But not for a mysterious, evil and idolatrous spirit that has moved from place to place around the globe, via the idols of gold, silver, wood, stone or clay worshipped by pagans who took their abominable idols from Babel to idolatrous cities that have been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho, Bethel and Samaria, in areas like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan, where the moon-god Sin was worshipped and ziggurats and temples were built in his honour. Idolatry is described as adultery (Hos. 1:2; 9:1; Ezek. 16:15–17, 23; cf. Deuteronomy 12). [iii]
But in New Testament times… idolatrous cities like Rome, Pergamum, Constantinople and Berlin etc. have also been destroyed (cf. the Seat of Satan/Pergamum Altar which was taken from Turkey to Berlin late 19th Century, together with the Gates of Babylon, held in the Pergamum Museum, Berlin). So, it seems, from Rev. 17:6 and 18:2–24, that ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great’ has continuously and conspicuously been ‘centre-stage’ for pagans to worship since Babel. [iv] Through her ‘magic spell’ all the nations were led astray during the whole of the Biblical age (Rev. 18:23–24).
NB. There were originally 360 stone idols of deities, minor deities and Djinn housed in and around the Kaaba (the cube shaped building) in Mecca, representing every god recognized in the Arabian Peninsula.
Notably, the angel accompanying John through his Revelation odyssey, warns him that… there is a mystery attached to the woman AND the beast, and it requires a mind which has wisdom to understand it! (Rev. 17:7, 9) So, how do we unravel the mystery, and what wisdom do we need? NB. ‘Babylon’ means ‘confusion’ so perhaps there is also some historical confusion regarding who the harlot is!
First, Revelation 17 provides a retrospective explanation—for what John had earlier seen, heard and described—without any clarification whatsoever, regarding the angel’s earlier blunt announcement: ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city…’ (Rev. 14:8). Thus, chapters 17 and 18 deal retrospectively with the multiple reasons, for the angel’s brusque statement about Babylon. The angel then describes in metaphorical terms, what she represents, her sinful past, and that it was God’s will that she be utterly destroyed (Rev. 17:16–17; 18:8, 21).
Second, during the end-time, we conclude from Revelation 17 and 18 that Babylon represents a great city that is currently operating in association with the seventh and eighth head on the God-opposing beast power: this association may or may not be of a symbiotic kind, since the ten horns will eventually hate the harlot, and burn her with fire! Babylon is obviously a pagan (harlot/adulterous) religious spirit hiding her identity within a wealthy, economic and merchandising city state, located among seven mountains in the wilderness. Her destruction causes economic collapse for all who traded with her.
Third, Babylon, the great city has spawned many similarly idolatrous ‘harlot daughters’ who have established Ziggurats, Temples and Mosques throughout the world, to expand Babylon’s idolatrous influence—during many millennia—thus causing abominations in all the earth, which are offensive to Yahweh God (Rev. 17:4; 18:2–3, 24). Her seductive influence has opposed God during the whole Biblical age, and her hostility toward Yahweh God has made her drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus throughout the ages (Rev. 17:6; 18:24).
Note: I have previously covered the topic of Babylon in my letter to the Doves (Dec. 22, 2023: called—BABYLON IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN, THAT GREAT CITY – Rev. 14, 17 and 18. In it I have described details pertaining to Babylon’s influence over the kings of the earth, peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues… during the beast’s seven (head) manifestations as empires and caliphates etc., as well as her influence over the ten ‘sovereign’ nations that form the shape of the tripartite land beast in the end time (Rev. 13:1–2).
Similarly, Babylon has extended her pagan religious spirit and commercial powers over the seven gentile kings that have ruled over the seven ‘mountains’ or ‘empires’ permitted by God; the last of which, during the Church age, i.e., Islam, appearing in both dual-SUNNI (seventh), and SHIA (eighth) iterations, would greatly extend her influence to cover all seven continents of the world.
Babylon is therefore an evil religious spirit whose influence and base has been secured within a great city that is located in the wilderness. It is from her base in the wilderness that she has reigned over the kings and merchants of the earth, who have made the great end time city called Mecca, ludicrously wealthy!