We are picking up our study in Revelation 17:9 which says, “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.” He is describing now. He is giving descriptions of both the great harlot that he has talked about which is this religious apostate system that is ruling over the earth during much of the Tribulation Period, and the antichrist is involved here as well, and he is called the beast. So, they are interrelated as we are looking at it here. And it says, “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.” I suppose historically or traditionally these seven heads have been described as seven mountains which may be a description of ancient Rome. Rome is considered the city on seven hills. So, there has often been the idea that this is a picture, we are talking about Babylon, but the great empire of the day was Rome. It is the greatest empire the world has ever seen up to this point. So, it could be a description of a type of revived Roman empire. It continues, “and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes he must remain a little while.” This is probably once again a description of the antichrist. We have seven kings, so there are these powerful kings involved. Five have already come and gone, so they are gone. Then it says, “the one is,” so there is a present king even as he sees this vision or is writing at this point, and then “the other is yet to come.” So, it could be it is describing the Roman emperor right now yet there is one that is yet to come who would be like the Roman emperor would be the antichrist who sits over the Roman empire. When he comes, he must “remain a little while,” so he won’t be ruling for very long. We know the Tribulation Period lasts a total of seven years and the antichrist doesn’t seem to come to power until about the middle of the Tribulation. So, his reign over the earth, while it is terrible and powerful, it is relatively short.
Then in Revelation 17:11 it says, “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eight and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.” Rather complicated wording here, but we do get the idea that there is a link between the beast of the antichrist and the rulers that have gone before him, so that in some sense he is one of them and yet he is not . . .
