Revelation 17:6b-8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.\u00a07\u00a0Then the angel said to me: \u201cWhy are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery\u00a0of the woman and of the Beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.\u00a08\u00a0The Beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss\u00a0and go to its destruction.\u00a0The inhabitants of the earth\u00a0whose names have not been written in the book of life\u00a0from the creation of the world will be astonished\u00a0when they see the Beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cwhich has the seven heads and ten horns.<\/i>\u201d Recalling that the seven heads refers to seven hills that the woman sits on (V9<\/b>) and also to seven kings (V10<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Throughout history, in the ancient world, the place famously identified as that which has seven hills has been Rome.\u00a0\u00a0To verify this, just google \u201cseven hills of Rome.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In the ancient world, during the time that John wrote Revelation, to refer to the city of seven hills would be instantly recognizable as referring to Rome.<\/p>\n
In regards to the seven kings\u00a0V10<\/b>\u00a0states that \u201cFive have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.\u201d<\/b><\/i>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Being that location where the woman sits is Rome, many scholars believe that the kings, the authorities being referred to are seven Roman emperors.\u00a0\u00a0Commonly they are named to be: Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Tiberias, Caligula, Claudius, Nero and Domitian.\u00a0\u00a0When John wrote this book Domitian was ruling.<\/p>\n
Another widely held interpretation of who the seven kings are begins with the five powers that have ruled the known world: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece (There are variations).\u00a0\u00a0These all ruled before John\u2019s time.\u00a0\u00a0The sixth king, described as \u201cone is,\u201d would be the present kingdom of John\u2019s time, Rome.\u00a0\u00a0The seventh king would be the future kingdoms which unite to form under the Antichrist.\u00a0\u00a0Some believe the seventh king is a revival of the Roman empire.<\/p>\n
V12<\/b>\u00a0describes the ten horns as \u201cten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In the Bible horns are symbols of strength, power and authority.\u00a0\u00a0V13\u00a0<\/b>describes the purpose for their united kingdoms will be to build the power of the Beast as they relinquish their power and authority and cede it over to him.\u00a0\u00a0These ten kings, as of the writing of Revelation, did not yet exist, but would be kingdoms that rise up in the future.\u00a0\u00a0Many believe that these ten nations will arise from a European conglomeration from which the Antichrist will come.\u00a0\u00a0However, John does not specifically name these nations, and in fact, as the\u00a0V12<\/b>\u00a0states, they did not exist during John\u2019s times.\u00a0\u00a0These nations will, with the Beast, wage war against Jesus when He returns.\u00a0\u00a0Although, it is not much of a war, since Jesus is returning with His divinity fully intact, He defeats those who oppose Him with merely the words that He speaks (Revelation 19:15<\/b>).<\/p>\n
In the End Times Satan brings all the forces he can to attempt to overthrow God.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, he is still trying to do that.\u00a0\u00a0Along with him and his demons are many people who choose to align with him and not with God.\u00a0\u00a0All who align with the devil and his demons will share their fate of eternal fire (Matthew 25:41<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0However, for us who believe, we shall be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revelation 17:6b-8\u00a0–\u00a0When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.\u00a07\u00a0Then the angel said to me: \u201cWhy are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery\u00a0of the woman and of the Beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.\u00a08\u00a0The Beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[101,94,17,711,757],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-revelation","tag-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}