Judging the Infamous Harlot - The Harlot Rides a Beast

The Harlot Rides a Beast

What more does the prophecy disclose as to the great harlot and her fate?  As John now relates, a further vivid scene comes into view: "And he [the angel] carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness.  And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous  names and that had seven heads and ten horns." -Revelation 17:3.

Why is John being carried into a wilderness? An earlier pronouncement of doom against Babylon was described as being  "against the wilderness of the sea."  (Isaiah 21:1, 9) this gave the warning that, despite all its watery defenses ancient Babylon would become a lifeless desolation.  It is fitting, then, that John should be carried in his vision to a wilderness to see the fate of Babylon the Great.  She too must become desolate  and waste.  (Revelation 18:19, 22, 23)  John is amazed, though, by what he sees out there.  The great harlot is not alone!  She is sitting on a monstrous wild beast!

This wild beast has seven heads and ten horns.  It is, then, the same as the wild beast that John saw earlier, which also has seven heads and ten horns?  (Revelation 13:1) No, there are differences.  This wild beast is scarlet-colored and, unlike the previous  wild beast,  is not said to have diadems.  Rather than having blasphemous names on it seven heads only, it is "full of blasphemous names."  Nevertheless, there must be a relationship between this new wild beast and the previous one; the similarities between them are too pronounced to be coincidental.

What, then, is this new scarlet-colored wild beast?  It must be the image to the wild beast that was brought forth under the urging of the Anglo-American wild beast that has two horns like a lamb. After the image was made, that two-horned wild beast was allowed to give breath to the image of the wild beast.  (Revelation 13:14, 15)  John now sees the living, breathing image.  It pictures the League of Nations organization that the two-horned wild beast brought to life in 1920. U.S. President Wilson had envisioned that the League "would be a forum for the dispensation of justice for all men and wipe out the threat of war forever."  When it was resurrected after the second world war as the United Nations, its chartered purpose was "to maintain international peace and security."  

Next time: Judging the Infamous Harlot - Conclusion of The Harlot Rides a Beast

From the Book of Revelation