Featured Eureka! An Attempt at Understanding the End Times Prophecies

I am a longtime student of history. I have wracked my brain periodically for four years, since becoming a Christian, to understand the End Times prophecies of the bible. I was streaming a sermon on Sunday when I was taught an interesting factoid. To have an understanding of Revelation it is best to use imagery from the Old Testament since the prophecy was written to those familiar with the orally given Old Testament. Another trick is to identify one thing you do get in Revelation's imagery and extrapolate logically what other things are. This was then applied with the Woman, Child, and the Dragon in Revelation 12. It was very eye opening and I immediately felt convicted to read the End Times prophecies again. I spent much of Sunday night and today doing so.

Between the relevant verses in Revelation 13 and 17 that speak of the Harlot Mystery Babylon the Great I believe I have finally made sense of things. I will first try to unpack my understanding of the Harlot and I ask for input to refine my theology. From this conclusion I am trying to understand the other symbols.

First, I must say that the Beast out of the Sea is a kingdom according to Daniel 7:23. Verse 24 tells us the horns of this beast are kings. This is important, since the Beast is therefore not a single person but a corporate community led by kings.

OK now to deciphering the Harlot, Mystery Babylon the Great of Revelation.

First, I will list facts from Revelation 13 and 17 about the Harlot.

1. The Harlot Mystery Babylon the Great is a great city (17:18)
2. A city that sits on seven mountains (17:9)
3. The kings of the earth and those who dwell on the earth commit immoral acts with this city (17:2)
4. The city is very wealthy, honored, and full of the choicest goods (17:4)
5. The city is full of abominations and immorality (17:4)
6. The city is a great persecutor and enemy of the saints having murdered so many (17:6)
7. The kingdom represented by the fourth beast of Daniel carries this city (17:7)
8. The city is the mother of other immoral cities and the mother of the abominations of the earth (17:5)
9. This city sits upon many peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues (17:15)
10. This city will reign over the kings of the earth (17:18)

OK now to decipher. This was easy to me given my understanding of history. The city is clearly Rome by being founded on seven mountains alone. When you combine this with being carried by the Fourth Beast of Daniel, which comes after Alexander the Great's Empire (The Third Beast of Daniel), this makes all too much sense. I found deciphering all the other points easy to do since I know Western, European, and Church History to an extent. All of the points are easily fulfilled by Rome and its association with the Roman Catholic Church (the self-declared successor of the Roman Empire) throughout Church History.

So, what do you think?

I thank God regularly that this is now all making more and more sense. I am now deciphering the scriptures on the Beast out of the Sea (the one in Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Revelation 17) and the Beast out of the Earth of Revelation 13. This is because I have an angle to understanding them now through the Harlot making prayerful study of them the next logical steps.

 

They are mentioned in Zechariah 4. I am making sense of it still myself. At least Revelation 12 and on is becoming more and more clear. It will be a while to plumb the depths of all this prophecy.

 

Just making sure, that was directed at @SavedByGrace I take it?

 

The woman is a great city though, according to Revelation 17:18. It also sits on seven mountains according to Revelation 17:9.

 

Oh, I'm sorry. Well let's take a look at Revelation 12. I have come to firm conclusions about the first 5 verses of that chapter due to the teachings of my senior pastor.

Revelation 12:1-13 NASB
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2 and she was with child; and she *cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.


OK let's start with the easy stuff and build from there. We will start with the child in verse 5.

5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

OK, this is easy. Who in all the bible will rule all the nations with a rod of iron? Jesus Christ. In fact I don't have to ask that question. For, in Revelation 19:15 we get this description of Jesus in the Book of Revelation,

15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

So, Jesus Christ is the one Who will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

The next question is did Jesus Christ get caught upwards to God and His throne? The answer is yes, Jesus Christ rules at the right hand of the Most High after ascending to heaven in the Book of Acts 1. During his speech in Acts 7 (Verses 54-60) the martyr Stephen even claims to see Christ standing at God's right hand.

That figured out let's work back before working forward. Let's look at the Dragon. We don't have to even guess, the Book of Revelation gives who the dragon is in Revelation 12:9

9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

This helps make sense of the third of the stars thrown down from heaven. It would appear that these are the angels that Satan tempted from God. I am not 100% though, but that appears the most straightforward explanation. Did Satan try to kill Jesus when He was born? Yes! Herod the Great has to be tricked by the Wise Men, who go straight home from Bethlehem after being warned in a dream. Joseph the adopted father of Jesus also received a dream to flee to Egypt to protect Jesus. Even then, Herod butchers the babies in Bethlehem when he learns he was tricked by the Wise Men. All of this happens in Matthew 2.

So the child is Jesus Christ, the time period of Revelation 12 to this point is the past. Although, I must say there is still a lot left to the chapter that I am trying to understand. The Dragon is Satan. Who could the Woman be? There are only two plausible options. Mary the mother Jesus, but looking at the rest of Revelation 12 that makes little sense. Or, it could be the people of Israel. This is helped by the first part about the moon, sun, and stars. Because, in Genesis 37:9-11 we find our answer. Joseph has a dream that comes true.

9 Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

So, the sun moon and 11 stars bow down to Joseph. The context of Jacob's response gives away that the moon and sun are Jacob and his half-mother Leah. The stars are Joseph's brothers, who will bow to him in Egypt in the future. As one of the sons of Israel, Joseph could be considered another star.

When all of this combines, it appears that the woman is the nation of Israel. Particularly, when Jesus Christ is born into this world. However, more happens to the woman after verse 5, so Israel's story continues on in this prophecy.

 

Thank you for the link. I had considered that possibility. There are problems with making it Jerusalem. Namely that as of the Roman Empire, Jerusalem fails to fulfill many of the prophecies about the Harlot and it fails to fulfill them afterwards. While Rome fulfills all the prophecies about the Harlot except being destroyed by the Beast. Thus, history gives me strong evidence it's Rome.

These predictions about the Harlot fail to be true if it is Jerusalem. Although, I am all ears for your defense of your position. (All verses are in Revelation 17)

1. The kings of the earth and those who dwell on the earth commit immoral acts with this city (17:2).
2. The city is very wealthy, honored, and full of the choicest goods (17:4)
3. The city is a great persecutor and enemy of the saints having murdered so many (17:6)
4. The kingdom represented by the fourth beast of Daniel carries this city (17:7)
5. The city is the mother of other immoral cities and the mother of the abominations of the earth (17:5)
6. This city sits upon many peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues (17:15)
7. This city will reign over the kings of the earth (17:18)

Sir, I look forward to your reply. I would love to compare notes.

 

Very interesting, I will have to think about this.

 

I just noticed, does anyone know why there are so many different translations of Revelation 17:11?

Revelation 17:11 The beast that was, and now is not, is an eighth king, who belongs to the other seven and is going into destruction.

 

Have you considered the six kings, five fallen, one reigning are the emperor's of the Roman Empire? I just noticed in my research that Nero is the sixth Roman dictator of the line of Julius Caesar.

List of Roman emperors - Wikipedia

I say this because Daniel's vision in Daniel 7 covers the empires of Babylon, Persia, and Alexander with separate beasts. The fourth beast also comes after Alexander's empire and has aspects of the three previous empires in it through Revelation 13:2. The fourth beast is figured to be the Roman Empire since it is the next one to rule the Medierranean after Alexanders Empire. Also Revelation 17:10 says the heads are kings, not kingdoms, which is of special note.

I will add that the seventh head that rules a little while and is the beast may refer to the Man of Lawlessness.