Revelation 17:8-11

8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

10  And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Remember in this vision the woman is not the beast that John saw the woman was sitting (riding) on the beast. The angel explains that this Beast is an entity that ascends out of the bottomless pit and that eventually goes to eternal damnation. We have already studied that when Satan is cast out of heaven he will inhabit the Beast that comes out of the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is probably the center of the earth where the demons and enemies of God are being held for this time of judgment. In a sense, the bottomless pit is another dimension that we know little about. As we previously studied,  the Beast is both a man and a world empire.

The people on the earth will wonder after the Beast when they behold him. They will think that he is God. All who do not know the true God will be truly astonished by the Beast. Those who God chose before the foundations of the world will not be deceived but all the rest in the world will be deceived. Anyone who thinks that the Antichrist is a plain man with a few magic tricks simply is not reading the script. Satan will come in the body of a man with supernatural powers and he will come with all his angels. He will claim to be God and the world will believe him because of the power he demonstrates.

“The Beast that was and is not and yet is”, is talking about the resurrection of a man who had died and probably also about a kingdom that had a deadly wound.  A contemporary world leader will be killed and rise from the dead by the power that God permits Satan to have to perform this deception. The deception is for all those who have rejected the truth given by the two prophets. It will be for those that wish to believe a lie. This passage both talks about a world leader and also talks about his kingdom, as do some other prophecies in scripture. The same wicked spiritual forces control both. The kingdom of the Beast that was and is not and yet is, can only be a revival of the Roman Empire that later becomes Satan’s counterfeit kingdom of God.

As we studied previously, the book of Daniel chapter two makes it clear that there would only be four Gentile world empires from the time of Daniel to the time when Jesus sets up His kingdom over the world. These four empires were the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire will rise again in these last days to fulfill the prophecy of the feet with ten toes on the statue of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:42). This statue represents all the remaining Gentile world governments until God sets up His own kingdom. The world governments are sequential from the head to the toes. The two legs of iron described by Daniel represented the eastern and western division of the Roman Empire. The final Gentile government is represented by the feet with ten toes of iron and clay. They represent strong and weak entities that will come together in the same area as the two legs to form this revived Roman Empire.

The resurrection of the Roman Empire is underway today. It started with the EEC and EU experiments and will soon morph into the area of the recently proposed Mediterranean Union. The Roman Empire was the seventh world empire on earth but the fourth from Daniel because there were also three Gentile world governments prior to the time of Daniel’s prophecy. The Beast Government that comes when Satan is cast out of heaven onto the earth will be the eighth world government. It is the eighth because the Beast that comes out of the pit will take control of this revived Roman Empire, move the world government and religious capitol to Babylon Iraq, and rename it the “Kingdom of God”. It will be called “Babylon the Great” by God. The Beast man that controls the eighth world government is the eighth king but is of the seven because the man that ruled the end time revived Roman Empire will be resurrected to control this Babylon the Great Beast Kingdom.

Let me clarify this a little - this seventh world leader will die and rise again by the power given to Satan and become the leader of the eighth world empire. Nevertheless, he was the leader of the seventh empire as well before he was killed.

The prophecy about the “empire” identified as the Beast is similar. It originally will evolve out of the area of the old Roman Empire. This new revived Roman Empire will receive a deadly head wound in an internal revolution and three regions and it's rulers will no longer exist. The “empire” with the deadly head wound will rise again as the end time Beast when the Beast man rises from the dead, claims to be God incarnate, moves the headquarters from Europe to Babylon and then takes the authority of his Beast kingdom worldwide.

There are only seven Gentile world empires on earth until Jesus comes but there are eight, because the eighth is just phase two of the seventh when the leader becomes supernatural, moves the capitol and expands his kingdom to the borders of the Old Roman Empire and His power worldwide.

Now that the angel explained who the Beast is, he tells us about  the mystery of the “woman who rides the Beast”.  The angel tells John that the woman that rides the Beast will sit on seven mountains (mountains, mounts or hills).  Rome sits on seven hills.  The harlot woman that becomes the World Church will rule from the Vatican.

I have seen photos showing Pope John Paul II entering a mosque and kissing the Koran. I have read that he said eastern religions also provide paths to God. One of Pope John Paul's closest friends was the Dali Lama who is the world leader of eastern and “new age” paganism. All this contact with unbelievers was ongoing at the very same time that the Vatican attacked fundamental true Christianity in South America and elsewhere. This is typical of the thinking in much of the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church even now. There also is quite a parallel to the idol worship of statues by “ some  Catholics” and the idol worship by Buddhists and Hindus.

It is not hard to see how all world religion will unify on a central theme once the influences of the true Christians are removed in the Rapture. (There are true Christians in the Roman Catholic Church but in one way or another they will leave this Harlot.)

All religion is pretty much the same at its core. Religions are methodologies for man to evolve to become like God, to appease God and earn brownie points by one’s own good works, or to manipulate God or some “higher power force” into doing one’s own will. There is always an inner circle of elite that set themselves up as being on a higher spiritual plane and more like God or closer to God than the common membership. Those who believe they are on this higher plane then make rules and rituals to enslave the masses to enforce what they believe are God’s requirements for man.

Religion other than “true Christianity” (which really is not a religion but is being born into a new creation through faith and trust in God), is always a salvation by man’s own works theology and always denies that salvation can be acquired from trusting in the work of Jesus alone.

Jesus had little good to say about the religious leadership over Israel and He will have little good to say about the religious leadership over Gentile religions in these last days. This includes most of the leadership that identifies with Christianity.

The scriptures say there is but one way to God through His Son Jesus Christ and that He paid the price for all mankind at the cross. To be saved one has to trust that God loved mankind enough to have prepared a plan of salvation and that He actually has the power to carry it out. This plan for redeeming man is what the Bible is all about.

The great difference between the bride of Christ and the whore is that the bride knows she is made pure by the blood of Jesus but the whore believes she must become acceptable to God by her own self effort. She is forever trying to find ways to appease and please God. Since she rejects the true nature of God, she fornicates with every filthy spirit in a self effort to become like the God she believes exists but the God she thinks exists is actually her father the Devil. Those who say they worship God and who do not worship or accept His Son are deceived or liars because Jesus is the express image of God.

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and  the express image of his person,  and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Revelation 17:11 of this passage tells us the end time Beast that the woman rides will go into utter destruction. The destruction of the Beast kingdom is described in the next chapter.