Revelation 17:8

8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

A. The immoral Babylon is riding on a beast. This best was, and is not.

B. This is similar to the beast in Revelation 13:3. The beast is seen as suffering a deadly wound, but is later healed. Verse 10 also must be considered here.

C. Let me give you some explanations offered by some commentaries.

1. Burton Coffman claims that the seven heads represent the seven major world empires, including Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. He says there will be a seventh. This seventh will be the Holy Roman Empire, which includes one of the above, which died and was raised to life again.

2. Lonnie Woodruff says that the number seven represents divine completeness. There have been seven worldwide kingdoms.

3. Paul Rogers believes that this verse is in reference to Nero. There is a belief that Nero promised to return from the dead. The Romans saw Domitian as the “reincarnation” of Nero.

4. Ray Summers states the view of “Nero redivivus myth” which claimed that Domitian is Nero reincarnation.

5. The common view of the futurists is that the literal city of Babylon will be restored in the last days.

6. The typical view of the continuous-historical group believes that this is the Roman Catholic Church.

D. In trying to be consistent, I believe the following makes sense.

1. We know the beast represents persecuting governments. At some point this beast seems to lose its power, and is later revived.

2. We have the advantage of being able to look back, study history, and see what actually happened. The Roman Empire fell in 476. On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor. This new, revived government is known as the Holy Roman Empire. It was an empire of both religious and civil powers working together. This is what is seen in chapter 13.

3. Here the angel explains that there will come a time when it seems that the persecuting government is dead - 476. Don’t plan a party to celebrate yet. There will be a new, revived government, combined with false religion, which will renew the persecution of faithful Christians.

4. Now, you add to that partnership immorality. You have a “three-pronged” attack on the people of God. God’s people are suffering - a) Persecution from the civil authorities; b) Persecution from false religions; and c) Being led astray by immorality.