And seeing her I marveled…the angel said to me: “Why do you marvel? I will show you the mystery of the woman and the beast which carries her, which has seven heads and ten horns. The beast you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, he departs into destruction, and those dwelling on the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life…will marvel seeing the beast because he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is sitting. And they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, another has not yet come, and when he comes it is necessary for him to remain a little while.

And regarding the beast which was and is not, he himself is an eighth and is one of the seven, and departs into destruction. And the ten horns are ten kings, which have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast in one hour. They are of one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and elect and faithful.”

And he said to me: “The waters where the prostitute is sitting are peoples and nations and tongues. And the ten horns and the beast will hate the prostitute and make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put into their hearts to do His purpose, and to do it with one mind; that being, giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is the great city which rules over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17: 6b-18

In Rev. 17: 1-6a, John provides a general description and function of end-time Babylon. In the above passage, John provides details about the scarlet beast upon which the woman prostitute sits. He references the beast’s identity and end-time function.

But first, John is astonished at the mystery of the woman and her intimacy with the beast. John doesn’t state why he’s amazed. Perhaps it’s because she’s familiar to him. In this wilderness vision, maybe John was reminded of the woman in Rev. 12’s wilderness. That woman represented God’s true church. But now that faithful woman has changed into representing what the angel describes as the great city, end-time Babylon, a counterfeit of the New Jerusalem. That would explain why God’s end-time people are no longer called the woman. Instead they are referred to as the woman’s offspring or remnant; the ones keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12: 17). If this is so, no wonder John marvels at the woman. She once was faithful to God, but now opposes Him.

The beast is one that was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss. (This is a dark counterfeit version of God’s title as the One “who was and who is and who is coming,” mentioned in Rev. 4: 8. As this title of God refers to His end-time visitation, so does the beast’s title refer to its role in the end-times.)

The scarlet beast (religious/political power: the Vatican) was in existence as Rev. 13’s sea beast. When one of the sea beast’s seven heads was wounded to the point of death (the pope taken prisoner by Italy in 1870 and dying imprisoned there; successive popes silent and not leaving the Vatican for the next 59 years), it disappeared from the world’s stage for some time. In this period of inactivity, the beast was in its is not phase. However, in the end-times, it the papacy is resurrected from the abode of demons, the abyss. The world of those not in the book of life marvels at its return. It has not, though, regained the full strength it had when it was able to persecute God’s people. When that full strength comes back, the wicked will be awed into worshiping the beast which was and is not and will come (Rev. 13: 8). Its fully restored, world-wide power of persecution, though, is only for a short time before it is destroyed (Rev. 19: 20).