A Fresh Look At Revelation 13 and 17

(Updated) 11 March 2013: (Updated: 16 March 2013) Once again my comments are about the prophecies found in The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the interpretation many prophecy writers have placed in the public domain, be they blog items or books that have been written in the past ten years or so. And once again it is the 13th chapter combined with the 17th chapter that has been a focus of my attention in recent weeks.

It appears to be a foregone conclusion in many writers exegesis of these chapters, and even by some of their followers who treat their interpretive works as if they are inerrant dogma, that the prophetic figures of the "allos thērion," the so-called "second beast, a/k/a the "False Prophet," and the "megas pornē,"  the great harlot are, respectively, a future Pope representing the city of Rome, the Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church members as the global apostate church (great harlot) of the 70th Week.

First things first. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who tries to witness to a Roman Catholic with this mindset as their core exegesis of Revelation 13 and 17 might as well save his or her breath. You lost your ability to witness to Roman Catholics before you even uttered a single word out of your mouth. One cannot reasonably expect to hit someone over the head with a hammer and then expect to feed them milk and honey. Nowhere in Scripture is there any specific 70th Week reference to Vatican City. The 70th Week is about Israel, as the angel Gabriel informs in Daniel 9:24-27 and Paul informs in Romans 11.

I believe that the world as it will exist at the start of the 70th Week will bear only a passing resemblance to the world we know today; that if any of us were given a glimpse of that world as John on Patmos was given a glimpse of it in visions we would be hard pressed to explain the changes that will have occurred. A tremendous world-changing paradigm shift of geo-political, societal and religious conditions will have occurred on planet earth. At the minimum the Harpazo of the Bride of Christ will have occurred. Also, in that future world many nations and and nationalities of people which are prominent today will not exist on day one of Israel's 70th Week. The literal fulfillment of three prophecies routinely discussed on this blog will be responsible for just a very small portion of those changes: Isaiah 17, Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38/39.

So, with this background as a starting point, I would ask the reader to look carefully at the text of Revelation 13:11-16 and offer a viable explanation of how anything in this descriptive passage refers to the physical location of the "False Prophet." The most descriptive thing that I have found stated as fact is referenced by the image above. However, when it comes to actually locating him physically on the face of the earth... there is not so much as a single word to this effect.

It is assumed in the exegesis of a great many Christian eschatologists that the false prophet will be headquartered in Rome. Yet according to the prophecy of the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:27), and that prophecy found in Revelation 13:14-15, and as spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Olivet Discourse as covered in all of the Gospels, the only physical location on the earth that is directly associated with the false prophet is the 3rd temple of God on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel. As we all know, that is where he will go to stand up the man-made image of the Antichrist constructed under his direction. That "Abomination of Desolation" image of the first beast of Revelation 13 will be stood up in the Holy Place with the Temple. According to Revelation 11:1-2, I think we can safely assume that the Sanhedrin during Israel's 70th Week will only allow Kohanim priests and not the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church to enter into these spaces, for they will be the only spaces in Jerusalem not under international sovereignty or trampled underfoot by the gentile nations. Then again, I don't believe the False Prophet will be the Pope. I am inclined to believe that the man who will be the False Prophet will be of a superior rank to the Pope in the false religious order of that day.

Another consideration for the reader to be mindful of is that in all of Revelation 17, which greatly details the association between the Antichrist, his kingdom and the "great harlot," there is not one word about the false prophet to be found. Not one. Yet, amazingly, an association to Vatican City, and thus the 1 billion some-odd parishioners of the Roman Catholic Church is drawn.

I ask the question: On what basis in this assumption made?

This finely adorned woman is figuratively described as riding on the back of the Antichrist and his kingdom of seven heads and ten horns. This beast is very obviously the first beast of Revelation 13, the Antichrist, and not the second beast, the false prophet. The prophetic association is to his European-based global kingdom and not to a specific city. The association here is to "many waters" and "peoples. multitudes, nations and tongues" that have existed since ancient times, to ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia-Greece and Rome. The great harlot is global in nature and also very ancient. Also, in Revelation 17:8 we see that the Antichrist at that time will be synonymous with Abaddon/Apollyon ascended out of the abyss from the text of Revelation 9:11.

But wait, I can hear some saying that Revelation 17:9 says the woman is sitting on the seven heads of the beast which are seven mountains, that this is a direct reference to Rome. Yes, one might assume that, but one must also be acutely aware that the text first advises the reader that this portion of the text is for the mind that has wisdom. This is a front and center clue that there is more here in the text than meets the eye. 

The text says there are seven mountains. The next sentence states those seven mountains are seven kings, five of which have previously fallen in history (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Macedon-Greece), one that is, the sixth king (Rome), and one that will be, the 7th king which is the revived Roman Empire as foretold by the angel Gabriel in Daniel chapter 9. The 7th king is also the 8th king as the 70th Week has two halves, the Antichrist of the first half (the Thlipsis), and the Satanic-empowered Antichrist of the second half (the Megas Thlipsis).  This text for "the mind that has wisdom" is about former, present and future world empires, not the city of Rome and not the Vatican City.

There is yet another problem for eschatologists who associate the Vatican City and the city of Rome with all of this. That problem is the 1929 Lateran Pacts between the Italian Republic and Vatican City. These pacts are de facto and de jure law; they are legally binding on both parties, the Roman Catholic Church and the Italian State. 

One of the key provisions of the Lateran Pacts is that the "Catholic Apostolic Roman religion" is the only State religion permitted to exist in the State/Kingdom of Italy. This poses an enormous problem in that a new international all-encompassing religion as made clear the the text of Revelation 17 within the Vatican City or within the Kingdom of Italy is an impossibility due to the Lateran Pacts. It would be big-time illegal to say the least. Another problem is that the Lateran Pacts cite very specific religious worship dates which the Italian State is obligated to adhere to. Changing any of these for a new global system of worship in The Vatican or the Republic of Italy would be definitively against the de jure of the Lateran Pacts.

As I read the text Revelation chapters 13 and 17, in association with the Book of Daniel, I discern a focus on Israel, on Jerusalem and on the coming Jewish Temple that will stand on Temple Mount. I also discern a revived "Roman Empire" led by a "Roman Antichrist" (probably of Jewish blood) that is symbolized by "Ten Toes" of two feet of a statue dreampt of by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted by the prophet Daniel. I don't discern anything singularly pointing to the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church or its parishioners being, respectively, the False Prophet or great harlot global religion.

In conclusion I also note that through the prophet Isaiah God referred to Jerusalem as a harlot (see Isaiah 1:21-23) and also through the prophet Ezekiel (see extensive passage of Ezekiel 16:15-63). Then we turn back to Revelation 11:7-13 which deals with Jerusalem in the 70th Week; the ministry of the Two Witnesses; their murder at the hands of the Antichrist, who is fully indwelt by Abaddon/Apollyon at his recovery from what appears to be a mortal head wound, and the Two Witnesses resurrection on the third day and immediate Harpazo directly into Heaven in the view of the whole world:

When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven." 

Notice the bold text in the above quote and consider it with respect to Revelation 17:15...

"Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues."

In conjunction with what we were told in Revelation 11:2 about the city of Jerusalem...

"But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months."

And it becomes clear that Jerusalem is as much a part of the global "great harlot" as is anywhere else on the earth at that time. This is also concurrent with  the fulfillment of Jesus prophecy to the Jews in John 5:43

"I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive."

And receive him they will, so much so that in short order his image created by men at the behest of the false Prophet will be standing in the Holy Place within the temple of God in Jerusalem, and thereby leaving nothing in Jerusalem not occupied by the Antichrist, his False Prophet and the Great Harlot during the final 42-months of the 70th Week.

And thus begins the Megas Thlipsis, the  Great Tribulation, the final 42 months before the return of Jesus Christ with His Bride to the earth leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth.