Revelation 17

They will wage war against the Lamb. The deepest roots are laid bare. What gives the powers of this world its ‘drive’ becomes clear. It is pure hatred against Christ and everything that has anything to do with Him. They will rage against Jews and Christians, against Israel and true Churches worldwide.

Chapter 17 begins and ends with the ‘woman’, the ‘whore’. Like the ‘sea of glass like crystal’ before God’s throne, there are waters upon which the whore sits. Just as the redeemed and all the ‘celestial beings’ surround God and His throne and the Lamb, the ‘harlot’ has the nations and multitudes and peoples and languages around her.

Battles have often been fought over the question as to whether the ‘seven mountains’ upon which the whore sits point strongly to Rome. The Church of Rome has ‘prostituted’ itself with the kings of the earth and exercised worldly power for centuries.

We shall be shown in detail how the ‘harlot’ ‘Babylon’ falls in chapter 18. However, it is remarkable that at this point John already sees that her downfall takes place through the political forces that helped her into the saddle. She thought she could have complete confidence in these allies; indeed, she even thought she had them in her power.