HOW THE 7 HEADS OF REVELATION 17 HELPS US TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY IN AMERICA.
“What is happening in our world today?” Many sense that something is going on, but what? A study of the seven heads of Revelation 17 can shed much light on this question.
THE SEVEN HEADS OF REVELATION 17.
“And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. …9 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.” Revelation 17:3, 9-11.
Here we see a woman riding on a beast with seven heads and ten horns. “The seven heads are seven mountains …and there (they) are seven kings.” 7 heads = 7 mountains = 7 kings. Each head represents a world kingdom or power. Thus, there are seven heads represent seven world kingdoms or powers used by Satan to oppress God’s people. It just so happens that each of the 7 heads of Revelation 17 are represented by a beast from Daniel 7 and Rev. 11-13.
“Five are fallen, and One is, and the other is not yet come.” Rev.7:10. From this text, we see that each head is successive, each head battling the previous head for supremacy. (There is an exception to this rule because head #4 and head #7 give their strength, power, and great authority to their successor, Papal Rome.) Only one of the seven heads is dominant at a particular time. And when a new head is in power the appearance of the 7-headed beast changes. This is seen when the 7-headed red dragon of Rev. 12 gives “his power, and his seat, and great authority” to the 7-headed leopard Beast of Rev. 13 (Rev. 13:2).
When do the seven heads begin? The answer is seen in the Beast of Rev. 13—a composite of all the beasts in Daniel 7— the previous heads before it. They are described in reverse order by the prophet John as he looks back in time The Beast looks like a leopard (Greece—BC 331-168—Head #3), has the feet of the bear (Medo-Persia—BC 538-331—Head # 2), and the mouth of the Lion (Babylon—BC 606-538—Head #1) which had taken the crown from the last king of Judah in 586 BC (Eze. 21:26).
The last of the four beasts in Daniel 7—the 4th dreadful Beast (Pagan Rome—BC168-AD 476— Head # 4)—is the same power symbolized in Rev. 12 as the seven-headed Red Dragon. The red Dragon primarily represents Satan (vs. 9), but secondarily it represents Pagan Rome because Satan works through earthly kingdoms. It was through Pagan Rome that Satan tried to destroy “the manchild” (Jesus) as soon as He was born. Rev. 12:4. Pagan Rome (Head # 4) would afterwards be a terrible persecutor of the early Christian church until the time of Constantine’s Edict of Toleration—313.
The Little Horn is also seen in Daniel 7, having a face, a mouth, and eyes like a man. (1) It arises from among the ten horns—the barbarian kingdoms that entered Western Europe just before the fall of Pagan Rome—476 AD. (2) It is more stout than them all. (3) It would “speak great words against the Most High (a religious power);” (4) “shall wear out the saints of the Most High;” (5) would “think to change times and laws;” and (6) would have power for “a time, times, and the dividing of time.” [In prophecy, a “day” = a year of literal time according to Ezekiel 4:5,6; Num.14:34. A “time” (a year) = 360 prophetic days = 360 literal years. Thus, the Little Horn would have power for “a time” (360 days) + “times” (720 days) + “the dividing of time” (180 days) = 1260 prophetic days = 1260 literal years.] This power is none other than Papal Rome— AD 538-1798—Head #5—the second phase of the Roman empire.
The composite Beast of Rev. 13:1-10, has the same identical characteristics as the Little Horn in Daniel 7. (1) It receives its power, seat, and great authority from the Red Dragon, the 4th Head. (2) It blasphemes God (showing that it is a religious power). (3) It makes “war with the saints.” (4) It has power for “42 months” of 30 days/month = 1260 prophetic days = 1260 literal years! (4) It arises out of “the sea,” which represents a populated area of “multitudes, nations, peoples, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15) just as the Little Horn arose from the populated area of Western Europe among the 10 horns (nations) in Daniel 7. And (5) “The dragon (Pagan Rome) gives the Beast (Papal Rome) “his power, and his seat, and great authority” just as the Little Horn arises out of the head of the 4th Beast—Pagan Rome. Thus, the composite leopard Beast of Rev. 13, like the Little Horn in Daniel 7, is none other than Papal Rome—AD 538- 1798–Head # 5.
Five are fallen; and one (the 6th) is, and the other (the 7th) is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not (the 5th), even he is the 8th, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” Rev. 17:10. The final two heads are identified by the two remaining beasts found in Revelation 11:7 and 13:11.
“One is.” When is “is?’ It is not in John’s day, for it was a plague angel that said to John, “Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore….” (1) The plague angel comes in the last days. (2) He said, “Come hither”—transporting John into the future, after “five are fallen”—1798. (3) The judgment of the great whore; the judgment began in 1844. (4) The woman is drunk with blood of saints—after 1798. (5) The woman (the church) is seen distinctly from the beast (the state). This perception did not come till after 1798, when the US separated church and state for the first time in history. (6) The woman is in the wilderness, out of the limelight, thus, after the deadly wound of 1798. (7) In Rev. 21:9,10, the same plague angel shows to John the city of New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. If the judgment of the great whore occurred in John’s day, so did this, but obviously both were in the future.
Who is head # 6? It would be the power that gave the Papacy (Head # 5) a deadly wound in 1798. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.” Rev. 13:3. Who gave it a deadly wound? This was accomplished by the power of Atheism in France during the French Revolution, and is symbolized by the beast of Rev. 11:7 that comes out of the spiritual “bottomless pit.” The Beast out of the Bottomless Pit is also called “spiritually Egypt” and “spiritually Sodom,” meaning that it would have the atheistic characteristics of Egypt (Exodus 5:2) and the licentious immoral characteristics of Sodom. (Rev. 11:8) France was the first country in the history of the world to declare that there was no god. Instead, it uplifted the Goddess of Reason and experienced a horrible Reign of Terror. In 1796, the French Directory sent an order to Napoleon to eliminate the Papacy. Two years later, in 1798, he sent his general Berthier with an army to Rome to do the job. Berthier took the pope captive and took away his civil power by liberating the Papal States. The Papacy no longer had civil power to persecute God’s people. This was the “deadly wound.”
This 6th-head power of Atheism (spiritual Egypt—Rev. 11:7) is identical to the “King of the South” in Daniel 11:40, who pushes against the Papacy at the “Time of the End” (1798 AD). Interestingly, France conquered literal Egypt in the same year, 1798.
But the King of the South would continue to push at the King of the North (the Papacy) for decades after 1798. In 1848, Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, giving Atheism its constitution and government. The last words of the book rang out, “Workers of the world unite!” Like a flash, revolutions broke out all over Catholic Europe when the book came out, but mysteriously died down the next year. God held back the winds of revolution to allow the Second Advent movement to proclaim the Sabbath truth, symbolized by the ascending angel from the east having the seal of God (Rev. 7:1-3).
Then, in 1857, Charles Darwin, gave Atheism its science, Evolutionism. This was a direct attack against the First Angel’s Message that commands everyone on earth to worship the Creator on the 7th-day Sabbath (Rev. 14:7). Evolutionism would successfully battle its way to dominance in the scientific world and go on to conquer the educational systems of the world, even becoming the science of the King of the North (Papal Rome and, since 1844, Protestant America—spiritual Babylon).
In 1917, the King of the South through Lenin and Stalin, gained control of vast territory of atheistic communist U.S.S.R., and then in 1945, after WW2, it took control of the many Catholic countries of Eastern Europe. In 1949, China with its millions went Communist, and then Laos, Cambodia, North Korea. Catholic France’s colony of Vietnam was next. The Catholic Church tried to use the “chariots,” and “horsemen,” and “many ships”—representing the United States’ military and economic power—to keep Vietnam as a Catholic state. But atheist communist Vietnam “pushed” determinedly against the King of the North (Papal Rome and Protestant America) and won! In 1972, the 6th Head (Atheism) defeated the 7th Head and Vietnam is Communist still today.
Today the 6th Head (Atheism) is no longer gaining geographical territory—only China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba remain. But Atheism, Humanism, Evolutionism is still dominating the world in the battle for the mind! The sixth head of Rev. 17 is still the one that “is” (Rev. 17:10) and is very much alive in today through TV, movies, radio, novels, and other entertainment, which enters our homes and educates us to use force & reason, no prayer.
Head #7 is the United States of America— the Two-horned Beast seen in Rev. 13:11-18. It has two lamb-like horns, but speaks like a dragon. It is depicted as rising slowly up from the earth—a sparsely populated area not under the control of the Papacy—around the time that the Beast received a deadly wound in 1798. It looks like a Christian nation with two lamb-like (Christ-like) horns that represent Civil and Religious Freedom—the principles that made America great. But at the end it will speak like a Dragon as it apostatizes from its Protestant principles. Since the beginning of the Cold War in 1945, it has been battling the 6th head of Atheism. In 1989-91 President Reagan and Pope John Paul II worked together to help bring down 22 communist countries in Eastern Europe, ending with the U.S.S.R. in 1991.
America, through Apostate Protestantism, will create an Image of the Beast—a union of church and state in the New World modeled after the Beast (the Papacy). At the same time America will help the Papacy by “causing the earth …to worship the first Beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” When that happens and Sunday-worship is enforced, the United States becomes Head #7, reigning in the New World, and the Papacy becomes Head #8 in the Old World. The kings of the earth give their power and strength to the Papacy. They will last a short space—from the Sunday Law till the end of the 7 plagues, during which time, they will war against the Lamb and “they that are with Him” (Rev. 17:14)—those who are standing on the 3 Angels’ Messages. The Lamb will overcome them and usher in His everlasting kingdom.
So how does the prophecy of the 7 heads of Rev. 17 help us to know what is going on today? Let’s look more closely at the 6th head of Atheism and the 7th head of Apostate Protestantism.
In Revelation 17, the 6th head (the Beast from the Bottomless Pit—Rev. 11:7) is also called “spiritually Sodom” as well as “spiritually Egypt.” Atheism, which has no god, no morals, and no judgment, naturally promotes the licentiousness of Sodom as the French Revolution did. Today, spiritual Sodom—homosexuality—is known as “LGBTQ”ism. The 6th head is also described as “Spiritual Sodom,” which today is Atheism, Evolutionism, Humanism, Secularism, and/or Socialism. The interesting thing is that today, these characteristics of the 6th head of Revelation 17 just happen to be the same principles that are espoused in the Democratic Party in the United States of America! Interestingly, the Democratic Party has ties to the 6th Head. Thomas Jefferson, considered as one of the fathers of the Democratic Party, was US minister to France at the beginning of the French Revolution, and was certainly a humanist.
[Remember, that God’s people are not involved in any political party. Brethren, this is not a political, but a prophetic presentation. The solution to the world’s problems is found in the Three Angels’ Messages, on which we are to be standing, and presenting to all the world. God’s people are there with the Lamb, against Whom both Heads #7 and #8 will fight a losing battle. See Rev. 17:14.]The 7th Head, the United States/Apostate Protestantism is battling the 6th head and will create the Image of the Beast—a union of church and state, first in America, and then globally. Today the United States military and economic power is holding this world together in a fragile and precarious order. (For instance, if it were not for the US Navy there would be piracy all over the place, and no global economy.) Thus, the president of the United States is just about the president of the world. But soon, the US will “cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” Rev. 13:12. That means that Apostate Protestantism here in America will gain control of the government and make this nation a “Christian nation.” The great American principle of separation of church and state will be repudiated. These are the goals espoused by the current Republican Party in the US today. Unlike any administration before it, President Trump had 30 Protestant counselors and 30 Catholic counselors. Most of his cabinet members, White house advisers and aides were in the “Dominionist” movement, a brand of Christianity whose goal is to make this nation a “Christian”- dominated church-state system.
Today we are witnessing in the United States a tremendous battle between the two political parties. The battle began in 1980 when the religious right (forgetting that Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’) joined the political fray for the first time as the Moral Majority to help elect Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr.—Republicans. The pendulum swung back to the Democrats with Bill Clinton, who promoted the values of the 6th head. In 2000, the religious right’s Christian Coalition backed George Bush Jr.—Republican. The pendulum swung back in 2008 to Barack Obama—Democrat. Then the battle really began to heat up. The Tea Party, Christian Evangelicals, and the Dominionists helped Donald Trump bully his way into power—Republican. In 2020 the pendulum swung back to Joe Biden—Democrat—whose party even more than ever reflects the 6th head values of Atheism and LGBTism!
What now appears to be a fierce unreasonable political battle to the death (using lies, deception, and force) between the Democratic party and the Republican party, is really a spiritual satanic battle between Head #6 and Head #7—a fierce apocalyptic battle for the control of the world starting with the presidency of the United States. Prophecy tells us that the 7th Head— Apostate Protestantism (the “conservative class”)—will win this battle and will deceive the nation to set up a church/state system—The Image of the Beast! This will appear to be a good thing, but it will mean that the principles of religious freedom, liberty of conscience for all, and the US Constitution itself, will be repudiated! The 2-horned beast will speak as a dragon. Sunday worship will be enforced. Protestantism will have fully fallen. This will allow the revived Papacy (formerly the 5th head, one of the seven)—now Head #8—to regain its power to persecute; its deadly wound fully healed.
Already the idea of the church controlling the state is being boldly proclaimed by members of Congress. The test will be like in Elijah’s day—Who will you worship? Will you worship the Creator on the day that He blessed and made holy—the 7th day Sabbath of Creation? Or will you worship on Sunday, a tradition established by the Papacy in the 4th century AD and forced upon the world? The fourth commandment to worship God on the 7th day is the only commandment of the ten that identifies the true God—the only one that God tells us to “Remember.” On the other hand, enforced-Sunday-worship is the sign of the Papal Beast’s power to “think” that it can change God’s immutable Law (Daniel 7:25). There is not one verse in the Bible telling us to keep Sunday. It is unbiblical! Will you receive the Seal of God? Or the Mark of the Beast?