Revelation 17:3. What does “sitting on scarlet beast” mean in prophecy?
Revelation 17:3. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
What does the word “wilderness” mean in the Bible?
Revelation12:6. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there 1,260 days. (This is the beginnings of the Protestant church in the Piedmont valleys and the Waldenses in the mountainous regions of Italy and France. The 1,260 day period is the 1,260 year prophecy from A.D. 538 to 1798 the time of Middle Dark Ages of papal rule where she persecuted her own members in the Roman Catholic Church. Over 50 million were burnt at the stake including children. Many escaped to England, Holland and North America).
Revelation 12:14. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (This again is the beginnings of the protestant church, the Huguenots in France, the Waldenses in Italy. Many of them escaped to England, Holland and North America).
Acts 7:37.38. This is what Moses said to the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him shall you hear.” This is he who was in the congregation/church in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us. (This is referring to Israel and their wanderings in the wilderness around the Sinai region for 40 years).
Acts 13:18. Now for a time of about forty years he put up with their ways in the wilderness. (This is referring to the 40 years Israelite wanderings in the wilderness).
1 Corinthians 10:1-10. Moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Why? Because they in verse 6. Lusted after evil. Verse 7. Became idolaters. Verse 8. Committed sexual immorality. Verse 9. Tempted Christ. Verse 10. Complained.
Hebrews 3:8. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness. Verse 9. Where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works forty years verse 11. So I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
Hebrews 3:16.17. Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? Verse 18. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey? Verse 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Conclusion
Wilderness is related to the two of the following:
First, in the book of Revelation wilderness is related to the church of true believers who protested against the papacy during the 1,260 years of the dark Middle Ages from 538 to 1798 A.D. The protestant church departed into the wilderness meaning they departed to North America, England, Holland, the mountains of Italy and France, to countries where one had neutral religious laws enforced in the land.
Secondly, the church in the wilderness is related to the Israelite believers who wandered 40 years in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt. However, the majority did not survive coming out of the wilderness because of their lusting after evilness, idolatry, sexual immorality, tempting Christ, complaining, hardening their hearts, unbelief and they did not obey God.
What does the word “sit” mean in symbolic language?
We shall do a short word study on the word “sit” from the book of Revelation to find the answer.
In the Greek the word for “sit” is kathaymai – catheymai .
Revelation 4:2-4. Immediately I was in the Spirit: and behold, a thrown set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardis stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads.
(He who sat on the throne is Christ, the Almighty God. He is the creator and the spiritual and political ruler of the universe. The 24 elders sitting on 24 thrones represent all those who were saved during earth´s history e.g. Matthew 27:51-53. Many of these elders were prophets who were resurrected, at the time of Christ´s crucifixion. Sitting is helping God to rule the universe. It involves worship and obeisance as in verse 10, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever).
Revelation 5:13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and forever! (Sitting involves worship and acknowledgement that God is the head of the church and creator of the universe).
Revelation 6:2. And I looked and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. (Sitting on a white horse involves the work of preaching the gospel message to the whole world).
Revelation 6:4. Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. (Sitting on this horse represents the power to take peace from the earth and force people to kill one another).
Revelation 6:5. So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. (Sitting on this horse represents the power to administer judgment).
Revelation 6:8. So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death – – -. (Sitting in this text represents the power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and hunger).
Revelation 6:15.16. Rich men of the earth, kings, great men, commanders, mighty men, every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, “fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne- – -. (It is Christ who sits on this throne and he comes to administer judgment over the rich and mighty unbelievers on this earth at the Second Coming).
Revelation 7:10. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. (Christ who sits on this throne has the power to save people on the earth).
Revelation 9:17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow – – -. (Sitting on these horses are related to killing a third of mankind).
Revelation 14:14. Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man. Having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. (This is Christ sitting on the cloud with a crown of victory and a sickle to harvest the earth of people – to separate the tares from the wheat).
Revelation 17:1. (During the 7 last plagues). Come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
(The harlot is the worldwide fallen church sitting on many waters, which is a symbol of many peoples and nations plus kings. The harlot has the power to make these drunk with the wine of her false teachings).
Revelation 17:3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (We shall do a study on the scarlet beast later on, but this woman sitting on a scarlet beast symbolizes that she has the religious power to dictate her teachings with the scarlet beast, the seven heads and the ten horns).
Revelation 17:9. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Verse 10. They are also seven kings. (Mountains are a symbol of kingdoms and heads are a symbol of religious heads of Christian denominations).
Revelation 17:15. The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.
Revelation 18:7. (Babylon). I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.
Revelation 19:11. Now I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. (This rider is Christ who is sitting on a white horse and has the power to judge and make war against the nations upon the earth called Armageddon).
Revelation 19:17.18. (The beast and the false prophet are the “flesh” subject of this verse). Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.
Revelation 19:19. And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. (This is Armageddon where the armies of the earth make war against Christ sitting on a horse who has power to destroy them).
Revelation 19:21. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. (Christ who sat on the horse destroys the rest of unbelievers on earth with his mouth – He just speaks and people are destroyed).
Revelation 20:11. Then I saw a great white thrown and him who sat on it, verse 12, judged the dead from books and the book of life. (This is Christ who has the authority to judge the dead who have refused to believe in God as their savior).
Revelation 21:5. Then he who sat on the thrown said, “Behold, I make all things new,” (referring to a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation 21:1. God has the power to create).
Conclusion
The word “sitting” is related to the following: Worship and obeisance. Helping God to judge. Worship and Christ is God the ruler of the universe. Christ is head of the church. Preaching the gospel. Conquering. Take peace from the world. People shall kill one another if they reject the gospel. Judgement. Hunger and death. Salvation. Killing. Harvest at the end of the world. Harlot sitting on many waters e.g. nations, peoples, and kings.
The word is also related to making kings drunk with the harlot’s false teachings. The woman sitting on a scarlet beast. The worldwide Christian fallen church sitting on Satan and false teachings influenced by the seven heads and ten horns. Names of blasphemy. Harlot sits as a queen. Christ judges and makes war. Kings. Captains and mighty men who sit on horses and have the power to judge and kill. War and killing, judgement and punishment and creator God.
When the harlot, who represents the world wide fallen Christian churches, sits on the beast and many waters, she is symbolizing that she has the power over nations and can enforce her false teachings on them, which are not from the Bible, on the pain of death, war and persecutions. This prophecy is yet in the future.
Revelation 17:3. “And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
What does the scarlet beast mean here in this text, when we have a few beasts in the book of Revelation?
Revelation 17:7. But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has seven heads and the ten horns.
Revelation 17:8. 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.”
Revelation 9:1. Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Luk 10:18. And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.”
Revelation 9:2. And he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Revelation 9:11. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. (In the Hebrew Abaddon means ruin or destruction. In the Greek Apollyon means destroyer).
Revelation 11:7. When they finish their testimony the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them and kill them. (The context is during the French Revolution AD 1798. The Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament were destroyed along with Christian martyrs. The beast is Satan working through the revolutionaries in France).
Revelation 17:8. The beast that you saw, was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition – – -.
Revelation20:1. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Verse 2. He laid hold of the dragon that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Verse 3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. (Was: Satan before the 1,000 years. Is not: Satan during the 1,000 years. And is: Satan after the 1,000 years).
Revelation 17:8. The beast (Satan) you saw was (before the 1,000 years) and is not, (during the 1,000 years on desolate earth), and will ascend out of the bottomless pit (Satan after the 1,000 years).
The beast in Revelation 13:1 and the beast in Revelation 17:3.8. are related with one another because both have seven heads, ten horns and names of blasphemy.
Revelation 17:11. The beast (Satan) that was and is not is himself also the eighth, and is of the seventh, and is going to perdition.
Revelation 17:3. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads. (Satan is this beast because a solution is proposed in verses 7 and 8, about, “this was,” and “is not” and “will ascend out of the bottomless pit”).
Revelation 13:1.2. This beast is related to the beast in Revelation 17:3 because it has seven heads, ten horns, and on his heads blasphemous names. The dragon gave this beast power, his thrown and great authority.
Conclusion
The scarlet beast represents Satan. Satan comes out of the bottomless pit. Satan worked through the papacy and the leaders of the French revolution to destroy the Bible and all true Christians in France. Satan is bound for 1,000 years on this earth after Christs´ second coming. The beast in Revelation 13:3.8. and the Dragon in Revelation 12:3., are related to one another through the seven heads and the ten horns. Satan himself is the beast in Revelation 17:3.8. Satan is related to the beast in Revelation 13:1. and the beast in Revelation 13:11. Satan is the Dragon in Revelation 12:3.9.
What does a beast mean in prophecy?
Daniel 1-3. In the first year of Balshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bead. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beast came up from the sea, each different from the other.”
Who are these four beasts?
Daniel 7:17. Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which arise out of the earth. (Actually the four kings are four kingdoms as expressed in Daniel 7:23. The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms.)
These four kingdoms are in parallel to the four kingdoms in the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel 2:32-34. The image´s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
Daniel 2:36-44. This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. “You O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all – you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.
And a fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter´s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. Verse 44. And in those days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.”
In this text we have found that King Nebuchadnezzar of the kingdom of Babylon represents the head of gold. The kingdom of Babylonian Empire reigned from 605 B.C. to 539 B.C. The next kingdom to follow which was inferior to Babylon was Medio-Persia Empire. This kingdom is symbolized in the breast of silver on the statue. They reigned from 539 B.C. to 331 B.C. The third kingdom of bronze on the statue became the Grecian Empire with Alexander the Great leading out with his military victories all over the then known world.
The Grecian kingdom reigned from 331 B.C. to 168 B.C. The fourth kingdom to follow on the statue was the legs made of iron. This kingdom symbolized the Roman Empire reigning from 168 B.C. to AD 476. The last kingdom on earth is the divided nations of Europe and all over the earth symbolized with iron and clay on the statute. Then God will set up a kingdom which will destroy all these political and military kingdoms on earth. Gods’ kingdom will last for ever.
O.K! Now we have got this far, we have to make a parallel of these kingdoms through the time of history, with the statue in Daniel 2: and with the four beast in Daniel 7:
Babylonian empire 605 B.C. to 539 B.C. is the head of gold on the statue and is parallel to the lion with eagle’s wings in Daniel 7:4.
Medo-Persian empire 539 B.C. to 331 B.C. is the chest and arms of silver on the statue and is parallel to the bear raised up on one side in Daniel 7:5.
Grecian empire 331 B.C. to 168 B.C. is the thighs of bronze on the statue and is parallel to the leopard with four heads and four wings in Daniel 7:6.
Roman empire 168 B.C. to AD 476 is the legs of iron on the statue and is parallel to the fourth terrible beast with ten horns in Daniel 7:7.
Conclusion
All these beasts represent world empires who have had dominion over the then known world´s politics, economy, finances, military and religion. This what makes the beast different from the heads and horns of a beast. They are super empires having control over all the then known world, whereas a head has only political and religious influence. The horn has only political and military influence over the land which they govern. One cannot say that the beast is the same as the horn or the head as some theologians imply. One has to be very consistent when applying symbols in prophetic interpretation of the Bible and not to change these symbols around to suit ones own theoretical application.
What does the word “blasphemy” mean in the Bible?
See my website
www.ayindk.com/Revelation 13:1-10.
For a full explanation.
What do heads mean in the prophetic writings of the Bible?
See my website
www.ayindk.com/Revelation 17:9-11.
For a full explanation.
What do horns in prophecy mean?
See my website
www.ayindk.com/Revelation 17:12.13.
For a full explanation.
[1] Don F. Neufeld, ed., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary, Vol. 8 (Washington D.C.: Review & Herald, 1979), 155.
[2] J. Coulson, C.T. Carr, Lucy Hutchinson, Dorothy Eagle, Eds., The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), 80.
[3] Bernard S. Cayne, Ed., The New Lexicon Webster´s Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Lexicon Pub. Inc., 1989), 102.
[4] Don F. Neufeld, Julia Neuffer, Eds., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Students´ Source Book, Vol. 9 (Washington D.C.: Review & Herald, 1962), 684.
[5] C. Mervyn Maxwell, God Cares, Vol. 2 (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 1985), 478.