Greetings and welcome back to our study on the vision of the whore of Babylon! This is the sixth post in an eight-part series of Revelation chapter 17. In the last post, we studied the “mystery of the beast” and something called “the law of double reference.” In this post, we’re going to solve a three-part riddle about the scarlet-colored beast. Let’s get started!

Chapter 17: The Whore of Babylon

Sixth in an Eight-Part Series
by Karen Thompson

The Vision of the Whore of Babylon Riding a Scarlet-Colored Beast

Rev. 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Rev. 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

The Three-Part Riddle

Part One: The Beast

As we study the riddle in verses seven and eight, you’ll see it has different parts to it: the first part is about the beast from the bottomless pit, the second part is about the seven heads, seven kings and their kingdoms, and the third part is about the ten kings.

Let’s look at verse seven. The apostle John marveled as he gazed upon the scenario of the whore sitting upon the beast. The angel said to John, “Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns” (v. 7). Then in verse eight, John was told the mystery of the beast. What the angel said next was supposed to identify the beast, to clear up the mystery, but it sounded more like a riddle that needed to be solved. He said, “The beast that thou sawest was, but is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition.” This part of the riddle tells us about the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit.

In order to rightly interpret this riddle, you must keep in mind this was written during the apostle John’s time, so you have to interpret it from that perspective. It is divided into three sections. The first section says, “The beast that thou sawest was.” The second section says, “but is not.” The third section says, “and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition.” The beast “was,” “is not,” and “shall ascend out of the bottomless pit.”

When it says the beast “was,” it means the beast was in power, or active, before John’s time. The words “and is not” means the beast was not in power, or active, during John’s time when the Roman Empire ruled. The last section is important; it says the beast “shall ascend out of the bottomless pit.” Did you catch that? He will come up out of the “bottomless pit.” This means we’re not talking about a human being. We’re talking about a being from the unseen realm that has been locked up in this pit since before John’s time. This beast that will ascend out of the bottomless pit used to be in power before John’s time, before the Roman Empire. Evidently, the beast has been locked up in the bottomless pit since before the time of the Roman Empire.

We already know who the beast is. We learned about him when the angel blew the fifth trumpet. He is the first of the three “woes.” At the sound of the fifth trumpet, the bottomless pit was opened and out he emerged. Let’s read that portion of scripture: “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. … And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (Rev. 9:1–3, 11). The beast that came out of the bottomless pit is an angel. No doubt, he is an angel that followed Satan in his rebellion, making him a “fallen” angel. His name, Apollyon, means destruction. Notice we are told his name both in Hebrew and Greek. He is let out of the bottomless pit in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th week. Apollyon is the king of the locust army that came out of the bottomless pit alongside him. This fallen angel named Apollyon is the beast.

Let’s look at the last portion of this phrase: “and go into perdition.” After the beast is let out of the bottomless pit, he will do his thing on earth for three- and one-half years. When he is done, his final destination will not be the bottomless pit again; instead, he will go into perdition. The bottomless pit and perdition are two different things. The bottomless pit is simply a deep abyss.⁷ But the Greek word translated as perdition is apoleia, and it means “destroying, utter destruction, destruction of vessels, a perishing, ruin, destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell.”⁸ It seems the bottomless pit, which was unlocked by an angel with a key, was being used as some kind of prison. The beast Apollyon has been locked up in this pit since before John’s time. But once he is let out, he will not go back into the bottomless pit, to prison. He will go into perdition, a place where he will be destroyed. If we jump ahead to Revelation 19:20, we’ll see the final destination for the beast is the lake of fire. That is how the beast is destroyed. That is his perdition.

Believers Will Not Be in Amazement of the Beast

Let’s look at the last part of verse eight: “and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

Notice the unique description of the people who will be amazed, or astonished, by the beast: “they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.” Those that will be astonished by the beast are those people whose names are not written in the book of life. Only believers have their names recorded in the book of life. If your name is not in it, that means you’re not a believer. So we can deduce two things from this. Unbelievers will be amazed by the beast and will be deceived as to who he is and will worship him. But those whose names are written in the book of life, the believers, will not be in amazement of the beast. They will not be in deception as to who he is. They’ll know what is happening in the earth and who the beast really is.

Lastly, John repeated the description of the beast as “that was, and is not, and yet is.” The phrase “and yet is” simply means the beast is yet to come. It is speaking about the beast’s appearance in the distant future when he ascends out of the bottomless pit. His future appearance is when the bottomless pit is opened in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th week.

In the next post, we’re going to look at the “Seven Heads, the Seven Kings, and the Beast that is the Eighth.”

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