Our title comes from the opening words to Revelation’s sixth vision: “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” (Rev. 17:1; emphasis added).1
But, this vision contains more than God’s judgment of apostate Israel as the great whore. It shows the ultimate destiny of each of the Seven Mystic Figures in the fourth vision (Rev. 12:1–14:20).
This explains why our outline shows this vision extending through the twentieth chapter.2 Not until then does John show the destination of all the symbolic figures.
We repeat a paragraph from an earlier post that identifies these symbolic persons.3
The seven figures are, in order of their appearance: 1.) a sun-clad woman; 2.) a great red dragon; 3.) a man-child; 4.) a beast from the sea—whose number is 666; 5.) a beast from the land; 6.) a Lamb on mount Sion; and 7.) the Son of Man upon a cloud.4
This post will show how the Vision of the Great Whore (Rev. 17:1–20:25) accounts for each. Future posts will examine this passage in more detail.
The Sun-Clad Woman
The sun-clad woman possesses a dual identity.5 She is Israel, but Israel as she exists under two covenants (cp. Jer. 31:31; Heb. 8:6–13; 10:7–18).
As she existed under the old covenant, the Apostle Paul calls her “Israel after the flesh” (1 Cor. 10:18). This was during the Mosaic Age. So, we have used the term “Mosaic-Age Israel” to describe her.
As a whole, Israel after the flesh rejected Christ (e.g., John 1:11; 3:11, 32; 5:40, 43; et al.; cp. Psa. 69:8). This is why the Apostle Paul grieved for her (e.g., Rom. 10:1). She was an apostate nation. John continues the prophetic tradition by showing her as a “whore” (e.g., Isa. 1:21; Jer. 2:2, 20; Ezek. 16:15; et al.).
The Vision of the Great Whore shows her destiny. The “ten horns . . . upon the beast . . . make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (Rev. 17:16). This torment is about to come. The kings of the land say, “in one hour is thy judgment come” (Rev. 18:10). God avenges himself on her (Rev. 18:20).
John gives several other descriptions of her future. We will examine most of them in future posts.
This sun-clad woman is also Israel under the new covenant. She exists in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the “remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom. 11:5) within Israel after the flesh. The Apostle called her “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).
Members of this Israel believe the gospel of the kingdom and serve Christ. This is Israel as she exists in the parousia of Christ. We have called her Messianic-Age Israel.
In this vision, John shows this Israel as the church, the Bride of Christ. A great multitude in heaven says, “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). She does not worship the Beast, but lives and reigns “with Christ a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4) during the Messianic Age.
This vision shows the future of Israel. As the old-covenant harlot, she goes to destruction. As the new-covenant bride, her future is glorious.
The Dragon
Inmillennialism considers Rev. 20 as a kind of extension to the Vision of the Great Whore. Its primary purpose is not to describe the millennium. It does so only as it gives the Dragon’s (i.e., Satan’s) future.
In this chapter, God defeats the Dragon in two phases. First, he binds Satan to prevent him from deceiving the nations (Rev. 20:1–3). We saw earlier that Jesus cast Satan down from his position of power. This occurred during Jesus’s ministry on earth.6
Jesus also described Satan’s dethronement as the binding of a strong man. During the kingdom age,7 Jesus restrains Satan to “spoil his house” (Mark 3:27). This binding allows the gospel to spread. As a result, all nations come and worship Christ (Rev. 15:4).
These binding and spoiling actions agree with what John says in another place. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
This restricted state is not Satan’s final end. The second phase of Christ’s victory over the Dragon is final. Jesus casts him “into the lake of fire and brimstone” and torments him “day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10).
Hallelujah! May Christ bruise the head of his chief enemy and give the enemy of our souls his reward!
The Sea and Land Beasts
The Sea Beast is the Roman Empire, often represented by its Emperor. The Land Beast—“the false prophet”8—is the empire’s representative authority in the land of Israel.9
John’s sixth vision shows the Beasts’ future. His description matches later history. God used them to judge the whore during the Jewish Wars of AD 66–70 (Rev. 18:1–19:19). He then casts them into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). They are among the many nations slain by Christ’s sword (Rev. 19:21; cp. Psa. 2:9–11). This occurs during Christ’s progressive victory during his reign (1 Cor. 15:25; Rev. 20). The last Roman Emperor fell in 476 AD.10
The Beasts now wait for the Dragon to join them at the end of the Messianic Age. Their torment will last forever (Rev. 20:10).
Jesus: the Man-Child, Lamb, and Son of Man
Three of Revelation’s mystic figures represent our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Man-Child (Rev. 12:5), the Lamb on Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1), and the Son of Man upon a cloud (Rev. 14:14).
John has already seen the future of the Man-Child. He ascended to God and to his throne, despite the Dragon’s attempt to destroy him. There he reigns over the nations during the Messianic Age (Rev. 12:5).
In a previous vision, the Lamb stood on Mount Zion with the redeemed remnant from Israel. They sang the Song of Moses as a witness as God judged apostate Israel (Rev. 14:1–5; 15:3; cp. Deut. 31:19–21, 29; 32:1–43).
In our current vision, the Lamb overcomes the first seven Roman Emperors (Rev. 17:10–14). He judges the whore, his former wife, for her adulteries. After her execution, he marries his Messianic-Age wife (Rev. 19:7–10). John will have more to say about this marriage in the next vision.
Conclusion
John set the timeframe for his visions at the beginning and end of Revelation. They would come to pass in his immediate future.11 Nothing in this sixth vision violates these time parameters.
Still, we must recognize this vision extends beyond John’s generation. He glimpses the future beyond God’s judgment of Israel. The “thousand years”12 in Rev. 20 takes in the Messianic Age.
This extension shows the church’s future. God would use the two Beasts to destroy the Whore (apostate Israel) who persecuted the church.
The Beasts were complicit in the Whore’s opposition to Christ and his people. So, God judges them after he executes the Whore (Rev. 19:19–20). This occurs during the Messianic Age.
At the beginning of this new age, Christ binds Satan (the Dragon). As he reigns, Christ defeats all his enemies. The nations come to serve him (Rev. 12:5; 15:4; et al.). He overcomes the final enemy, death, in the resurrection (Rev. 20:2; 1 Cor. 15:22–26).
Our Lord then casts Satan and his followers into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). At the “great white throne” judgment, he judges the dead (Rev. 20:11–15). The eternal state follows in which the saints dwell in glory with their Lord.
In this way, the vision shows the outcome of all seven of the mystic figures in the fourth vision (Rev. 12-14). Christ’s victory is complete and absolute.
All these outcomes fit well in inmillennialism.
If the Lord wills, we plan to examine other aspects of the Vision of the Great Whore in the next few posts.
Footnotes
- The picture in this post is by Reebah Jefferson. It is here and the license under which it is used is here. The words are not in the original.
- See Mapping God’s Highway In Revelation.
- See The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 1: Identities.
- John names these in Rev. 12:1, 3, 5; 13:1, 11, 18; 14:1, 14.
- We discussed this at length in our posts The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 1: Identities and The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 2: Exodus.
- See The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 2: Exodus.
- Which we also call the Messianic Age or parousia (presence )of Christ.
- Gill says the false prophet is “the second beast in [Rev. 13:11, 12, 13, 14] as appears by the characters by which he is here described.” —John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 9:843.
- Again, see The Seven Mystic Figures — Part 1: Identities.
- “Ancient Rome: The Fall of the Roman Empire.” accessed Jan. 20, 2017, http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6f.asp.
- See The Bookends Of Revelation.
- This is a figurative number that represents the Messianic Age. We plan to explain this in future posts.
