By Louis F. Were
Revelation, chapter 17, contains vivid imagery of world-shaking events that are vital for Bible students to understand in regard to the coming world’s crisis. While many passages in Revelation are clearly understood by most Seventh-day Adventists, others are considered of lesser importance. Often that is because these passages are surrounded by erroneous interpretations. Such is the case with Revelation 17.
The custom of the Revelator is to bring the reader’s attention to a crisis hour and then commence in the next vision or prophecy to enlarge upon that crisis. The 6th and 7th plagues of Revelation 16 bring the forces of Babylon to their final hour when they will receive the full weight of God’s righteous anger. Revelation 17 explains the events leading up to that time of God’s vengeance on behalf of His people, and justifies the severity of God&rsquo's wrath: Babylon has been the persecutor of His people through all the ages, and in the very last days seeks to completely annihilate the family of God from the face of the earth.
Revelation 17 was written to warn God’s people of the coming clamitous period when it will appear that the forces of Babylon will triumph over the Israel of God. It was written so that the remnant church would know the Lord’s assurances that He will be with them in that crisis hour and give them complete victory. Is it any wonder that Satan seeks to obscure the vital promises in this chapter in a cloud of misinterpretation and obfuscation.
This book is written to encourage a confiding trust in the Saviour’s keeping power; to stimulate faith in the certainty of His love for His people, and to foster a calm restfulness in the knowledge that He will never forsake His beloved ones in the hour of trial. He will ultimately prevail and give His children complete victory.
237 pages, paperback.
Contents:
1. Jesus—Almighty God; the Great “I AM”
2. Jesus Claimed to be God
3. Jesus—Jehovah of the Old Testament
4. Jesus Is Jehovah, “The Almighty”
5. Jesus As Jehovah Keeps His Covenant With His People
6. “The Mystery of Godliness” and “The Mystery of Iniquity”
7. The Resurrection of the Beast: An Imitation of the Resurrection of Jesus
8. “Divinity Did Not Die”—The Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection
9. Why God Gave the Prophecy of Revelation 17
10. Revelation 17: An Enlargement of the Picture of the World’s Crisis Presented in Revelation 16
11. Why Does Jesus “The Wonderful Numberer” (Dan. 8:13) Urge Us in Both Revelation 13:18 and Revelation 17:9-11 to Count Numbers in Reference to the Beast?
12. Why the 7th Head of the Beast Is Numbered Eight
13. Does Revelation 17:11 Indicate That the Beast John Saw in Vision Was Exclusively the Eighth at the Time He Saw It?
14. The Two Beasts From the Bottomless Pit
15. What Is Meant by “The Bottomless Pit”?
16. The Burning and Desolating of the Babylonian Whore (Revelation 17:16) Is the Same As the Burning of the Babylonian City Described in Revelation 18
17. The Upsurging Power of Evil Met by the Descending Power From Heaven
18. “The Kings of the Earth…Made Drunk With the Wine of Her Fornication”
19. What Is the Relationship Between the Beast of Revelation 13 and the Woman and the Beast of Revelation 17?
20. “The Ten Kings…Give Their Power and Strength Unto the Beast”
21. Revelation 17 Depicts the Last Conflict in the Long Controversy Between the Forces of Good and Evil
22. Could the United States of America Be Depicted by the 6th or Any Other Head of the Beast?
23. “They Are Seven Kings; Five Are Fallen, and One Is”—The Mystery of the 6th and 7th heads and the “IS NOT” Period
24. “They Are Seven Kings; Five Are Fallen, and One Is” Who Were the Five Who Had Fallen?
25. Does the 6th Head Refer to Rome? Pagan or Papal?
26. In Vision John Was Carried to Our Day When the Beast “Is About to Come Up Out of the Abyss”
27. Why Was John Carried Into the Wilderness to See the Woman Sitting Upon the Beast?
28. “When He—the 7th Head—Cometh, He Must Continue a Short Space”
29. The Application of Revelation 17 to the Events Before and After the Millennium
