Q: In reading Revelation 17 about the Woman and the Beast--is it my imagination or does this sound like the Catholic Church is being recognized here? I guess I'm thinking about de????ions given here "dressed in purple and scarlet" (I believe those are the colors of the Catholic church) also- "held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adultries" (sounds like all the problems the Catholic church has been under fire for)..."drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus". Later it describes "The woman you saw is the GREAT CITY that rules over the kings of the earth." That sure sounds like the Vatican to me! Am I imagining it, or is the Catholic Church being described here?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A: Some of the items mentioned in Revelation 17 certainly do make us think of the Papacy, but John says in the last verse of chapter 17 that the woman mentioned in this chapter is also the great city described in chapter 18. Taking all of chapter 17 and 18 together, we see that John is describing the third of the great enemies whom Satan will send to attack God's church down through the ages until the final judgment. The first beast (chapter 13) is the devil's attack by outward force (13:7). If Satan can't use outward force, his second attack (the second beast) is by false teachers to deceive (13:13-14). The third attack (the woman on the scarlet beast, 17:3) is to try to draw believers away with the attractions of the wealth and pleasure (especially sinful sexual pleasure = the harlot) of the world (18:9,15,19b,23b).
As is often the case in Revelation certain passages make us think of specific times or people in the history of the world, but John is not foretelling specific times or people. Rather, he is describing the general pattern that the history of the world will follow. Sufferings of various kinds will repeat themselves over and over again for believers, but John also pictures the joy and peace of heaven over and over again for believers to encourage them to be faithful to death so that they receive the crown of life.
