CHURCH OF ROME

I notice that more and more the Bible teachers are shying away from the idea that Revelation 17 is speaking of the Catholic Church. For this we can thank political correctness. But the fact remains that this passage does indeed speak of the Church of Rome. There is simply no other entity that would even come close.
We find the beast (in Revelation 17: 1-3) spoken of the first time in Daniel 7: 7and 8 and versus 19-25. Note that in Daniel 7:2 these beasts come out of the sea. It also specifically mentions the great sea which is what the Mediterranean Sea was known as in the past. All of the ancient empires in the Bible were in the area if the great sea. We find the same words in Revelation 13: 1. The sea, when spoken of symbolically, speaks of the nations or the political power. In Revelation 13:11 we see the religious leader rises out of the earth. Since the days of Cain and his unacceptable sacrifice the earth is always pictured as bringing forth false doctrine.
Throughout history the political powers have always ruled over the religious. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon threatened to kill all the wise men, astrologers, etc. In II Kings 20 Jehu killed the prophets of Baal and brought the worship of Baal to an end. And there are many other examples.
In Revelation 17 for the first time in history the woman or the religious power sits astride the beast. For over 1000 years, beginning in the sixth century AD the Catholic Church ruled over the kings of Europe. No other religion has ever been able to do so.
In verse 6 of Revelation 17 we see that the woman is “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” The Catholic Church, throughout the middle ages, (and after if they could) killed between fifty and sixty- five million Christians.
In verse eight we read of the beast that was, is not and yet is. When Rome was conquered just after 400 AD, the power that the Caesars had was taken over by the Pope of Rome. They had different ways of exercising power. One of these was through the sacraments. They claimed that only the church could administer the sacraments and then kept the Bible away from the people so they would not learn the truth and be free of the church’s power. They taught the people that if you did not take the sacraments or if the church withheld them you would spend eternity in hell. So if the ruler rebelled against the Church of Rome, they simply told his subjects to turn against him or they would be refused the sacraments and come under the church’s curse.
In verse nine we see that this city is built on seven on “seven mountains”. The city of Rome is built on seven hills.
In verse ten something more is added in reference to the seven where we read that there are “seven kings: five are fallen, one is now (at the time John was writing this) and one is coming.” There are seven world empires which directly affected Israel: five were past which were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. “One is now” (when the Book was
written which evolved into the church of Rome) or Rome and the one that is coming is the revived Roman Empire, headed by the anti-christ.
Verse 11 speaks of the beast itself which is the eighth “and is not.” The anti-god philosophy is always in the present world system and every so often it rears it’s head as in the case of the seven world empires.
The last verse again establishes this chapter as referring this to Rome “which rules over the kings of the earth.”
Nothing else comes close to fulfilling this prophecy.