“And he carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness. And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns.”​—REVELATION 17:3.

1. Why is John’s vision of a seven-headed, ten-horned beast of concern to us?

THE apostle John saw this frightening beast in a divinely inspired vision. But John is not the only one to have seen it. In all likelihood, you, too, have seen it, or at least read about it in the newspapers. Did you recognize it?

2, 3. What series of creatures did John see in his vision?

² Of course, when we today see this beast, it does not have the appearance that John described. What John saw was symbolic of something that would exist on earth “in the Lord’s day.” (Revelation 1:10) Today we see its fulfillment. The repellent shape of the beast that John saw reflects Jehovah’s view of what it represents​—it is repugnant to Him! John had already witnessed in his vision Satan the Devil cast down to the earth “having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Revelation 12:12) He had also seen the political systems of Satan’s world represented as a monstrous beast with seven heads and ten horns ascending out of the “sea” of humanity. (Revelation 13:2; 17:15; Isaiah 57:20; Luke 4:5, 6) This beast had authority over all mankind, and people were forced to submit to the ‘mark of the beast’ in their right hand or upon their forehead, signifying their support for it.​—Revelation 13:7, 16, 17.

³ John had watched as men made an image of this beast. (Revelation 13:14, 15) It is this image that he saw in the above vision described in Revelation chapter 17. This seven-headed, ten-horned “image” will play an important part in future events; so it is vital for us to identify it.

The Rider of the Beast

10, 11. (a) Who was riding the beast in John’s vision? (b) How has this feature of the vision been fulfilled in modern times?

¹⁰ Did you notice something else about the beast? There was a “woman” riding it. She is identified as the worldwide empire of false religion, “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” (Revelation 17:3-5, 15) Have the world’s religions ‘ridden’ both organizations, trying to guide their course? Yes, particularly the religions of Christendom.

¹¹ For example, Dutch correspondent Pierre van Paassen described the “something akin to religious enthusiasm” of the representatives of the Protestant churches of America, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries who attended sessions of the League of Nations. In 1945 the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America declared: “We are determined to work for the continued expansion of the curative and creative functions of the United Nations Organization.” In 1965 Pope Paul VI declared that he saw in the organization “the reflection of the loving and transcendent design of God for the progress of the human family on earth​—a reflection in which We see the message of the Gospel which is heavenly become earthly.” Indeed, religious leaders have made that organization “full of blasphemous names.”​—Revelation 17:3; compare Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14.