The Scarlet Beast
Supporting the woman whose forehead was written, "Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots, and Of the Abomination of the Earth"
(Rev 17:5), was the Scarlet Beast. While the Scarlet Beast shared the same number of heads
(7) and horns (10) as the Beast from the Sea, they are two distinctly different beasts.
The angel interprets the image of the scarlet beast as "the beast that you saw was, and is not,
and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. (Rev 17:8)
There are two reasons why the Scarlet Beast is Satan:
1) The Antichrist, Beast from the Sea, is seized and thrown into the lake of fire when Jesus
Christ returns (Rev 19:20).
2) When the seventh trumpet sounds, there were loud voices in heaven saying, "the kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" (Rev 11:15). Satan was the lord of the world,
is not the lord of the world, and will be bound in the abyss for a thousand years
(Rev 20:1-3). After which he will come up out of the abyss and go to destruction
(Rev 20:7-10).
Beyond this, the picture of the Scarlet Beast is difficult to fully understand. However, there are a few observations that can be
made:
The fourth Gentile kingdom does not appear to be a conventional state government.
The apostle John's kingdom of the world with its eight kings corresponds to Daniel's fourth Gentile empire with
its eight kings and both refer to the same Antichrist!