Babylon is fallen: the whore of Babylon (1)

MYSTERY BABYLON

The seven headed beast of Revelation 17:

"Here is the mind which has wisdom"

The heads are symbolic of seven kingdoms, starting with the beast of Daniel 7;

1st < Babylon
2nd < Medo-Persia
3rd < Greece
4th < Pagan Rome
5th < Papal Rome; the little horn
("that was" & "is not" & "yet is")
6th < "one is"
^
The woman that rides the beast is in captivity at the time of John's vision, AFTER receiving the deadly wound from the (atheist) beast from the bottomless pit [Rev 11:7]. This is the beast of THE TIME AND PLACE of John's vision IN THE WILDERNESS.
(Meaning that John is in the wilderness in his vision and not physical on Patmos, and he sees a beast that would come up from out of this wilderness. Read Job 38:26.)

The 7th < "is not yet come"

At the time of John's vision in the wilderness, this head of the beast was yet to come; this is the beast from out of the earth [Rev 13:11];
(And he shall exercise all of the power of the first beast...) when this beast will speak like a dragon.

This beast must continue a short time, as per the others before him.

I believe by the testimony of Jesus, that we are now living in that "short time".

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
{Revelation 17:8}

:11...even he is the eighth, AND IS OF THE SEVEN, and ascends out of the bottomless pit and goes into perdition.

--There are seven heads at the time of John's vision, five kings/heads/beast are fallen, so this eighth is of the five kingdoms...."that was"...."and is not"...."yet is" AND received a deadly wound; AND his deadly wound was healed.

This wound is the loss of her (the woman/church that rides the beast.) temporal sword (also her captivity), which is the earthly secular world kingdom.

This is the image of the beast (that great city), who like Babylon of antiquity, who thinks to usurp church and state craft.

The number eight is a metaphor for the resurrection. The eighth is resurrected from a former head of the seven; the 5th head that received a deadly wound.
(When he shall go into perdition: this will be the final dispensation of this beast with seven heads, that is a metaphor for satan.)

Jesus;
(The resurrection; Jn 11:25)  Ἰησοῦς/Iēsous = 888

by counting the letter values of the Greek transliteration;
I(10), E(8), S(200), O(70), U(400), S(200).

In antiquity the mountain was not only a metaphor for a kingdom, but it was also symbolic of the head of a (river) dragon that was symbolic of a river that flows out from a mountain, after the spring thaw and overflowing its banks, spreading out in the form of the dragon's tail.

The color is scarlet because it is symbolic of the blood of the saints of the Lord.

A woman in prophecy is always a metaphor for a church, in this case (Jezebel) it is the fallen temple of God.

The false prophet, a lamb (Christ like) with two horns, and/but will speak like a dragon (a wolf in sheep's clothing), will be the beast (from out of the earth ... the USA) that will make an image unto the first beast from out of the sea, who received a deadly wound and his deadly wound was healed.

The two horns are a metaphor for two (equal) kingdoms in one, church and state craft.
Medo-Persia also is expressed as having two horns [Dan 8:3], but one was higher, (Persia) and eventually usurps the other.

This is the image of the first beast from out of the sea (Papal Rome). Once the wall of separation of church and state is lost, then will the second beast from out of the earth become the image of the first beast, who claims the authority of both church and state.

Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen