I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 17-19.

Every time I read this I find it confusing.  We have the woman who is a prostitute and rules over many waters.  And we have a scarlet beast that has seven heads and ten horns.  The seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills where the woman rules.  Yet, later in the passage we learn that the beast hates the woman and will bring about her downfall.  However, as I read the passage today I saw how today’s politics would fit into this scenario (although there are elements which I cannot match up).  I am going to loosely apply that because I think it helps us understand how we should relate to the world.

As I see the current world, the United States fills the role of “Babylon”, the prostitute, while the role of the Scarlet Beast is filled by the political elites of this world.  The political elites hate the U.S. and would destroy it if they could.  The important thing to remember about this vision, and this interpretation of it, is that both the Prostitute and the Beast oppose God.  The Prostitute has committed adultery with the kings of the world and the people of the world have become drunk on her immorality.  On the other hand, we see that the people whose names have not been written in the Book of Life will be amazed by the Beast.  A group which opposes one evil may support and promote another evil which is just as evil as that first evil.  We must not make the mistake of forgetting that fact and turn a blind eye to the evil that some do, even when they join us in opposing a different evil.