The Seven Mountains and Kingdoms of Revelation 17 and Daniel.

Revelation 17

8 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.

9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

There are only four kingdoms mentioned in Daniel’s prophecies, but the seven mountains of Revelation 17 represent seven kingdoms. The four kingdoms from Daniel are Babylon, Persia Greece and the end times beast kingdom. All four of these are included within those kingdoms from Revelation.

Each of the seven kingdoms in Revelation has a single king over it except for the final kingdom which has two kings. The seven kings are spirit kings that bring these kingdoms into existence and control them from the spirit world. There are differing numbers of human kings that rule in the natural world during the reign of these spiritual kings. Revelation 17:11 informs us that the anti-Christ is the eighth king and is of the seven and he will take over the seventh mountain, or kingdom. The anti-Christ is the only spirit king that will pass over into the natural world to rule in the flesh at the time when he is released from the bottomless pit. We witness the princes/spiritual kings of Persia and Greece contending with the messenger of God that was sent to Daniel in Daniel 10. The angel Michael had to assist the messenger in breaking through to Daniel. Before departing, the angel informed Daniel that the prince of Greece was on his way to conquer Persia.

It's a historical fact that the Greeks overthrew the Persians and took the kingdom. These are just two of the seven kingdoms of Revelation 17, and two of Daniel’s four kingdoms. The entire list of kingdoms in the order of their dominion is as follows: Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and the beast, or anti-Christ kingdom of the end times. These are the seven mountains. The most unifying characteristics of these kingdoms is the close proximity to Israel, control over Israel and the cruel treatment that they brought upon Israel.

As mentioned, Daniel’s four kingdoms are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the beast kingdom. Rome was skipped right over in Daniel’s prophecies, just as the Ottoman Empire and all others who have reined in the region, over the land and over the people of Israel during the age of grace and forgiveness. When the anti-Christ comes on the scene at the end of days, his kingdom will eventually be judged just like the five that preceded Rome. Those five are the five who are fallen, Rome is the “one that is” (at the time that John wrote those words) and the beast kingdom is the one that “is yet to come.” All but Rome were judged by God. Rome simply deteriorated under the weight of its own sin.

The ten horns are ten human kings with their nations that will join together to create an empire, or at the very least an alliance against Israel before the anti-Christ ever comes. Combined, they make up the seventh mountain.

The beast is the anti-Christ. He is being restrained in the bottomless pit right now. He was­presumably in the person of Antiochus­was not at the time of John’s writing because he was removed and restrained from interacting with life by his incarceration in the pit, and he will be again when he is released at the end of time to take over the kingdom that gives it’s power over to him. The anti-Christ is not the seventh king, he is the eighth, putting him in the same class as the spirit kings that bring these kingdoms to pass. However, he also moves in the human realm after being released from the pit. The seventh king is not the one released from the pit, the beast is. The seventh king has the job and the responsibility of establishing the final kingdom so the the anti-Christ is able to move right into his position of power by offering the seven year peace accord that will lead to the destruction of Israel.

Muslims believe that Isa (Jesus) will descend from the mountains at the end of the world after Allah puts him back on the earth. Isa is the one who they are awaiting to lead them against Jews and Christians. Their Isa (Jesus) is our anti-Christ who will make war against “the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” ((Revelation 12:17) (Jews and Christians)) This will take place after the battle of Gog of Magog. The nations involved in that attempted overthrow of Israel include Turkey, Middle East nations including Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Libya and Ethiopia from Africa. God is not going to allow their first attempt at destroying Israel to succeed. God is going to magnify Himself in the eyes of all nations one more time before the final seven years begin by overthrowing all but one sixth of the arrayed armies of the ten nation Gog alliance by supernatural intervention. After the armies of Gog are defeated the nation of Israel will spend 7 years gathering the spoil. It is after that defeat that the anti-Christ (Isa) will descend from the mountains of Israel where all but a sixth of the armies of Gog were defeated. He will arise seemingly out of nowhere as the Muslims believe he will. Daniel 7:20 says “And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows,” thus differentiating him from the ten kings that will rise before him. The Bible says that he is the eighth spirit king, but will rule in the flesh as the leader of the 10 nation empire/alliance. Like Muslims, the majority of the Church believes that he will come out of nowhere also, and be revealed to the world as the anti-Christ by the 7 year peace accord. The seven years of the peace covenant will be the same seven years that Israel is gathering the spoil from the supernatural defeat of Gog. (See Ezekiel 38 and 39.)

The fourth beast, or empire, of Daniel’s prophecies has nothing to do with Rome. Daniel 2,7,8,9,11&12 all talk about the anti-Christ and the final kingdom that will finally conquer and decimate the Jews. Daniel 2 is very broad and general. The other chapters become more focused until we arrive at Chapters 11 and 12 which show the activities of Antiochus as they transition into the latter days activities of the anti-Christ. In these chapters we see the four kingdoms mentioned above with the final one being destroyed by the earthly/millennial kingdom of Christ. In Daniel 2:35, Christ’s kingdom is called a great mountain that filled the whole earth, making it a mountain similar to the 7 mountains of Revelation 17. God calls Babylon a destroying mountain in Jeremiah 51:25. He uses Babylon in judgment against Syria, and eventually judges Babylon because of its mistreatment of the Jews and desecration of the temple utensils. There are seven mountains, and when Jesus returns to the earth, His mountain/kingdom will be the eighth mountain that crushes all others. To varying degrees, these chapters show the Tribulation, the Rapture of the Church, and then, in only the briefest of terms, the Wrath of God is mentioned. Always Tribulation~Rapture~Wrath.

There is always a gap between the third of Daniel’s empires, which is the Greek Empire, and the fourth, which is the one that anti-Christ will rule over. This gap lasts thousands of years. Those thousands of years are the same as the gap between Daniel’s sixty-ninth and seventieth week. The reason for this gap and the connection between the Greek and end times kingdom of the beast is that the same geographical area and the same people will be involved in the latter days. Daniel 8:23 puts it like this. “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” That king of dark understanding is the anti-Christ. God does not allow him out of the pit until the “latter time” of “their” kingdom. Why? Because that's when their transgressions will have reached a fullness. In other words, it will be time for them to be judged. The anti-Christ is not the judgment of God, he only leads the final kingdom into tribulation and the fulness of sin as they follow after the man of sin. Jesus points out in the Gospels that the beast kingdom, along with the fulness of this people's sin, would lead to the destruction of all living beings except for the fact that the Tribulation will be cut short by God.

As we all know, people have a tendency to turn to God during times of hardship. The Tribulation will cause many to call out, not only to God, but to Jesus Christ as Savior, and not only in Israel, but in the very midst of the the beast kingdom and the rest of the world. God is going to use this final time of tribulation, after the gospel has been preached to all the world, to reach out to millions of people all over the world through His Church which will still be here. This is the last call for salvation.

There are no second chances. There is no Rapture, catching away or disappearing of saints until after the Tribulation runs its full course. 3.5 years of false peace and then 3.5 years of Great Tribulation. Only then does the Rapture take place to remove believers from the earth before the Wrath of God begins. God’s wrath lasts for seven full years while the entire body of Christ, from both the Jewish and gentile worlds, enjoy the wedding feast of the Lamb in heaven.

Antiochus lived in the Ancient Greek Empire and ruled over the Syrian portion of the divided kingdom. He desecrated the temple and stopped the daily sacrifice, but only for approximately 1078 days (2 days short of three years using 30 day Bible months). That’s way short of the 2300 days clearly stated in Daniel 8. Antiochus flirts around with fulfilling the prophecies of the anti-Christ but never quite does it, nor does anybody from the Greek or Roman Empires. A few verses in Daniel 11 are the only place that relates directly to Antiochus. 1 John 2:18,22 and 4:3 say that the spirit of antichrist is in the world and that there are many antichrists in the world who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, but there is another anti-Christ, the one and only, if you will (Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.). He has not yet come.