Revelation 17:16

And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire.

And the horns ... Ah yes, the horns! For ages, the whore would use these only for goring the saints, but another age is coming, when the horns shall be turned upon the wanton whore herself. The horns had always been on the beast, an essential element of his character; but the whore accommodated to these as long as they could be used in her selfish interests; but this verse prophesies a radical change.

They shall hate the harlot ... Even Apostate Christianity has far too much truth and righteousness in it for the devil ever to love it. The beast hated the harlot even while they were using each other. The godless state can never willingly accept a rival.

And shall make her desolate and naked ... Intermittently, here and there, since the Reformation, evil states have exhibited samplings of that phenomenon which is here prophesied to become general, as, for example, when all of the monasteries and religious institutions of France were plundered, confiscated, and liquidated during the French Revolution. The same thing took place during the current decade in China, and in Russia before that. However, the fulfillment of this will be on a far grander scale than these isolated occurrences.

And shall utterly burn her with fire ... The ten final (understood as a symbolical indefinite number) kingdoms will at the time of fulfillment of this prophecy be finished with all religion, apostate or not, and they shall burn and eat their former paramour.

And they shall eat her flesh ... The ultimate and final destruction of Apostate Christianity is prophesied here, an event that must be assigned to a time yet future. This coming destruction should not be the cause of any rejoicing on the part of the true Christian; because, in all probability, all of them will also perish (except perhaps a few) in the ensuing holocaust. One cannot help pondering the thought that if the harlot herself would repent, clean up her act, purge out the idols, give up the arrogance, and re-enthrone Christ instead of a man, and turn to the Lord, the ultimate disaster might be postponed; but it appears to be a vain thought.

Our interpretation of this happens to coincide with that of W. A. Criswell:

The prophecy is that the kingdoms of the world, some day, are going to get weary of the idolatrous church. They will get tired of being told by a Nuncio or a legate what they shall, or shall not, do. They will hate the whore, make her desolate, rob her of all her riches, make her naked and strip her of her scarlet robes, purple gowns, and of the pearls and precious stones; and they shall appropriate all of her riches."[52]

Thus we see, as Plummer observed, that, "The fulfillment of this chapter lies in all time."[53]

Moffatt actually wrote that what John prophesies here is that, "Rome perishes at the hands of Nero and his ruthless allies, a belief loudly echoed in the Talmud."[54] This, of course, was to take place after Nero rises from the dead! This ridiculous conclusion is exactly what the Nero Redivivus theory means; and what does that say? It says that John here prophesied a lie. Satan has surely blinded the mind of any Christian who could swallow such a theory.

[52] W. A. Criswell, op. cit., III, p. 188.

[53] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 418.

[54] James Moffatt, op. cit., p. 454.