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Satan's religious system is pictured as woman dressed in purple and scarlet, sitting upon many waters. She is adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones. She carries a gold cup in her hand, and she rides upon a scarlet colored beast, with seven heads and ten horns. The waters that she sits upon speak of the world's population. Verse 15 identifies the waters as "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues", hence the sea of mankind. Satan's religious system will be a one-world church. The woman is a harlot and pictures spiritual fornication. She is the mother of all false religions. The false religious system is rich with wealth, and drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs. Her cup speaks of her as an abomination to God. She is dressed in the purple of wealth and the scarlet of the dragon, Satan. She rides upon the beast of Revelation 13. The Antichrist carries the religious system to accomplish his own wicked ends. The seven heads are seven mountains and seven kingdoms. The mountains, as we mentioned before, refer to Rome, which is built on seven hills. The fifth kingdom, and the final kingdom, will be the revived Roman Empire, controlled by the Antichrist. It was pictured by God in Daniel 2:41-45, by the ten toes of the image. It is pictured here by the ten crowns. The final Gentile empire will be made up of a ten-nation confederacy. It will be of one mind and will give its military strength to the Antichrist. Verse 18 says that the woman is that great city. Babylon has always represented Satan's Gentile world domination. Mystery Babylon is Satan's false religious system: Ecclesiastical Babylon. It is the one world church. Babylon the great is Satan's political system: Commercial Babylon. It is the one world government. Chapters 17 & 18 end them both.