I was hoping you could give me your understanding of Rev. 17:11.
“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”
Thank you and God bless.
We know the beast as the anti-Christ. When John was writing he had been active in the world, but currently was not. To me this means John was referring to Judas, who had been alive but currently wasn’t. In Rev. 17: 8 John had said that He will return for a little while. He was looking toward the 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation. Judas and the anti-Christ are the only two men in history personally indwelt by Satan, (John 13:27) and I believe that’s why John tied them together.
The anti-Christ will come from among the seven Gentile kingdoms of the world, but isn’t one of their kings. The seven are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Persia and Rome in its two iterations. In John’s time the first 5 had fallen, one was in power, and one was yet to come (Rev. 17:10). The one in power was the 1st Rome, and the one to come is the 2nd Rome.
At the end of his time the anti-Christ will go into utter destruction, which is what the Greek word translated perdition means.