Thanks for your reply Kat.. (Your reply in bold)
My way of looking at the symbolism in prophecies is that they are not specific about a person, place or thing, but rather a way of speaking in general terms.
Ray gave us what some of these symbols, the woman - church, there in Revelation 17 is riding a beast.
Rev 17:3 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was controlled by blasphemy. It had seven heads and ten horns. (ISV)
Rev 17:18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."
Notice that the beast has seven (7) heads... Ray spoke of this number 7 in relation to the 7 churches meaning completeness in his LoF article #7 'Church Heresy Came Long Before Bible Errors.'
Rev 17:9 This calls for a mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is sitting. They are also seven kings.
So we have 7 heads, that are 7 kings, that are 7 mountains on this beast that the woman rides... it seems to me this is speaking of all (the complete) carnal, corrupt world's governments of this age. It's the church and state, all the kings/rulers/presidents/dictators/czars/Popes/Archbishop or whatever, these are the mountains, the high ruling places/governments of the world in this age - this is the completely picture of what it's all about. All the religious rulers and all the national governments are in bed together, so to speak, but they are not friends, they more like hate each other, because they are both highly ambitious and sinister and they manipulate (I can't think of enough derogatory terms to use), but they wreak havoc with impunity.
This is the world we live in, both the governing body - those that make policy and laws that direct society and the religious leaders - those that direct to moral code of the citizens, are corrupt through and through and are working together to gain all the carnal worldly pleasures they can get, at the expense of the general populace. That's just the way of this age and nothing will/can change it until Christ returns.
(My question)
Rev 17:8 says... "The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come."
So if the beast and all it's heads are the religious/political/carnal corrupt constructs that govern the world we live in, then what does it mean that it "once was, now is not, and yet will come"?