Revelation 17:6, 7

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

This is a staggering scene.

John sees the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus. That means this false religious system is not merely corrupt. It is cruel. It does not simply mislead people. It persecutes them. It sheds the blood of those who belong to Christ, and it does so with such delight that John says she is drunk on it.

That is a terrifying thought. False religion is never content just to be wrong. In time, it turns vicious. It hates the truth because the truth exposes it. It hates the saints because living faith reveals dead religion for what it is.

John says that when he saw her, he wondered with great admiration. Not admiration in the sense that he approved of her, but in the sense that he was astonished, stunned, shaken by what stood before him. He is looking at beauty mixed with blood, religion mixed with murder, outward splendor mixed with inward corruption. It is enough to leave a man reeling.

And that is when the angel speaks.

I like that. John is stunned, and heaven says, Let me explain what you are looking at. The angel does not leave him in confusion. He says, in effect, Do not just stand there marveling. I will tell you the mystery.

That is important, because if all we do is stare at the power of evil, we will end up overwhelmed by it. But when heaven explains what is really going on, the fog begins to lift.

Earlier John saw the woman riding the beast. Here the angel speaks of the beast carrying the woman. That may sound like a small shift, but I think it matters. At first she appears to be in control, seated high, directing the movement. But now it becomes clearer that the beast is carrying her. In other words, Antichrist is using the false religious system for his own purpose.

That is always the way evil works. It uses what is useful until it no longer needs it.

False religion may think it is ruling, but all along it is being carried by a darker power. It may imagine it has influence, authority, and a place of honor, but underneath it all the beast is the one bearing it along. The whole thing is part of a deeper satanic agenda.

That is why the church must never look to worldly power to do spiritual work. Jesus never needed the beast to carry His message. He built His kingdom through truth, grace, sacrifice, and the Cross. The moment religion climbs onto the back of worldly power, it is already in danger of becoming something else entirely.

And there is a warning here for us. Not everything impressive is holy. Not everything influential is of God. Some things look beautiful and powerful on the outside, but they are drunk with blood and carried by the wrong spirit.

So stay near the Lamb, dear friends. The harlot is drunk with the blood of the saints. The Lamb shed His blood for the saints. That alone tells you which kingdom is true.