The fact that the woman sits on a scarlet-colored beast reveals the fact that at that time, the Beast (Antichrist) will support the woman in her ecclesiastical pretensions. In other words, the woman, as a state church, will control and rule the state and her long dream of worldwide ecclesiastical supremacy will at last be realized, for John tells us, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” This means that after the true church, the bride of Christ, is taken out of the world, the false church, the bride of Antichrist, will remain. The professing body of Christians left behind, having the form of godliness without the power, will largely enter the papal church and it will become the universal church. But this will continue for only a short time; the ten kings of the federated kingdom, finding their power curtailed by the papal system, will “hate the whore,” strip her of her gorgeous apparel, confiscate her wealth, and burn her churches and cathedrals with fire (Revelation 17:16).