6. Whom does the rider of the “wild beast” picture, and why is the destruction of Christendom embraced in that of the rider?

⁶ In the Revelation picture, the “wild beast” destroys its rider, this symbolic “woman” that, figuratively speaking, has had immoral sexual relations with all the political rulers of the world. What else could the “woman” picture but the world empire of false Babylonish religion? This religious empire includes Christendom, the modern-day counterpart of the ancient apostate, renegade Kingdom of Israel, which had its capital at Samaria. To this day Christendom has refused to obey God’s command to part company with the world empire of false Babylonish religion: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.” (Rev. 18:4, 5) Hence, the destruction that befalls Babylon the Great as a whole will embrace Christendom, just as surely as destruction befell the apostate Kingdom of Israel and its capital city of Samaria.

⁸ Unrecognized by the United Nations “wild beast,” Jehovah will use it as his symbolic “ax” in destroying Babylon the Great, yes, in destroying hypocritical Christendom, the modern-day organization that corresponds with the ten-tribe Kingdom of Israel and its capital Samaria.a