9. How is our identification of the beast confirmed?

⁹ Our identification of this beast is confirmed by some further details given by the angel: “The wild beast that you saw was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss, and it is to go off into destruction.” (Revelation 17:8) This has already been fulfilled in part. The second world war effectively killed the League of Nations. In 1942, when Jehovah’s Witnesses came to understand this prophecy clearly, it could be said of the League-beast: “It ‘is not.’”b But in 1945 it ‘ascended out of the abyss’ as the United Nations organization. Will it succeed in its mission to bring peace and security? The prophecy says no. Rather, it is “to go off into destruction.”

15, 16. (a) What is the “great tribulation”? (b) What will it result in? (c) How will Satan be prevented from ruining the peace prospects of mankind?

¹⁵ Jesus said that the destruction of Christendom would be the start of a “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” (Matthew 24:15, 21) As the tribulation continues, God’s Kingdom will execute judgment on all the political and commercial parts of Satan’s organization. (Daniel 2:44) John now sees the King in action: “I saw the heaven opened, and, look! a white horse. And the one seated upon it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and carries on war in righteousness.” Ranged against him are the political nations of the earth along with the ‘image of the beast.’ The result of the war? Once again, destruction for the peace destroyers!​—Revelation 19:11, 19-21.