By the way, this is also the same time frame of Daniel chapter 7 judgment scene...

• Daniel 7:10, "... the judgment was set, and the books were opened."

 ...Revelation 10 and the little book...

• Revelation 10:10, "And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter."

...the preaching of the first angels message...

• Revelation 14:6-7, "...for the hour of his judgment is come:..."

The five kings that have fallen are...

1. Babylon
2. Persia
3. Greece
4. Roman Empire
5. Roman Catholic church (After 1798AD it became beast that "is not.")

Email from one proclaiming we are in error...

Seventh-day Adventist make a grave mistake in counting the horns, heads, etc from Daniel. He was prophesying for the king of Babylon concerning his kingdom and those that would follow. But we forget that he lived about 536 b.c. & there were approximately 3400 years previous, not taken into consideration.

Great Controversy points out that the worst two kings against God and His people, were the Pharaoh of Egypt and the king of the Assyrians. Revelation takes those two into consideration with  the 7 kings portrayed. Verse 10 "And there are seven kings: five are fallen , and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space...."  I will list the five that are fallen and the rest after  a spacing:-

1) Egypt
2) Assyria
3) Babylon       In John's day these 5 were fallen.
4) Medo-Persia
5) Grecia

6) Rome - Pagan and Papal - "AND ONE IS" - John lived in the time of this "one is" - Rome
7) U. S. A.  - Rome in Europe persecuting and USA in the west.
8) The Beast - Rome "Even he is the eighth, and is of [ made up of ] the seven.

Your Questions Answered... (RE: Rev 17)

         What are the “beast,” the “harlot,” the “seven heads,” and the “ten horns?" We observed on page 458 that Revelation 17 contains a perplexing puzzle. It talks about the “beast” that “was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition”; “it is eighth but it belongs to the seven.” “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.” They are also “seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.” Verses 8, 11, 9, 10.

           As for the “ten horns,” they are “ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast; they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them.” “And the ten horns.., and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.” Verses 12-14, 16.

          A person is tempted to sigh, “Impossible!” Yet chapter 17 is as much a part of “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1) as is any other chapter in the book. There’s a blessing to all who read it (Revelation 1:3). We should make an effort to understand.

          Indeed we may find that the solution is simpler than we supposed. 

A survey of interpretations. Many interpretations of this puzzle have been offered over the years. One interpretation of the “seven heads” starts with a list of seven Roman emperors as “heads” of the Roman state: Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Caligula, Nero, and so on. Another cites a string of successive Roman administrative styles: republic, consular, triumvir, decemvir, and more. Still another interpretation offers a succession of seven end-time popes, as heads of the Roman Church.

          Now, in Jeremiah 51:24, 25 and Daniel 2:35, 44, 45, a “mountain” is a symbol of a kingdom or nation. See page 238. With this in mind, one of the simplest of the many interpretations of our puzzle looks at the seven heads as seven persecuting powers viewed from the time when John was writing Revelation.

          In this scheme the five “heads” (or “mountains” or “kings”) which had “fallen” (before John’s day) are listed as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The head that “is” is seen as the Roman Empire, which was ruling in John’s day. The head that "has not yet come” is taken to be the Roman Church, which in many ways resembles a nation and which in John’s day had not yet risen to power. Egypt and especially Assyria were enemies of God’s people in Old Testament times. We are familiar with the other governments. 

            As for the “ten horns” which are “ten kings,” they are perceived in this interpretation to be the nations of Europe, which in John’s day were not yet in place. The “hour” they were to reign is the 1260 days. This interpretation has much to commend it.

          There is another fairly simple interpretation, one which, however, views the puzzle from the end time rather than from John’s day. It sees the five “fallen” heads as Babylon, Persia, Greece, Roman Empire, and Christian Rome. The sixth head (in the end time) “is” Christian Rome in its wounded state, to be followed soon by the seventh head that “has not yet come,” Christian Rome in its revived condition. The “hour” when the ten kings reign with the beast is a brief period at the very end of time when with dictatorial intensity they aid the beast in reviving harsh persecution. For an overview, see charts on these pages.

          Three basic questions. There are three basic questions that we ought to ask when trying to understand our puzzle: (1) From what time frame are we to look at it? (2) Are we to use any persecuting powers that we haven’t already met in our study of Daniel and Revelation? and (3) Is the language to be taken as it stands or in an accommodated sense? Let’s look at the questions one at a time.

          1. The time frame. In Revelation 21:9, an angel invited John to watch the holy city come down from heaven. This invitation certainly carried John’s mind forward to the end of the millennium. Similarly, at the beginning of Revelation 17 (the chapter we’re now studying) an angel gave John an invitation to come and see the “judgment” of the great harlot. This invitation drew his mind forward to the beginning of the end time. See pages 422-425.

          So shouldn’t Revelation 17 be interpreted from the viewpoint of 1798/1844 and later, the era of the judgment and the end time? This is the time frame for the judgment scene in Daniel 7, the opening of the little scroll in Revelation 10, and the preaching of the first angel’s message of Revelation 14:6, 7, “The hour of his judgment has come.” We have often reminded ourselves that the second half of Revelation, in which our puzzle is located, is concerned almost exclusively with the end time.

           2. The empires. It seems, too, that we should be reluctant to add empires (such as Egypt and Assyria) to the ones that are so prominent in Daniel and in the rest of Revelation. The prophecies of Daniel are our key to the interpretation of Revelation. Daniel gives us Babylon, Persia, Greece, Roman Empire, and the Roman Church, but says nothing about Egypt and Assyria.

           The beast of Revelation 17 is the same as the leopard-bodied beast of chapter 13, both of which stand in water and have seven heads and ten horns. There seem to be four animal symbols in chapters 12, 13, and 17—the dragon, the Iamb-horned beast, the leopard-bodied sea beast, and the scarlet-colored sea beast. However, Revelation 16:13 and 20:10 speak of them as only three, the “dragon” (or “devil”), the “false prophet” (which is the lamb-horned animal), and the “beast” (not the “beasts”).

           The dragon and the beast, both having seven heads and ten horns, represent one and the same spirit of church-state persecution. (Church-state persecution is a primary concern of Revelation.) Their seven heads call attention to the same sevenfold sequence of persecuting government. But whereas (a) the dragon calls special attention to non-Christian persecution, and (b) the beast calls attention to the old-fashioned Catholic-style persecution, (c) the lamb horned beast calls attention to end-time Protestantism as it finally lapses into a dragonlike, beastlike spirit of persecution.

           As for the two stages of the “beast” itself, its leopard-bodied stage (chapter 13) calls attention to persecution during the Middle Ages, and its scarlet-colored stage (chapter 17) calls attention first to its weakness at the beginning of the judgment hour and second to its dramatic but brief resurgence as an old-fashioned Catholic-style persecuting power immediately prior to the second coming.

           3. The language. A third guideline for interpreting the heads and horns, the harlot, and the beast is that some of the language in chapter 17 is used in an accommodated sense. We read in verse 8 that the beast “is not”; yet even while we’re listening to the angel tell us this, we’re looking at the beast through John’s eyes. We can see it standing in the water with the great harlot riding on its back!

           In a similar way, the ten kings are said in verse 12 to have “not yet received royal power.” But in verses 1 and 2 they have already as kings gone to bed with the harlot. “I will show you ... the great harlot,” says the angel, “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication.” So they once did have royal power. In chapter 13 we saw them wearing their crowns during the 1260 years. In a little while from now they’re going to get “authority as kings” again (no doubt as totalitarian states) and rule with the beast for an “hour” (verse 12), during which they will “make war on the Lamb” (verse 14) and turn against the harlot (verse 16). See pages 441, 442.

           So the beast “is not” in comparison with what it used to be and in comparison with what it will be; and the same is true for the kings. After a manner of speaking, in a certain sense, in comparison with their tremendous though temporary future reign as oppressive totalitarian states, the kings haven’t yet begun to reign. They’re something like John Paul Jones, skipper of the Bonhomme Richard. As every American schoolchild knows, when John Paul Jones was already well embroiled with the British frigate Serapis he shouted out, “I have not yet begun to fight.” He had indeed begun to fight, but he said he hadn’t, in view of the punches he still intended to land.

  The beast an eighth but of we seven. What about the beast that is “an eighth” while it also “belongs to the seven”? Verse 11

             Let's  not make the problem too hard. The beast isn't an eighth head! It’s a beast, and the seven heads all belong to it!

          When we add up seven numbers we get a total, which is an eighth number. But this eighth number belongs to the seven; it is sum and substance of the others. When the beast’s head received a “mortal wound,” the beast as a whole was critically injured. And when the wound is healed, the beast as a whole is healed. Of course! See Revelation 13:3, 12, 14.

          During the beasts serious illness its lamb-horned rival occupies front center. The beast appears to have been upstaged permanently; but it hasn't been. In fact, the lamb-horned animal soon offers the beast its services in order to help it stage its comeback. The beast recovers and rises to its greatest power yet, as symbolized by its seventh head. See pages 340-349.

          Applying our three rules now, we see that of the “seven heads” the “five” that are “fallen” are entities familiar to us: (1) Babylon, (2) Persia, (3) Greece, (4) Roman Empire, and (5) Christian Rome. By the time of the vision (in the1798/1844 “judgment” era), Christian Rome "is" enduring a critical illness resulting from a “mortal wound.” So we are now living in the time of the sixth head—(6) Wounded Christian Rome—an unprecedented era of separation of church and state. The final head will be (7) Christian Rome Revived—and as it revives, the entire beast (“an eighth”) will realize its climactic self-actualization. The “ten horns,” which once represented the intolerant kingdoms of Europe and which are now more-or-less tolerant democracies, will momentarily become harshly intolerant totalitarian entities.