I have heard that interpretation also. The thing of it is when we look to OT apocalypses (Daniel, Ezekial) for clues on how to interpret Revelation we consistently encounter the theme Beast = kingdom, and not a spiritual kingdom but a secualar one. Looking now at Revelation 13 we find two beasts, the sea beast and the land beast, arising consecutively within the lifespan of Ancient Rome. The only two kingdoms that ruled over the Empire during that period were the pagan and (ostensibly) Christian Roman Empires. Note that Gibbons himself noted the sharp contrast between the administration of the Early Empire and the Latter Empire so I think it is fair to treat them as two different kingdoms. And I think in light of some of the negative things Revelation has to say about the earth beast we can conclude that the latter Empire was every bit as pernicious to the true faith as the early empire was.
The apostate OT Church/Israel is often compared to a whore in the OT, so why should the Woman (NT Church) not become a whore if she is unfaithful to Christ?
The Beast from the Sea represents pagan and statist
persecution, embodied in the first century by Nero, but still with us in other forms.
The Beast from the Earth represents antichrists and Antichrist
i.e. false teaching embodied in the first century in Christian Gnosticism and various compromises with pagan Rome, ultimately leading to the Papacy. We still have such antichists with us viz. the Papacy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Liberal Theology, etc, etc.
These two forces of persecution and false teaching are the twin enemies of the Church down through the centuries. The Woman or New Jerusalem is tempted to become unfaithful because of these twin agents of Satan (the Serpent or Dragon). Thus the Woman is tempted to go "a-whoring" from Christ, as she often did in OT times.
But in the end she is cleansed and becomes the New Jerusalem/the Bride of Christ.
So Revelation is the story of the Church from the end of the OT Church with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans
Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (Gal 4:25, ESV)
through the early NT Church (the Woman in the Desert) which because of pressure from persecution (Beast from the Sea) and from false teaching (Beast from the Earth) in various ways apostasises and is unfaithful to Christ and becomes the Whore Babylon in the Desert.
But everything works out in the end.
The thing of it is when we look to OT apocalypses (Daniel, Ezekial) for clues on how to interpret Revelation we consistently encounter the theme Beast = kingdom, and not a spiritual kingdom but a secualar one.
Old Jerusalem >The Woman > Whore/Babylon > Bride/New Jerusalem - these characters are the same Person i.e. the Church, under different guises and at different stages -
is distinguished from the Dragon, the Beast (Beast from the Sea) and the False Prophet (Beast from the Earth), but interacts with these other eschatalogical characters.