Revelation chapter 12
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What is the meaning of this prophetic chapter? What or who is the woman ? |
V 1. And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven; a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her
head a crown of 12 stars.
A woman is the symbol used for a church. A pure woman with pure doctrines
[biblical teachings] and an impure woman such as found in Revelation 17, is a
fallen and corrupt church in comparison. Here is a picture of the pure church
shining with the pure light of the Gospel of JESUS compared to the bright rays
of the sun.
Just as the moon has no light of its own, but borrows it from the sun, so the
old testament reflected the light of the Gospel and is pictured as being under
her feet. Just as the old testament church had its 12 Patriarchs, so the new is
crowned with the 12 Apostles. This cannot mean to be Mother Mary as she is not
in heaven, but according to the Bible is resting in the grave and awaiting the
resurrection like anybody else, neither was Mary ever crowned nor fled into the
wilderness for 1260 days [v.6] Note, while the events take place here on earth,
heaven is mentioned because of the sun, moon and stars. The Bible speaks of
three heaven's including the starry heaven.
V 2. And she being with child, travailing in
birth, and pained to be delivered.
Here again, the church is the woman being pregnant and in birth pain
because the Devil was trying to prevent the birth of our Saviour [Savior] as we
will see in verse 4.
V 3. And there appeared another wonder in
heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and
seven crowns upon his heads.
This is the second wonder shown to John. The dragon will be seen in
verse 9 to be Satan working through pagan Rome at first which later became papal
Rome. The Caesars threw the Christians to the lions and the Popes tortured the
Christians on the rack and burned them alive on the stake. The seven heads and
the 10 horns are seen again in Revelation 13 with crowns but in Revelation 17
the crowns are missing, which must mean that after the French Revolution this
persecuting monster had its royalty removed.
V 4. And his tail drew one third of the stars
of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered, for to devour the child as soon as it was born.
From this we understand that Satan the liar drew with tail bearing
one third of all the angels with him in conflict with the GOD of heaven and
confined to planet earth. Satan used King Herod by murdering all infants under
two years of age in that region.
V 5. And she brought forth a man child, who
was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto
God, and His throne.
The woman is a wonderful symbol of producing born again children and
nurturing them. The day will come when our Lord JESUS will rule all nations of
Christians after the Millennium.
V 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she was has a place prepared of GOD, that they should feed her there a
1260 days.
After exactly 3 1/2 years of Gospel preaching, the unrepentant Jews
started to persecute the Christian Church. But this is not what is meant by the
1260 days. This period only fits the inhumane persecution of the Roman Catholic
Church which for 1260 prophetic days of years ruled over the Roman Empire from
538 to 1798 A.D. As we will see from Revelation 17, the Roman Church herself
entered a wilderness period after 1798.
V 7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and
His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.
Michael is also called the head or chief of the angels in other
places. He is not an angel himself. He is Michael our Prince [see Daniel 10:21]
and Isaiah calls him the Prince of Peace [9:6] while the Devil is called the
Prince of evil.
V 8. And prevailed not; neither was their
place found anymore in heaven. V 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world; he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. V 10. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our
Brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. V 11.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. V 12. Therefore
rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe unto the habitants of the
earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come down to you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he has but a short time.
Not only does Satan deceive the whole world because the sinful nature
of man is deceitful above all things [Jer. 17:9] but he is also the accuser of
the Brethren accusing them not with truth but falsehood by calling them heretics
and than burning them at the stake.
V 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast
unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. V 14
And to the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she may fly into the
wilderness, into her place, where she is nurished for a time, and times, and
half a time, from the face of the serpent. V 15. And the serpent cast out of his
mouth water as of a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried
away by the flood. V 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened
her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
V.17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the
remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
The true Christian Church went underground, or wilderness. As
we see in Revelation 17, the impure woman or harlot is also seen in the
wilderness [17:3]. The pure church [woman] is identified by keeping the
commandments of GOD. Not so the impure harlot. It was the Roman Catholic church
that altered them. She removed the second which forbids the false worship of
idols and images and even under the ground, so she could bring into Christianity
idolatry of Mary, the Saints and the Mass, shrines and relics, purgatory, limbo
and hell, etc. and she split up the last into two to make up the numbers again
and altered them so that in the catechisms you find that the numbers are
different to that of the Bible.
She also claimed to have changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday [see
SUNDAY] and so with led people into
sin. The "REMNANT" is understood to mean the leftovers of the original new
testament church. The pure woman pure doctrines were all Sabbath keepers [see
SABBATH] The "Mark of the Beast" in Revelation 13 is all about false worship
mentioned there five times [vv.4,8,12,15]. The "Testimony of JESUS" is the
spirit of prophecy [see Revelation 19:10].
The eagle's wings given her appropriately signifies the haste with which the
true church was obliged to seek her own safety when the man of sin was installed
in power. We find the same expression in Exodus 19:4 where the Lord brought them
out of Egypt on eagle's wings.
The mention of the period during which the woman is nurished in the wilderness
as "a time, times, and half a time" is also used in Daniel 7:25 predicting the
change in times and laws and the persecution of the real Saints of GOD. A time
is a year, two times are two years and a half added makes 3 1/2 years or 1260
days. These days being symbolic signifies 1260 literal years of papal supremacy.
However, the pure woman of Christianity descends into "harlotry" -- The church which is to be the bride of Christ is fornicating with
the arch enemy of Christ, and her daughters with her, (Rev. 17)
How is it that a woman, who symbolically represents the church of God; who symbolically represents God's people, ends up sitting upon the image of the dragon in Rev. 17?
There is only A REMNANT OF HER SEED (her offspring) -- not the woman herself, at the end of Revelation 12 that is still keeping the
commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Where is the woman herself? Why does Rev. 12 say "A REMNANT OF HER SEED" who are still keeping God's commandments?
Here we think -- this isn't talking about the Papal church -- for the woman fled from the papal church during the 1260 years. What
happened to the woman who fled from the papal church into the wilderness -- she who was helped "by the earth" to escape the
persecution?
Why just a remnant OF HER SEED, (offspring) who still keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus?
Because of the 4th of the 10 Commandments, the Sabbath, the Seventh day. The only genuine Lord's day of which JESUS is Lord. it's pretty obvious that the final great controversy will be over God's Law, and in that law only the Sabbath issue, since nobody quibbles about lying, stealing, murdering, and adultery, although they will certainly try to quibble more and more.
So the only one of the ten which is challenged is the Sabbath commandment even though the church of Rome tempered with all of them.