cont...
"a woman, when symbolized by a whore or harlot, is an apostate people or church. But, in addition to this, the word has yet another meaning when used symbolically. Just as a whore can symbolize an impure church, a virgin can be used to symbolize a pure church. Take, for instance, the following two Scriptures: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman" and "For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (Jeremiah 6:2; 2.Cor.11:2). So could the "woman" of Revelation 12 possibly be "the true church" and not the Virgin Mary? Furthermore, her garment is the "sun," and she stands on the "moon," and wears a crown of "twelve stars." What is the significance of "the woman" being "clothed with the sun"? During His ministry, when Jesus was in the temple at Jerusalem and the rising sun came into full view over the Mount of Olives, He pointed to it and announced His mission as the Messiah, saying, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12). Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, had described the Coming One as "the Sun of righteousness." (Mal. 4:2). Now in vision on the Isle of Patmos during the last decade of the First Century A.D., John sees "a woman clothed with the sun" - that is, the glorious light of the "Sun of righteousness!" It is clear that this momentous event signifies the birth of the God-man, the Messiah! The momentous news of the ages is that the long-promised Deliverer has arrived! The pure woman - so long recognized by the now aging John to have represented God's true followers in the Church in both the Old and New Testament times - is at last now bathed in the bright splendor of His immediate Presence!
Moreover, she stands with "the moon under her feet." The Mosaic (Old Testament) dispensation had just ended and had been succeeded by the gospel dispensation. As the moon's lesser light is borrowed from the sun, so the sacrificial system, the Levitical priesthood, feasts, etc. had shone with a more subdued glory borrowed as types and shadows from what now had become Antitype and Substance in the full spiritual glory of the gospel era. The "woman" is wearing "a crown of twelve stars," representing the twelve apostles. "By the figure of prolepsis [anticipation of the whole completed picture], the church is represented as fully organized with its twelve apostles before the man-child, Christ, appeared upon the scene. This is easily accounted for by the fact that it was to be thus constituted immediately after Christ should commence His ministry; and He is more especially connected with this church than with that of the former dispensation." (Daniel and the Revelation, p. 545). To John, looking back from the end of the First Century upon a completed Apostolic Era to one described in the vision of Revelation 12 as just entering its first stages at the beginning of the Christian Era, this prolepsis would seem both logical and appropriate. Even so, with us today. After all, the events of Christ's birth and short life here on earth as portrayed by John's vision have proved so significant in our world's developing history that today the entire world designates its counting of years by the initials B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, 1 A.D.--"in the year of the Lord," the supposed year of his birth, though actually over four years after His entrance into the world). From all the foregoing information, it then follows that "her child," Jesus Christ, was born to the true church. He was given to God's faithful as a whole, including Mary, who was herself a small, but important part, of the "woman" described in John's vision.
And who was it that inflicted suffering and temptation on the wonderful child Jesus? "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon...stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered." (Rev. 12:3, 4). In verse 9, we learn that the dragon is "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" and once sought to destroy the Christ-child. "We're dealing with symbols! In the vision, the dragon is seen in heaven--yet Jesus, as we all know, was born on earth. So whom on earth does the dragon symbol stand for? Everyone who has heard the Christmas story knows it was King Herod who sent soldiers to Bethlehem to destroy all the baby boys there, hoping to kill Jesus among them. Herod's soldiers missed the infant Jesus, because in a dream God had warned His parents to escape. King Herod was a puppet of the Romans. Everyone knows too about Pontius Pilate - another Roman administrator - who nailed Jesus to the cross. It was Rome that tried to destroy Jesus. The great red dragon is primarily Satan--and, secondarily, his agent Rome, acting on Satan's behalf.
Triumphantly, after Satan and Rome killed our Saviour, Jesus rose from the dead and 'was caught up unto God, and to His throne' (verse 5), where He 'always lives' as our High Priest 'to make intercession' for us (Hebrews 7:25, 26).
"Frustrated in his attempt to kill the Son, the great red dragon now turned his hatred against the son's mother. But the mother escaped into the 'Wilderness' to a 'place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.' (Rev. 12:6)." (God Cares, Vol. 2, pp. 320, 321). As you are about to see, the experience of "the woman" [from the time of Christ's ascension to His Father's throne until the "remnant of her seed" appear and finish God's work on the earth in the closing moments of human probation at the end of the world] is much more suited to the history of the church...
As a matter of fact, the 1260-day prophecy is mentioned seven times in Daniel and Revelation. There are not, as some have supposed, several 1260-day periods; there is only one. It is mentioned seven times, because it is so very important: in Danjel 7:25 and 12:7 and also in Revelation 12:14, as a time, times (i.e., two times - the lowest plural), and a half time; in Revelation 11:2 and 13:5, as forty-two months; and in Revelation 11:3 and Revelation 12:6, as one thousand two hundred and threescore (sixty) days. In Bible prophecy, there are 360 days to a year, and if you multiply 360 times three and one-half, you will come up with the number-- 1260. Also, when time is used in Bible prophecy, a day stands for a year. (See Ezekiel 4:6; Num.14:34). Therefore, the Bible has given us the important key to figuring out the 1260-day prophecy, and that is this--that the 1260 days are actually 1260 literal years.
As Satan used the Roman Empire - particularly King Herod, Pontius Pilate and Nero, as well as many others - to put Christ to death and kill many of God's people, he, like a chameleon, changed his disguise once again after Western Rome's fall, but this time, he kept the same Roman roots. The "wilderness" (Rev. 12:6), symbolizing this 1260-year period, is also referred to as the "great tribulation" (Matt 24:21) - a time when millions of God's true people were martyred for refusing to follow the dictates of the Roman Church. The Bible accurately prophesied that the papal power, as symbolized by the "little horn" in Daniel 7:8, 20, 21 and the "leopard-bodied beast" in Revelation 13:2, would "make war with the saints." Only one "religious" organization has been responsible for more persecutions and deaths of faithful Bible-believing Christians than any other sect in history - The Holy Roman Catholic Church!
"Step by step, the Roman Empire (the dragon) did indeed give its power, throne, and great authority [Revelation 13:2] to the Catholic Church...A climax came in 538, when the armies of the Empire [the unfallen Eastern division] drove the Arian Ostrogoths out of Rome. By 538, therefore, the 1260 years could begin." (God Cares, Vol.2, p.328). "In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast 'his power, and his seat, and great authority.' Revelation 13:2. And now began the 1260 years of papal oppression foretold in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5-7. Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dungeons or to suffer death by the rack, the fagot, or the headsman's ax. Now were fulfilled the words of Jesus: 'Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake.' Luke 21:16, 17. Persecution opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before, and the world became a vast battlefield. For hundreds of years the church of Christ found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. Thus says the prophet: 'The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days.' Revelation 12:6.
"The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages...."
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