Revelation is arguably the most important book of the Bible for modern believers. It is the only book of the Bible to begin with the promise of a blessing on anyone who reads it aloud (do it!) and ends with a curse on anyone who alters or removes the words of the prophecy (don’t do that!)
Revelation chapter 12 contains a story told entirely through symbolism. Every noun in the following story is symbolic of something else. Let’s unlock this prophecy, shall we?
Verses 1-5:
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”
Translation: Picture this: The nation of Israel is a woman, clothed with God’s glory, with the enemy under her feet and wearing a crown representing the 12 tribes of Israel on her head.
“She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.”
Translation: The nation is Israel is about to come to the birth of Jesus.
“Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.”
Translation: Now picture this: Satan is a red dragon, with many nations, rulers, and peoples on his team.
“Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”
Translation: Satan took 1/3 of God’s angels with him when he rebelled against God. Those fallen angels are now demons, tormenting the earth.
“The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.”
Translation: Satan tried to kill Jesus as soon as he was born.
“She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”
Translation: The nation of Israel gave birth to Jesus, who will rule all the nations of the world.
“And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.”
Translation: Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
So far we have the story of the fall of Satan juxtaposed onto the story of the nation of Israel up to the time of Jesus.
Verses 6-9:
“The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”
Translation: God’s people had to flee from persecution into remote places in the world, where God would take care of them for 1260 years.
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.”
Translation: Then there was a war in the spiritual dimension, between God’ angels and Satan.
“But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
Translation: The devil lost the fight and his access to heaven. Then he was thrown out of heaven to the earth, with all of his demons.
Now it gets interesting.
God’s people, both Christian and Hebrew, would have to flee from persecution. They would end up in every part of the world, outside of the Promised Land, and then God would prepare a safe place for them for a period of 1260 years.
Then Satan went to war with God’s angels. He lost, of course, and got cast out of heaven onto the earth. Yikes for earth.
Verse 12:
“Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Translation: It is going to get really bad on earth for a while, because the devil is now a permanent resident.
When we think of a really rough chapter of human history, the Dark Ages comes to mind.
How can we pinpoint the date the devil fell to earth?
There is one more prophetic description of this fall of Satan that is helpful, in Ezekiel 28:
So I threw you [satan] to the earth;
Ezekiel 28
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.
God made a fire come out of the devil as he was thrown down? God reduced him to ashes? That sounds like a volcano to me!
[Prophet speculating here – take this with a grain of salt!]
The devil was thrown down to earth in the year 536 AD.
That year, the earth experienced a catastrophic volcanic explosion, suspected to have occurred at Krakatoa in Indonesia, which had the force of something like a million Hiroshima bombs. There are reports of it raining blood. So much soot and ash was rocketed into the atmosphere that residents of the time describe a period of 18 months where the sun did not shine. The explosion from the eruption was heard as far away as northern China.
This caused global climate change.
Lack of sunlight caused the earth to cool considerably. There was no summer. Crops failed. Famine reigned. The change in climate directly caused the bubonic plague to get a foothold in Europe for the first time, and it went full pandemic. (Colder weather changes the digestive tract of the flea in such a way that when it is carrying plague, it gets plugged up and therefore feels like it is starving. This causes the flea to feed voraciously and desperately on any host it can find, spreading disease with every bite.)
The change in climate and subsequent famines also caused hordes of “barbarian” tribes to migrate toward Europe from Asia.
This is when the Dark Ages begins.
And it is called the Dark Ages for a reason. During this time, there was a huge amount of human suffering. Between plague, barbarian attacks, and famines, there was enough trouble. But something even worse was brewing.
In the year 538, Emperor Justinian wrote a letter giving the pope in Rome full control of the Catholic Church, and great authority to do as he pleased. The Emperor then got rid of the pope of the time and appointed one of his own, Pope Vigilius. Now the Pope had all the religious power AND all the civil power of a King. This kicked off a period of history where the Catholic Church dominated all of Europe.
It was not a tolerant or Christlike organization either. It was power hungry, greedy for money, controlling, and persecuting all who did not agree with all of its doctrines. The Catholic Church persecuted people for the crime of owning a Bible. Priests, monks, bishops, and the Pope were the only ones allowed to own Bibles. The Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in order to appeal to pagans (Sunday is the day the pagan Romans worshiped their sun god.)
The Catholic Church married paganism with Christianity,
and that is where the modern day Christian holidays have their origin. December 25th is not the day Jesus was born, it was the day the pagans celebrated the birthday of Mithras. Pagans celebrated the birth day of their sun god, Mithras, on Dec 25 with 12 days of gift giving. Sound familiar?
Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead, was married up with pagan fertility celebrations that used to be popular around the beginning of spring. That’s why we color eggs… to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead… make sense to you? Me either.
The Catholic Church was and is the first antichrist
It put on the guise of religiosity, while changing the “set times” (the dates of Christian holidays and the Sabbath), convincing devoted followers of Christ to pray to statues [idols], and blaspheming. [Blasphemy according to the Bible means claiming to be God, or claiming to have God’s power, both of which the Catholic Church does.]
For a long time, the Catholic Church was selling, yes *selling* forgiveness. They claimed to have the power to forgive sin (blasphemy!) and sold what is called “absolution”, or the forgiveness of one’s sins. They even sold “indulgences” — a permission slip to sin and be forgiven. Does that sound like Jesus?
Jesus already paid the price for your forgiveness; he did that on the cross.
The Catholic Church even discourages praying to God or Jesus, telling followers not to “bother God” but to pray to saints instead, such as Mary, the mother of Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible does it instruct us to pray to dead humans, and nowhere in the Bible does it say God doesn’t want to hear your everyday prayers. Nowhere.
More faithful Christians and Jews were led astray or killed by Catholicism *for their faith* during the Dark Ages than by any other entity (other than the black plague, perhaps.)
Let’s continue reading Revelation to learn what happens next:
Verse 13-14:
“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.”
Translation: The devil persecuted God’s people on earth.
“The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.”
Translation: God helped his people escape persecution. He prepared a place for his people to be safe for a period of 1260 years.
In these two verses we see the devil’s laser focus on destroying the people of God on earth. We also see God’s constant shepherding of his flock.
Why 1260 years exactly?
This number is repeated in Daniel’s prophecies. We know from the book of Daniel that the antichrist will reign for a period of 1260 years on earth. And who was that antichrist? It was/is the Catholic Church, which received power in 538 from Emperor Justinian and had that power revoked in 1798 by Napoleon — a total of *exactly* 1260 years.
During those years, God’s people will need as much protection as they can get, because the antichrist is in hot pursuit, doing the devil’s work.
Verses 15-17:
“Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.”
Translation: The devil concocted a scheme to destroy God’s people through [misinformation.]
“But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.”
Translation: God saw to it that the devil’s scheme was thwarted.
“Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”
Translation: Then the devil was enraged and resolved to destroy each and every one of God’s loyal servants.
We have a really angry and frustrated devil here, trying to confuse and mess with God’s servants.
Trying desperately to trip them up, to make them sin, to separate them from God’s love. And this is what we must fight, every day of our lives. This is how we prove ourselves worthy of God’s Kingdom.
Don’t give up just because it gets hard sometimes.
This is the battle for your eternal soul. It is worth the fight. Get a firm foundation in the Word [the Bible!] because that is the Sword of the Spirit. That is your weapon to fight back. Study up so you will be ready to fight for your eternal life!
Stay humble all!