The Woman Survives
The Bible describes
the 1,260 years the saints suffered
by saying, “The woman [the
invisible church] was given the
two wings of a great eagle, so that
she might fly to the place prepared
for her in the desert, where she
would be taken care of for a time,
times and half a time, out of the
serpent’s reach.” (Revelation
12:14, insertion mine)
Comment:
The language, “the two wings
of a great eagle,” indicates a
miraculous escape, not from
persecution, but from extinction.
Some historians estimate that fifty
million people were martyred for
their faith during the Dark Ages, but
miraculously, the invisible church
did not perish! No doubt, many
Protestants wished for their wings of
a great eagle as they languished in
filthy dungeons. Even thought
Prophecy I (Revelation 12:1-6) and
Prophecy 2 (Revelation 12:7-14:5) are
separate and distinct prophecies, the
tine, times, and half a time in verse
6 is the same time period as
the 1,260 days mentioned in verse 14.
Because the Bible describes the same
time period in two different ways, we
know that a time, times, and half a
time equals 1,260 day/years. This
information also proves that a time,
times, and half a time mentioned in
Daniel 7:25 equals 1,260 years. The
Bible also predicted that the little
horn would persecute the saints for
1,260 day/years (Daniel 7:25) and
history confirms the fulfillment of
these prophecies. In other words, the
1,260 year (A.D. 538-1798) time
period is mentioned three times in
the Bible. All three instances must
be translated using a day for a year
because the Jubilee Calendar is
operation during this time.
Note: For
reasons presented in the segment on
the Two Witnesses, the time, times,
and half a time in Daniel 12:7 and
the 1,260 days granted to the Two
Witnesses in Revelation 11:3 are the same
time period. The 1,335 days given in
Daniel 12:12 represent the total time
allotted to the Great Tribulation.
Because these time periods occur
after the expiration of the Jubilee
Calendar in 1994, these time periods
should be considered a literal time
of 1,335 days and should not be
translated a day for a year.
“Then from his
mouth the serpent spewed water like a
river [a flood, KJV], to
overtake the woman and sweep her away
with the torrent.” (Revelation
12:15)
Comment: This
is a surprising contradiction.
John saw the enormous red dragon
spew water out of his mouth!
This is surprising because ancient
dragons were believed to be
“fire breathing creatures.”
God surprises us with an interesting
point using reverse caricature. A
torrent of water is one of
nature’s most destructive
forces. Weighing a little more than
sixty-two pounds per cubit foot, a
torrent of water traveling at a high
rate of speed is a deadly and utterly
destructive force, but it is not
annihilating. In other words, life
resumes after a flash flood, in fact,
vegetation often prospers after a
flood. The language in this verse
indicates the devil did his best to
destroy God’s people during the
Dark Ages through legislation. The
dragon spoke (an endless torrent of
laws) through church edicts. The
devil tried to destroy the woman with
wave after wave of persecution, but
the blood of martyrs only fueled the
growth of the invisible church.
The devil soon
realized that perpetual persecution
required perpetual darkness. In 1401,
the devil moved upon King Henry IV to
decree that anyone owning or
producing a translation of the Bible
would be burned at the stake. In
1409, Archbishop Thomas Arundel
imposed punitive measures on anyone
who would presume to produce any
written material that departed from
the Latin Vulgate. (In other words,
Bible texts could not be translated
into the common language of the
people.) These and other various
threats did not keep the woman from
the Bible. Prior to Gutenberg’s
invention of the moveable type for
printing presses in 1439, Bibles were
very rare. But Gutenberg’s
invention enabled Bible distribution
to flourish, so the devil prompted
government leaders to outlaw Bible
reading! In 1543, England’s
parliament passed a law forbidding
common women to read the Bible and
the penalty was death!
Using the church as a
puppet, the devil made it impossible
for anyone to disagree with pope or
priest without suffering the harshest
of penalties. Open speech against the
Church and/or its leaders was
considered hate speech or blasphemy,
and heretics were often condemned to
death on the testimony of one
witness. When the church rules over
the state, religious freedom becomes
a myth. The church ruled by fear, not
love. The devil found a way to
torment millions of good-hearted
Catholics through false doctrines.
For example, Catholics were led to
believe that salvation required the
required the receipt of seven
sacraments. Consequently, few
parishioners spoke out about the
excesses and abuses of the clergy
because the cessation of sacraments
meant the loss of eternal life. For
1,260 long years, the devil did
everything possible to make life
miserable for the people of Europe,
whether in the visible or the
invisible church.
“But the earth
helped the woman by opening its mouth
and swallowing the river that the
dragon had spewed out of his
mouth.” (Revelation 12:16)
Comment:
After Noah’s flood, God
divided Earth into continents.
(Genesis 10:25) For thousands of
years, God reserved a large parcel of
Earth that would one day help the
woman. Over time, this parcel of land
became known as the United Sates of
America. Just twenty-two years before
the end of the 1,260 years (1798),
God raised up a new nation (1776) to
serve His purposes. He gave this
nation a form of government that was
unlike anything the world has ever
seen. Today, we call it a
“Democracy.” God did not
raise up the United States of America
for the sole benefit of its citizens;
rather, God established the United
States for a divine purpose. He gave
this nation a form of government that
was unlike anything else the world
has ever seen. Today, we call it a
“Democracy.” God did not
raise up the United States of America
for the sole benefit of its citizens;
rather, God established the United
States for a divine purpose.
God gave Protestants a
place where they could freely
translate and publish the Bibles in
hundreds of languages. He also gave
Protestants vast resources and much
wealth so that they could spread the
gospel of Jesus Christ. From 1798
onward, the United States has
produced more Christian missionaries,
published more Bibles, and carried
the gospel of Jesus Christ farther
than all other nations on Earth
combined. The citizens of this
wealthy nation have given more money
for Christian missions than all the
other nations combined. These
endeavors fulfilled God’s plan
that Earth would help the woman!
Today, approximately nine percent of
the world’s population is
Protestant. This is amazing
considering the Protestants in 1798
amounted to less than 0.1% of the
world’s population. This
phenomenal growth occurred because
immigrants came to the United States
of America seeking religious freedom.
From the Protestant country,
Protestantism spread around the
globe. Of course, millions of
non-Protestants also immigrated to
this country because they wanted to
live in a land blessed with
opportunity and promise. The United
States of America has shared more of
its wealth with other nations than
any other. Earth physically helped
the woman, and the United States
became a powerful influence for the
gospel of Christ in a short period of
time.
Unfortunately, the
United States has turned away from
honoring and serving God. As a
nation, it no longer nor exalts our
Creator with its actions. Christians
are entertained with sinful behavior
that is constantly glamorized on
television and in movies. U.S.
printing presses produce more filth
and garbage than its population can
digest. Its radio stations spew hate
talk and music that glorifies drugs,
sexual immorality, and violence.
Occasionally, citizens might hear a
political leader say “God bless
America,” but how can God bless
the United States when corporately
speaking; its national behavior is an
insult? The United States is in a
state or moral and financial decline.
Many of the nations leaders (both
political and religious) are corrupt.
Love for money and pleasure has
displaced love for God and His Word.
Integrity is disappearing. Honesty
and transparency in business and
government is fading. Sexual
immorality is rampant. Clergy have
become multimillionaires and priests
have sexually abused thousands of
children. The United States has
offended and lost many of its
international friends, it has
squandered much of its wealth on
selfish indulgence, and if the Lord
does not come soon, the country will
fall, just like all of the great
nations in history. The Earth did
help the woman, but that helping hand
is gone and the remnant of the woman
is wondering how much longer will God
tolerate this planet before casting
down the censer.
The Final Assault Will
Soon Begin
“[Unable
to destroy the woman for 1,260 years]
Then the dragon was enraged at the
woman and went off [to prepare] to
make war against the rest [KJV:
the remnant] of her offspring
– those who obey God’s
commandments and hold to the
testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation
12:17, insertions mine)
Comment:
When the papacy received a fatal
wound in 1798, the devil called off
the chase. Even though he had made
the woman miserable for 1,260 years,
he realized he could not destroy her.
Being the devil that he is though, he
did not give up. He went off to
regroup and make plans for a final
assault. Lucifer and his demons know
all about the Great Tribulation. They
understand every verse in the Bible.
They were present when every event
written in the Bible took place and
they personally know each Bible
writer in the Bible and person
mentioned in the Bible! They
understand the prophecies of Daniel
and Revelation better than we do and
the demons know they will be given
one final chance to destroy the
saints. Of course, the demons also
know that they will be destroyed at
the end of sin’s drama. Since
there is nothing they can do about
that, they intend to destroy as many
saints as possible before their doom
arrives. This is the way hatred
works. Lucifer knows that he is going
to die just as Jesus knew that He was
going to die. Their respective
actions and attitudes show the
enormous gulf between hatred and
love, between selfishness and
selflessness.
The devil and his
demons have had over 200 years to
prepare for their final war against
the woman. The stage is set. The
world is consumed with idolatry,
greed, sexual immorality, and
violence. The devil has carefully
studied world conditions. He has
strategically placed his demons and
human agents (demon possessed people)
in highest places. He is delighted
that even though hundreds of millions
of Christians have Bibles, the vast
majority of them are virtually
ignorant of his coming ambush. The
devil keeps this information hidden
from view in various ways. Prejudice
and apathy work very well. When
someone says that Jesus is coming
soon, Christians often respond,
“No one knows the day and hour
of Christ’s return. Why, people
have been saying ‘Wolf,
wolf!’ for 2,000 years. Anyone
speaking about the imminent return of
Jesus is just crying ‘Wolf,
wolf!’” Pastors usually
agree. Many churches discourage or
even prohibit discussion of new ideas
on Bible prophecy because it is seen
as being potentially divisive. Too
many churches are more concerned
about unity than truth. They think it
is far better to be united in error
than to be divided over truth. The
bible has been put into lockdown. It
is not allowed to speak for itself.
Christians are told the Bible is too
complicated to understand on its own
merit and must be left to the
scholars to decipher. How can the
Bible teach Christians truths that
they do not know and do not want to
hear? If we limit what the Bible can
say, how can it say something that is
new and relevant?
Consider the following
text and especially notice the last
half of the sentence: “Then
the dragon was enraged at the woman
[the invisible church] and went
off to make war against the rest
the last of the remnant] of her
offspring – those who obey
God’s commandments and hold to
the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation
12:17, insertions mine) During the
Great Tribulation, the invisible
church will become very visible! The
remnant of the woman will be
identified by two hey features:
- The saints
will obey God’s
Commandments – all
twelve of them! The two
greatest commandments are
these: “Love the Lord
with all your heart, mind and
soul and your neighbor as
yourself.” (Matthew
22:37-40) Expressions of love
for God and man are not
defined by human beings!
Instead, our Creator has
defined what love will do
within the Ten Commandments.
The first four commandments
declare how love for
God will be expressed and the
remaining six commandments
define how love for
our neighbor will be
expressed. When we do the
things required by the law out
of love for God and man, we
fulfill the law! (Romans
13:10)
Currently, most of
God’s people are unaware of
their obligation to obey the Ten
Commandments, especially the fourth
commandment. This will change. When
the 144,00 proclaim, “Worship
Him who created the heavens, the
earth, the sea, and the fountains of
water, and honor His holy Sabbath
day,” people will think
God’s servants are fanatics. But
when Babylon forms and implements
laws mandating the observance of holy
days, the issue will become serious
and the question will be, “Which
day does God declare sacred?”
The 144,00 will boldly address this
question and the importance of
God’s Sabbath will become widely
known. God’s Word clearly states
that His people will obey the Ten
Commandments because they love God
and man. The fourth commandment
declares Saturday, the seventh day of
the week, is God’s holy day. The
commandment will become an
inflammatory issue during the Great
Tribulation because Babylon will defy
and oppose the fourth commandment. In
countries where Catholicism and
Protestantism are a majority, laws
exalting the sacredness of Sunday
will be enforced. In countries where
Islam is the majority, laws exalting
the sacredness of Friday will be
enforced. In Israel, laws exalting
the sacredness of Saturday will be
enforced. The laws of Babylon will
cause the remnant of the woman to
stand out like evergreen trees in a
snow-covered forest.
- The remnant of
the woman will also obey the
testimony of Jesus. The
testimony is the Spirit of
prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)
Notice how this works: Jesus
will speak often during the
Great Tribulation. The Holy
Spirit will speak the words
through His prophets. Thus,
144,000 mouthpieces will
deliver the words of Jesus in
real-time to a listening
world and the honest in heart
will recognize the voice of
Jesus and honor Him by
obeying His commands. “My
sheep listen to my voice; I
know them, and they follow
me. I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish;
no one can snatch them out of
my hand.” (John
10:27,28) Think about this:
People all over the world
will actually hear the words
(the testimony) of Jesus
coming out of the mouths of
His prophets. This rare
phenomenon has occurred a few
times in history and it will
happen again during the Great
Tribulation.
