Throughout the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD, the role of a woman in the houshold was that of today's stay-at-home. She was the housekeeper, who cleaned, washed the clothes, and cooked the meals. The daughters would "learn their trade" by assisting mum with these chores. There was another vital role she played, that in a way encorporated all these roles and more - that of the carer. She created the atmosphere in the home, she looked after anyone who got sick or injured, and brought up the young children, teaching them about life and family. It was a pivotal role, and perhaps the most important of any member of the household and one to whom was shown great respect and honour.
It is in this light that women of that time were seen and it is the role of the carer and all that it entails that is signified in prophecy, and the Book of Revelation in particular, when a woman is referenced. Being a symbol or signature, it does not neccessarily mean the persom being described in signature is a woman - it rarely is, and often isn't even a person for that matter - it is a reference to the role played by whoever or whatever is being referenced.
In the timeline of "Sevens" in the Book of Revelation, the events pertaining to the The Woman Clothed in the Sun and her man child appear to take place in the third era of the Christian Church.
Unlike most of the other visions in the Book of Revelation, one needs a considerable knowledge of Church history to interpret who the Woman Clothed in the Sun and her man child really is because, it is only by the events that occur around about her that their true identity can be established.
In Biblical prophecy, God is always symbolised as the sun, so this carer is a persom who revers God whose very nature could be described as Godly. For those unfamiliar with it, the vision in Revelation 12 depicts a Woman Clothed in the Sun who gives birth to a man child who shall rule the world with a rod of iron. Two possibilities of who this 'woman' might be spring to mind - the nation of Israel (God's people), which is represented as a woman on numerous occasions throughout the Old Testament, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
If the woman clothed in the sun was Mary, the man child she is bearing who shall rule the world with a rod of iron would have to be Jesus. There are plenty of references in the Old Testament to a person ruling with a rod of iron, but big minus in drawing that conclusion that the man child is Jesus is that, in prophecy, iron represents impure character and sin, which is hardly how thr Book would describe the way Jesus would rule. It is universally accepted that in Daniel's discourse about the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, the two legs of iron refer to the Roman Empire, therefore if we were to apply that symbolism to this man child, he should be a Roman ruler.
Like the woman here, Mary and Joseph did flee into Egypt to escape this decree by King Herod, but that is where the similarity ends. Mary did not stay in Egypt for 1,260 prophetic years (1,260 actual years) under Heavenly protection and bring up her offspring in the wilderness as this woman did. Being in a book written in 'signature', any reference to Egypt would be symbolic (in prophecy, Egypt symbolised opression and slavery, recalling the events of Exodus 1) and asd she lived for 1,260 years, this must be 'symbolic' of a woman and not a physical one.
Another minus is that verses one and two of the Book of Revelation state that ti ts about things that are about to happen. As the birth of Jesus had already happened some 80 years before the book was written, John wouldn't have wasted a whole chapter writing in symbolic code about an event that was common knowledge and had already been documented in detail in the four Gospels.
So was the woman Israel? By the time the Book of Revelation was written, Jerusalem had been destroyed, razed to the ground by Imperial Rome and Israel as a nation had ceased to exist, so there was no way, literal or symbolic, that God could take Israel and hide her in Egypt for 1,260 years. You can't hide something that doesn't exist! What did exist, however, was what we today call the 1st century church, the carer of the followers of Jesus, which was giving birth to many new converts, one of whom would have been this man child. The only people who ruled the world with a rod of Iron at the time this was written were Roman Emperors, and the only Roman Emperor to become a christian and come under the care of the church as a youth was Constantine. It was under Constantine that the persecution of Christians (by the dragon of Rev. 12 and 13) was stopped and Christianity was adopted as the offical religion of the Roman Empire.
The period of time the woman would be cared for in the wilderness was 1,260 years. The Beast's reign of lasted 1,260 years, as did the reign of Papal Rome - from 538 to 1798 AD, but that reign had not begun at the time the woman was being harrassed by the dragon (the persceuting monarchs, ie. the christian killing Emperors). That puts the timeframe in which these events take place as between the time of the Church's inception (34 AD) and the beginning of the reign of the Beast Out Of The Sea of Revelation 13 (538 AD) which proceeded it.
Now let's confirm without doubt the identiy of this 'Woman'. In biblical prophecy, the moon symbolises the statutes of Godly law, the keeping of which were governed by the cycles of the moon. Stars are God's messengers and teachers; the head symbolises leadership. Here we have twelve stars (12 teachers of the things of God) around, but not actually being her head (leadership) and we have the perfect symbolic description of the early church (1st and 2nd centuries) under the guidance of the 12 apostles. What the vision seems to be saying is that God is about to place the early church (the Woman) under the two wings (protection) of the eagle (the symbol of iImperial Rome) in wilderness (desolate place) for her protection.
At this juncture, the narrative about the Woman and her child is placed on pause, and our attention is now focused on a war that has taken place in heaven that precipitated the woman having to flee to the wilderness and go into hiding. This is what happened.
"And there was a war in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent, called the devil and Satan which deceives the whole world; he was cast out into the earth."
Now let's equate that to the Woman and her son depicted in the vision - there is a dragon standing before the woman who is ready to be delivered. He is ready to devour her child as soon as it was born, but God has other plans. A battle takes place over the child, and the marauding dragon, the accusers of the church who also deceives the whole world, is rendered powerless to stop this child from fulfilling his destiny.
Fit that into the timeframe of historical events and the spiritual scenario of the war in heaven and the identity of the Woman's man child fits only one person - Constantine. From his youth, Constantine "adopted" Christianity, having found the official Roman paganism repugnant. Dioclesian and Galerius (symbolised as Satan), observing the virtuous disposition of Constantine towards the Christian faith, knew the damage that could be done to the status of the Emperor if this young man found his way into the emperor's chair, and did everything he could to get rid of him. First they sent him to fight the Sarmatians, a cruel and savage people, in hopes he would be destroyed by them; then He was sent to fight with a lion in the theatre under a pretence of exercising and showing his valour; many other attempts were made to remove him for the scene, but none succeeded.
As these events were unfolding, Satan (the accuser) is depicted as arriving on the scene to harrass the early church (the Woman), not in person, but in the guise of a the dragom - string of despotic Roman emperors who are cleverly identified as such by the ten horns and seven crowns (see, The Beast). The ten horns are the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided, they being Africa, France, Britain, Germany, Dacia with Mysia and Thracia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Syria, Palestine with Judea and Egypt. In scripture, the cruel and persecuting Pharaoh kings of Egypt are referred to as dragons. Here, the reference is to the Emperors of the latter half of the Roman Empire. Could the two wings be the two branches of the Catholic church that was soon to emerge - the western Roman Catholic Church and the eastern Byzantine or Orthodox church? At the height of their power, both could be described as a spiritual wilderness.
Examples of the persecution and martyrdom of this dark era in church history include Maximinus destroying Alexander the son of Mammea, who he saw was inclined towards the Christians; Decius had two Philips, father and son, put to death; the flight of the Christians from Jerusalem to Pella, a little before the destruction of the former; the expulsion of the Jews or Christians from Rome by Claudius and again by Nero.
In the middle of it all, her child, who has escaped the dragon waiting to kill him, is "caught up unto God, and (to) his throne" (Rev 12: 5). In other scriptures, the term 'caught up' is used to describe the receipt of a vision from God. Paul was described as being 'caught up' when he had his encounter on the road to Damascus. 2 Corinthians 12: 2 - 4 makes a similar reference. It is reasonable therefore to assume the use of the term here has a similar meaning. On 27th October 312 AD, Constantine was marching at the head of his army, from France into Italy, against Maxentius, on an expedition in which his future destiny was at stake. Overcome by extreme anxiety, he realised that he needed a force superior to arms to win, as his adversary relied heavily on sorcery and magic. He claims to have cried out to God for help, and at about noon, whilst praying for supernatural aid, he and all his army saw a luminous cross in the air, above the sun, inscribed with the words, "BY THIS CONQUER". The sight of it amazed and overpowered Constantine and the soldiers with him. During that night in a dream, a messenger from God appeared to him, to confirm the vision, directing him, at the same time, to make the symbol of the cross his military ensign.
Constantine subsequently vanquished his adversary at Milvian bridge on the following day. No sooner was he made master of Rome, he honoured the cross by putting a spear of that form into the hand of the statue erected in his honour at Rome. By the edict of Milan of February 313 AD, Constantine removed penalties for professing Christianity, under which many Christians had been martyred as recently as a few months earlier, and returned confiscated Church property. The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD fully legalised and legitimised Christianity in the Empire for the first time. Constantine built places for Christian worship, and gave food and clothing to the poor. He encouraged the meeting of bishops in synods and honoured them with his presence. He prohibited, by an edict, the performance of any Pagan rites and ceremonies throughout the city. Towards the close of his life, he fasted, devoutly prayed and on his death bed re-confirmed his intention to spend the remainder of his life as a disciple of Christ by requesting to be baptised. After a short illness, he died on 22nd May 337 AD, age 64, having reigned 33 years.
Under Constantine's influence and encouragement the Gospel of Jesus was spread throughout the whole of the Roman Empire. As an heroic and victorious prince he extended his dominions to all parts of the known world; as far as Britain to the west, and Scythia to the north, Ethiopia to the south, and India to the east. Contemporary historian Eusebius affirms Constantine made his kingdom to be three times larger than that of Alexander the Great, and to all the nations of it he brought Christianity. Not only that, he adopted Christianity as the state religion, which effectively banished Satan from the Roman Empire. No wonder the Christians of the day throughout the Millennium had arrived!
After the death of Constantine, the Roman Empire continued its Christian practices, but peoples from other religions who were forced into adopting christianity brought with them the religious practices and beliefs of their former faiths. Leaders of religions like Mithrai, which was widely practiced throughout the Roman Empire, were made Bishops of the christian church because there was no one else to take up those roles in the Empire's far flung corners where there were few if any christian communities. These bishops attended the synods, the council of the church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, and introduced Mithraian theology and elements of other pagan worship that are still practiced and remain an essential part of Roman Catholicism today.
Upon the disintegration of the Imperial Roman Empire, God is seen to have placed the Church under the covering of two eagle's wings - as already discussed, a reference to the Roman eagle design representing Papal Rome, with its The era of Papal rule lasted exactly 1,260 years, beginning in 538 AD when the last of the Barbarian tribes was removed from Rome and the Bishop of Rome could exercise his full power.
In prophesy, water, which is essential to physical life, is a symbol of teaching of the word of God, which is essential to spiritual life. Drinking pure water is a reference to receiving direction by the teaching of the Word of God which brings Everlasting Life. In this instance, the teaching comes in a flood, but as the Third Trumpet announced, this water is bitter, so it is a flood of false teaching or heresy. The flood eminates from Satan (deciever), not in the guise of a Dragon (persecuting monarch) but as a serpent, the same creature that questioned God's word before Eve in the Garden of Eden and deceived her into partaking of the forbidden fruit. The serpent questions the truth of the Word of God with false doctrine and, like Eve, the church is deceived into partaking of the bitter waters. The flood referred to may well be the flood of false teaching that first entered the Church at Bithynia at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD with what has become known as the Arian heresy. This heresy denied the divinity of Christ.
The Arian persecution which was the first after the fall of paganism is most likely to be the persecution referred to in Revelation 12 : 17. These disagreements divided the Church into two opposing theological factions for over 55 years, from the time before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 until after the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The force of persecution was violent; bishops were exiled, the clergy were severely dealt with. Some were banished, others cast into prison, and others had their goods confiscated; women were dragged by the hair of their heads to the tribunals.
Three thousand soldiers entered a church on an Easter day, and killed many women and children; virgins were stripped naked, and the bodies of those who died of their wounds were denied a burial. In Egypt and Libya ninety bishops were forced away, sixteen were banished and their churches were delivered to the Arians. Lucius of Adrianople was bound in chains, cast into prison, and there perished. Paul of Constantinople was first expelled before being murdered. This persecution went through the churches of Thrace, Dacia, and Pannonia. After that time, there were Christian emperors but in name only, for they exercised all the cruelties of the heathen ones. Valens tolerated all religions but favoured heathenism; his images were honoured with libations and sacrifices, the public festivals of the heathens were kept, and the rites of Bacchus were performed in the streets.
Then came the Macedonian heresy that denied the deity of the Holy Ghost. The Macedonians were a Christian sect of the 4th century AD, named after Bishop Macedonius I of Constantinople. They professed a belief similar to that of Arianism, denying the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and regarding the essence of Jesus Christ as being the same in kind as that of God the Father. They were regarded as a heretical sect and were suppressed by the mainstream Church. The heresy was formally condemned in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople.
Next came the Nestorian heresy. Nestorianism as a heresy originated in the Church in the 5th century AD out of an attempt to rationally explain and understand the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the man Jesus Christ. Nestorianism teaches that the human and divine essences of Christ are separate and that there are two persons, the man Jesus Christ and the divine Logos, which dwelt in the man. This view of Christ was finally resolved by its condemnation at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, and the conflict over this view led to the Nestorian schism, separating the Assyrian Church of the East from the Byzantine Church.
Eutyches, a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople, vehemently opposed the doctrine of the Nestorians, and countered their view with what amounted to a heresy of his own. Eutyches denied that Christ's human nature was either transmuted or absorbed into his divine nature. The council deposed Eutyches from his priestly office and excommunicated him; but in 449 AD, at a council held in Ephesus, not only was Eutyches reinstated in his office and his chief opponents were deposed, but parts of his doctrine received the sanction of the church.
The Pelagian heresy denied the grace of God and set up the power of man's free will. Pelagianism is a belief that original sin did not taint human nature (which, being created from God, was divine), and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to Original Sin. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of us to follow, thus counteracting Adam's bad example.
The doctines and teachings of both Jesus and Paul remained, but were forced to take a back seat. In short, humanity took full control, and thus full responsibility, for its own salvation in addition to full responsibility for every sin. Christianity had united the Roman Empire, but this flood of heresies divided and weakened it during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Outsiders entered it, to waste and destroy it. The Goths, Huns, Vandals, Heruli, Alans, and Lombards who poured into the western empire, overran it and eventually destroyed it.
The end of the Western Roman Empire is traditionally set as 4th September 476 AD, as on that day the Germanic chieftain Odoacer forced the abdication of the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustus and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople. But out of the ashes of the Imperial Roman Empire emerged an equally powerful force, the Holy Roman Church, the first beast of the Book of Revelation. Papal control commenced in 538 AD when the last of the Barbarian tribes was removed from Rome and the Bishop of Rome could exercise his full power. The followers of Jesus were about to come under attack again - but this time, it was from within.
The Beast of the Book of RevelationDesign by W3layouts
