Rev 12:1 A great and wondrous 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.
Rev 12:2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Rev 12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
Rev 12:4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
Rev 12:5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
Rev 12:8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
Rev 12:9 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.
Rev 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
Rev 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Rev 12:12 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."
Rev 12:13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
Rev 12:14 The woman 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.
Rev 12:15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
Rev 12:16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Among those details are the mention of a red dragon (v.3) who is later identified as the devil (v.9). The devil is concerned about the child and wants to kill him immediately after birth. Instead of the devil succeeding, the child is taken up to God and his throne. The devil pursues the woman into the desert after losing his conflict with the archangel Michael:
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman 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 (Rev. 12:13,14).Clearly, the woman is symbolic for she is given eagle wings to fly out into the desert to be protected from the devil. Question: When did Mary, the mother of Jesus, sprout wings and fly out into the desert for her own protection? If the Catholic church literally interprets Rev. 12:1-5 to portray Mary as the woman clothed in the sun in glorious splendor standing on the moon with twelve stars on her head as though she is Queen, then they should also picture her with two eagle wings as she is also described as having! Maybe this is why the Catholic church only refers to the first part of Rev. chapter 12, but not the latter end (verses 13 and 14) which also describes this symbolic woman.
Then he [Joseph] had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" (Gen 37:9,10)The twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel. See also Gen 49:1-28. But what about the rest of the woman's offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus, as mentioned in Rev. 12:17? Who are they? If Israel is the woman clothed with the sun in Rev. 12:1, then her offspring are saints described as those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. This is possible because Christianity has its roots in Judaism, with the Messiah and the apostles all being Jewish and Christians being the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham's offspring:
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:29)I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star. (Rev 22:16)
... The people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. (Rom 9:4-8)
Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. (Ezek 23:2-4)
After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The LORD has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe. All the splendor has departed from the Daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer. In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. (Lam 1:3-7)
Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.Three tenses are mentioned there. What John saw, the past tense, is recorded in Revelation 1:9-18. What is now is Revelation chapters 2 and 3. What will take place later is what comes after chapter 3, which includes Revelation 12.
That futuristic interpretation of Revelation 12 and the woman clothed with the sun is confirmed because it is also around the time of the reigning Antichrist. What is happening in Israel in March 2021 seems to be at least a partial fulfillment of this.
So who is the woman in Revelation 12? Is the woman in Revelation 12 Mary? The woman is Israel.
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.Highlighting heaven from that passage, there is the mention of:
Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, "I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn."The context of that verse is Babylon the great, which gets destroyed in one hour! Hence, Mary is never shown in the Scriptures to be Queen of heaven, as exalted by Catholicism. The only Queen of Heaven mentioned in Scripture was in Jeremiah's day who was an idolatrous stumbling block to souls (Jer. 7:18; 44:17-25)! In conclusion, the Catholic church has misused Revelation chapter 12 to over exalt their fabricated Queen of heaven in various ways, giving Mary scores of titles and names, including wrongly making her the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12.
Finally, please note the woman is clothed with the sun, NOT the "Son." That woman is not clothed with the Son of God -- Jesus -- as Catholics teach it to say the Lord gave his mother all his power, glory, etc. That is impossible in light of Isa. 42:8 and 48:11 which state God doesn't share his glory with another! According to the context of Rev. 12:1, the woman clothed with the sun is NOT Mary.
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