Falling into Place

fyi, Rev chapter 12 describes the birth of Christ and the war in heaven.

Rev 12 - or rather Rev 11 ends with John seeing the ark of the covenant. This is a clear indication of a created being bearing God - this is both a vision of Mary, the ark bearing God - Jesus Christ and also ZION birthing christianity.

12:1 "And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery."

This links to Is 7:14 "There the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" This also links to Is 26:17 and Is 66.7

John is referring both to Zion, the daughter of God and Mary who personifies Isaiah's Daughter Zion. God's Chosen people, Israel, gives birth to the Messiah of the world. Salvation comes from the Jews.

The woman wears a crown, like the 24 elders referred to earlier - indicating that they and she have been faithful and received "the crown of life" as alluded in Revelations 2:10

12:3 "And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth;"

The 10 horns is a symbol of political power and the 7 crowns is about complete (7 signifies complete) power held by the chief fallen angel.

Remember that Red signifies Ruddy Edom. Herod was an Edomite (Edom = "red") who sought to destroy the infant Christ

Rev 12:5-6 She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days

1260 days = 42 months = 3.5 years = the duration of the Jewish-Roman war

Rev 12:7-9 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against hte dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth , and his angels were thrown down with him.

Wis 2:24 But by the envy[a] of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.

rev12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuse them day and night before our God."

Just as in rev 11:2, the destruction of the temple is spoken of in the same terms as being "cast out"

Rev 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death

REjoise then, o heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short

This is key - the Devil had 42 months, 3.5 years during the destruction of the 2nd temple to run amok

remember The verses in the book of the Apocalypse says

Apoc 13:11 Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb’s but spoke like a dragon.

12 It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

13 It performed great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of everyone.

14 It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the signs it was allowed to perform in the sight of the first beast, telling them to make an image for the beast who had been wounded by the sword and revived.

15 It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak and [could] have anyone who did not worship it put to death.

16 It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,

17 so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name.

18 [b]Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

This beast with two horns "like a lamb" but which "spoken like a dragon" is Satan's parody of the lamb.

A key note is the difference between where the beasts arise -- the first beast arises out of the sea - the sea indicates gentile nations.

This parody of the Lamb represents corrupt leaders within Jerusalem. This parody is later identified by John as the "false prophet" in Rev 16:13; 19:20; 20:10)

As the "false prophet" this parody sets itself up against God's prophets in the days leading to 69 AD.

The false religious leaders who led the persecution of the Christ-sect of Jews in the days leading up to the destruction of the temple in 69 AD are indicated here

The mark of the beast is again a parody of the SIGN on the believers as we read in the letter to the Philadelphians -- the SIGN or Tau being the Hebrew letter which looks like a cross - so the sign of the cross as the christians did was the sign of God

The mark of the beast is linked to the number of the beast - as "wisdom is needed here... it stands for a person..." -- to reveal the identity of the beast to the Christians while hiding it from outsiders, St john used Gematria, the rabbinic numering system for names. When the Gematrian numbers of Nero's official name in Hebrew are added together (50 + 200 + 6+50 + 100 + 60 + 200) they total 666. The Christians KNew that 666 is the number of Nero

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Remember back to the Mark of the Lamb alluded to in the 6th letter to the churches, to the Philadelphians - God's mark is mentioned specifically in the sixth seal of the initial vision (7:3). In Heaven God's faithful "servants shall worship Him; they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads"..22:4

The mark of the beast is Satan's parody of the sign of the cross. The sign on the forehead talks of loyalty and that on the hand of what we do with the loyalty

We see the same in 14:9 "anyone who worships the beast and its image" is shown as "receiving a mark on his forehead or on his hand"

Nero is the human whose symbol is 666, who demanded worship of himself.

This is the only time in history when the Church was persecuted by both the beast (the Roman empire) and the harlot (Jerusalem authorities)

ST John twice pauses to say "here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints" (13:10, 14:12). The first time, this is following a statement about not being in armed conflict against the beast "if anyone slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain" (13:10)

The second time is not to have the mark of the beast -- to be clear the admonition agians thte mark of the beast is "do not worship the earthly power of the roman empire - THAT is the mark of the beast

Thank you for that

Ezekiel 37 is told that this is a picture of what God will do for the people of Israel at the end of their capturivity in Babylon

God then describes this renewal of Israel in the most interesting language

[9] And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again. [10] And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

[11] And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off. [12] Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel. [13] And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my people: [14] And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God:

Ezekiel is using physical resurrection as an allegory for the spiritual renewal fo God's people.

This is a common in apocalyptic literature in the bible where physical-resurrection language symbolizes spiritual renewal.

Jesus used this way of speaking in John 5:25-29 and Matt 9:1-8

And this message is seen in 70 AD -- by 70 AD the Jesus movement had been disheartened by sadduccee and pharisee AND Roman persecutions. They had been dispersed throughout hte known world.

First they had fled the Sanhedrin in response to persecution, and then they fled from the surrounding Roman armies.

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