>>I think the story of the signs is allegorical, a retelling of the history of the birth of Jesus(as he has been already caught up), the story of the Church’s struggles with the adversary through the years, the story of the final battles and the purging of Israel, the efforts of an aroused common people(”the earth”) who begin to oppose the efforts of Satan to destroy anything that is Godly(”who swallow up the flood that threatens the woman by opening its mouth”)<<
Don’t go there with the “allegorical” approach and undermine Scripture as is the hobby of the preterits. I just spent the past week listening to a few so called Bible teachers posit that Isaiah 11 was just a bunch of allegorically jazz because Jesus was not going to really rule from Jerusalem.
Pretty soon these successive allegories will make the Scriptures into “edifying fairy tales” meant to uplift the spirit of man. Or as one “allegorical-approach” teacher stated “It’s not so simple as something physical that you could fold up and put in your pocket.” Then went out on to expel some gas and puffery.
John flat out stated that it was a heavenly sign with defined features.
You missed my point....John saw a sign but not necessarily star constellations and planets wizzing around...he saw something that was way out of the ordinary. Then he explains in the rest of Revelations 12 what would come out of the results of that sign. Some are arguing for example that the dragon was the dreaded planet X/Nibiru bringing with it swarms of firey comets. Yet we know that when Satan rebelled,many angels rebelled with him. Some have argued that the dragon with his “sweeping tail was Satan with 1/3 of all angels rebelling with him being thrown down to the Earth. Revelations 12 goes onto explain specifics as to the war in Heaven in which Satan and his angels are locked out of heaven and confined to the Earth.
The Bible has no orderly chart as to what the constellations are supposed to mean in the way people are trying to twist them. There are extra biblical sources, greek, roman, and Babylonian/Sumerian myths which are tainted by paganistic Gods and demigods we are not supposed to give heed to that name the various constellations and what they are supposed to mean. Jupiter spends 1 year out of every 12 in the Constellation of Virgo and 3 months of that year, the “sun completely covers Virgo” as it could not be seen during daylight hours.
You argue that the VIRGO constellation conflagration in September is a sign but you are also allegorizing it. I say John actually saw a woman bathed in sunlight, wearing a crown of 12 stars, giving birth to a man child and then fleeing away from a very wroth dragon. This woman is the restored Israel!! The woman, post-natally was undergoing her ritual purification in a wilderness area (as all Hebrew women would have done(per the law of Moses) after giving birth, even as Mary did after giving birth to the Messiah.) when the dragon spit a flood of water after her. Israel will go through such a purification in the last 3.5 years and 1/3 of her population would be all that is left.
Revelations 12 mixes allegory with fact but I have never suggested that the allegory involved denies a higher reality behind it, I only argue that its meaning would become clearer as prophetic events unfold. 1260 days is 3.5 years and that is the time of the “woman’s” preparation. Some have argued this is the Bride of Christ but this woman has had a child which was caught up(as per KJV 12:55 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was CAUGHT UP(emphasis mine) unto God, and to his throne). Thus I believe this to be speaking of Israel, not of the Bride specifically though it could include her(the earth helped the woman by opening up its mouth to swallow up the flood sent by the Dragon. The Dragon then proceeded to make war against the remnant of her seed “which keep the commandments and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ”).
Context is key...when I examined many of the September 23 preachings I observed lack and loss of context.