Introduction
Depending on how long you’ve lived, the religious, political, social, and economic aspects of society probably seem chaotic, directionless, and even dangerous. We are going to war, we are not going to war. The economy is great, the economy is terrible.
This church tells the truth, that church is false. We hear claims about what’s real and what’s fake. One side tells us not to believe the other side. Sometimes we find ourselves agreeing with what we heard last.
What Should We Do?
We must find firm ground. Fortunately, the most selfless and loving person who ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of the world, has advice about this very time in which we live!
Jesus closes a discourse warning against false prophets by saying, “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock” (Matt. 7:24-25).
Are we not in a social, political, and religious storm? Are we not being tossed about by every wind of doctrine? Yes, we are, but there is hope. We must stand on the Rock, Jesus, who gave us the truth about our time in His Word, the Bible. No storm, however powerful, can sweep us away from the hands of the Almighty God.
What Does the Book of Revelation Say about Our Day?
The last half of the last book of the Bible is a deeply compressed story of the final events of the great drama of salvation history. John is writing near the end of the first century, perhaps 95 A.D. The great bulk of what he sees in his visions refers to his future, the time after 100 A.D. Rev. 12 leads into the last few hundred years of that time. Rev. 12 is key to understanding the final chapters of the Book of Revelation.
Chapters after Rev. 12 focus on shorter and shorter time frames, narrowing until they reach the single greatest event in human history—the Second Coming of Christ.
How To Understand Revelation 12
Rev. 12 is figurative. John’s vision of a woman emphasizes the sweep of history in representative groups—the people of Israel, the Devil and his angels, and the Church of the last days. Even Jesus is not directly named but instead represented as “a son” or “a male child” who would “rule the nations with an iron scepter” (a Messianic reference to Ps. 2).
The point? The woman is not the literal Mary, the mother of Jesus, because “the woman” existed long before Jesus and long after Jesus!
The symbolic woman is represented in glorious detail, surrounded figuratively by the sun, moon, and twelve stars.
From a biblical perspective, faithful or unfaithful women often signify the people of God in the Old Testament period (Israel) and the New Testament period (the Church). The Bible describes both Israel and the Church as the bride of Christ, or both Israel and the Church as prostitutes! The unfaithful woman goes after other lovers, but God calls her back to Himself.
Revelation 17 calls this unfaithful woman “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the earth” (Rev. 17:5). John writes of the woman: “I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus” (Rev. 17:6).
This woman is wealthy, dressed in royal robes, and full of idolatry and falsehood. This false church persecutes the true church and kills “the saints and witnesses for Jesus.”
The True Church Is the Remnant Church
The symbol of the woman is used to identify the true Church on earth, particularly the last Church, known in most translations as “the rest of her offspring” or “the rest of her children.” The King James Version uses the expression “remnant of her seed,” which emphasizes that this Church represents the final group of God’s people on earth.
After the fall of humanity, God addressed the serpent and Eve. He said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15). The Seed, Jesus, would crush Satan’s head, and Satan would wound Jesus’ heel. In other words, Jesus would destroy Satan, and in the process, Satan would wound Jesus.
This occurred during Christ’s three-and-a-half-year ministry, ending in His crucifixion in 31 A.D. Satan worked through his followers to destroy Jesus, but Jesus rose from the dead, triumphing over Satan! After His resurrection, Jesus worked through the woman (the Church) to preach the gospel and prepare the world for His Second Coming.
As Rev. 12 indicates, the Devil worked ferociously to destroy the woman after Jesus ascended into heaven. The chapter supplies important clues to help us identify the Church after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Because of persecution directed by Satan, the woman was forced to flee “into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days” (Rev. 12:6).
The false church, the great prostitute, was the church in religious and political power for more than a thousand years. Millions of faithful Christians experienced her wrath and were forced to flee to the desolate parts of the earth to escape her cruelty. This religious system, represented by the Roman papacy, held sway from 538 A.D. to 1798.
The records of history support these dates. In 538 A.D. the Roman pontiff was left unopposed in the city of Rome through the efforts of Emperor Justinian I. In 1798, Pius VI was deposed from the papal chair by Napoleon. 1260 years!
The Implications for Today
Rev. 12 provides a key description of the remnant Church, the very last church that will see the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven. The devil has pursued the woman for many centuries through the great prostitute. Untold numbers of faithful Christians have been slaughtered, tortured, or burned alive for failure to comply with the blasphemous claims of the false church.
Despite this, the remnant has survived and been faithful followers of Jesus. Rev. 12:17 identifies the remnant with two important details: “And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (emphasis supplied). An angel tells John, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).
Conclusion
So where is a safe place to stand in our treacherous times? We must honor God’s law and His prophets! In other words, the Bible is the only safe ground. We must pray, study, and obey the Word. We must follow Jesus wherever He leads. We must yield our wills to His will. We must allow Him to change us into His righteous people.
The world, and most Christians today, have rejected both the ten commandments of God and the messages of His prophets. The Word of God is rejected, and the traditions of men prevail. But Babylon has been uncovered! Those in Babylon are vulnerable to the coming deceptions. The Bible calls to all those in Babylon, “Come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:4).
Unless otherwise noted, the Berean Standard Bible is the translation used in the articles on BabylonUncovered.com. The BSB is not copyrighted and may, therefore, be cited without attribution.