Revelation 12 - Verse by Verse Bible Study

By Pastor Steven L Anderson

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January, 2013

Now Revelation chapter beginning in verse number the Bible reads "And there appeared

a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,

and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing

in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and

behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:

and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her

child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations

with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." So here in

chapter , we start out right away in the first five verses with a discussion of the

birth of Christ. And I'm going to show you some places in the Bible that prove that this

is the birth of Christ being discussed. And what's interesting about that is, that when

we get to the end of Revelation chapter - and go back if you would, just a quick review

of the end of chapter . Look at verse . "And the seventh angel sounded; and there

were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our

Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." So there is a finality

there with the sounding of the seventh trumpet. And, it's clear that that is the beginning

of the millennial reign of Christ. Because of the verb there "are become". He says "the

kingdoms of this world ARE BECOME", meaning that they have JUST NOW become the kingdoms

of our Lord and of his Christ. That shows that we are going into the millennium. So,

in chapter , all of a sudden, we're jumping back in time to the birth of Christ. So chapters

through have been in Chronological order. At the end of chapter , we have finality

with the sounding of the seventh trumpet. We're ready for the millennium to begin, the

millennial reign of Christ. Then in chapter , all of a sudden we jump back in time and

we are at the birth of Christ, and basically, what's going to happen now is that from chapter

onward, we are going to see the whole story all over again of everything that we saw in

chapters through . We're going to see the tribulation all over again. We're going

to see the rapture once again, we're going to see the rapture once again, we're going

to see God pour out his wrath once again. And so the book of Revelation is in chronological

order, but you have to split it in half. Chapters - are in chronological order, chapters

through are in chronological order. Now let me prove to you that the seventh trumpet

sounding is the END of God pouring out His wrath, and the beginning of the millennial

reign of Jesus Christ. Because some people don't believe that. They believe that the

vials come after the trumpets; they believe that the trumpet judgements take place, and

then the vials come after. But go to Revelation chapter , and I will show you why that simply

cannot be the case. There are MANY reasons why that cannot be the case, and I am going

to go over those more on my sermon on chapter . But just one thing to throw out there,

is Revelation chapter verse . This is the fifth vial. It says "And the fifth angel

poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and

they gnawed their tongues for pain". So, whose kingdom was full of darkness when the fifth

vial was poured out? It says that the vial was poured out upon the seat of the BEAST,

and his kingdom was full of darkness. The beast's kingdom is full of darkness with the

outpouring of the fifth vial. Well what does it say at the seventh trumpet? "The kingdoms

of this world ARE BECOME the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign

forever and ever." Which proves that the fifth vial comes before the seventh trumpet, because

of the fact that the trumpets and the vials are happening concurrently, or at the same

time. Basically, the way it goes is, the first trumpet sounds, then the first vial is poured

out. Second trumpet, second vial. Third trumpet, third vial. Fourth trumpet, fourth vial. Fifth

trumpet, fifth vial. Sixth trumpet, sixth vial. Seventh trumpet and seventh vial take

place at the same time. And I am going to go over that in great detail in chapter .

But right there is the evidence, or one of the many pieces of evidence that the book

of Revelation breaks down in this way. Now, it's interesting because when we start out

the book or Revelation in chapter , we're in the first century AD, because John is on

the isle of Patmos. And he is speaking to these seven churches that are in the first

century AD. Then, he is transported up to heaven to see the things which shall be hereafter,

and he begins to see future events of the tribulation, of God's wrath being poured out.

Well, chapter starts out really in the same place in the sense that it's the same

century because chapter starts out in the first century AD. Just like chapter did.

Because the birth of Christ is what is discussed. Then we go into the tribulation, God's wrath

etc. But let's break this down, and let me first of all show you conclusively that this

is Jesus Christ being mentioned in Revelation chapter . It says in verse , "And there

appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her

feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars". And we're going to talk about the

identity of the woman in a moment. But look at verse . "And she being with child"- "with

child" means pregnant- "she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to

be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,

having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the

third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood

before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was

born." Now how does that relate to the birth of Christ? The dragon or Satan as he is identified

as later in this chapter is ready to devour this child as soon as this child is born.

Well, do you remember when Jesus Christ was born, and king Herod wanted to kill Jesus

Christ? Now, obviously king Herod was Satan's minion. He was a very evil, very wicked man.

And he wanted to slay the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he tells the wise men when they're

sent to go find the baby Jesus, he says "Go and search diligently for the young child;

and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also."

He had no intention of worshipping Jesus Christ. He wanted to go and KILL Jesus Christ. Well,

the three wise men were warned of God in a dream that they should NOT return to Herod,

and they went back to their own country another way. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked

of the wise men, he sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in

all the coasts thereof, from years old and under. And so this was a VERY wicked man that

just murdered a whole slew of innocent little children two years old and under. But what

was his goal? To kill the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how did Jesus escape that death of all

the children under years old that were slain? Well, an angel of God appeared to Joseph in

a dream, and warned him to arise and take the young child and his mother by night, and

to depart into Egypt, and to remain there until the death of Herod. So Jesus as a little

baby was brought to the land of Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod and

then his whole family returned and they came and dwelt in Nazareth. So that fits in perfectly

with Revelation : about the dragon seeking to devour the child as soon as it's born.

Verse , "And she brought forth a man child which was to rule all nations with a rod of

iron." Obviously this is a reference to Jesus Christ. In Psalm chapter verse , the Bible

says "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost

parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou

shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The context of that chapter is "thou

art my son, this day have I begotten thee", which is quoted about the Lord Jesus Christ

in Acts and elsewhere. And so Psalm is a prophecy about Jesus Christ ruling the nations

and breaking them with the rod of iron. Then in Revelation , verse , when the Bible

talks about Jesus Christ returning on a white horse for the battle of Armageddon, the Bible

reads "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations:

and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness

and wrath of Almighty God." So Jesus Christ is described in both the Old Testament and

in the New Testament as ruling all nations with a rod of iron. So the man-child can be

none other than Jesus Christ, the child who is born to rule all nations with a rod of

iron. And then it says at the end of verse , "and her child was caught up unto God,

and to his throne." This is referring to the ascension of Jesus Christ. Remember in Acts

chapter , he ascended up to heaven and a cloud received him out of their sight? And

the Bible says that at this time he is seated at the right hand of the Father. So he was

caught up unto God and to his throne, and he will come again to judge the quick and

the dead. And so in Revelation we start out the chapter with the birth of Christ.

So, before we get into the rest of the chapter, the question is, "who is the woman?" And there

has been a lot of debate about this, because many have said that the woman is Mary, because

obviously Mary did give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. So I can see where someone would

look at this and say "ok, this could be Mary, it's a woman that's giving birth to Jesus,

that makes sense." Others have said that the woman represents the nation of Israel. Go

back to Genesis chapter number and I will show you why people believe that this is the

nation of Israel being pictured by the woman. And really I have scoured the Bible on this

subject, I have studied every part of the Bible looking for clues on this subject, and

I feel that I have left no stone unturned. This is really the only piece of evidence

that I could really find to state that this could be Israel being referred to. And I'll

tell you right now, I do not believe that the woman is either the virgin Mary OR Israel.

I will tell you what I believe in a moment. But let me just show you all the evidence

so you can decide for yourself. This is what people lean on who believe that the woman

there is Israel. It says in verse number , "And he dreamed yet another dream"- this is

talking about Joseph dreaming a dream- "and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I

have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made

obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked

him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother

and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied

him; but his father observed the saying." So right there, basically Joseph is having

a dream about his father, and who is his father? Jacob, who is later renamed Israel. So, his

father and his mother and his eleven brethren are worshipping him, but they are seen in

the dream as basically the sun, moon and eleven stars. So because of that dream that Joseph

had, people will often look at Revelation chapter , and they see a woman clothed with

the sun, the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of stars and they connect

that with Genesis , and they say this is the nation of Israel being referred to. And

it's not a bad theory, I mean I can see where they're coming from, there is some support

for it, but honestly, I do not believe it for one second. And the more that I study

this, and the more that I've looked at this, the more it becomes clear to me that that

is not the proper interpretation of this passage. Let me explain to you a lot of the reasons

why. First of all, jump down if you would to verse of Revelation chapter . And

what we're going to see in verses through is a little bit of the enmity and a little

bit of this battle that's going on between the serpent and the woman. The serpent desires

to kill the woman. The serpent is persecuting the woman. Look if you would at Revelation

:. "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth"- talking about Satan

being cast out of heaven, also discussed in Daniel , it says "when the dragon saw that

he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child,

and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness

into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the

face of the serpent." So the dragon is setting out to persecute the woman, she flees into

the wilderness to escape, and it says that she is nourished from the face of the serpent.

So notice how the term "dragon" and "serpent" are being used interchangeably. Then it says

in verse , "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman,

that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman,

and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of

his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant

of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

So what we see here is that the serpent is trying to destroy the woman. And the woman

escapes. So because the woman escapes into the wilderness and is out of his reach, he

sends water as a flood out of his mouth after the woman that he might cause her to be carried

away of the flood. But the earth helps the woman; the earth opens her mouth and swallows

up the flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth. And then at the end of the chapter

there in verse , it says "the dragon was wroth with the woman"- angry with the woman,

it says. "And went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of

God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So, go back to Genesis chapter . And I believe

that what you're going to see in Genesis chapter is a much stronger correlation with what

we see in Revelation than Joseph's dream. And I'm going to show you a few reasons why

this is such a stronger correlation, why this makes so much more sense. In Genesis chapter

verse , the Bible reads "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast

done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy

belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life". This is when God

is judging the serpent after the serpent has beguiled Eve and caused her to sin, who then

in turn got Adam to sin. It says in verse , "and I will put enmity between thee and

the woman." So who is He putting enmity between there? Who is the "thee" in that verse? The

serpent, right? Because He says "I will put enmity between THEE and the woman. So He is

saying "I am going to put enmity between the serpent and the woman”, "and between thy

seed and her seed." So he is putting enmity between the seed of the serpent, and the seed

of the woman. And it says in verse there, "it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt

bruise his heel." Now, we know there that in verse the "seed" of the woman that's

being referred to there that is going to bruise the head of Satan is the Lord Jesus Christ,

because Jesus Christ will be born of the woman. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, but, he

was also born of a woman, he had a human mother. And that is what is being prophesied here

in Genesis :, that there will be enmity between Satan and the woman, AND between Satan's

seed and the woman's seed, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says "it shall bruise

thy head"- meaning the seed of the woman, or Jesus Christ shall bruise Satan's head...

"And thou shalt bruise his heel", meaning that Satan will bruise the heel of the Lord

Jesus Christ. Now, there's also a passage in the New Testament that says unto BELIEVERS

that Satan shall be bruised under their feet shortly. So just as Jesus Christ will rule

all nations with a rod of iron- but then it says in Revelation chapter number to the

church at Thyatira, he says that "him that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end,

shall rule all nations with a rod of iron." So the Lord Jesus Christ will rule, but we

will reign with him. The Lord Jesus Christ will bruise the head of the serpent; we will

also bruise the head of the serpent, is what the Bible teaches. So here we see an enmity

between the woman and the serpent. A struggle between the woman and the serpent, and between

the serpent's seed and her seed. And that struggle, I believe, culminates in Revelation

, where we see the serpent persecuting the woman. Now, who are the "seed" of Satan? Well,

that's simple. All throughout the Bible, we have people that are referred to as "sons

of Belial", or in the Bible, in the New Testament, where Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said

"you are of your father the Devil". The Bible talks about those that are "twice dead, without

fruit, plucked up by the root", the Bible talks about making people "twofold more the

child of hell as yourself". The Bible teaches that people who are "sons of the devil", or

for example- the parable of the wheat and the tares, remember the tares are the children

of the wicked one? All throughout the Old Testament, the "sons of Belial"... "Belial"

is related to the word "Baal", "Beelzebub", "Bell", these are all the same person, so

these are the children of the wicked one, or what we would call "reprobates", okay.

And so these reprobates are the children of Satan. There is enmity between them and the

Lord Jesus Christ. There is enmity between Jesus Christ and the devil. There is enmity

between the woman, and the serpent. And what we see in Revelation , the serpent persecuting

the woman, I believe that ties in perfectly with Genesis chapter , where we see the enmity

between the serpent and the woman. You say "well, what does that mean? Who is the woman?"

Well, if we were to put a name on the woman, it would not be the virgin Mary, and here's

why. Because when the devil goes to persecute the woman, it's when he is cast out of heaven.

Well, according to Daniel chapter , verse , Satan being cast out of heaven- if we compare

Daniel : with Revelation - that is what starts the tribulation period, when Satan

is cast out of heaven. Because it says that "Michael will stand up, the great prince which

standeth for the children of thy people" and he says "then shall be a time of trouble such

as was not..." And that's what we see in chapter . Look down if you would at your Bible there

in Revelation chapter verse number . "And there was war in heaven: 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,

that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast

out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." And then it says in verse number

, when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought

forth the manchild. Now, there is also a timeframe given of the time that the woman will be hiding

in the wilderness from the face of the serpent. That time is given in verse as a thousand,

two hundred and threescore days, and that time is given in verse number , as forty

and two months- or a time and times and half a time, which is three and a half years. Therefore,

this cannot be the virgin Mary, because we know that the virgin Mary died a long time

ago. And so she's not going to be around in the tribulation to be persecuted by Satan

for days, or for forty two months. So that tells me that it's not the virgin Mary.

And you say "well okay, Pastor Anderson, why don't you believe it's Israel then?" Well,

first of all, to believe that it's Israel would be to ignore the strong connection between

Genesis and Revelation which has nothing to do with Israel, which has to do with mankind

in general. When we look at Eve, the Bible says that Eve was "the mother of all living".

And if the enmity was between Satan, or the serpent, and the woman, and that woman represented

basically ALL of mankind- because she was "the mother of all living", that is a much

stronger correlation. But not only that, the Bible calls Jesus Christ in the New Testament,

times, "the Son of man". I mean, that is a statement that is used over and OVER and

over again. And in fact, the Bible emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of

man, much more than it does the fact that he was an Israelite, or the fact that he was

a Jew. Yes, Jesus Christ was born a Jew. Go to Galatians chapter if you would. Yes,

Jesus Christ was born a Jew. Yes, Jesus Christ was born of the seed of Israel, of the seed

of Abraham, of the seed of David. But more than any of those things, the Bible emphasises

the fact that he is the Son of man, EIGHTY-NINE times, he is referred to by that name. But,

when it comes to the gender of his actual human parent, it wasn't a man at all, was

it? Because Joseph was not Jesus' father. He was born of a woman, he was born of Mary.

That was his human progenitor, and then God the Father obviously was on the other side

of that equation. Look at Galatians :. The Bible says "But when the fulness of the time

was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them

that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." And so, if you think

of the fact that the book of Matthew emphasises the fact that Jesus Christ was king of the

Jews, and it gives that genealogy in Matthew chapter , of his kingly line, but it does

not go to Mary, it goes to Joseph. So it had nothing to do with his physical nativity,

because it was just Joseph who was his step-father, who was descended from David, Solomon, Rehoboam,

and all the kings of Judah. Then when we get to the book of Mark, it emphasises Jesus Christ

as a servant, so there is no genealogy, he has made himself of no reputation. Then when

we get into the book of Luke, a book that emphasises the HUMANITY of Christ, we have

the genealogy of Mary, and it does not go back to Israel, it does not go back to Abraham.

Yes, it does along the way, but it really goes all the way back to ADAM, showing that

Jesus Christ is the Son of man, the Son of the human race, is what that is referring

to. Now, we've got two theories. I've articulated why I believe that the woman is basically

Eve, representing all of mankind, because she is the woman who is the mother of all

living. I showed you that connection between Genesis and Revelation . But then there

is also another theory that I told you, that said that there are people who believe that

the woman is Israel. Now, we have those two theories in front of us. Let's see which of

those theories lines up with the events of the book of Revelation, the way that they

actually play out. Because whenever we're faced with something that is illustrative,

or a parable, we need to go to something a little more clear to help us clarify what

the Bible is saying. Because in Revelation chapter , let's face it, this is not literal.

I don't think that anyone would disagree with the fact that Revelation is not a literal

passage. Yes, John literally saw this, but these things are symbolic, because of the

fact that the Bible says in verse , "there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman

clothed with the sun". We obviously know that a woman literally could not wear the sun.

That is figurative. The moon under her feet. Obviously this is symbolic. Upon her head

a crown of stars. Again, that is symbolic. And then we see the dragon ready to devour

the child as soon as it is born. Is that literal? No, because we know that that was actually

Herod sending his soldiers to go and kill the child. Not literally a dragon who is going

to physically eat the child. But, it symbolises that. This chapter is not literal at all,

it's very obvious. And here's my rule of thumb when I study the Bible. I always assume things

are literal, unless it's obvious that it's not literal, I take the literal interpretation.

However, this is clearly NOT literal. It's impossible for it to be literal. Therefore,

it's clearly symbolic. And when we see the woman fleeing into the wilderness and the

dragon spewing a flood of water out of his mouth, all of this is symbolic. So whenever

we're faced with a parable, or an allegory, or a something that is symbolic, we need to

study scriptures that are a little more clear in order to help us understand what's going

on in this story in chapter . And I think this is one of the most difficult chapters

in the whole book of Revelation, because of the fact that it's heavily symbolic. Well,

first of all, let's lay down some key things. At the end of verse there, it says "And

the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which

keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So at the end

of the chapter, he is going out to make war with the seed of the woman, which keep the

commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Well, if you jump down to

chapter , verse , it says this... "And it was given unto him to make war with the

saints and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues, and

nations." So what we see in verse of chapter , is that "the beast which I saw was like

unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a

lion: and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority." And we'll get

more into that when we go through the sermon on chapter . But right here we see the antichrist

is GIVEN his authority, and he is put in power by WHO? The dragon. By Satan. So in :,

Satan is saying he is going to go out and make war with the seed of the woman, which

keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. In the next breath,

the antichrist shows up, and what's his goal? To make war with the saints. Obviously not

a coincidence. Obviously the antichrist making war with the saints in Revelation :, is

the fulfilment of what the dragon said he would do in chapter , verse . That's pretty

easy to see, isn't it? Now ask yourself this question. Who is dragon making war with in

Revelation : when he is making war with the saints? Well, it's really obvious as you

study the New Testament that "the saints" are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it doesn't matter whether they be Jew or Gentile, bond or free. For example, in

st Corinthians chapter , if you would turn there quickly, we could go to a tonne of scripture

showing you that anyone who has been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ is a saint, anyone

who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is a saint... But let me just give you one example.

st Corinthians chapter , verse . The Bible reads "Unto the church of God which is at

Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that

in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours". So

the Bible says that those at Corinth here that he is referring to that are saints, he

says they're saints along with EVERYBODY who in EVERY PLACE call upon the Lord Jesus Christ,

showing that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, is saved, and they are a

saint, according to st Corinthians , verse . And so when he says he is making war with

the saints in Revelation :, it means that he is making war with BELIEVERS. And then

in the next breath, in Revelation :, it says "power was given him over all kindreds,

and tongues and nations." So we're not really seeing any indication here that the saints

are anything different than "the saints" always are referring to, which is just believers,

those that are saved, those that have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now,

some people have said, "well, the woman represents Israel, but the woman represents SAVED Israel."

I have heard people say this. "The woman represents BELIEVING Israel." Well, if the woman represents

"believing Israel", then why is it, when the devil FAILS to defeat the woman, or to consume

the woman, why is it that THEN he turns to the seed of the woman which keep the commandments

of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It's obviously two different groups, isn't

it? Because first, he is persecuting the woman. And for days, she is basically protected

from Satan's attack. He sends the flood, the earth helps the woman, swallows up the flood.

So because he is angry at failing to devour the woman, or to kill the woman, he THEN decides

"well if I can't defeat the WOMAN, I'm going to go after her seed instead, which keep the

commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So Revelation chapter ,

first you see him persecuting the woman, and then when he fails to accomplish that, he

goes out to devour her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony

of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if the woman represents those that are saved, or those that keep the

commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, that would not make any sense,

because why is it a separate group, when he goes after the saved? Do you see what I mean

by that? Because in chapter :, he SWITCHES to going after the ones who are saved and

keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Initially he is

just going after the woman in General. Now, when is this taking place? Well, remember,

the chronology starts over in chapter with the birth of Christ. So when we're talking

about the days, and "the time, times and half a times" in Revelation chapter ,

we are not talking about the second half of Daniel's th week, we are talking about the

first half of Daniel's th week. And the reason that that is made obvious is that the

devil seeks to persecute the woman during the time that she is fleeing into the wilderness

for three and a half years, or days, right? When he fails to accomplish that, THEN

he goes to make war with the saints. Then in chapter , we start out the chapter with

the antichrist being placed into total power, receiving the deadly wound, his deadly wound

is healed, and then an image is made unto the beast, and anyone who will not worship

the image is killed. And that image is of course the abomination of desolation. And

so when we get to chapter , we're dealing with the abomination of desolation which initiates

GREAT persecution, or great tribulation of God's people, of the saints. So therefore,

if the persecution of those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ

(who are the saints) takes place AFTER the abomination of desolation- which is the midpoint,

meaning that that intense persecution takes place in the second half of Daniel's th

week- right after the midpoint, then that means that the woman is being persecuted in

the first half. Is everybody following what I'm saying? The first half is that days,

which makes perfect sense, because the first half of Daniel's th week IS days, as

can be demonstrated elsewhere. And so, who is the devil persecuting for the first half

of Daniel's th week? That will tell us who the woman is, right? Because if we can ascertain

from this that the woman is being persecuted in the first half- because when he fails to

accomplish that, THEN he goes after the saved, then he makes war with the saints, then the

abomination of desolation is set up, which causes the intense persecution of God's people

that we read about in Revelation where anyone who will not worship the beast will

be killed. And don't tell me believers are not going to be killed en masse, because there

is going to be a great multitude of those that are beheaded appearing in heaven. And

it's saying "hey, they didn't take the mark of the beast, and consequently they were beheaded

for the cause of Christ, and they live and reign with Christ years". So, if we have

a parable and we're having trouble with the interpretation, and we're saying "okay, the

woman... Is it Israel, or is it Eve representing all of mankind, because Jesus is the Son of

man, and Jesus was born of a woman?" Well, first of all, another piece of evidence on

the side of it being Eve, is that Israel is a man. Israel was not even a woman, Eve was

a woman. Israel was a man. And you say "well, but the whole nation is often referred to

as a woman." Oh really? Where? "The nation of Israel is often referred to as a woman,

often referred to in the female gender..." Where? Now, I know that you might point to

passages in Jeremiah.... And I'm not saying it's there, I'm saying I don't see it. I mean

if it's that often, where is it at? I'm not saying it isn't there, I don't know everything,

but I've not seen it. I've seen a lot of times in Jeremiah and Ezekiel where God referred

to the nation of Judah as a woman, where he used a parable about divorcing the nation

of Judah, and referring to the nation of Israel- meaning only the ten tribes- and Judah as

being "sisters", for a parable and for an illustration. But really, Israel is a man

in the Bible. And Jesus is not often called the "Son of Israel", but he is very often

called "the Son of man", and he was born of a woman, being Mary. But basically if you

really look at it, he came from Eve, because she is the mother of all living, therefore

she is the mother of Jesus Christ as well. But, if we don't know who the woman is, and

we've got two theories, the Mary theory goes out the window pretty fast. But if we've got

two theories, okay, "nation of Israel", or "all of mankind", basically Eve is the woman

representing the human race in general... Let's compare the events that we know about

the first half of Daniel's th week, and let's compare them to those two different

theories. Well, what do we know about the first half of Daniel's th week? Isn't the

first thing that happens, the first four seals? And what is the first seal? The antichrist

goes forth conquering and to conquer. What's the second seal? The Bible says that "another

horse went out which was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace

from the earth, and that they should kill one another, and there was given unto him

a great sword." So the events of the second seal, is that peace is taken from the earth,

and that the whole world is at war and killing one another. Now, does that sound like a persecution

directed at Israel, or at mankind in general? I mean, who is suffering- just think about

it this way- who is suffering from the events of the first and second seals? The nation

of Israel, or mankind? Mankind, clearly. Okay, what about the third seal? When the third

seal is opened, it says that "And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third

beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had

a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,

A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou

hurt not the oil and the wine." This refers to very high food prices, and I talked about

that in chapter . And so, are very high food prices and famines something that sounds like

it's only directed at the nation of Israel, or does it sound like it's directed at mankind

in general? What about the events... And just flip back to Revelation quickly. Look at

the events of the fourth seal. It says in chapter verse , "And when he had opened

the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked,

and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with

him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,

and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Now look, does Israel

take up the fourth part of the earth? Absolutely not. So who does it look like, the events

of the fourth seal are directed at? Does it look like it's an attack on Israel? Or does

it look like it's an attack on mankind? Clearly mankind. Isn't it simple? Now, the attack

on Israel takes place in the SECOND HALF of Daniel's th week. That is where basically

Jerusalem is made desolate; the abomination of desolation is set up. The nation of Israel

is teamed up with the antichrist in the first half of Daniel's th week. So we do not see

Israel being persecuted. But do we see mankind in general being harmed and suffering greatly

at the hands of Satan, and at the hands of the antichrist creating all this warfare,

creating the famine, creating death and pestilence? And by the way, I believe that all these things

are man-made, they're clearly not the wrath of God, and I've proved that in other sermons.

These are engineered in order to put the antichrist in power because it takes a crisis in order

to put a world government like that in power, and the crisis is created with those first

four seals. And when we go to the book of Matthew , Jesus talks about the same things.

He talks about false Christs, false prophets, then he talks about warfare, rumours of wars,

nation rising against nation... He talks about famine, he talks about pestilence, and he

says "all these things are the BEGINNING of sorrows, THEN shall they deliver you up to

be afflicted, and shall kill you." So FIRST, it's just the world in trouble. The WORLD

is suffering, the WORLD is in famine. The WORLD is at war, the WORLD is suffering mass

casualties... THEN they go after God's people, and it says "THEN shall they deliver you up

to be afflicted and shall kill you", that's what we see with the fifth seal opened, when

there are all the martyrs there. And that's why Jesus said, "When ye therefore shall see

the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, whoso readeth let him

understand, THEN shall be great tribulation". And that's when God's people are going to

be killed en masse. And so, this is the order that it goes in. You've got the first four

seals, right? THEN, they deliver you up to be afflicted and kill you, the abomination

of desolation, and that's the fifth seal. And then when the sixth seal opens, you've

got the sun and moon darkened, Christ comes in the clouds, and he gathers the elect with

the great sound of a trumpet. If the days are referring to the first half of the

week, it makes ALOT more sense to believe that all of mankind is represented by the

woman which is Eve, because Jesus was born of a woman. Because look, when he fails to

destroy the woman, THEN he goes after the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments

of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Well if the woman represents all of humanity,

because it's Eve, then it makes sense. He's attacking everyone for days... Then,

he goes after the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the

testimony of Jesus Christ- that's the saved that he is going after in the second half

of the week. And thank God, that time is cut short; he does not dominate against the saints

for the entire second half, because it is cut short by the coming of Jesus Christ in

the clouds just a few months into the second half of Daniel's th week. Now, let's look

at some more details of chapter here. Who is the woman, if we say it's mankind? Well,

let's look at how Satan finally tries to destroy the woman. Because first, he tries to persecute

her, but she escapes into the wilderness, right? So what does he do when she escapes?

It says in verse number , "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after

the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood." So what is the devil's

goal here in verse ? He wants the woman to be drowned, so he sends a flood out of

his mouth that he might cause the woman to be carried away of the flood. Now, is this

a literal flood? It's hard to say when you are looking at parables. Go back to Daniel

chapter if you would. And you say, "well, Pastor Anderson, you've got this sermon completely

all wrong, because Revelation is about the second half of Daniel's th week." It

just doesn't make any sense my friend, because it's not until after he fails to defeat the

woman that he goes after the seed, and that's when the antichrist is put in power. To believe

that Revelation is about the second half, you are basically saying that chapter comes

before chapter . And you're basically throwing the whole thing out of whack, when it's in

a nice chronological order, the way it sits in the Bible. But it says in Daniel chapter

number , in verse , "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy

city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation

for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and

prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going

forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince

shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and

the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be

cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy

the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of

the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one

week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,

and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the

consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Now I'm not going

to pretend to understand all of the implications here with verses and . But I will say

this; I find it very interesting that at the end of verse , there is a flood mentioned

right before the mention of the desolations, which is referring to the abomination of desolation

brought up in the next verse. I find that very interesting that at the end of verse

it says "the end thereof shall be with a flood", and then it says that "unto the

end of the war, desolations are determined". So, it seems like during that period of warfare,

there is going to be a flood. And THEN, at the end of the war, desolations are determined

and then he goes into the abomination of desolation in verse . So, this is just a theory. I'm

just speculating here. But, I believe that possibly, the flood in Revelation is referring

to a literal flood. Now, other interpretations have been that when the Bible says that the

dragon casts out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that's referring to armies,

just a "flood" of soldiers, or a flood of troops. But wait a minute. He says "water

as a flood after the woman". It seems like he is indicating that it's water, and that

it's coming after the woman, and that the earth opens it's mouth and swallows up the

flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth. Now, let’s say this is a literal flood being

described in Revelation , tying it in with Daniel . Then basically, this would go back

to what God said after he destroyed the earth for the first time. You remember how he promised?

And he made a really big deal about it; he made a big point to say "I will never flood

the earth again". Do you remember that? And He said over and over again, "I'm not going

to flood the earth, I'm not going to destroy the earth with water." And he put the rainbow

in the sky as a sign of that. Well, let's say that the devil's goal is to just kill

everyone on the planet. You say, "Why would that be his goal?" He HATES mankind. I mean

look, is there any indication in the Bible, anywhere, that the devil loves us? Or that

the devil loves anybody? I mean, does the devil even love his minions? Now, let's look

at some of the most satanic people that exist today. Who are they? Prince Philip. Ted Turner.

Bill Gates. Right? If we look at these globalist, eugenicists... These people who are basically

pushing the hardest for a one world government. I mean, you want to talk about "the spirit

of iniquity doth already work", the spirit of antichrist. We're talking about these men

who are multi-billionaires- the Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of all

evil.... These multi-billionaires, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers... And we talk about people

like Prince Philip, Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix... All these powerful

people... What do they say that they want to do to the population of the world? They

openly call for reducing the population of the world by %, don't they? Was it Prince

Philip, was he the one who said he wants to come back, if he were reincarnated, he would

want to come back as a deadly virus that would wipe out % of the human race? Isn't that

a sweet thing to say? Isn't that loving? And Bill Gates, I saw Bill Gates talking, and

he said "all these different factors of global warming and climate change and carbon pollution",

he said "the number of people on the planet, how much stuff they're using... one of these

numbers is going to have to go down, as close to zero as we can get it", referring to human

population growth, how much machines we use, how much carbon we're putting out. He said

"let's start with population". That's literally what he said. Everyone's seen it, it's out

there. And so he openly talks about wanting people DEAD, because you can't reduce the

population by % just by handing out birth control. You do it by KILLING % of the people

on the planet. And we know that these people are of Satan, they're antichrist, they're

pro-one world Government, they're pro-globalist, and these people want to basically annihilate

% of the planet. And they make all kinds of movies about it in Hollywood too. There

are all kinds of movies that allude to this. Now, I just found out about this movie a couple

of months ago. I'd never seen it of course, because I quit watching Hollywood movies over

a decade ago. But, somebody told me about this movie called . And I'd never heard

of it, until the end of . But I guess it had been out for years. So I went online

and I read a synopsis of the movie, and basically, what the movie talked about was basically,

the entire earth's population being wiped out by a flood. And everybody dies in this

flood, and then basically the government is the saviour, because the government builds

these arks. They build these high tech "arks", just for certain people to survive. And guess

who survives? The billionaires, the politicians, the elites, they get to survive in these arks

that they government build just for them. They don't warn anybody; don't tell anyone

else on the earth. And if I'm getting it wrong, I'm sorry, I read the synopsis online. But

they're saying "we're going to build these arks just so that the most important people

can survive" and basically, at the end of this movie, % of the earth's population

is wiped out. But it's a really happy ending. Even though billions and billions of people

are dead, it's a really happy ending, because all the elites, and all the important people,

THEY get to survive! And that solves the environmental problems, great! That's how these people are

thinking, and that's how they are programming you. Because whenever Hollywood puts out a

movie that they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, you better know that the devil

has an agenda that he is trying to get across in that movie. Because Hollywood promotes

all manner of wickedness through entertainment, that's why we shouldn't watch their movies.

And so what I'm saying is that it's very possible that the devil in the midst of causing all

this world warfare, in the midst of causing all this famine- and look, this famine is

going to be so serious. We're not just talking about "oh, people are hungry." No. People

are going to be DYING en masse, of starvation. We're talking MILLIONS dying. MILLIONS dying

in warfare, MILLIONS dying of famine. MILLIONS dying of disease. MILLIONS and millions of

people dying. And I think that during this time, the devil may decide to try and flood

the entire earth and kill everyone using that method. It would tie in perfectly with what

we see in Revelation . And again, it's just a theory. It's possible. The Bible doesn't

talk a lot about it, so it makes me wonder why didn't the Bible talk more about this?

Maybe because it's going to fail, so it's not that big of an event to talk much about.

So it's possible that during the first half of Daniel's th week, perhaps there will

be some kind of a flooding that takes place that is an attempt, and it's not going to

work. Basically the water is going to be absorbed into the earth, and it's not going to succeed.

But it could be something that he could try, because God promised that it wouldn't happen.

Maybe he is just trying to violate God's word by destroying the earth with a flood. Anyway,

I'm just throwing that out there as a possible theory. But what we do know, is that the devil

will persecute mankind with a goal of killing off the population in the first half of Daniel's

th week. And we already see them talking about it. We already see them talking about

killing off the population. We see them not at war with Israel today. When we look at

the satanic rulers of the darkness of this world today, do we really see them going after

Israel? If anything it seems like they are propping up Israel, doesn't it? Who are they

going after though? Mankind. I think at the end of the day, these people that are serving

Satan, they don't realise that Satan has no love for them. He is just using them as his

pawns for his own agenda. And so let's just quickly finish up with everything else in

this chapter that we haven't covered. The Bible talks about the fact that in verse ,

"the tail of the dragon drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to

the earth". Often angels are referred to as "stars" in the Bible. This is referring to

the fact that one third of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion and became fallen angels,

or devils and demons. So, just a quick review of the passage. It started out with this woman

appearing in heaven. She is pregnant, she is in labour, there is a dragon there, which

represents Satan ready to devour the child as soon as it is born. She gives birth to

the child, who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. The child is caught up to God

and to His throne- the ascension of Jesus Christ. The dragon goes out to persecute the

woman which brought forth the man-child, right? But, the woman flees into the wilderness,

and it says in verse , "where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed

her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: 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, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:

he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud

voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God,

and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused

them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and

by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore

rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and

of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth

that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,

he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given

two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where

she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood" and so on and so forth. So what

we see here, is that the battle that takes place in heaven, clearly takes place BEFORE

the persecution of the woman. Even though this chapter skips around a little bit, because

he says "when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the woman which

brought forth the manchild". He tries that "time, and times, and half a time", days,

and THEN when that FAILS, it says "the earth helped the woman", verse , "and opened her

mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth", verse , "and

the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,

which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So what we

see is the SAVED are now the target, in verse . Now that he has gone after the woman,

he is ready to go after the saints. He is ready to go after the remnant of her seed

which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And in chapter

, what do we see? In chapter , we see that play out, we see that war with the saints

play out where the devil is going to put the antichrist in total power of the world, the

mark of the beast. All that is going to be covered in chapter . Let's bow our heads

and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your Word, dear God. And we

thank you for the easy passages, and we thank you for the difficult passages that force

us to study a little harder, and do more comparisons and really look at things and see if we can

get to the bottom of things. Please just give us understanding and clarity as we go through

these passages, and

in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.