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The Woman of Revelation Twelve
By Liaf
Now that we are done with our end-time series, I thought I’d comment a little on Revelation 12:1. The passage reads as follows:
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.
We’ve already discussed that this woman represents Israel. She is about to bear a man child (the special 144,000) that the Dragon is ready to devour. Later, that man child is raptured in the middle of the Tribulation. How do we know that? The passage goes on to say that immediately afterward that the woman flees to the wilderness for 3 ½ years. We know the Tribulation lasts for seven years. We must remember that the Tribulation is the time of Jacob’s Trouble according to the book of Jeremiah. The people of Israel were told that if they disobeyed God’s Law (in Leviticus and Deuteronomy), they would be punished "seven times" or seven years. There is a long fulfillment of that prophecy when both Israel and Judah went into captivity and various aspects of the punishment went on for 2520 years. There will be a short fulfillment during the Tribulation. In addition, the book of Daniel speaks of the last "week" where Antichrist will make a seven year covenant with the returned of Israel in order that they can build their temple in the land again. In the middle of the week he breaks that covenant. Therefore, there is adequate evidence that the Tribulation lasts for seven years, and we know that a lot of things happen midway. When the man child is "caught up", the woman flees for the last 3 ½ years therefore by simple mathematics this event must occur by the first 3 ½ years.
There are doctrines and teachings out there that the feast days of Jehovah laid out in Leviticus 26 were prophetic shadows of things to come. The apostle Paul affirmed that. I agree wholeheartedly. For those of you who know about these feasts, we know that the Passover feast represented Christ’s death for us. The feast following the Passover was Unleavened Bread and that represents the sinless body of Christ, as he was interred immediately afterward as the sun set. The feast of Firstfruits (which fell on a Sunday during Passover week) foreshadowed his resurrection. Did you notice that these "types" represented by the feasts where always fulfilled at the time of the feast? The next feasts, which fall in the early autumn, represent end-time events that will occur at the times of the feasts. The feast of Tabernacles represents the coming millennial Kingdom and therefore should begin at the time of autumn. Likewise, the feast of Trumpets (which occurs September or October) represents the rapture of the church. For the Earthly people Israel, it represents their gathering at Christ’s Second Coming. Trumpets were used to gather God’s people and as Paul said, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." when speaking of the resurrection and rapture. The "last trump" by the way does not mean the last trumpet of the trumpet judgements that we’ve talked about in Revelation. Some people use that as a basis to justify a post-Trib rapture. There were several that blew for the feast, and Paul was referencing that last "roundup call" if I may take the liberty of saying that. I have on my computer here several sounds of the Shofar that the Jews blow for Rosh Hashona. Therefore, since the Tribulation is seven years and the Kingdom would start in the autumn, it would stand to reason that the Tribulation would start somewhere at the same time of the year. Quite frankly, I believe the Tribulation will start immediately after believers are raptured at the feast of the Trumpets. We’ve discussed in Revelation chapter 7 how 144,000 special people of God from 12 tribes are sealed to preach the Kingdom (the two witnesses also preach for the first 3 ½ years). The woman in Revelation 12 is travailing with these special 144,000 I would assume immediately after the rapture or somewhere in the beginning of the Tribulation. They are not born yet, for they must "see the light", no doubt by the help of the two witnesses, and until then she travails with them. Nevertheless, her travail does start at the beginning of the Tribulation until the man child is born, however long that takes. Satan is ready to devour them, and we saw that midway into the Tribulation things turn especially nasty. The 144,000 are then caught up (and the two witnesses are resurrected and also caught up) so that all hell can then break loose on the Earth. Thus, Revelation twelve starts off at the start of the Tribulation but that is the background for the subjects of the man child and Satan (the Dragon).
I may sound like I’m rambling on here, but I know where I am going. The verse in Revelation 12:1 is suggestive of an astronomical position. If we can figure out where the sun and moon are, and what constellation the woman represents, then we can figure out what time of the year the Tribulation starts. If that agrees with the feasts, then we have very strong circumstantial evidence at least. In addition, we can use computers here to find which years are "candidate years" for the rapture. I do not know which year it will be. I only know what years they will not be. So as I do not walk the fine line of heresy here, I will never say when the year of the Lord’s return will be nor will I say when it will not be. I have my theories, but the cycle is repetitious anyway so if one year fails to materialize, another can be possible. I’ll give all you folks out there a clue. If the rapture falls on the feast of the Trumpets (and I believe it will), then according to the book of Revelation, it will occur on the Lord’s Day, which is a Sabbath (Saturday). I believe he was born on the Sabbath as well. Keep in mind, I would also suggest that the day is referenced to the land of Israel, so that may be a few hours earlier here in the United States (midday on a Friday). As we look at this astronomical position, we can narrow down the number of days to a very specific time of the year.
So what astronomical position can be satisfied by Revelation 12:1? First of all, let’s start with the sun. What constellations can the sun possibly be in? Actually, the constellations that the sun will go through in the cycle of the year are the same ones that the moon will go through beings that the moon’s orbit is inclined only about 5 degrees to that of our orbit around the sun. The sun goes through twelve special constellations called the zodiac. Ahhhhh--- I can just sense my fundamentalist friends quickly logging off this site right now. Astrology! "I knew Liaf was a little nuts!" No. This is NOT astrology. This is NOT meant to predict somebody’s fortune. Man knew that the sun, moon and planets move through certain constellations and from that knowledge corrupted it into fortune telling. That does not change the fact that only certain constellations have the sun move through them. Which constellations are they? You know them (but maybe do not want to admit it). They are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pieces. These are the only ones. There are no others. So which of these is a woman? Virgo, right? The woman is clothed with the sun. This effectively states that the sun is somewhere in the middle of the boundaries of the constellation. The sun would not be at her head; otherwise she’d be capped with the sun as a crown of some sort. It would not be at or near her feet, either. Not unless a woman wearing only knee-high socks is considered clothed to you. So it must be in her torso area. The moon is under her feet. Depending on the orientation of the woman, this states that the moon is very close to New Moon either at the end or beginning of the lunar month when there is a very fine crescent.
According to E. Raymond Capt who wrote The Glory of the Stars (available at www.artisanpublishers.com), Virgo the Virgin is recognized as a virgin by virtue of the stellar names (when one studies the etymology of the names) by all traditions. In addition, in the same manner, we can ascertain the orientation of the woman (which end is the head and which end are the feet). Attached to this message I have here an actual image from my astronomy program showing the sun in the midst of the constellation and the crescent moon just at the end of it. By freehand, I sketched in the outline of the woman so as to give you an idea where everything is located relative to the stars.
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You can see that the sun is in the midst of the constellation and the moon is under her feet. By this direction, we know that this astronomical position only occurs relative to the sun very late September into October. As a rule of thumb I’d say about September 25th onward until approximately mid-October. Likewise, the moon positioned here would be East of the sun. This means the month is a new, waxing moon. This astronomical position is only possible at the feast of Trumpets. That’s what we’ve been saying beforehand. This feast is a "type" of the rapture of the church for the spiritual seed of Abraham and the gathering of the Earthly people Israel. This would make sense since once the rapture of the church occurs, the Tribulation would be ready to launch in full force. Once that starts, this "pregnant" woman will travail from that time until the 144,000 are "born" a little later. They will then be the great Kingdom preachers during the first half (3 ½ years) of the Tribulation until they are "caught up" later.
So what does this mean in terms of calculation? According to Revelation 1:10, I believe that John was seeing this on a Sabbath to which he was shortly after called to "come up hither" in 4:1. Even if one wants to believe the "Lord’s Day" is Sunday, then the feast would occur when he was "called up hither" immediately afterwards on a Monday (since the Trumpet feast never occurs on a Sunday). I believe it will be on a Sabbath. Without going into excessive detail, I believe this because I hold the belief that Jesus was born on the Sabbath. And if the rapture occurs on the Sabbath, then his Second Coming 2520 days later would be a Sabbath. However, many may see that as a weak argument---- agreed. That’s my belief. However, if the Lord’s Day were on a Sunday, the Monday following would be close to the weekend. So as to give a little more latitude, let’s just say near the weekend. That’s the first condition. The second condition is that the Trumpets feast falls not only on a Saturday or Monday, but that it happens late September onward so that the woman is clothed with the sun instead of wearing it as a hat. I will let you play with calculations using a program to see what years are candidate years.
What about the twelve stars she wears as a crown? I don’t know--- I haven’t the slightest idea! Besides the significance of the number twelve designating God’s people, this only proves to me that the sun is below her head in the torso area as I already pointed out. These cannot all be planets. There are only eight others to consider and even at that, some are not visible to the naked eye. There must be other astronomical bodies, ordinary or miraculous, that will fill in that space to fill the requirement. If and only if we can figure what they are, that may narrow candidate dates down even more. But for now, we can stick to what we do know: the sun and the moon.
I am saying all this to prepare the Church of God for Christ’s Coming at the feast of Trumpets. Whenever that feast occurs, I get especially excited! I do not believe that Christ will just come anytime. These feasts were shadows of things to come. That’s why they were established---- to teach prophecy. They were NOT established for God to watch the Israelites party several times a year. Oh, I know about Jesus’ statement where he says that no man knows the day or hour. The Greek meaning of the word "know" here is used in the same manner as intuitive insight as opposed to objective evidence. In other words, Jesus was merely saying that nobody would be given an intuitive insight, vision, or prophecy as to the time of his return. It would happen without such knowledge. But we can look at the objective signs of the times and know when it is near.