Transcript: Unlocking the Mystery of the Woman in Revelation

A woman is described in the 12th chapter of the Revelation. Three questions arise in relation to this woman. Who is she? How does she relate to events in the Old Testament? How does she relate to events which have not yet taken place? First, who is this woman? The Revelation 12.5 says that this woman gives birth to a male child, who is destined to rule the world with a rod of iron. But before he can do that, he is taken to God's throne in heaven. Now for us as Christians, this male child is obviously Jesus. So the woman must be Mary, the mother of Jesus. Easy. However, in the opening verse, the woman is described as being clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and twelve stars and a crown on her head. There is nothing else in Scripture to link Mary with the sun, the moon, and twelve stars. Nevertheless, the imagery in this verse, whether it has any other meaning or not, has been added to many Catholic drawings of Mary, in order to make it more obvious that the Revelation chapter 12 is all about Mary. Over the centuries, Mary's role in the Catholic Church has evolved into one that appears to now outrank God himself. She is, for example, referred to as the Mother of God. The phrase, Mother of Jesus, as used in the Bible and used by Protestants, was apparently not strong enough for what Catholic Church officials wanted to convey. As God's mother, and not just the mother of Jesus, Mary presumably becomes the source of all three aspects of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this way, Mary comes across more or less as the creator or mother of the Creator. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary never sinned, never had sex with Joseph even after they married, never died, and that she is now the Queen of Heaven. Read Jeremiah 7.18 if you want to know what God thinks about this title, Queen of Heaven. Not one of these claims about Mary is taught in the Bible, but they have all grown out of Catholic tradition. For Catholics, Mary is not the Queen of Heaven by virtue of the fact that she is married to the King of Heaven. No way. In fact, there is no King. God is her son, remember? Mary is a ruling monarch in her own right, much like Queen Elizabeth in today's world. God and Jesus are relegated to the wings, much like Prince Charles, waiting patiently for the day when they might be able to resume control of heaven and earth. Catholic reasoning to support people praying to Mary is based on the argument that God Himself would find it difficult to say no to His own mother. This tends to undermine and circumvent the authority of both God the Father and Jesus His Son. Note that in the 12th chapter of the Revelation, Mary's baby is specifically described as being both male, and as one who will rule the world with a rod of iron. From this biblical description, we get a picture of a masculine God, with high standards and harsh judgments for those who do not measure up. This forceful, masculine authority has been replaced in Catholic thinking with a soft, feminine goddess. Mary is one's way around the male god, and one's way to escape the iron rod of his son. Catholics are told that praying to Mary, and getting her to pass their prayers on to God and Jesus, will win them kinder treatment than they would get if they had prayed directly to God or Jesus. The picture we are given is that of a nice mother, protecting her children from a not-so-nice father and older brother. Because of the apparent blasphemy in this teaching, Protestants often find it hard to accept the most obvious interpretation of the woman in chapter 12 of the Revelation. But really, the problem only occurs because of an assumption that anything said in defense of Mary amounts to a defense for the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines about Mary. I believe that the woman in this chapter represents much more than Mary. But I think it is quite right to start by identifying this woman as Mary, the real Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Mary of the Catholic Church is not the real Mary of the Bible. It's a false Mary, fabricated by an apostate in a feminine church. Mary herself would find such teachings and such beliefs abhorrent. It was truly a great blessing that Mary received when she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. But when a woman shouted out to Jesus, Blessed is the woman who gave birth to you, he replied, More blessed is the one who hears the word of God and keeps it. When Jesus' mother and his brothers came to talk to him, he left them waiting outside, and pointed to the people who were listening to him teach. And he said These are my mother and my brothers Here is our biggest clue about who the woman really is in the 12th chapter of the Revelation Jesus had previously said that the people who put their faith in him become his mother So this woman who gave birth to Jesus is, in my opinion, more than just Mary. It is a tiny remnant of true believers, which has existed largely unnoticed in every generation like a golden thread running through all of history. She is all of those people who have learned to listen for and listen to God. Mary was a part of that golden thread in her day, but only a part. Her special role was recognized by her cousin Elizabeth, by a few shepherds, by some holy men from Asia, and by an old man and an old woman, Simeon and Anna, in the temple. But not much more. These people were the golden thread that runs through all of history. And it was this golden thread, or remnant, to use a Bible term, that gave birth to a male child who is destined to rule the world with a rod of iron. The Revelation gives three different descriptions of this good woman. But they all appear to represent different aspects of a faithful remnant. There is the bride who is waiting for her husband. found in the 21st chapter of the Revelation. This is universally believed to be the church waiting for Jesus to return. Then, there is this woman in the wilderness from the 12th chapter of the Revelation. And finally, there is what has been called the Virgin Army, a group of 144,000 faithful followers of Jesus who are described as female virgins. Membership in the church. includes men and women both. So the feminine description, the Bride of Christ, is not limited to female Christians. The Bible says that there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus. The description of this Bride of Christ symbolizes the church's submissive role to Jesus. Whether we are male or female, we must all become as females in our relationship to that male child who is Jesus. He is our corporate husband, and it is our job to serve him and to glorify him like a humble submissive bride, not to glorify ourselves and try to manipulate him, as happens in so much that passes for Christianity. Similarly, the virgin army is described as specifically female virgins, But it also says of the people in this army that they, quote, kept themselves from women. That has made many people think that the people in this army must be male virgins, that is men who have never had sex. But the use of a word that represents only female virgins verifies that this is not about physical gender. So what does it mean to keep ourselves from women, if we are in fact spiritually women anyway? I would say that Jesus is looking for people, that is his bride, who refuse to be controlled by some trait that is normally associated with women, or with being effeminate. In their relationship to Jesus, such people would need to be soft, pliable, and submissive. But in their relationships with the world, they would need to be strong and masculine, exposing and rejecting all lies and deception. In recent times, scientists have been able to identify one half of the brain which is dominant in women, and one half that is dominant in men. In brief, the masculine side is the rational side, whereas the feminine side is the emotional one. All of us have both halves, but the tendency is for men to control their emotions through reasoning, and for women to challenge reason on the basis of emotions. The differences are not absolute, and they are much more complicated than what I've said here. Nevertheless, they seem consistent with a feminine spirit that the Virgin Army has rejected. Picture a group of people, including both males and females biologically, who have learned to control their emotions, even if it's just by working in cooperation with someone else who is able to help them to control their emotions. Such a group would be able to keep itself from this feminine tendency. While not denying the emotional side of their personalities, these people would learn to exercise the rational side of their brain, Thus, maintaining a spiritual equilibrium. When writing to the Ephesians about the different roles of husbands and wives, Paul finished by saying, This is a mystery, for I'm talking about Christ and the church. Paul is famous for having said some fairly offensive things about women being in submission to men, and about them keeping silence in the church. Although he may not have fully understood it himself at the time, it is possible that these statements too were mysteries, as he called them. He may have been communicating a mystery about not letting our emotions overrule our reason, not in our private lives, nor in our families, nor in our churches. Ultimately all of us have problems with emotions getting the better of us at times But true submission to Jesus should counteract this tendency Spiritually we become wives living in submission to and under the protection of our husband Jesus This submission to Jesus, in turn, makes us strong and well-informed, keeping us from being tossed about by all the fancy words and false doctrines that had taken the church and the world farther and farther away from the real Jesus of the Bible. So, in terms of who this woman is, it is reasonable to conclude that she is Mary, the mother of Jesus, in part. But also, that she is much more than that. Along with two other good women referred to in the Revelation, She represents faithful believers who are and have been in total submission to God throughout history. So now we move to our next question. How does she relate to the Old Testament? This woman, standing on the moon, and clothed with the sun, could just as easily represent her husband, Joseph, or the three wise men, or the shepherds. Through their mutual submission to God, all of these people, and many others before them, brought Jesus into the world. They became his mother and his brothers, as Jesus said to those who listened to him. Mary was biologically a woman. Her husband Joseph was biologically a man. They both needed to learn to be feminine in their submission to God, yet masculine in terms of not letting emotions lead them astray spiritually. Their success in doing this is why they were represented as having given birth to the male child, Jesus, in this chapter. It was only natural for Mary to be worried that Jesus might go off the rails in his zeal to obey God. But at some point, she must have acknowledged the role of Jesus, and later his disciple John, as her human and spiritual protector. For she was there with the other disciples on the day of Pentecost. She is not seen as the queen of all that was going on, but as a humble, submissive servant. And this is what God wants from all of us, if we're going to truly give birth to Jesus in a world which badly needs to hear him, and to heed what he has taught. The real Mary would have no trouble recognizing that she was just a part of a faithful remnant of Israel. A remnant which had stayed true to God and the leadings of his spirit throughout the ages. And she would have no problem with acknowledging that the incarnation of Christ was a gift from God to all of us. Now I'll read that first verse from the chapter in question. 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. This obviously does not fit our normal understanding of Mary's life as portrayed in the Bible. It is only the creation of Catholic icons with Mary portrayed in this way that causes anyone to naturally think of her as being clothed with the sun or any of the other things in this description. However, the analogy of the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars does take us back to the 37th chapter of Genesis. Joseph, one of Israel's twelve sons, had a dream in which his parents and his eleven brothers, represented by the sun, the moon, and eleven stars, all bowed down to him. This was a reminder to that special family, long before any concept of twelve tribes had formulated that God did not have to bless all the descendants of Abraham in order to keep his promise. In fact, he was only going to bless those who had the faith of Abraham. And the same is true today. Affiliation with a church means absolutely nothing if you don't have the faith of Abraham. Ishmael was Abraham's son, remember? Yet he did not receive the promise. Esau was Isaac's son, yet he did not receive the promise. And in Joseph's dream, his other eleven brothers, who later became patriarchs of eleven tribes, were forced to bow to him as the one who alone had acted in obedience to God. At that time, and in that situation, Joseph was obviously the only one who had the faith of Abraham. Now notice that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, and yet God delivered him. In the Christmas story, we read that another Joseph, Mary's fiancée, was the one to whom an angel of God appeared telling him to flee into Egypt with Mary and the baby. Sure, Mary gave birth to baby Jesus, but God used Joseph to save his life. It was Mary's submission to Joseph that resulted in her making such a move, even though she herself had never seen nor heard the angel which spoke to Joseph. So, God did something special through both Joseph's, and what he did was significant in terms of identifying this woman. She represents those people who have been open to hearing from God throughout history. God spoke to both Josephs through dreams, and he protected both of them in Egypt, one of the least likely places to expect God to use as a refuge Then there is the story of God leading the children of Israel out of Egypt in the Old Testament Virtually all of those who left Egypt were destroyed in the wilderness Once again, God rejected the mainstream and called out a remnant. Moses himself missed out, and Joshua became the new seed or descendant of promise. The name Joshua and the name Jesus are used interchangeably in Hebrews 4.8, where the name Jesus is used in the King James Version and the name Joshua in most other translations. The Jews themselves are remnant, and that 10 of the 12 tribes had totally disappeared by the time of the New Testament. And Paul understood that Christianity was a new remnant from those proud Jewish people as well. See Isaiah 37, verses 31-32, and compare that with Romans 11, verse 5. Because of their faithlessness, God had the right to remove the promise from the mainstream. And he did just that, over and over. He was under no obligation to fulfill a promise to any who did not stay faithful to him. Faithfulness was always an assumed condition, but rebellious people everywhere and throughout history have told themselves that God is somehow obligated to keep some perceived promise, whether or not they ever obey him. See Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 26 to 28, where the same people who are offered a blessing are also offered a curse. And it is only their behavior which will determine which promise will most affect them. Only a remnant entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The point made was that God works through small groups more than through huge organizations, and that he is always free to dump those who refuse to listen to him. Now we will move to our last question, the one that is most significant for those of us who are alive on the earth today. How does this woman relate to the return of Jesus? Twelve tribes of Israel are described in the Revelation. Many Christians have been tricked into believing these 12 tribes will be flesh Jews, despite abundant proof and overwhelming reality to the contrary. The most obvious being that the Jews are not 12 tribes. 10 tribes simply do not exist anymore. James addressed his epistle to the 12 tribes of Israel scattered abroad. God had long since rejected 10 of the tribes of Israel, and the remnant that became the church was all that remained of the other two in God's eyes. Nevertheless, those individuals who accepted Jesus became the new Israel, a resurrection of all 12 tribes. They became the new church in the wilderness, the remnant that brings Jesus forth to the world. There is a slight but significant change in the naming of the tribes in the Revelation. The tribe of Dan is left out, and Joseph is given two tribes, one for himself and one for his oldest son Manasseh. This seems to be a pointer to the lesson God was trying to teach through Joseph's dream, and the lesson he wants us to learn from the 12th chapter of the Revelation. The remnant, or true church, was there in the Old Testament, even when it appeared that the entire crowd was rebelling against Moses. In his sermon just before his death, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, referred to this remnant as the church in the wilderness of Sinai. I believe he was saying that the church in the New Testament is the natural progression of that church that was faithful in the wilderness in the Old Testament. And I believe that the church in the wilderness spoken of in the Revelation chapter 12 is a remnant of the apostate institutional church of today. During the last seven years, this remnant church will become visible and it will survive in another wilderness situation just before Jesus returns. In both wildernesses, there were and will be no shops and no way to buy or sell. But God will provide. In one way or another, we will be fed with manna from heaven. We will become a testimony to the whole world, as a wicked world led by the devil incarnate He does all that it can to stamp us out. What we see in the 12th chapter of the Revelation is but one more reminder that it is not the system, not the mainstream, not the empires of man that God is interested in. He is interested in those rare and isolated individuals who will follow him like Noah. Though we may be the last remaining faithful person on earth, God is calling to all such individuals today to get a clearer vision of his Son and all that Jesus came to tell us about how to live our lives and how to build our churches. And don't be surprised if the end result is that you find yourself all alone in the wilderness with God.