A GREAT SIGN APPEARED IN HEAVEN: WHO IS THIS WOMAN? ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ Part 30
The Lord is sovereign over the affairs of all men, including the time of and circumstances surrounding our spiritual birth. Knowing that, it is not surprising that not all who are Christians have been blessed to grow up in a biblically sound church. I certainly wasn’t. I didn’t grow up in the church, and I was born and raised in a very small town with few options for worship. (Having lived in southern California and now in Colorado Springs, my elation in choices for worship can be likened to that of a kid in a candy shop). In fact, before I will move anywhere, I research the churches to make sure there is one that is biblically sound.
No doubt , my ‘story’ is not unique. (If you’ve read my story before, you might want to skip this part.) I’m serious when I tell you that I grew up believing if you were an American citizen, you were a Christian. To say that I was baptized three times requires an explanation. As an infant, I was baptized in the Methodist church. Believing I was saved in 1979 after responding to an altar call at a charismatic come-to-Jesus-meeting, I was baptized again at 18 years old (approximately twelve years before the Lord actually saved me). Later, in the early 90s, I would be baptized in Atlanta, Georgia by Charles Stanley.
When someone close to me died unexpectedly in 1979 (he was Catholic), I went back to the Methodist church (the church in which my parents chose for me to make my confirmation). Not finding any answers there, I turned to the charismatic word-of-faith movement prevalent in the 70s. After working for the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association for a year, I became disillusioned with the movement and walked away from everything for a few years, then decided to convert to Roman Catholicism (my husband’s religion growing up). I now had a mystical connection to ‘something’, but I still had no answers to any of life’s deepest questions. From 1979 to 2001, I would characterize myself as a ‘church-hopper’, (which is a terrible witness to family and friends.)
In 1991, the Lord drew me to Himself through an intense longing for the truth of His Word. It was in the midst of getting caught up in the world and materialistic pleasures that the Lord began to draw me to Himself after the birth of my third child and upon moving back to my small hometown that same year. For several years after that, I did ‘church’ by television as I was studying and having my mind renewed with a growing desire to honor the Lord by becoming a member of a church where I would know like-minded fellowship and be able to serve Him faithfully. After a couple of years with this intense longing for Christian fellowship, I ventured out to the one and only Baptist church in our town.
I would come and go in that church over a timespan of about five or six years. I really struggled to fit there. Aside from a lot of immaturity in me, the only other thing I can really pinpoint for these struggles (as I would come to learn soon after my daughter died in 2001 was the realization that I was a ‘Calvinist’; this church held to an Arminian viewpoint.) We can save that discussion for another time.
Suffice it to say that over a lifetime, I had picked up a lot of false ideologies regarding religion that had to be sorted out in my mind. For me, one of the best ways I have always learned what I believe is when someone challenges my thinking. This drives me back to the Word to find out exactly what I believe and why. I don’t want to walk with weak, shaky legs in this world; I want to be able to stand firmly upon the bedrock foundation of truth only found in God’s Word.
I say all this to lead into a discussion of how false interpretations based on faulty presuppositions can lead us down a path that affects many other things we believe. As I began devouring Scripture and listening to many different teachers, the Lord would refine one doctrine after another by bringing churches or people into my life who said things that didn’t ‘sit right’ with me. One such ideology was what I would come to find out is known as Replacement Theology, (also known as supersessionism). In a nutshell, Replacement Theology teaches that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan, and this is wrong on many fronts, not the least of which is the false idea that if the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, then what assurance does the Church have that God will keep His promises to sustain her? Replacement theology believes that God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel.
To make matters more confusing, among the different views on this relationship between the church and Israel are that the church has replaced Israel (replacement theology), the church is an expansion of Israel (covenant theology), or the church is completely different and distinct from Israel (dispensationalism/premillennialism). I fall under the latter category.
There is one small church in my hometown that is reformed. I love the people. They are true believers. We can have true fellowship. Our differing views regarding an interpretation of Scripture would not include the gospel (our soteriology) but would affect, for example, our study of last things (eschatology) and our differing views on baptism. I have said it before that every doctrine is extremely important, but none is as important as getting the gospel right. In other words, if we disagree on what the gospel is, we have no true unity in Christ.
Having come to understand this clear distinction between Israel and the Church but also believing in the doctrines of grace (associated with what is labeled ‘Calvinism’), we struggled for a very long time to find the right church. So long before we ever began attending this small church (due to the overwhelming love of this body of believers during a very difficult time in our lives), I knew I was going to have the need to filter things being taught from the pulpit from the view of seeing the ‘Church’ in the Old Testament and issues regarding our eschatological differences. When we began attending there, the pastor (whom I adore) was teaching on events of the end times either from Matthew 24 or Luke 21. My middle son was home from The Master’s University at the time. When we got in the car, I will never forget what he said. “Mom, that was the most confusing teaching I have ever heard!” In his theological foundation, it didn’t fit. Why? Because when you are seeing very Jewish language in passages set in specific times meant for the Jewish people but trying to force the Church into those passages, it is like forcing a puzzle piece someplace it doesn’t belong—not to mention a passage that refers to Israel and the Church side by side.
In order to make replacement theology work, one must spiritualize or allegorize the prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land into promises of God’s blessing for the church. The early church was made up of Jews who believed that Jesus was their Messiah. It was those Jews who faithfully took the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles—us! How arrogant it is for the church to now read ‘herself’ into every passage of Scripture claiming as her own the promises of blessing given to Israel but then graciously allowing the Jews to keep the curses associated with their idolatry.
The woman in Revelation 12 has been interpreted as the Church, Mary, and/or Israel. In Bible interpretation, context is always king! So, we go back to Revelation 11.
WHO IS THIS WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN?
The scene in Chapter 11 was of two witnesses who, having prophesied and tormented the whole world, were killed in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is Jerusalem. The ministry of these two witnesses reflects that of the Jewish Old Testament prophets. The setting is a Jewish setting.
Revelation 12:1-6 In Chapter 12 a great sign appeared in heaven…this is not a literal person who will one day be physically seen by those who are living on the earth. In referring to this woman as a ‘sign’, God uses it to convey something to John and to us. We are specifically told that this is a ‘sign’ proving that Scripture is to be interpreted literally unless otherwise specifically stated.
Scripture always interprets Scripture, and symbols are linked to other passages of Scripture to reveal to us their meaning. According to Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9-11, the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12 should be identified with Israel, who throughout Old Testament passages was represented as a woman. In his dream, the sun represented Jacob, the moon Joseph’s mother Rachel, and the eleven stars were the sons of Israel who bowed down to Joseph. In these twelve stars, Joseph is now included with the other tribes of Israel.
One incurs many problems with an interpretation of making this woman represent the Church. Christ birthed the Church, not the other way around. Then, there is the corollary to Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9 as stated above. The woman is struggling to give birth to the man-child who is caught up. This is the promised seed from Genesis 3:15, obviously Christ—not the rapture of the church as some have claimed. On the contrary, I believe a proper interpretation of Israel gives strong support for a pre-tribulation rapture. A comparison of this second and the third woman of the apocalypse is stark, but what is also glaring is the absence of any mention of the true Church during this span of chapters in Revelation until the end of the book. The following chart is taken from a commentary by Tony Garland.
This woman in Revelation 12 is clothed with the sun. Sometimes this is a jumping off point to interpret this sign from a pagan viewpoint or to attribute the identity of the sign as Mary, the mother of Christ. Lest we get it twisted, we must remember it was the pagans who adopted the sun as an object of worship and then used it as a religious symbol to support their false belief systems. I think we could look at the symbol God gave in the rainbow of His promise not to destroy the earth to see how groups with a distorted ideology propose to adopt it as their own.
Psalm 84:11 says that God is a sun and a shield. There, it is related to God’s protection. Often in Scripture, when the sun and moon are mentioned together, they serve as a dual witness to promises He has made in the same way He swears by heaven and earth. This is an important sign to Israel, a promise she undoubtedly knows well. This is a promise to preserve the nation of Israel. Those persons who want to say that God is finished with Israel have a very difficult time with passages such as this one in identifying this woman. Jeremiah 31:35-37—This is what the Lord says, He who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—The Lord of armies is His name: “If this fixed order departs from Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the descendants of Israel will cease to be a nation before Me forever.” This is what the Lord says: “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also reject all the descendants of Israel for everything that they have done,” declares the Lord. The Church should know this passage as well, for it is stated in the context of the New Covenant given in the Old Testament. Paul reiterates it for us in Romans 11:1 .
What this is saying simply is that as long as there is a sun and moon in the sky, the Jewish people will continue as a people. God is not done with Israel! (See also passages like Psalm 89:35-37 and Jeremiah 33:20-23a.) It is interesting to me the extreme arrogance of a man in our day believing he can block the sun with a little dust! Man, who is made of dust, determines to block the sun with dust! Talk about signs and symbols.
Wrapped up in the identity of this woman is the millennial reign of Christ, for in the end (or really the beginning) Jesus will be seated on the throne of David, an earthly throne centered in Jerusalem. This is the answer to the question of why the Dragon continues to persecute the woman even after the Messiah is crucified and resurrected. It is because the story didn’t end at the cross. There is much more to come that is connected with Christ’s Second Coming and His millennial reign on earth…in Jerusalem…ushering in the eternal Kingdom of God.
Faithful Israel, that remnant of believers from the nation of Israel, has been holding onto these promises throughout Scripture. When we interpret this woman as being supported by the moon rather than standing upon or having authority over something, it makes all the difference in the world. She is clothed or protected by the sun and standing or supported by the moon. Why? Her position is sure just as we stand upon the promises God has given the church in Christ Jesus.
We have seen that women in Scripture often represent religious systems. Some have claimed this woman is the Church, others like the Roman Catholics have claimed this woman is Mary, the “Queen of Heaven”. There are many cults who do so as well—for example, Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science) also says this is Mary.
While I wouldn’t attribute the identity of this woman to Mary as she is perceived by the Roman Catholic Church, there is a hint of the biblical Mary seen in this symbol. I loved what Tony Garland said about this: “This ‘woman’ is best understood as representing Israel, but with elements which reflect the role of Mary stretching back all the way to Eve and the promise of a redeemer. This harmonizes with the gospels which present both aspects of Messiah: His Jewish (Abrahamic) genealogy (Matthew 1:1) and his human (Adamic) genealogy (Luke 3:23). To capture all that related concerning this woman, she must be seen as representing an historic development within God’s overall plan which: Originated with the promise of a redeemer to Eve (Genesis 3:15); led to the creation of the nation of Israel through whom the redeemer would come (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7; Micah 5:2; Romans 9:5); found partial fulfillment in His First Coming by virgin birth from Mary (Isaiah 7:14: Matthew 1:25; Luke 1:34); and, finds ultimate fulfillment in His Second Coming to establish the Millennial Kingdom and to rule in the line of King David of Israel (Isaiah 9:7; Jeremiah 23:5; 30:9; Amos 9:11; Zechariah 6:12-13; Luke 1:32-33; Acts 1:6; Revelation 20:4). It is this aspect, often overlooked, which explains the continued persecution of the woman after having birthed the Man Child.”
During this time of the Gentiles, the Church has been thrust into the spotlight for a time. In the end-time events, Israel will once again be front and center stage. The 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy (the Tribulation period of seven years) will be focused upon Israel just as the first 69 weeks did (Daniel 9:24-27). God does not and cannot ever break a promise!
So much more could be said about this passage, but that will remain for another study in Revelation or on end-time prophecy. Below you will find some charts that may be helpful to you in your continued eschatological studies.
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