The Two Seeds (pt 2) (Questions/Comments?)

For part I, click here: http://www.christianforumsite.com/t...uestions-comments-welcomed.45297/#post-440161

Summary of Pt I

In part I we learned that Gen 3:15 discusses two seeds and that these seeds are the spiritual offspring of the devil and of the Woman. We learned that Jesus is the last Adam, and like the first Adam, He was the Son of God, the express image of God, and has a bride and that that bride represents His true church.

We also learned that as Eve (Adam's bride) begotten two seeds, Cain and Abel, one who was wicked the other righteous and that God's true church did the same.

The first of those seeds being Christ and His followers (Rev 12:5) and the others of the wicked one: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Acts 20:29

Therefore, the enemy of God is not to be found outside the church. The solemn reality is the enemy is located among the professed people of God. When Satan appeared to Eve in the garden, he did not take on his angelic form to persuade Eve (that would be too obvious), he instead disguised himself using the serpent (the most subtle of all creatures in the garden) as his medium. So it is in this last day deception, that Satan appears from within God's garden, His church, to do his greatest work.

Now we will look at Rev 12 and show you from scripture how this war played out in the human affairs of history.

History in Advance

Written 2000 years ago, Revelation 12 has all the elements of a good story: a protagonist, a villain, and a plot. The main characters of the chapter are the woman (v1), the man-child (Jesus) (v5), the seven headed Dragon (The devil)(v9) and the seed of the Woman(v17). The plot setting begins first century and extends to our time.

The Woman
12:1 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:

This woman represents a virtuous church in all her glory. The Song of Solomon 6:10 puts it like this, "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?"

The Sun represents the Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2). The moon where the woman stands, which is represented as the lesser light in Gen 1:16 that reflects the greater light (Jesus), is the Holy Scriptures. This church has the word of God at her foundation.

The 12 stars clues us in as to when this church comes on the scene. The 12 stars represents the 12 apostles which is representative of the 12 tribes of Israel, as stated in the dream of Joseph (Gen 37:9). This is the apostolic church.


In V2 we are told this woman is with child and vs 5 makes it clear that this child is Jesus. In between these verses a new character is introduced.

The Dragon

3 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.


4 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.


The dragon (or the devil, see vs 9) is represented here as having 7 heads, 10 horns, and seven crowns. This same description is giving to the beast in Rev 13, and Rev 17. They all are related in that they represent different powers that persecute God's people and are powers that are all controlled by the same power, the devil (more on this in future posts). But we want to notice that this dragon is out to kill the child as soon as it was born.

This is no doubt referencing King Herod (made King of the Jewish providence by Roman authority) who gave the order to kill every new born child in Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy the baby Messiah (Matt 2:13). But his attempt failed, and in vs 5 Jesus fulfills his mission and sits at the right hand of God. From this, we can easily deduce that the 7 headed dragon represents Satan working through Rome to kill Jesus. But the devil wasn't done.

The Conflict

It says, v6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Why did the women or church flee into the wilderness? vs 13 tell us,
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

History tells us that in the first 3 centuries, God's church were heavily persecuted by the Pagan Roman power. See the persecution of Nero and the persecution of early Christians up unto Constantine's time.

After this though, persecution did not cease. Those deemed "heretics", who refused to compromise, were still persecuted by the newly formed Church/State government. Scripture tells us as a result, the woman was forced into the wilderness for 1260 days or in vs 15 it says for time, times and a half a times. This period of time represents 1,260 years and it covers the same period given in Dan 7 and Rev 13. This represents the period when the Roman Catholic Church ruled.

In the next study, we will learn the identity of the Church in the Wilderness.

Blessings,
MoG
 
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