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REVELATION UNCLOAKED!

A scholarly yet prophetic commentary on The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Module 1: 
The History of Persecution

Part 2: Revelation Chapter 12:

The Woman in the Sun

Rev 12:1-6  

01.02  The Woman Clothed With the Sun

The History of Persecution  

Having uncloaked John's history and initial vision, we go now to the spiritual history of persecution found in Revelation 12.  Growing up, I read this chapter over and over to the aged and blind missionary lady to China that spent the remaining years of her life in our family home.  She was fascinated by this chapter. Indeed, this passage about the woman clothed with the sun is a mystery to many Bible teachers, as evidenced in the wide variety of interpretations it receives.  Some say to be able to rightly interpret this vision is to hold the key to Revelation.

Myths involving a dragon, a pregnant woman, and the child who is born to her abound in the lore of Babylon, Egypt and Greece, and in Judaic myth, as well.  (The addition to the Book of Daniel called Bel and the Dragon is one example.)  The myth was surely familiar to John.  However, here the revealing spirit of Jesus uses the myth and its popular imagery to force new meaning upon John and subsequently the assembly.  (Jesus had frequently used fables to teach truth, even those originating in paganism, like the parable of the Rich Man in Hades in Luke 16:19.)

I place the story of the Woman, the Dragon, and the Child here in order to help illustrate the circumstances (persecution and spiritual oppression) that culminated in the letters to the churches, which we will explain later.

01.02.01  A Woman! Rev 12:1a

Rev 12:{1} A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman...  

A portent is a "door" or a "sign."  The sign is in the first heaven, the atmosphere, the sky. The Woman is not exactly Israel, the Church, or Mary, although all three play out in her true identity.  The Womans identity is true religion personified  Dame Wisdom (Sophia)  as described best for us in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. That the Woman of Revelation 12 is Wisdom / True Israel becomes clear when the student investigates the following passages in order. They unveil Wisdom in all her fullness and grace:

(1) Proverbs 8 & 9, circa 960  circa 540 B.C.;

(2) 1 Enoch 42, circa 200 B.C.

(3) Sirach 24 & 51, circa 190 B.C.;

(4) Wisdom of Solomon 7 & 18, circa 50 B.C.;

(5) John 1:1-17, circa 70 A.D.;

(6) Luke 7:35 & 11:49;

(7) Revelation 12.

According to these scriptures, the concept of Wisdom as a Person evolves, becoming more alive and complex the deeper we read.  She goes from being the wise woman of biblical fiction (Proverbs) to an intermediary between God and man, dwelling between Heaven and Earth, who, like the Son of Man, came to earth to visit those who loved but lacked her.  "She" (or "he": for the Logos and Sophia are practically theologically identical) is the agent through which all things were created and are being created and recreated.  Yet the Lady is not to be worshiped as a goddess or messiah: Like the angels of the Revelation, she is a wonderful, though special, creation of God.  

Note that in the Proverbs passages, the Lady Wisdom is contrasted with the foolish woman, a harlot standing at the gate of her abode, enticing the young men into fornication.  In Revelation, we have an exact parallel: the Lady Wisdom / True Israel is compared and contrasted with the foul Whore of Babylon, who entices the kings of the earth into fornication.  

The Lady Wisdom may be something like Revelations counterpart to the Holy Spirit (remembering that the Holy Spirit is otherwise missing in Revelation), or something of the notion of Spiritual Mary as she is understood by the Eastern Orthodox Church.  That the Divinity possesses feminine attributes (or is female in some sense) was of great importance to some ancient believers, but is mostly lost today, except in some of the more radical quarters (Charismatics, Marianites, New Agers, Feminists).

Lost may not be an adequate description of what has happened to Wisdom.  The Wisdom tradition, though having a valid, biblical expression of divinity, has been rooted out through (1) the exclusion of the Apocrypha from the canon, and (2) the five-hundred-year quest by Puritans to eliminate female images of God.  The Churches' relegation of Sophia to a wilderness cave has caused much of the unrest and dissatisfaction of religious women today.  

(On the other hand, some contemporary religious movements, believing they have rescued Sophia, have actually resurrected the Whore of Babylon.)

In the following passage from Wisdom of Solomon chapter 6, note how Solomons description of Wisdom is similar to some of the later New Testament descriptions of Jesus (starred passages especially):

[21] I (Solomon) learned both what is secret and what is manifest, [22] for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me. For in her there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, *[23] beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and most subtle.  

(Like Hebrews 4 describing the Logos.)

[24] For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things. *[25] For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. *[26] For she is a reflection of eternal light,  a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.  

(Like Colossians 1 describing the image of God.)

[27] Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; [28] for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom. [29] For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, [30] for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.  

(Like John 1, the darkness has not overcome the Logos.)

And this is only the beginning of the similarities between Sophia and Logos in the Intertestamental writings.

(Literary notes: The Hebrew hokma and the Greek sophia both are translated as "wisdom;" both are also feminine-gendered nouns.  It is for this reason Wisdom is personified as a woman.  Logos, a Greek noun of the masculine gender meaning "word," is virtually identical in function to Wisdom, having conceptual roots in Hericletus [5th century B. C.], expanded by Philo [1st century A. D.] and used by the Gospel According to John to describe the pre-existence of Jesus.  St. Paul makes the connection between logos and sophia in 1 Cor 12. He calls a spiritual gift "wisdom's word.")  

01.02.02 The Sun and the Moon  Rev 12:1b,2

Rev 12: [a woman] {1b} clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  {2} She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the agony of giving birth.  

The corrupt Jewish religious establishment set its calendar by the lunar year.  The lunar year falls 11 days short of a solar year (which is the time it takes for the earth to move one time around the sun).  On the other hand, Messianic Jews of Jesus and Johns time (like the Essenes), marked time by the sun.  Contemporaneous historian Flavius Josephus, who was an Essene for awhile, describes their extreme fervency in esteeming the solar calendar as "sun worship."

Like John, the Essenes made much of the contrast between darkness and light.  (Read, for example, the Dead Sea Scroll entitled The War Between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.) Those who walk in darkness consist of darkness and are evil; those of the light are godly.  Genesis 1:16 tells us that God made the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the darkness.  Those who walk in darkness are ruled by the moon.  It's an easy step to the notion that "if the moon rules (as it does in the case of the lunar calendar), evil reigns."

True religion, i.e. Wisdom / True Israel, is covered in the sunlight of godliness; the moon (corruption, darkness) is beneath her feet. She has no fellowship with darkness except to have overcome it.  The 12 stars of her crown represent the fullness of prophets. She is a "spirit of prophecy."  For it was the prophets who foretold that she would bear a son, and she is now in the final throes of giving birth to one who is of her (as Logos is of Sophia) and who is one with her and with ho theos.  

This text brings us to an interesting observation. I (Snyder) saw both the sun and moon plainly in the sky at 12:35 P.M. October 23rd, 1997 in Pine Mountain, Georgia.  If John witnessed the sky as I did, he saw the sun at 90 degrees and the moon at 135 degrees.  The Woman Clothed with the Sun in the sky that I observed would have been in a supine position -- lying down across the sky -- in the travail of the traditional childbirth position.

01.02.03  The Great Red Dragon  Rev 12:3,4a

Rev 12:{3} Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.  {4a} His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.    

Of course, this Red Dragon is the devil, that "ancient serpent," appearing here not as an innocuous little snake whispering words of deception to Eve, but full-grown to full-blown evil with a fullness of temporal authority (7 heads / Caesars) and power (10 horns / future rulers) and might (7 diadems / kings).  (Horns and crowns symbolize human authority and kings.  The only authority the devil has over humankind is by mutual consent.)

Red is the color of bloody war, for the dragon and for the war horse of 6:3.  Red is also the color of the Herodian dynasty, which ruled for Rome for 150 years or so.  Herod the "Great" (d. 4 B.C.) was half Idumean -- Arab -- Edomite: edom means "red," from Esau's red pottage. I can recount seven Herodian "kings":  Aristobulus, Agrippa I, Herod the Great, Archelaus, Antipas, Philip, and Agrippa II . . . .

Did you know that the devil gradually evolved since he made its first appearance in Job 1?  (Job is thought to be the earliest Bible writing.) The devil was at first a servant of God, a "watcher" in the counsel of the Elohim.  By Revelation-time, he is pure evil -- the enemy of all that is godly -- with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance of powers.  In the interim period between the lives of Job and John, this dragon swept down (from their first estate) one third (some large minority) of "stars" (angels of many types) to its sphere of authority.  (They are swept away by the dragons tail, subjugated, conveying usward his spiritual and temporal authority.)  

The dragon and his angels comprise one of several migrations of spiritual entities from outer (or inner) space to the terrestrial realm.  This dragon may have fallen (or may have been cast out of Heaven) on account of pride.  Other migrations of the "fallen" (Nephilim) include Semiaza's 200 angel on account of lust and Azazel's group for power over the human race.  Jude quotes the book of 1 Enoch, which tells the tale of such fallings.  Here is an excerpt from 1 Enoch 6,7:

1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon . . .  

7:1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them . . . Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

Some latter-day prophets tell us that angels are falling all the time on account of pride, lust and power.  These days, angels are seen everywhere.  In addition to the Nephilim, the BLAST of the fifth trumpet blows open the abyss to loosen the foul spirits of the Giborim upon the earth.  (The Giborim are the spirits of monsters, the "giants," of Genesis 6 and 1 Enoch 6, who were so heinous that God had to confine them to a pit until the end.)  Why have all these forces been loosed on earth these days (the last 40 years)?  Because these are days of deception and woe; "devil filled" (Luther); ripe for wrath.

01.02.04  A Male Child  Rev 12:4b,5

Rev 12:{4b} Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. {5} And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne;  

Sophia, the holy woman, bears Logos, the man-child / Son of Man.  Logos, the pre-natal Jesus, is primarily a Johnannine concept (John 1:1-17, but also in Hebrews 4:12).  The function of the Word / Logos in creation is exactly that of Wisdom  

All things through the Logos came to be.  He was in the world, but the world did not comprehend him, nor did the darkness overcome him (John 1).

It is no wonder that Logos is born of Sophia.  Jesus: "Wisdom is known by her children" (Luke 7:35).

The Red Dragon has full authority over the land (eretz Israel), and takes authority to destroy any threat to his power (the child).  Despots kill rivals.  Herod the Great killed many rivals and would-be usurpers, both real and imagined.  He tried to kill Jesus before he was two years old.  

But the child is ultimately saved from the jaws of the dragon.  Or is he?  Actually, Jesus did die and was resurrected to life.  According to Revelation, martyrdom is to be the fate of all the saints. Overcoming death requires resurrection.  As we read on, it is very important to recognize that throughout the Revelation, one who follows the Word of God and bears the testimony of Jesus must die to live.  For the child is caught up  but he had to die first.  His mother survives him on earth.

01.02.05  A Place Prepared by God  Rev 12:6

12:{6} and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

The wilderness, usually a place of demons and unclean animals, now becomes the refuge of our Lady.  There would be no better place to hide out than in the caves -- like the magnificent archives discovered in this century near the Dead Sea and Nag Hammadi.  True religion is present in all ages, but it is often hidden, found only after much seeking, and usually in the desert.  Although the corrupt Church has been the visible symbol of religion -- it has always been a Whore flaunting herself before kings -- the Lady Wisdom is reticent, humble, but able to be sought out and found, then loved, as those ancient sages of scripture proved.  

But in the end, Wisdom becomes the elect saints, those dear witnesses for the Word of God (Jews) and the Testimony of Jesus (Gentiles) who have sought refuge from their persecutors in the spiritual confusion of the wilderness. They are nourished for 1,260 days (or an equivalent number of years, per Num 14:34, Eze 4:6).  

For those who have ears to hear: If the United States is mentioned anywhere in prophecy, it may be portrayed here as the Wilderness.  For somewhere in the vast spiritual confusion and Babel of this country, one may still be able to find Wisdom and her children -- if one is atune to the wavelength of truth.  For Wisdom and her children are not evangelists in the common sense, but are protected from the exploitation of Babylons greed, persecution and exploitation.  It is much easier to hide a saint here than it is, say, in the wilderness of Saudi Arabia.

Rev 12:7-12

01.03 History of Persecution

War in Heaven

01.03.01  War in Heaven  Rev 12:7-9

Rev 12:{7} And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, {8} but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. {9} The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  

This is the only time the angel of Israel Michael is mentioned.  He is the guardian angel of Wisdom / True Israel which is personified as the Woman Clothed with the Sun.  This battle in the heavenlies has continued throughout time; thus the dragon has, since the time of the resurrection (the time the child was caught up to heaven), been held in check by battle with the heavenly host. When defeat is certain, he is cast upon the earth, enraged.  

Once again we see fallen angels (Nephilim).  Having been defeated in the fourth dimension, their authority now extends only to three dimensions, and is granted by consenting humans. In the end-time, the earth is polluted with malevolent, supernatural beings -- Nephilim descending from the sky; Giborim, ascended from the pit. There is a devilish family reunion taking place on the earth in our times.  The Nephilim are getting reacquainted with their offspring, the Giborim, and creation is their feast. "The End" is in sight.  Fortunately, it is the end of evil that this victory promises.    

01.03.02  Conquerers Like Angels  Rev 12:10-12

Rev 12:{10} Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. {11} But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. {12} Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"

The proclamation of victory is complete in the perfection of the number 4: salvation, power, kingdom, authority, cires the unnamed voice. The conquerors in the heavens include both the angels of Michael and the overcomers from earth, those saints who have lost their lives in the tribulations of the latter days. John makes it clear here that the first resurrection is intended specifically for martyrs.  It is a spiritual resurrection (such as that taught in 1 Cor 15) meant for life in the spirit or in the heavens or in the fourth dimension.  Jesus was referring to the resurrection of martyrs when he told the Sadducees that believers would be "like angels in heaven."  Later, we will learn of a second resurrection after the seventh trumpet that will be corporeal and involve others.  But those who make the first resurrection have overcome on earth through death and now live as overcomers in multi-dimensionality.

But woe to the earth and sea, for the devil has comedown in great wrath.

As for persecution, ours is a time like no other.  Most believers I speak to do not have a clue as to what their counterparts in other countries are enduring "until the end."  At this writing, November 16th (1997) approaches, the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  Intense harassment and martyrdom continues unchecked in China, the Sudan, Algeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Egypt, Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, and in several of the former Soviet republics.  James Kennedy reports that 200,000 believers per year may die for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus in 1998.  David Barrett predicted seven years ago that the annual number of martyrs would reach 330,000 by the year 2,000.  At this writing (May, 1999) persecution has spread to India, Indonesia and the Balkans of Europe.  The cup of martyrs is quickly filling to the brim.

While we believers have it so easy here in the wilderness, let us take the respite to continually be praying for our sisters and brothers who are in the fire.  And let's also remember that these same martyrs do conquer death through Jesus' testimony and blood.  And so must we, because the devil knows that his time is short, and we remain. 

Rev 12:13-17

01.04  The History of Persecution

Persecution of the Woman and Her Children

01.04.01  The Pursuit of True Religion   Rev 12:13-16

Rev 12:{13} So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. {14} But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. {15} Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. {16} But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.  

Both the Dragon (the devil) and the Woman (Wisdom / True Israel / True Religion) are now on the earth.  She is no longer clothed with the sun (i.e. dwelling in heavenly places).  Where is the dwelling place of Wisdom?  According to one popular conservative voice well-known to John, Dame Israel did indeed find a temporary safe haven in Jerusalem:  

Sirach 24:8 "Then the Creator of all things gave me (Wisdom) a commandment, and the one who created me assigned a place for my tent. And he said, `Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance.' 9 From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. 10 In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion. 11 In the beloved city likewise he gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my dominion.

But another voice, a prophetic voice, imparted to John another version:

1 Enoch 42: 1 Wisdom found no place where she might dwell; Then a dwelling-place was assigned her in the heavens. 2 Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children of men, And found no dwelling-place: Wisdom returned to her place, And took her seat among the angels. 3 And unrighteousness went forth from her chambers: Whom she sought not she found,   And dwelt with them, As rain in a desert and dew on a thirsty land.

As rain in the desert, the Woman is given wings, flight, to flee her pursuer.  We can visualize the action  the dear winged missionary sailing through the air with the fire-breathing dragon on her heals.  She "flies" down from the heavenlies (spiritual Jerusalem) to the wilderness, where she finds sanctuary.  The story is an allegory (intended or not) of the flight of the Ebionites (Messianic Jews known as the Poor) from Jerusalem (a resting-place) to the village of Pella. Pella was located in the desert of Transjordan.  The Ebionites fled there as a response to a prophetic warning that came forth from Agabus the Prophet (Acts 11:28, 21:10) sometime soon before 68 AD (about the time of Johns vision). As you know, Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, killing or taking captive as many as 1.5 million (says Josephus).  But the followers of Jesus, including his kin, survived the massacre because they heeded the sure word of prophecy.  (This according to Eusebius 3rd century.)  So, like the Ebionites hidden away in Pella, Wisdom / True Israel is nurtured in the (spiritual) wilderness for a time, times, and a half a time.

A TIME, AND TIMES, AND HALF A TIME:  How long is this?  The answer is not clear-cut.  Popular interpretation tells us it is 3 1/2 years.  But the Hebrew idiom actually means  2 1/2, a number that does not fit well into a "seven-year tribulation" interpretation.  Daniel's prophecy uses the idiom twice.  Let us consider Daniel's predictions:

(Dan 7:25 KJV)  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

In Daniel 7:25, a wicked ruler is to have authority over the saints (i.e. the Jews) for a time and times and the dividing of time, beginning with the rule of Belshazzar, circa 553 BC.  If we plug in 1,000 years for a time, and we have Daniel predicting 2,500 years (2.5 x 1,000), which carries us into our time, 1948, the year Israel became an independent state.  (Calculate no year zero.) Of course, though some Bible people lived long lives, Belshazzar did not live two and a half millennia.  And the date scheme seems suspiciously coincidental.  Coincidental, that is, until Dan's second use of the idiom is considered:

(Dan 12:7 KJV)  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

This second occurrence of a time, and times, and an half predicts the end of the scattering of the holy people (saints, Jews, as proclaimed by the angel.  This period began in the third year of Cyrus of Persia, i.e. circa 534 BC (Dan 10:1).  2,500 in the future brings us to 1967, the year Jerusalem was freed from the trampling down of the Gentiles and the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 21:24 was fulfilled (and this generation will live to see it all).

For 2500 years the lost tribes of Jews were persecuted and dispersed throughout the world by despots in the spirit of Belshazzar.  Daniel's "times" are John's "times." So let us conclude for the sake of this study that the Revelation's use of "a time, and times, and half a time" echoes the same epoch as Daniel recorded.  

(One interesting theory places the 2,500-year period of the Revelation between the disbursement of Ephraim (Deu 4:27) to the founding of the United States, a haven for Ephraim (Hos 2:15,16).  722 BC to AD 1776 is near enough to to 2,500 years. Ephraim in prophecy (according to this school) is referring to the Jews dispersed to the United States through the great immigrations.  These Jews have been assimilated into the culture and no longer even know who they are!  (Skolfield, Sozo,  103))

Our century has seen the greatest persecution of Jews and Christians that there has ever been, and it continues as intensely as ever today, day after day, everywhere in the worl but here.  

WATER LIKE A RIVER: 1 Enoch 10:14ff tells us that the main reason God sent the great flood on the earth was to destroy the bodies of the Giborim, monsters (giants) born from the unholy union of fallen angels (Nephilim) and the daughters of men (Gen 6:1-6).  God sends the flood to punish the devils and their monstrous offspring; now the devil sends a flood to punish the holy daughter of God and her sanctified children.  The flood is, of course, persecution and calamity.

In the days of the Giborim, the earth cried out to Yahweh, entreating Yahweh to destroy these monsters, for they were people-eaters, subjugating all creation to their slavery and lust.  

1 Enoch 9: [And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven.] 1 And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being 2 shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. And they said one to another: 'The earth made without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying up to the gates of heaven. 3 And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men make their suit, saying, "Bring our cause 4 before the Most High."'

This is what Paul was talking about in the cryptic pericope of:  

Rom 8:20  ... for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22  We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23  and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (NRSV)

But creation is not without resources to save.  In our day our earth still possesses His power of geology to actively aid in the protection of the righteous, as though our earth were indeed a living entity.  Yahweh, his Son, and his creation are actively participating in our struggle for righteousness; they are intimately involved in the plight of their elect: in both rescuing and suffering, until suffering is done away with and rescue is accomplished.  Yet let us understand that this battle must be waged.

No matter what happens, we are encouraged by the Fox Television Network that "the truth is out there," even through our bleakest hours.  His truth is out there some place and always has been, through all the persecution, war, ignorance and knowledge that has threatened to undo Her, our dear Lady.  And we want to believe for wisdom in trying times.  Yahweh, help our unbelief.

01.04.02  Wisdom's Children  Rev 12:17

Rev 12:{17} Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.  

"Wisdom is justified by her children."  That is to say, those reborn in the wisdom of God emulate that wisdom -- they become the embodiment of that wisdom.  The wise children are of two camps in the end-times, a.k.a. the two witnesses, a.k.a. the two lampstands.  They are those who keep the commandments of God (redeemed and sealed Jews, a small, finite number, 144,000 or 12 x 12 x 1000) and also those who hold the testimony of Jesus (a multitude of redeemed and sealed Gentiles).  These children of Rev 11 are all destined to be the "overcomers" of the seven churches of Rev 2 & 3.  They are a diverse lot and, in this age, don't even recognize themselves in the prophecy.  Yet the seven are two and are one, all reborn of Wisdom, all end-time brothers and sisters of her firstborn, Yahshua of Nazareth.  He prayed,  

John 17:9  I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10  All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11  And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

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