War in Heaven |
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And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. In the prophecy of Revelation 12:7, quoted above, the "war in heaven" results in the "dragon" being thrown out of heaven, down to the earth. This event is heralded by an angel saying "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God..." (Revelation 12:10). To understand, we need to find the Bible's explanation for
each symbol in the prophecy. Some have supposed the prophecy about a
war in heaven refers to cosmic battles
that left scarred planets in the solar system, and craters on the moon,
but the literal approach makes
no sense of the prophecy, as missiles would have no effect on
angels. The sign of the woman in heaven involves two symbols: heaven, and the woman, which both have to be interpreted. She appears "in heaven", I think, because she represents the Church; that is, all the believers; those who have been, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:6, "raised up together," and who "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." The woman is "clothed with the sun," which represents the light and truth of gospel that the Church brings to the world. In the dream of Joseph, in Genesis 37:9, that was interpreted by his father Jacob, the sons of Israel were 12 stars, Israel was the sun, and Rachel, Joseph's mother, was the moon. John's heavenly woman has the moon at her feet, and sun, moon, and stars all are features of vision of Revelation 12. Israel represents the promises of God to Abraham that are identified with the gospel. Rachel represents the nation of the Jews in Matthew 2:16-18. The moon at the woman's feet pictures the fact that the Church has its roots in Jewish history. The crown of stars that she wears represents the 12
apostles. The stars identify her with the "Israel of God", and
Abraham's seed, which are as the number of the stars. The stars
that fall to the earth (Revelation 12:4) are those individual believers
who return to the world, following after the dragon. The stars are
mentioned
in connection with the saints, and the "seed of Abraham" in Genesis
22:15-19. So the "war" mentioned in Revelation
12:7-12 involves the believers, and pictures the great struggle for
truth and understanding, in which the Church has been involved. It is a
"spiritual" struggle, not a "space battle" or a bombardment of the
surface of planets, etc. Note that Satan is eventually overcome, by
"the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony." (Revelation
12:11). No doubt this "war in heaven" involves some of the conflicts
in which Christians are participating today; but the conflicts are
between ideas, and the war is about discovering the truth, rather than
people striving against each other. To clarify what the war in heaven is about, we may turn to
Revelation 11, the chapter about the two witnesses. These are
identified in another article on the Two
Witnesses
as the Bible, or the word of God, and the Spirit. It is these two
witnesses who are overcome and killed by the beast from the bottomless
pit (Revelation 11:7-8): And
when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall
overcome them, and kill them.
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. The war is over our understanding of the message of the gospel, and the interpretation of the prophecies of the bible, and the realization of the promises of Christ to his Church, through the Spirit. The great city called Sodom and Egypt is the worldly society; it was outside the gates of Jerusalem that our Lord was crucified. The "flood from the mouth of the serpent" mentioned in Revelation 12:15, that threatens to engulf the woman, may well be the "flood" of scientific information poisoned with skeptical materialistic philosophy, in which the whole world is engulfed today, and its effect on the Church. What is particularly interesting in Revelation 12:16 is the statement that "the earth helped the woman"; also the statement "the earth opened its mouth," and swallowed up this information flood. Could it refer to geologic discoveries that support the Bible, which swallow up all the misinformation about the earth's past? The River of LiesGeorge B. Caird, in his commentary, calls this flood mentioned in Revelation 12:16 "the river of lies." He wrote:What was this rush of great waters, this torrent of destruction, this flood which would have swept God's people away...? ...Slanderous attacks from without, false teaching designed to corrupt the church's faith and to destroy it from within-this is the river of lies which the serpent spewed from his mouth.There are two kinds of information that might come forth from the earth, and confirm the Bible against the claims of critics and skeptics. Geologic support for a great flood, and archaeological discoveries, supporting the accuracy of scripture can have this effect. There have been many examples of both these kinds of discoveries. See Also
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