25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373

God’s will for our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers

Our nation, military and leaders Peace

"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born" (Revelation 12:4).

We are more than familiar with the texts that surround the birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. Mark says nothing about the birth. In John’s gospel, he states that the Word -- God -- came and lived among us (1:14). Paul speaks of Jesus being born of a woman (Galatians 4:4) and that He would come as a human (Philippians 2:6-8). There is one text that is rarely looked at because of where it appears and the difficulty in understanding the pictures. Let’s take a look at Revelation 12.

Revelation was written by John somewhere in the late 70s to the early 90s from the island of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). John is writing to seven churches in Asia Minor who are in some way facing persecution, and is intended for them. Domitian would be the Caesar of the day for most of that period. He was the first Emperor to begin an Empire policy of persecution that would occur on and off for the next two hundred years.

Revelation is written in a Jewish style of language that is both vivid and violent in its presentation (1). For the outsider it is a difficult language to grasp. It is rich in Old Testament references and since the Bible of the early church was the Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures, they would grasp the "hidden" meaning of the pictures. It is a book of a cosmic battle between God and Satan, pictured in terms of warfare, that bleeds over into our reality or dimension (2). We do not see this battle but know that it goes on. One example of this is seen in Job 1 and 2 where the Accuser comes into the presence of God, and there challenges God’s integrity because of His comments on Job.

For a serious theological understanding of Revelation, Randy Harris presents this thought: "God’s team wins. Choose your team. Don’t be stupid." With that deep theological thought in mind, we see in Revelation glimpses of God and heaven between cosmic battles that bleed into our realm or dimension. Revelation 12 is a cosmic view of the birth of Jesus. One has to be careful to realize that there are no time lines involved in this. Trying to set this in an historical order is just not what is in view. A timeline or historical order as interpretation is not a factor in understanding the book’s pictures. Again, we do need to keep in mind the First Century context.

As suggested in the previous two articles, there is a dark side to the Christmas story. Revelation 12 pictures it as a cosmic battle. We find that the dragon waiting for the birth of a child by a woman selected by God. The purpose was to destroy this child before He could affect things. We looked at how Mary was possibly in danger of an honor killing before she gave birth but God intervened through Joseph. We also see the rescue of Jesus from the threat of Herod the Great, yet some children died in Bethlehem. This is pictured in Revelation 12 in the figures of speech.

After the birth of the child there is a battle in the heavenly realms between the Dragon and Michael, God’s general. The Dragon is defeated and cast down. Out of revenge, he pursues the woman but this time the earth intercedes on her behalf. In anger, the Dragon goes off and makes war against her children, understood as Christians in general and the seven churches in particular. The children are stated as "those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus."

When the woman gave birth to her son, he was to "rule all the nations with an iron scepter." Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). He became Lord and King (Acts 2). Jesus is Lord, not the Emperor or anyone else, including the Dragon. The battle has intensified because of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There was a great victory in heaven but now the earth is under attack. This is God’s creation which longs for its redemption (Romans 8:18-25). In the end, the earth will be freed or saved from the Dragon and the new Jerusalem, the new heavens and new earth will be re-created, restoring the earth to the original state as found in Eden.

Until then, however, we are in a battle. Between the victory stated in verse ten and the battle in verse twelve is the following statement that is important for us. "The triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." God’s team wins! At times it looks bad, but victory is assured. The churches of Asia Minor needed to hear that. They had seen the Romans destroy Jerusalem and now they were threatening them. They needed to know, and so do we, that God is with us. And isn’t that what the birth of Jesus all about? We sing it in our carols. We read it in the birth texts. We see it throughout the New Testament.

This is another view of the dark side of Christmas. It is something we need to keep in view. While we really like the idea of peace and good will among humans, we realize that the true peace will come only when Jesus returns as the Conqueror (Revelation 19), and bringing with Him the new heavens and the new earth. Until then, Revelation 12:11 is the way we are to live!

George B. Mearns

(1) Apocalyptic writings can be found in Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and some Jewish writings between the Testaments.

(2) We are three dimensional people, able to look at lower dimensions but not those above us. Hugh Ross, a believing scientist, suggests that there are at least ten dimensions, God being able to cross over all of them. Keep in mind, this is way beyond my understanding but it is interesting.