a study by Rev. Paul A. Bartz

Chapter 12 now begins "Reel Five." As is usual in the pattern we have seen, Reel Five begins, once again, with the New Testament period. Each Reel, as we have said, has its own focus. Reel Five's focus is on the challenge faced by the Church as the devil tries to destroy it through the worldly means at his disposal.

Keeping in mind the interpretive principle that Scripture interprets Scripture, there is no question that these verses clearly want to be taken as symbols: "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars." But the text itself settles the question by referring to this as a "sign" (Greek: semeion: meaning a mark or a signal, a token of something.)

Beyond this, there is both disagreement and agreement as to what these signs signify. Most opinions can be classified into one of two approaches. In order to simplify matters we present a table below which summarizes the two major approaches to the sign.

Verse:	Symbol	Choice #1	Choice #2
12:1	The Woman	The Universal Church	The Universal Church
12:1	Clothed with the Sun	The Light of knowledge reigns	The Light of knowledge reigns
12:1	The moon underfoot	Darkness defeated	Darkness defeated
12:1	Twelve Stars	The number of O.T. & N.T. Church	The number of O.T. Church
12:2	The child	Constantine	Christ
12:3	The dragon	The devil using worldly leaders	The devil
12:3	seven heads	7 hills of Rome*	leader of seven dragons
12:3	Ten horns	power (10 provinces of Rome)	power
12:3	seven diadems	7 hills of Rome*	the leader of seven dragons
12:4	tail swept stars	1/3 = I.D with Rome	Angelic Rebellion
12:4	devours child	Constantine, enemy of pagan Rome	Christ, enemy of the devil
12:5	Male Child / Ruler	Constantine	Christ
12:5	caught up by God	saved by faith	ascended to heaven
12:6	woman fled	Church escaped paganism	Christ escapes the devil

* This identification is made in 17:9

Choice One begins with the New Testament Church and the reign of Christ over the devil through the Gospel. Choice Two also begins this way, but then Choice Two's approach seems to mysteriously backtrack to the original rebellion of the devil and Christ's victory. Choice One seems to present a much more sequential outline dealing with the New Testament church and is in better keeping with the theme of Revelation: "The things that must be."

Let us then attempt a modest and generalized narrative of verses 1-6:

"The Universal church, all believers, clothed in the light of knowledge, truly reigns on earth. By virtue of her faith which has made the Creator of the Universe her Father, she has reigned long before Rome and will reign long after Rome -- a reign which like the substance of her faith is only dimly evident to but a few in the world.

"Now she shall have a child after the manner of the world -- a leader which the world will identify. He is Constantine, one of the most important leaders in church and secular history. The first Christian Emperor of Rome, he was a devout follower of the Lord building countless churches in Europe and Asia as well as identifying many of the holy sites connected with our Lord's life and building shrines which still stand 1700 years later! He is no unimportant character.

"It was such a child of the Christian Church which could never be allowed to rule Rome which had been the instrument of Satan's wrath against believers for 3 centuries. And despite the resistance of unbelief in the Roman Empire and the political pitfalls which face any Christian leader -- especially one who takes over a corrupt system -- Constantine successfully runs his race and by faith joins the Church Triumphant.

"As God's instrument Constantine forever changed the world, making it a better place for Christianity. Yet, at his loss to the earth, Rome again became unfriendly to Christianity even as it crumbled as an empire."

12:7-12 -- These verses are conveying more than the timeless struggle of the devil against God and His own, as many commentators suggest (Choice two above).

"war broke out in heaven" -- this does not mean to convey that the serenity of God and the saints in glory was broken by a direct attack of Satan on their very abode. Such an understanding would violate several of the "Rules for Biblical Interpretation" (especially #2 and 7). The battleground is human history, but the issues of the battle presented spiritual questions. Would Constantine remain faithful to the Word? Would power corrupt him and make him a useless instrument? Would Satan through his human agents destroy Constantine before his mission for the Lord could be accomplished? -- these were issues of concern to all in heaven and involved the activities of God's most powerful agents on behalf of his purpose.

Here we have a description of how pagan Rome tried to destroy Constantine. Though named by his father, the previous (and pagan) emperor of Rome to take over the emperorship at his father's death, Licinius opposed him. Licinius, who represented the old pagan ways of Rome, was an able opponent, easily commanding his troops which were raised from the territories he claimed. After several battles, he had to give up his claims, leaving Constantine the undisputed emperor of the empire. Had Licinius succeeded, rather than enjoying conditions which helped it spread, Christianity would most likely have had to endure additional persecution.

Constantine stood boldly with the Word of God. In the period of his undisputed leadership Rome experienced something she had not seen in centuries -- a period of relative peace and quiet! Times became prosperous -- all necessary elements for a rapid spread of the Gospel. What the angels proclaimed at Christ's birth is finally seen in a small way, in the political sense. The depth of the spiritual peace between God and man which Christ came to establish began to flourish so that it overflowed and blessed all aspects of society.

Now the authority of Christ over the devil was demonstrated in glowing letters in human history so that no one could misinterpret what was going on. But this only goaded the devil to act with renewed vengeance.

12:13-17 -- Constantine proved to be one of Satan's failures. So the devil devises a new tactic to destroy the woman (the Church). But the woman is protected by God and nourished to greater strength by Word and Sacrament.

"a time, and times, and half a time" needs our special attention. Millennialists usually associate this phrase with a three-and-a-half year period of extreme persecution. But beyond that generality, there are almost as many different interpretations of it as there are different types of millennialists.

This period is identical to the 1,260 days of Revelation 11:3 (see notes on 11:3), 12:6 and the 42 months of Rev. 11:2. All of these are references to the New Testament Church Age. The message here is that God has set a time in which believers work, protected from the devil so long as they remain faithful to the Word of God in faith and mission.

The italicized phrase above is important, because the devil's attack, although limited, has its power. He assaults the Church with heresies -- false teachings -- as well as complacency. Both effectively destroy God's plans for our lives!

This began, as depicted here, during the time of Constantine when the first great heresies against the doctrine of the Trinity arose. The Church responded with the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds; and with the death of the heretics, their heresies gradually died out (although they have been revived in modern times).

Verse 16 is especially descriptive of the effect of these heresies in using the word "flood." There were, literally, a torrent of heresies which issue from the "father of lies" during this period of the Church. Indeed, had these heresies remained undealt with, the central doctrine of salvation through Christ's work on our behalf would have been quickly lost! And it did seem, with the bold witness of the church, that it was true that "the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth."

But the devil is not about to give up, so new heresies continue to arise. As the visible church quit confronting these heresies (over 1,000 years would pass until the next Christian confession of faith against heresies), false teachings continued to multiply. It was not until the Gospel of salvation by unearned grace through faith alone was an obscured and outlawed doctrine of the church that God raised up the Reformation -- once again restoring the Word of God. The identification of the children of the woman as "those who obey God's commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus" confirms "Choice 1" above which identifies the woman as the Church and her children as individual believers.

1. Rule of Interpretation #11 (page 2) states: The words of Scripture are to be understood in their literal meaning unless the text plainly indicates a figure of speech, parable or allegory. Revelation 12 is especially rich in indications that much of this language is to be understood as figurative. What are some examples?

2. One of the clear purposes of the book of Revelation was to give comfort to the early Church in their trials by showing them that Christ, Whose victory they share, has already won the victory over the devil. Moreso than any other book of the New Testament, Revelation shows that ultimately, as Lord of history, all the world shall have to recognize His victory. What are some examples of this message in Revelation 12?

3. Revelation 12:12b tells us that the devil knows his time is short. What does this mean?

4. The emperorship of Constantine was a clear loss for the devil. So he attacked the church from another direction, bringing heresies into her midst through false teachers. Keep in mind that all Scripture is given to make us wise unto salvation, and a heresy is, by definition, any teaching that contradicts Scripture. What, therefore, is the devil's ultimate goal in introducing heresies into the Church?