Tuesday November 8th 2016, was the date for the United States of America’s 58th election to determine her 45th President. The media made sure every home that cared to follow events of the election were carried along.  General opinions in and outside America seemed to resonate that both the Republican and Democratic candidates offered Americans a very thin choice line.

In my home, Arnold and I supported different candidates for different reasons. Unfortunately for my very logical, detailed and analytic author husband, yours truly didn’t have a ‘sensible’ explanation for preferring one candidate over the other. It was simply a ‘spiritual’ decision 🙂

As the election results started trickling in, there was an unusual quietness in my home. The TV set wouldn’t come on and be almost permanently  fixed on CNN at 6.30am as has been the case for many days. Arnold’s candidate lost! And although my preferred candidate won, I have to quickly say I was full of questions for America’s future. 🙂

What is God up to? Where is the world right now? Is the end truly near and if true, how near? Which aspect of John’s prophesies in the book of Revelations is happening now?

These and many more questions set me off on the journey am about to walk you through. It was a journey of many days (and has not yet ended).

I have to say at this point that you have a big role to play as you read this write-up.  Your thinking cap must be on all through this journey and your trust anchored firmly on The Holy Spirit the Teacher of all truth. The Spirit knows ALL things. The Book of  Revelations is understood by the one that has Godly Wisdom.

We are venturing into the book of Revelations!!!

The Book of Revelations is one book in the Bible that scared me in the past. Everything seemed like a horror movie. Descriptions of the heavenly creatures are the last things my highly imaginative mind want to feed on, at least never before bedtime! Naaa

It was different this time; I needed answers to my questions. And did I dig into The Lord’s Revelations to John of future events? Yes, I did!  And it kept my attention for many days……And its my pleasure to share my thoughts with you.

We’ll start from chapter 12.

Now, because the book of Revelations is highly metaphorical, we’ll need  to make sense of and attempt to unravel some of its key subjects and terms. The following are my understanding and descriptions of some of Revelation’s pivotal characters;

Woman (chapter 12 Vs 1) most likely refers to a Great Nation.

A few days ago, I met a member of a particular christian sect, who very passionately tried to convince me the Woman of Revelations 12:1 is Mary the Mother of Jesus. But is that really true?

Prophesies speak of future events (Selah).  In Revelations, John (a disciple of Jesus Christ) narrated his visions about future events after the death of Christ. John could not have been prophesying about events that have already occurred!  Jesus was already born into the tribe of Judah in Israel.

My Assertion: This Woman was not Mary of Joseph the carpenter.

So, who was this Woman? The Bible offers a detailed description that we have to try to understand…

(a) The Woman is clothed with the sun;

This suggests that this Great Nation has sunlight all the time. But since there’s no such nation where the sun never goes down on earth presently, I think this may refer to a Great Nation that has birthed or colonized many other nations such that at any time (t), each of those nations have sunlight! (fill in the gaps).

(b) The Woman had a garland of 12 stars on her head. This part is interesting. Follow me now;  The head is the focus of authority. The garland of 12 stars on a head (which is a round-shaped object), gives a picture of a decorative wreath on the head having 12 stars. The Great Nation had this wreath on her head.

Now because the head represents the focus of authority, my thoughts are that this Great Nation was subservient to an authority that had as its symbol a wreath-like crown with 12 stars.

Exercise 1: Attempt drawing a picture of a round-shaped wreath with 12 stars around it and see what you’d get (fill in the gaps). Hint: have you seen the EU image/flag? I suggest you look at it again……..

(c) The Woman has the moon under her feet;

This bit is not really clear to me yet, but I have 2 thoughts here. If the Woman is clothed with sunlight always, then she doesn’t necessarily need the moon.  Or this Great Nation actually did set foot on the Moon, putting the moon under her feet. Again, this bit is not clear and my thoughts will hover around it for some more time while I trust the Holy Spirit to sharpen my understanding.

(d) ‘The Woman was persecuted by the dragon after birthing the Child’.

The dragon sent flood after the woman to wipe her off the earth, but didn’t succeed. The dragon left the Woman and her Child and went to make war with her other children (colonies, nations) who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ…Christian Nations!

Child (chapter 12 Vs ) most likely refers to another nation, not exactly as great as the Woman, but which was birthed or colonized by the Woman.  Who is this Child? Does this refer to Jesus Christ? Again, Jesus had been born, killed and buried. He arose and ascended to Heaven giving John these visions and prophecies.  This is where I think a misunderstanding creeps in while trying to make sense of Revelations.  People strongly believe the Woman refers to Israel and the Child Jesus Christ. But is that really correct?

My Assertion: This Child is most likely a Nation.

This Child, rules all nations with a rod of iron. And the Child was entrusted to God. Who is this Child? What nation is it that has great powers enough to influence other nations? To cater for, defend other nations and trusts in God? (fill in the gap).

e) Dragon (chapter 12 Vs 3, 9) is the Devil, Satan.

**Note that Satan was cast out of Heaven to earth with his angels. The Devil has his own angels! (Selah).

There’s also a great, fiery red dragon with 7 heads, 10 horns and 10 diadems described in chapter 12 Vs 3. He had a tail that drew one-third of the stars of Heaven which were thrown down to earth.   Does this description still refer to Satan?

Heads are foci of authority, so could be Kingdoms or nations.

Horns represent rulers of nations or kingdoms

Crowns on heads are likely to be Cities, offshoot of the Heads/nations.

f) The Beast from the Sea (chapter 13 Vs 1-8). Beast most likely refers to an alliance or coalition. Three (3) Beasts are mentioned through the verses (1st, 2nd, and Scarlet Beast).

g) Harlot/Whore (most likely refers to a Religion established by a prophet. The False Prophet is therefore the head of this religion.

This has been another long blog post, if you read it patiently to this point, chances are you’re interested in understanding what times we’re in too…..     🙂

We have basically attempted to describe and understand the key characters in the verses. A Great Nation (let’s call that ‘Nation A’) birthed a Nation (‘Nation B’) that trusts in God and has dominance over the rest of the world. Satan tried to destroy Nation B through flood but failed, so Satan caused an Alliance from the sea still with the intent of wiping off Nation B. The Alliance is made from countries that practice one religion and follow a false prophet.

In ‘Revealing Revelations 12 to 20: Blog Post 2‘, we will begin to follow the narrations in these scriptures and come up with meaningful explanations. I am excited and expectant!

Stay Blessed,

My love always…….