The Church has a place of safety on earth? No rapture until the end of tribulation? I personally have no definitive view yet.
Rev 12:13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
The devil still has access...
Rev 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come,
for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Satan is currently doing this.
Rev 12:14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
There is much of interest in this verse...
"But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle"
Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Israel coming out of Egypt is a type here adn they walked every step of the way. Now here it does get interesting...
that she might
fly into the wilderness to her place
Word here for fly is...
G4072
πέτομαι / πετάομαι / πτάομαι
petomai / petaomai / ptaomai
Thayer Definition:
1) to fly
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: middle voice of a primary verb
And it literally means to fly.
The word for wilderness here is...
erēmos
Thayer Definition:
1) solitary, lonely, desolate, uninhabited
1a) used of places
1a1) a desert, wilderness
1a2) deserted places, lonely regions
1a3) an uncultivated region fit for pasturage
1b) used of persons
1b1) deserted by others
1b2) deprived of the aid and protection of others, especially of friends, acquaintances, kindred
1b3) bereft
1b3a) of a flock deserted by the shepherd
1b3b) of a woman neglected by her husband, from whom the husband withholds himself
Part of Speech: adjective
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: of uncertain affinity
Citing in TDNT: 2:657, 255
Certainly not heaven in the presence of God.
Rev 12:15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
Water is a type of nations or armies.
Rev 12:16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Some seismic event puts a barrier between the church and the armies? Remember the Red Sead became a barrier between Israel and Egypt after they were separated by God's intervention.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
This shows us who these people are, those who have the Commandments of God AND the Testimony of Jesus Christ. This is not the state of Israel today.
Jesus described this event and gave the timing...
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand
Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Mat 24:21
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.