AHW,
This is a common misconception.
The Woman in Rev 12 starts off as all of Israel. When Christ ascended back into heaven after the Cross, war broke out in heaven. It should be easy to imagine that when victorious Christ who just defeated death returned to heaven that He might have more than a few words with Satan. This is when Satan was cast down to earth. The woman now became the Church. The Jews who rejected Christ were no longer part of the Bride, their branches were cut off. We see in vs 10-11 that salvation had come (the kingdom and power of Christ) and that the woman (the Church) overcame Satan by the Blood of the Lamb.
Once Satan gets to earth, 1,260 days after Christ returns to heaven, he immediately wages war against the Church. The first martyr, Stephen is killed. The Christians are all subject to massive persecution and martyrdom wherever the Gospel was spread. But in vs 14, the woman (the Church) is told to flee to Pella (the wilderness) just prior to the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem. Here the Church is nourished for 3.5 years until the war is over. Satan, not being able to do further harm to the Church attacks the off-spring, the rejecting Jews inside Jerusalem and slaughters 1.1 million of them leaving only 98,000 left alive. These are taken to Rome where many more are put to death in the Colosseum.
The other woman, of Rev 17, was apostate Jerusalem (the Christ rejecting murdering Jews). They are the ones, "drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus." This woman, arrayed in purple and scarlet (the colors of the garments worn by the Jewish priests) all decked out with gold and precious stones, killed their Messiah and many of His followers. The "beast" that carried this woman was Rome. Rome supported this filthy harlot, the Jewish customs and priestly leaders and even put their Messiah to death for this woman.
But in 70 AD, Rome turns on this filthy harlot Woman and absolutely slaughters her, burns down her vile temple, kills the remaining priests and desolates the city. "And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” - This is Jerusalem, the "holiest" city on the planet at that time. Everyone was in awe over Jerusalem in those days.
Jerusalem also sits on 7 hills. Look it up. The harlot of Rev 17 being Jerusalem is absolutely clear from Mat 23. The same symbolism John uses in Rev 17 is first found here, in Mat 23 (right before the Olivet), "fill up" as in "cup."
[SUP]31 [/SUP]“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. [SUP]32[/SUP]Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. [SUP]33 [/SUP]Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? [SUP]34 [/SUP]Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, [SUP]35 [/SUP]that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. [SUP]36 [/SUP]Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
[SUP]37 [/SUP]“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! [SUP]38 [/SUP]See! Your house is left to you desolate; [SUP]39 [/SUP]for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
Can't you see that the Wrath of God was aimed at them??? God had it with them!!! Try really hard and look back on the entire history of the Jewish race from Abraham to the death of Christ and recognize who rejected Christ, scourged Him, killed Him and His disciples. This stiff necked nation had been disobedient more in 2,000 years then they were ever obedient. This is why the Church came about, the kingdom was given to another. All of this is why God destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's desolation foretold by Daniel and the other prophets was the conclusion of those wicked nightmare people. The significance of the destruction of Jerusalem cannot be overstated. It was the end. It was finished. God's wrath concluded.
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