The Beast is first mentioned in Revelation at Rev 11:7 but the Beast isn't really discussed until Rev 13. Rev 12 paints a beautiful and frightening scene. Events in heaven drive the events on earth. All of the events to happen on earth are the result of the battle between Satan and God which began prior to Adam and Eve but this is the starting point for us. Let's discuss what is happening before the Beast is fully introduced.
Rev 12:
First you have the description of the birth of Jesus. "She" giving child, is Israel or the Jewish people. 12 is the number for government, 12 tribes of Israel, etc.
We are introduced to Satan as the great fiery red dragon. We then have Satan drawing a third of the angels with him - these are the fallen angels who go with Satan.
Verse 5. "She" is of course Mary. She bore Jesus who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron in the Millennium. After the Crucifixion Jesus was of course taken up to heaven.
Verse 6 - Satan tries to kill Jesus via King Herod when He was a child and Mary and Joseph have to flee Mat 2:13. Now we know they stayed in Egypt 3.5 years from this verse in Revelation.
Verse 7. We now see the war in heaven. Note it is Michael who restrains Satan in heaven, not the Holy Spirit as Pre-Tribbers falsely think from 2 Thes 2. The whole idea Pre-tribbers have about the HS restraining the Beast therefore there must be a Rapture so that the Church and HS will leave is absurd. We know the Beast isn’t on earth yet to be restrained. He gets kicked out of heaven then comes to earth with great wrath as we see.
Verse 9. Now Satan comes to earth while tribulation is already underway. I believe we are in the early trumpets at this point. The world was hit with a meteor or comet or something if the first 4 trumpets are literal. If they are not literal and symbolic, they could represent an earlier arrival of Satan but this is a whole separate discussion. I feel pretty sure we are talking about a real impact event here. We are seeing a vast increase in near misses lately.
I like the Asteroid Apophis coming in 2029 and 2036. The name implies Devil and the timing of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is too coincidental plus the 2,000 anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion in April 2033 make this really interesting. Apophis was predicted to hit by the Russians and NASA assigned a 2.3% chance awhile back which is still the highest chance ever given. A lot can happen in 16 years to increase the odds. I’m just not sure events aren’t moving too fast in the Middle East for it to wait this long, LOL.
Verse 13 of Rev 8 warns us:
"Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
This Woe, woe, woe is a real warning of something bad. Is there anything worse than Satan coming to earth? So now we have the 5th trumpet. The bottomless pit is opened and the Satanic locusts come out to torment men for 5 months. The locusts season lasts 5 months from May to September. So we know that the 5th trumpet happens during these months. Satan is in charge of these locusts as we see from Rev 9:11.
"And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon"
The 6th trumpet is all Satan. That is my conclusion. We know Jesus opens the Seals. We know the lamb’s wrath is tied to the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal. We know it is God’s wrath in the 7 Bowls. (These bowls are all poured out before the 7th trumpet completes) That leaves the trumpets. If the first 4 trumpets are part of the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal which certainly seems plausible, this means Satan/Beast have to be arriving either at the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] or 6[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet. The Lord returns at the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet. That is crystal clear.
Back to Rev 12:
Verse 10: they are happy in heaven because Satan and his minions are no longer there accusing the brethren day and night pestering the Lord. We see in verse 12 that Satan is really angry and in verse 13 he persecutes the "woman" (Israel) when he comes to earth.
Verse 14:
The believing Jews and Christians (those in Israel/Jerusalem) at the time the Abomination is seen in the holy place (Mt. Zion - not the temple as there is no temple and probably won't be until the Millennium*), flee as they are instructed into the wilderness for safety. They will be protected there for 1260 days, the same number of days the Beast/AC/Satan are proclaiming to be the Messiah. The same number of days Mary and Jesus were protected 2,000 years earlier. This place of safety is the only known safe place to ride out the Tribulation. Where is this place? I can only guess it is Petra in Jordan. I have been there and it does seem like the perfect spot. But who knows? It could be in the Mount Zion area too but that isn’t really wilderness.
One thing for sure is you have to have knowledge of this stuff to know how to be safe from it. If you believe in a pre-Trib rapture you will be in for a world of hurt as I will explain at the end. We see in Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah and other places that there will be strangers in the land in those days. There are both good and bad strangers. These strangers could be angels as we read in Heb 13:2 or they could be believing Gentiles as implied in Eph 2:19. I truly believe in the last days as Israel is under assault from all the nations that come up against her that the Israeli government will welcome true Christians to come dwell in Israel and help defend her. I think it possible that the Olive Tree grafting (Rom 11) has a real literal application in the last days.
Verse 15-17: The serpent spewing out water after the woman (Israel) isn't literal water I don't think. Rather it is the lies of Satan being the Messiah which are "poured" out against Israel. Israel is and will be starving for the Messiah especially in the end days. Those who know the truth are not fooled by these lies. Satan is so angry that believers (probably a mix of Jews and Christians) got away that he goes after the easier ones to deceive, the rest of the Jewish nation and weaker Christians like those who believed in the Pre-Trib Rapture lie.
* Pre-Tribbers always point to the temple needing to be rebuilt before the Rapture comes. But we are not taught that there is a new temple built until Ezekiel 40 which is the Millennial period. Besides, that would be too obvious for the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ uses the Pre-Trib Rapture lie to convince most Christians that they will be spared by a Rapture. Satan knows the Bible and he found a clever way to introduce this teaching of an earlier return of Christ so that when the false Christ comes, he will be able to deceive these foolish Christians.
Since most Christians think the first “Christ” to appear is the real Christ, they will still be looking for Him when the Tribulation starts. Many know that the Lord comes to Mount Zion when he returns for the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] advent so what better place for the Anti Christ to appear? Not the temple which is what everyone thinks. Jesus never says “temple” in Mat 24. He says, “Holy Place.” This of course implies Temple, but Zion is also a Holy Place. I don’t know, it could be a newly built temple or it could be Zion. But whatever it is, the AC will fool a lot of weak Christians who are awaiting the real Christ. This is why Paul made clear that the real Christ will not appear until AFTER the false Christ is revealed.
Rev 12:
First you have the description of the birth of Jesus. "She" giving child, is Israel or the Jewish people. 12 is the number for government, 12 tribes of Israel, etc.
We are introduced to Satan as the great fiery red dragon. We then have Satan drawing a third of the angels with him - these are the fallen angels who go with Satan.
Verse 5. "She" is of course Mary. She bore Jesus who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron in the Millennium. After the Crucifixion Jesus was of course taken up to heaven.
Verse 6 - Satan tries to kill Jesus via King Herod when He was a child and Mary and Joseph have to flee Mat 2:13. Now we know they stayed in Egypt 3.5 years from this verse in Revelation.
Verse 7. We now see the war in heaven. Note it is Michael who restrains Satan in heaven, not the Holy Spirit as Pre-Tribbers falsely think from 2 Thes 2. The whole idea Pre-tribbers have about the HS restraining the Beast therefore there must be a Rapture so that the Church and HS will leave is absurd. We know the Beast isn’t on earth yet to be restrained. He gets kicked out of heaven then comes to earth with great wrath as we see.
Verse 9. Now Satan comes to earth while tribulation is already underway. I believe we are in the early trumpets at this point. The world was hit with a meteor or comet or something if the first 4 trumpets are literal. If they are not literal and symbolic, they could represent an earlier arrival of Satan but this is a whole separate discussion. I feel pretty sure we are talking about a real impact event here. We are seeing a vast increase in near misses lately.
I like the Asteroid Apophis coming in 2029 and 2036. The name implies Devil and the timing of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is too coincidental plus the 2,000 anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion in April 2033 make this really interesting. Apophis was predicted to hit by the Russians and NASA assigned a 2.3% chance awhile back which is still the highest chance ever given. A lot can happen in 16 years to increase the odds. I’m just not sure events aren’t moving too fast in the Middle East for it to wait this long, LOL.
Verse 13 of Rev 8 warns us:
"Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
This Woe, woe, woe is a real warning of something bad. Is there anything worse than Satan coming to earth? So now we have the 5th trumpet. The bottomless pit is opened and the Satanic locusts come out to torment men for 5 months. The locusts season lasts 5 months from May to September. So we know that the 5th trumpet happens during these months. Satan is in charge of these locusts as we see from Rev 9:11.
"And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon"
The 6th trumpet is all Satan. That is my conclusion. We know Jesus opens the Seals. We know the lamb’s wrath is tied to the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal. We know it is God’s wrath in the 7 Bowls. (These bowls are all poured out before the 7th trumpet completes) That leaves the trumpets. If the first 4 trumpets are part of the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal which certainly seems plausible, this means Satan/Beast have to be arriving either at the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] or 6[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet. The Lord returns at the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet. That is crystal clear.
Back to Rev 12:
Verse 10: they are happy in heaven because Satan and his minions are no longer there accusing the brethren day and night pestering the Lord. We see in verse 12 that Satan is really angry and in verse 13 he persecutes the "woman" (Israel) when he comes to earth.
Verse 14:
The believing Jews and Christians (those in Israel/Jerusalem) at the time the Abomination is seen in the holy place (Mt. Zion - not the temple as there is no temple and probably won't be until the Millennium*), flee as they are instructed into the wilderness for safety. They will be protected there for 1260 days, the same number of days the Beast/AC/Satan are proclaiming to be the Messiah. The same number of days Mary and Jesus were protected 2,000 years earlier. This place of safety is the only known safe place to ride out the Tribulation. Where is this place? I can only guess it is Petra in Jordan. I have been there and it does seem like the perfect spot. But who knows? It could be in the Mount Zion area too but that isn’t really wilderness.
One thing for sure is you have to have knowledge of this stuff to know how to be safe from it. If you believe in a pre-Trib rapture you will be in for a world of hurt as I will explain at the end. We see in Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah and other places that there will be strangers in the land in those days. There are both good and bad strangers. These strangers could be angels as we read in Heb 13:2 or they could be believing Gentiles as implied in Eph 2:19. I truly believe in the last days as Israel is under assault from all the nations that come up against her that the Israeli government will welcome true Christians to come dwell in Israel and help defend her. I think it possible that the Olive Tree grafting (Rom 11) has a real literal application in the last days.
Verse 15-17: The serpent spewing out water after the woman (Israel) isn't literal water I don't think. Rather it is the lies of Satan being the Messiah which are "poured" out against Israel. Israel is and will be starving for the Messiah especially in the end days. Those who know the truth are not fooled by these lies. Satan is so angry that believers (probably a mix of Jews and Christians) got away that he goes after the easier ones to deceive, the rest of the Jewish nation and weaker Christians like those who believed in the Pre-Trib Rapture lie.
* Pre-Tribbers always point to the temple needing to be rebuilt before the Rapture comes. But we are not taught that there is a new temple built until Ezekiel 40 which is the Millennial period. Besides, that would be too obvious for the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ uses the Pre-Trib Rapture lie to convince most Christians that they will be spared by a Rapture. Satan knows the Bible and he found a clever way to introduce this teaching of an earlier return of Christ so that when the false Christ comes, he will be able to deceive these foolish Christians.
Since most Christians think the first “Christ” to appear is the real Christ, they will still be looking for Him when the Tribulation starts. Many know that the Lord comes to Mount Zion when he returns for the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] advent so what better place for the Anti Christ to appear? Not the temple which is what everyone thinks. Jesus never says “temple” in Mat 24. He says, “Holy Place.” This of course implies Temple, but Zion is also a Holy Place. I don’t know, it could be a newly built temple or it could be Zion. But whatever it is, the AC will fool a lot of weak Christians who are awaiting the real Christ. This is why Paul made clear that the real Christ will not appear until AFTER the false Christ is revealed.
