Fall from heaven?

Well, she was in heaven; and suddenly we find her along with the Dragon on earth; unless the wilderness is in heaven too.

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"woman" as a symbol

A woman is often used as the symbol for the people of God in both the Old Testament and the New.

For example:


The imagery runs all through scripture -- God's people portrayed as a beloved woman and wife. But her commitment to sin is viewed as adultery -- giving herself to another. A pure and faithful woman are God's faithful.

CLOTHED WITH THE SUN
Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;
God's people are clothed by the glorious righteousness of Christ.

She is clothed with the sun--the Sun of Righteousness (Mal.4:2) for she has "washed her robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:14).



Who is the husband? Isaiah 54.5, tells us who the true husband is.

"For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel."

Christ is our MAKER (John 1:2) Christ is our Redeemer (Rev. 5:9) The pure woman is the FAITHFUL bride of Christ, (the citizens for the heavenly kingdom, from all ages) who "has made herself ready, to whom is granted to be clothed with fine linen bright and pure, the fine linen of righteous deeds, for the marriage of the Lamb has come." (see Rev. 19:7,8)


A "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head" is seen (Revelation 12:1). According to Genesis 37:9,10, these represented the first family of Israel: Jacob (the "sun"), Leah, (the "moon"), and Jacob's twelve sons (the "twelve stars").

When we first see the "woman" she is still Israelis the earthly city of Jerusalem, since the Israelites were the embodiment of the woman. Zion or Jerusalem was their primary dwelling place and worship center. Jerusalem was considered to be the "wife" or "bride" of God (Jeremiah 2:2); however, she was an "adulterous wife" (Ezekiel 16:32). Therefore, the New Jerusalem, the capital city of the new heaven, will become the perfect "Bride" of the Lamb of God when it comes down from heaven


Heb.12.22 "You are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem."


People are the citizens of the kingdom.

The pure woman represents the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. The citizens of God's kingdom.
Revelation 21:2, portrays this woman of ZION, the Heavenly Jerusalem (complete with the citizens) prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
So we see 12 stars about the head of woman, for the Bible says:



(Rev.3:11-12) "Behold I come quickly" hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take your crown. He that overcomes will I write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem." (Rev. 21:9,21,12; 22:14) "Come I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife...the holy Jerusalem descending...having the glory of God...with twelve gates which are twelve pearls...and names written thereon are the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Blessed are those who wash their robes, (who do His commandments) so that they will have the right...to enter the city by the gates.

This woman represents the people from all ages who have the name of GOD'S kingdom written upon their foreheads, who will enter those 12 pearly gates as citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

Thanks for your views. Here's the best interpretation I've seen yet--

Rev. 12:1-6 -- "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the Dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."

We all somewhat agree, I know, that this woman of Revelation 12 is symbolical of the Church; that the Dragon is symbolical of Satan; and that the child represents Christ. But inasmuch as we may not agree as to whether the woman is symbolical of the Old Testament church or of the New or of both, it is essential that we study to see eye to eye.

Now, the questions naturally arise, If Christ is the One Who brought forth the Christian church, then how can she be His mother? And was not Christ born at least thirty years before the Christian church came into being? Is not the egg laid before the chicken is hatched?

And finally, is it not true that if we blunder forth on an erroneous premise that we shall find ourselves further and further from the truth on the subject? -- Most assuredly. Let us, then, make certain of the foundation upon which we build.

We all know that Christ was born, not to the Christian church, but to the Jewish. This being so, then how can we escape the truth that this twelve-star-crowned woman is primarily the Jewish church who travailed and gave birth to the "world's Redeemer" in the Old Testament period?

Moreover, before the child was born, and before the Gospel of Christ came to the Church, she was clothed with the sun, and the moon stood under her feet. There is therefore not the slightest excuse for one to conclude that the woman represents the Church clothed with the Gospel of Christ. And if her sun clothing does not represent the Gospel of Christ, then what does it represent?

Since she was clothed with the sun before Christ's birth, and before the Gospel came, then her sun-clothing must be the Bible, the Word of God that clothed her in the period of the prophets.

What is symbolized by the moon under her feet? -- The fact that the moon of the heavens reflects the light from the sun to earth, the symbolical moon therefore being under the woman's feet, and the sun shining directly upon her, not by reflection through the moon, denotes that her channel of light conveyance, the moon, was passing away, was no longer needed, that the sun itself, the source of her light, shining directly upon her, enveloped her with its bright rays.

What could the moon then symbolize but the period before the Bible came, the period before Moses, in which the Word of God did not shine directly on the people as It does to-day (for they had no Bible in those days), but was reflected on them by men of God, the medium, that is, the prophets before Moses never wrote down the messages of God but verbally passed them on.

Though this twelve-star-crowned woman symbolizes something in the Old Testament time, as we have already seen, she nevertheless is seen to symbolize something in the New Testament time. This we see from the fact that after the child was born, and after the Christian church came into being, the woman was given the wings of a great eagle, and was thus enabled to fly into the wilderness, there to be nourished "for a time, and times, and half a time."

Moreover, her leaving the vineyard (her homeland -- Palestine) and going into the wilderness (the lands of the Gentiles, for that is what wilderness symbolically stands for in contrast to a vineyard), again shows that she continued after her child was born.

Taking all these points into one common whole, they positively show that the woman is symbolical of God's ever-living Church for all times, and that she is His saving Truth, His true wife, the Truth that gave birth to Christ and that gives birth to all His "brethren" (His followers), "the remnant of her seed." Rev. 12:17.

When the promise of the coming Saviour was made, it was then that the dragon learned that the Church was to give birth to the "man child," and from then on he watched her closely, hoping to destroy the world's Redeemer as soon as He was born. This he endeavored to accomplish through Herod, when he caused a multitude of little children to be slaughtered. The child Christ, nevertheless escaped, and the Devil met his first defeat in this connection.

Now the Dragon being fortified with seven heads and ten horns, denotes that he controlled all the civil and religious powers in that day (for the symbolical number "ten" denotes universality, just as do the ten toes of Daniel 2, the ten horns of the other Bible beasts, and the ten virgins of Matthew 25).

The horns represent all the civil powers, while the heads represent all the religious powers, for the Biblical number "seven" denotes completeness. Moreover, the fact that the Church (the Jews), the only agency through which God worked up to that time, crucified the Lord, is in itself sufficient proof that the Church had apostatized, that she had become the Dragon's seventh head, and that thus was the Dragon armed with ten horns and seven heads, -- with all the civil and religious powers. And, so, you see, the Dragon with his horns and heads represents the world captured by the Devil.

Thus it is that the world was lost in that day, and thus it was that Christ came to redeem it. To do all this He started a new church organization. In this light we see Christ, the world's Redeemer, and His mission even more important than we have ever seen it before.

The Dragon's drawing from heaven a third part of the stars (angels, Rev. 12:9) with his tail, not with his claws, denotes that in the beginning of Satan's universal rebellion the angels volunteered to follow the rebel leader, and to unite with him in his evil work against the human family.

Maybe the woman represents the church and not the Christian church?

The woman represents God's people.
We see that representation in the OT and in the NT.

There is always the "pure" and the "harlot"--
The faithful and the unfaithful both of whom claim to be God's people.

In the OT Zion is seen as Jerusalem as this was the place where God's truth was centered and was to spread out to the world, in the NT Zion is no longer old Jerusalem, but the New Jerusalem that heavenly city.

God's people --
Rev. 3:12 I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God:

REV. 19 and 21 refers to Jerusalem as the bride of the Lamb.
This includes all the citizens -- those with the name of the city of God which is New Jerusalem written upon them.

Why, then, did the woman fall? Why was she cast out of heaven? She was in heaven; and suddenly we find her along with the Dragon on earth; unless the wilderness is in heaven too.

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James Peterson,

Do you agree with Ellen White's view of the woman and the wilderness?

The depiction has a lot of symbols in it.
A dragon with seven heads,
A woman standing on the moon.

When we first see this depiction neither were actually in heaven. The woman is giving birth, and the dragon is trying to kill the child as soon as He is born.
John sees it as a "wonder in heaven",
And if the woman is standing on the moon -- he sees her only up in the sky (heaven), not in God's home heaven.

So maybe this is a depiction of Christ coming to unite earth and His Home Heaven -- the woman in the sky giving birth to the only one who could bring this reconciliation about, is between heaven and earth and the dragon is reaching up to render that link incapable to make that connection by attempting to devour the Christ child who alone could make that link.


But yes, the woman herself fell -- remember the theme runs all through scripture of God's people pictured as a woman, unfaith going into harlotry.
In the end their is only a "remnant" of her offspring, not the whole woman worshipping the true God. (see Rev. 12:17)

No, I don't. {GC 54.2} is not the correct interpretation for Rev. 12:14-16 ...


The sepent never gets to touch or trouble the woman during those "time, times and half a time." She is like Elijah the prophet who fled from the face of Jezebel and dwelt in safety by the river and was kept alive by God. She is really not an entity like a church at all but an idea, a system. She is spoken of in Rev. 11 as the two witnesses. ONLY AFTER the period of "time, times and half a time," does the serpent have access to her again, and even then only through her children (i.e. the true adherents of the idea, or system).

You'd best be able to understand it if you think of Jesus Christ being crucified by the Romans and then, long after, the Christians being burnt for light by the Roman Caesar just before the Temple was destroyed in 70AD. Between the two incidents, the Christians were among the Greeks in the city-states and the gospel was growing among them away from the Jewish persecution.

The problem is, as I said from the beginning, SDA are so enamored by EGW, that they believe everything she says even things that are not biblical or right. And they do so because they fail to read the Bible for themselves.

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