JOHN DID NOT RECEIVE THE REVELATION until the year 90 AD. The book is addressed to the future not the past. The following statements made by the angel who is relaying the Revelation to John, preclude the possibility of the woman being Mary or the manchild, Jesus. TWICE, this statement is given; FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND. Revelation 1:3 and 22:10. A statement of this nature would most certainlyrelate to the seven churches of which John was a contemporary.
I WILL SHOW THEE THINGS WHICH MUST BE HEREAFTER. JOHN was the one caught up, not the church. JOHN, and only JOHN heard the VOICE, not a trumpet, but a voice which sounded like a trumpet. There is quite a difference between a voice and a trumpet. Revelation 4:1 The scripture plainly refers to the future and to events that have not yet been accomplished.
WRITE THESE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN, THE THINGS WHICH ARE, THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER. Revelation 1:19 Once again there is no reference to the past whatsoever. Our vision and our search for understanding should therefore be toward the future from the time of the giving of the message.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES of the birth of the Revelation man child do not harmonize with the birth of Jesus. The enemy, the dragon (Rev.12:4), did not, stand before Mary, ready to devour the Christ child. It was some two or three years after His birth that the babies were slaughtered in an attempt to kill the King of the Jews. With the Revelation man child, the attempt to kill the man child is an immediate threat.
THE DELIVERANCE OF THE MAN CHILD IS INSTANTANEOUS. The child was caught up. No time wasted in removing him from the presence of evil and harm. Such was certainly not the case of our Lord Jesus. He faced all the temptations that we face and was victorious. In His life time He suffered greatly and in every possible fashion. This child will never know the sufferings of this life. He will never be tempted as we are. He is what the plan of salvation is all about. He is the crowning glory of the New Creation. He is a FIRST BORN. Born into perfection, without the possibility of sinning. Note he is caught up to the throne. His status in the economy of the Lord is so high that he will be a part of those who occupy the throne of the Lord. There is nothing more beautiful and sacred than this result of the marriage of Christ and His church.
THE LORD WILL DO NEW THINGS. With the Lord there are no impossibilities. What He has proclaimed He will fulfill. A woman will compass a man, or a woman will bring forth a manchild. Jer. 31:22 How can it be? Who has heard of such happenings? A nation brought to birth in a day. Isa. 66:8 This is not Israel, for it is Zion who travails. Zion is the bride of Christ. Zion is the birth mother. This moment spoken of here in Isaiah and the woman of Revelation 12 are one and the same. The one-hundred-forty-four thousand are members of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is female. The one-hundred forty-four thousand are virgins, alluding to the fact that they are the womb of the church. The birth of the manchild could be called a nation born in a day.