Chapter 12

1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

A woman in the Bible is an ideology.  Jerusalem is a virgin and wife to God.  Wisdom is referred to as a woman: wife, sister, mother, and was with God from the beginning (Proverbs 7-9 and others).  Wickedness is a woman that’s been put in a basket in Zechariah 5:7.  Here we see both good and evil shown as a woman.  This woman was clothed with the sun.  Here’s a verse describing clothed:

Ezekiel 16:3-10 Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you, you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD. “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.”  

Jerusalem was clothed by God and given status, protection, prosperity and those around knew that God was with her.  The woman here was clothed by the sun, which we have found is a leader of a nation.  Christianity is now embraced by the King of England and given status, protection and prosperity.  The twelve stars are likely in reference to the twelve disciples of the New Testament because the church fathers of the time were now printing Bibles but primarily the New Testament.  In 1384 John Wycliffe, who has been named the morning star of the reformation, had translated just the New Testament into English.  After the printing press in 1455, there was the Tyndale Bible published, but again only in the New Testament.  The church was now crowned with the glory of the testimony of Jesus.

2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.

(greatsite.com/english-bible-history/)Before the church in earnest was born, the birth pains and agony were those who stood up to the Catholic Church and were executed because of it.  The Pope was so infuriated by the teaching of Wycliffe  and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!  One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s idea that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language.  This was in opposition to the tyranny of the Roman church because they threatened anyone that possessed a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of Hus had come true! 

In the 1490’s another Oxford professor, and the personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th, Thomas Linacre, decided to learn Greek. After reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” The Latin had become so corrupt that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel… yet the Church still threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin… though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures. 

3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.

We can again connect this to the beast that comes out of the abyss in Revelation 11:7.  The horns and heads are described in Chapter 17, which is different than the beast in Chapter 13 that rises out of the sea and has 10 heads, 7 horns and 10 crowns on his horns.  The description of the horns and heads is in chapter 17.

We have the dragon being present in several chapters of Revelation and the Jesuits are the only group that fits in the entirety.  In regards to the Protestant Reformation the Jesuits were the force that tried to stop the progress of the Church of England, and later the King James Bible.  They were considered the “secret arm of the papacy.”

4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

On December 27, 1594, a crazed former student at the Jesuit College of Clermont in Paris attempted to murder King Henry IV of France. As a result of the ensuing uproar, the Society suffered banishment from most of France for eight years, from 1595 to 1603.  The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to assassinate King James I of England during the Opening of Parliament in November 1605. The plan was organised by Robert Catesby, a devout English Catholic who hoped to kill the Protestant King James and establish Catholic rule in England.       

5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,

In Enoch’s Animal Apocalypse the bull turns into a man who is to rule other nations.  This is the best interpretation I could find for this verse.  We do have one of the Kings of England who ruled the nation with a rod of iron, which is the word, see Psalms 23.  

From Wikipedia: Edward's reign was marked by many economic problems and social unrest that in 1549 erupted into riot and rebellion. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland and Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace. The transformation of the Church of England into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred under Edward, who took great interest in religious matters. His father, Henry VIII, had severed the link between the English Church and Rome but continued to uphold most Catholic doctrine and ceremony. It was during Edward's reign that Protestantism was established for the first time in England with reforms that included the abolition of clerical celibacy and the Mass, and the imposition of compulsory English in church services. In 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, he and his council drew up a "Devise for the Succession" to prevent the country's return to Catholicism. Edward named his Protestant first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir, excluding his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.          

7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 

8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of the Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”       

13 when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.  14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.

The dragon was indeed thrown down with the King James bible in 1611, which was carried throughout the entire earth while the British spread their empire over the entire planet.  

The wilderness is defined as lonesome, a waste.  At this time North America was not settled, it’s a good description of the two wings that made it to North America.  

(https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html#:~:text=Many%20of%20the%20British%20North,European%20Persecution) Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established "as plantations of religion." Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives--"to catch fish" as one New Englander put it--but the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create "a city on a hill" or a "holy experiment," whose success would prove that God's plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves "militant Protestants" and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church. (internet)            

The Puritans (likely the Cathars) had an official charter from the King of England to establish a colony, under the Church of England.  The Pilgrims also made it over to the colonies in their effort to worship Jesus freely.

Jamestown was settled by the Puritans in 1608.  For our timeline, 42 years times 3.5 = 147 years, which is when the French and Indian war started.  The Jesuits tried converting Native Americans to make war on Christian colonists.  Flood in prophecy is a war as seen in Psalm 124:1 If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel now declare—2 if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, 3 when their anger flared against us,then they would have swallowed us alive, 4 then the floods would have engulfed us, then the torrent would have overwhelmed us, 5 then the raging waters would have swept us away.

16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

In Chapter 11 France is the earth.  In 1763 the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian war.

17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

AI overview of the Jesuits and the 30 Years’ War:

The Jesuits were a key part of the Catholic Reform movement and were involved in the Thirty Years' War, a pan-European conflict that lasted from 1618 to 1648. The Jesuits were present at four Catholic courts during the war: Vienna, Munich, Paris, and Madrid. 

Role of the Jesuits

Jesuit confessors advised on all aspects of the war, including negotiating alliances. 

Jesuit confessors to Ferdinand II of Austria and Maximilian of Bavaria played important roles in the war. 

The Thirty Years' War

The war was a continuation of the religious conflict that started with the Reformation in the 16th century. 

The war was triggered by the Defenestration of Prague in 1618, which started the Bohemian Revolt. 

The war involved many European powers, including Denmark, Sweden, France, and Spain. 

The war devastated Germany, killing between one-third and one-fourth of the population.

The 30 years war (1618 - 1648) was fought primarily within the Holy Roman empire borders.  An estimated 4.5-8 million military and civilians died from battle, famine or disease.