Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon

He only taught for 31/2 years,

Yet in one generation

What he said

transformed the world.

All the armies

that ever marched,

All the navies that ever sailed;

And all the kings

that ever reigned, combined,

Have not affected history

As much

as this one solitary life.

Now, two thousand years later

His followers number

in the billions

And cover the earth,

Yet the practice

of modern Christianity today

Scarcely resembles

the early teachings of Jesus

Prophecy foretold

this would happen...

circa - ad-91

prison island - Patmos

A woman, a child and a dragon.

At first glance this might sound

Like the ingredients

for a frightening fairy tale.

In fact, the troubling scenes

that you just witnessed

Are part of a true

and powerful prophecy

Given to the apostle john

nearly 2,000 years ago.

What does this prophecy,

Found in revelation 12, tell us?

Does it point to some event

That happened

thousands of years ago

Or does it describe things

That are going to take place

in the near future?

And who do the woman,

The dragon

and the child represent?

Join us now as we journey

deep into a world

That few have ever seen

but all are a part of.

Revelation:
The bride,

the beast and Babylon.

Revelation:
The bride,

the beast and Babylon

In the last book

of the bible, revelation,

The apostle John

was shown a vision

Of a great struggle

between good and evil,

A prophecy of a battle

That has been raging

behind the scenes

Since the dawn of time.

The secrets behind this prophecy

Have been shrouded

in mystery for centuries...

until now.

From the kingdoms and the rulers

That have fallen

around the world

To the men and women

that stood up to fight

For what they believed in,

This is the story

of Christianity,

The search for truth

And the foundation

for the faith of billions.

"Now a great sign

appeared in heaven:

"A woman clothed with the sun,

"With the moon under her feet,

"And on her head

a garland of twelve stars...

"...then being with child,

"She cried out in labor

and in pain to give birth...

"and the dragon

stood before the woman

"Who was ready to give birth,

To devour her child

as soon as it was born."

Many bible scholars

and historians

Have studied this prophecy

over the years

And agreed that the prophecy

of revelation 12

Points to an event

Known as "the massacre

of the innocents"

Which occurred

in first century Judea.

In the decades leading up

to the birth of Christ,

The roman empire

Had conquered the whole

Mediterranean world,

Including Judea.

And at various points

in that history

They had different people

ruling over it.

Twenty years before Jesus

was born you have king Herod,

A client king for Rome.

We have documents

about him outside the bible

That tell us

that he was very cruel.

He was capable

of killing his own sons.

He was ruthless

And you wouldn't want

to get on his bad side.

Herod was very anxious

When a small delegation

of wise men from the east

Came to Jerusalem

Announcing their search

for the newborn king of the Jews.

Why would Herod

be upset about that?

Because that was Herod's title

as bestowed upon him

By the roman empire:

King of the Jews.

And he asks his astrologers,

"How long is it possible

This child

could have been born ago?"

And they determine

It's probably been

maybe 2 years at most

Since this child was born,

maybe less.

He finds out from

the Pharisees and the Sadducees

Exactly where this child

was to be born

And he finds out it's Bethlehem

And he worried

about losing his throne.

And so he has such anger

against this child

He sends in the soldiers

to try and kill Jesus.

The bible tells us

this barbaric act

Was inspired by more than just

the tyrannical jealousy

Of an old king.

Many bible scholars believe

That it's part

of a much bigger struggle

That has spanned the ages

and is still happening today.

To uncover the secrets

of this prophecy

We're going to first need

to identify the main characters:

The woman, the child

and the dragon.

He says, "then I saw

another sign, a woman,

"Clothed with the sun,

with the moon under her feet,

And on her head a crown

of twelve stars."

Let's take a closer look

at the woman.

We know that she's a symbol

of someone or something.

Does the bible tell us

what this woman represents?

"Husbands love your wives,

"Just as Christ loved the church

And gave himself for her."

We gather from this

That the church

is the bride of Christ.

Not only

is she the bride of Christ

But in a certain sense,

since no man hates his own flesh,

The church is Jesus' body.

Very clearly a woman,

in scripture,

Represents the church.

You have a woman

as representative of god's people.

We see this

in the old testament.

We see it in the new testament.

Jesus comes

from the people of Israel

And then the church grows up

As something

that Jesus develops.

Most importantly, this woman

is about to give birth

To a special male child.

Who is the child?

We have a couple of indications:

One:
He rules with a rod of iron

over the nations.

That's a reference

to the old testament

Where clearly god is the one

Ruling over the nations

with a rod of iron.

And then he says

he's caught up into heaven

And who is caught up

into heaven?

Jesus Christ, right?

He's the king of kings

and lord of lords.

So these two indications

pretty definitively tell us

That this is Jesus.

Now let's consider

the arch villain

In this important prophecy:

The dragon.

"And another sign

appeared in heaven:

Behold, a great,

fiery red dragon..."

I wish I could just give you

a fanciful theory here,

But the bible tells us

who the dragon is.

The dragon is the devil.

Both in the old testament

and the new testament

Who tries to destroy?

That is Satan,

the angel, the devil.

And so he attacks

As soon as Christ comes

upon the face of the earth;

The attack is there.

"So the great dragon

was cast out,

"That serpent of old,

called the devil and Satan.

"Who deceives the whole world;

"He was cast to the earth,

And his angels

were cast out with him."

What we see here

in the first part of revelation 12

Is a symbolic portrayal

Of the age-Old conflict

between Christ and Satan.

And we find this description

Going all the way back

to the garden of Eden

Where you have

a snake with wings.

What's a snake with wings?

It's a form of a dragon.

And we have this serpent,

this dragon,

Coming all the way down

through scriptures.

All through the life

and ministry of Christ

Satan tried to disrupt

Jesus' plans

To provide salvation

for humanity.

"But he was wounded

for our transgressions,

"He was bruised

for our iniquities;

"The chastisement

for our peace was upon him,

And by his stripes

we are healed."

At various points

they kicked him out of synagogues

And wanted

to push him off a cliff.

They tried to silence him.

They tortured him

to death publicly.

But Satan's scheme

to derail the plan of salvation

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes