The Woman and her offspring

 

...A great, fiery red dragon

having seven heads and ten horns,

and seven diadems on his heads.

... the dragon [Satan working through King Herod]

stood before the woman [Israel]

who was ready to give birth,

to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

She bore a male Child[The Christ]

who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

And her Child was caught up [Christ's ascension]

to God and His throne.

Then the woman [a remnant of Israel]

fled into the wilderness [during “great tribulation”],

where she has a place prepared by God,

that they should feed her there

one thousand two hundred and sixty days [3 ½ years].

Revelation 12:3-6

… The woman [a remnant of Israel] was given

two wings of a great eagle,

that she might fly into the wilderness [during great tribulation]

to her place, where she is nourished

for a time and times and half a time [ 3 ½ years],

from the presence of the serpent [the dragon and Satan].

^... And the dragon was enraged with the woman,

and he went to make war

with the rest of her offspring [the church/ Christians],

who keep the commandments of God

and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:14-17

The dragon [Satan] gave

him [the “beast” or “Antichrist”]

his power, his throne, and great authority.

... all the world marveled

and followed the beast.

So they worshiped the dragon

who gave authority to the beast;

and they worshiped the beast,

saying, "Who is like the beast?

Who is able to make war with him?"

And he [the beast, Antichrist]

was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,

and he was given authority

to continue for forty-two months [3 ½ years].

Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,

to blaspheme His name,

His tabernacle [the “abomination of desolation”],

and those who dwell in heaven.

It was granted to him

to make war with the saints [“great tribulation”]

and to overcome them.

And authority was given him

over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him,

whose names have not been written

in the Book of Life of the Lamb

slain [Christ's crucifixion]

from the foundation of the world.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear.

He who leads into captivity [during the “great tribulation”]

shall go into captivity;

he who kills with the sword

must be killed with the sword.

Here is the patience and the faith

of the saints [christians/the Church].

Revelation 13:2-10

​At that time Michael [the archangel] shall stand up,

the great prince who stands watch

over the sons of your [Daniel's] people [Israel];

and there shall be a time of trouble [the “great tribulation”],

such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.

And at that time your [Daniel’s] people [Israel]

shall be delivered,

every one who is found written in the book [“the Book of Life”].

Daniel 12:1

[Jesus said:] Therefore when you see

the 'abomination of desolation,'

spoken of by Daniel the prophet,

standing in the holy place [the Jewish temple]

(whoever reads, let him understand),

then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

… For then there will be great tribulation,

such as has not been

since the beginning of the world until this time,

no, nor ever shall be.

And unless those days were shortened,

no flesh would be saved;

but for the elect's [the people of God] sake

those days will be shortened.

Matthew 24:15-22

[Jesus said:] Immediately after the [great] tribulation

of those days

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from heaven,

and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then the sign of the Son of Man

will appear in heaven...

they will see the Son of Man coming

on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet

and they will gather together His elect [the people of God]

from the four winds,

from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:29-31

[the Apostle Paul said:] For I do not desire, brethren,

that you should be ignorant of this mystery,

lest you should be wise in your own opinion,

that blindness in part has happened to Israel

until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And so all Israel [the nation] will be saved,

as it is written:

"The Deliverer will come out of Zion,

and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

For this is My [New] covenant with them,

when I take away their sins."

Romans 11:25-27

faith essential

 

The writer of Hebrews in explaining why it is “impossible to please” God “without faith” says that the one “who comes to God must believe that He is,” and the same must believe that God “is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Obviously, one has to believe that God exists. It is not just believing in His existence, but that He is a “rewarder” of those who diligently seek him. These two things are essential in coming to God, and the second requirement goes far beyond just believing that there is a God.

Believing that God is a “rewarder” of those who diligently seek Him implies several things. It recognizes that God is not far removed from his creation. God is searchable and knowable. He wants to be known. There is revelation from God that tells us about Him. To believe He is a rewarder says something about his character. God not only wants to be known, but He rewards those who diligently seek him with knowledge about Himself. Who is this God and what does He want me to know? If God wants to be known and has made revelation available, then it's not a stretch to conclude there is an accountability to God concerning that revelation.

Not only is there creation to reveal God and which gives reason to believe that He is—faith has an object (such as the evidence of God in creation), and to believe is to have faith—there is special revelation from God of who He is, and what He expects from us, that came through His involvement with mankind through prophets (especially from the nation of Israel) and ultimately through Jesus Christ.

We read in Hebrews 1:1-4: ​¹ God, Who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ² has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

The Apostle Paul makes reference to all these things when he was in Athens Greece on a place called the Areopagus, where certain philosophers and Athenians met:

²² Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.   Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ²⁴ God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶ And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, ²⁷ so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. ³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

Acts 17:22-31

Paul's message here addresses these different issues of belief, and it speaks of an accountability to what God has revealed. The ultimate revelation was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—that God has chosen Him as the revelation to mankind about Himself, and what He wants mankind to know and believe.