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Amazing Facts

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

Amazing Facts Audio

01 Is There Anything Left You Can Trust?

02 Did God Create the Devil?

03 Saved From Certain Death

04 A Colossal City in Space

05 Keys to a Happy Marriage

06 Written in Stone

07 The Lost Day of History

08 Ultimate Deliverance

09 Purity and Power

10 Are the Dead Really Dead?

11 Is the Devil in Charge of Hell

12 1000 Years of Peace

13 God’s Free Health Plan

14 Is Obedience Legalism

15 Who is the Antichrist?

16 Angel Messages From Space

17 God Drew the Plans

18 Right on Time

19 The Final Judgment

20 The Mark of The Beast

22 The Other Woman

23 The Bride of Christ

24 Does God Inspire Astrologers and Psychics

25 In God We Trust

26 A Love that Transforms

27 No Turning Back

You're listening to Amazing Facts Bible Study Guide, lesson number 23.

The Bible says there is only 1 body or church into which Jesus calls his end-time people, the Bride of Christ.

Yet there are literally thousands of churches today that call themselves Christian, but they each differ widely in biblical interpretation, faith, and practice.

Stay tuned as we study God's Word together.

Alright, what's your first question today?

Okay, how is the true Church of Jesus Christ depicted in the Bible.

Well let's look at a few passages of Scripture.

Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

Revelation chapter 12 verse 1 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 12 stars.

Revelation, chapter 19, verses 7 and 8, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." We learned in an earlier study that Jesus symbolizes his true church as a pure woman and the false or apostate churches as a harlot.

So what does it mean when it says that the woman is clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and is wearing a crown of 12 stars?

Okay, first the sun represents Jesus, His gospel, and His righteousness.

But to you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Something interesting about the Moon is that the light you see coming from it is primarily reflected from the Sun.

The Moon under her feet represents the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.

As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so the sacrificial system was helpful spiritually only as it reflected light from the Messiah to come.

The crown of 12 stars represents the work of the 12 disciples, which crowned the early years of the New Testament Church.

All right, well so who was the baby mentioned in verse 2?

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.

She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne.

The Bible says that He will 1 day rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Revelation chapter 19 verse 15, And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron.

The Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.

Jesus, who was crucified for our sins, was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." His resurrection power in our lives is 1 of the most essential gifts He gives to his people.

So who's the dragon who tried to kill Jesus at his birth?

The dragon represents Satan, who was cast out of heaven.

Revelation chapter 12, verses 7-9 And war broke out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

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.

Satan was working through the pagan Roman empire at the time of the birth of Jesus.

The ruler who tried to kill him at birth was Herod, a king under pagan Rome.

He killed all the male babies of Bethlehem, hoping that 1 of them would be Jesus.

So what does it mean that the dragon has 7 heads and 10 horns and what about a third of the stars of heaven being cast to the earth?

Let's take a look at the verses you're referring to.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and 7 crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.

The 7 heads are 7 mountains on which the woman sitteth.

The 7 heads represents the 7 hills or mountains upon which Rome was built.

We now have encountered a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns 3 times in our studies.

The 10 horns represents the governments or nations that support the major powers in their oppression of God's people.

During the reign of pagan Rome, they represented the 10 barbarian tribes that supported the papacy in eventually bringing down the Roman Empire.

In the last days, they represent all the nations of the world united in the end-time coalition that will support Babylon the Great in her warfare against God's people.

A third of the stars of heaven are the angels who supported Lucifer in his insurrection in heaven and who were cast out with him.

Let's take a moment to review the Bible facts covered by this prophecy.

1, God's true church appears, symbolized as a pure woman.

Satan, working through King Herod of pagan Rome, tries to kill Jesus.

So what did Satan do after he failed in his plan to destroy Jesus?

He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, for she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand 200 and threescore days.

Well, since he was no longer able to attack Jesus personally, he aimed his fury and persecution at the church.

Now, I'd just like to mention that in Revelation chapters 12 and 14, Jesus gives us 6 descriptive points to use in identifying his end-time church.

All right, verse 6 says the woman fled into the wilderness.

The woman fled into the wilderness where she was protected for 1, 260 literal years from the wrath of Satan, who was working through papal Rome.

The time spent in the wilderness is the same 1, 260-year period of papal prominence and persecution from AD 538 to 1798 That is repeatedly mentioned in Bible prophecy.

Remember that 1 prophetic day equals 1 literal year.

I have appointed thee each day for a year." The term wilderness refers to solitary places of the earth where God's people could hide and escape total annihilation.

The Waldenses, Albigenses, Huguenots, and many others.

God's Church would have been obliterated if they hadn't fled and hid in the wilderness during this devastating persecution by the papacy.

Series

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

23 The Bride of Christ

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

14 Is Obedience Legalism

28m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

22 The Other Woman

28m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

17 God Drew the Plans

28m

Preparing Your Church for Evangelism

01 What is the Church? How Do I Fit In?, Part 01

1h 4m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

08 Ultimate Deliverance

28m

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10 Are the Dead Really Dead?

28m

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

1h

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

07 The Lost Day of History

28m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

01 Is There Anything Left You Can Trust?

28m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

12 1000 Years of Peace

28m

Amazing Facts Bible Study Guides

20 The Mark of The Beast

28m

The Most Inspiring Story

49m

Sound Doctrine