Revelation 12: Is it the past, present or future?
John tells us about two signs appearing in heaven: that of a pregnant woman about to give birth, followed by an enormous red dragon. These two signs are in conflict: the dragon wishes to devour the child the moment it is born.
As with so many of the visions and images in Revelation, the identity of these signs is the cause of much debate. For those with a futuristic view of this prophecy, it is about something yet to come toward the end of time. I have found the case that it is describing salvation events from the perspective of heaven to be more compelling.
In this view, the woman "clothed with the sun" represents Israel, with her child the promised Messiah. The dragon is told to us quite plainly to be Satan (verse 9) and the war that he wishes to make against the rest of the woman's offspring would be the Church of Jesus Christ (verse. 17). Revelation 12 can therefore be interpreted as an apocalyptic description of the vast sweep of salvation history, with the war between Satan and God depicted through these visions.
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