"ON EAGLES’ WINGS MINISTRIES"
“DEFINING NEW JERUSALEM” APRIL 2017 PART 4
Before embarking upon our study, I must take time to thank everyone who responded to my recent birthday. Some of you, I have never met in person; and we are separated by hundreds of miles. But your love and Christian charity came through as if in neon lights, that shone brightly. My son from Los Angeles also has a birthday in March, so he flew in for a joint celebration. I normally do not observe birthdays and just about all the other days that are celebrated here in the U.S. But for my 82nd birthday, I felt that I wanted to do something special as my way of being thankful for God’s love and mercies that have carried me this far as if on eagle’s wings. THANK YOU ALL from my heart, and be blessed in all that you do!
As we mentioned recently, the book of Revelation is described as being the revelation of Jesus Christ. The book opens with him as the mighty conqueror having the keys of hell and death; and it closes with him accompanied by his redeemed saints, showcased as the glorious city, the Bride of Christ, adorned as a woman on her wedding day, being made ready to meet the bridegroom. In this chapter, we want to talk about the sun-clothed woman that we mentioned briefly in the previous chapter. Hardly any lesson on the book of Revelation can be complete without giving a close study of this mysterious woman. “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and to moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (The color red is symbolic of the pagan religion, and the seven heads and ten horns specifically speaks of Rome and the Papacy.) And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Revelation 12: 1-3, 5, 6. This chapter begins with symbols and types that will require much work to put them all in proper perspective. To begin our work, we will benefit greatly if we revisit the interpretation Christ gave in Revelation chapter one. “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” But to get a more comprehensive understanding of what the sun, moon, and stars represent in real time, involving real people, we must go back to about the year 1729 B.C. We now connect with a young lad who was loved by his father above his brothers, and hated more because of his gift of dreams. “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and. lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And he dreamed another yet dream, and told it to his brethren and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And his father rebuked him, and said unto him, shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” Genesis 37: 5-10. Notice how profoundly Jacob related the sun, moon, and stars to himself, his wife, and his other sons (not counting Joseph.) This qualifies our statement that these heavenly luminaries when mentioned in prophecy bespeaks of people, starting with the highest rank being the sun, a lower rank being the moon, and other ranks as the stars.
The term “heaven” in most of these cases refers to the sphere in which they live and work—much like the president, vice-president, secretary of state, house speaker, and so forth. The earthly order in which they functioned in prophecy can well be called “heaven.” Daniel 4: 26 tells us that indeed, “the heavens do rule.” Thus “heaven’ in its full application means the realm of those who rule. Let us see a couple classic examples of how the word “star” is continually being misused and misunderstood. This is going ahead of myself a bit, but at this juncture it seems to be the right thing to do. “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountain if waters; and the name of the great star is called wormwood.” Rev.8:10, 11. Naturally, a GREAT STAR falling to earth certainly would not simply be burning as lamp.
We don’t need to fast and pray to understand this! Fancy how this great star fell to earth, and instead of incinerating all forms of life and the earth itself, it simply burned as a lamp and this lamp was not the kinds of modern bright shining lamps as we have today, and the star wormwood simply made the waters bitter. “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a “star” fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit”…Etc. Revelation 9:1, 2. Many continue to believe that this scene depicts a literal star to fall out of the heavens unto earth. But the smallest star is much larger than the earth. (that is the first test) and what stares us in the face is the fact that the star was addressed as HIM. To properly address a literal star in the heavens, we would use the word “IT” but a literal star (even if that were the case) could not walk up to an angel, take a key into its hand, (It has no hands) and proceed to open the bottomless pit. (Which was actually a symbolic place) There can be no doubt that the star featured in this scripture is a person: and he is showcased in his war against Rome. His war against Rome was only one of many that brought Imperial Rome to its knees. From chapter 12 to the end of the book of Revelation, we are offered a candid picture of the battle being fought between TWO WOMEN—the true church and the false church. Revelation 12 introduces us to the sun clothed woman, the dragon, and the woman revealed in her true nature and place in history as the whore that sits upon many waters: rightfully called MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATION OF THE EARTH. Before we let this thought slip, let us mention the fact that the term “mother of harlots” is used because she had many children. But this presents another fact! Children are usually named after their father and not their mother. So the children of this “mother of harlots are around us in plain sight, but sporting the name or names of their father/s.
Here is a symbolic statement made a long time ago: “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” Isaiah 4: 1. Revelation 17: 1 tells us that the great whore sits upon many waters, and verse 15 said: “And he saith unto me, The waters that thou sawest, where the whore sitteth are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. A description of Imperial Rome (More so The Papacy) is found in verses 9-12. Here is another account that we cannot afford to miss. “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard , and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Revelation 13: 2.
In this scenario, the dragon and the beast became one, because the dragon symbolizes pagans who came into the church (the Papacy—the Holy Roman Church) without being truly converted. Before long the Roman Church saw the benefit of incorporating all the pagans into the church. This they did by adopting much of the pagan beliefs and practices, and in so doing they became doubly strong –so we read that the dragon gave his seat to the beast and the two became one. Let us not forget that from here to the end of the book, the conflict and final victory is between the true church (the bride of Christ) and the false church, the whore that causes the kings of the earth to partake in her fornication and whoredom. As we have already showed, stars in scripture (more specifically in the book of Revelation) cannot be taken literally: and Jesus in the first chapter of the book explained that the seven stars in his right hand are the angels (messengers) of the seven churches. Therefore, thinking back even to Matthew 24 and other gospels, when we read of the stars of heaven falling, there is no need to dash outside with your phone cameras ready to capture the grandiose sight in the heavens above.
As we read about the crown with twelve stars upon the woman’s head we are reminded of the words of Christ in Matthew 19: 28. “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration (which is what the new birth is all about for every believer in Christ) when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” When we equate truth with truth, we quickly see the harmony of scripture; that scripture endorses and underscores scripture. One other note of importance that we need to understand: throughout scripture and more so in the book of Revelation, the term “hell and death—or death and hell” refers primarily to death and the grave. There are names that describe hell, meaning sheol, hades, or hell. But when we read that Christ, after his burial descended into hell, it did not even vaguely allude to a lake of fire and brimstone. Hell is the grave, or the unseen realm of the dead: and we should remember that both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, (Rev.20: 14) and this ended their relevance to any conversation we may care to engage in. The lake of fire, the second death, cleanses the world, the earth, and the universe of all evil, such as sin, sickness, and death. This is when we arrive at the point that Paul alluded to: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
We should not forget that he that sat upon the throne victoriously announced: “Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21: 5. An important truth for us to digest from this verse, is that it was the Son who created all things new. This ties in with Ephesians 3: 9. “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Again, we read in Colossians 1: 16; “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” Therefore, his assertion to John in the Revelation that he is creating all things new, is only a matter of continuing the creation that he started at the dawn of time.
Proof that God’s creation continues since the account was outlined in the creation story in Genesis, is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans. In it he alluded to the fact that Adam was only a figure of him who was to come. But the creation continues down the line to include every believer in Christ. In our conversion, we become partakers of his divine nature, and more than that, we are members of his flesh and of his bones. (Proof that the creation spoken of in olden times continues today.) It is always the Son who did the creating, (God created all things by Jesus Christ: and without him was nothing made that was made.) John 1: 3. But are we, as sons of God being brought into fullness with God so that we can continue his creation by the power of the spoken word?
After all, “he spoke and it was done: he commanded, and it stood fast. “For by the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33: 6. I call this process the power of the creative word: for indeed, “He sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107: 20. The woman in Revelation 12 was clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Jesus had explained that the seven stars that he held in his right hand were the angels, or messengers of the seven churches. There is little or no reason in this case to think any different concerning the twelve stars. To offer more credence to this verse of scripture, we must remember that the church is featured in the New Testament as a woman—the Bride.
The city (that represents the woman—the bride) has twelve gates; and twelve foundations. Thus, showing the woman wearing a crown of twelve stars is well within the context of Divine symbolism. Many professors of the bible have taught and written books asserting that the sun within which the woman was wrapped is the New Covenant, and the moon under her feet bespeaks of the Old Covenant which was done away in Christ. When he ministered the Last Supper, he said of the wine, “Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament (new covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” The single most important item on the list of things that pertained to this woman, is the “Man Child” to whom she gave birth. This company was destined to rule all nations, and Jesus added (with a rod of iron) even as he received of his Father.
What does the word say? “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” Rev.20: 5. As another witness to the coming forth of the man child, Isaiah 66: 7 reads thus: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came she was delivered of a man child.” We note the words of Christ: “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that A MAN is born into the world.” John 16:21. It is of great significance that Jesus did not refer to a baby girl or even a male child, but A MAN. Just like Adam, who stepped on this earthly plain as A MAN. As far as the truth goes, we can safely assume that the “man child” bespeaks of a company that is being birthed out of our mother, the church. Another great event of which very little is being said is this account: “For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Isaiah 62:5. This is indeed high drama of which is never seen upon this land. But the man child fed the woman in the wilderness, and here we see the grand finale in a marriage between a mother (the church) and her sons—the very man child that she produced as noted by the prophet in Isaiah 66:7. Indeed, this is high drama in the realm of Spirit.
Royce O. Kennedy
Please be reminded to make your gifts payable to Royce Kennedy and not to the ministry. Thank you!
