"Then Is Finished The Mystery Of God"

Chapter 21

The Heavenly Birth of God's Messianic Kingdom

Revelation 12

NOW FOR the first time a "woman" appears in heaven in the procession of visions given to the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. This mysterious figure is not "that woman Jezebel" mentioned earlier in Revelation 2:20, in connection with the earthly congregation of Thyatira. She is an approved "woman," honorably married and bringing forth the good fruitage of her marriage tie. The mystery of who she really is can be solved by means of what the apostle John tells us about her. Before telling us about her, John has heard the seventh angel sound his trumpet, and the "mystery of God" has been shown to him to be finished, and he has seen the evidence that Jehovah God the Almighty is reigning in his heavenly temple sanctuary. After that, as John tells us, "a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon was beneath her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars, and she was pregnant. And she cries out in her pains and in her agony to give birth." — Revelation 12:1, 2.

No aid is given toward identifying this heavenly "woman" by giving her a name. She is not called Zion — that is the name of the mountain upon which the Lamb of God is seen standing with his 144,000 faithful followers who have his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads, according to Revelation 14:1-4. She is not called Jerusalem, or New Jerusalem, for that is the name of the Lamb's

wife, who is made up of those 144,000 followers. (Revelation 21:2, 9-14) But whoever it is that accepts the child to which this "woman" gives birth reveals himself thereby to be her husband and identifies her as his wife. That One is the Creator of the symbolic sun with which she is arrayed and Creator of the symbolic moon beneath her feet and of the twelve symbolic stars with which her head is crowned. Just as a husband is responsible to provide raiment, adornment and guidance for his wife, so the Creator provided heavenly spiritual light for his "woman," to be arrayed with it and to shine with it by day and to walk by means of it through the night, being crowned with it by night for her beautification.

Stars shine by night. The fact that the number of stars with which the woman was crowned was twelve indicates that this light is organizational light, twelve being a symbol of organizational completeness or governmental perfection. This meaning is to be seen in that there are twelve tribes of spiritual Israel, also twelve apostles of the Lamb; and the holy city, New Jerusalem, has twelve gates, three on each of its four sides, the city being based on twelve foundations bearing the names of the apostles. (Revelation 7: 4-8; 21:12-14, 19-21) There is organizational light for the heavenly "woman," no less so than for the "twelve tribes" of spiritual Israel here on earth. — James 1:1.

This woman in heaven is a "sign" woman, a "great sign" or symbol of something. Of what? Of the Creator's enlightened heavenly organization in the sense of its being his "woman" or wife. The idea of God's having such an organizational "wife" is nothing new, because for more than eight centuries before the apostle John was given the Revelation the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write to a womanlike city: "Your grand Maker is your husbandly owner, Jehovah of armies being his name; . . . And all your sons will be persons taught by Jehovah, and the peace of your sons will be abundant." (Isaiah 54:5, 6, 13) Jesus Christ himself quoted from those words and applied

them to his faithful followers. (John 6:44, 45) It was thus indicated that the heavenly "woman" of Jehovah God would have children, sons. The faithful holy angels of heaven would be members composing that "sign" woman.

The reproach of barrenness does not attach to Jehovah's "woman." The apostle John saw that "she was pregnant." But what does he mean by saying that "she cries out in her pains and in her agony to give birth"? (Revelation 12:1, 2) The organizational "woman" knew that the time for her to deliver a child was near, for her pains and agony were already upon her. The time of human birth is usually foreknown, it being nine months or thirty-six weeks from the time of the conception of an offspring. So, too, God's heavenly womanlike organization knew the approximate time for the impending birth to take place; even the enemies in heaven also knew this. The heavenly birth meant the beginning of a new system of things for all of God's holy angels, even for his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. This definitely meant a great change in the heavenly administration of things, a sweeping change in the organization of heavenly things. This would stir up things.

In ancient Israel in the days of the prophet Samuel, when there was a change of administration from that of the judges raised up by Jehovah God to that of a visible earthly king under Jehovah God, it meant a drastic change for the twelve tribes of Israel. The prophet Samuel forewarned the nation of the restricting changes that this change of administration would mean. Although such changes were agreed to by the people who wanted the change and were eager to have the change, yet in actuality it doubtless caused many national pains, as forewarned of by Samuel. (1 Samuel 8:7-22; 12:1 to 13:2) Thereafter no longer was it allowed for each man to do just what was right in his own eyes; each one had to line up with the royal government. — Judges 21:25.

In close resemblance to that ancient picture, a

changeover in the type of administration in heaven would call for needed changes in the structure and running of things. The time when the Gentile Times, "the appointed times of the nations," were due to end was foreknown to the very year. This was even foreknown for decades in advance down here on earth from the study of God's Word and its time schedule. (Luke 21:24) As the time for the end of the Gentile Times got closer, to introduce a change in the administration of things in heaven as well as on earth, due preparation would be made up there for this changeover. (Ephesians 1:8-11) The decision as to whether to submit to it or not would have to be made on the part of those who would come under this new administration.

It could not be expected that a new administration could go into operation in an orderly way without due prearrangements having been made for this. There was to be no political coup, no snatching of the reins of government by an ambitious upstart or by a power-greedy group of conspirators, no usurpation. As Jehovah is a "God, not of disorder," this was to be a formal, duly provided for, duly arranged for installation of a new administration. The time for this installation being at the end of the Gentile Times, which had begun with the overthrow of God's anointed king in ancient Israel, this fact called for putting back, for reinstalling the administration by God's anointed king, his Christ. This would bring about a tremendous test for all those affected. Hence the preparations for the formal, official birth of the new administration caused great stirrings in the invisible, angelic heavens. For God's heavenly wifelike organization this experience was like undergoing birth pains, an agony to get over with the birth of the new administration, to have the thing definitely settled.

"ANOTHER SIGN"

From all the attending circumstances, someone else outside God's wifely organization in heaven foreknew

and expected that the birth of a new administration was due to come and was at hand. The apostle John describes that one in these words: "And another sign was seen in heaven, and, look! a great fiery-colored dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven diadems; and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth. And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, that, when she did give birth, it might devour her child." — Revelation 12:3, 4.

This terrible-looking creature is a "sign" dragon, a sign or symbol of something. It is like a monstrous sea serpent. (Isaiah 27:1) Its very attitude shows it to be an enemy of God, for it is an enemy of God's "woman" and of her child even before its birth. The dragon puts itself in the same position as the serpent to which Jehovah God referred when he made his mysterious prophecy, stated in Genesis 3:15, in these words: "I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel." Like a dragon, it is a Swallower Down, but in a sevenfold sense, for it has seven heads. (Jeremiah 51:34) Its being fiery colored indicates that it is destructive, consuming like fire. It is a "sign" symbol of Satan the Devil.

What do the "seven heads" of the dragon signify? This, namely, that Satan the Devil would exercise headship over and through seven successive political world powers on earth, as these are reported in their historic order in God's written Word, the Holy Bible. These world powers, all of them enemies and oppressors of Jehovah's people, are (1) ancient Egypt, (2) Assyria, (3) Babylonia, (4) Medo-Persia, (5) Greece (Macedon), (6) Rome, and (7) a world power unnamed in the Bible but which later history proved to be the dual world power of Great Britain and the United States of America (of the northern hemisphere). There being "seven" such symbolic

"heads" intelligently controlling the corresponding world powers, it bespeaks the completeness of Satan the Devil's political control over the world of mankind by means of this series of seven successive world powers.

In the Sacred Scriptures a horn is used to symbolize power, both offensive and defensive. The dragon's having ten symbolic horns pictures the completeness of invisible power that Satan the Devil has exercised through political governments on earth. Jesus called him "the ruler of this world." — John 16:11.

The tail of this symbolic dragon is also mighty: "its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth." (Revelation 12:4) These "stars of heaven" not unreasonably stand for bright-shining angels that belonged to Jehovah's holy heavenly organization, heavenly spirit sons of God. (Job 38:7) The proper place of physical stars is up in the skies, in the heavens; but the symbolic dragon with its mighty tail hurled these symbolic stars down from their proper heavenly place to the earth. Apparently, then, these "stars of heaven" picture those particular angels, who for selfish reasons "did not keep their original position" in God's holy heavens but who "forsook their own proper dwelling place" up there in order to cohabit sensuously with beautiful daughters of men here below. Thus these angels "sinned" against Jehovah God and put themselves on the side of the symbolic dragon (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; 1 Peter 3:19, 20; Genesis 6:1-4) Doubtless Satan the Devil used his influence like a "tail" to do this. By this means he hurled them to the earth, separating them from God's holy organization.

In this way the symbolic dragon, Satan the Devil, gained "angels" for himself, as his "seed." He did not swallow them down like a dragon to devour or destroy them, but hurled them down with his mighty tail. This he did before the flood of Noah's day, and hence before the formation of the seven world powers over which he was to exercise supervision by means

of his "seven heads," upon which are his "seven diadems" of royalty. Logically, when the dragon kept standing before God's "woman" as the Gentile Times drew near to their end in 1914, those angels of the dragon were also standing lined up behind him to aid him in trying to "devour" or swallow down her "child" at its birth so as to prevent a new administration.

These opposing angels included a "third of the stars of heaven," a minority of the stars and yet a considerable number of them, forasmuch as the fraction "third" is used as a symbol of emphasis. So there could be tens of thousands, legions, of these demons, under the control of the "great fiery-colored dragon," who is "the ruler of the demons." — Mark 5:9-15; Matthew 12:24.

BIRTH OF A CHILD FOR THE THRONE

Regardless of the dragon on the qui vive to thwart the divine purpose for the birth, there was a perfect birth at the due time in heaven, for the Father of the expected offspring was perfect, and so was his wife, the mother organization. But — who got the child — God the kingly Father or the voracious jaws of the "seven heads" of the symbolic dragon? The apostle John's record, in Revelation 12:5, 6, gives us the bulletin of events: "And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was caught away to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days." The mother escapes from the dragon, so too the child.

No cause for surprise that the dragon was eager to "devour" or swallow down that "son, a male," for it was God's purpose that it should "shepherd all the nations with an iron rod," finally dashing them all to pieces therewith! The Satanic dragon was determined not to be deprived of his "seven diadems,"

which symbolized his complete spiritual kingship over the seven successive world powers. He was not interested in having "all the nations," of which he was the invisible ruler and "god," dashed to shivers by God's new administration. So he set himself to devour the woman's "child" as soon as it was born and when it would reasonably be at its weakest. To his chagrin he failed!

The woman's child was, not a queen, but "a son, a male." Whom or what does it represent? Not Jesus Christ, but God's Messianic kingdom. That is why it was caught up to God and to his throne, God thus acknowledging it as his offspring by his "woman."

However, this Messianic kingdom is not something merely theoretical, a mere governmental formula. For it to exist and come into power it must be made a living reality in a living person, a "male" who could bear kingdom titles and responsibilities and take action, really reigning. That person was God's only-begotten Son, the glorified Jesus who is the Christ or Messiah of God. So the birth of the symbolic "son, a male," took place when God's wifely organization brought forth or furnished the right member of the organization for the royal office. The kingdom of God's Messiah was actually installed in the heavens after the woman's "child" was caught away to God and to his throne, by Jehovah's enthroning his anointed Son in order to make the kingdom a working reality. This occurred in 1914 C.E. at the end of the Gentile Times. Then and there, at this enthronement or clothing of the Messiah with full usable Kingdom authority, was finished the "mystery of God." — Rev-elation 10:7, AS.

Why, though, was it that, after this successful birth, God's "woman" "fled into the wilderness" to be fed there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days? The reason why becomes plain when we learn what happened after the birth and enthronement of the heavenly Messianic kingdom. After the Bible's account of what happened (in Revelation 12:7-12) the

flight of God's woman into the wilderness is again referred to and thus becomes explainable. What, then, was it that also followed the enthronement of her "child"?

WAR IN HEAVEN

The apostle John reports it, saying: "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

" 'Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.'" — Revelation 12:7-12.

Here is the first and only mention of that heavenly warrior Michael in the Revelation to John. But he has been known by name since the days of the prophet Daniel, in the sixth century before our Common Era. An angel appeared to Daniel in the third year of the reign of Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, and he told of how "Michael, one of the foremost princes," came to help him and how this same Michael, who was the spirit prince of Daniel's people, held strongly with this angel in his difficulty. Then, after telling of the final movements of the "king of the north" and the "king of the south," the angel said: "And

during that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people. And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, every one who is found written down in the book." — Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1.

Moreover, before ever the war broke out in heaven, Michael, the heavenly prince of Jehovah's people, had confronted Satan the Devil in the invisible realm. This was immediately after the death of the prophet Moses in the year 1473 B.C.E. The inspired disciple Jude reports on this strange confrontation, saying: "But when Michael the archangel had a difference with the Devil and was disputing about Moses' body, he did not dare to bring a judgment against him in abusive terms, but said: 'May Jehovah rebuke you.' " (Jude 9) Nevertheless, in that dispute the archangel Michael won out, for it turned out to be Jehovah God that buried the body of Moses his servant at a place that not even the Devil Satan has been able to reveal to anybody on earth. (Deuteronomy 34:5, 6) But now after the birth and enthronement of God's Messianic kingdom in 1914 C.E., it was no longer a case in which Michael waited upon Jehovah to rebuke Satan the Devil, but Jehovah used Michael in warring against Satan the Devil and his demon angels, hurling them out of heaven. What a "salvation" or victory that was!

Is there any question as to who is this Michael the archangel? He is no one else but Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of God! He is the one who, before our Common Era began, was the heavenly prince of Jehovah's people, including Daniel. Never did he renounce the right to that heavenly name, even when he became a perfect man here on earth in order to work for the interests of God's Messianic kingdom and to ransom all mankind by offering himself to God for a perfect human sacrifice. (John 18:36, 37; Matthew 20:28) After his resurrection from the dead

and his return to heaven, he resumed that heavenly name.

Since he has his angels, of whom he frequently spoke while on earth, he is rightly "the archangel" of God. He being "the beginning of the creation by God," he was produced before any other heavenly angels were created with whom to form a wifely organization for Jehovah God. (Revelation 3:14) In the year 1914 C.E., after the "time of the end" began for the "king of the north" and the "king of the south," he stood up in royal Messianic power. His standing up thus was to lead to a "time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time." (Daniel 11:40 to 12:1) He is the principal seed or offspring of God's "woman" (wifely organization) for bruising the Serpent in the head and hence for hurling him down from heaven. — Genesis 3:15.

The name Jesus (shortened form for Jehoshua) means "Salvation of Jehovah." The meaning of the name Michael is in the form of a question, namely, "Who Is Like Jehovah?" He is a Champion, a Challenger for Jehovah against anybody, against Satan the Devil and his demon angels. Just how Michael and his angels battled against the dragon and his angels, and with what weapons, is not Scripturally stated; probably, like with many other scientific things, we could not even understand it. How long the battle kept on we are not told. Only the decisive result is reported to us: the dragon and his angels were deposed from the heavens. There was no further proper place for them up there in those heavens. The dragon's accusations before God day and night had all proved to be false, and there was no need, toward the settlement of the great controversy, for the dragon to remain that close to God's presence and audience so as to press his accusations any farther. — Proverbs 27:11.

This great accuser is given a foursquare set of names, Dragon, meaning Swallower Down; Serpent, which has taken on the meaning of Seducer, Deceiver,

Misleader; Satan, meaning "Resister"; and Devil, meaning "Slanderer." (Jeremiah 51:34; Genesis 3:4, 5; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 3:3) With regard to the heavens it is said that the dragon's tail dragged only a third part of the stars of heaven and hurled them down to the earth; but with regard to the earth he has better success, for he "is misleading the entire inhabited earth." — Revelation 12:4, 9.

Those angels who belong to the symbolic dragon and who battled with him against Michael and his angels, doubtless included the spirit princes mentioned in Daniel 10:13, 20, namely, "the prince of the royal realm of Persia" and "the prince of Greece." This implies that there were also spirit princes for the other five of the seven world powers, that is, the spirit princes of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Rome and the Anglo-American dual world power. These "princes" and all the other lesser angels were hurled down with the "dragon" to the earth, never to get back to heaven.

What a relief this was for the holy angels to have the dragon and his demon angels ousted from heaven and confined to the vicinity of this earth! For excellent reason the "loud voice in heaven" could say: "Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ." (Revelation 12:10) The ouster of the dragon and his angels meant a "salvation," that is, a victory, and it was due to the exercise of triumphant power on God's part. This victory over the dragon and his angels was an initial expression of "the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ." The ouster showed that God's kingdom had come into power and that "his Christ," his anointed King, had begun to exercise his God-given authority.

This fact proves that the birth and enthronement of the male child of the "woman" pictured the birth and inauguration of God's Messianic kingdom, the finishing of the "mystery of God." At its very birth and inauguration this Messianic kingdom of God

showed itself, not weak like a newborn babe, but most powerful. How so? Because by it "the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down," that is to say, the chief enemy of Jehovah God and of his holy universal organization has been hurled down.

THE ACCUSED "BROTHERS"

Who are the accused ones, and what does the accusation leveled against them by Satan the Devil say? The faithful angels in heaven call the accused ones "our brothers." Yet the accused are not heavenly angels, but they are the ones who "conquered him [the accuser] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death."  — Revelation 12:10, 11.

This description makes it certain that the accused are the dedicated, baptized, anointed followers of the Lamb Jesus Christ. They need the sin-removing benefits of the blood of his perfect human sacrifice. They are the ones who, on earth, give the witness, not only concerning the Lamb sacrificed, but also concerning the God who provided the Lamb and to whom the sacrifice of the Lamb was offered in behalf of all mankind. They, and not the angels of heaven, are the ones that are faced with a martyr's death for being active, obedient followers of the Lamb of God.

What does the Devilish accusation against them charge? This, that Almighty God cannot put Christians on earth who, if fully exposed to temptation and resistance by the accusing Satan the Devil, will live up to Christian rules of conduct, hating sin and imitating Jesus Christ and obeying Jehovah God as Ruler rather than men. Satan the Devil would be too powerful for them; they could not overcome such a wily, pressure-using person as he is.

So, for them to die as true Bible Christians having the approval of God would mean for them to conquer Satan the Devil, proving him to be a false accuser and God to be the Creator and Ruler whom creatures

love so much as to obey him fully at all costs. God's victory, therefore, would be, not only by battle against the dragon and his demon angels, but also by proving the love from Christ's followers to be so strong that they would lay down their lives as Jesus Christ did for obeying Him above all. This would be a moral victory for Jehovah God, proving Satan a liar.

Did the Devil accuse the anointed Christians of being sinners? According to the flesh, yes, they were sinners, for they were born such by descent from the fallen Adam. But they accepted the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They trusted that by the sin-atoning value of Christ's blood they would be cleansed from the stain of sin and be counted as righteous in God's eyes. Hence concerning them it is written: "Who will file accusation against God's chosen ones? God is the One who declares them righteous. Who is he that will condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, rather the one who was raised up from the dead." (Romans 8:33, 34) By repenting of their unwilling sins, they evidence their hatred of sin, and obtain God's forgiveness through Christ's blood. In this way those Christians who faithfully finished their earthly course conquered Satan the Devil "because of the blood of the Lamb." Satan's accusation on this score is false!

The accuser before God charged further that they could be frightened or intimidated into denying Jehovah God and his Christ or Messiah. But down till the birth of God's Messianic kingdom in 1914 and the outbreak of the war in heaven there were faithful Christians who refused to disown God and his Christ under any circumstances produced by the great accuser. Like the aged apostle John on the Isle of Patmos they persisted to the end of their earthly lives in "speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus."  — Revelation 1:9.

Even as far back as 1877 C.E. there were those who were pointing forward to the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 and who gave a wide witness concern-

ing the full establishment of God's Messianic kingdom to occur at that time.* Right on into the throes of World War I of 1914-1918 the International Bible Students were proclaiming these things by much printed literature in many languages and by word of mouth privately and in public lectures and by the free exhibition of the famous Photo-Drama of Creation illustrated with Biblical color slides and motion pictures. Thus after the ouster of Satan and his demons from heaven it could be said by the loud voice in heaven that faithful Christian "brothers" from the first century onward had conquered the great dragon "because of the word of their witnessing." On this score also the great accuser before God was proved to be a liar.

These Christian "brothers" considered it to be the main thing of their lives to prove their faithfulness and loyalty to God and his Christ. As respects them the loud voice in heaven was true in testifying that "they did not love their souls even in the face of death." They proved to be like the apostle Paul, who said, a few years before his martyrdom: "I do not make my soul of any account as dear to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received of the Lord Jesus, to bear thorough witness to the good news of the undeserved kindness of God." (Acts 20:24) They were willing to surrender their earthly soul as the price for holding true to God and his Christ. They proved their faith in Jesus' words: "Whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:25) Hence Satan the Devil lost out in his wicked efforts to silence them by threatening them

with death. On the other hand, Jehovah God was vindicated by the unswerving, unbreakable loyalty of these faithful followers of his Christ.

In response to the loud voice in heaven, the angels who reside in the invisible heavens where no further place is found for the dragon did rejoice over the ouster of the great dragon and his demonic angels. But what about our earth and sea? It began a time of special "woe" for the people inhabiting these, "because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time." (Revelation 12:12) His defeat in the war in heaven was a strong portent that his remaining time now before being bound as with chains and imprisoned in the abyss had a limit and was short. He had long been "misleading the entire inhabited earth." Now he was determined to force the destruction of everybody on land and sea at God's hands at the coming destruction of Babylon the Great (the world empire of false religion) and the following 'battle of Armageddon.' This he would bring about by causing all the trouble and false propaganda that he and his demons could, in order to turn all mankind away from the victorious kingdom of God. He would fight against the preaching of the "good news of the kingdom." All this he has since attempted.

DEMONIC PERSECUTION

What, now, was the reaction on the part of the "great dragon" and his demon angels at their being forever ousted from the holy heavens? Twentieth-century history answers the question in agreement with what the apostle John saw take place in vision. John wrote: "Now when the dragon saw that it was hurled down to the earth, it persecuted the woman that gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent." (Revelation

12:13, 14) How is this being fulfilled in the history of our century?

One way of expressing his "great anger" at his being ousted from heaven was for the "dragon" to persecute God's "woman." As she had given birth to the "male child," God's Messianic kingdom, she had a large share in the responsibility for the dragon's ouster, and so he would persecute her. Although he was debarred now forever from heaven, the dragon and his demons at their abased earthly location would try to make it as hard as possible for the angels who make up the symbolic "woman" whenever these intervened in earth's affairs in behalf of the interests of God's established kingdom. Furthermore, the remnant of the 'woman's' seed or offspring on earth were also a part of her, coming forth as it were from her womb; and thus by persecuting this remnant of Christ's anointed followers yet on this earth, the dragon and his demons would be persecuting God's "woman," the mother of the Kingdom. The apostle John's further account of the earthly activities of the dragon and his demons verifies that this is what they did.

Apparently after the dragon's ouster the "woman" left her position in heaven where she was arrayed with the sun and with the moon under her feet and with a crown of twelve stars about her head, for Revelation 12:6 says that "the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God." When did the woman's flight to the wilderness and the feeding of her there take place, away from the serpent?

To get to the wilderness, the "two wings of the great eagle" were given to her. This mode of flight bears a resemblance to something in ancient time, in the sixteenth century B.C.E. After the first Passover supper, that one held down in Egypt in 1513 B.C.E., Jehovah God brought the twelve tribes of Israel miraculously through the waters of the Red Sea and into the wilderness of Mount Sinai, where they stayed for more than nine months. Later referring to this in

the song of the prophet Moses, Jehovah God said: "Just as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its fledglings, spreads out its wings, takes them, carries them on its pinions, Jehovah alone kept leading him, and there was no foreign god along with him." (Deuteronomy 31:30; 32:11, 12) At Mount Sinai itself, before giving to the Israelites the Ten Commandments, Jehovah God said to them through Moses: "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself." (Exodus 19:1-4) Likewise, symbolically, "two wings of the great eagle" helped God's "woman," under threat of persecution, to fly into the wilderness after Satan's ouster.

The ouster of the "great dragon" and his demons from heaven was apparently fully accomplished by the end of World War I. According to Revelation 11:1, 2, the "holy city" was trampled on by the Gentile nations "for forty-two months," from autumn of 1914 to spring of 1918. During this same period, spoken of as 1,260 days, God's "two witnesses" prophesied, "dressed in sackcloth," despite the efforts to harm them. After this these "two prophets" were killed by the "wild beast" out of the abyss. But after a short time, like three and a half days, they were raised from the death state and exalted to heavenly service. At that time there came the release of the anointed remnant. (Revelation 11:3-13) This release occurred in the spring of 1919 C.E. By then the persecution of the anointed remnant during World War I was past, and postwar persecution of this faithful remnant was now ahead. For this they needed to be strengthened with spiritual food. This, then, would be the suitable time for God's "woman," as represented by the remnant of her seed on earth, to flee into the wilderness to be fed.

Ancient Israel's flight from Egypt in 1513 B.C.E. was immediately after the Passover of Nisan 14 of that year. Correspondingly Passover time becomes the starting point in the year 1919 C.E. According

to the Jewish calendar, Nisan 1, 1919, began on the night of March 31. Hence Nisan 14 would start on the night of Sunday, April 13, 1919, which time is when the International Bible Students celebrated the annual Lord's supper or evening meal. (The Watch Tower, as of May 15, 1919, page 151) The president and the secretary-treasurer of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, released along with their six fellow prisoners from Atlanta Federal penitentiary on March 25, 1919, and set at liberty next day on bail, partook of this celebration of the Lord's supper. Partial reports received during that first postwar year showed that more than eighteen thousand attended that Memorial. Right afterward, in its issue of April 15, 1919, the official magazine The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence began giving timely spiritual food in its leading article "Liberty in Christ" and in other Bible material of that issue. When did this feeding program, thus begun, end?

According to Revelation 12:6, 14, God's "woman" was to be at God's prepared place for her in the wilderness for "a thousand two hundred and sixty days," or "a time and times and half a time," or three and a half times.* This means that each "time" corresponded with 360 days, or twelve months of thirty days each. This shows that these three and a half years are prophetic years. They therefore correspond with three and a half years according to the Jewish lunar calendar, which at times has intercalary or lunisolar years of thirteen lunar months.

According to the Jewish lunar calendar, three and a half years from Passover day, Nisan 14, 1919, would end on Tishri 13, 1922, or on October 5, 1922, at

sundown. (In the solar calendar this included one leap year [1920], and in the Jewish lunar calendar it included one thirteen-month or lunisolar year [1921].) So this period of special feeding in the symbolic wilderness "away from the face of the serpent" began at Passover time, April 13/14, 1919, and ended the thirteenth day from the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), or on October 4/5, 1922. This was indeed a time of spiritual feeding.

Toward the beginning of this feeding period came the first Cedar Point, Ohio, convention of the International Bible Students Association, on September 1-8, 1919, at which the projected publishing of a new magazine, The Golden Age, was announced on Friday, September 5. The following October 1, 1919, The Golden Age (today known as Awake!) began to be published in addition to The Watch Tower. In its issue of October 1, 1919, The Watch Tower published a nine-page report on that international assembly. Also, bans on all or various publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society began to be lifted in certain lands.

Quite appropriately in March 1920, the Watch Tower Society published the book entitled "Talking with the Dead" (later changed to "Can the Living Talk with the Dead?") This was a well-documented expose of spiritism, demonism, as it was rampant then throughout the earth. Shortly afterward the Watch Tower issue of July 1, 1920, set forth that Matthew 24:14 concerning the preaching of "this good news of the kingdom" had special application since the Kingdom's birth in 1914. Six months later the January 1, 1921, issue of The Watch Tower, in its second article identified the mysterious "image of the wild beast" of Revelation 13:14, 15, as symbolizing the then-existing League of Nations for world peace and security, succeeded now by the United Nations.

Toward the end of 1921 the new Bible-study aid entitled "The Harp of God" was published in October, and shipments of it to those ordering it began on

December 1, 1921. This book of 384 pages, which was meant to be an epitome of the seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures, finally attained a circulation of 5,819,037 copies in 22 languages. This and other means of supplying the needed spiritual food continued to be published and distributed.

Then, toward the close of the three and a half "times" or 1,260 days, came the grand climax. This was in the form of the second international convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, held by the International Bible Students Association on September 5-13, 1922. (The entire issue of The Watch Tower under date of November 1, 1922, was taken up by the report of this outstanding assembly of Jehovah's anointed remnant.) Shortly thereafter, on September 22, 1922, the Jewish lunar year ended. Then came Tishri 13, or October 4/5, 1922, which is just before the time of the year for the Jewish "festival of booths" and which marked the end of the special feeding of God's "woman" in the wilderness condition. This date found the anointed remnant of her seed on earth well nourished, spiritually strengthened for God's work ahead. Just twenty-six days later (on October 31, 1922) they began distributing world wide 45,000,000 copies of the Cedar Point convention resolution, "The Challenge."

ATTEMPT TO ENGULF THE "WOMAN"

With the holding of the second international convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, in September of 1922, the series of "seven trumpets" began to be blown. (Revelation 8:1-7) It was time for the dragon, angry at being abased, to take action. Not being able to swallow down God's "woman" any more than he had been able to swallow down her "male child" in 1914, the great dragon belched out something after the "woman." It was not his diabolical propaganda such as was pictured by one of the "three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs." Such propaganda as that he would use to gather the "kings of the

entire inhabited earth" to the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" at Armageddon. (Revelation 16:13-16) But after the thousand two hundred and sixty days (three and a half "times"), the thing that the dragon belched out was, rather, something to do away with the now well-fed remnant of the 'woman's' seed yet on the earth. Was he successful in this?

The apostle John tells us the vision that he saw of this, saying: "And the serpent disgorged water like a river from its mouth after the woman, to cause her to be drowned by the river. But the earth came to the woman's help, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon disgorged from its mouth." — Revelation 12:15, 16.

The symbolic serpent, the dragon, tried something that is like what is called a "human sea" attack against God's "woman" as represented on earth by the anointed remnant of her seed. The "water like a river" that the serpent-dragon belched out was composed of humankind, or masses of men and women who become noisy for their cause "just like the noise of many waters." (Isaiah 17:12, 13) There were "flash floods of good-for-nothing men" that tried to terrify the anointed remnant of the 'woman's' seed with the prospects of violent death and Sheol, the grave. (Psalm 18:4, 5, 16, 17) Thus the anointed remnant became menaced by the symbolic waters of fanatical Fascists, Communists and Nazis and Catholic Actionists, religionists who were eager for reestablishing the Holy Roman Empire by means of Fascism and Nazism; also "waters" of militarists, nationalistic patrioteers and aggressive imperialists. The "waters" became like a "river."

In October of 1922 Benito Mussolini led his Black Shirts in a march on Rome and established a Fascist government in Italy to last for more than twenty years. In the same year Catholic Action was organized by Pope Pius XI for advancing papal rulership.

The death of Lenin in Communist Russia on January 21, 1924, led to the rise of the brutal dictator-

ship of Stalin and Communist aggressions. In 1931 the Japanese imperialists started on their way toward taking over much of the mainland of Asia. In 1933 Adolf Hitler took over the government of Germany and soon posed the threat of Nazi domination of the whole world. In 1936 came the nationalist "Movement" against republican government in Spain, leading to the totalitarian dictatorship of a Caudillo or "Leader." Dictatorship was also established in neighboring Portugal even earlier, in 1934. Peacetime military conscription was introduced into the United States of America and fanatical patrioteers gained wide influence. Thus in wave after wave the symbolic "waters" poured forth from the serpent-dragon's mouth with one main objective, to 'drown' God's "woman" who had brought forth God's Messianic kingdom, the "male child."

Certainly those waves of ambitious, violent men were not in favor of God's Messianic kingdom, and so they could issue forth only from God's chief enemy, from the symbolic serpent-dragon, Satan the Devil. So these human "waters" were part of the "woe" that was to come because the Devil had been ousted from heaven and had come down to the vicinity of our earth and was so angry, knowing that he had a short period of time left. Many of the peoples of the earth found those symbolic "waters" to be a woe and hence resisted them. Quite to be expected, this led to World War II. The outcome of the war brought a defeat to the effort of the serpent-dragon to sweep over the whole earth with these "waters" in order to drown God's "woman." This is what the apostle John foresaw under symbolic imagery, in that "the earth came to the woman's help, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon disgorged from its mouth." — Revelation 12:16.

The "earth" symbolized the more stable, democratic, conservative part of human society, that tried to preserve its rights, its liberties, its constitutional or traditional forms of governments, its cherished culture.

Of course, this "earth" was not directly interested in helping God's "woman" any more than it was in favor of her "male child," God's Messianic kingdom. It was resisting and so it was counteracting the onrush of the "waters" in order to protect its own earthly interests. This action of the "earth" really produced a hot war and a cold war between the totalitarian, authoritarian "king of the north" and the democratic "king of the south," the movements of both of whom during the "time of the end" are foretold in Daniel 11:27 to 12:4. Nevertheless, many of the measures that the stabilized "earth" took and its defeat of the aggressive "waters" served for the benefit of God's "woman," and in this way this "earth" came to the "woman's" aid to keep her from being drowned.

To the chagrin of the serpent-dragon, the anointed remnant of the 'woman's' seed yet on earth came out of World War II stronger than ever before. How so? In that at the close of World War II in 1945 they had been joined by tens of thousands of the "great crowd" of earthly subjects of God's Messianic kingdom. Particularly since 1935 C.E. these had cast in their lot with the anointed remnant regardless of the persecution that had to be undergone. The 1946 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses (page 218) was able to report despite the disrupted world conditions: "The report shows that in one month during 1945 there were 141,606 publishers engaged in field service, to compare with the monthly average of 127,478 for the whole service year." In the prewar year of 1938 there had been only 47,143 such Kingdom publishers. Thus the "dragon" was frustrated in this fashion, in addition to its being permanently ejected from the holy heavens. What was the effect of all this upon the serpent-dragon, Satan the Devil, together with his demon angels? The apostle John says:

"And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and

have the work of bearing witness to Jesus." — Revelation 12:17, NW; NEB.

Unable to destroy God's "woman," the dragonlike Satan the Devil could vent his increased wrath at

her by taking it out on the anointed remnant who really belonged to the "woman" because they were the "remaining ones of her seed" yet on earth. Let no true Christian lose sight of this significant fact: The main target of Satan the Devil today is this anointed remnant who represent God's "woman" on earth! These distinguish themselves, not merely by going under the name of Jehovah's Christian witnesses, but especially because they "observe the commandments of God" for Christians in this "time of the end." Even in a clash between the "commandments of God" and those of the political "superior authorities" of earth they take the position of the apostles of Jesus Christ when before the Supreme

Court of Jerusalem in the first century C.E.: "We must obey God as ruler rather than men." — Acts 5:27-32.

The anointed remnant are also distinguished by their God-given privilege of having "the work of bearing witness to Jesus." Despite mounting religious persecution, they press on with this "work of bearing witness to Jesus," especially to Jesus as now being God's Messianic King reigning since the Gentile Times ended in 1914.

The dragonlike Satan the Devil and his demons are waging a losing war against the anointed "remaining ones" of the seed of God's "woman." No pressure from the dragon's world makes them break off from observing "the commandments of God" and extending their "work of bearing witness to Jesus." In further proof of this continuous defeat of the warring dragon is the noteworthy fact that the "great crowd" that takes its stand for God and his reigning Christ alongside the anointed remnant increases steadily. (Revelation 7:9-17) The early field service reports of 1969 showed there were 1,229,016 who regularly each month were actively taking part in the "work of bearing witness to Jesus" in 200 lands and island groups of the sea. Included among these were 82,842 that were baptized in water during the 1968 service year.

Very manifestly Jehovah God is blessing and protecting his dedicated servants on earth. So, then, let the angry serpent-dragon continue to war against the anointed remnant and the growing "great crowd" of their dedicated fellow witnesses. Instead of seeing these destroyed in the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" at Armageddon, the dragon will see them survive. It is they who thereafter will see the great dragon and his demons hurled into the abyss after Armageddon. — Revelation 20:1-3.