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The Woman

      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 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. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 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 12:1-6).

      We all somewhat agree that this woman of Revelation 12 is symbolical of the church (Jeremiah 6:2; 31:4; Great Controversy, p. 381); that the dragon is symbolical of Satan (Revelation 12:9); and that the child represents Christ, who ascended on high after His resurrection. (Mark 16:19).

     But inasmuch as we may not agree as to whether the woman is symbolical of the Old Testament church or of the New or both, it is essential that we study to see eye to eye. Now the questions naturally arise, if Christ is the One Who

brought forth the Christian church, then how can she be His mother? And was not Christ born at least thirty years before the Christian church came into being? Is not the egg laid before the chicken is hatched? We all know that Christ was born, not to the Christian church, but to the Jewish. This being so, then how can we escape the truth that this twelve-star-crowned woman is primarily the Jewish church who travailed and gave birth to the "world's Redeemer" in the Old Testament period?

     Moreover, before the child was born, and before the Gospel of 

Christ came to the church, she was

clothed with the sun, and the moon stood under her feet. There is therefore not the slightest excuse for one to conclude that the woman represents the Church clothed with the gospel of Christ. And if her sun clothing does not represent the Gospel of Christ, then what does it represent? Since she was clothed with the sun before Christ's birth, and before the Gospel came, then her sun-clothing must be the Bible, the Word of God that clothed her in the period of the prophets. The Psalmist says; “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105).

     What is symbolized by the moon under her feet? The fact that the moon of the heavens reflects the light from the sun to earth, the symbolical moon therefore being under the woman's feet, and the sun shining directly upon her, not by reflection through the moon, denotes that her channel of light, conveyance, the moon, was passing away, was no longer needed, that the sun itself, the source of her light, shining directly upon her, enveloped her with its bright rays. What could the moon then symbolize but the period before the Bible came, the period before Moses, in which the Word of God did not shine directly on the 

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