The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 12

XII 1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman cloaked with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 And she conceiving in the womb then cries out travailing and being in distress to give birth. 

Revelation Chapter 12 is a very complex prophetic vision written in the simplest and most poetical terms, fully revealing both the power and the inspiration of Yahweh our God in what may clearly be considered one of the Bible's finest moments. The interpretation of this prophecy is three-fold. First, it elucidates many of the secrets of our past, and then it describes the birth of the Christ and the attempt of His enemies to kill Him. But it also describes the birth of the only nation ever founded upon Christian principles, and the place where the woman would once and for all be saved from “that old Serpent”. This shall become manifest as we proceed through the chapter.

The woman with the twelve stars represents the people of Israel in their tribes. In Revelation chapters 6 through 8, once it is seen that the prophecy also corresponds to Daniel chapters 2 and 7, it is demonstrated that the people of God are those Germanic peoples who would destroy the Roman empire (i.e. Daniel 2:44-45). Revelation chapters 10 and 11 show that those same people, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, who are the Two Witnesses, then fulfill their testimony, which is the proof of their identity as true Israel, by choosing and adhering to the Word of God – the little book which is the Bible – over the devices and rule of men – which is the papacy and the Romish church – in that period known to us as the Reformation. Since the birth of the children of Israel occurred some time around the 18^th century BC, this woman does not represent Israel at any particular time, but rather she represents Israel throughout all time. So here we have post-Reformation Israel, with visions of both the past and the future being revealed to us.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 11

XI 1 And he had given to me a reed like a staff, saying “Arise, and measure the temple of Yahweh and the altar and those worshipping at it. 2 And the court outside the temple leave out that you should not measure it, because it has been given to the heathens, and the Holy City they shall trample for forty and two months.

God does not dwell in a house built with hands, but He dwells in us, and therefore temple of Yahweh is an allegory for His people in the world. The 42 months is the same as the 1260 days which follow in verse 3 below. 42 times 30 days equals 1260 days, and we shall see the same measurements of time again – though not necessarily of the same periods – in Revelation Chapter 13 where Daniel Chapter 7 shall also be discussed. The word heathens does not necessarily mean to describe aliens. It is basically nations or people, however I have translated it as heathens whenever I felt that the word was used to describe a people or nation in opposition to the will of God or apart from those people seeking to follow the will of God. Here we see a vision of the core of His people Israel – the temple of God where Yahweh dwells - who would be separated from the beast church, while those outside would continue to be trampled by it. This does not mean that there are no Israelites in those nations which remained Catholic after the Reformation, but rather it is only an allegorical picture so that we may look back at the history of our race and understand what it is that has happened to us.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 10

X 1 And I saw another mighty messenger descending from heaven cloaked in a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head and his face like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire, 2 and holding in his hand a small book having been opened. And he set his right foot upon the sea, then the left upon the land, 3 and he cried out in a great voice just as a lion roars. And when he cried out, the seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 And when the seven thunders uttered, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from out of heaven saying “I have sealed the things which the seven thunders have uttered, and you should not write these things!”

In an 8th century letter by an English bishop named Cuthbert, we have the following where he is speaking of Bede, the famous English cleric and historian, and we must hear it bearing in mind that these men are English Roman Catholic bishops: “In those days, moreover, beside the lessons which we received from him and the chanting of the Psalms, there were two works very worthy of mention which he endeavoured to accomplish, to wit the Gospel of St. John, which he translated into our [Saxon] tongue for the profit of the Church, and certain extracts from the books of bishop Isidore....” So we see that translating the Bible, or portions of it, was a wholly acceptable endeavour undertaken by Romish Catholic priests in the 8th century AD. In fact, in his Ecclesiastical History, Bede often described men who were well versed and who read the Scriptures not only in Latin, but also in Greek. Yet shortly after these times, the Romish Church turned in a direction which was absolutely contrary to the Spirit of Scripture, and it made an effort to repress the Word of God, and keep it from the ears of the people.

Pope Innocent III stated in 1199: “... to be reproved are those who translate into French the Gospels, the letters of Paul, the psalter, etc. They are moved by a certain love of Scripture in order to explain them clandestinely and to preach them to one another. The mysteries of the faith are not to be explained rashly to anyone. Usually in fact, they cannot be understood by everyone but only by those who are qualified to understand them with informed intelligence. The depth of the divine Scriptures is such that not only the illiterate and uninitiated have difficulty understanding them, but also the educated and the gifted.” (Denzinger-Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum pp 770-771, from Bridging the Gap - Lectio Divina, Religious Education, and the Have-not's by Father John Belmonte, S.J.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 9

IX 1 And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star from heaven fallen to earth, and to him had been given the Key of the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke ascended from the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air had become darkened from the smoke of the pit. 3 And from the smoke locusts came out into the earth, and authority had been given to them like the scorpions of the earth have authority. 4 And it had been spoken to them in order that they do not injure the grass of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, except those men who do not have the seal of Yahweh upon their foreheads. 5 And it had been given to them that they should not kill them, but that they shall be tested for five months, and their torment is as the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 And in those days men shall seek death yet they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die yet death flees from them.

Howard Rand and Bertrand Comparet have both identified this passage as a depiction of the rise of Mohammedism and the Arab conquests of the formerly White regions of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and the northern coast of Africa. I believe that they were absolutely correct. As an aside, it is also evident that Mohammed is the “little horn” of Daniel Chapter 8, This little horn is not to be confused with the little horn of Daniel Chapter 7, which we shall see when we get to Revelation Chapter 13 refers to the Emperor Justinian. So it may be seen that just as Daniel in Chapters 7 and 8 prophesied of Justinian, and then of Mohammed, so does the Revelation in Chapters 8 and 9. At Daniel 8 this is what it says in part, which I believe correlates with this passage in the Revelation:

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 8

VIII 1 And when He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw seven messengers who stood before Yahweh, and they had given to them seven trumpets. 3 And another messenger having a golden censor came and stood upon the altar, and much incense had been given to him, that he may offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended from the hand of the messenger before Yahweh. 5 And the messenger took the censer and filled it from of the fire of the altar and cast it into the earth, and there were thunders and noises and lightnings and an earthquake. 6 And the seven messengers who having the seven trumpets prepared them in order that they may sound.

7 And the first sounded the trumpet, and there came hailstones and fire mixed with blood and it had been cast into the earth, and a third of the earth had been burnt, and a third of the trees had been burnt, and all the green grass had been burnt.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 7

VII 1 After this, I saw four messengers standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth that a wind would not blow upon the earth nor upon the sea nor upon any tree. 2 And I saw another messenger ascending from the rising of the sun having the seal of Yahweh who lives, and he cried out with a great voice to the four messengers to whom it had been given to do wrong to the earth and the sea, 3 saying: “Do not do wrong to the earth nor to the sea nor to the trees, until we should seal the servants of our God upon their foreheads!”

4 And I heard the number of those being sealed, a hundred forty-four thousand, being sealed out of all the tribes of the sons of Israel:

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 6

Here in Chapter 6 there is the famous vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It is evident that these four horsemen represent four stages in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. It can be argued that this vision of the four horsemen may mean something different, however that argument becomes less plausible once the chapters of the Revelation which follow are examined. It is also evident that many elements in these four horsemen also accurately describe the development and demise of the imperialist empires of modern times. This is because history repeats itself, usually because men never fail to ignore its lessons. If we would only learn from history, we would stop repeating its mistakes. However people are easily swayed by the empty promises of the short-sighted, and therefore the short-sighted consistently prevail.

VI 1 Then I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder: “Come!” 2 And I saw, and behold! A white horse, and he sitting upon it having a bow, and a crown has been given to him and he went out conquering and that he may conquer.

Most commentators date the Roman Empire to begin with the era of the Caesars, either with the dictatorship of Julius Caesar or the monarchical system set up under Octavian, later Augustus Caesar. This view is very skewed and demonstrates a poor understanding of systems of government. The term empire is properly applied to a government which rules over more than one nation of people. From The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition: “empire...1.a. A political unit comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority....” Technically, the Alban colony which spawned Rome was already an empire with the joining of the Trojan refugees under Aeneas to the people of Latium, four hundred years before Rome was founded, and therefore Rome was always an empire, and never properly a nation. Livy describes a tradition that Rome was actually founded by Mars, the Latin god of war, perhaps revealing the reason for the creation of the city in the first place, as a vehicle for conquest. Early in its history, the young city had accepted all sorts of political and other refugees from various Greek states, and therefore may certainly be viewed as the New York of antiquity. For this reason we see the class division of Patrician and Plebeian in the oldest accounts. By any measure, Rome certainly became an empire by the third century BC, by which time it conquered and defeated all of the other tribes of the Italian Peninsula, the Etruscans, Sabines, Samnites and the Greek states of southern Italy and Sicily. Yet even this process of conquering its neighbors began almost as soon as the city is said to have been founded. In the first fifty years of its existence, there was a war with the Sabines, and the cities Fidenae and Veiens became subject to Rome, and colonized by Romans, in that period. By the end of the second century BC Rome ruled all of Greece, Asia Minor, Sardinia, parts of Spain, and the formerly Phoenician areas of North Africa. As late as the first century BC, there was the Social war in Italy, between Rome and the Italian nations (91-88 BC), and there was Serorius' revolt in Spain (83-72 BC), but these were not civil wars, rather they were revolts by already conquered nations against the Roman dominion. The Caesars did not begin an empire, they inherited one. While further expansion occurred in later periods of Roman history, such as the conquest of Dacia under Trajan, Rome's very founding marked the beginning of the White Horse period, and the time when Rome became an empire, whether the supreme ruling authority was a Republican government or a dictatorship or a monarchy.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 5

V 1 And I saw at the right hand of Him sitting upon the throne a scroll, written on the inside and on the back, having been sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty messenger proclaiming with a great voice: “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loosen its seven seals?” 3 And no one was able in heaven nor upon the earth nor under the earth to open the scroll or to see it. 4 And I wept much, because no one is found worthy to open the scroll or to see it. 5 And one from among the elders says to me: “Weep not! Behold! The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and its seven seals!”

Yahshua Christ is the Lion of Judah and He is also the root of David. This is the Christian Paradox, and it has been argued since the time of Christ: For that reason Christ asked the Pharisees “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”, as we see recorded at Matthew 22:45. That He is God, Yahweh Himself having come as one of His own sons, is the only way that He could possibly be both the Root and the Offspring of David (cf. Isaiah 11:1, 10, Rev. 22:16). Of all of the sons of Adam, only Yahshua is worthy to open the seven seals, because only Yahshua is blameless and only Yahshua is God. Only God Himself can see the future.

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 4

IV 1 After these things I looked, and behold! A door being opened in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard as a trumpet speaking with me saying “Come up here, and I shall show to you the things which are necessary to happen.” After these things

After having received the messages to the seven assemblies John receives another vision. In this vision John had an experience which describes his spirit actually having left his body, much as we see inferred by Paul in 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, where he described a vision and related that he could not tell whether it happened while he was in his body or out of it. Earlier in that same epistle Paul explained that to be in the body, we are away from God, and to be separated from our body is to be with God. Therefore Christians should not fear death: it is our gateway to our destiny and out true reality.

2 immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold! A throne fixed in heaven, and He sitting upon the throne. 3 And He sitting alike in appearance to a jasper stone, and a sardius, and a rainbow around the throne alike in appearance to emerald, 4 and around the throne twenty-four thrones, and upon the thrones twenty-four elders sitting, cloaked in white garments and upon their heads gold crowns. 5 And going out from the throne stars and voices and thunders, and seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of Yahweh, 6 and before the throne as a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 And the first living creature like a lion, and the second living creature like a young bull, and the third living creature having a face as a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings above, full of eyes all around and within, and they do not have rest, day and night saying

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 3 

III “1 And to the messenger of the assembly in Sardeis, write: Thus says He having the seven Spirits of Yahweh and the seven stars, I know your works, that you have a name that you may live, and you are dead. 2 You must be alert and establish the remaining things which were about to die, for I have not found your works completed before My God. 3 Therefore remember how you have received and have heard and keep and repent. Then if you should not be alert, I shall come as a thief, and you may not know what hour I shall come upon you. 4 But you have a few names in Sardeis which have not soiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, because they are worthy. 5 He who prevails thusly shall be cloaked in white garments and his name shall not be wiped out of the Book of Life and I shall profess his name before My Father and before His messengers. 6 He having an ear must hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies!

 Sardeis was the capital city of ancient Lydia. It was an important city to the Persians, and held by them throughout the Classical period. The original Lydian cities were all said to have been destroyed by the Persians in the 6^th century BC, and until the time of Alexander the Persians held most of Asia Minor. Sardeis was named after the usually transparent-reddish or transparent-brownish sardion stone, which is called carnelian by the English. This stone was used in the making of jewelry by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, and in the making of cylinder seals by the Assyrians. It was also widely used by the Romans for signet seals, which may add to the depth of the meaning here, since there is apparently question as to whether these Christians are indeed as sealed, or assured, of their salvation as they seem to think that they are. The color of the stone can vary greatly, from pale orange to near-black, and perhaps that is also why this assembly was picked out for this message. The Christians of Sardeis were not admonished for having committing any absolute wrong, but they were warned that they should stay alert and be sure to fulfill their Christian obligations. It seems that as the Sardian stone has a wide range of colors, the people of assembly at Sardeis had a wide range of attitudes. The Sardians had the Word, but seem not to have acted on it, having the works too. As James warns us in his epistle, “Faith without works is dead”, that is also the message here.