The Corporate Woman and the Manchild

From Revelation 12

In prayer recently I saw the Woman of Revelation chapter 12 as a corporate woman made up of women, generation after generation, bringing forth children who become another generation to bring forth children and so on until the generation arrives which shall bring forth the corporate Manchild.  All along and in each generation the Dragon has stood before her to devour her children with oppression and slavery, yet in each generation some live to bring forth another generation of children born to carry the Covenant Promise to still another generation.  This Woman and her seed have carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations of the world.

The Dragon’s Tail Casts One Third of the Stars of Heaven Down to Earth

In John’s vision the Woman has a garland of twelve stars on her head.  This seems reminiscent of Joseph’s dream in which he saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bow down to his star.  The interpretation given is that Jacob, his wife and all of Joseph’s eleven brothers would bow down to Joseph, which certainly came to pass.  The twelve stars in the corporate Woman’s garland seem to represent the twelve tribes of Israel out of which she and her offspring come.  One third of her offspring are cast out of heavenly authority by the tail, the back-side of the Dragon, one might think, in secret.

Those cast down out of heavenly authority by the Dragon’s tail historically have been those of her offspring who have enslaved, oppressed and robbed the Woman’s children in each generation.  They have been church leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, who have enslaved and robbed by religion.  They have been of the nobility and the wealthy classes who have oppressed and killed and have expanded their kingdoms by force.  They are the heads of international corporations and banking systems who seek to devour all economic systems of the earth into one under their own control.  Yet in every enslaved and oppressed generation, some live to perpetuate the Promise.

The Manchild shall be born as surely as the Messiah was born in Bethlehem.  The generation which is to bring forth the Manchild who is “to rule all nations with a rod of iron” may be very close at hand.  The Manchild is not a whole generation.  The Woman, the generation which brings forth the Manchild, continues to live as the Manchild is “caught up to God and His throne.”  She is protected in a wilderness place by two wings of a great eagle with which she flies in heavenly authority, and she is nourished “away from the face of the serpent.”

The Dragon cannot touch the Woman, but he goes to “make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  Is this remnant of her seed not the children across the earth that she has spawned through the Gospel in every nation?

The Manchild born of the Woman of Revelation 12 shall be caught up to God and to His throne.  At that time a voice in heaven shall say, “Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ.”

…the devil knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Revelation 12:12

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Who is a Christian?

Believers were first called Christians at Antioch. The secular Greek speaking communities identified followers of Jesus Christ as Christians. It was much the same way they would have identified the followers of Aristotle as Aristotelians or of Epicurus as Epicureans. The church at Antioch must have distinguished themselves as followers of Jesus Christ above all other names. They were not called by the name of any common man. They were called Christians.

Who is a Christian? The simple answer is one who follows Jesus Christ. How does one follow Jesus Christ? Our Lord answered the question himself, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”(Matthew16:24) A Christian is one who denies himself. He does not live to protect his own rights, even if that leads to his own cross.

A Christian is one who will not seek his own welfare but that of others. “Open thy mouth for the mute in the cause of all who are appointed unto death.”(Proverbs 31:8) “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”(James 1:27) One very clear example of following the Lord in this way is to decry abortion. To speak and to act in defense of the defenseless is to follow Jesus Christ and his teachings.

A Christian is one who seeks to conform his words and his actions to the words and actions of Jesus Christ. A Christian may fall, but he will “seek to be justified by Christ.”(Galatians 2:17) As the Apostle John said, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(I John 1:9)

A Christian is one who lives by faith in the forgiveness of God our Father. Therefore the Christian will forgive others who do him harm. “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you forgive men not their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”(Matthew 6:14-15)

One who is a Christian will live in such a way before both God and men as to move the secular community to say, “That man follows Jesus Christ.” A Christian should be called a Christian in his own Antioch.

How does one become a Christian?

On the day of Pentecost Peter told the people, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…”(Acts:2:38) To become a Christian one must repent of his sins, be baptized in open confession of his change, and follow Jesus Christ.

The Word of Reconciliation

For Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Only one who has accepted the pain of suffering can understand the forgiveness of reconciliation.

 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11

To forgive without the requirement of repentance is the beginning of reconciling the world to God.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Scenario: A wife is falsely accused by her husband. (It makes no difference if the matter is small or great.) She recounts the facts to him as she knows them. He disregards her words and makes more cutting statements.
She may:
1. grow angry and hold him to pay by her angry coldness until he admits his wrong at which time she will forgive him.
2. forgive his sin not holding him to its charges.

What will become of this husband? What will become of this wife? If the wife makes the choice  of forgiveness # 2, the husband will be committed to the merciful justice of God, instead of being held to the punishment of the lawful charges of the wife. The wife, in taking the second choice, is committing herself to Him who judges righteously, according to I Peter 2:23.

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not;
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

NO NEED TO FEAR
There is nothing in this world or the next that can induce Father God to ignore the suffering of the innocent. He will avenge the innocent, but He is just.

Will He allow the perpetrator to fall into double jeopardy?

REQUIRE VENGEANCE  OR  RELEASE VENGEANCE

Either the victim will require the vengeance of the Law, or the victim will release vengeance into the hands of The Righteous Judge. Reconciliation of the earth can only be accomplished through all vengeance being released into the hands of Him who said, “I will repay.”(1) The prescriptions of the Law are weak (2). They cannot purge sin from the conscience of the sinner. Only the Merciful Almighty can find the individual prescription that will purge each sinner(3). Only He can bring the sinner to complete repentance. His vengeance will not stop short of a purged conscience.

He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

FOOTNOTES:

(1)Romans 12:19 “for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Psalm 94:1  “ O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.”

(2)Romans 8:3  “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

(3) Hebrews 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The Ashen Altar – A Poem for the Day of Atonement

Let me live in the fire of the Ashen Altar,
Living sacrifice accepted above,
Laying my life down that others may live;
Just like my Lord has done.

“Follow me,” he calls, “in Death is Life.
The Fire has Resurrection power.
Your life laid down shall rise again
And multiply heavenly deeds.”

The title, Upon the Ashen Altar,  refers to the pile of ashes outside the camp of Israel where the ashes from the Altar of Sacrifice were dumped.  On the Day of Atonement each year, the bullock and the goat of Atonement were burned, outside the camp, upon those ashes.
(see Leviticus 4:12 and Leviticus 16:27)

Hebrews 13:10-13
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.   For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin [on the Day of Atonement], are burned outside the camp.   Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.   Let us go forth therefore unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

Follow Me – Graphite Painting

Copyright 2009

He is the image of the invisible God…
Colossians 1:15

Jesus said,

“He who hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
John 14:9

The face of God the Father gazes upon the viewer from the body of Jesus Christ, the Son.

Jesus also said,

“The Son can do nothing by himself;
he can do only what he sees his Father doing,
because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
John 5:19

Therefore, in this picture we see Father God in the form of Jesus Christ giving His life on the cross for us.

His grandfatherly face hints of a smile, and He seems to be bidding the viewer,

“Come, follow me”

original by Ector Ward
copyright 2009
Graphite pencil on Bristol paper
12″ X 15″