Revelation-
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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.
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(More- 1260
{11:3} And I will give [power] unto my two witnesses, and
they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and]
threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Dan. {12:11} And
from the time [that] the daily [sacrifice] shall be taken
away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up,
[there shall be] a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
(Taken from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith)--
The period of "a thousand two hundred and three score days" is variously referred to in the Scriptures. It appears in three forms:
As 1260 days in this verse and Revelation 12: 6.
As 42 months in Revelation 11: 2 and 13: 5.
As 3 1/2 times in Daniel 7: 25 and 12: 7, and Revelation 12: 14.
These all refer to the same period and can be easily be calculated. A time is a year, as is evident from Daniel 11: 13, marginal reading. A year has twelve months, and a Biblical month contains thirty days. Thus we have the following:
1 year of 12 months at 30 days - - - - 360 days
3 1/2 years, or times, of 360 days - - - - 1260 days
42 months of 30 days - - - - - - - - 1260 days
PLUS- The church fled into the wilderness at the time of the papacy was firmly established in 538, where it was nourished by the word of God, and the ministration of angels during the long, dark, and bloody rule of that power for 1260 years.
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Again, the 1260 years. The two witnesses - the Old/New Testament, the Bible, were to prophesize clothed in sackcloth and at the same time the woman (the church) was to be hidden in the wilderness, protected. There was NO way Satan could destroy God's people, God's church, the Bible -- no way! It wouldn't be allowed. They could be hunted, wounded, wanted, depised, trampled upon, but they could not be wiped out of existence.
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And there was war in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent,
called the Devil,
and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world
he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
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War in heaven.
Michael...
(Other Michael'a-
Jude {1:9} Yet
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he
disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against
him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
1 Thess. {4:16} For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: {4:17} Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord
in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
John {5:26} For as
the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son
to have life in himself; {5:27} And hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
{5:28} Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, {5:29}
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation.
Jesus- is Michael. More specifically Jesus in battle, Jesus as victor of a battle.
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And there was war in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent,
called the Devil,
and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world
he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
...
Jesus and His angels fought against the devil
The devil and his angels fought and prevailed not.
The devil and his angel no longer had a place in heaven they were cast out. The devil which deceives the whole world, cast out. His angels were cast out as well, he wasn't alone, he and his fellow angels were cast out of heaven.
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And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
Now is come salvation,
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When did salvation come? When? On the cross. When Christ died for us. Is it any wonder at all that Christ prevailed against Satan and was able to cast Him and His followers from heaven? Having obtained the victory for the inhabitants of earth they were from thereon safe from the devil's hopelessness. Hope was given to the world. Even with Satan cast out of heaven and to earth He had no rule over God's people from the moment salvation was come.
If I lived in a world where super lions constantly killed men and women, and there was some protection from them because they weren't bound to that world left to entirely destroy it. If a super lion repellent was invented and the world's inhabitants were offered this repellent, would it be safe to bind the super lions to earth knowing that the people had protection available? Yes. It wouldn't have been safe in any way to bind the super lions to earth allowing them to roam and destroy everything upon earth if there hadn't been a way to protect any of the people. It was only safe to bind the super lions to earth once the repellent existed and was available for all.
When Satan was cast out of heaven to earth it was only after salvation through Jesus was obtained and people could be saved through Jesus.
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And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
Now is come salvation,
and strength,
and the kingdom of our God,
and the power of his Christ:
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
which accused them before our God day and night.
...
Night and day Satan was in heaven accusing God. Accusing God of any and everything He could to disparge His name, to bring God to ruin in any way he could. Satan wanted God to fail, he wanted his accusations to prove true. He wanted God to be hated and despised so that he could be glorified, but he could accuse all he wanted to, he couldn't prevail. Christ was victorious on the cross and that is something Satan can never take away, never. His accusations were proven false once and for all upon the cross.
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And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony;
and they loved not their lives unto the death.
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The overcomers in Christ will only overcome by the blood of the Lamb. The overcomers will only overcome by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God's innocent Son. The overcomers will have the word of their testimony which is their hope in Jesus' prophesized return to come for His people. The overcomers will not love their own lives to death, they will love Jesus' life knowing they live for life eternal not for this mortal life offered here on earth now. This life while precious in its own right will only, always be temporary and not the life we should love and cling to. Our love of life has to be the life in Jesus. If we get caught up in our love of this life we are bound by it, we are trapped in it. Overcomers will not love this life of theirs, but the life in Jesus, the next life- life eternal.
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Therefore rejoice,
ye heavens,
and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!
for the devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
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Yes, the devil's wrath is immense because with salvation assured he lost all hope of any victory over God. He lost. He lost and now his only pleasure is to see how many of God's people he can corrupt and turn to himself, to the losing side. He believes that he'll have a victory of his own making if he can rob God of those made in His image. And he'll succeed in getting all but a few, all but the elect. With his ultimate destruction assured, the time the devil has left is short because he no longer has the hope of eternity it was taken from him the moment Christ died upon the cross.
A prisoner on death row may live on death row for twenty-five years before being killed, but that time is short. They know their death is assured, they are living on death row, a waiting line for death. While most of us live in our own little worlds oblivious to our impending deaths- not knowing how we'll die whether by accident, illness, or old age; those on death row know the way they will die and that it will be no accident, no illness, and certainly not old age. Those on death row know that they have a date of execution and the manner in which they will die. Living your life with that knowledge shortens it considerably- even if it's fifty years- it's not the same as if they weren't living on death row with the specter of death hanging over them, it's not the same at all.
The devil lives on death row and he's determined to ease his impending death by taking as many people with him as he can because it's the only thing he has left to do. If he can deprive God of one person he allows himself that small bit of satisfaction. A prisoner on death row getting his last kicks by causing as much trouble as he possibly can.
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And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
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See, the devil realizing it was over that his sentence was a death sentence and he was bound to earth- no longer welcomed in heaven to create any mischief he went to persecute God's church, God's people- the very ones who God deemed worthy to bring His son into the world.
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May God bless us all and keep us in Him so that we may be among those who will overcome, by His grace and His mercy, in His love now and forever!
Amen.
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