It is often accepted that events described in Revelation by the Apostle John are shrouded in imagery difficult to understand. For that very reason, his writings often attract authors eager to solve the scriptural puzzle, including tabloid journalists whose sole motivation may be to sensationalize and instill fear in the readers of the apocalyptic literature. Even faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may find that they spend hours deliberating the theatrical components of John’s revelation and, in so doing, fail to appreciate the simple facets of his vision. Indeed, who would choose to contemplate the significance of an angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel in his hand (see Revelation 14:6) when a tabloid article entitled the “The Beast and his Reign of Terror” bids our attention. But—to restate a cliché, all that is gold doesn’t glitter.If we will take time to look beyond the invented drama swirling all about John’s writings, we will discover that Revelation 12 may not glitter but is, nevertheless, one of the great treasures of the New Testament. The prophet Joseph Smith thought so much of its scriptural importance as to restate the chapter in its entirety. He altered most of the verses, rearranged their order (see JST, Revelation 12), and most importantly added verse 7 that sheds important light on the entire chapter. Given its content, maybe it’s time to look again at this remarkable chapter. However, as with any revelation, when its layers are peeled back, it will be discovered that the deeper layers are much more rich and flavorful. The reader of this blog should understand that I intend to only scratched the surface of this revelation and provide a very limited perspective of a shadow. Parallels of the following will be seen through history.
The Great Adultery
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| A Darkened Day |
The consequence of the Only Begotten being wounded in the house of His friends was aptly described by Amos as “a famine . . . of hearing the words of the LORD” (see Amos 8:7-12)! Isaiah’s description of this event is also instructive and strikingly similar to that of Amos’ (see Isaiah 29:9-10). However, it is from the Book of Mormon that we read with great plainness about the apostasy: “in the last days . . . behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews . . . upon all the lands of the earth . . . will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations . . . for ye shall cry out and . . . ye shall be drunken but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong drink. For . . . the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. For behold, ye have closed your eyes, and ye have rejected the prophets; and your rulers, and the seers hath he covered because of your iniquity” (2 Nephi 27:1, 4-5). Although these verses note that the Lord brought this spiritual blindness upon Israel, Jacob declared that God would take his plainness away from them and deliver to them many things which they cannot understand “because they desire it” (see Jacob 4:14)..png)
The approaching reality of this spiritual famine was noted by Paul in his letter to the saints at Thessalonia who were anxiously awaiting Jesus’ return foretold by Paul’s contemporaries (see Acts 1:11): “Now we beseech you,” he declared, “by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . . That ye be not soon shaken . . . as that the day of Christ is at hand. For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). That the great apostasy had already commenced at the time of Paul’s writing is demonstrated by his words found several verses later: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work . . . . And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8; compare 1 John 4:3). Paul’s letters to the congregations at Corinth and Galatia further confirm that iniquity had crept into the church in only a generation and that the ordinances had become corrupted.[4] By the time the ancient apostles were slain, excepting John, the apostasy had grown to such dimensions that only seven of the Churches (see Revelation 1:4) were deemed worthy of John’s apostolic communication called Revelation. 
Continuing with a manifold and much deeper explanation of Israel's apostasy, it is within Chapter 12 of this communication that John introduces a woman, heavy with child, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Importantly, although John’s vision pertains to things which he saw in heaven, such things were “in the likeness of things on the earth” (see JST Revelation 1:1). Thus, although verses 1 through 11 of this vision describes events that transpired in connection with the war fought in heaven, these events are also “in the likeness of things on the earth” and, therefore, describe much of which transpired during the dark ages and every age of apostasy on earth. JST Revelation 12:7 identifies this woman as a representation of the Church of God and a precise reading of this same verse confirms that the child she brought forth was the “kingdom of our God and his Christ" or Zion (see D&C 105:32).[5] Such is the eternal and divinely-appointed role of this woman . . . to bring forth a child that is pure in heart (see D&C 97:21). Following these supernal events, John's revelation took a quick turn for the worse, and he wrote that saw "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads," seek to devour the child after it was born" (JST Revelation 12:5; compare D&C 76:25-29). Similar to nearly every Zion before or since, the blessed child was caught up to God and His throne.[6] Alone and depleted of those who were pure in heart, the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God. There, the record notes, "they . . .[fed] her . . . a thousand two hundred and threescore years (see JST Revelation 12:1-2, 4-6). As noted in a prior blog entitled The Lost Sheep, the Greek for wilderness is érēmos. In context with these events, it means "a woman neglected by her husband, from whom the husband withholds himself." Notwithstanding that she fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God, what John witnessed was her disintegration into a state of apostasy, for there is no other reason that her Husband would forsake her (see Isaiah 54:6-7).
Ascertaining those who fed her in the wilderness confirms this awful tragedy and is, otherwise, a point of singular interest. The pronoun they, as used in the phrase ". . . that they should feed her there . . ." (JST Revelation 12:6), can only be a reference to the correlating pronoun them noted in the preceding verse wherein the dragon's tail "drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth" (see JST Revelation 12:5; compare Isaiah 9:15). The fact that it was this motley crew who fed her assured that she was given a daily diet of forbidden fruit. It should not be a surprise that, when the Spirit carried John into the wilderness as recorded in Revelation 17:3, he saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy. This and the following chapter confirms that this woman personified the great apostate, the Mother of Harlots, and Church of the Devil. The woman, whose beauty was once perfect through the comeliness of her Husband, did trust in her own beauty (see Ezekiel 16:14-15); she played the harlot and "opened [her] feet to every one that passed by" (see Ezekiel 16:25; compare Ezekiel 23). Truly, the Great Apostasy should be more appropriately termed The Great Adultery.
The fact that John saw this woman riding upon a scarlet-colored beast is not without significance. In ancient Israel, scarlet was the color of the ribbon tied round the neck of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement and represented the sins of Israel. From this simple perspective, the scarlet-colored beast can be viewed as the many sins of the apostate church. It could also mean other things inasmuch as red generally denotes one who is a political dissident (consider JST Revelation 12:4). Notably, the Apostle also saw that the woman who had made her beauty to be abhorred was “arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls” (Revelation 17:4). Nephi, who also saw what John did, likewise declared that she was "arrayed in gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets, and fine-twined linen” (1 Nephi 13:7). Without much thought, one may take from these verses only the idea that these things "are the desires of this great and abominable church” (see 1 Nephi 13:8), for indeed they are. However, the Apostle’s allusions to the colors of purple and scarlet and references to gold, precious stones, and fine-twined linen draw attention to the tabernacle built by wandering Israel.
From the description of the holy tabernacle recorded in Exodus, one learns that this most holy place was arrayed throughout in purple and scarlet. Nearly every element of the Mosaic tabernacle, including its curtain (see Exodus 26:1), vail (see Exodus 26:31), door (see Exodus 26:36), and court gate (see Exodus 27:16), were of blue, purple, and scarlet colors. But this was not all. In context with the apparel that arrayed the woman that John saw, the “holy garments for Aaron” (see Exodus 28:2) were comprised of a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle (see Exodus 28:4) of similar colors (see Exodus 28:5-8). Even the breastplate of judgment was made of “gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine-twined lined” (see Exodus 28:15) with twelve “precious stones” inlaid (see Exodus 28:17-21).
The symbolic resemblances between the high priest and tabernacle of ancient Israel and the prostitute church of the meridian times are intriguing and unmistakable. In scripture, two types of antichrist are depicted. First, the most obvious is that antichrist who “confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh . . . and this is that spirit of antichrist” (1 John 4:3). Nehor, Korihor, and other Book of Mormon antichrists were of this variety. Second, and much worse than the first, is that antichrist who, like Lucifer in the primeval realm, says in his heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14).Based on the foregoing, was John conveying the thought that this antichrist of the second variety was setting herself up as the high priest in the temple of God? This question can be quickly answered in the affirmative when viewed together with the apostle Paul’s prophetic warning that the man of sin to be revealed during the great apostasy would oppose all and exalt himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,[7] shewing himself that he is God” (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). Importantly, no building was needed for the man of sin to fulfill is blasphemous desire, for "man is the tabernacle of God, even temples" (see D&C 93:35); it is always in man's heart that Satan sits to reign or to rage (see 2 Nephi 28:20). The Lord’s clarification of the parable of the wheat and tares provides ample support for this view:
Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servants, concerning the parable of the wheat and of the tares:
Behold, verily I say, the field was the world, and the apostles were the sowers of the seed;
And after they have fallen asleep the great persecutor of the church, the apostate, the whore, even Babylon, that maketh all nations to drink of her cup, in whose hearts the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign—behold he soweth the tares; wherefore, the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness.” (D&C 86:1-3; compare D&C 88:94).
Notwithstanding her many crimes, the Husband never forsakes his bride but for a moment. Ezekiel wrote concerning the last days:
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:
That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 16:60-63)
Thus, the Lord’s description of the restoration of the gospel in 1830 as “the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness” (D&C 5:14; compare D&C 33:5) is an intentional and unmistakable parallel to the symbolism used by John to describe God’s church going into the wilderness nearly thirteen centuries earlier. By the 18th century, the woman began her journey "out of the wilderness of darkness," to put on her beautiful garments that she might once again "shine forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners; And be adorned as a bride for that day when [her Lord will] unveil the heavens, and cause the mountains to flow down at [His] presence" (D&C 109:73-74).
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
FOOTNOTES
[1] The “flood of Egypt” is an allusion to the walls of the Red Sea bursting to destroy the armies of Pharoah (see Exodus 14:20-28). The best description of the apostasy bursting upon Israel as the “flood of Egypt” is found in Isaiah 30: 8-14, wherein Isaiah wrote: “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever; That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare; so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.” The apostasy (i.e., that which follows the destruction of Jerusalem and the sanctuary) is also portrayed as a flood in Daniel 9:26.
[2] Some of the early brethren of the Church are described as “walking in darkness at noon-day” because they were “called,” but had yet to be “chosen.” “Walking in darkness at noon-day” is a very good description of the Jews at the time of Christ. Christ was the light that shone in darkness, but those in darkness did not comprehend the light—and they crucified it (see D&C 6:21; compare D&C 88:46-49). How evil is darkness that does not comprehend light!
[3] The reference to “an only son” is unmistakable. Christ is the firstborn and true Son of God. Indeed, the apostasy was to be as the mourning of an only son.
[4] Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and Galatians are largely devoted to warning the saints of the evils of fornication, adultery, idolatry, and divisions in the church and admonishing the saints to stand firm in the faith.
[5] From this scriptural chain, the individual and institutional purpose of the Church is discovered and the identity of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, is revealed. Through an intimate and sacred relationship with Him, she is to have His seed planted in her heart (see Alma 32:28) that it may be nourished "by her faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof" (see Alma 32:41). And because every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness (see Alma 32:32), the fruit of her womb will grow up in her possessing the attributes of his divine Father, the King of Zion (see Moses 7:53). When her time is come and travail sets in, and she begins to wonder whether it was all worthwhile, the comforting words of her Husband will be heard, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). As soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. (John 16:21). Such individuals who experience this journey are truly "born again."
[6] This child did not flourish on earth during the meridian of time but was taken back to heaven in its infancy to come at a future date.
[7] The temple of God mentioned by Paul, in which the Son of Perdition would sit to reign, is often viewed as the temple of Herod wherein the Roman Pontiff set himself up to reign.
