Anchor 2016 Class 4

Notes on Revelation 12

Anchor 2016 Class 4

The following transcript comprises  the first few minutes of this Anchor 2016 Class 2 presentation by Pastor Stephen Bohr. I welcome you to this page and pray that you might find the videos in this series as enlightening and informative as I have found them.

Please take the time to watch this series and also to secure a copy of the study notes as they will help complete the course structure.

The study notes can be obtained at Secrets unsealed by clicking the following link. ‘Secrets Unsealed’

Pastor Stephen Bohr

We’re going to go to page 27 in our syllabus and study the notes on Revelation 12 which I’m going to go through as quickly as possible.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

It’s going to take us the session this afternoon, and the first two sessions tomorrow morning to finish this material.

But Revelation 12 is foundational to Revelation 13 and Revelation chapter 17, so we are going to take our time in studying this material.

 

Now in Revelation chapter 12 we have three centers of focus, and when we have our prayer we are going to take a look at those three centers of focus. The rest of our time together today and tomorrow when we study this material is going to be on these three centers of focus.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

As I was mentioning Revelation chapter 12 has three centers of focus, and you have it in your material.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

(#1) Revelation 12:1-5 is amplified in Revelation 12:7-12, in other words Revelation 12 is not in chronological order. The events don’t transpire one right after the other throughout the course of the chapter; the chapter has three repetitive cycles where what you have at the beginning of the chapter is amplified later on at the end of the chapter, so in Revelation 12:1-5 you have an amplification of that in Revelation 12:7-12, and the center of focus in those verses is the child, and he doesn’t stay a child forever.

 

It’s the child who is later caught up to God into His throne, in other words the center of focus is Jesus, in chapters chapter 12:1-5 and verses 7 through 12; only verses 7 through 12 are an amplification of verses 1 through 5.

 

Then the 2nd center of focus of the chapter is Revelation 12:6, and that verse is amplified further in Revelation 12:13-16, so we need to understand that verse 6 is the intro and then that is amplified at the end of the chapter in verses 13 through 16.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

And then the 3rd center of focus is Revelation 12:17 when the dragon is enraged with the woman and goes to make war; not with the child anymore, not with the woman anymore, but with the remnant of the woman seed, and that is amplified in all of chapter 13.

 

Anchor 2016 Class 4So is this clear? Very important that we understand that Revelation chapter 12 is not in chronological order, if you say I want to know what the sequence of events is going to be, so you start reading in verse 1 through verse 17 and you have all of the events in order. It doesn’t work that way, because the first half of the chapter is amplified in the second half of the chapter.

 

Now let’s continue here in Daniel 7, and Revelation 13 verses 1 through 10 the focus is on the earthly powers that Satan used to persecute God’s people, that’s a central focus. In Daniel chapter 7 it’s the little horn, and in Revelation chapter 13 it’s the Beast, the earthly powers that Satan uses throughout the 1260 years primarily to persecute God’s people, but in Revelation chapter 12 we find that the real persecuting force behind the little horn, and behind the Beast, is the dragon; Satan. So in other words revelation 12 takes you behind the scenes to show that Satan is working behind the little horn, and behind the beast in persecuting God’s people.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

Is that point clear? These points will become clear as we study along. Now there are three Old Testament contexts that form the background to Revelation chapter 12, three Old Testament stories, or scenarios that help us understand the story of Revelation chapter 12.

 

For the first backdrop is the gospel promise of genesis 3:15, there’s no way we can understand revelation 12 without taking into account this background, the background of genesis 3:15.

 

The second backdrop is the exodus of Israel from Egypt; there’s no way that we can fully understand the chapter unless we go back to the story of the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt, because that’s in the background of Revelation 12.

Anchor 2016 Class 4

And finally: It is indispensable for us to consider the story of Elijah because the story of Elijah is also in the backdrop of Revelation chapter 12.

 

So revelation 12 depends heavily on the Old Testament, it depends on genesis 3:15, on the exodus of Israel from Egypt, the story of Elijah, and we’re also going to notice that it depends on the little Horn prophecy of Daniel chapter 7, so we need to keep that in mind as we study Revelation chapter 12.