One Woman—Four Views: Part 2

One Woman—Four Views: Part 2

The Woman is the Constellation Virgo and Jupiter is the Child 

Please read One Woman—Four Views: Part 1

There are four dominate views of Revelation 12’s woman: The woman is:

1.    Israel: past and/or present

§  Mary representing Israel—Israel’s descendant.

2.    The constellations Virgo and Jupiter is the child

3.    The Bride of Christ: all the church or part of the church

4.    A synthesis of all the faithful throughout history

5.    And finally, my thoughts. 

The Woman is the Constellations Virgo

Seriously, I have not wanted to write this blog and have been putting it off. I just cannot find much credit to this view, so I feel it a waste of my time. However, to be thorough it must be addressed, since it is one of the prominent views. 

Introductory thoughts:

1.    All of Revelation following chapter 4:1 is an experience John is having while in heaven—the heaven where God’s Throne is:

     After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. Revelation 4:1

2.    There are two signs in Revelation 12: the woman with child and a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.

3.    Part of Revelation 12’s storyline takes place in heaven (a sign appeared in heaven) and part on the earth (the dragon was cast to the earth and pursued the woman, the earth helped the woman). All is being seen by John while “up here” where God’s Throne is.

4.    The two signs in chapter 12 are “video clips” mirroring activity taking place on the earth. We see in the dragon the spiritual masterminding of governments and powers on the earth to pursue the woman. Ephesians 6 tells us that we fight against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

5.    Revelation 12 takes place right at the beginning of the 3-1/2 year tribulation. Revelation 12:6 (Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.) is not the rapture of the church. The rapture is at the end of this 1260 days and before the most dramatic of God’s judgments—the last 30 days that Daniel prophesies. (Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.”)

That said, let’s get on with Virgo and Jupiter. 

Here is the deal: will the constellations align so that a case could made that there is a woman (Virgo), a child (Jupiter), the moon under the woman’s feet, the sun somewhere in the picture, and somehow throw in the 12 stars? Yeah, with a sledgehammer, but it can be done. Obviously, since many have. This sledgehammer alignment takes place regularly—not every year, but it is in the earth’s regular orbit. 

Furthermore, Revelation 12’s heavenly act doesn’t end with the woman and her child. There is a whole scenario, almost like a play, taking place scene by scene. No one I've read or heard addresses the sign of a dragon who waits in hungry anticipation for the male child to be born. Which constellation is the dragon anyway? There isn’t any constellation for him and they all leave out verses 4 about his tail sweeping stars out of the sky. The dragon pursues the woman after the child is snatched up to heaven. So now we have Jupiter totally out of the picture, Virgo with her star-crown, sun clothing, and moon platform running into a heavenly desert? (That must be a meteor shower to behold!) See how it all breaks down? The constellation theory just doesn’t work. 

Nevertheless, Genesis 1:14 states that the lights in the heavens are for signs, seasons, days, and years. So let’s look at Genesis 1:14-19: 

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

(As a side note, I think it’s funny that God created light before He created the light bearers.) The heavenly lights are for signs, seasons, days, and years. For example Israel’s feasts were centered on the lunar orbit. I also find it funny that when blood moons fall on Jewish feasts people get all out-of-sorts about it; they write books, prophesy, and preach about a new thing God is doing or the end of the world. All because the blood moons were on a Jewish feast, when all Jewish feasts align with the moon. 

Joel along with Acts 2 both describe end-time signs in the sun and moon: “I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.” 

There will be more signs in the heavens before the Lord Jesus returns, however it won’t be Virgo as the woman of Revelation 12. 

Below is a fantastic article discussing the constellations Virgo as the woman in Revelation 12. This article is concise and informative:  

https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/stars/what-will-happen-september-23-2017/