“The tidal wave is coming, the Year of Jubilee; With shout and song it sweeps along, like billows of the sea, The jubilee of nations shall ring through earth and sky; The dawn of grace draws on apace—’tis coming by and by.” Revelation 12—The Birth Of Antichrist 12:1. And there appeared a great wonder.—Sign, Greek.—Rev. 1:1. In heaven.—In the power of spiritual control.—A. 318; Eph. 2:4‐6; Phil. 3:20. A Woman.—The early Church, Nominal Zion, (D. 591), originally a chaste Virgin.—2 Cor. 11:2; Matt. 9:15; 22:2; John 3:29; Eph. 5:25, 32. Clothed with the sun.—Resplendent in the full, clear light of the unclouded Gospel.—D. 591. And the moon under her feet.—“The moon under her feet represents that the Law which supports her is nevertheless not the source of her light.”—D. 591. And upon her head a crown of twelve stars.—“The twelve stars about her head as a crown represent her Divinely appointed and inspired teachers—the Twelve Apostles.” (D. 591.) “Now if God ordained only twelve stars as lights for His Church, as here represented, is it not a great mistake for popes, bishops and clergy to regard themselves as successors of the Apostles,—stars also?”—D. 594. 12:2. And [she] being with child.—As a result of the Mystery of Iniquity which was working within her.—2 Thes. 2:7. [Cried], AND SHE CRIETH travailing in birth.—Felt the weight of the burden even in apostolic days.—Rev. 2:2. And pained to be delivered.—Desired to get rid of the loathsome thing from which, by the machinations of Satan, she was at the time suffering. In a sense the birth of the Antichrist from the early Church was a counterfeit of the birth of Christ from the virgin Mary, the one a manifestation of the power of God, the other of Satan.—John 16:21, 22. 12:3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven.—Among the ecclesiastical powers of the same epoch. And behold a great red dragon.—The Pagan Roman Empire, which had its own religious system. “The Roman Empire had not only conquered the world and given it politics and laws, but, recognizing religious superstitions to be the strongest chains by which to hold and control a people, it had adopted a scheme which had its origin in Babylon, in the time of her greatness as ruler of the world. That plan was, that the emperor should be esteemed the director and ruler in religious as well as in civil affairs. In support of this, it was claimed that the emperor was a demi‐god, in some sense descended from their heathen deities. As such he was worshipped and his statues adored; and as such he was styled _Pontifex Maximus_—i. e., Chief Priest or Greatest Religious Ruler.”—B. 288.