Rev 12:14-17 | PNT | STEP | To the woman were given two wings , etc. The meaning is that means were given to the persecuted church to flee into the wilderness, into a place where she would be hidden from view. The Church would disappear from sight. There she would be a time, and times, and half a time , or a year, two years and half a year, three and half years, forty-two months, 1260 days. See . This period we found under chapter 11 to begin in AD 733, and to extend to about the close of the last century.

Revelation of John 12:14-17

To the woman were given two wings, etc. The meaning is that means were given to the persecuted church to flee into the wilderness, into a place where she would be hidden from view. The Church would disappear from sight. There she would be a time, and times, and half a time, or a year, two years and half a year, three and half years, forty-two months, 1260 days. See Re 12:6 11:2,3. This period we found under chapter 11 to begin in AD 733, and to extend to about the close of the last century. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood. He resorted to persecutions in order to drive the true Church off of the face of the earth. The earth helped the woman. In some way the flood of persecution was so hindered that it failed to accomplish the object. I believe this refers to the hindrances often interposed by secular powers to stay persecution. The Hussites protected themselves under Zisca by force of arms; the German princes protected Luther; the edict of Nantes gave French Protestants a rest. These were times when "the earth" drank up the flood. And the dragon was wroth with the woman. "Waxed wroth" (Revised Version). Was angry at his defeat. He continued the warfare by asking to destroy the woman's seed. I believe that this vision reveals the persecution of the true Church, first by Pagan, and then by Papal Rome, a persecution that results in the apparent disappearance of the true Church from the earth. Though not visible to the eye of the historian during this period, yet the true Church, fed of God, survives in the hearts of the hidden and persecuted saints. The period of her exile began about 533, in the reign of Justinian, and ends about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before the end of the period, the Divine measure, the reed of the apostles, was used to measure the temple, altar and worshipers, and, as the result, over three-fourths of a century ago, the true Church began to appear as a visible body, once more in the world.