What is between these two ends of the second section of Revelation? In chapters twenty-one and twenty-two we have the New Jerusalem as the Lamb’s wife, and in chapters nineteen and twenty we have the bride and the wedding feast of the Lamb. In chapter twenty the bride will be those reigning with Christ during the thousand years. Hence in chapters nineteen and twenty the woman is the bride, and in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two she is the wife. In chapters seventeen and eighteen we see Babylon the Great, the counterfeit of this woman, the counterfeit of Jerusalem. This view is not only logical but also very meaningful.
What about chapters thirteen through sixteen? The link that connects chapters twelve and thirteen is the three and a half years, or the one thousand two hundred sixty days. In 13:5 we are told that Antichrist will be given authority to act forty-two months, which are three and a half years or the one thousand two hundred sixty days. In 12:6 and 14 we are told that the woman will be nourished in the wilderness for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, or for a year, two years, and half a year “from the face of the serpent.” Therefore, chapter thirteen is an addition to chapter twelve describing what will happen when the red dragon persecutes the woman. During this period of time, a beast, Antichrist, will emerge from the sea and will be one with the dragon to war against the saints, God’s people. In chapter fourteen God warns the people, including the saints, not to worship this beast, and He warns the people on earth not to follow Antichrist to persecute His people. In chapter fifteen we see a vision of a number of the saints who overcome the beast and his image and stand on the glassy sea to sing and praise the Lord. Chapter sixteen covers the end of this period of time, when God will drop seven bombs, the seven bowls of the last plagues, to destroy the entire kingdom of the beast. This is a summary of the second section of this book.
The second section of Revelation is virtually a history of this woman. It seems that the last eleven chapters relate a series of isolated things—the dragon, the two beasts, the glassy sea, the seven bowls, the great Babylon, the wedding feast. It may appear that some of these isolated items are very important and that others are less important. But to consider the matter in this way indicates that you lack vision and do not have the proper view. When you have the proper view, you will say, “This is not a section composed of various isolated things. It is a section giving a full history of God’s people. It tells how God’s enemy is fighting against His people and how His people are producing the stronger part, the man-child, to defeat the enemy. We see that God’s enemy will instigate Antichrist, the false prophet, and their followers to war against God’s people. But God’s people will overcome them. Eventually, we see that God will exercise His judgment by means of the seven bowls to destroy the kingdom of Satan under the power of Antichrist. Following this, He will overthrow the prostitute, Babylon the Great. Then Christ will come to marry God’s people, to defeat Antichrist with the chosen ones among God’s people, and to reign with them over the nations for a thousand years. After this, there will be the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of God’s people as the wife of the redeeming Lamb for eternity.