No, God is telling us His Church who know the scriptures but not telling the world who doesn't know the scriptures. The Woman and 144,000 both seemingly refer to Israel, the 7 spirits and 7 eyes simple means God sees all and is everywhere, the 7 headed 10 horned beast is saying this is God's complete judgments against Israel for their backsliding ways. The whole book is symbolism, codes & metaphors.
When I 1st began to tackle the book of Revelation that was my view too, but in the end it was too obscure, too subjective. You could read anything you want into the symbolism. Why would God be so obscure, so hard to understand?
I do agree that John was given to make it difficult for the Roman world to comprehend, so that they wouldn't persecute John further for bad-mouthing the Roman Empire. But I can't see God making things so hard to understand for Christians, which is what your kind of symbolism does.
I do think some of the symbolism might be more comprehensible for Christians in the 1st century who were closer to the Jewish way of interpreting biblical prophecy. It might be apparent, for example, that anything with the number "7" in it is referencing something associated with a sabbath period, or with completing a process and then resting after it.
So perhaps describing 7 spirits makes sense in this regard, although my style of interpreting the Bible requires that the Bible actually identify something before making an assumption that the 7 spirits are this or that. We may, for example, have it elsewhere that the 7 spirits are identified in the way angels are identified in that book or elsewhere in prophetic literature.
One can see where the 7 heads and 10 horns come from, for example, in Dan 7. It is a prophecy of Antichrist who assumes control over 10 kingdoms, vanquishing 3 of the leaders. This makes 10 horns and 7 heads.
The 144,000 occurs in the format of Ezekiel's vision of the temple, which we already know was an artificial construction designed to show the people of his time how the temple should've properly functioned leading to the Kingdom. By common sense, we know that today there are not 12 tribes, because the tribes dissolved into a single nation many centuries ago, in fact millennia ago. They are emblematic of the fact God kept His promise to the 12 tribes to include them in the form of the Israeli nation all the way until the end of the age so that the nation would survive, if only for the time being in a remnant of believers.
But the woman going to her place in the wilderness sounds like a throwback to Eve being delivered from the serpent in the form of a nation doing what Elijah did, when he sought to escape Jezebel in the wilderness. These aren't always easy to "de-code," as you suggested. We simply have to know the Bible. You're right that its purpose doesn't appear to be overly-literal, since our focus was never to be on de-coding times and seasons, but rather, using information to keep ourselves spiritually prepared now.
The cherubim were clearly identified as angels in the book of Ezekiel. And so, the living creatures are not God, but representative of some of His characteristics as these angels carry out specific duties assigned to them by God. I just don't know what the "2 wings of the eagle" represent? Perhaps it is simply saying that something will help the mother of the man child, which may be Israel, escape in her place in Israel?
The eagle is God, who else do you think could protect Israel from these end time evil, terrorist thugs? Read it again, the earth protects Israel (woman) means God uses the earths elements just like He did in Egypt.
If the eagle was God I think the Bible would've identified it as such. But it doesn't. And we need to be cautious about adding to what is actually said in the book. We may speculate, but when we dogmatize about things that we're not sure about, we're starting to get in over our head. We may regret it later. I know I have because I've had to change my positions many, many times over the last 50 years!
Exactly, its all symbolism.
Yes sir, like Billy Swan "I can Help" (lol) remember Daniel 9:26-27?
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary(Rome); and the end thereof shall be with a flood(this refers to an Army overtaking a city like flood does quickly), and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(See how right after "The Flood" it speaks about a war? Its talking about 70 AD)
I'm very aware of that passage. I think the "flood" refers to a military deluge, an army.
16 And the earth helped the woman(God uses the elements), and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Basically, its just God prose, saying He Himself will protect Israel from the Anti-Christs armies supernaturally, but we already kind of knew this, but the prose God uses makes it seem mystical. Its like the enigma codes in WW2, they wee bewildering, until we found out how to decode them, then we were like, ohh, this makes perfect sense now.
I sure hope so, because I've been praying for understanding for many years. And it does seem like some things become clearer as we get closer to their actual fulfillment.
