Elucidation #1:
1. The word, overshadow, used in Luke, is the same as
the verb covered, used in Exodus to describe how the Lord "filled" the
tabernacle.
2. The Ark of the Covenant contained manna (food from heaven),
the rod of Aaron (authority of the High Priest), and the Ten Commandments (the
Word of GOD) (Hebrews 9:4).
3. Mary carried within her womb the Word of GOD (John 1:1,14) , the High Priest of GOD
(Hebrews 5:1-10) , and the
Bread come down from heaven (John 6:51), the antitype of the manna.
4. The Ark of the Old
Covenant shall not be seen until an appointed time by GOD. However, the New Ark
of the Covenant was seen by Saint John in Revelation 11:19. This shows that the
two Arks of the Covenants of Scripture are not one in the same.
"And David was afraid of the Lord that day, saying, How shall the Ark of the
Lord come to me?"
2Samuel 6:9
"And how have I deserved that
the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
Luke 1:43
Elucidation #2:
1. In 2Samuel 6:9,
David asked regarding the Ark which contained the Word of GOD written on stone
tablets.
2. In Luke 1:43, Elizabeth asked regarding the New Ark which
contained the Word of GOD in the womb of Mary. Did you notice that by Elizabeth
calling Mary "the mother of my Lord", she was really calling her the Mother of
GOD? Who prompted Elizabeth to say this? See Luke 1:41.
3. It is obvious
that the verse, 2Samuel 6:9, is a type of the verse in the New
Testament.
"...David went and brought away the Ark of GOD...into the city of David with
joy....And David danced with all his might before the Lord."
2Samuel
6:12-14
"And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,
that the babe in her womb lept."
Luke 1:41
Elucidation #3:
1. David danced
before the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Word of GOD written on stone
tablets.
2. St. John the Baptist, lept in the womb of his mother Elizabeth,
as he was before the New Ark of the Covenant, Mary, who held the Word of GOD in
her womb.
3. This is yet another example of types and
antitypes.
Now to connect the verses of Revelation 11:19 and 12:1:
"AND a great
sign* appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the Sun , and the Moon was under her feet, and upon her
head is a crown of twelve stars."
*The Greek word used for the word
sign here is shmeionh (say-mi'-on)
which means:
1. A sign, mark, token, miracle, or wonder.
2. That by
which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and is known.
3. A
sign, prodigy, portent, an unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of
nature.
4. Of signs portending remarkable events soon to happen.
5. Of
miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which
men prove that the cause they are pleading is God's.
6. Semeion
(say-mi'-on) is the same Greek word which is used three times in Luke 11:29,
wherein Jesus said that this generation demanded a sign, a miracle of
some sort.
7. Compare Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give
you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall
be called Emmanuel." A virgin conceiving is certainly a miracle as is the
same woman being seen in heaven and clothed with the sun.
8. Read about many more
miraculous signs in Mark 16:16-18
In all of chapter 12 of
Revelation, there are 4 persons mentioned. There is a woman, a dragon, a
male child, and one mentioned by name, Michael.
It is obvious that the
dragon is satan, the ancient serpent, Rev 12:9.
It is obvious that Michael
is an angel, the archangel Michael, Rev 12:7.
It is obvious that the male
child is Jesus Christ, Rev 12:5.
Since three of the four in the chapter are
identified, then the context would demand that the woman be identified
also, as the one who gave birth to Jesus Christ, Rev 12:4-5.
She is the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
The "Great Sign" is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
There
are many layers of interpretation of the book of Revelation, so secondarily, the
woman of chapter 12 can also can be seen as a figure of the Church.
A
crown upon her head is the sign of a Queen.
Queens in the Old Testament were
the mothers of the kings, not
the wives, therefore, the mother of the King of Kings, Mary, is also the Queen
of the King of Kings.
Twelve stars relate to the twelve Apostles, and as
another layer, to the twelve tribes of Judah.
This image of a woman
clothed with the sun and a
moon under her feet, fits
perfectly with the miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as she appeared in 1531 in what is now
Mexico City. The woman mentioned in Revelation 12:1 is the woman
of Genesis 3:15, and of John 2:4, and of John 19:26. She is the woman in
the first book of the Bible, and the woman in the last book of the Bible,
and the woman in between.
The Old Testament Ark was, however, merely a TYPE of the antitype of the New Covenant Ark.
An Old Testament "type" never points to a New Testament symbol, but always
to a reality which is far superior to itself.
The Old Testament Ark of
the Covenant was made of incorruptible wood...
"And thou shalt make the ark
of testimony of incorruptible wood..."
Exodus 25:10, Septuagint
The
New Testament reality is infinitely greater than the Old Testament
prefigurement.
Therefore the Ark seen in heaven, is not only incorruptible,
but is vastly superior to its type.
The Ark was to be plated (covered
or clothed) inside and out with pure gold, a symbol of kingship.
(Exodus 25:11, Hebrews 9:4, 1Chronicles
28:18).
Queens wore crowns of gold also.
The
New Ark of the Covenant was clothed with the sun.
The Greek word for
sun here is helios (hay'-lee-os) which means the sun, or the rays of the sun, or the light of
day.
What does "clothed with the sun" mean?
Again, what does
Scripture tell us?
"For the Lord GOD is a Sun and a shield, he bestows favor and
honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from
those who walk uprightly."
Psalms 84:11
"But unto you that fear my
name, the Sun of
Justice shall arise, and health in his
wings."
Malachi 4:2
I have just listed two clear passages which equate GOD
as a Sun.
Elucidation #4:
1.
Referencing Elucidation #1 earlier, the word,
overshadow, used in Luke, is the same as the verb covered, used in
Exodus to describe how the Lord "filled" the tabernacle. Both of these words are
similar in meaning to clothed as used in Revelation 12:1.
2. Is the
sun as seen by Saint John,
the same sun that we see
from earth everyday?
Again, we shall look to Scripture for the answer.
"The sun shall be no
more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy GOD thy
glory."
Isaiah 60:19
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"." John 8:12
"I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." John 12:46
"It was now about the sixth hour, and
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the
sun's light failed; and
the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice,
said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he
breathed his last."
Luke 23:44-46
Did you see the message here? The
sun's light failed...The
Son, the light of the world, died.
"And very early on the first day of
the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen."
Mark 16:2
In
this verse is yet another connection which many miss. The sun had risen, and on a Sunday... The Son had risen, and on a
Sunday.
"Then I
turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven
golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,
clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his breast; his head and
his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of
fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his
voice was like the sound of many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars,
from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the
sun shining in full
strength."
Revelation 1:12-16
"And I saw no temple in the city, for
its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no
need of sun or moon
to shine upon it, for the glory of GOD is its light, and its lamp is the
Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and
the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall
never be shut by day—and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it
the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor
any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written
in the Lamb’s book of life."
Revelation 21:22-27
"And night shall be
no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord GOD will be their
light, and they shall reign for ever and ever."
Revelation 22:5
So there you have it. There is no
sun in heaven as we have
in the "heavens" here on earth.
Is it unreasonable then, to say that the
woman was clothed with GOD, since GOD is a sun and a shield, and there is no light
of the sun in heaven as we
have it here on earth?
It should be noted that it is not my intention
to exclude other deep spiritual meanings for these verses in the many layers of
exegesis of the Book of Revelation.
"And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from
Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name
of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the
ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which
was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new
cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the
house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with
songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when
they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of
God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there because he put forth his hand to
the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God."
2Samuel 6:2-7
Elucidation #5:
1. Uzzah died simply because he
dared to touch the most holy Ark of the Covenant.
The only person who was
allowed to touch the Ark in the Old Testament was the high priest (a
type).
2. For those who insist that Mary, the New Ark of the
Covenant, had other children,
this Biblical type of Uzzah should certainly counter that false charge.
Please tell me, who is the New Testament antitype of the Old
Testament high priest?
And who would you say would qualify to be the
antitype of Uzzah in the New Testament?
The word "tabernacle" means a "tent".
"And let them make me a sanctuary,
that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the
pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it."
Exodus 25:8-9
This is the first time that the word tabernacle appears in
the Bible.
"Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of
fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet stuff; with cherubim skilfully
worked shall you make them. The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight
cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall have
one measure. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another; and the other five
curtains shall be coupled to one another. And you shall make loops of blue on
the edge of the outmost curtain in the first set; and likewise you shall make
loops on the edge of the outmost curtain in the second set. Fifty loops you
shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the
curtain that is in the second set; the loops shall be opposite one another. And
you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other
with the clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole."
Exodus 26:1-6
Here GOD gave detailed exacting instructions for how the tabernacle was to
be constructed.
The Ark of the Covenant was always considered by the
Hebrews to be the most holy object on earth.
It was kept in the holiest part
of the tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies.
"Hang the veil from
clasps. The ark of the commandments you shall bring inside, behind this veil
which divides the holy place from the holy of holies. Set the
propitiatory on the ark of the commandments in the holy of holies."
Exodus 26:33-34
Elucidation #6:
1. The tabernacle was the
tent of the Lord in which the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
2. Mary
was the tabernacle of the Lord for nine months as she carried Him in her
womb.
3. The propitiatory, also called the Mercy Seat, was the
lid of the Ark upon which the two golden angels were mounted, Exodus 25:18-21.
It was above the propitiatory from which GOD would speak and give His
commands to Moses, Exodus 25:22.
4. The Shekinah Glory, the
cloud of GOD, would cover the tabernacle and fill it,
Exodus 40:34-38.
The glory of GOD would also rest upon the lid of the ark of
the covenant, Leviticus 16:2.
5. Are these not types of the
woman being clothed with the sun
in Revelation 12:1?
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the
"Mother of GOD"...
The Blessed Virgin Mary was "Conceived Without Sin"...
GOD will not join Himself with anything defiled.
Revelation 21:27
Death and corruption are
the price the human race must pay for original sin, as Sts. Irenaeus and
Augustine reminded us earlier in this file.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the "Mother of the Church"...
The Blessed Virgin Mary was "Assumed into Heaven Body and Soul"...
I have shown the Blessed Virgin Mary to be:
1. The "New
Eve".
2. The "Queen Mother of the King of Kings".
3. The incorruptible
"New Ark of the Covenant" which was seen in heaven by Saint John.
4. The
"Queen of Heaven".
5. The "Mother of GOD".
6. Conceived without sin. She
is the "Immaculate Conception".
7. The "Mother of the Church".
Some additional observations:
1. Mary gave the Creator of the Universe motherly guidance and
discipline for years. Luke 2:51
2. Mary started Jesus in His ministry.
John 2:1-5
3. Jesus taught His disciples for only three years, yet He
had 30 years to teach His mother, Mary.
4. GOD would not allow His holy
one to see corruption, Psalms 16:10, Acts 2:27. These verses apply to Jesus, but
they could also apply to His mother who is called "Blessed" in Luke 1:28 and
1:42.
5. A precedent was already set for assumptions in Matthew 27:52,
"And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep
arose;" What is the problem with envisioning the Mother of GOD rising as well?
In her "one of a kind" unique position in Scripture, isn't she higher than
the other saints?
6. Other presumed assumptions are prefigured in
Scripture, such as Enoch in Genesis 5:24, and Elijah in 2Kings 2:11.
Why
then do some say the Mother of GOD could not have been assumed?
7. "For
as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live. But each in his
own turn, Christ as first fruits, then they who are Christ's, who have believed,
at His coming."
1Corinthians 15:23.
Who would be the logical first
person in turn, other than Jesus Christ, to be the one to live?
Who was the
first one to whom the angel Gabriel announced the coming of the Messiah? Luke
1:32
She certainly was the first human person to know, from a messenger of
GOD, that He was coming.
8. "But after the three and a half days a
breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great
fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying
to them, “Come up hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven
in a cloud." Revelation 11:11-12
Isn't this yet another example of an
assumption into heaven by the power of GOD?
Why then could anyone deny the
assumption of the Mother of GOD?
9. "Then I looked, and lo, on Mount
Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his
name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from
heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the
voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they
sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and
before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and
forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have
not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who
follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind
as first fruits for GOD and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was
found, for they are spotless."
Revelation 14:1-5
Do not these
verses describe many who have found favor with GOD, who are virgins, first
fruits who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and who are spotless?
Who did
Jesus teach first? His mother.
Who is the virgin? His mother.
Who
followed Him wherever He went either in person or in her heart? His mother.
Who is without sin...spotless?
His mother.
It is believed that in Lk 1:49 when Mary said, "God has done
great things (plural) for
me", it is a prefigurement of her assumption.
10. We have seen that
there is no sun as seen in
the heavens as we have in our earthly sky, but yet we do see a woman
clothed with the sun
in heaven in Revelation 12:1.
11. The Book of Revelation speaks of souls
and spirits as being in heaven (Rev 1:4,6:9,20:4), but in verse 12:1, it does
not say the soul, or spirit of a woman as being seen does it? No, it says
a woman. The Greek word used for woman here is gune which means a woman. If you check the
definition of the word "woman" in a dictionary, you will find that it
defines the word as, "an adult female human being". A human being has a body, a
soul, and a spirit (1Thess 5:3). Souls and spirits are gender neutral, so the
fact that Saint John saw a woman adds gender to the equation, and gender
can only come from the body. Therefore, what Saint John saw in heaven was a
female human person, and that person had to have a body, a soul, and a
spirit.
12. "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."
Romans 8:16-17
Most assuredly the Blessed Virgin did indeed suffer with Him
as she witnessed His passion and death on the cross (John 19:25-27). It is only
fitting that His mother be glorified with Him as well.
13. Some might ask
why such a monumental event as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not
mentioned in other books of the New Testament. We have to remember that most of
the books were written before this event, and that the Book of Revelation was
the last book written.
14. With the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, GOD has allowed us to see a preview of what will happen to all of the
saved on the last day.
Relics of the Saints have always been prized possessions and have been eagerly
sought after, by Churches. Relics of all of the Apostles and Gospel writers, St.
Stephen the first Christian martyr, and St. Mary Magdalene can be found in Catholic
Churches today. However, not one relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary has ever been
found. If she had died and was buried, her relics would have been the most
prized of all, and the Churches of the day would have scrambled to obtain them.
After all, she was the Mother of GOD.
An Old Testament account of an
important person whose relics have never been found, can be seen in Deuteronomy
34:6 where the burial place of Moses, and therefore the location of his relics
remain unknown. See Jude 9.
Wouldn't you agree that the title, "Mother of
GOD", puts her in a unique class all by herself?
When you think about it,
there is no equivalent title, "Father of GOD", is there?
For those who
believe in the "Rapture", and yet say that Mary could not have been assumed into
heaven, is not the Rapture an assumption of many human creatures?
What about
the last judgment where the dead will rise and the righteous will be given
glorified bodies and will be assumed into heaven? Is that not the same thing as
Mary being assumed? Isn't she the most perfect creature ever created by GOD?
Why then should she not be the first creature to be assumed into heaven?
I have shown overwhelming evidence that the Blessed Virgin Mary was in fact
assumed into heaven, and that she was envisioned as being there by Saint John.
I now ask those who doubt the assumption, to show evidence to the contrary?
The fact that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul was proclaimed a Dogma
of the Catholic Church on November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII
stated as Dogma what had been commonly held by the Church for centuries. There
are homilies on the Assumption dated from before the sixth century, and by the
thirteenth century, there was universal agreement concerning this feast. The
statement of Pius XII included the following:
"Finally the Immaculate
Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her
earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and
exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more
fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords, and conqueror of sin and death."
(Munificentissimus Deus 1950).
Pope Pius X wrote in his encyclical letter "Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum":
"A great sign," thus the Apostle St. John describes a vision divinely sent
him, appears in the
heavens: "A woman clothed with the sun, and with the
moon under her feet and a crown of
twelve stars upon her head." Everyone
knows that this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the
stainless one who
brought forth our head…John therefore saw the Most Holy Mother of God
already in eternal happiness, yet travailing in a mysterious childbirth.
What birth was it? Surely it
was the birth of us who, still in exile, are
yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to
eternal happiness.
And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the Virgin from heaven
above watches over us, and strives with unwearying prayer to bring about the
fulfillment of the number of the elect."
Pope John Paul II wrote in “Redemptoris Mater”, Par 47, March 25, 1987:
"Thanks to this special bond linking the Mother of Christ with the Church,
there is further clarified the mystery of that "woman" who, from the first
chapters of the Book of Genesis until the Book of Revelation, accompanies the
revelation of God's salvific plan for humanity. For Mary, present in the Church
as the Mother of the Redeemer, takes part, as a mother, in that "monumental
struggle against the powers of darkness" which continues throughout human
history. And by her ecclesial identification as the "woman clothed with the sun"
(Rev. 12:1), it can be said that "in the Most Holy Virgin the Church has already
reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle." Hence, as
Christians raise their eyes with faith to Mary in the course of their earthly
pilgrimage, they "strive to increase in holiness." Mary, the exalted Daughter of
Sion, helps all her children, wherever they may be and whatever their condition,
to find in Christ the path to the Father's house."
August 15, the Feast of
the Assumption, has been celebrated since the fifth century. The Dogma issued by
Pope Pius XII in 1950 is not new, since it was celebrated for over 1500 years
previous.
