Example of the Corporate punishment of the Angels, part 1
Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
Three views of this passage, part 1
1 -- Not intended to know any more than is here even though the other two examples given (Israel and Sodom and Gomorrah) expect you to know in great detail what is there. This is something of a cop out view, "let's not talk anymore about this".
2. -- The second view is that these angels which sinned had to do with the Fall of Lucifer and so we can explore a lot more on that subject from the Old Testament and even from the New Testament.
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" Isaiah 14:12 This chapter is about the king of Babylon and yet it turns in the discussion to where he is talking about Lucifer. This shows that Lucifer was the power behind the king of Babylon. The source of his error was 5 "I will" statements.
I will ascend into heaven
I will exalt my throne
I will sit also upon the mount
I will ascend above the heights
I will be like the most high
Now let's see how this relates to Christmas. This is about the Son of God, Jesus being born and the whole first half of this celebration is all about Jesus being born of a virgin to be God with us, our savior.
So what does Satan do? He creates a story to rival the story of Jesus birth. His throne is in the world, and this story is to exalt worldly commerce. He sits this story right next to the account of Jesus birth. The airways promote this story of Santa Claus every bit as much if not more than that of the birth of Jesus. He makes his story like the most high. The Lord will rapture saints all over the Earth in the twinkling of an eye, well he can visit every single house on earth in a single night. We pray to God, well he creates a "letter to Santa". God is omniscient, well "he sees you when you sleep, he knows when your awake, he knows if you've been bad or good" so you have this tyrannical version of an omniscient God.
Ezekiel deals with the Prince of Tyre and then switches to the king of Tyre -- the epitome of wisdom and beauty. He was in Eden, covered with every precious stone. But he was created. He was appointed to the top office, he was in charge right up until iniquity was found in him. Ezekiel goes into discussion of his judgement by fire.
Revelation 12 tells us that the great red dragon who wants to devour the man child is Satan. We also see that the angels allied with Satan were thrown out with him. Who then is the woman? We saw this same woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet with a crown of 12 stars in Joseph's dream.
Some claim the woman is Israel but there are major problems with that, others say she is the church but again, major problems with that. However, we also got a glimpse of this same woman at the time of Eve when the Bible prophesied about the seed of the woman crushing the serpents head. This is the seed of the woman that God said would crush Satan's head and that is why Satan wants to devour the child.
Based on this the man child is Jesus Christ and it almost fits this story perfectly, but not quite. Jesus was not snatched up to heaven, he ascended in the cloud. The word snatched up is the word we refer to as the rapture, it is harpazo, to be rescued from destruction. This is where I realized that this birth looks almost like Jesus birth but not quite, and thus the story of Jesus birth could be prophetic for the rapture.
Now if it is Jesus they want the woman to represent Israel, but if the woman is Eve she is "the mother of all living". Yes, Israel gave birth to Jesus, it is like a small circle inside a bigger circle, while Eve gave birth to both Jesus and the raptured saints. The seed of the woman is both Jesus and the Bride of Christ. There are not two seeds, the raptured saints were built from a rib taken from the 2nd Adam. There is no account in the New Testament of Satan being cast out of heaven when Jesus was born or of him being snatched up. However, when Jesus expanded His ministry and sent out the saints He said "I beheld Satan falling like lightning from heaven". Beginning with Genesis 3:15 we see this attack from Satan on man and it carries through almost to the end of Revelation. This is a major theme of the Bible. It is foolish to think "let's not talk about this anymore'.
I find it interesting that if we discuss Santa Claus everyone knows the entire story, they are familiar with all of it, even though it is not in the Bible. Still it is very relevant when we talk about Christmas and the celebration of Christmas. To me it is just like Jude's reference to Enoch and the fallen angels. All the Jews knew this story, it was relevant to the apostasy, even though it was not in the Bible.
Anyway there are several times in history where Satan kills all the babies. At the time of Moses and at the time of Jesus birth and then here again in Revelation 12. Now consider this, if the rapture will be very much like the birth of Jesus we can expect the death of many babies again. Anyone worried about vaccine mandates to kids?
Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron
That is clearly Jesus Christ. Except the NT also says that we are to rule and reign with Him. So it is both Christ and the Church.
Revelation 12:6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Clearly this verse is a reference to the tribulation and the 70th week prophesied of in Daniel. Those who think the man child only refers to Jesus have two very big problems, Jesus was not "snatched up" He ascended, different word. The very next verse is talking about the tribulation starting. Now if you think it only refers to Jesus you have to have a very big gap in time in your theory. If however, like me, you think this refers to both Jesus and the Church then I can refer to Genesis where it says the man and the woman were one flesh and God called their name Adam. The church is Eve and yet we are one with Jesus and we (Jesus and the Church) are called "Adam". No round pegs going into square holes.
Accordingly some teach that this child is "the body of Christ". It is very easy to see verse 5 as the rapture because from verse 6 on you have the tribulation.
Once again, let's bring this back to the Christmas celebration. What made the holocaust possible? Various teachings that peeled people away from God. They blamed Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus. They described human life as being godless evolution where it is survival of the fittest and killing others is all natural. Now imagine we have the rapture, the world wakes up on Christmas and realizes they have been duped, they have this junk under a stupid tree while all those crazies talking of virgin births and rapture are gone. Do you think it will be hard for the world under the control of Satan to take out their anger on the woman during the tribulation? There are warnings like that of Demas who loved the world and forsook Paul. There will be two groups, the worldly descendants of Cain who will want to murder the believers and the apostate church who will have to repent and turn back to the Lord including both the Christians and ultimately the nation of Israel who will look on Him whom they pierced.
The problem with view #2 is that Satan is not bound and the angels that are cast to the earth are not bound. So then who is Jude talking about?