“Sorry but that does not go against Matthew 28:18 in any way at all… this “replay” was for the benefit of John’s understanding of why and how God used Mary and what happened to Mary after she was taken away.”
That would make Mary just a woman who has an ordinary child who dies, like any other child who is said to go to heaven. My q. was why did the woman have such total coronation (sun,moon,stars) leaving no symbol for the child? Even the 7 congregations that Jesus earlier described were “lampstands” and they were mortal men. Jesus there said he was “prince (Greek “arkon”) of the kings of the earth”. Jesus had conquered Satan by the time he ascended to heaven, so why does it say he was “snatched, caught” away from the dragon which was about to devour him?
No, that’s not true at all, it made her “Full of Grace”. God gave her Grace so that she could birth his son and be worthy of the honour. That makes he far from a normal human being, that makes her the 2nd and perfected eve, sinless.
Also why would there need to be symbol for the child? This entire passage is about the role of Mary, not the role of Jesus after all he is the one giving John the vision and he is the one choosing to show John the story of Mary instead of his own.
But even so It shows that he departed for heaven to be on the throne well before she was given wings. There is your symbolism, he was the first enter and to sit on the throne in heaven.
Also as the passage clearly shows, Satan has a degree of dominion on the planet earth, even when he was defeated of his sinfull influence on human beings and of his power over death. He does not get thrown into the eternal fire until the end of time when Christ returns to complete the victory. What that passage says to me is that God the father resurrected his own son and the son used the power given him from the father to ascend into heaven in order to defeat Satan’s evil influence. He was “snatched” by his father in order to defeat Satan and wound him. This power was Jesus’s from the very beginning, but it comes from his father.
This passage also reminds me of the garden of Gethsemene, when Jesus had his second encounter with Satan, Satan continually attacked Jesus with temptation and Jesus refused to give in. Satan still has the power to do such things to all believers, but we now have the Holy Spirit to guide us and to oppose him. Even so Satan can attack strongly, especially in the Roman Catholic belief, his attacks can required the ancient Sacramental of Exorcism to be performed. Jesus was not immune to being Attacked, but he was immune to the actual attacks themselves.
Satan who still existed on this planet but was wounded, steped up his attacks on the christian faithfull, angry with them, He started with Mary and God gave her wings and took her up to heaven in a diffrent manner. He handed her new wings in order that he could take her himself into heaven by giving her the wings, basically he said “I’ll give you these so you can join me straight away after your death”. Jesus was given the power to ascend by himself without help. Mary was not given the power to do that, she was taken up to heaven by way of god bestowing “wings” well after birth.
Remember it is Jesus who shows John this whole vision.
