Revelation 12:14
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
The serpent or dragon from whose face the woman flees is Satan, who sought to destroy Christ at His birth by moving Herod to kill Him, and also pagan Rome, the chief earthly power Satan used to make war on Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian era. The vision portrays powers arising from the union of church and state, a union that becomes destructive to both civil society and the church and that persecutes those who oppose it. The chapter portrays the last great conflict between only two parties on earth, the obedient standing under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ and the disobedient standing under the black banner of rebellion.
The verse depicts the true church finding refuge from persecution in the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished. The Waldensian Christians who withdrew to secluded valleys and mountain strongholds to preserve their freedom to worship God represent that wilderness church, and there they guarded the inherited apostolic faith and the truths entrusted to God's people. The time and times and half a time is the 1260 prophetic days, understood as 1260 years by the principle that a prophetic day represents a year, the same period as the time and times and dividing of time in Daniel 7:25. It was a time of tribulation in the Dark Ages and of great apostasy when pure doctrines were corrupted.
The 1260-year period is dated from 538, when the Papacy was set up, to 1798, when a French army entered Rome and abolished the papal government and the Pope later died in exile, and the Papacy has not regained its former power. Active persecution did not last through the whole period, for the Reformation and the opening of America as a refuge for the oppressed helped break its force, fulfilling the statement that the earth helped the woman. The church's long wilderness sojourn of 1260 years helps explain why her history contains few clear records of spiritual gifts. The prophetic period is to be studied and understood, and the leading periods in Daniel and Revelation were expected to expire around the period in which the passage about expiration was written, while the passage does not identify the events that would follow their expiration. The verse belongs to the prophecies in Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now and form part of the last message of warning that all are to hear.