Revelation 12:6
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The woman is the faithful church driven into seclusion and obscurity, where God had prepared a refuge to shelter and sustain her through 1,260 years of papal oppression when faithfulness could cost imprisonment, torture, or death. In prophetic reckoning a day stands for a year, so the 1,260 days are 1,260 years of papal power and tribulation, from its firm establishment in 538 when rival powers were removed to its breaking in 1798 when French forces abolished the papal government and took the pope prisoner. That wilderness refuge was embodied by Christians such as the Waldenses who withdrew to mountain glens and strongholds apart from Rome to worship freely and to guard the apostolic faith and Scripture truth entrusted to them. The flight was for obedience to God's law, as those who refused to honor Sunday and profane the Sabbath fled Rome's power, and faithful witnesses even in obscurity kept the Sabbath in different parts of the world. The prophecy reveals the continuing war of earthly powers against God's commandment-keeping people to the close of time, dividing the world into only two parties under Christ's banner of obedience or under rebellion, and its fulfillment belongs to the warnings of Revelation 12 to 18 now sounding.
Wilderness Flight and Refuge
The verse continues the prophecy that begins with the dragon seeking to destroy Christ at His birth, and the dragon is Satan and, in a secondary sense, pagan Rome as Satan's chief agent in warring against Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian era. The wilderness is seclusion and obscurity, the refuge prepared by God to shelter and sustain the faithful church during 1,260 years of papal oppression beginning in the sixth century when the papacy became firmly established. There Christians who remained faithful were driven into hiding and faced imprisonment, torture, or death, forced to choose between accepting papal worship and ceremonies or suffering punishment, and God provided for the church through this period.
The church in the wilderness is embodied by the Waldensian Christians who withdrew to secluded mountain retreats, glens, and strongholds apart from Rome's hierarchy to preserve freedom to worship God. They resisted submission to papal authority and guarded as trustees for the world the apostolic faith, truths, and Scripture-grounded belief inherited from the apostolic church against Rome's doctrines. The flight was to obey God's law in peace, for those who resisted papal demands to honor Sunday and profane the Sabbath fled from the power of Rome. Even in the wilderness state faithful witnesses in different parts of the world kept the Sabbath, and prophecy foretells a reform concerning the Sabbath.
The wilderness sojourn was a time of apostasy and corruption of pure doctrines when the church did not come into the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, and the perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ described in Ephesians 4:11-13. This long 1,260-year sojourn in the wilderness during the great apostasy explains why church history contains few clear records of spiritual gifts. God in infinite wisdom largely withheld the gifts during that time of ignorance and weakness lest Satan take advantage and push God's people into fanaticism where, lifted up with pride in spiritual things, they would become his easy prey.
Twelve Hundred Sixty Days
In prophetic reckoning a day stands for a year, so the 1,260 prophetic days are 1,260 years. Those years are the period of papal power and tribulation for God's people in the Dark Ages, dated from 538 to 1798. The period begins when the Papacy became firmly established in the sixth century and the bishop of Rome gained supremacy after the Heruli, Vandals, and Ostrogoths were removed. It ends when French forces took Rome, abolished the papal government, took Pius VI prisoner, and broke papal power over the governments of Europe.
The period marks persecuting power formed through the union of church and state and associated with the Papacy, and at its close that power is shown going into captivity. Active persecution did not last throughout the whole period, for the Reformation and the opening of the New World helped weaken it. America became a refuge for the oppressed, fulfilling the image of the earth helping the woman. The tribulation was shortened in 1776.
The 1,260 days are the period of papal persecution understood as 1,260 years ending in 1798, and the persecution had almost wholly ceased by 1780.
Cosmic Conflict and Warning
The twelfth chapter portrays the last great conflict between the obedient and the disobedient as the only two parties on earth. On one side stand those under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ who bear the sign of obedience, and on the other stand those under the black banner of rebellion. The holy woman and her children symbolize God's people, greatly in the minority in a war carried on against them till the close of time. That war is waged by earthly governments trampling God's law and persecuting His people, and the prophecy reveals their position, dangers, conflicts, and final deliverance through the history of the Christian world to the very close. They endure trials for truth's sake with unyielding firmness in adhering to the commandments of God against oppressive powers seeking to force them to disobedience, with only a remnant still existing in the last days.
The flight into the wilderness belongs to the account of Satan's opposition to God's people and of his fall in heaven. The fall commenced in heaven, and the angels who sympathized with Satan fell also. This shows the general rule that those who are wrong and work with Satan find sympathizers when reproved, and those sympathizers share in their fall through fear of hurting feelings. That same opposition is connected with Satan's deception of the angels and his temptation of Eve, warning that deceptive influences can endanger God's people.
The verse belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now. This is the time when all people are to hear the last message of warning.