Fled Into the wilderness.—“Error, always more popular than truth, when exalted to influence and power, hunted down, proscribed and made disreputable the truth, and all who held it. This was the time when the true Church (woman) fled into the wilderness—into solitude—an outcast because of her fidelity to the truth, and to the true Lord and Head of the Church.”—B. 329.
Where she hath a place prepared of God.—“The secret place of the Most High.”—Psa. 91:1.
That they.—The antitypical ravens that fed the Elijah class, the unknown, “faithful men” who, in secret, broke the bread of life to those that hungered for righteousness.
Should feed her there.—As Elijah was fed in the wilderness.—Rev. 2:20.
A thousand two hundred and threescore days.—1260 years, from A. D. 539 to 1799.—Rev. 11:2, 3.
12:7. And there was war in heaven.—Between the two ecclesiastical powers, Pagan Rome and Papal Rome.
Michael.—“Who as God,” the Pope.—B. 275; C. 62.
And his angels.—The Bishops. The following is the reply given in the Catholic catechism to the question, “Who are the successors of the Apostles?” Ans. “The bishops who are rightly consecrated, and are in communion with the head of the Church, the Pope.”
[Fought against] TO WAR WITH the dragon.—Attempted to get the temporal power away from the civil rulers.—Rev. 2:12.
And the dragon.—Imperial Rome.—B. 288; Rev. 12:3; 20:2.