However, the "child" here can also be understood allegorically as the multiplicity of unity of the catholic apostolic Church, which is present in heaven in Her saints, who pray for the Church and fight for her and together with her. It is this truth that is revealed in Revelation in its various places and in its general context, and this also allows us to speak of the rapture of the infant to God, let us accept the militancy with a rod of iron already refers to the spiritual strength and invincibility of the Church. In every sense, it is obvious that the fate of the Church is fulfilled in heaven and "on earth, and not only on earth. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where a place had been prepared for her by God, that she might be nourished there a thousand and sixty days" (6), i.e. 42 months, or three and a half years. This is a period already known to us and constantly repeated, as applied both to the kingdom of Christ and to the Antichrist – a certain mystical period of time. What does this flight into the wilderness mean? It can refer to the persecution of the Church, both ancient, contemporary with the writing of Revelation, and recent, up to our days. The Church, in the person of its true spiritual leaders, seems to hide in the desert, becomes invisible. This does not mean that it is inaccessible to persecution, which, on the contrary, can take the most severe forms and the widest dimensions. But the Lord hides from the eyes of the persecutors and preserves the "holy remnant," the "seeds" of the Church, which in good time unexpectedly give sprouts and fruits, so that the Church is indestructible on earth, in spite of all the fierce malice and persistent enmity of the dragon and his army. What is spoken here is precisely about the miracle of the Church's sojourn and preservation in the world in spite of all persecutions, no matter how they may seem and how destructive they may actually be. This word of Revelation is a confession of faith and a voice of Christian courage, which resounded in one of the difficult epochs of its history, together with the testimony that the very existence and preservation of the Church is a miraculous deed, the direct intervention of God's Providence. This thought affirms the faithful sons of the Church in their Christian courage and fearlessness in the face of that which is natural, human, and truly capable of frightening.

Beginning with chapter XII, verse 7, a new picture opens up, of the same importance and significance of theme and content as the previous one (verses 1-6). This is a war in the sky. Here we are talking not about the initial fall of Satan, which took with it "a third" of the angelic world, but also about the continuation of this "prologue in heaven", which then continues in the earthly, human tragedy. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels rebelled against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels rebelled against them" (7). In other places of the Word of God we find nothing at all about this war, which is accompanied by mutual irreconcilability (this is evident from the twice-repeated "fought" in application to the armies of Arch. Michael and his angels, as well as to the dragon and his angels) (7). This war is evidenced as a kind of new event in the "sky", which, obviously, comes in connection with a certain maturation of the spiritual process and the final self-determination and affirmation in each of the contending parties. And indeed, in the Old Testament we still observe a certain mutual tolerance and, as it were, even complacency. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand what is said in the Prologue of the Book of Job. It describes how the "sons of God" (i.e., evidently the holy angels) "came to stand before the Lord, and Satan also came among them" (I, 1; II, 1). In the same tone the conversation between God and Satan is narrated, who, in response to his doubt, receives permission from God to tempt Job, although with a certain restriction: "Only save his soul" (II, 6). The story of 1 Kings is completely similar in meaning. XXII, 19-22, of how, in the face of the host of heaven, "one spirit" receives permission from God, if not directly commissioned, "to become a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets," in order to persuade Ahab to make him decide. [46] It is difficult to determine whether before or after the war Christ was tempted in heaven in the wilderness, to which He was led by the Holy Spirit (Matt. IV, 1; Mk. I, 12; Lux. IV, 1), but the former is also possible. Early commentators see in the overthrow of Satan Arch. Michael is already his first fall. However, this is difficult to reconcile with the above facts, which rather force us to assume that he is still in a certain intermediate state, between heaven and earth, in the region under heaven. In this case, the casting of Satan from heaven should be considered one of the consequences of the Incarnation, and in this sense it should be attributed even to the time before the crucifixion of Christ, then rather after the temptation in the wilderness. Is this not what Christ is talking about in response to the disciples' joy that the demons obey them in His Name? "And he said to them, 'I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning,'" and so on (Lk. X, 17-20). Of course, this is also said proleptically, in relation to his final overthrow and expulsion from this world (which Christ also announces in the Gospel), but as a pre-accomplished event.

War in heaven is the participation of the angelic world in our salvation and redemption through the Incarnation. There is ontological synchronicity here, although it does not lend itself to the nearest disclosure. This connection is also hinted at in the above-mentioned text of Luke, where the 70 disciples sent to preach said that the demons obey them (which is preceded by the authority given to them when they are sent to preach). First of all, "having called the 12 disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, that they might cast them out" (Matt. X, I; Mk. III, 15; VI, 7; Lux. IX, 1: "power and authority over all demons"). Christ's last word to the disciples according to Mk. XVI, 17 also includes: "In my name ye shall cast out demons."

A hint that the overthrow of Satan is connected with the Incarnation is also the fact that at the head of the host of heaven stands Michael, not only "one of the chief princes" (Dan. X, 13), but also "the great prince who stands for the sons of thy people" (XII, 1), chosen by God to serve the Incarnation, to begat the forefathers of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the fathers of the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Son of God. This speaks not only of the participation of the entire angelic world in the work of redemption, in its concelebration with the ministry of Christ, but also definitely connects it with the personal ministry of the guardian angel of Israel, the Archangel Michael.

This event, the war in heaven in the angelic world, is told only in Revelation, and it constitutes his own dogmatic contribution to biblical angelology. What is this war? How can it be understood in its application to the spiritual world? There can be no answer to this in human language. But it is clear that the power of Christ's incarnation, His descent from heaven, was also at work here, because it speaks directly of the victory of the angels: "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and did not love their own souls even unto death" (XII, 11). The last words are incomprehensible, since we are talking about bodiless spirits and therefore already immortal. Obviously, the victory of Satan in the angelic world somehow threatened spiritual death, just as the whole struggle was spiritual. The victory was accomplished not only by the blood of the Lamb, but also by "the word of his testimony," i.e., by the confession of the angelic faith in the power and mystery of the Incarnation of God. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that it is specifically said: they "conquered by the blood of the Lamb" – by faith in its saving power. Even if we accept that the overthrow of Satan from heaven took place even earlier than the crucifixion of the Son of God, then His very descent from heaven and His incarnation contained the possibility and even predetermined the outpouring of the sacrificial blood of the Lamb. And just as the Eucharistic sacrifice in all its power and fullness was accomplished at the Last Supper before, and not after, Christ's death on the cross, so here the victory of the angels "by the blood of the Lamb" could and did take place even before its actual outpouring on the cross, before the death of Christ. Thus, all this Christological context makes it necessary to attribute the event of the war in heaven precisely to the time of the descent from heaven and the Incarnation of Christ. Satan's defeat is described in these terms: "The dragon and his angels could not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven" (8). From this we conclude that such a place in heaven – in any sense – still remained, which is precisely what is evident at least from the story of Job. In this sense, Satan was an unloving and ungrateful "slanderer" not only of the world of God, but also of "our brethren, who slandered them before our God day and night" (10). This duality of his position, which had once already proved fatal to the world, as a result of the temptation of the forefathers and their original sin, was evidently still tolerated and tolerated in heaven. St. The angels were also tempted by Satan and his angels ("his tail dragged a third part of the stars from heaven to earth") (4), but they somehow still suffered temptation from their fallen brother, without being tempted by him themselves. But when, with the Incarnation, the decisive struggle for the salvation of the world against the prince of this world began, then this indefinite and ambiguous state of tolerance and condescension became unbearable, impossible, and inadmissible, and perhaps – we do not know this, but only admit it – could also prove harmful on the path of salvation. In any case, we know about Satan's attempts to interfere in the matter of our salvation, about the temptations of Christ Himself and His apostles, first of all Peter and Judas, and then all the others (except for one beloved disciple), who fell into the "fear of the Jews." We know about the decontamination of the entire Jewish Sanhedrin, the high priests, rulers and soldiers. But we do not yet know, and cannot know, whether spiritual sabotage in heaven remained a threatening possibility, which could no longer remain permissible and unhindered. At the time when the Son of God descended from heaven to be crucified on earth, a mocking, envious, and slanderous voice also became impossible and unbearable, still seeking new victims for temptation in heaven. The time has come for a decisive and final war with Satan and his army. Thus, in Chapter XII we find in this narrative, so to speak, a kind of parallel to the revelation of the descent of Christ from heaven and the Incarnation of God. A spiritual battle took place, decisive and final. We cannot say why it was a threat to both sides, but it was a real battle, terrible and formidable, since it could be said of it that the holy angels "did not love their souls even unto death," i.e., of course, not death itself, not the abolition of their very existence (which is impossible), but the threat of its deep damage. We are not able to explain it any more, but such was the active participation of the angelic world in our salvation. "And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent, called the devil and Satan, cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (10). This, of course, was the greatest catastrophe for the "son of the dawn". "How thou hast fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Isa. XIII, 12). But this fall was salutary, because it deprived Lucifer, if not of claim, then of hope for a dominant position in heaven and on earth. A loud voice in heaven testifies to this: "Today is the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brethren has been cast out" (10). This means that such was indeed the threat and danger from the slanderer, who wanted to take advantage of the "descent from heaven" of the Son of God in order to take His place in his madness, for he said of himself: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the Most High" (Isa. XIII, 14). "And I cast you down as unclean from the mountain of God, I cast you out" (Ezek. XXVIII, 16). The prologue of our redemption in heaven has been completed, the path to heaven has been spiritually cleared, and its first precondition has been fulfilled.

However, the following question arises: if Satan, even after his fall, until it was revealed in all its final power, was not deprived of being in "heaven" with his host as "sons of God" (Gen. 2:10). VI, 2, 3) (which are spoken of in connection with pre-Flood humanity), then how can we connect with it the manifestation of its actions on earth, and first of all the temptation of the ancestors in paradise? How can we further reconcile his earthly images, which were mentioned above (Leviathan and others), and in general his destructive action in the earthly elements, which was the consequence of the primordial power of sins in the natural world and over people, which he received through it? "And the Lord said to Satan, 'This is all that he has in your hand, only do not stretch out your hand against him' (Job I, 12; cf. II, 6-7). It remains, obviously, to understand that Satan's continued sojourn in "heaven," i.e., his not yet final overthrow from there, is combined with his participation in the affairs of earthly life, just as this participation is given to the heavenly angels, the messengers and servants of God on earth, and to the guardians of creation. Participation in mortality is thus not incompatible with being in heaven, even if it is basic or predominant. The same can obviously be admitted with regard to the fallen angels, as long as God's long-suffering left them in heaven, although, of course, their participation in earthly life already had a different character from the ministry of good angels. It manifested itself in the general corruption of world existence, in spontaneity and harmfulness, and, finally, in mortality. However, this sabotage of Satan, while he still appeared before the face of God together with the angels, was brought within the boundaries by God's Providence, as the prologue of the Book of Job testifies, and even served his salvific purposes. The same can be said about God's allowance regarding the temptation of the forefathers in the Garden of Eden. The tempting serpent is depicted here as one of God's earthly creatures (Gen. 2:10). III, 1), which is possessed by Satan. In this sense, he is a heavenly-earthly being, over whom, as such, God's twofold judgment is also carried out: on the one hand, as over a serpent, and on the other, as such a spiritual being, for whom God lays enmity between him and his seed and the woman and her seed (III, 15). It is mysterious and incomprehensible that even such a sentence of God does not yet contain as a direct consequence the final casting of Satan from heaven, although he remains "a slanderer of our brethren before God" (Rev. 2:10). XII, 10), who deceives the whole universe (9). This testifies, of course, to how lofty were the gifts of God entrusted to him and how difficult it is to take them away (this, of course, is also important for the understanding of the coming apocatastasis). No matter how destructive Satan's action in the world, both in heaven and on earth, did not yet entail for him as a consequence of his casting down from heaven, i.e. the final deprivation of angelic dignity. However, as we must conclude from Rev. XII, 10, Satan's bewilderment continued in the heavens, and his poisonous influence sought to spread for itself even in the angelic world, where "his tail took away from heaven a third part of the stars and threw them to the earth" (3), i.e. he succeeded in depriving them of the angelic rank and ministry. But the "slanderer of our brethren" continued to slander them "before our God day and night" (10), and this slander, of course, was accompanied by an attempt to tempt them, which, however, remained powerless. But Satan's descent from heaven, connected with his final bewilderment and resistance to God, took place in connection with the descent of the Son of God from heaven and the Incarnation of God. In his face all ambiguity, inconsistency and inconclusiveness lost their place. Against the Son of God, who is coming to reign in the world, Satan has already come out as an open rival with a claim to become the "prince of this world," hence begins his direct war for the world as God's creation and for power in this world. This war now begins in heaven, in the angelic world. Here Satan also suffers the first defeat by the power of the faithfulness of the angels, who "did not love their own souls even unto death" (11). There is no longer any place for Satan in heaven, and he is cast down to earth together with his angels, who henceforth become definitely demons. It is remarkable that the Old Testament does not yet know demons, but the Gospel and New Testament history is full of them. It may seem unexpected and as if incomprehensible that demons accompany Christ's earthly ministry. As if, in spite of the coming of the Son of God to earth, He finds Himself, as it were, surrounded by those suffering from unclean spirits, He expels them, heals the possessed, but at the same time He Himself exclaims: "How long will I be with you, how long will I endure you." The Lord, sending the Apostles to preach, first of all gives this authority and commandment: "Cast out demons." The fact of mankind's demonic possession at the time of Christ's coming can be understood in the light of Revelation, which testifies to the exorcism of Satan from heaven precisely in connection with the Incarnation. There is an ontological synchronicity here: the fallen angels, affirming themselves in their fall, become demons, and Satan is their leader. The entire history of the Church after Christ is this ongoing war between him and Christ and His kingdom. The content of Chapter XII is a revelation of this struggle in its very origin.

The last question of Gospel Satanology, which arises in this connection, remains unexamined. Does the temptation of Christ by Satan in the wilderness already refer to his being in the state of being cast down from heaven, or is he admitted to the New Job in the same form in which he was admitted to the ancient Job? There is no direct answer to this question in the Gospel, but there is an indirect one. The fall of Satan from heaven, which Christ "saw" "falling from heaven" (Lk. X, 18), in any case, took place already during His earthly ministry as a consequence of the war of the angels in heaven, and yet, according to the direct content of the Gospel narrative, before the Passion of Christ and that direct participation in them of Satan, who in turn tempted the apostles and all the enemies of Christ. Having been cast down from heaven and having become not only a tempter and slanderer, but a direct enemy and rival of Christ, Satan no longer tempts Him. The time for such temptations has already passed, and Satan does not try Who He is, as he still temptively asked in the wilderness: "If You are the Son of God." Now he is directly at enmity, waging an open war with Him, but he is already tempting His disciples. And only in this sense did it give a continuation of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, after which Satan left Him only "for a time" (Lk. IV, 13). This, however, binds together the first and last temptations of Christ by Satan. From this it follows that the war in heaven and the overthrow of Satan from there occurred precisely because of the Incarnation of Christ. The Gospel refers to Christ's temptation in the wilderness to the time after baptism and the forty-day fast, and it says that "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. IV, I; Mk. I, 12-13; Lux. IV, 1-2). If Job's temptation was directly permitted by God, then this temptation, although it is the tempter's own, self-willed work, is not only allowed, but is directly indicated by the Holy Spirit, apparently as irremovable in the ways of Christ's ministry: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. IV, 1; Mk. I, 12; Lux. IV, 1-2). All this combination of signs does not allow us to think that Christ's temptation in the wilderness was the work of a tempter who had already been cast down from heaven after the war of the angels. Consequently, it took place, in any case, no later than the baptism of Christ. True, Herod's evil intent to kill the Divine Infant, accompanied by the slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem, can be seen as the beginning of the dragon's struggle to "devour the child" (Rev. 2:10). XII, 4). However, this assumption has no direct confirmation in the Gospels and therefore belongs only to theological speculation.

The spiritual action of Satan in the world should also include demonism, which is manifested in pagan religions. Here again the question may arise to what epoch and to what mode of action of Satan and angels such an influence should be attributed. But we also have no direct answer to the question, except for the general consideration that the spirit of falsehood sows falsehood everywhere and in all ways, applying itself to human passions, infirmities, and errors.

Satan's descent from heaven is accompanied by the following exclamation: "Rejoice, therefore, the heavens and those who dwell in them" (12). From this we must conclude that the victory over Satan is also important for the angelic world's own life, giving it ultimate invincibility and steadfastness in good. But "woe to those who dwell on the earth, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, knowing that he has not much time left" (12). Whose "loud voice speaking in heaven" is this? Obviously, the voice of the elders or the animals, or both together? But to whom does "our brethren" belong? Whether only to the angels who fought, or whether the saints (the Old Testament, obviously) are also meant here, and then the text should be understood more broadly, in application to angels and men. This does not change the general meaning. This is the third "mountain," which is therefore not connected with individual events, but has in mind a general and most difficult change, a revolution in the entire spiritual atmosphere: a new special closeness to the world and the hardening of Satan and, as a consequence, the decontamination of earthly life.

"And when the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne a male child" (13), i.e., the Church. The sphere of action of the dragon through this overthrow, although limited, became more bitterly anti-Christian and anti-church. From this begins his direct struggle with the Church, which could not yet be said in application to the Church of the Old Testament. At that time the dragon did not yet know with complete clarity whom he had to conquer, and therefore, so to speak, he scattered in his tempting energy. Now he "stands before his wife" and seeks to destroy her, to destroy the Church. This refers to the very first period in the history of the Church, when she stood before him, as it were, in childlike defenselessness, of which the Apostle Paul speaks: "Not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many strong, not many noble. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and the ignoble, and the despised, and the insignificant things God chose to shame those who mattered" (1 Cor. I, 26-28). The "persecution" of the early Christian Church and even its destruction could then seem quick and easy to accomplish. However, the Church was protected by the guidance of God and was inaccessible to the evil and insidious intentions of Satan. This idea is expressed in the following images: "And the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place from the face of the serpent" (14). The wings of the eagle can be understood as a simple allegory of the speed of timely departure "to its place", inaccessible to Satan, but also as the power of divine inspiration, victoriously saving the victim from the persecution of enemies. This idea is expressed in the language of symbolism, which is characteristic of the entire Chapter XII and does not require a deliberate interpretation. The "wilderness" is, obviously, spiritual gathering, with that concentration of the spiritual forces of the Church, which is the "nourishment" and preservation of it in times of trial. One can also see here the prayerful and ascetic podvig by which the Church is invisibly saved in the "wilderness" during her term. The latter is defined by the apocalyptic period of "time, times and half time".

But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon sent out of its mouth" (15-16). This allegory is also not easy to interpret: here we have a contrast between water as a river that washes and carries away with its flow, and earth that absorbs water. In this case, water means paganism both in quantitative distribution and in its qualitative power in the struggle against Christianity. On the contrary, the earth is a positive force, the energy of the Church, which in the end overcomes and conquers the forces of demonism. Here we have yet another image for expressing the opposition and struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, truth and falsehood, Christianity and anti-Christianity in world history, expressed in the most general and even abstract form. In the following exposition this will be shown more concretely.

This general powerlessness of the dragon before his wife arouses in him a new rage and arouses a new energy of struggle, which does not weaken in history. "And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (17). Here we have a peculiar identity, since "the rest of her seed" are equivalent, of course, to the woman herself, inasmuch as the members of the Church also form her conciliar unity. It speaks of the struggle against the Church in general, as a whole, in its doctrinal, sacramental, mystical being, and of its individual members, who deserve special recognition for their faithfulness and firmness, "having the witness of Christ."

Thus, the general idea and content of Chapter XII relate to the main theme of world history as a spiritual tragedy that begins in heaven and continues on earth. Satan's struggle against the Church, which manifests itself in various forms of spiritual deception, as well as persecution, does not cease, but determines the content of history. In this chapter, this idea is expressed in massive and polysemantic mythological images of the wife and the dragon. In the subsequent chapters of Revelation, this idea finds another expression for itself, more concretizes it.