What does the river symbolize? (Revelation 12:15)


fleuve


And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Revelation 12:15 - King James

 


⚪ People - army [1798]
⚫ Human rights (leading to the French Revolution) [1799]
⚫ Doctrines, schemes and various palaver [1917-1919]
⚫ The river [of persecutions]


 

 

⚪ People - army [1798]

(from A. D. 538 to A. D. 1798.)
Vs. 15. - "The dragon (Empire) cast a flood of waters (people - army) after the woman to destroy her, but the earth helped the woman." &c. The army was largely made use of in punishing dissenters, and had it not been that frequent trouble from other sources otherwise occupied it, the army might have exterminated the true church.

Source : 🇺🇸 Zion's Watch Tower, December 1879 pages 2-7 - [55]

 

⚫ Human rights (leading to the French Revolution) [1799]

Rev. 12 [...]
And the Serpent. — Satan himself, at the close of the 1260 years of Papacy's power to persecute.
Cast out of his mouth water as a flood. — "The strength of the French revolution, to which reference is here bad, lay in the fact that it was instigated by many stern truths, regarding priest-craft and king-craft, and regarding the individual rights and liberties of all. Truths regarding human rights were seen and expressed there which cause us surprise when we consider the ignorance, superstition and servility of that day, under which the masses had so long rested. Many of the truths which then swept as a flood over France, deluging it with blood, are now very generally accepted among all civilized peoples."— C65.

Source : 🇺🇸 1917 - Studies in the Scriptures, Vol 7, The finished mystery, page 191, page 192 + Cover

 

⚫ Doctrines, schemes and various palaver [1917-1919]

Rev. 12 [...]
"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood." (Rev. 12:15) The word flood is by some translators rendered river. (Diag.) This 'flood of water' coming out of the mouth of Satan symbolized doctrines talked about, schemes and various palaver intended to deceive. Satan used every available instrument to accomplish that purpose. In the fiery times of 1917 and 1918 a number who had pretended to be in the truth and followers of Christ broke away from God's organization and immediately began talking and publishing their own views in divers and numerous ways and taking special care that from that time forward those who remained faithful and held fast to God's organization received copies of these messages. Their publications that began about that time increased and continue. The purpose manifestly was and is to draw others away from the Society. Thus Satan used these as instruments. From the spring of 1919 and thereafter there flowed a great flood of talk and schemes such as peace treaties, conferences, parleys, and political propaganda and a cavorting by the clergy, all of which was directing the people away from God to Satan's schemes. The greater portion thereof came from Britain and America. Politicians, Big Business and the clergy joined together in the promulgation of these schemes. It may well be said that the Devil has been using all his "seven mouths", symbolically meaning all his instruments, to thus turn loose a flood of schemes upon the people. Satan's purpose was to sweep the "woman", God's organization, on the earth, along with the current of worldly opinions and talk and to coerce her thereby to worship the beast and his image by taking part in some of these schemes.

Source : 🇺🇸 1930 - Light, Vol 2, page 252, page 253 + Cover

"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood."- Verse 15.
The water, or flood, here symbolizes teachings or doctrines sent forth amongst the people. Since the devil could not reach the Church, he purposed now to overwhelm her influence by the false doctrines that he would send amongst the people. Be it noted that from 1919 forward there was a great flood of Modernism amongst nominal Christendom. There was an open advocacy by ecclesiastics, big business and politicians of the devil’s scheme, the League of Nations, the evident purpose being to divert the minds of the people from the testimony concerning God’s kingdom. Various plans for peace and reconstruction were brought forth to attract the attention of the people; and these things so absorbed the attention, particularly of the ruling factors, that little heed was given to the Lord’s people and what they were doing. "The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon east out of his mouth."
Otherwise stated, the earth absorbed this great flood of false teachings that the devil sent forth;

Source : 🇺🇸 The Watchtower, March 1, 1925, page 72

 

⚫ The river [of persecutions]

12:15, 16. "The earth" - elements within Satan's own system, or theruling powers in various lands - upheld freedom of worship. Starting in the 1940's, those powers "swallowed up the river [of persecutions] that the dragon disgorged from its mouth." Indeed, when Jehovah chooses to do so, he can influence governmental authorities to accomplish his will. Fittingly, therefore, Proverbs 21:1 states: "A king's heart is as streams of water in the hand of Jehovah. Everywhere that he delights to, he turns it." This should strengthen our faith in God.

Source : 🇺🇸 The Watchtower (Study), January 15, 2009, page 32 + Cover