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.

Shortly before Christ died, he warned his disciples that they would be persecuted and killed for his sake.¹ This became an unfortunate reality for many of Christ's disciples and followers.² The Jews were the first persecutors of Christ's ancient church,³ followed by significant and sometimes intermittent persecutions by the Roman Empire for almost three centuries.⁴ Despite severe persecutions after the death of Christ, the ancient church grew quickly and prospered during the apostolic era.⁵ Revelation 12:14 symbolically explains how this occurred.

In this verse, the woman representing Christ's ancient church⁶ was given two wings of a great eagle,⁷ which represent divine intervention.⁸ In John's day, the eagle was the national emblem or standard for the Roman Empire.⁹ The wilderness represents a place of spiritual refuge.¹⁰ These images collectively mean that the ancient church found divine refuge in the wilderness of the Roman Empire beyond Jerusalem.¹¹ After Christ was crucified, Jerusalem became the center for deadly Jewish persecutions against the Christians.¹² In the Roman wilderness away from Jerusalem, however, the apostolic church experienced general acceptance and even tremendous growth. This was possible because the Roman Empire had no religion of its own¹³ and was generally tolerant of all religions.¹⁴ The wilderness of the Roman empire nourished¹⁵ the apostolic church in the same way the wilderness of the Salt Lake Valley nourished The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints¹⁶ away from persecutions in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.¹⁷

The woman representing the ancient Church flew into the Roman wilderness to be nourished by God, but she still endured trials and chastening¹⁸ as a means to enhance the faith of her church members.¹⁹

After Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus,²⁰ he successfully championed the Christian cause in the Roman wilderness²¹ for almost three decades.²² In the latter part of his ministry, however, the Roman wilderness became increasingly hostile toward the ancient church. In 64 AD, the Roman emperor Nero incited mass persecutions and killings of Christians.²³ Thereafter, the wings of the Roman eagle were no longer a source of divine protection and the Roman wilderness ceased to be a safe haven for the ancient church.²⁴ Nero executed Paul at Rome in about 66 or 67 AD.²⁵

By 66 AD, the Roman empire had also begun to oppress the Jewish people as a matter of state policy.²⁶ In that year, the Jews revolted in the First Jewish War²⁷ and Roman armies marched against the Jewish nation.²⁸ After 3½ years of bloodshed, Roman soldiers‒under the command of Titus‒destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.²⁹ The Romans destroyed the city and temple³⁰ in a genocidal massacre of the Jews.³¹

Revelation 12:14 symbolically describes the timing of these events during the apostolic period that lasted for about 3½ decades from the date of Christ's crucifixion until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In symbolic language, Revelation 12:14 states that the woman representing the ancient church flew "into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time."³² Daniel 7:25 uses the same phrase³³ to identify a season when Satan has great power.³⁴ Seasons of evil are measured in units of three and a half (3½)‒a number that is half of the perfect number seven (7).³⁵ This divine measure of time has a dual meaning in the context of Revelation 12:14, where 3½ measures the woman's time in the wilderness, and the woman's time in her place.

The woman's time in the wilderness is the apostolic period of about 35 years. The 35 years is equal to 1 year (time) + 2 years (times) + ½ year (half a time)³⁶ to arrive at 3½ years‒which is also equivalent to 42 months or 1260 days.³⁷ The 3½ years is then multiplied or intensified by the number ten.³⁸ This 35 year season of evil began at Christ's death, when the devil was cast down having great wrath in Revelation 12:12.³⁹ The season ended in 70 AD, when the Roman dragon ⁴⁰ destroyed God's temple in Jerusalem,⁴¹ as the centerpiece of Jewish worship.⁴² The 35 year season of evil is also one-half of 70 years from Christ's birth to the destruction of Jerusalem.⁴³

The woman's time in her place is the 3½ year period of great tribulation from 66 to 70 AD when the Jews were at war with the Romans. During this period of tribulation, many faithful members of the ancient church fled to her place called Pella. Before his death, the Savior warned his disciples to flee Judea⁴⁴ for protection against this 3½ year tribulation that ended with the Roman Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD.⁴⁵ Faithful followers of Christ heeded his prophecy and took flight to Pella,⁴⁶ east of the Jordan River.⁴⁷ Faithful saints fled Jerusalem just before Titus besieged the city for 3½ years and then destroyed many Jews at Jerusalem in 70 AD.⁴⁸ With the Lord's divine help, the woman who represents the ancient church took flight on two wings of a great eagle, just like the ancient Israelites who escaped from the Egyptians in the days of Moses.⁴⁹ The two wings symbolize divine intervention and speed of flight.⁵⁰ Thus, the woman found refuge⁵¹ in the wilderness of Pella,⁵² which was her place prepared by God⁵³ away from the face of the serpent⁵⁴ (Roman dragon).⁵⁵

Some people within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say that the woman's flight in Revelation 12:14 symbolizes the Great Apostasy.⁵⁶ They say the ancient church was symbolically taken from the earth on two wings of a great eagle into the wilderness of heaven.⁵⁷ These interpretations are problematic for several reasons.

First, the interpretation suggests that the saints of the ancient church were translated and taken to heaven like the city of Enoch⁵⁸ or the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel in 570 AD.⁵⁹ It is possible that the saints at Pella were translated, but neither the scriptures nor tradition provide any evidence of this.⁶⁰ To the contrary, the scriptures confirm that saints in the ancient church died as martyrs exactly as Christ and his apostles had predicted.⁶¹ They did not die without purpose. At the time of death, their mission was to enter the postmortal spirit world where they continued the work of salvation among the disembodied spirits of the dead‒the same work that Christ began after his death and brief ministry in the postmortal spirit world.⁶²

Second, the time, and times, and half a time in Revelation 12:14 represents the 35 years when the apostolic church was nourished on earth in the Roman wilderness until no later than 70 AD. This was a time of tremendous growth in the ancient church, not a time of apostasy in general.

Third, according to Daniel's reckoning of time in Daniel 12:11, the Great Apostasy began after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and then it continued for 1290 years.⁶³ John separately describes the start of the apostasy in Revelation 12:15 as a flood of wickedness that fully engulfed the world and became a universal apostasy in Revelation 13:7 when the saints were completely overcome.⁶⁴ Therefore, in John's chronological narrative the symbolism of winged flight of the woman in Revelation 12:14 is only a precursor to the Great Apostasy‒not the Great Apostasy itself.

Fourth, in Revelation 12:15-16, the serpent (Satan) came after the woman who represents the ancient church like a flood after she was first nourished in the Roman wilderness in Revelation 12:14. The Dragon also made war against her seed in Revelation 12:17.⁶⁵ Satan could not wage his earthly war against the woman and her seed in Revelation 12:15-17 if she was taken into heaven in verse 14. Revelation 12:16 specifically states that the earth‒not heaven‒opened its mouth to help the woman.⁶⁶ If the woman was symbolically taken to heaven on the two wings of the great eagle, then heaven would have helped the woman, not the earth.⁶⁷

Fifth and finally, remnants of the ancient church were still on the earth when John wrote his letters to the seven churches of Asia in 96 AD as recorded in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.⁶⁸ This shows that the ancient church remained on earth‒not in heaven‒until it was wholly paganized and destroyed by the spiritually paralyzing conditions of the Great Apostasy, which John describes in Revelation chapter 13‒not in Revelation chapter 12.⁶⁹

Sometimes, the scriptures do depict conditions of apostasy as a symbolic wilderness.⁷⁰ However, as noted above, the wilderness in Revelation 12:14 does not have that meaning.