Revelation: The End -- And A New Beginning

If any of you are immigrants to this country and you entered through the port of New York, you will remember that the first sight you had of this land was of a great statue of a woman holding a torch in her upheld arm. That was not an advertisement for underarm deodorant! It was the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the freedom that America enjoys. Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation also opens with the symbol of a woman. In fact there are three symbols here: The woman, her son, and a great red dragon. It is our business this morning to try to interpret these and to understand what John was shown in this vision.