We can now reach some conclusions regarding this. The first is of course that a part of the church is being taken to a place identified as "her place in the wilderness." This is clearly a place of safety for her and considering what it says in verse 17, part of the church is not in the same place but is being persecuted by the dragon because of religious convictions. So clearly there is a geographical separation that occurs in which one part of the church is in one area of the earth and the rest of the church is scattered throughout the rest of the earth. This segregation continues for a time, a times and a half of time and the fleeing is just as literal as the fleeing of the woman earlier in the chapter.
