HOUSMAIL HM098 25
November 2002
DRAGONS,
DREAMS, AND THE DEVIL
"Another
portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and
ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of
the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.....” Revelation 12:3-4
“Now war arose
in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon
and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any
place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient
serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him." Revelation 12:7-9
Who
(or what) is "the Dragon" in this chapter? Is it the "Devil" of popular mainstream Theology? Or is it something else?
To
answer those questions we must first note two important things:
- Firstly,
popular mainstream theology about the "fallen angel Devil",
places the events of Revelation 12,
BEFORE the creation of the world! However, carefully note John's clear
statement, that he is writing about things future to his
own time! (Revelation 1:1)
That means that they had not yet happened, when John wrote the book! So
of course, it cannot be about anything which is supposed to have taken
place before creation! (Which was somewhere around 4000 years before
John's book was written!)
- Secondly,
John's prophetic message about the future, is hidden behind SYMBOLS! It
is very dangerous to "invent theology" by placing literal
interpretations on symbolic meanings! If we interpret the Bible that
way, we are in very great danger of closing our eyes to the REAL meaning
of the symbols!
To
understand the meaning of these symbols, we need a little prior Old Testament
background. It starts in Daniel.
BACKGROUND
IN DANIEL
In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream. After prayer, both the content of the dream and the
interpretation were revealed to Daniel, in a vision. It was about four great
world empires who would rule over "all the earth". The first was
identified by Daniel as Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. A little knowledge of
history easily reveals the second as Medo-Persia, the third as Greece, and
the fourth as Rome. During its course, the Roman empire was to begin
"strong as iron", and then later become a divided kingdom. This second
stage is represented by the two legs of the image, which portray the
political division between eastern and western Rome. In verse 43, there is also a
clear reference to the well-known history of the royal families of Europe,
who regularly sacrificed sons and daughters in marriage alliances, in futile
endeavours to maintain peace within the territory of what became known as the
"Holy Roman Empire". In its third and final stage, what is left of
Rome, is represented by the ten toes of the image.
We
cannot, the Bible says, know the exact time -- but we can see that what
remains of the Roman empire has now existed its final much divided iron and
clay "ten toe" stage, for several centuries. It is sometime "in the
days of those Kings", that "the God of
heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed ..... it shall
stand for ever"! Daniel 2:44
In chapters 7 & 8, we read about
Daniel's own dreams and visions which foretell the same world history but
giving a lot more detail than the king's dream. In Daniel's first dream in Chapter 7, the single image was
replaced by four great beasts, which tell us more about the same four world
Empires. There was a lion with eagles’ wings, which of course, was Babylon.
The lion was followed by a bear, which was Medo-Persia. Next came a leopard
with four wings, and four heads. This was Greece, which was united as a
single empire under Alexander, but divided into four after his death. And
finally there was a beast which almost defied description.
It
had teeth of iron, indicating its identity with the fourth empire of the
king’s image. It had claws of bronze, indicating that it stood on the ruins
of the third kingdom of the king's image. And it had ten horns,
which point us to the latter divided stages of the Roman empire.
DANIEL
CONTINUED - IN JOHN'S APOCALYPSE!
It
should not surprise us therefore that John's vision covers the same grand
spread of future world history, as Daniel does. However, in John's day,
Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece were already long gone. Rome was already on
the scene. We are meant to see John's vision as "Daniel's book
unsealed"! Compare Daniel 12:9 with Revelation 5:5 It is about the future of the Roman empire, beginning in his
own time, and reaching down to ours!
John
uses beasts and dragons to portray this in much the same way as Daniel does.
But a single beast is inadequate to convey all the details revealed to John
about this fourth world empire. So John has THREE!
- His
first is a DRAGON, which is easily recognisable as Pagan Rome.
- His
second is the BEAST OF THE SEA. This is Rome in the
"Christian" phase – which replaced paganism from the 4th
century onwards. Of course, we know that doesn't mean REAL Christianity!
It refers to the apostate politically oriented counterfeit which came
into being under Constantine. John's mention that this beast is "like
a leopard, with feet like bear, and a mouth like a lion",
reminds us that the Roman empire is built on a foundation of cultural
influences inherited from Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.
- His
third is another BEAST. This one has two horns like a lamb but speaks
like a dragon. It is easily recognisable as the Papal empire which runs
parallel to the main political systems, using the name of Christianity,
but promoting teachings inherited from its "dragon"
predecessor!
"THAT
OLD SERPENT" -- EDEN OR EGYPT?
Mainstream
tradition too easily identifies the serpent of Revelation
12:9 with that other well-known one in the Garden
of Eden! However Genesis doesn't mention a dragon at all! That in itself is a
caution! Revelation 12:9
carefully mentions BOTH! For "Bereans" Acts 17:11 THAT is meant to be a
CLUE!
If
we exercise just little more diligence in this study, we can easily find
several other "serpents" in the Old Testament! And we can also find
a "dragon"!
- Isaiah 27:1 (KJV) speaks of one of these
other serpents. Isaiah's is also "crooked serpent", (a veiled
reference to the Nile) and in the same verse he also mentions a dragon!
- Jeremiah 51:34 describes Babylon as
"like a dragon" (KJV & NEB) or like a "serpent"
(NIV).
- Ezekiel 29:3 also mentions a Dragon (but
not a serpent) which is positively identified as Egypt.
On
the simple face of it, these three references are much more likely candidates
than Genesis to aid in the identification of "that old serpent the
dragon" in Revelation 12:9. We are looking for the "spiritual successor" of
Egypt and Babylon! That of course, is easily recognised as the ROMAN empire
of John's day.
BUT
THERE IS MORE!
If
we look closely, we shall find that in John's vision, the story of MOSES was
being repeated in a new historical setting!
The
"sun, moon and stars" can be identified with Joseph’s dream. Genesis 37:9-10 In Revelation 12, it is easy to
transfer the meaning, first to the Jewish nation in Egypt, where the rest of
the symbol comes from, and then for the purpose of John's vision, to the
Church. The source of persecution was now the Pagan Roman Empire (which was
now concealed under the symbol formerly used to describe Egypt.) The Roman
"Dragon" was attempting to devour the "child" to which
the woman (Church) was struggling to give birth. In Egypt, Moses was brought
under the protection of the "god". (In Egypt, Pharaoh was both a
king and a god!) In Rome, eventually, the "man child" (the church)
gained the protection of the Roman Dragon Emperor. (Who was also a
"god", living in the "heavens" of the Roman Empire.) Can you see it? Receive it if you will.
CONCLUSION
The
bottom line is that the serpent in Revelation 12 is not to be understood as a literal serpent --
and certainly not as a literal "fallen angel" masquerading as a serpent in
Genesis! That is certainly an ancient tradition within the
mainstream Church, but it places a very forced literal interpretation on
something which in John's Apocalypse, is plainly a symbol for something else!
And THAT is a very dangerous way of dealing with the Scriptures!
"That
old serpent, the dragon" stands as a symbol of
the persecuting Roman empire! Most likely, the symbol has been drawn from the
Old Testament to carefully hide the identity of ROME from unsympathetic
"official Roman Dragon eyes". In a time of regular severe
persecution, this has been done for the protection of believers. And it has
been left for the KINGS of THE AGE TO COME, to search it out! Proverbs 25:2 RSV
Allon
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