FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part
139
THE DRAGON, THE WOMAN,
AND THE MANCHILD
John beholds two
great wonders, or signs, in heaven. In the
first two verses of our text he presents the first of them, when he says, And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under
her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and
pained to be delivered (Rev. 12:1-2). Then
in verses three and four he presents the second sign: And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and
behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads
and the dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born (Rev.
12:3-4).
The second sign
which is seen in heaven stands in terrible contrast with this glorious, yet helpless,
woman and her new-born child. It is a dragon. Do you know what a dragon is? Have you ever seen one? Have you ever touched one? Have you ever heard one? Is there a zoo anywhere in the world that has a
dragon in captivity? Is there an animal park
where you can drive your car through and observe them?
Has any naturalist photographer come back from the jungles or mountains or
depths of the sea with a photograph of one? Has
National Geographic magazine ever published a picture of a herd of dragons? According to Websters dictionary a dragon is
a mythological or imaginary monstrous animal resembling a winged
crocodile, with fiery eyes, crested head, enormous claws, and often spouting fire. A dragon in scripture is not any natural animal of
Gods creation, but rather a monster. Not a real monster, of course, for it is a
mythological creature created in the imagination of man, just as little children in their
imaginations create within themselves the fear of the boogey-man or the monster
lurking in the darkness, under the bed, or in the closet.
And just like little children, people give power to that image which they have imagined! Image and
imagine both come from the same root word. Can you not see that this locates this monster in
the MIND OF MAN! The mind is his base of
operation and his sphere of activity.
In
the book of Genesis this one called Satan and the devil begins as a little serpent and by
the time we come to the book of Revelation he has grown into a great red dragon! But it is a dragon of strange appearance. In the first place it is of a red color, the color
of blood, war, and destruction. It speaks of
flaming heat, of intensity of fierceness, of bloody warfare and death. And this well describes the inmost nature of Satan,
as everywhere portrayed. Furthermore, it is a
red dragon of tremendous proportions for it is described by John as a great
red dragon. Therefore it is a great and
powerful and bloodthirsty monster that John beholds in spirit! By his very appearance we may say that he signifies
some tremendous and evil power.
As I mentioned
above, in that long ago paradise Adam and Eve met with a serpent, and there the serpent
was none other than the devil. And with that
in mind we find little difficulty in discovering the identity of this dragon for the
simple reason that our chapter tells us in plain words that it is the devil, for we read: And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world (Rev. 12:9). The
serpent is the fittest symbol of the devil because of its subtlety and shrewdness. But the little deceiving serpent of Eden does not
adequately picture the devil today! The
devil of todays world must be symbolized as a monster serpent.
The little serpent in Eden was of no particular color and had one head
and no horns at all. But the great red dragon
has seven heads and ten horns!
He is described
as the dragon. By this title we
are to think of him as the old adversary, the devil, but now in possession of great power. In the garden he was the crafty little serpent,
using deceit alone. Now he uses coercion,
force, and violence! As the subtle serpent came with stealth into
the garden of Eden defiling with selfhood the
hearts of the parents of the human race, making a murderer of Adams first son, so
has he developed in mankind from that small and unimposing beginning to become a monster
of gigantic dimensions filling the whole world with religious delusion, religious
fanaticism, and fleshly corruption. In Genesis
Satan entered Eden as a cunning little serpent, but in Revelation he has grown into a
monstrous fire-belching dragon in the heavens and in the earth! In Genesis Satan is an enchanting serpent indwelling
a mere handful of people, whereas in Revelation he is a great red dragon, having seven
heads and ten horns, a composite of peoples, nations, philosophies, and organizations. Though Satan himself is not large, but merely like
the little pesky snake to those who know his tactics, still he has gathered to himself
quite a huge body; in fact he has stolen the body of Christ and made it his own. And he
shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most
High
and they shall be given into his hand until
a time and times and the dividing of time (for a limited time) (Dan. 7:25).
So
now the network that he runs is huge and powerful and intimidating and dominates the
world, all religions, and the church systems of man as well.
He is no longer the inconspicuous little reptile of Eden. He is the horn of worldly strength that Jesus
claims makes him the prince of this world.
How is it that Satan began as a little serpent in Eden and ends as a great dragon in the book of Revelation? Because he dwells in the minds of men and men have built him up in their
minds and attributed to him such power and authority that the little serpent has been
transformed into the great red dragon! The
body of that dragon is all the institutions, organizations, and administrations that are
dominated and controlled by that satanic religious
mind! He is not some sinister creature
from outer space, nor a powerful, omniscient and omnipresent spirit. Oh, no! He
exists in the mind of man hes in your
mind if you allow him to be! Thats
why the scripture admonishes,
neither
give place to the devil (Eph. 4:27). How
do you give place to the devil? WITH YOUR OWN THOUGHTS!
This brings us
to the curse laid upon the serpent in the beginning:
upon
your belly shall you go. This
judgment speaks of infinitely more than a literal snake slithering along upon his physical
belly, just as the word heel speaks of infinitely more than a location on the
foot, and the word head speaks of something greater far than a mere physical
head in the words of the next verse: And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel (Gen. 3:15). Large sections of scripture are couched in symbolic
terms, hiding much of the mysteries of God in figurative language.
This is done quite purposefully by the Lord that the unspiritual while
seeing actually see not and hearing
actually hear not (Mat. 13:10-17). The deep spiritual truth of the scriptures can be
understood only in the spirit and by the spirit! So, upon
your belly shall you go paints for the eyes of our understanding the picture of
the serpent crawling in humiliation, prostration, limitation, and subjection upon the
ground. The Psalmist uses a similar expression
in Psalm 44:25, For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Such
denotes a prolonged prostration and a depth of subjection as could never be conveyed or
expressed in normal terms.
The very fact
that God states that the serpent was now to
crawl upon his belly, which obviously he had not done before, reveals that there was a descending from one realm to another, from a
greater to a lesser, from a higher to a lower. Moving
on his belly limits the sphere of the serpents activity, now he can only creep along
the ground. Previously he had access to
loftier realms, his sphere of activity extended to higher domains exalted realms of
pure spirit expression but he is now lowered into the dust-realm, into the world of
the natural man, confined to the earthly, and restricted to action upon and expression
through THE MAN OF THE DUST. And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life
(Gen. 3:14). How truly this accounts for
the words of the apostle, And you hath He
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, THE S-P-I-R-I-T THAT N-O-W WORKETH I-N THE CHILDREN OF
DISOBEDIENCE (Eph. 2:2).
Ah, yes, this
evil spirit is IN MAN! When the ancient serpent was lowered into the dust
realm, to crawl upon his belly and eat dust, man became the base of operation for his
activity. I do not hesitate to tell you, my
beloved, that you will find Satan operative in NO OTHER REALM in the whole universe! You do not meet the devil in rocks, trees, fish,
mountains, rivers, clouds, birds, nor on far-away planets, in distant galaxies, in flying
saucers, nor in any other object or location outside of man.
Can we not see that under the curse God limited Satan to the dust of the earth, to the
realm of the first Adam, the natural man, the carnal mind the man of dust! The
first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven (I Cor. 15:47).
Many have seen
the connection between Satan and the carnal mind and, not understanding the origins of these things, have assumed that the
carnal mind is
Satan. The truth, however, runs deeper than
that it goes to the spirit of the mind. In words fraught with eternal significance the
inspired apostle exhorts, Be renewed in the S-P-I-R-I-T OF YOUR MIND (Eph.
4:23). As one has so aptly written, commenting
of this verse, Note that it reads: in the spirit of your mind, for this is far more than
just mental gymnastics of our own self-efforts. There
are beneficial results in the power of positive thinking, even on natural realms. But true transformation comes when the change is in
the SPIRIT of your mind. It is more than
merely the renewing of the mind, exchanging our carnal mind for His mind it is the
renewing of SPIRIT the spirit of the mind. That is the mystery. When there is the exchange of spirit the spirit of our natural mind
replaced by the spirit of Christ then
our mind is able to function on the divine plane. It
becomes the norm of our life to just be thinking HIS thoughts, because of the
establishment of His Spirit force within us. It
is an absolute must to receive from a realm higher than Adam can give in order to have our
minds renewed. The change comes in the realm
of spirit, not by our self-efforts to change our
way of thinking, believing, understanding, or acting.
Elwin Roach has
shared this illuminating thought concerning the transformation of the mind. This word, renewing, is adequately rendered in Romans 12:2;
however, to be a little more accurate, the Greek word could be translated renovation (see
Strongs Exhaustive Concordance). We are
then transformed by the renovation of our minds. There is only a slight difference in the two words,
but when renovation is used, we get the thought of a complete house clearing, house
cleaning, and then a total refurbishing. Everything
old is removed and replaced with all new furnishings.
God, however, does something differently in His renovation. He does it just the opposite. He does not clear out the old things and leave our
minds a total void and then start filling them with new thoughts. He starts bringing in the new thoughts first, and
with this the old passes away and gives place to the new and all this is of God. Think about it!
The activity of
the mind is primarily in the realm of THOUGHTS. Thoughts
are very real and alive! Thoughts are
SPIRITUAL REALITIES, transmitted energy, coming
upon your person via the gateway of your mind. Thus
energy (thoughts) is transmitted into your conscious mind from the unconscious to cause
you to act and react in a certain way. Thoughts
do not originate in the mortal brain. Thoughts
are invisible and powerful entities which have their origin in the dimension of SPIRIT. The unconscious mind is the link between the
physical brain and the realm of spirit. Thoughts
originate very deep in the world of spirit. Thoughts
do have an objective! Until we understand the connection between thoughts and spirit
we will confuse the chemical actions of the brain with the real source of the thought patterns which dominate
and control our attitudes, personality, desires, ambitions, and actions.
Every decision
that you have ever made or ever will make has its origin, intent, and power in the
INVISIBLE REALM the realm of spirit. You will never understand the mystery of life until
you thoroughly know that there is a negative and a positive spirit force. The negative leads to death; the positive to life. The mind is the gateway, the channel through which
these energy forces affect our lives. The
thoughts that come to us bear the characteristics of the spirit force operating in us. Let us notice what the apostle Paul has to say
about the connection between mind, our actions, and life
and death.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
proper; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to
parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them (Rom. 1:28-32).
What a list! All of these things
originate from a reprobate mind
from the world of thoughts! They
carry within them the power of death! Conversely,
the works of the spirit come also from mind from the spirit within
the renewed
mind! Can you not see the mystery?
Through the fall
Satan became one with man, incarnate in the unconscious mind, the energy force of human
nature, the spirit of the carnal mind, slithering about in the lowest realms of mans earthiness, in the crooked thoughts,
selfish desires, distorted emotions, religious perversion, unrighteous dispositions, in
the illusions and delusions of the sense-realm of the world of appearances, and in all the
corrupt motions of the flesh. May God
graciously give us enlightenment to see that included with Satan is the kingdom of Satan;
therefore, since Satan is in man, the kingdom of Satan is also in man. Satan is the prince of this world, so the world too
is included in the kingdom of Satan and is also in man.
Furthermore, since Satan is intensely religious,
religion also is included in the kingdom of Satan and is likewise in man. That is why the natural man, in his unregenerate
state, is inherently religious! And that also explains why all of mankinds
religions are false and demonic! The
first Adam is not a small man! On the
contrary, he is a big, all-inclusive man! The
whole vast realm of reality, positive and negative,
is CENTRALIZED AND PERSONIFIED IN MAN! And it
is there that the great red dragon stands before the sun-clad woman! Oh, the wonder of it!
When Adam and
Eve departed from Eden the serpent was in their hearts, their minds, and in their bodies. It should not be difficult for any man to see that
all the unrestrained evils that are running rampant in the world today are but the
out-croppings, the fruitage, the increase, yea, the manifestation of the dragon that is
now full-grown from the little serpent in Eden. This
monster dwells within each of us! It could be
explained as the accumulated genetic legacy and cosmic consciousness from hundreds of our
ancestors who have lived out of and cultivated the beastly nature. After Adam and Eve were expelled from the
heaven-blest paradise of God it was but a short space until the serpent in Cain slew one
righteous man, for he was a murderer from the beginning whereas the
dragon that stalks the earth today in a vast multitude of billions of Adams
posterity has slain millions on the blood-stained battlefields of every continent and
nation on the face of the earth, and the vast majority have been religious killings, and the saints of all ages have
been viciously persecuted to death. Ah, yes,
the little serpent has become a giant dragon, stalking and stomping about in the dust of Adams
race!
We need not be
surprised at the increase of this satanic power in the end of the age. Can we not see that in every age the degree of
wickedness in the earth is proportionate to the INCREASE OF MANKIND? Of a dim and distant age it is written, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth
God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of his
heart was only evil continually (Gen. 6:1,6).
And of our own age it is declared, This
know also that in the last days perilous times
shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, devils,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (II Tim. 3:1-4).
Two
millenniums ago the apostle Paul accurately prophesied, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived
(II Tim. 3:13). May the Spirit of the Lord
open wide the eyes of our understanding to see the simple and evident truth that as MEN
increase in the earth THE DEVIL INCREASES! In
making this statement, I am fully aware that such a thought runs contrary to
long-established views of theology, but we are not
in the least concerned with the views of Babylons theology, for so-called theology
is not really the truth of God but the ideas of men. I am concerned only with the truth of God as it
is revealed in His Word in the light of inspiration and revelation.
Another wonder appeared in heaven, that is, in the realm of the spirit.
All of this is taking place in the spiritual realm! The
great red dragon that John beholds appears to be very large, extremely formidable and
frightening, and he appears to be in our heaven! Many
folks cannot conceive of Satan being in heaven even the heaven where the manchild
sits upon the throne yet he is there until we overcome him even in that realm and
cast him out from that high place. There is no
literal great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns strutting around up in some
far-off heaven somewhere. These are spiritual
realities right in the realm of the spirit where the saints of God live and move and have
their being. When John beheld these wondrous
things he was in the spirit in the day of the Lord! John now beholds another great supernatural sign in the heaven of the spirit. He identifies this great red dragon as that ancient
serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. We have seen that the dragon is the spirit of the old Adamic mind. Is it not true that just as soon as one ascends
into the high realms of the Spirit where abides the mind of Christ, the old carnal mind,
natural reasoning, and fleshly way of thinking exerts itself in its effort to circumvent,
side-track, and derail the very thing the Spirit is speaking and doing.
We
see this principle fulfilled in the story of Job. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also among them (Job
1:6). May I reverently add that every time the sons of God present themselves before the Lord
Satan comes also among them! It bespeaks a condition within these sons
our mind versus His mind, our
will versus His will, our ways versus His ways. It
is a heavenly place within the sons of God wherein we must be tested to show whether we be sons indeed. This impudent devil of self-will is in every man,
and even our blessed Lord Himself surrendered
His own will to the Fathers, saying, Father,
if Thou be willing remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done (Lk. 22:42). Until every son has been completely perfected and
thoroughly tested it is not possible for the sons of God to come and present themselves
before the Lord without Satan coming also among them.
Does he not walk in the natural mind of every man? It is written, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence cometh
thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,
From going to and fro in the earth, and walking
up and down in it (Job 1:7). Now the Lords questions are never for His own
enlightenment. He knew well whence Satan came. Oh, yes, Satan had been walking to and fro
throughout the earth God knew this for he walks in our earth, even that earth which we are! From
the east to the west, from the north to the south, from sea to sea and from pole to pole
he walks in the earthly places of our souls, in the secret chambers of our minds, in the
fleshly motions of our bodies; he travels up and down in us from the heights of our
heavens to the depths of our hells. There is
not a day that he leaves us! Dust is his
habitation.
All
the way to glorification this inner antagonist is present.
This is why every revival God has ever sent through the ages ended in
apostasy. Satan not the devil with
horns and pitchfork but that inward devil of fleshly wisdom, sense-knowledge, and
carnal zeal has a subtle way of identifying himself
with every move of the Spirit of God, so as to corrupt it from within. Many years ago F. J. Huegel wrote: Students
of the great Welsh Revival (19001903) say that the wonderful stream of Divine Life
little by little lost its saving efficacy, as another stream from a very different source,
naturally very filthy, began to mingle with the River of the Water of Life proceeding from
the Throne and from the Lamb. Again there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. Beware of false fire!
Beware of the counterfeit glow! When
the soulish takes the place of the pure working
of the Holy Spirit, you have a revival whose fires, though they purport to be
from heaven are more likely to be from hell. There
are any number of doors through which Satan may enter to get control of
revival. An undue stressing of the emotional;
excitement which grieves and suffocates the Holy Spirit who works quietly; a glorying in
the ministry rather than in the Lord Himself; clap-trap methods; self, whatever its form, in the ministry itself,
obscuring Christ; these are some of Satans keys
end quote.
SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS
Behold, a
great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads
(Rev. 12:3).
Some have
questioned the relative position of the seven heads and ten horns how many horns
were upon each head? Were there one horn upon
four heads and two upon each of the remaining heads or one of several other
possible configurations? The question as to
the relative position of the seven heads and ten horns is certainly irrelevant. John tells us nothing about their relative
position, so the way in which they are arranged on the dragon is not the point and
therefore has nothing to do with any spiritual truth.
Rather, it is the fact of the
heads and the horns together with their number or
quantity that is significant to us. That is
what the Holy Spirit is impressing upon us! The
numbers seven and ten are symbolical numbers. They do not refer to ten kingdoms, or ten kings, or
to seven kings literally; but they denote the authority
and power of the dragon, the devil. Heads are the symbol of authority. When
the scripture says that Christ is the Head of the church, and that the man is
the head of the woman, it bespeaks a headship which expresses itself through a
sphere of authority. Christ is the AUTHORITY
over the church! He is the Leader, the Chief,
the Commander, the Captain, the Controller, the Administrator, the Master the LORD! That makes Him the Head of this body!
The Lord gave to
Israel a covenant of AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS when
He said to them, The Lord shall open unto thee
His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless
all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not
borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath
(Deut. 28:12-13). This is also why prophets, priests, and kings were
both anointed and crowned upon their heads it signified the absoluteness and
supremeness of their authority!
The same thought of authority in relation to headship is to be seen in such
scripture references as, But God shall wound
the head of his enemies
(Ps.
68:21). Nor is anything else signified by the serpents head which is crushed by Gods
Christ (Gen. 3:15). And then we read, The Lord shall strike through kings in the day
of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen
He
shall wound the heads over many countries
(Ps. 110:5-6). Clearly this indicates that
the Lord strips the authority and headship from the leaders of the nations!
Horns, on the
other hand, are the symbol of might, strength, and
power. The
dragon has seven heads of authority and ten horns of power!
Seven and ten are both complete numbers.
Seven is a sacred number in this respect, that it generally is used of the
perfection of spiritual realities and the completeness of Gods purposes and kingdom. It denotes fullness
in the things of God. In the book of
Revelation numbers do not actually define amounts at all, but they represent concepts. The
number twenty-four, for example, is meaningless as an amount there are not exactly
twenty-four elders sitting on twenty-four thrones up in some far-off heaven somewhere. Some commentators, not understanding this
principle, and trying to make twenty-four stand for an amount, have concluded that the
twenty-four elders are the twelve patriarchs of Israel and the twelve apostles of the
Lamb! Yet the whole imagery of the twenty-four
elders round about the throne, together with the twenty-four courses of the typical
Aaronic priesthood set forth in I Chronicles chapter twenty-four, shows that the number
twenty-four signifies the priesthood of God. It is not an amount; it is the corporate
ministry of Gods priesthood! The number
144,000 mentioned in the Revelation is relatively unimportant as an amount; but when we
understand that it is a multiple of twelve, and that twelve is the number of divine government, then twelve squared by itself
times a thousand (the number representing the day of
the Lord) represents the absolute fullness and perfection of divine government within a people in the day of the Lord! Thus
it stands for the manifest sons of God!
Seven is very
significant in the economy of God. It is the
most frequently used number in the Bible! The
Hebrew word for seven is sheba. From
it is shaba, meaning to be complete
to seven
oneself, i.e. swear by repeating a declaration seven times. This is how the ancients swore, by repeating the
oath seven times instead of placing their hand upon a Bible or merely invoking the name of
God. Seven speaks of completion, fullness,
perfection. Nothing can be added to or taken
from it without it becoming marred. Being a
prime number makes it divisible only by itself. The
week is complete, full, and perfect in seven days. Seven
completes the colors of the spectrum. There
are seven notes in the musical scale. The
cells of the human body completely replace themselves every seven years.
Ten is the
number that denotes the measure of time or space or power as it is allotted and limited to
any creature by Gods decree. A divinely
limited measure of something is indicated by the number ten.
Seven crowned heads, therefore,
would signify the perfection and fullness of royal
authority. As I mentioned earlier, seven,
throughout the book of Revelation, represents perfection and fullness in the spiritual
things of the kingdom of God. Therefore we
must be careful with the interpretation of this dragon!
In chapter five of the Revelation the Lamb in the midst of the throne has seven horns! The
seven horns are identified as the seven spirits of
God. Seven horns bespeaks the absolute
perfection and power of the seven-fold Spirit of Christ!
And now we see the dragon appearing with seven heads. Keep
in mind, my beloved, HE IS A DECEIVER! John
tells us plainly that the great dragon is that ancient serpent, called the devil and
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world! Oh, yes, the whole world is deceived by the dragon
into believing that carnal minds and carnal men and carnal means and methods and
institutions and governments are the authority in
this world! When the politicians and religious
leaders and economists and educators and scientists and news men and military generals of this world speak they deceive mankind into
believing that THEY ARE THE PERFECT AUTHORITY IN THIS WORLD!
Indeed, Seven Heads! The devil
is the deceiver. And by those seven crowns on
those seven heads you must not be deceived. God
did not put them on his head. He put them on
himself. They are not real crowns either. They are not made in heaven, whence all authority
issues forth; therefore they have no value, they are counterfeit. The heads are an illusion and the crowns are
tinsel. The truth is, the devil is the spirit
enthroned in the carnal mind of the natural man, and the devil is a pretender, an
impostor, an intruder, a usurper. He intrudes
into the kingdom of God. When Adam sinned and
was usurped by the serpent and fell from the glory of his sonship, upon fleeing Eden the
serpent in Adam put on his own seven crowns and for six dreadful millenniums has exercised
his dominion over the earth and all things, including all heavenly and spiritual realities
(religion), by these seven crowns! And through
carnal-minded religion, science, economics, education, and government he has deceived the whole world! That is the mystery.
Now, I mentioned
before that the number ten denotes the measure of time or space or power as it is allotted
and limited to any creature by Gods decree. The
ten horns of power signify that the dragon has
just exactly as much power as God has allowed him no more and no less. It indicates that the power of the devil is limited
by the sovereign decree of God almighty and that the devil can do no more, no less, than
that which God has decreed for him and which God wills him to do. The ten horns tell us that the devil has power, but
it is a limited power, under Gods control and for Gods purpose. He does not
out-fox God! He does not thwart Gods purpose! He is not out
of control! He can never defeat you, my
beloved, matters not how he struts and comes at you charging with his horns. HE THAT IS IN YOU IS GREATER THAN HE THAT IS IN THE
WORLD! Arent you glad!
THE
DRAGONS TAIL
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth
(Rev. 12:4).
Some people who
have never learned the nature of symbolic language try to imagine such a literal scene as
the one here described and picture in their minds what an awful thing it would be to see
the third part of the stars falling to the earth. But
real stars that are fixed or planetary never fall, and if they did, it would only take one
to completely obliterate this planet and the rest of the third would have no
earth to fall upon! But with a knowledge of
the spiritual meaning of the symbols we can easily identify the tail of this
dragon and the stars that are cast down.
The idea
propagated by the church systems is that our text is a reference to the fall of Lucifer
from heaven along with one-third of the heavenly angels.
The popular story asserts that away back before the worlds began some
angels, one-third of the angels in heaven, in fact, led by the archangel Lucifer, rebelled
against God and were cast out of heaven, whereupon the little vandals took over planet
earth. God then created man in His image and
likeness to show forth His love and righteousness to creation, but made the mistake of
putting man on the same planet where the little devils were ruling. Soon Satan and his juvenile delinquents from heaven
pulled a fast one on the man God had created and tricked him to fall under the power of
sin and death. And that was Satans way
of getting back at God for kicking him out of heaven!
He paid God back by bringing ruin, chaos, and darkness upon the beautiful
creation of earth and mankind. So God had to
scramble around and quickly develop Plan B, and with this plan God was regrouping and
devising a means by which to regain control back from the devil. Under this plan God sent Jesus into the world to
regain control of the earth and mankind. But
after two thousand years even this plan has not worked out too well, for the vast majority
of the human race is still held in the clutches of the enemy. These thoughts are hidden in the teachings of the
preachers and I do not hesitate to tell you they are error for they make a mockery of the wisdom,
sovereignty, and omnipotence of God, making it appear that He is a fumbling, blundering
old man who doesnt know what in the world Hes doing!
If we were
making a law in reference to biblical interpretation surely a good one would be: Thou shalt not establish doctrine
on a word or phrase that occurs in only one passage in the Bible. The popular doctrine of Lucifer is established on a
word that occurs in the King James Version in Isaiah 14:2 and nowhere else. How art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations. How
anybody, in their right spiritual mind, can take out of Isaiah chapter fourteen the
concept that this refers to Satan is certainly possessed of an extraordinarily wild
imagination. There is just no way one can read
these verses, even with the greatest stretch of inventiveness or theological license, and
derive from them that the prophet Isaiah is speaking of a so-called fallen angel named
Lucifer. First of all there is no mention at
all of angels, much less one-third of the angels, or an archangel. Then
the prophet states plainly that the term Lucifer prophetically refers to a man! Yet
thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
And they that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee,
saying, Is this the MAN that made the earth
to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed
the cities thereof; that openeth not the house of his prisoners? (Isa.
14:15-17).
The entire
chapter is addressed to the king of Babylon. Thou
shalt take up this taunting parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the
oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The
Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the (tyrant) rulers, who
smote the peoples in anger with incessant blows and trod down the nations in wrath with
unrelenting persecution until he who smote is persecuted and no one hinders anymore
(Isa. 14:4-6, KJV & Amplified). The
whole section of the chapter about Lucifer follows these verses. Now look at what these verses say, along with the
ones in the paragraph above, and you see exactly what the tyrannical king of Babylon did
to all the nations he had conquered! And now
God is revealing his judgment in highly symbolical and parabolic language. There is nothing in this chapter about the devil,
my friend, it is all a taunting parable about
the ancient king of Babylon!
The fact is, furthermore,
there is no name Lucifer. Lucifer is not a proper name. It is a term that the Catholic translator, Jerome,
installed instead of the Hebrew word heylel
which means shining one. Shining
one is not a proper name in Hebrew any more than it is in English or any other language. Its not a name!
Its not the name of an angel. Its
not even the name of the king of Babylon. The
Hebrew word is a descriptive term, but its not the name
of anything. Lucifer is a
contrived, invented, concocted, fabricated, made-up so-called name. But its not a name! There
is no creature in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or under the earth that bears that
name. Gabriel thats a name. Michael
thats a name. Lucifer not a name. You
only find it once in the whole Bible. If you
look in the original Hebrew text you will never
find Lucifer. If you look in the Hebrew dictionary you will not find Lucifer. There is no Hebrew word nor any Hebrew name
Lucifer. Its made up! It is the Hebrew term for shining one,
and its not a name. It was brought over
into English from the Latin and transliterated as a name.
The name Lucifer has been given to us by religious superstition,
folklore, myth, and fairy tales!
Orthodoxy has
long taught that Lucifer was, in the beginning, a high and beautiful archangel in heaven. The theologians and preachers recite over and over
how Lucifer was the anointed cherub that covereth
the most beautiful and wise
of all Gods creation! This being
was, so they say, the ruler and leader of the angelic beings and apparently led them in
their praise of God and shouts of joy
the greatest being God ever created, one who
had unequaled strength, wisdom, beauty, privilege, and authority, and was next to God
Himself. This blameless, perfect one, named
Lucifer, was created without any form of evil and with the greatest intelligence of any
created being. Then, we are told, this
Lucifer, suddenly realizing how beautiful and intelligent he was, became inflated with
power and pride and his heart was lifted up in rebellion against God. According to the story, Lucifer gathered one-third
of the heavenly angels to his cause, mustering an army with which he planned to knock God
off His throne and supplant himself as king
and god of the universe and there was war in heaven!
Luckily, God won, cast Lucifer out of heaven and he became, instead of an
holy angel, the devil that he is today.
It is nothing
short of amazing that such a doctrine could have enjoyed such widespread acceptance in the
light of the plain teachings of the scriptures on this subject. Man says that Satan in the beginning was holy, but later fell from that
estate. JESUS said of Satan, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
your father ye will do. He was a murderer (not an angel) from the BEGINNING, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it (Jn.
8:44). This verse states that Satan abode not in the truth. In the Greek text the verb abode not is
in the imperfect tense meaning that as far back as this personality existed HE WAS NOT
TRUE. Dr. Robert Young, in his Literal
Translation of the Bible, renders this verse: He
was a manslayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in
him. The Rotherham version reads: He was a murderer from the beginning, and in the truth he stood not; because the truth was not in him.
J. B. Phillips gives the plainest and most accurate translation: He always
was a murderer, and has never dealt with the truth, since the truth will have
nothing to do with him. Whenever he tells a
lie, he speaks in character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Furthermore,
there is no mention in the whole Bible of Lucifer or Satan drawing
a third of the angels of heaven into rebellion against God.
The only place in all of scripture where one third is mentioned
as being cast down from heaven to earth is here in our text in the book of Revelation. Here, the great red dragon (not Lucifer the bright,
shining leader of the choir of heaven!) who is also identified as that ancient
serpent, called the devil and Satan, draws a third part of the stars of heaven with
his tail and he casts them into the earth. The
problem with using this reference to prove Satan drew a third part of the angels into
rebellion is threefold. First, it is found in
chapter twelve of the book of Revelation, which was written to reveal to the saints those
things which must shortly come to pass, not
things that already came to pass away back before the world began. Second, it is associated with the birth of the
manchild and his ascension to the throne, and that certainly didnt take place before
Adam was placed in Eden! Third, almost all
commentators completely miss the fact that it is the great red dragon who casts the third
part of the stars down to the earth not GOD! The
preachers tell us that GOD kicked the devil and his angels out of heaven, but the only
record we have in the Bible of one-third being cast down from heaven to earth
tells us that the dragon casts them down! And his
tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. This is before the birth of the manchild! Yet, it is after
the birth of the manchild and his ascension to the throne that Michael and his angels cast the great dragon into the earth! So the dragon casts the stars to the earth and Michael
and his angels cast the dragon to the earth the former takes place before the birth of the manchild and the latter
happens after the manchild is born. We have certainly been told a lot of fairy tales! The
notion that any of this can have anything to do with Lucifer is an absurdity
of enormous proportions!
Let us meditate further
on the symbolic and spiritual implications of this great scene John beholds in the heaven
of the Spirit of the Lord. It would appear
that the great red dragon lashed his tail backward and
forward, as if in rage, and with the purpose to frighten and terrorize. What did, and what does, this dragon-tail signify? It certainly signifies something or it would not
have been so described. Again, we must go back
to the Old Testament for our explanation. In
Moses time, to be the tail, was to be the
lowest; to be the head was to be the highest and most honorable (Deut. 28:44). In the time of Isaiah the tail was the false prophet and his teachings by
which the Lords people were led astray, and destroyed (Isa. 9:14-16). Isaiah said, The
prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
This is the true and scriptural meaning of the tail of the dragon. We know that the dragon is the great deceiver, and his tail is composed of all the false
prophets and false teachers who proclaim his false doctrines lies!
The dragon, that
ancient serpent, has always had this tail! He
had it in the garden of Eden, he had it when he met Christ in the desert, and he has it
today. It is by this tail of error that he
accomplishes his pernicious designs in leading men and women away from the living Christ
from truth, life, and reality! From the
very beginning of history this tail has grown stronger, longer, and larger, until today he
can lash that tail backward and forward over the whole face of the globe, and then even
sweep the starry heavens above with it. Yes,
this vision says, that by his tail he sweeps the very heaven where the sun-clad woman is
in travail and where the manchild is birthed! He
drags down easily and forcibly the shining stars there- from, that they should cease to
give their light in the high places of God, but shine dimly in the polluted atmosphere of
earth. Stars are heavenly bodies, and signify
both divine truths and realities as well as those heavenly ones who walk in the light as
He is in the light. Their being dragged
down signifies perversion of the truth and apostasy of those who walked in that
truth. Satan by his tail of religious,
spiritual, moral, doctrinal, and practical error changes the truth of God into a lie and
accomplishes the downfall of those in whom that truth shone. Just because we are of the
manchild company doesnt mean we dont have any conflict with the dragon. Oh, yes! Even
in the high places of the spirit we encounter the great red dragon with seven heads and
ten horns!
Michael and his
angels (Jesus and the sons of God) do battle with the dragon and cast him down from the
heavenly place where we dwell in the son realm. Are
we so blind that we cannot see that not all who aspire
to be manifest sons of God will truly shine in that glory?
What does it mean to you, my brethren, when John tells us that the tail of
the dragon drew a third part of the stars of heaven,
and did cast them to the earth drew them, enticed them, allured them, tempted and
seduced them, even as Eve was seduced and as even our Lord Jesus was tempted of the devil
in the wilderness of Judea and they are cast down, dragged down to the earth, out of the heavens of
the spirit into the earth of the soul, abandoning the beautiful hope of sonship to lower
themselves back into the soulical religious world of the carnal church systems of man, and
sometimes into even darker religious realms.
This sad and
painful picture has been with us through all the years of my walk in the kingdom of God
and I have myself witnessed a great number of these star-sons drawn by the lies of the
false prophets of the dragons tail, cunning deceptions of false teachings, of sexual
impurity, so-called free love, of New Age delusions, of spiritual pride, of
kingdom building and sectarian spirits, of going back into Babylon in an effort to impart
deeper truth and a more blessed hope to the prisoners there, and they themselves become
entangled again with the bondage and unfruitful works of the spiritual darkness of that
realm of death! I find words and phrases
totally inadequate to describe my sorrow at seeing these bright luminaries of the
heavenlies falling down into the wilderness of the earthlies! Yet there is no denying what the Spirit is telling
us in this vision.
Gods
Christ is now to be revealed out of the heavens of the Spirit of the Lord! Gods Christ has been a mystery, he has been
hidden, concealed, but now he shall be seen upon the throne in great power and glory! He will shine like the noonday sun! The ministries of the virgin church have been as
stars, they have shone and sparkled like diamonds in the darkness of the carnal church
age. These star-ministries will continue to
shine as long as the night endures. But when
the Day-star has fully risen in the hearts of Gods called and chosen elect, the
night stars will fade away. These stars
(two-thirds) are not cast down to the earth,
they are simply subdued, ruled, and eclipsed by the greater glory of the manifest sons of
God!. The dragon tried to devour the manchild
at the moment of his birth but was not successful, for the sons of God are overcomers who
have conquered in all things and in all realms! And they overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony (Rev.
12:11). The dragon was successful, however, in
casting down from their lofty positions one-third of the stars of heaven the truths
and ministries of the virgin church drawing them with his tail of deception
and casting them down to the earth realm of delusion and shame.
The ministries
of the church realm, even the virgin church realm, can be easily deceived, as we see again
and again in chapters two and three of the Revelation.
They can be defiled by the great dragon, but he has no power at all against
the victorious overcoming manchild. Isnt
it wonderful! Vast numbers of believers are
dismayed and shaken when the notable, highly acclaimed, big-name ministries are cast down
from their shining positions. We should
neither be dismayed nor concerned! We should
rather rejoice that these are cast down before the
birth of the manchild. We should not want
to see them sitting upon the throne! The
dragon is ordained of God to sweep the heavens, he is Gods great broom in the heavens to sweep away and remove all
who will not pay the price to go all the way with God, and who would hinder or oppose the
manifestation of Christ in and through His manchild company of many brethren.
It is not the
ministry alone that the dragon casts down in reality it is the message, the word,
the truth of God that is robbed of its spiritual life and light that is the instrument of
their fall. The sweet singer of Israel penned
these meaningful words: The entrance of Thy
words GIVETH LIGHT; it giveth UNDERSTANDING to the simple (Ps. 119:130). The
prophet Hosea, speaking of God, said, Thy
judgments are as LIGHT that goeth forth (Hos. 6:5). Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a LIGHT unto my path (Ps. 119:105). Also in II Corinthians 4:6, Paul declares, For God, who commanded the LIGHT to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the LIGHT of the KNOWLEDGE of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Can we not understand by this that TRUTH is
LIGHT, UNDERSTANDING is LIGHT, KNOWLEDGE is LIGHT and LIFE is LIGHT. We often hear someone say, I got some light
on that. They are not talking about the
light from a bulb, they are declaring the reception of understanding! In like manner, DARKNESS is ignorance and error. But if
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath
BLINDED THE MIND of them which believe not, lest the LIGHT of the glorious gospel of
Christ should shine unto them (II Cor. 4:3-4).
The stars are the spiritual truths of God that shine in
the darkness of this world. When that truth is
cast down to a lower level in the understanding of the Lords people, they also sink
down to that lower level with it. One can only live, experience, and walk on the
level of his revelation. Can you not see the
mystery?
I will close
this message by quoting some instructive words from the pen of brother Bob Torango. The dragon relies upon the ability to take
truths about God and redefine them. Erroneously,
some think that the dragon is out to destroy truth, to hold it back from being
birthed, but that is not its intention. The
dragon itself is religious! It loves to take
the truth and camouflage it, to disguise it, and give the truth a dragon identity. The dragon needs truth in order to live and be
viable. The dragon takes concepts of truth,
ingests them, and then changes them into the Lie. Without
truthful concepts there would be no lies, for therein lies the power of the dragon, to
deceive and corrupt truthful things.
Notice,
the dragon is not concerned about the woman herself. In
fact, the dragon needs the woman to give birth to conceptual truths of God so the dragon
can feed its religious nature, and so it has done since its inception. I do not believe that this is the first time
the dragon has positioned himself in front of the woman to devour her offspring. In fact, if the truth be told, every order birthed
by the woman has ended up in the belly of the dragon, a religious mindset that drags every
truth of God into the murky depths of the religious, carnal mind. Every great move through the ages has eventually
succumbed to the dragons power, from the glory of the early church which ended up
under the religious-political rule of Constantine on down through the corridors of
Catholicism and Popery, on down through Martin Luther and the subsequent branching off of the many aspects of Protestantism and
Denominationalism all the way through the present time of this century with the outpouring
of the Pentecostal movement and the Latter Rain and Sons of God movements all have
eventually gone away from the original spontaneous glory into a stagnation of religious
mindsets. It is an inherent condition of man
to bring the things of the spirit into a manageable, logical, religious mindset that can
be structured into precepts and concepts that are relatable to our finite mind.
So the
dragon has been here before, has been positioned before the woman before, and is expecting
to devour the child the moment it is birthed
from the woman, but this birth will be different from anything else the
woman has ever birthed! This is not
conceptualized truth, nor is it representative truth, nor is it type and shadow truth. This is a birth of THE TRUTH, which has nothing to
do with the religious, carnal mind of men, but is the offspring of the
loins of God Present Truth, Irresistible Truth, Life-Giving Truth! It is not going to be given to the dragon
like all the other truthful concepts have been given, and allowed to be devoured according
to the plan of God. That is why the dragon is
so wroth, so full of rage at being cheated of its usual due, devouring this most precious
of all births, because the dragon has always before been given the things of God to
corrupt them and make them his own, but not so with this birth! This child is marked with a destiny of
change and disruption, because after it is caught up, all hell breaks loose in heaven and
earth and NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!
end quote.
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY