KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the
things concerning the kingdom of God..."
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 Webster’s 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 God’s 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 thatimage 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 today’s 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 deceitalone. 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 ofAdam’s
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 ofEden. 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 — he’s in your mind if
you allow him to be! That’s
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 serpent’s 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
Strong’s 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 man’s
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 mankind’s 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 Adam’s 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 Adam’s
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 Babylon’s
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 Father’s, 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 Lord’s
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 (1900—1903) 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 Satan’s
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 beabove 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 serpent’s
head which is crushed by God’s
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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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
God’s control and for God’s purpose. He
does notout-fox God! He
does not thwart
God’s 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! Aren’t
you glad!
THE DRAGON’S 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 Satan’s 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 doesn’t know what in the world He’s 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. It’s
not a name! It’s
not the name of an angel. It’s
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
it’s not a name! There
is no creature in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or under the earth that
bears that name. Gabriel — that’s a name. Michael
— that’s 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. It’s
made up! It is the
Hebrew term for “shining one,” and it’s 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 God’s 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 hasnever
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 didn’t take place before Adam
was placed inEden! 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 happensafter 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 Lord’s 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 doesn’t mean
we don’t 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 didcast 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 dragon’s 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.
God’s Christ
is now to be revealed out of the heavens of the Spirit of the Lord! God’s
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 God’s called and chosen
elect, the night stars will fade away. These
stars (two-thirds) are notcast
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. Isn’t
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 God’s 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 Lord’s 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 dragon’s 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
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