"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 143
THE DRAGON, THE WOMAN, AND THE MANCHILD
(continued)
“And the great dragon was cast out…he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9).
Throughout the book of Revelation we have seen the great truth that almost all the events in the book take place in one of three dimensions: HEAVEN, EARTH, and SEA. These are, of course, symbolical and prophetical terms! They represent states of being, life-styles, levels of consciousness, and dimensions of life within each of us. The lowest of these three realms is the sea. Throughout the book a number of things transpire in the sea. “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.” “I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns.” “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it.” “Woe to the inhabiters of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you.”
Throughout the scriptures
the sea is a type of the inner storms and turbulent nature of the
No one can dispute the
fact that it is this restless, turbulent, raging, evil heart of the fleshly man
that inspires every wicked and devilish perversion, and has filled the world
with ever increasing confusion, faithlessness, immorality, falsehood, fraud,
hatred, violence, greed, cruelty, strife, wars, bloodshed, and oppression. Ah,
the sea is
the lowest realm on
earth, and this vast sea of fleshly,
The second realm is that of the earth. In contrast with the sea and with heaven, the earth is the symbol of the second dimension of life, a realm higher than the sea, but lower than heaven, an intermediary realm which at its highest peak kisses heaven, and at its lowest level embraces the sea; yet, in the true sense, it is, of itself, neither heavenly nor degenerate. The sea, as we have seen, comprises the masses of restless, surging, sinning, warring men who live only and always after the unrestrained desires of the flesh (body realm). Heaven, on the other hand, speaks of those who have been quickened, raised up, made alive in Christ, seated in Him in the heavenly places, who walk only and always in the Spirit. Those who “dwell upon the earth,” however, are a moral class, religious folk, with many up-right citizens of the community and church-going Christian people in their ranks; but these, while not overtly wicked, are not spiritual either, but in most aspects of their daily lives “mind earthly things.”
On the
The biblical expression,
“the natural man,” refers to the “earth dwellers” and is rendered more
accurately by many versions as “the unspiritual man.” The
word “natural” is translated from the Greek word psychicos, which
comes from the root psyche or
soul. The
words psychology and psychiatry also
stem from the same root. Psychicos, then,
is the soulish man
or the intellectual man. In
speaking of the natural or unspiritual man, the scriptures refer to the
Both the “heaven” and the
“earth” dimensions exist in the visible church today. The
“heavenly” people are those who cannot be content with a spiritual status
quo. These are those who find
themselves moved within their spirits to seek out the hidden things of God — who
find a holy unrest and discontent within their hearts as they hear the inward
call of the spirit to “come up higher.” These
are those who seek God in the spirit, not in organizational structures; in the
living voice of God, not in philosophical traditions; in
The “earth dwellers” have
heard no such call. They toddle
about in the clothes of spiritual immaturity, feeding on the milk of the word,
unable to see beyond the grandiose schemes and promotions of well-meaning but
misguided infant spiritual leaders. They
have not recognized that the work of God is in the deep, inward move of the
spirit, nor do they comprehend that the church systems of man are but the
world’s methods garbed in religious garments. The heavenly man, on the other
hand, has discerned the shallowness of all religious things and understands that
they do not, in reality, promote the
The heavenly man thinks spiritually. He
who is of the earth thinks naturally. What
is birthed in man’s mind are images which are literal and tangible, of the
physical realm to which the natural man is limited. He
sees heaven as sky and space, and earth as soil and rock. He
sees God as a personage sitting on a literal throne and Jesus as a man sitting
at His right hand. He sees “many
mansions” as physical buildings in a place beyond the galaxies, and the New
Jerusalem as a literal golden city with streets, trees, and a river. He
sees God’s kingdom as a government established in
The highest of
the three realms is heaven. This
is the highest dimension of life, the dimension of spirit. Those
who live out of the spirit are spiritual and heavenly! The
Greek word for heaven is ouranous meaning elevation,
height, exaltation, eminence. It
has both physical and spiritual applications. The
natural, soulish, earth man sees only the physical application, whereas the
spiritual, heavenly man sees the spiritual reality. In
its spiritual sense heaven bespeaks the eternal, invisible, and omnipresent realm
of the spirit in which God and
all celestial beings dwell — far
above the realm of the physical,
material, earthly, and corruptible. We
shall still remember with a smile Zona Gale’s parable of the tadpole: “What!”
exclaimed tadpole to tadpole. “Do
you mean that when you put your nose above water, there is actually something else than
water to breathe? Absurd!” Let
tadpoles chatter — there is a
realm higher than this earth-realm! It
is neither a geographical nor an astral location. It
is not a planet, a galaxy, or a place. It
is a DIMENSION OF LIFE, REALITY, AND BEING. It
is a SPHERE OF EXISTENCE,
Heaven
is all around us! It is as near as
the air we
No word written or spoken
could hold more truth in this regard than the word of the apostle
Then
May I point out once more
that when John beheld the dragon and his angels cast
out of heaven, cast into the earth, the
apostle wasn’t seeing the fall of Satan in the swirling mists of antiquity. Rather,
John in the spirit beheld that fall of Satan that could only come when the
manchild company is caught up unto God and to His throne! The truth
is just this. It is only through the
kingdom ministry of Jesus and
His many brethren that
Satan falls as lightning from heaven! There
is no other fall of Satan in all the pages of God’s holy Book! When
the devils were subject to Jesus and His disciples at the preaching of the
My next thought has
already been expressed so aptly by brother Elwin Roach that I will simply quote
his words. “It must be clear by now
that this is a spiritual war, one on one, and such an enemy will not relent. But
the day will come when there will be a mass assault upon the sons of God, and
please be assured — if we cannot
run today with the footmen, how then can we contend with the horses? (Jer.
12:5). If, however, we are not
wearied with the
NOW IS COME…
“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down” (Rev. 12:10).
Yet, this victory is accomplished only through warfare! “And
there was war in heaven:
As soon as the dragon is
cast out of our heaven it is said, “NOW is
come…” Let
us UNDERSTAND! In that blessed
moment when the accuser of the “brethren” of our Lord is cast out of the heaven
of our spiritual understanding and experience there is immediately a realization
that says, “NOW…not today, not tomorrow, but right
now is come “salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down!” In
other words, the
My heart sings a thousand
Once Satan is cast out of the heaven where our spiritual life reigns we see all
things as they really are and there is no more condemnation. Free
at last! Thank God Almighty, we’re free
at last! That is what evokes the
proclamation, “NOW is come salvation!” Someone
says, “But I thought we already had salvation!” We
do, but the salvation mentioned as now impending refers not to salvation from
the guilt of sin but to salvation in the sense of deliverance and completion of
God’s transforming work in us. Salvation
means total and complete
“NOW is come strength!” The
reference to strength (Gr., dunamis,
power) implies that God is going to strengthen His sons and manifest the
fullness of HIS OMNIPOTENT POWER in and through them. No
more weakness, no more susceptibleness to the wiles of the devil, for
we have overcome him — we are truly overcomers! There
is to be a revelation of the fullness of the power of God now invested in the
firstborn Son of God who testified, “ALL
POWER is given unto me, in heaven and in earth.” This
time, His power will be revealed through His body to set mankind free from the
power of sin and death, bringing
“NOW is come the kingdom of our
God!” where there is no lack, no
imperfection, no fear, no torment, no bondage, no sickness, sorrow, pain, or
death! The
The
According to the good pleasure of His will the purpose of God from eternity focused on the kingdom. A kingdom not of this world, a kingdom not of men blindly ruled and over-ruled by the unobserved sovereignty of an unknown God, but a reign in the hearts of willing and loyal subjects The story is told of a king who was famous for his abhorrence of waste — so it was quite surprising when he came into the room where his aides were assembled carrying a breathtakingly beautiful pearl in his hands. Showing it to the first of his aides, he asked, “What do you think this pearl is worth?” “Oh, many trunks full of gold, your majesty,” he replied. The king said, “Smash it!” “It would be an insult to the king to destroy such a beautiful pearl,” replied the aide. The king turned to a second man and showed him the pearl. “How much do you think this pearl is worth?” he asked. “One cannot put a price tag on such a beautiful pearl as this,” replied the second man. “Smash it!” said the king. “Such senseless destruction is unthinkable,” replied the second aide. The king turned to a third man. He was a humble laborer who, in return for a kindness he had shown the king, had been invited to live in the palace. “What do you think this pearl is worth?” he asked the man. “More than all the gold I have ever seen in my entire life,” he replied. “Smash it!” said the king. Without a moment’s hesitation, this man took the pearl to where there were two large rocks and in an instant, reduced the pearl to a thimbleful of useless dust. “The man is mad!” cried the others in the room. Holding up his hand to quiet the murmurs, the laborer said, “Which is of greater value; a beautiful pearl or obedience to the king’s command?”
The
This is the kingdom Jesus came and announced, taught, personified, demonstrated,
and brought into reality among men. Are
all Christians in the
“NOW is come the power of His Christ!” Oh, how the world needs that! I often think of this when I observe the feverish activity of the church world. We live in a world of aggressive and high-powered leadership. Men are enamored in the religious world with big organization and great projects. That the machinery has become too heavy is due to the fact that men are operating it with human labor, fleshly strength, and carnal means instead of running it with power from above. They are filled with doctrine and program, tradition and church activity, ceremonies, rituals, entertainment, soulish excitement, sensational hype, and lying signs and wonders, and though they profess it to be Christ’s work, they would not know Christ if they met Him on the street. Oh, let us awake from such vanities and come to know HIM in the power of His resurrection! The powers of heaven are at our disposal for they are our Father’s powers and we are the sons of His love. And God does have a plan for the salvation and deliverance of all humanity!
Earth’s power is very helpless power. Ah,
yes, Jesus has real power — “power over all
flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as the
Father has given Him” (Jn.
17:2). Other men spoke and their
words died with their echo: Jesus spoke and His words shook the world. Other
men died martyr deaths and were not long remembered; He died, and His cross now
stands against every skyline. He is
the true King, THE MAN WHO CAN. He
has power, the power of God’s Christ! Because
all the earth is His, and because Jesus is King of kings, God is raising up the
body of the Christ, a
Let us return to our
thought. The church systems tell us
this scene is about Lucifer being cast out of heaven before the foundation of
the world. But listen, my friend, at
that time there was as yet no manifest salvation! There
was as yet no manifestation of the authority of God’s Christ! But
there is more. The devil is here
called “accuser of our brethren,” and there were no “many sons brought to glory”
to be “accused” in that supposed
long-ago day! It is in that
connection that this battle is fought! It
is also as “accuser of our brethren” that the great dragon is cast out and his
place is found no more in
heaven! Yet,
all through the Bible, after Lucifer was supposedly cast out of heaven, Satan is
seen again and again in heaven! So
it could not be this battle in chapter twelve of the revelation. The same great
voice announces the wonderful truth that these “messengers of
THE DRAGON, THE ANCIENT SERPENT, THE DEVIL, AND SATAN
“And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan…” (Rev. 12:9).
The great accuser is
given a fourfold name revealing the fourfold characteristics of his nature,
working, and power. He is called in
this verse “the dragon,” “the serpent,” “the devil,” and “Satan.” “The
great red dragon” carries with it the thought of monstrosity and by the
description of his activity
In the word “Satan” we
have the thought of an adversary, an opponent, or
a resister. There
is no thought of monstrosity, cunning, or slander — but simply opposition. One
of the fundamental laws of creation is that an OPPOSING FORCE is necessary for
growth, and to produce strength, stamina, and endurance. Any
living thing that grows up without any opposition is weak and powerless. A
plant that grows in a greenhouse sheltered from the winds and rains, pampered
day after day, may grow large and beautiful, but it is inherently weak, and if
suddenly exposed to the elements will wither and die. But
a plant that is constantly exposed to the fierce winds and pounding rains,
burning heat and chilling cold, is strong and not easily destroyed. God’s
MANIFEST SONS must be strong and powerful, and anything that desires to be
strong, or anyone, must wrestle with a force that is contrary to them. Any
man who wants to develop muscular power to be strong, must spend weeks and
So
it is with us as human beings. One
who grows up in a sheltered environment, who is coddled and pampered all his
life, grows up a weak, spineless
Whether it be as the
fire-breathing monstrosity, or as the cunning, deceiving “
WOE TO THE INHABITERS OF THE EARTH!
“And the great dragon was cast out…he was cast out into the earth…woe to the inhabiters of the earth…for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath…” (Rev. 12:9,11).
In the heavens we meet the accuser in the high realms of the spirit of sonship. Once cast into the earth, we only meet him in our soul, especially in the religious, soulical realm. We see the work of the accuser in the carnal-minded Christians who have earthly concepts of God and spiritual things. This cannot be a pure realm, for woe is pronounced upon all who dwell in the earth-realm! The woe is that the devil is come down unto them, having great wrath, bringing to and through them a false message of wrath, which is truly the message of the devil by which he distorts and perverts the image of God in the minds and hearts of men.
In their earthly concepts of God they see God sitting physically on a great
white throne, having a long white beard, stern countenance, and fiery eyes,
whence He will summon every man, woman, boy, and girl, both sinner and saint, in
rank and file before Him to be judged, amidst great convulsions of nature —
earthquakes, bursting graves, rending rocks, and falling mountains; that the
trembling multitude will be brought from the depths of everlasting woe and from
all their dwelling places in the realms of spirit to hear their many sins
rehearsed and to learn their eternal fate in the hands of an angry God. Should
you have even one secret sin unconfessed and not covered by the blood of Christ
you will surely be consigned to an eternal and merciless doom of fiery
Little wonder, then, that
the voice from heaven cries out, “Woe
to the inhabiters of the earth…for the devil is come down unto you having
great wrath!” The devil in
the soulical earth-realm of religion loves to have Christians believe that these
literalistic, legalistic, judgmental, naturalistic and earthly concepts are biblical
truth! It is there he preaches
his devilish doctrines of an angry, vindictive God — the theology of FEAR. Yet,
the wrath so loudly proclaimed by the people in the earth-realm of carnal-minded
religion is, in reality, not GOD’S
WRATH at all — it is the DEVIL’S VERY OWN WRATH projected upon God, attributed
to God, to make our heavenly Father appear as one of the same nature as Satan
himself. Truly the devil IS a liar
and a deceiver! People’s fears play a very important role in most of the world’s
religions. Fear is one of the most
prominent tools of nearly all religious systems used to keep their people in
bondage to the system. You must
admit that fears of
You would be amazed to
know just how much plain old superstition many
of God’s precious saints have in regard to so-called “end-time” events! Some
people become fearful around every election time. I
heard a brother in
Too often people become
alarmed about what this world leader or that world leader is going to do. And
now it is the terrorists that people fear! But
I call to your remembrance the night when Pilate said to Jesus, “Knowest thou
not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” Jesus
answered, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above” (Jn. 19:10-11). I
have come to see that there is really no point in becoming involved in the
politics of “this present evil world,” as though my vote for one man whom I may
imagine to be better than another is going to preserve the world from economic
collapse, socialism, terrorism, the beast government, the tribulation, nuclear
holocaust, or some other evil. I
still believe the word of the Lord is true and sure: “Blessed be the name of
God for ever and ever: for
There are many preachers,
even in this message of sonship and the kingdom, sad to say, who specialize in
preaching FEAR instead of the glory of God. These suppose they must always tell
the bad side of things. They
wildly speculate about world events, presidents and prime ministers, economic
collapse, world war, one world government, conspiracy theories, the antichrist,
and a hundred more negative things, supposing that every national or world
crisis that comes somehow portends the end. With
each new election, treaty, crisis, or change they suspect a vast conspiracy. If
they don’t like the Jews, all the trouble in the world is blamed on the Jews. Or
it is the Communists — everyone they don’t especially agree with politically is
branded a Communist. Or
they blame the United Nations, the Moslem radicals, some minority group, the
One brother said in a meeting with us in 1971 that the “Beast Government” would
rise up in the earth and take over the
HE DECEIVETH THE WHOLE WORLD
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world…” Rev. 12:9).
All who dwell not in the heavens of God’s Spirit are deceived. “He deceiveth the whole world.” Throughout the book of Revelation we have encountered various realms where people live in their spiritual experience — the abyss, the sea, earth, and heaven. Now we meet the word “world.” It is the Greek word kosmos meaning “orderly arrangement” or “system of things.” It refers to the present order or system of things upon earth — the world systems of man. It includes such things as culture, religion, politics, economics, business, education, law enforcement, military, science, government, and various other institutions and orders that govern the lives of men and nations. The Holy Spirit testifies that “we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one,” and “the great dragon was cast out…which deceiveth the whole world” (I Jn. 5:19; Rev. 12:9).
Can we not see by this
that everyone who lives by the standards of this present world system and order
is deceived! Does
that mean they are all bad people? Not
at all! There are millions of
decent, honest, hard-working, law-abiding, good, loving, even God-fearing people
who live by the norms of their culture, education, religion, ethics, and
society. It means that they simply
do not understand nor
do they know the truth —
the true nature of all things. Many
of their opinions and conclusions about life, reality, and the purposes of God
are
The religious systems are deceived. The
educational systems are deceived. The
medical profession is deceived. The
political and governmental realms are deceived. Even
the world of science and technology is deceived! How
can we know this? If the educational
systems were not deceived, why would the most educated, sincere, and brilliant
minds on earth teach as fact the theory of evolution? Why
would they oppose the Bible record of creation and scoff at one
of the most self-evident of truths, the truth of intelligent
design? If
the medical establishment were not deceived, why would most doctors treat the
patient’s symptoms, rather
than the underlying cause of
their disease? Why would doctors
prescribe the drugs that kill more than 106,000
J. PRESTON EBY
Home
If you would like to receive these studies write to:
J. Preston Eby
All writings are distributed on a free-will offering basis.