Realization of Prophetic Visions

By Philip Mark Ames

The Dragon

John describes this second display as a great fiery dragon having seven heads and ten horns. This great dragon is identified for us in verse nine as the archaic serpent, the one called Devil and Satan. This is an allusion to the character first introduced in the third chapter of Genesis.

You are no doubt familiar with the history of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. Eve ate of that fruit after the serpent deceived her. She then gave some to Adam and he ate it. Later, God pronounced sentence upon all this guilty parties. In sentencing the serpent, God decreed a state of enmity between the serpent and the woman. (Gen. 3:15) Ever since then, womankind has hated the serpent or snake. But, in God's judicial sentence upon the serpent, there was implied a deeper meaning.

In the greater fulfillment of that prophecy, the "woman is the thought-creation of all those humans who willingly submit to God's will. She is one of the two principal characters of the twelfth chapter of the Revelation. The "serpent", against whom the pronouncement is directed is the other main character of Revelation 12. Between the two, there is constant enmity.

But, what really is the serpent or dragon? Why is it called Devil and Satan? Why does it have seven heads? What are its ten horns? Between the first and last books of the Bible there is much information about this great enemy of God's woman.

The natural, physical serpent in the garden of Eden did not speak of its own volition. It acted only as the mouth- piece for the great serpent-like being dwelling in the third heaven. This archaic serpent, the 'one called Devil and Satan, is not just one individual spirit person or angel. Nor is he a trinity. No, but rather, he is the thought creature of the angels who have rebelled against God. Even as the ideological thought-pattern of Communists pervades the masses of individual adherents, joining them, mind and body, into one great organizational being (and the same is true of Catholics, Moslems, and Protestants, as well as of those God-fearing persons who make up God's woman); so also does the thinking of wicked spirits unite them into an organizational entity, a corporate being. This evil thought-creation appears in heaven as a great fiery dragon. And, even as God's woman, though embodying thousands of individual believers, is referred to by the singular pronouns, "she" and "her"; so, likewise, is the dragon, though made up of several unholy angels, rightly called "he", "him", or "it" rather than "they" or "them".

Having fabricated defamatory lies against the righteous and truthful character of God, this fifth-dimension serpent is called Devil, meaning Slanderer. Also, by acting in opposition to God, the dragon earned the name Satan, from the Hebrew word meaning Adversary. These names apply to the entire organization of evil spirits collectively, as well as to those several wicked angels, individually. The majority of these devils are of relatively low intelligence; they are called demons. They like to dwell in the bodies of living things, both human and animal. One of the powers which Jesus gave to his early disciples was the ability to cast these demons out of persons (Luke 8:26-39; 10:17-20). As the body of any creature is controlled by its head, so these demons are ruled by beings of a higher intelligence. (Luke 11:14-20)

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Written by: Philip Mark Ames - - - © 1975 Philip Mark Ames. All rights reserved.