The Red Dragon - Revelation 12

12:1 - The JST is in every verse throughout chapter 12, which fits because here we change gears a bit and the question of why this information is brought up at all is explained nicely by the article written on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com saying, “The winding up scenes must be understood in the context of the history of the conflict between good and evil. The last several chapters have been describing apocalyptic events, mostly plagues and destructions. One of the greatest events associated with the Second Coming is the destruction of Satan’s kingdom and the Fall of Babylon. Before we can appreciate the greatness of Satan’s fall, we must understand the history of the war which was waged since before man inhabited the earth.” If we are to truly consider our experience here on earth to be the second part of a three act play, then we have to accept that there is more to the story than we know right now. There’s a whole storyline going on here that spans the entirety of the three acts of the play, but we are only aware of parts of the second act, so when it starts getting rough here in our own sphere of understanding, it’s important to provide some context to that we understand the purpose of the suffering and the whole plan. As far as why bring this stuff up now instead of talking about it in the beginning in chronological order, the article says, “Thanks to Joseph Smith, we understand that chapter 12 is a flashback. Flashbacks are great literary and theatrical devices which given perspective to the present. Sectarian commentators will inevitably and erroneously place the events of this chapter in the latter-days, but the things we are about to study are almost exclusively events from the past.” Going back to the play analogy, this is an excellent way to engage the audience, give perspective, and explain troupes, especially as prepared by Jesus, the master psychologist. John now sees “a great sign in heaven,” a woman “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” We learn later through the JST that this woman represents the Church of Jesus Christ. The sun she is wearing represents the celestial kingdom and the moon at her feet indicates that the Church and its members are above the terrestrial level, eventually I guess. I couldn’t find anything talking about the crown of 12 stars but I would imagine that these represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The Church is often likened to a woman and a bride specifically and the article quotes Joseph Fielding as noting “this woman is evidently the church of Jesus Christ, in her purity, and beauty and strength; and as the bride is expected to be adorned, so also was the church… and as the faithful wife has a right to act in her husband’s name, and whatever she does, her husband (Christ) must be accountable for.” Interesting context for this woman representing the Church and tying it to all the parables told by Christ indicating the Church as His bride. 12:2-5 - The woman is pregnant and is in the process of delivering her baby “a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” Upon my first reading of this, I assumed this was referencing the Savior, but the article notes that the baby can’t be Jesus because the Church didn’t give life to Him, but instead He gave life to the Church. Basically, what has been deduced by both the article and the IM is that this man child represents the political kingdom of God. The Church comes first, then the kingdom of God on the earth, the political organization grows out of the spiritual religion. The article comments on the significance of this imagery, “We know that the pain a woman experiences in childbirth is a consequence of the Fall. The pain and difficulty with which the church must bring forth the kingdom of God on the earth is like childbirth- painful and difficult but glorious and miraculous! The Fall had brought upon the world the consequence of mortality and the curse of Satan’s temptations. Bringing forth the kingdom of God in the absence of Satan’s influence would be so much easier. It would be like painless childbirth. Such was not to be the case. The war against Satan would only be won with pain, blood, sweat, and tears which only childbirth can represent.” Now appears another sign, “behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” This is not like any description I’ve ever seen before of even evil. The significance of this imagery is just as important. The article notes “the red color represents the blood of the saints and the scarlet of sin… John sets this symbol against that of the woman, who represents poise, harmony, and life-giving creation… The dragon has seven crown-wearing heads and ten horns. Note the inconsistence. There are either too many or too few horns for the head… Both numbers are significant.” The article notes that the crowns the dragon wears are not “laurels of victory, which the woman wears, but diadems, symbols of political domination. The scriptures never depict Satan wearing laurels because he wins no permanent victories. The seven crowned heads suggest the universality of his rule as the king of chaos. They represent Satan’s pseudoclaim to royalty set against that of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.” The ten horns are also important because if we consider the purpose of horns, it’s to violently force people or animals to move in the direction that you want, “horns symbolize power… the dragon’s all-pervasive false sovereignty.” Whereas the crown worn by the woman simply denotes her position and gives choice to the observer whether or not to respect that, the horns only say “you will do what I say or I will hurt you.” The number of horns being 10 specifically is interesting, the article notes, because the numbers 7 and 12 represent completeness, 10 is in between those indicating “the whole of a part but not the whole itself. Thus, the dragon has great power, but John shows that he does not have all power, some portion is lacking… Thus, John’s metaphors subtly show that the Lamb has all power and can overmaster the dragon.” Here’s this big scary monster who controls others through violence, whose body shape and appendages indicate chaos and disunity within itself. This begs the question, how does Satan control through violence and chaos if he doesn’t have a body and is only one guy? John continues that this dragon with “his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” Scooping up someone and flinging them somewhere implies that this was done without the consent of the “star.” We know that the third of the spirits who followed Satan in the pre-mortal life did so of their own accord, but the image of them being scooped up in Satan’s tail seems to imply that they made their decision under false pretenses, having been taken away by Satan as opposed to genuinely rejecting the plan of salvation because of their own disbelief in it. The stars caught up in Satan’s tail could also represent those on earth who become subject to Satan and are influenced to do his bidding by his whispered lies. As this woman who represents the Church is laboring, the dragon waits “ready to devour her child after it was born.” Satan, as the dragon, is very anxious to destroy not only the church but the political kingdom of God as well, and this makes sense. A very effective method of controlling and destroying people and the gospel is through political means, usurping governments, militaries, and organized religion and twisting it in to bastardized versions of the truth. The article quotes B.H. Roberts as noting “so long as the inhabitants of the earth were content with the pagan superstitions, wherein there was no power of God unto salvation… it was a matter of indifference to Lucifer whether they worshipped Jupiter Olympus, or Isis… all were equally barred of saving power and left the kingdom of Lucifer undiminished in its strength and number.” The woman has her baby and runs “into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore years.” The significance of the woman taking the child and running into the wilderness is commented on by the IM which says, “the woman fleeing unto the wilderness is symbolic of Satan driving the ancient Church into the period of the Greta Apostasy, when the authority of the priesthood was taken from the earth following the deaths of Jesus Christ and His Apostles.” Interestingly, we see here the number of 1,260 in this instance years whereas yesterday it is mentioned as days. One idea suggested yesterday that gives some insight into the significance of this number as well as 42 and 3.5 is that 7 is known in the scriptures to represent completeness or wholeness, so it might be that this 3.5, however it is written, is a demonstration that whatever happens during that time is not complete, does not have the power sufficient to finish its mission. For instance, the 1,260 years that Satan has of the woman hiding in the wilderness is long and brutal, but he doesn’t have the power to completely eradicate the gospel from the plan of salvation. Likewise, the 3.5 days the two prophets spend dead in the street is long but the killers don’t have the power to overthrown their promised resurrection. 12:6-8 - The woman is hiding in the wilderness which to John at this time would be considered the future because the apostasy hasn’t happened yet, so here comes the flash back to the “war in heaven” where “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought against Michael.” We all know this as not a physical war, because it couldn’t be, but a spiritual war in which Satan rebelled against the plan of salvation and tried to convince others that Jesus couldn’t do what He promised he would do. I think that that was a big part of the argument, Satan saying “my plan would guarantee that everyone would be saved, but do you really want to leave your salvation up to the chance that Jesus can actually withstand all the pain and suffering and sin ever perpetrated in the whole universe ever so you can be saved?” Also let’s keep in mind that it’s possible that the idea of “opposition” had been presented but the source not explained. Maybe Lucifer didn’t know that it was him, but advocated that as a plot hole indicating the plans unviability. Michael campaigns for the plan of salvation and Satan insists that it can’t be done, but Satan doesn’t prevail against the plan because he couldn’t, he didn’t have the power to accomplish everyone’s salvation, even if he had managed to convince every single one of us to follow him, he still wouldn’t have been able to make it happen. I wonder if he actually thought that he could do it, or if he knew he was wrong the whole time and lied about his abilities. There was no place in the pre-mortal realm for those who weren’t ready to come to earth, so off they went, and I bet it was a horribly sorrowful day as we watched our friends and family walk out of God’s presence. I wonder if, as they were leaving, if some changed their mind mid walk out and came back. What a terrible day that would have been. 12:9-11 - I’m not exactly sure if the next part is in reference to after Satan left the pre-mortal world or if it’s in reference to the ushering in of the millennium when Satan is bound, the article suggests that it refers to “the Fall of Satan.” Verse 10 calls Satan and “accuser” which didn’t make much sense to me but the article explains it saying, “Satan is the archetypical prosecutor or attorney for the plaintiff. He’s an accuser, a prosecutor- he never defends.” There’s quite a bit more but this statement was really powerful to me because this characteristic of Satan stands in such stark contrast to the Savior, who defends as much as he’s able. If we consider the judgment as a court of law, Satan will lie about us, exaggerate our faults and misdeeds, and demand more punishment than is reasonable, whereas Jesus will be kind, highlight our good qualities and give us the option for community service. When Satan is bound for 1,000 years, it will be quite a sight. The article brings up the irony that will be on display that day, saying, “irony that a being who had caused so much trouble would look so feeble in defeat.” I feel this way about some politicians, so eager for blood and violence and power, and suddenly they look like little boys whose balloon flew away when it comes back around to them. We imagine Satan as this dragon, this monster, he tells us that he is a god, that he is all powerful, that he can read our thoughts and control us. But when the time comes for him to be put into his own prison that he chose, he will just be a normal sized spirit with no body, following Jesus with a rope around his neck. We’ll watch him walk to his cell, knowing full well the absolute horror that he’s inflicted on the people of this earth, and he will just look like a crippled old man, and it will be very sad. Those who overcome the influences of Satan, both in the pre-mortal world and in our world today, do so “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; for they loved not their own lives, but kept the testimony even unto death.” I think about what it must have been like in the pre-mortal world, what people would have said for and against the plan of salvation, and honestly, in this life our faith is based on “did Jesus really do what he said he did and does the plan work the way he says it does.” But pre-mortally, our faith was based on the future, will Jesus be able to perform the atonement even though he doesn’t know what physical life is going to be like? Can I really stake my salvation on his commitment to do something that no one else has ever even attempted that is so heinous it makes Heavenly Father leave the heavens? That would be a big ask, but we believed him, we all did. The article quotes Robert K. Dellenbach as saying, “Satan wants to stop you. He will try to distract, deceive, and weaken your desire, your righteous works, your sincere prayers, and your trust in the Lord. Do not be afraid. We have already overcome the evil one at another time and place… We had a valiant testimony in our preexistent state, and we can resist Satan and awaken that testimony again today.” It’s interesting because I think that Satan didn’t think that his life on this earth was going to play out the way that it has, reading about his role in the garden of Eden and all that, it’s clear he didn’t have a full understanding of what was going on, but I think now that he’s had several millennia of experience, he gets it and he realizes that he’s already lost, so it’s a scorched earth policy he has, a “if I’m going down, I’m taking as many people with me as I can.” 12:12-17 - I think that’s what the voice is referring to when John records the warning to the “inhabiters of the earth” and the of the islands of the sea, “for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Verse 13 notes that “the dragon” only began to persecutre “the woman which brought forth the man-child” after he “saw that he was cast unto the earth.” Again, I don’t think he thought he would be kicked out, and when he ended up being escorted from the presence of his Father with whom he must have had an incredibly strong and fulfilling relationship with at some point, he probably became bitter and angry and is just having a huge temper tantrum, which I understand, but he’s causing so much damage to everyone else that it’s unacceptable. The dragon tries to destroy the church and kingdom of God, and she is “given two wings of a great eagle,” so she can escape. The serpent, who I assume is also Satan, causes a flood to come out of his mouth and the earth protects the woman and swallows up the flood waters. I don’t have any context for what the flood waters mean, but the earth mitigates them so they aren’t an issue for the woman or her child. Satan is furious that this doesn’t work to destroy the gospel plan and “went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”