“And there was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 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, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:7-12).

It is the general conviction that this striking and marvelous vision met its fulfillment in the great conflict between Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth Century. The period in history is the same as that of the previous vision — the days of Pagan Roman persecution, culminating in the elevation of Constantine to the throne of the Roman Empire. It is quite necessary to keep in mind when interpreting this vision, that the persecution of the Church by the Pagan government, up to that time, had in a measure the effect of keeping the Church pure and of keeping it united. However, even in the Apostle’s day, “tares,” imitation Christians, had to some extent identified themselves with the Church, but up to the time of Constantine’s accession to the throne, when Pagan persecution ceased, Christ’s followers, who constituted the “many called,” had been able to present in a large measure an unbroken front before the world.

The “dragon” is here designated the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan. He is therefore the symbol used, and is evidently the same one referred to by Christ as the “prince of this world,” and by St. Paul as the “god of this world,” who is represented as blinding the minds of them that believe not the Gospel. He is the same one who in the form of a serpent deceived Eve, and caused the fall of our first parents. He is the great fallen angel, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures. This is proved by the fact that in the conflict he has associated with him other angels also fallen. The conclusion that Satan is the one mentioned in the vision is confirmed as we consider the nature of his opponents; these are Michael the archangel, and his subordinates, the holy angels.

Symbolic Picture Drawn from the Fall of Satan

The “heaven” which is employed as a symbol in this vision, in which this conflict took place, is the unseen, heavenly, spirit world. The fulfillment will be found in transactions occurring on the earth. The symbols employed to describe this conflict are, therefore, drawn from a literal transaction, the early stages of which were possibly in evidence before man’s creation, and have continued since. That occurrence is the fall of Satan and his rebellion against Divine authority and against the Divine empire; additionally, the fall of holy angels and their association with Satan. To understand the vision and its application in history it will be necessary to have a general knowledge of this literal occurrence.

While the history of Satan’s rebellion against Divine authority is not all clearly given in the Scriptures, we do find many references to it, and these enable us to gather with certainty the following facts:

(1) That Satan was a created being, having at one time his abode in the heaven of heavens; the inference being that he was honored with his existence in creation’s early morning, as he is called Lucifer, bright one, son of the morning (Ezekiel 28:12-15, Isaiah 14:12).

(2) That at some remote period he rebelled against God’s authority (Isaiah 14:12-15).

(3) That because of such rebellion he was expelled from heaven; this our Lord witnessed (Luke 10:18).

(4) That he was the one who in Eden used the serpent to cause the fall of our first parents (Genesis 3:1-5, 2 Corinthians 11:3).

(5) That his abode when the vision we are considering had its fulfillment, was in the region around the earth, and he was using the Pagan rulers in an endeavor to thwart God’s purposes in the selection of the Church or kingdom class (2 Corinthians 4:4, Deuteronomy 32:16,17, 1 Corinthians 10:20).

(6) That he is the chief or prince of numerous fallen angels, and that these are organized into a kingdom that is opposing God and His purposes in every conceivable manner (Matthew 9:34, Luke 11:15-18).

Bearing well these facts in mind we will not be surprised that he is designated by Christ, the “prince of this world,” and by St. Paul, its “god,” or ruler, and that he is the great author and propagator of all the false religions of earth, and has controlled to a considerable extent the nations of earth through fallen angels (Daniel 10:13). Paganism, being at the time of the vision’s fulfillment the highest type of idolatry, is the religion through which he succeeded to the greatest extent in blinding and deceiving humanity in their state of condemnation and alienation from God. After the cessation of persecution which took place under the Pagan rulers, the Roman government became what is generally termed by historians, Christian Rome, and continued in Eastern Rome for over a thousand years, and in the Western, for over two centuries. At the close of the latter time the Western Empire had become divided, Papacy had come into existence, and had begun to exert a controlling influence and rule in and from the city of Rome over the kingdoms into which the Western Empire was divided. It was during these two centuries that a Paganized form of Christianity gradually developed.

The war described in this vision preceded the elevation of Constantine to the throne of the empire, and continued for a few years after. Keeping in mind these facts will enable us not only to see the appropriateness of the use of this past conflict of heavenly beings to symbolize the conflict of Christianity with Paganism, but also to see in the language of the vision that Satan and his angels are the symbols of the evil Pagan rulers and priests, and that Michael and the holy angels are the same of the many true believers on earth.

In a later vision (Revelation 20) we have a scene in which is described a time when Satan’s power will be completely restrained for a thousand years, at which time all the idolatrous paganized forms of Christianity will be destroyed. The overthrow of the Pagan religion, however, described in this vision we are now considering, does not bring in this much to be desired condition, as the symbols that follow very plainly teach; one of which is that of the flight of the woman (true Church) into the symbolic wilderness — a place of separation from the nationalized nominal church that was instituted after Constantine’s accession to the throne. It is doubtless also true that Satan and the fallen angels literally were the invisible instigators of the attempt of the Pagan civil and religious authorities to overthrow the Christian religion.

We have in this symbolic vision, then, an obedient archangel, and the holy angels, his followers on the one hand, and the great fallen angel, Satan, and the unholy angels, his followers on the other, represented as engaging in a conflict, a war with one another, in which Satan, unable to hold his ground, is at length cast out of heaven, and dejected with his angels to earth. That these holy and unholy heavenly hosts are employed as symbols of men, is very evident from the fact that the overcomers among the “many called” ones in the conflict are described as not loving their lives unto death, which could be said only of men and of martyrs, not of heavenly angels. This is also seen from the fact that they are described as overcoming in the war — not through the use of worldly weapons, but “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” Satan and the fallen angels symbolize unbelievers, Pagans, antagonists to Christ and his cause, who endeavor by persecuting Christ’s followers to suppress their testimony, and thus to maintain the supremacy of the Pagan religion. The fact that Satan is represented as accusing their brethren before God, proves that the war, on the part of Christians, was one of religion and not for political power or supremacy. We sum up a brief outline-interpretation of the vision in the language of another:

“The angel war, then, it is apparent … was symbolic of the struggle of the faithful teachers, confessors, and martyrs of the Gospel on the one hand, to spread and give supremacy to Christianity, and of the Pagan priests and their active abettors, the persecuting rulers especially, on the other, to maintain the dominion of idolatry. It was not a strife for political power, manifestly, from the means by which the victory was gained. They overcame the dragon, not by the sword, but by the blood of the Lamb, and by their testimony As the symbol war was one of force, analogy requires that that which it symbolizes should be one of authority and persuasion. The victory of Michael was such a success of the Christian army as to turn the whole current of public belief and feeling in their favor, and produce at length a revolution in the civil government, by which, instead as before, of accusation as apostates, they were formally recognized as true worshipers of God, tolerated in their faith and worship, and [erroneously] inspired with the expectation that the commencement of Christ’s Millennial reign was at hand. The period of this war was the period, therefore, of the persecutions of Diocletian, Galerius, Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius; and the victory, that change of public feeling wrought by the testimony and faith of the teachers of the Gospel, and sufferings and constancy of the confessors and martyrs that rendered persecution and Paganism itself unpopular, prompted Constantine to espouse the cause of the Christians, and finally led to the rejection of Paganism as the religion of the State” (D. N. Lord).

Satan Operating Behind the Scenes

Satan, who in the vision is called the old serpent, is first mentioned in connection with this symbolic war. One object, doubtless, of mentioning this great adversary of man is to show that it was his power operating invisibly behind the scenes. He was the author of the purely Pagan religion, and his power had become thoroughly entrenched in the government of Pagan Rome. The over- throw of the Pagan government is represented by Satan and his angels being cast to the earth.

In order to understand the symbolic significance of Michael and his angels, and the part that those symbolized by them take in the great conflict which resulted in the overthrow of Paganism, it will be necessary to know something of the conditions existing in the Church of Christ during the period of the Pagan Rome persecutions, and on to the elevation of Constantine, and his successors on the throne. Even in the Apostle’s day the “mystery of iniquity,” one aspect of which was that of ambition and lordship in the Church, had already begun to develop. Shortly after the Apostle’s day the “tares” increased in the Church and many non-overcoming believers associated themselves with them. No general separation of the truly consecrated, however, took place until after Constantine’s accession to the throne. The truths of the Gospel slowly but surely exposed the abominations of Paganism, the religion of the Roman Empire, and this caused the Pagan rulers and priests to attempt to destroy the Christian religion which, in both a pure and to a considerable extent an impure form, was spreading all over the Roman world. Thus is described the conflict of Paganism and Christianity, symbolized in this vision by the conflict between Michael, as represented in Christ’s true followers, and Satan, as represented in his followers, the Pagan rulers and priests.

Just before Constantine ascended the throne of the Roman Empire, the truths of the Gospel had so far exposed the abominations of the Pagan religion, that some of the rulers, as well as many of the people, became favorably disposed toward nominal Christianity. This was what gradually brought about a cessation of persecution. Note the following in this connection:

“The horrible evils afflicted on the unoffending and virtuous Christians, touched multitudes of the idolaters with sympathy and sorrow; while their invincible constancy, and the joy and exultation with which they met the most ignominious and hideous death, impressed them with wonder, begat the feeling that they were supported by a supernatural power, and thus gave birth to the wish that they should be freed from persecution, and allowed the profession of their religion in peace.”

Lactantius, an ecclesiastical historian, who was a contemporary of Constantine the Great, thus writes:

“Another reason that the people of God are permitted to be persecuted, is that they may be multiplied. Nor is it difficult to show how or why that takes place. Many are repelled from the worship of the gods by a dislike of their cruelty; for who does not regard their sacrifices with horror? Some approve of virtue and the faith. Some are led to suspect that it is not without cause that the worship of the gods is regarded as wrong by so many [Christians] who prefer to die rather than do that which others do that they may live. Some feel a desire to know what that good is which is adhered to even to death, which is preferred to all that is pleasing and dear in life, from which neither the loss of goods nor of life, neither pains of body, nor tortures of the heart can deter. Such considerations have great influence, but the causes that have chiefly augmented our number are these: The crowd standing around, hear the martyrs say in the midst of their torments, that they sacrifice not to statues made by the hands of man, but to the living God, who is in heaven. Many perceive and feel that this is true. Then, as is usual in regard to things that are not understood, in asking one another what the cause can be of that perseverance, many things that pertain to religion are introduced, investigated, and learned, which from their excellence, necessarily give pleasure. Moreover, persecution itself, as always happens, strongly impels to belief.”

It will thus be seen that the deportment of the Lord’s people when enduring terrible tortures and death, had a very marked effect on the population generally, both Pagan and professed Christian, causing them to wish for the destruction of this tyrannical persecutor, and to hail Constantine as a deliverer.

The sentiments generally held and expressed by the great mass of professed Christians then living, over the fall of the Pagan power, are described in the words of the loud voice heard in the symbolical 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, which accused them before our God day and night. Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.” The recognition by Constantine of the Christian religion, and his becoming a patron of the Church’s teachers and professors, caused a general impression in the professed Church that the Kingdom of God, Christ’s triumphant reign, was at hand. We quote from the above writer concerning this remarkable fulfillment of verse 10:

“Let us celebrate the triumph of God with gladness; let us commemorate His victory with praise; let us make mention in our prayers day and night of the peace, which after ten years of persecution, He has conferred on His people.”

Eusebius, another contemporary of Constantine, writes:

“The people therefore being freed from all fear of the court with which they had before been overwhelmed, held festal days with great splendor. There were everywhere illuminations. They who were before dejected, looked on one another with joyful aspects and smiles, and with choirs and hymns through the cities and country gave honor first to God, the Supreme Ruler of all, as they were taught, and then to the pious [?] emperor and his children. The miseries and impieties of the past were forgotten; joy and exultation prevailed at the blessings now promised, and happy anticipations of the future. Philanthropic edicts were everywhere published by the emperor, and laws that displayed his munificence and piety.”

At the fall of the Emperor Licinius, Eusebius represents the Church as uniting in thanksgiving for deliverance, and congratulations at the overthrow of idolatry and what was supposed by many deceived ones to be the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom:

“Let thanks be given by all to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, and to Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, through whom we pray that peace from external foes may be uninterruptedly preserved to us, and tranquillity of mind.

… Let us sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonderful things. His right hand has saved Him, and His holy arm. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the presence of the nations. We may now appropriately respond to the inspired command to sing a new song, inasmuch as after such direful spectacles and narrations, we now have the happiness to see and celebrate what many holy men before us and the martyrs for God desired to see on earth, and did not see, and to hear and have not heard. … Admiring and adoring with all our souls we testify to the truth of the Prophet’s words, ‘Come and see the works of the Lord, what wonders He hath wrought in the earth, abolishing wars to the end of the world. The bow He has broken; He has dashed the arms; the shield He has burned in the fire.’ ”

It is doubtless true that many of the faithful followers of Christ, as well they might, engaged in this great rejoicing; but as they became aware of the true situation that was brought in by this great victory, their joy was turned to dismay and sorrow, because of the corruptions of the true Gospel which followed. It is very evident, however, as history shows, that the great mass of professed Christians at this time regarded their sudden increase to a majority, and the change in public sentiment towards them by which persecution from Paganism ceased, to be an indication that the Kingdom of God had come. That this change was to produce a woe instead of a blessing to earth’s inhabitants, is seen in the words of the Revelator which follow.

Paganism Overthrown, Satan Joins the Church

“Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and 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 12).

Mr. Elliott in his great work, Horae Apocalypticae, thus comments on these words:

“It surprises me that so many commentators should have regarded this denunciation as the concluding part of the song of triumph. It would surely be a strange appendage to any song of triumph. On the other hand, its similarity of expression and form to the several denunciations of coming woes under the trumpets, suggests the presumption that this, like them, is to be regarded as a detached and solemn notification by the dictating prophetic spirit, of some woe on the Roman Empire, soon about to follow.”

It seems also to refer to the fact that Satan, the great author of evil, and the god of this world, was, at the time, cast out from the Roman mundane heaven and the long-held throne of the Pagan government. It was only to assume, however, shortly afterwards, authority over the beast government which took the Pagan government’s place (Revelation 13:2). “Incapable of repentance [says Mr. Elliott], that evil spirit is represented in Scriptures as only gathering fresh malice against Christ himself, and Christ’s cause and Church, from each partial victory they might have gained over him; and the terrible consciousness of the ceaseless shortening of his respite from the sentence of God’s final judgment …. ‘Knowing that his time is short,’ may here mean simply, persuaded. Now it is reasonable to suppose that the Devil knows not, any more than the angels in heaven, the exact time of the last judgment; and might thus anticipate, as the early Christians did [erroneously], that it would follow speedily on the breaking up of the Pagan Roman Empire.”

Mr. Lord, commenting on these words, says: “That the dejection of Satan and his angels was to be a woe to the earth and the sea, indicates that the decline of the Pagan party into a minority, was to exasperate its priests and rulers, and lead them to more violent methods to overwhelm their antagonists and reinstate themselves in authority.”

And this is indeed what history records as following this victory. “The predictions of a woe to the land and the sea from the overthrow of the idolatrous party had a signal fulfillment in the exasperation and violence of the Pagan chiefs toward their subjects generally, as well as the Church, from the defeat of Maxentius to the final fall of Paganism. Maximin, the emperor of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, suspended the persecution on the fall of Maxentius, and the grant of toleration to the Church by Constantine and Licinius, but soon renewed it with far greater violence, and an avowed purpose of exterminating the Church from his dominions. Persons of distinction were appointed to the Pagan priest- hood in all the cities, the rites renewed with pomp and zeal, and the magistrates and people given to understand that they could do nothing more acceptable to the prince, than to assail and slaughter the Christians. They accordingly plotted against them in extraordinary ways, suborning the most profligate accusers, and traducing them by the most infamous imputations, by which all the magistrates of all the provinces were induced to assail and persecute them with greater fury than at any former period.

“Licinius, who succeeded him in the empire of the East, in 319, renewed the war on them, and continued it with the utmost virulence till his fall in 323. He began by encouraging false accusations against the bishops; then enacted arbitrary laws prohibiting them from assembling in synods, entering each other’s churches, or communicating with one another, in order that he might generate pretexts for putting them to death. He banished all who held the Christian faith from the palace, and from his retinue, and drove them into exile; and threatened death to all who should thereafter profess Christianity At length he proceeded to open and direct war on the ministers and members of the churches, subjecting them to the most horrible tortures, slaughtering them, in great numbers, and endeavoring to exterminate them from his dominions. Multitudes fled from the cities to the country, to deserts, and to mountains. Some escaped to the Western Empire, and the whole would have soon shrunk from sight or been devoured, had not Constantine interposed and extricated them from his power.”

Thomas Newton, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies, has thus quoted from a letter addressed to Eusebius by Constantine concerning this event of Church history that fulfilled this prophecy: “ ‘Liberty being now restored, and that dragon being removed from the administration of public affairs by the providence of the great God, and by my ministry, I esteem the great power of God to have been made manifest even to all.’ ”

Mr. Newton informs us (deriving his knowledge from the ecclesiastical historian, Eusebius): “A picture of Constantine was set up over the palace gate, with the cross over his head and under his feet, and ‘the great enemy of mankind who persecuted the Church by the means of impious tyrants in the form of a dragon,’ transfixed with a dart through the midst of his body, and falling headlong into the depths of the sea; in allusion, as it is said expressly, to the Divine oracles in the books of the Prophets, where that evil spirit is called the dragon and the crooked serpent.” This expositor further says: “For now it was no longer in the power of the heathen persecutors, as Satan accused holy Job before God, to accuse the innocent Christians before the Roman governors, as the perpetrators of all crimes and the causes of all calamities. It was not by temporal means or arms that the [true] Christians obtained this victory (verse 11), but by spiritual, by the merits and death of their Redeemer, by their constant profession of the truth, and by their patient suffering of all kinds of torture even unto death; and the blood of the martyrs hath been often called the ‘seed of the Church.’ ”

The victory of the true followers of the Lamb at this time was not that of establishing Christianity as the national religion, but rather that of their triumph in being faithful unto death. This triumph or victory was manifested in their maintenance of a Christ-like conduct in all their sufferings, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for his name. There can be no doubt that they rejoiced when their persecutions ceased, but they did not count it a triumph for the cause of their Master to have a mere professor (Constantine) elevated to the throne of the empire, only in as far as it released them from persecution. They doubtless knew that the time of their rejoicing over the triumph of their Master’s cause would be when they would be united to their Lord at his coming enthronement in glory and power. On the other hand there can be no doubt (because the historian has so recorded it) that professed Christians in general, whose understanding of the Word of God was very deficient, believed that Christianity had received a wonderful impetus when Constantine was elevated to be the sole ruler of the Roman Empire; and the supporters of the Papacy, as well as many nominal Protestant believers, entertain the same thought today.

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13,14).

We have described in the symbolic words, “the dragon persecuted the woman,” the snare which marked Satan’s second effort to destroy the true Church. It will be noticed that the word translated persecuted in the Common Version is rendered pursued in the Diaglott. The Greek word dioko translated persecuted here is rendered follow in Romans 9:30,31, 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:1, Philippians 3:12, 1 Timothy 6:11, and is so translated in this instance by eminent expositors of the Revelation who believe that it better expresses the truth contained in the symbol. Rendering it thus, the truth brought out is that the Pagan priests and their followers when they saw that Paganism was overthrown, pursued or followed the “woman,” and sought to join her society, or in other words sought to unite with the Church. Mr. Lord forcefully sums up the matter:

“The dragon who followed the woman symbolizes the Pagan priests and their abettors who had been defeated in their attempt to maintain their idol worship, and had fallen into a minority. Their following after her denotes their attempt to join her society by a profession of Christianity Eusebius asserts, ‘that two great evils distinguished the reign of Constantine — the violence of profligate and insatiable men, who harassed every condition of life; and the indescribable hypocrisy of those who entered the Church and deceitfully assumed the Chris- tian name.’ And he represents their promiscuous assumption of the new religion as occasioned in a large degree by the Emperor’s treating the mere profession as a satisfactory proof of a genuine conversion. It was natural that crowds of the worldly should be drawn to the Church when Christianity became the religion of the court, and a profession of it a passport to office and honor.”

Divine Protection over the Virgin Church

According to historians it is true that the Pagan priests and rulers and the larger number of their followers did unite with the false, nominal, nationalized church rapidly merging into Papacy. What became of the pure Church that fled to the symbolic wilderness? How was she protected from the serpent’s attempt to corrupt her? We have the answer in the beautiful symbol which follows:

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (verse 14).

We have this symbol explained in Exodus 19:4, as the protection of God over His people: “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.” It is a symbol, then, of God’s care over the true followers of Christ, in their being privileged to obtain a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. In this way was she protected from the false doctrines and idolatrous rites with which the visible, nominal Church, at the time developing into Papacy, became flooded.

“The gift to the woman of the wings of an eagle denotes that aids were granted her in her flight that were supernatural, and peculiarly suited to bear her above the dangers with which she was threatened by the intrusion of Pagans into the Church. As the wings were an addition to her body, and became a part of her nature, they denote not an exterior instrument, but a gift that formed a part of herself, and an intellectual and spiritual gift; therefore, knowledge, faith, wisdom, constancy, love, by which she was borne above the torrent of false doctrines, superstitions, rites, and idolatries in which the dragon endeavored to engulf her.”

The period covered by this sojourn in the symbolic wilderness, in which the true Church was nourished, has already been explained in the previous chapter, as that of the “thousand two hundred and threescore days.”

We have described in the next verse another attempt on the part of the serpent to destroy the true Church:

“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth” (verses 15,16).

Again it is necessary for the reader to keep specially before the mind the highly symbolic character of this vision, that the terms, Satan, great red dragon, serpent, etc., symbolize not only the actions of the empire, but also those particular manifestations of the characteristics, energies, and activities of Satan, as these continue to be exhibited in the rulers or governmental powers of the Roman Empire from Constantine’s day down to the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD, and also of the Eastern Empire to its overthrow by the Turks in 1453. The imperial power was both civil and religious. The entire arrangement was Satanic workmanship; hence the appropriateness of its being called by his name.

In this vision the dragon is seen casting out of his mouth water as a river. This of course would not describe an act of Satan personally, but we are remembering that the vision is portraying a great Satanic system that is serpent-like, dragon- like; hence the fitness of the symbol of a fictitious monster, an amphibious land and water animal, employed to describe the particular activities of Satan during this period of human history. We read in Job 40:23 of behemoth, who “drinketh up a river,” and “trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.” It is uncertain what animal is referred to here, but the action ascribed to it certainly assists to an interpretation of the vision under consideration. The following, which is in perfect harmony with the facts of history of those times, is a most reasonable interpretation of this peculiar symbol:

“As it is appropriate to a monster dragon, which may be supposed, like behemoth, to draw up Jordan into its mouth, to represent it as ejecting water as a river to bear away the woman, so the means employed by the rulers of the Roman Empire, symbolized by the dragon, to destroy the true people of God, must be supposed to be such as were appropriate to their peculiar character as usurpers of His rights, and patrons of superstition and idolatry. And they were doubtless the flood of false doctrines and superstitions and impious rites, introduced by Constantine and his successors. The earth which absorbed that flood, denotes the people generally of the empire, who eagerly embraced the religion thus adulterated to their taste, and by their conspicuous and exulting reception of it, occupied the attention of the rulers, and allowed the small body of dissentients to escape their sight” (D. N. Lord).

It is an indisputable fact of history that Constantine and his successors on the throne (both of the Eastern and Western Empires) in league with the apostate bishops, introduced a flood of false doctrines, superstitions, and idolatries, into the Church. Amongst these was the veneration of the cross, and the ascription to it of miraculous powers; the worship of relics, such as the bones of the saints and martyrs, etc. It was during this period that the false doctrine of the intercession of Mary and the saints was introduced, and the conversion of the simple worship of the Apostolic Church into gorgeous ceremonials. It was also during this period that the celibacy of the clergy was encouraged, and the arrogation of the throne and prerogatives of God by both the civil and ecclesiastical rulers. “These false-hoods, follies and impieties introduced, or adopted by the emperors, encouraged by their example, sanctioned by their laws, and enforced by the penalties of excommunication, imprisonment, the forfeiture of civil rights, banishment, and death — came armed with an overpowering force to all who were not fortified against them by the special aids of the Divine Spirit, and like a resistless torrent, bore away the great mass of the Church.”

Based on an erroneous supposition that the serpent in this place represents Satan, the fallen, wicked, spirit being, some writers have interpreted the water coming out of his mouth to represent the utterances which issued forth from evil agencies, even the infidel writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was the interpretation of Mr. Faber, a voluminous writer on prophecy during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. This is not only in conflict with the proper understanding of the phase of life from which the symbol is drawn, and its application to the Roman government of that early period, but also with the particular time stated in the vision for its fulfillment. It was during the period of the woman’s flight, which was at the beginning of the 1260 years, that the water was cast out of the dragon’s mouth to engulf the woman, and not near the end of her sojourn in the wilderness.

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

The anger of the dragon denotes that those he still continues to symbolize, (the civil rulers, Constantine and his successors, professing now, however to be Christian rulers) exhibited the same intolerant and persecuting spirit as their Pagan predecessors. This evil disposition or spirit was manifested in persecuting the true Christians, and in suppressing their religious liberties. The Christians referred to in this verse are doubtless those individuals who continued in association with the nationalized, but fallen Church, but who protested against its blasphemous claims and usurpations, false doctrines, and idolatrous worship. This condition of things continued during the period of over two centuries, when true believers were separating themselves from the false Church; indeed, until the Papacy came into existence.¹ This, as we have seen, was the period covered by what is symbolized by the woman’s flight into the wilderness. The separation of true believers covered this long period, and history records the fact that there was not a single body of evangelical Christians that withdrew from the nationalized church, or rejected its false doctrines and professed a Scriptural faith, and offered a pure worship, and testified against the errors, but what was assailed by both the civil and religious rulers of this long period.

The phrase, “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” fittingly describes true Christians, who faithfully served God, and bore testimony to the true Gospel, even to becoming martyrs to Christ’s cause.

(1) It continued also in the Eastern Empire until its fall in 1453 AD.

Hymn of the Waldenses

Hear, Father, hear Thy faint, afflicted flock
Cry to Thee from the desert and the rock,
While those who seek to slay Thy children hold
Blasphemous worship under roofs of gold;
And the broad, goodly lands with pleasant airs
That nurse the grape and wave the grain, are theirs.

Yet better were this mountain wilderness,
And this wild life of danger and distress —
Watchings by night, and perilous flight by day,
And meetings in the depths of earth to pray —
Better, far better than to kneel with them,
And pray the impious rite Thy laws condemn.

Yet, mighty God, yet shall Thy frown look forth
Unveiled, and terribly shall shake the earth;
Then the foul power of priestly sin and all
Its long-upheld idolatries shall fall.
Thou shalt raise up the trampled and opprest,
And Thy delivered saints shall dwell in rest.