The Great Red Dragon
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 his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
The Dragon standing before the woman which as ready to be delivered means that this system of Roman Pagan Religion was here before the Church came into existence. And after her establishment, this system of false religion was ready to devour the off springs, symbolized as a (Man-child) of the Woman, as soon as they were born.
Here we shall explain the symbols concerning the Dragon “The Pagan Roman Religious System”.
The Great Red Dragon = Idolatrous Religious system of Pagan Rome
Seven Heads = Seven Forms of the Rome Government
Ten Horns = The Ten Minor Kingdoms of the Fallen Roman Empire
Seven Crowns = The length of the (7 Heads) Reign
Tail = Latter end of the Roman Pagan System
Stars of Heaven = Ministers of the Gospel
Earth = Earthly bound, man rule, apostate ministers
In the revelation there are 3 beasts with seven heads & ten horns, In the 12th chapter, The Dragon had 7 heads and 10 horns & ten crowns on the heads. In the 13th chapter, The Leopard had 7 heads & 10 horns & 7 crowns on the horns, and in the 17th chapter, the Scarlet colored beast had 7 heads & 10 horns and no crowns
Note: The Scarlet Colored Beast operated long after the major empire and minor empire, because it had no crowns on the head or the horns.
Why did God put 7 heads & 10 horns with no crowns, on the Leopard Beast and the Scarlet Color beast?
Answer: Because God don’t want us to ever forget where Babylon came from. Its roots were in Pagan Rome, (Open Unbelief), Paganism.
This Power is yet Persecuting God’s People today. See the “Voice of Martyrs” Where you see these crowns on the horns in some country, you will see persecution of Christians.
The gods of Paul’s day had social impact and influence. The worshippers of Diana was just as loyal as some of these modern worshippers who worship denominations. They didn’t put the dragon out of business. They just cast it down from it’s heavenly position, that is down from the exalted spiritual places in men lives.
One of the main attributes of the Dragon is the He speak lies. Psa. 58:3
A third 1/3 of the stars of heaven being cast to the earth symbolize a great portion of the ministry at the latter end of this age compromise and went into the apostasy, and man rule.
The Dragon is a miracle, .i.e. false miracle, a false sign. This Dragon is not a literal, personal devil, but a system of religion, the devil worked through. This is a scriptural analogy. Wonder means a sign of a super natural power at work. Here we see a supernatural power coming against another supernatural power.
Anything that opposes you from living a holy or opposes his church is not of God. It is of the Devil. So we see that the early saint of the morning church was born into a situation. They were faced with being converts having to fight a spiritual warfare.
The Devil used this Pagan Religious system to work the spirit of unbelief throughout the then known world. It was a work of the Devil designed to work against the one God, the one way, the one Truth and one Salvation. It advocated many gods, and many religions and ways to worship. It worked through a system which was a church state religion.
Paganism was the worship and doctrine of many gods as stated above, such as; Mercury, Jupitor, Diana, Appollo, Venus, Saturn, The Sun, Moon, starts, Animals, such as; Calfs, cows, bulls, dogs, lions, birds, and nature.
Idolatry is the worship of deity made visable, whether of true or of false ideals, in images, pictures, or ideal statements or where self is preferred above the honor and glory of God. And nearly three in four of all the human race are open idolaters, and if judged by the strict moral sense of the term, very many of the fourth worship self rather than God. Col. 3:5.
Here is a list of Pagan Religions that exist in our world today:
History Timeline of World Religions and its Founders
1,500 BC. Hinduism- no specific founder
560 BC. Buddhism- Gautama Buddha
550 BC. Taoism - Lao Tzu
599 BC. Jainism, Mahavira
50-100 AD. Gnosticism-
150-250 AD. -Modalism (Monarchianism)–Sabellius, Praxeus, Noetus, Paul of Samosata
Paganism was the State Religion of the Roman Empire, and you would find in the book of Acts, that every time the state religion was opposed, the law came down on the Christians. Also Judaism which was apart of the state religion, when opposed, brought persecution against the saints. They accused the saints of breaking the laws of the land, and put them in jail.
Acts 17th chapter, gives a good description of the Paganistic System of that day. At Mars Hill, since it was so many gods and they didn’t want to miss anybody they made one big title to the “Unknown God”. It sounds like they were trying to also be politically correct, just like what is going on in the US today.
The Dragon is the spirit of open unbelief, that oppose the gospel through many different religious forms, during the the days of Pagan Rome. It is a spirit that says Jesus Christ is not the divine Son of God, His Person and Gospel is not the only way to heaven, “I stress only”. This Dragon worked through many different ways of worship also, and all these different ways operated under the protection of the Roman Empire, just like in America today. In 325 AD. -After being persecuted for almost 200 years Constantine made the Church becomes a legal religion, compromise begins to enter and He mixed paganism with Christianity, and therefore you have Roman Catholicism today. Kind of like the old theory, “If you can’t beat them, join them”.
Now man didn’t decide on his own to turn from the living God, whose very creation is the evidence of himself, and worship object made by his own hands. The devil working through the Pagan Dragon spirit caused men to turn from the Creator. Man on his own doesn’t decide of himself that he doesn’t like the Gospel or Jesus Christ, the enemy works on man to oppose the gospel.
The Dragon system of pagan religion is system also made up of Idols, It is an Idolatrous system of Religion. Anything that you love or means more to you than God is a idol. There are many idols today, and we have many idol worshippers today also, following the like of Elvis, Michael Jackson and other Pop Icons. You also can see them in various religious bodies also. This Dragon system uses things that appeal to the flesh and eyes, also holy days and strong rhythmic music to appeal to the flesh also.
The Dragon is not, the devil himself, but an object the devil was working through. John saw this dragon in the heaven of the vision. The name Serpent is only a descriptive name of the dragon system of religion because it was subtil (Gen 3:1) deceptive. The subtil spirit of unbelief deceived Eve, and convince her that God was liar and he didn’t mean what He said.
The Serpent will encourage you to take the line of the easiest resistance, “the easy way out”, just give in. it’s alright to tolerate sin or a lower standard in your life, it’s alright to compromise, it don’t take all of that.
Satan means Adversary, Opposer. He who opposes the church,
the man child. He fights all truth. Every conqueroring move is oppose. The
church has always had opposition. The dragon is the church initial opposition.
His tail (the latter end of the dragon power) caused many ministers (A 1/3 of the Ministry) to fall from their heavenly position and to be cast unto the earth. That is they became carnal and earthly minded.