The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

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."--
Ver. 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