Revelation Chapter 12
Verse 4 continued, “His tail drew [the] third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”
The same interpretation as that which we discussed in our last post is brought forth in the following excerpt taken from R.E. Streeter’s “Revelation of Jesus Christ”, Page 330
“It is said of the dragon that "his tail drew [dragged, hauled] the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." There are two interpretations of this symbol, one of which is that it refers to Christian teachers falling in the sense of apostatizing, and adopting the Paganized counterfeit Christianity that gradually came in after Constantine's accession to the throne, about 312 A.D. A seemingly insurmountable difficulty with this interpretation is that this action of the dragon occurs prior to Constantine's accession to the throne, and during the period of the Pagan government's persecution of the true Church.
It was not until the ending of these terrible years of persecution that desires for worldly favor and dominion began to become rife in the Church. The "ten days" of persecution (Rev 2:10) extended from 303 A.D. to 313 A.D.
The other interpretation, which seems the more reasonable one, and which is in harmony with the facts of history, is that it represents the attempt of the Pagan government (under Diocletian) to exterminate the Church by removing the Christian teachers from their stations, by imprisoning them; by forcing them to work in the mines; by frequently depriving them of their sight; and by subjecting them to all manner of inhuman violence. The historian, without being aware of it, has thus recorded events that seem clearly to meet the fulfillment of this part of the vision:
"In the year 303 A.D., when this emperor (Diocletian) was at Nicomedia, an order was obtained from him to pull down the churches of the Christians, to burn all their books and writings, and to take from them all their civil rights and privileges, and render them incapable of any honors or civil promotion. This first edict, though rigorous and severe, extended not to the lives of the Christians; … it was, however, destructive to many of them, particularly to those who refused to deliver the sacred books into the hands of the magistrates.
"Not long after the publication of this first edict against the Christians … Diocletian, by a new edict, ordered all the bishops and ministers of the Christian Church to be thrown into prison. Nor did his inhuman violence end here; for a third edict was soon issued, by which it was ordered, that all sorts of torments (testings) should be employed, and the most insupportable punishments invented, to force these venerable captives to renounce their profession, by sacrificing to the heathen gods; for it was hoped, that, if the bishops and doctors of the Church could be brought to yield, their respective flocks would be easily induced to follow their example. An immense number of persons, illustriously distinguished by their piety and learning, became the victims of this cruel stratagem throughout the whole Roman Empire, Gaul accepted, which was under the mild and equitable dominion of Constantius Chlorus [father of Constantine the Great].
"In the second year of this horrible persecution the 304th of the Christian era, a fourth edict was published by Diocletian… By it the magistrates were ordered and commissioned to force all Christians, without distinction of rank or sex, to sacrifice to the gods, and were authorized to employ all sorts of torments, in order to drive them to this act of apostasy. The diligence and zeal of the Roman magistrates, in the execution of this inhuman edict, nearly proved fatal to the Christian cause." (Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History)
We thus have depicted in this brief extract from the pages of the historian, the most terrible persecution, the most severe trial, testing, that the Church had ever experienced up to that time. It was indeed an attempt on the part of the Pagan Roman government to utterly exterminate Christianity.”
“And the dragon [Pagan Rome] stood before the woman [the early Christian church] which was ready to give birth [about to have its schism], to devour [appropriate] her child [the man of sin faction] as soon as it was born [became organized].”
“The dragon stood before the woman with the objective “to devour” (i.e., to eat and appropriate) the child unto himself and thus, through digestion and absorption, add to its own strength and influence. The setting, following the man-child’s birth, corresponds to the forepart of the Pergamos era, A.D. 323 to 539 (Rev 2:14). There were those who held the teaching of Balaam (the pagan priesthood), who taught Balak (the king or emperor) to put a stumbling block before the Israelites (the professed Church of Christ). The pagan priesthood is represented as counseling and influencing the emperor to conquer the enemy Christians by joining them (Num 25:1–3; 31:15, 16). And this is what Constantine in effect did by proffering them his hand in marriage.
Constantine joined Christianity—but on his own terms. The incumbent pagan priesthood could, with comparative ease, transfer allegiance and seniority to the new religion of the empire. The emperor invited Christian leaders throughout the realm to convene in council at Nicaea in A.D. 325. Through artful manipulation, he accomplished much of his primary purpose of establishing a fundamental, orthodox creed and discipline, which the populace would be pressured to accept.”
We will continued with Verse 5 in our next post.
Verse 4 continued, “His tail drew [the] third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”
The same interpretation as that which we discussed in our last post is brought forth in the following excerpt taken from R.E. Streeter’s “Revelation of Jesus Christ”, Page 330
“It is said of the dragon that "his tail drew [dragged, hauled] the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." There are two interpretations of this symbol, one of which is that it refers to Christian teachers falling in the sense of apostatizing, and adopting the Paganized counterfeit Christianity that gradually came in after Constantine's accession to the throne, about 312 A.D. A seemingly insurmountable difficulty with this interpretation is that this action of the dragon occurs prior to Constantine's accession to the throne, and during the period of the Pagan government's persecution of the true Church.
It was not until the ending of these terrible years of persecution that desires for worldly favor and dominion began to become rife in the Church. The "ten days" of persecution (Rev 2:10) extended from 303 A.D. to 313 A.D.
The other interpretation, which seems the more reasonable one, and which is in harmony with the facts of history, is that it represents the attempt of the Pagan government (under Diocletian) to exterminate the Church by removing the Christian teachers from their stations, by imprisoning them; by forcing them to work in the mines; by frequently depriving them of their sight; and by subjecting them to all manner of inhuman violence. The historian, without being aware of it, has thus recorded events that seem clearly to meet the fulfillment of this part of the vision:
"In the year 303 A.D., when this emperor (Diocletian) was at Nicomedia, an order was obtained from him to pull down the churches of the Christians, to burn all their books and writings, and to take from them all their civil rights and privileges, and render them incapable of any honors or civil promotion. This first edict, though rigorous and severe, extended not to the lives of the Christians; … it was, however, destructive to many of them, particularly to those who refused to deliver the sacred books into the hands of the magistrates.
"Not long after the publication of this first edict against the Christians … Diocletian, by a new edict, ordered all the bishops and ministers of the Christian Church to be thrown into prison. Nor did his inhuman violence end here; for a third edict was soon issued, by which it was ordered, that all sorts of torments (testings) should be employed, and the most insupportable punishments invented, to force these venerable captives to renounce their profession, by sacrificing to the heathen gods; for it was hoped, that, if the bishops and doctors of the Church could be brought to yield, their respective flocks would be easily induced to follow their example. An immense number of persons, illustriously distinguished by their piety and learning, became the victims of this cruel stratagem throughout the whole Roman Empire, Gaul accepted, which was under the mild and equitable dominion of Constantius Chlorus [father of Constantine the Great].
"In the second year of this horrible persecution the 304th of the Christian era, a fourth edict was published by Diocletian… By it the magistrates were ordered and commissioned to force all Christians, without distinction of rank or sex, to sacrifice to the gods, and were authorized to employ all sorts of torments, in order to drive them to this act of apostasy. The diligence and zeal of the Roman magistrates, in the execution of this inhuman edict, nearly proved fatal to the Christian cause." (Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History)
We thus have depicted in this brief extract from the pages of the historian, the most terrible persecution, the most severe trial, testing, that the Church had ever experienced up to that time. It was indeed an attempt on the part of the Pagan Roman government to utterly exterminate Christianity.”
“And the dragon [Pagan Rome] stood before the woman [the early Christian church] which was ready to give birth [about to have its schism], to devour [appropriate] her child [the man of sin faction] as soon as it was born [became organized].”
“The dragon stood before the woman with the objective “to devour” (i.e., to eat and appropriate) the child unto himself and thus, through digestion and absorption, add to its own strength and influence. The setting, following the man-child’s birth, corresponds to the forepart of the Pergamos era, A.D. 323 to 539 (Rev 2:14). There were those who held the teaching of Balaam (the pagan priesthood), who taught Balak (the king or emperor) to put a stumbling block before the Israelites (the professed Church of Christ). The pagan priesthood is represented as counseling and influencing the emperor to conquer the enemy Christians by joining them (Num 25:1–3; 31:15, 16). And this is what Constantine in effect did by proffering them his hand in marriage.
Constantine joined Christianity—but on his own terms. The incumbent pagan priesthood could, with comparative ease, transfer allegiance and seniority to the new religion of the empire. The emperor invited Christian leaders throughout the realm to convene in council at Nicaea in A.D. 325. Through artful manipulation, he accomplished much of his primary purpose of establishing a fundamental, orthodox creed and discipline, which the populace would be pressured to accept.”
We will continued with Verse 5 in our next post.
