The
Revelation 12 Dragon Heads and Horns Explanation
The
Dragon Gets Credit For What He Instigates - He's
Held Responsible!
As
explained elsewhere on this web site, the leopard
beast of Revelation 13 and the scarlet beast of Revelation
17 represent the same power. Consequently, the
heads and horns of both of these beasts also represent
the same power. Note that the heads of the leopard
beast are still leopard heads and the heads of the
scarlet beast are still scarlet beast heads (whatever
that is), but they represent the same power even though
they look different. But, there are those who
come to the conclusion that though the body, heads,
and horns of the leopard beast (also called the sea
beast sometimes) and the scarlet beast represent the
same exact powers, the heads and horns of the dragon
are different. This web page is designed to
help you understand that the heads and horns of the
dragon represent the same power as the heads and horns
found on the leopard beast of Revelation 13 and the
scarlet beast of Revelation 17, even though the body
of the dragon clearly is different from the other
two beasts.
Be
aware that on this web page, the author will sometimes
refer to either the leopard beast or the scarlet beast
interchangeably. This is done because they,
and their heads and horns, represent the same power.
To
begin, the most obvious reason the heads and horns
of the dragon represent the same power as those found
on the leopard beast is that the 7 heads and 10 horns
of Revelation 12, 13, and 17 have only one explanation
given for them by an angel in the vision. This
explanation is found in chapter 17. Consider
the explanations found in Daniel 7 and 8 where Daniel
says that while in the vision, he questioned those
standing nearby as to the meaning of the horns on
the dreadful beast, and received an explanation of
what he was seeing. The heads of the leopard
beast were explained in a later vision through the
explanation of the horns of the goat. One could
say that wherever there are heads and horns in Daniel,
there is a subsequent explanation giving the interpretation
of each of them. Likewise, there must also be
an explanation of the heads and horns found in Revelation
12, 13, and 17. The fact that there is only
one explanation for heads and horns in all three chapters
of Revelation 12, 13, and 17, indicates that the explanation
applies to the heads and horns of all 3 beasts.
If
one refuses to accept this, there is another way to
determine that the heads and horns represent the same
power for all 3 beasts.
And,
if one refuses to accept any explanation
that shows the heads and horns are the same for all
three beasts, then one must
invent an
explanation for the heads and horns that one considers
different from the others. That is problematic
as there is no other key in Revelation 12 to indicate
what these heads and horns are.
Revelation
12:9 tells us that the dragon is the devil. We
can know that the leopard beast and the scarlet beast
are not the devil since we already know their identity
(assuming you have read the other web pages on this
site). So, how can the heads and horns represent
the same power on all 3 beasts? The explanation
of this comes through the idea clearly presented in
Revelation 12 and 13 that I call credit
by responsibility. This credit
by responsibility concept
is not a new idea to careful bible students, though
it is not commonly known to most people.
To
explain this concept of credit by responsibility,
let us digress for a moment into some rather puzzling
aspects of the bible. Sooner or later, most
people run into puzzling texts, such as where God
claims he causes certain forms of evil. After
reading such texts in the bible, most don't know how
to explain them so will probably simply skip over
them when they encounter them again in the future. But
were they to investigate carefully, they would find
this idea of credit
by responsibility applied
even to God himself. One such "puzzling" text
is Jer 49:37 , which says "For
I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies,
and before them that seek their life: and I will bring
evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD;
and I will send the sword after them, till I have
consumed them: " (Elam
was part of what is now Southwestern Iran). Here God
says he will cause or bring evil upon Elam. Does
God cause evil? I
think not, for the bible presents God to be author
of all that is good and Satan to be the author of
all that is evil. But there is the fact that
God is ultimately responsible for the universe and
all that happens in it, and that
includes permitting evil
to occur because he allows us to have free will. Nothing
evil can happen without his express permission (much
as he does not like it), so God
is saying that he is taking
responsibility for
the evil that occurs, though he is NOT the cause of
evil. It
is very important for us to understand that God himself
does not CAUSE evil, but rather is trying to destroy
evil and
is in fact good.
To
understand the explanation of the concept of credit
by responsibility,
it helps to understand that the woman of Revelation
12 is believed to represent the true believers in
God, or one could say that she represents the true
church as contrasted with the apostatized church presented
in Revelation 17. Here is how the credit
by responsibility concept
works in Revelation 12.
In
Revelation 12, the dragon is shown standing before
the woman waiting for her to give birth so it can
devour the child soon to be born. That child
was Jesus. Now, historically we know that the
devil was NEVER seen
standing before the woman waiting for the birth so
he could kill the child. The Romans did kill
the children of the town of Bethlehem and the coastal
towns in an attempt to kill Jesus, but Jesus and his
family were already gone, so the attempt failed (though
you can surmise that Herod probably THOUGHT he had
succeeded). Though the devil didn't go out and
kill the children of Bethlehem, the dragon is given
credit in Revelation 12 for what was done. He
was responsible because
he instigated the
attempt on the life of Jesus and for
this reason, he
gets the credit in
Revelation 12 for the action of Rome. Does
this make sense to you? It should.
Later,
after Jesus went back to heaven, the dragon is shown
pursuing the woman (Revelation 12:13). This
largely represents the persecution of the Christians
by the Romans. Historians list ten persecutions
suffered by the Christians under Pagan Rome, beginning
with that of Nero, A.D. 31, and ending with that of
Diocletian, A.D. 303 to 313. The fact that this
is Roman persecution is evidenced by the fact that
(1) it
occurs after the birth and ascension of Jesus (Rev.
12:13), but
(2) before
the woman is given the wings of an eagle to swiftly
fly away to the wilderness to hide for the 1260 prophetic
days (see
1260 days are 1260 years explanation),
which we can show began in 538 AD (Rev. 12:14),
(3) it
occurs at a time when history records pagan Rome was
in charge of the areas where the persecutions took
place (before 476 AD),
"The
persecution of the Christian church by the empire
of Rome officially came to an end in March of 313
AD, when Constantine issued the document known as
the 'Edict of Milan,' which assured to each individual
freedom of religious belief" (Source: International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia under topic "persecution"). Again, nobody
saw the dragon persecuting the woman,
so we know that this means the dragon is being given credit
by responsibility for
what he instigates, which in this case was for Rome
to persecute Christians. Hence, the
dragon is, in a secondary sense, representative of
Rome.
During
the 1260 years beginning in 538 AD, the dragon works
through the Papacy to persecute Christians (Revelation
12:14 - 15), while during this time the woman has
to hide in the wilderness. What is interesting
is the fact that the
dragon is given credit by responsibility for the activities
of the power represented by the body of the leopard
beast. Here
is reasonable evidence that this is true:
(1) Revelation
12:13 says "And
when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the
woman which brought forth the man child".
(2) Revelation
13:2 says "...and
the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great
authority.",
(3) Revelation
13:7 says "And
it was given unto him to make war with
the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given
him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations",
(4) Revelation
13:5 says "And
there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue
forty and two months."
What
we see above are texts that gives the basic facts
surrounding this set of events. First the dragon
sees that he is cast to the earth (remember that there
are two casting out events recorded in Revelation
12, once out of heaven from his home there, and the
second time is when he realizes that he has lost the
battle for the hearts and minds of those living in
heaven, which occured when Jesus died), and after
that he begins persecuting the woman through Pagan
Rome.
Revelation
12:13 clearly is a reference to the Roman persecution
that followed because it says the woman has given
birth to the man child (Jesus), which makes that a
past event. Yet it says that the woman went
into hiding in the wilderness in the next verse (Revelation
12:14), so we know that though Revelation 12:13 primarily
applies to the Roman persecution, it also is the cause
of the woman hiding in the wilderness during the 1260
days (years), so must have some application there
as well. If it did not, then the woman would
have no cause to go into the wilderness.
Why
does the dragon NOT follow the woman into the wilderness? For
the answer to this, click
here.
During
the time that the woman is in the wilderness (is in
restraint or a type of prison), the Papal authorities
were responsible for the persecution of the true believers. Pagan
Rome was gone, so it was no longer the responsible
party for persecution of the true Christians. Revelation
13:5 tells us that the dragon gave the leopard beast
authority, power, and even a seat from which to rule. That
places the dragon in control of the leopard beast
and THAT makes
the dragon RESPONSIBLE for
what the leopard beast does because he instigates
the activities of the leopard beast. Historically
it is also true that this was done through Pagan Rome
when it handed power over Rome to the Pope at the
time that Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople. But
the devil instigated this transfer of power, so is
made responsible for what he did there.
Further,
the woman is said to be hidden in the wilderness during
the 1260 days (years), and the leopard beast is allowed
to make war against the saints for 42 months (Revelation
13:5), which is 1260 days (Remember that in biblical
prophetic usage, months can refer to a 30 day month,
see explanation). The
time periods are the same time frame and of the same
duration, and the dragon has pursued the woman into
the wilderness where she is now away from his face. The persecution of
the woman during the 1260 years by
the dragon is in
reality the war against
the saints the leopard beast executes. The dragon
is persecuting the woman by instigating the leopard
beast to carry out a war against the saints during
the 1260 days. Hence, he is responsible and
is given the credit for what is done by the leopard
beast.
Since
the dragon is held responsible for what the leopard
beast does, that
means the dragon, in a secondary sense, also is representative
of Papal Rome. There
is no stated reason to attach this secondary representation
to either the heads or horns of the dragon, so it
must be that the dragon body represents Papal Rome
during the 1260 years time. The body of the
leopard beast represents the 1260 year time period,
so it's heads and horns represent a time period that
follows the 1260 year time period.
Evidently,
the dragon, though successful against the woman during
the 1260 year time period, does not think he is successful
enough, so he spews out water from his mouth to try
to sweep away the woman, but the earth opens its mouth
and swallows the water. It is said that the
dragon spews the water out towards the woman just
after it has been explained that she has hidden herself
in the wilderness. Note that the dragon does
not follow her into the wilderness. Why is that? For
the answer to this question, click
here
Now,
Revelation 17:15 says "The
waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth,
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." So,
because water represents these things, the earth probably
represents the opposite, or dry conditions which probably
represent a relative lack of organized nations or
a relative lack of people. So, what would the
spewing out of water from the dragon's mouth represent? Maybe
this: There was a real problem with a population explosion
that occurred in Western Europe in the 17th century,
and this put considerable pressure on people to find
any available land on which to live and grow food
or other crops needed by themselves and society. No
doubt this population explosion threatened many with
starvation. This, and religious persecution,
threatened the religious beliefs and lives of many
and caused them to leave for America during this time. The
earth opening its mouth and swallowing the water may
represent the opening up of America as a refuge from
religious persecution that occurred before 1798. The
earth could be said to have swallowed a flood
of people looking for a better life. Based on
historical events, this places the timing of Revelation
12:15-16 at about 1620-1800, or in other words, roughly
near the end of the 1260 days (years).
This
is a clue, telling us how that "dry" earth
is going to be filled up when the earth beast comes
along, to provide "water" for it, so to
speak, to give it people to populate a new nation. It
even tells us the most important reason why - persecution
by the dragon drives them to go to this new place.
Overpopulation also played a part in this. So, the
people would come from the dragon of Revelation 12
(out of the leopard beast's domain - remember the
dragon secondarily represents the leopard beast) and
move to the New World where a new nation would spring
up out of the dry ground. Hence, from this we
know roughly when these people would migrate (near
the end of the 1260 years), we know that they come
from the domain of the beast (the dragon's mouth -
remember that those heads are from the papacy), and
go to a place where there are no prior organized nations
(the earth would swallow the flood of water and in
Revelation 13 you have a power that arises at the
end of the 1260 years in an area that is "dry",
represented by the 2-horned earthbeast). The
fact that there are no winds shown over the dry land
represents the idea that this new nation would arise
without the strife and warfare the has created empires
in the past, unlike what is shown for the beasts of
Daniel 7.
What
we have so far is that the body of the dragon is secondarily
representative of both Pagan AND Papal Rome. This
means the body of the dragon is representative of
time from the birth of Jesus till 1798 by representing
first Pagan and then Papal Rome. Does this make
sense to you now?
So,
where do the heads and horns fit in?
The
bible directly answers the question about where the
horns fit in. The dragon is credited with the
combined activities of the 10 horns of the scarlet
beast of Revelation 17 and the time represented by
the body of the scarlet beast (the returned beast)
just before Jesus comes again. This would be
during the time of the image beast spoken of in Revelation
13.
Here
is how the author knows this to be true: consider
that Revelation 17:12 - 14 says that the 10 horns
of the scarlet beast will give
their power and authority to the returning beast (Papal
Rome), and then together they
will make war against
the saints of God. Revelation 12:17 says that
the dragon will make war against
the remnant of the seed of the woman. This is
Satan's final series of acts against God before Jesus
comes again. Nevertheless, the war made
against the saints in Revelation 12:17 is the same war spoken
of in Revelation 17: 12 - 14. Note the key word
to understanding this is "war". Revelation
12:16 places the vision near the end of the 1260 days,
and then goes on to say that the dragon goes off to
make war against the remnant of the woman's children.
Now,
why would he do that when he is already engaged in
a war against the saints of God during the 1260 days? This
should be a clue to you that this last verse of Revelation
12 is not talking about the war during the 1260 days,
so must be a war at a later time. The verse
in Revelation 17:12-14 makes it clear when this war
will resume - during the time of the 10 horns. During
the time of the heads of the scarlet beast, the scarlet
beast is said to be in the abyss, restrained if you
will, so it cannot carry out war. This means
the war spoken of in Revelation 12:17 must occur after
the 7 heads of the scarlet beast which would be during
the time of the 10 horns. The time of the 10
horns is yet future as of the writing of this page
in March of 2003. This is logical because chapter
12 covers the history of the dragon from the birth
of Jesus to just before Jesus comes.
Some
would argue that the war spoken of in Revelation 12:17
cannot be at the time of the end because the very
next thing that happens in the vision is that John
sees the leopard beast come up out of the sea, which
represented the Papacy and is known to have actually
gotten power against God's people in 538 AD by the
decree of the Eastern Roman emperor, Justinian. The
problem is that using this argument places the war
spoken of in Revelation 12:17 as occurring just before
538 AD, which would contradict Revelation 12:16 which
has already been reasonably shown to refer to the
time period 1620-1800. Revelation 12:13 - 17
shows a progression of time leading through and past
the 1260 years time period, leading right up to the
end of time. Revelation 12:17 points to a time
that is still future to our own time in March of 2003. Hence,
the leopard beast comes up after the dragon in the
vision, but this is a step backwards in time to 538
AD.
What
this boils down to is that there are 3 periods of
persecution spoken of in Revelation 12, which also
correspond to those mentioned in Revelation 13, and
17. These are:
(1) That
done first through Pagan Rome, This means the
dragon here represents Pagan Rome.
(2) next,
that done through Papal Rome during the 1260 years
lasting till 1798, This means that here the
dragon represents Papal Rome.
(3) and
finally, that which will be done through the combined
forces of the returned scarlet beast (Papal Rome)
and it's 10 horns at the end just before Jesus returns,
which will be during the time of the image beast of
Revelation 13. This means that here the dragon
represents the 10 horns in the final war against God's
people. Reasonably it would be the 10 horns
of the dragon that do this.
Below
is a graphical representation of a timeline for the
dragon from the birth of Jesus to the end of the world. Above
the dragon's time line are time lines for other powers
that the dragon also represents secondarily through credit
by responsibility. Note
that time moves to the right towards our time:
|---------------
Dragon Body ------------------|-7 heads|---10 horns---|
Pagan
Rome -
Jesus'
Birth to 476 AD
--------------------- 
Papal
Rome to 1798
Papal
Rome to 1798 ----------------------------- Gap
- what goes here?
----------- 10
horns
------------------
Dragon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
author has put each succeeding time period on separate
levels in case the reader is color blind and cannot
see the color coding of the lines. As you can
see, the dragon continues from the beginning of the
time line (the birth of Jesus) to the end of this
world's history. This must be true because he
has not died. But as is true of the worldly
kingdoms such as Greece, the time of dominance or
prominence of each time period and corresponding kingdom
or power is what is represented by the body, heads,
and horns. The body was prominent as the dragon
or the devil primarily, and secondarily as Pagan and
Papal Rome because the pagan religious systems were
implemented through both Pagan and Papal Rome.
The
devil controlled the religious world during the days
of Pagan Rome through pagan religions present in that
empire. Later, during the time represented by
the leopard beast, the pagan religious symbols and
rites were incorporated into the Christian Church
of the time, and the devil still controlled things
through the pagan religious system, though with a
different cover over it. After that, the heads
and horns gain prominence because of religious freedom
and the Protestant Reformation that occurred prior
to 1798 but really gained influence after 1798. But
the devil continues to exist. We just don't "see" him
so much as before. This is similar to what it
stated in Daniel 7:12 - "As
concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their
dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged
for a season and time." The
devil continues to exist, but his days of dominance
of the religious world in an open manner like was
done during the days of pagan religions is now past. Henceforth,
his dominance is expressed through the activities
of the 7 heads and the soon to come 10 horns (as of
the writing of the web page in March of 2003).
Each
segment above the dragon (such as Papal Rome or Gap)
are time periods and powers that the dragon represents
in addition to representing himself (or the devil). Hopefully
this little graphical chart makes sense to you. The
time from Jesus' birth to the end of Pagan Rome (476
AD) is followed by Papal Rome that continues till
1798, which is followed by a time gap (yet to be filled
in by the explanation on this page) that lasts until
the 10 horns arrive. Then the 10 horns remain
until Jesus comes again. Now, what
goes into the time gap? Heads?
Nothing, maybe? Logically, something must go
into that gap.
Now
logically, if the dragon is responsible for the leopard
beast's activities, it is also responsible for the
beast's heads and horns as well. This should
be evident because of the fact that on one side of
the time gap, the dragon is secondarily representing
the body of the leopard beast, and on the other side
he is representing the 10 horns of the leopard beast
(or scarlet beast, if you will). And if you
have studied the leopard beast, you know that the
leopard beast's body represents time from 538 AD to
1798, the heads go from 1798 to the future to the
point when they end, which should be at the death
of John Paul II, and finally the 10 horns begin their
time after the 7 heads. So,
logically, the heads should fill the gap because their
end marks the beginning of the time of the 10 horns
and the different body parts of the same beast are
represented on both sides of the time Gap. Those
horns on the dragon must have a beginning marker in
time, and the end of the heads would logically act
as the marker.
The
logical conclusion of the matter is that by this means
we can know the identity of the dragon's heads and
horns: they represent the same power that the heads
and horns of leopard beast of Revelation 13 represent.
Another
way to summarize the facts presented above is through
the table shown below:
Some
argue that since the dragon gets credit for the activities
of Pagan Rome, then the horns of the dragon are the
same as those of the dreadful beast because it represented
Rome in the vision of Daniel 7. This would appear
logical, but it ignores the plain fact that the dragon
also represents Papal Rome and it too has heads and
horns. Consequently, these heads and horns must
be accounted for. They cannot just be ignored.
Some
might try to argue that both beasts are credited to
the dragon, but only the 10 horns of the dreadful
beast are present on the dragon and the 7 heads must
be something other than those of the leopard beast. They
may suggest then that the 7 heads may be 7 forms of
Roman government or maybe 7 emperors of Rome. The
problem with this idea is that it is an either-or
situation. The 10 horns on the dreadful beast
began their time in 476 AD. The 10 horns of
the leopard beast as of the writing of this page in
March of 2003 have not
yet arrived. Therefore,
because of the differing starting dates, they are
mutually exclusive. It cannot be both. It
must be one or the other. So, which is it? Are
the horns on the dragon from the dreadful beast of
Daniel 7, OR are the horns from the leopard beast
of Revelation 13?
It
might appear logical for the horns to be from the
dreadful beast (pagan Rome), but they are NOT for
the following reasons:
(1) the
dreadful beast in Daniel 7 had 10 horns initially
and then lost 3 of them to the talking horn (which
represented Papal Rome), but the beast in Revelation
12 starts with 10 horns and never
loses any horns,
(2) there
is evidence that the dragon secondarily represents
Papal Rome, which means it also gets credit
by responsibility for
the leopard beast. Something else to consider
is that the body of the leopard beast represents time
to 1798. The credit by responsibility concept
would also extend to the heads and horns so that these
must be what the heads and horns represent,
(3)
there is no mention of the activities of the horns
of Daniel 7 in the explanation portions of Revelation
12, Not even a hint of that is present in Revelation
12.
(4) the
10 horns of the scarlet beast do make war against
the saints as mentioned in Revelation 17:12 - 14 and
we know that this is also mentioned in Revelation
12:17. Both sets of horns do this during the
same time period, which
means these 10 horns very likely must be the same. If
the 10 horns were those of the dreadful beast, then
they would very likely be carrying out the war in
a completely different time period,
(5) Further,
the time represented by the horns on the dragon must
follow the time represented by the heads, which in
turn must follow the time represented by the body
of the dragon (which secondarily represents the leopard
beast). This is true because of the rule demonstrated
in Daniel that the author calls the Miller
Principle. So
the time of the 10 horns of the dragon must be the
same as those 10 horns of the scarlet beast. They
cannot represent the 10 horns of Daniel 7 because
they had their time of dominance from the time of
the fall of Rome (476
CE)
onward. The 10 horns of the dragon must have
their time of dominance after 1798 because they follow
the heads of the dragon which in turn must follow
Papal Rome's fall in 1798 (when the Papal government
was done away with and the pope taken captive).
Another
common suggestion is that the 10 horns of the dragon
(or those of the scarlet beast of Revelation 17) are
the 10 toes of the image in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar
in Daniel 2. The problem with this is that these
10 toes correspond to the 10 horns of the dreadful
beast of Daniel 7 (though it does not lose 3 toes). This
must be true because it clearly refers to the kings
that come out of Rome (Daniel 2:44), since Rome is
the last of the 4 kingdoms symbolized on the image
and it refers to the feet and toes as one symbol for
the kings that will come out of Rome. The kings
represented by the feet and toes of the image in Daniel
2 are political in nature, unlike the 10 horns of
the scarlet beast of Revelation 17, which are religious
powers. There is nothing in Daniel 2 that would
indicate that there has been a change in the nature
of the symbolism in going from the legs of the image
(which was representing a political power) to the
feet and toes. So, the Similarity
Principle would
apply and those feet and toes must represent political
powers. The conclusion of the matter is that
the feet and toes of the image of Daniel 2 cannot
be the same as the horns of the leopard beast or the
scarlet beast in Revelation.
All
these facts combined make a strong case for the
10 horns of the dragon being the same as the 10
horns of the leopard beast. This
means that since the body of the leopard beast
and the 10 horns are obviously credited to the
dragon from the leopard beast, then it must also
be true that the 7 heads come from the leopard
beast by credit as well. This deduction about
the heads is not directly explained in the text
of Revelation 12, but it is the only logical conclusion
that makes any real sense. All the information
shown above must be included to properly understand
how the heads fill in the time gap. Leave
out the heads and there is that time gap that must
be filled in. All examples we have in Daniel
and Revelation show that time represented by the
body, heads, and horns of beasts is continuous. There
are no significant gaps from one body part to the
next and likewise there is no significant gap between
one kingdom and its division into more parts. So,
the heads of the leopard beast must fill in the
time gap.
One
cannot credit heads from the dreadful beast to the
dragon because there is only one head on the dreadful
beast. And it is not a good idea to "place" heads
onto the dreadful beast that are not there originally. In
other words, it is possible that one is "adding
words to the prophecy" by saying that there really
are 7 heads on the dreadful beast because they exist
on the dragon, unless one can make a compelling case
that the heads of the dragon absolutely have to be
pagan Rome in some way or another. So far, the
author has not seen anything anywhere near a compelling
case for that. If one insists that the heads
are those of Pagan Rome (7 emperors or 7 forms of
Roman government), then logically the horns should
be the 10 horns of the Daniel 7 dreadful beast. But,
all 10 horns are shown here (it does not lose 3),
and you have to ignore the evidence that Papal Rome
is also represented by the dragon, and you have to
ignore the evidence that the dragon going off to make
war against the saints at the end of Revelation 12
is a clear reference to the same time period as the
10 horns of the scarlet beast that makes war against
the saints.
In
summary, what it all finally boils down to is this: the
dragon primarily represents Satan, but in a secondary
sense, the body of the dragon also represents pagan
Rome to 476 AD and continuing with Papal Rome till
the year 1798. At that time, the 7 heads of
the dragon begin to represent the 7 names of the popes
(without the attached numbers) that have occurred
since 1798 to the present. Soon, the time of
the horns will occur and the 10 horns on the 3 beasts
will begin to represent the Protestant Religions.
Hopefully
this helps you understand how the dragon gets his
heads and horns.
Are
the Heads of the Dragon Ancient Kingdoms Occurring
in Sequence?
Introduction:
This
section is written for those of you who would like
to dig a little deeper into the issues of the identification
of the heads of the dragon, the leopard beast, and
the scarlet beast. The section above and other
web pages deal with the correct identification of
the heads and horns of the dragon and other beasts
of Revelation, while this section deals with a common
hypothesis of the identification of the heads and
why this hypothesis is probably incorrect.
There
are some who argue that the heads of the dragon represent
ancient kingdoms that the devil has worked through
over the ages which occur in sequential order. The
sequence of kingdoms usually begins with ancient Egypt,
and then continues on with Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, Rome, and some others they may list. The
author will refer to this idea as the ancient kingdoms
hypothesis. Some may start further down the
same list or have a different list altogether, so
there are some variants out there. Almost all
of them have in common the use of a sequence of ancient
kingdoms that the protagonists believe the heads of
the dragons represent. Typically, the horns
are those of the dreadful beast of Daniel 7, but there
are those who use the 10 horns of the scarlet beast.
The
Ancient Kingdoms Hypothesis
The
analysis of this gets a little complicated, but it
is not impossible to understand. Be sure you
understand the rules
of interpretation before
starting into this.
Before
beginning, consider that Daniel shows that the Miller
Principle accurately
describes how the beasts with multiple heads/horns
are to be interpreted. Remember that for a beast
with a body, multiple heads and multiple horns, the
body of a beast usually represents the first time
period of a power or kingdom, the heads the next time
period, and finally the horns represent the last time
period of a power or kingdom.
How
do protagonists of the ancient kingdoms hypothesis
come to their conclusion? They have no direct
indication of who these heads and horns are in Revelation
12, 13, and 17, for it is not directly stated who
they are. There is enough information in Revelation
17 to determine the identity of the heads and horns
if one correctly identifies the scarlet beast. As
a result, there is no explanation at all of the heads
and horns identity if they refuse to accept the explanation
given in Revelation 17. Some. on the other hand,
do accept the explanation of the heads as given in
Revelation 17, and think that the dragon and the scarlet
beast are one and the same (usually because scarlet
is a shade of red). They then read in Revelation
17 that two of the heads are sequential, so they assume that
all are sequential. The trouble is, that assumption
is not necessarily true.
Generally,
these individuals do not understand that the rules
of interpretation laid down in Daniel should be applied
in Revelation and can help them correctly identify
the heads and horns. The
rules in Daniel should be used because there you can
get a clear picture of the interpretation based on
history. Further, the beasts of Revelation are
an expansion of the talking horn on the 4th beast
of Daniel 7, so the rules must apply to Revelation
just as they do to the beast in Daniel 7. Build
rules from that which is easily understood, then work
on understanding the unknown. The
prophetic beasts of Revelation are much more difficult
to interpret unless you use those rules from Daniel.
What
is interesting is that protagonists of the ancient
kingdoms hypothesis do use some of the rules found
in Daniel, but only where it suits their purpose. They
ignore the remaining rules. For example, they
usually agree that waters represent peoples, nations,
languages, and so on, and apply that explanation from
Revelation back into Daniel, but that is also implied
in Daniel so there is nothing new there. They
accept the idea that beasts are usually kingdoms as
demonstrated in Daniel, so will apply that to Revelation. They
accept the idea that horns are kings, so will also
apply that to Revelation. But, when it comes
to the clear evidence that heads exist concurrently
with heads, they often will not accept that idea. They
will agree that they are concurrent in Daniel, but
refuse to believe that is the case in Revelation. The
reason is simply that they believe that Revelation
17 indicates that all heads are sequential in Revelation,
when it does not say any such thing - that is an ASSUMPTION on
their part.
Some
assumptions have to be made, no doubt about it, but
they fail to understand that the rule from Daniel
that heads are concurrent must apply in Revelation
17 as well. You
can read about the exception for the concurrent heads
on another page,
but suffice it here to say that they apply the rules
from Daniel only to a certain extent and ignore the
remaining rules where it is convenient. This
also suits their purpose because they WANT the
heads to be sequential ancient kingdoms. They're
used to that idea and any change to it is heresy to
them! But
that does not make
it so, no matter. An assumption is still an
assumption and nothing anyone does will change that
basic fact!
Based
on the beasts of Daniel and how God viewed both ancient
Egypt and Assyria, many conclude that two of the heads
must be these ancient kingdoms, with four of the remaining
ones based on the four beasts of Daniel 7. The
author does not know why they believe they can do
this, but several of the following reasons may be
involved:
(1) it
appears to them that the heads are powers through
which the devil has worked throughout the ages of
earth's history,
(2) the
dragon is a very different beast than the other two
beasts with heads and horns,
(3) possibly
because in Daniel 7, on the dreadful beast, the talking
horn is shown as a horn, and in Revelation 13, the
talking horn becomes the sea or leopard beast. So
a horn in one vision becomes a whole beast in a later
vision. Perhaps they think the reverse can also
be done - a whole beast in one vision can become a
head or horn in another later vision.
(4) The
follow the herd phenomena. The Duoay Rheims
Catholic version of the bible has a footnote in it for
the leopard beast of Revelation 13 which states that
Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Greece,
Rome. and the seventh yet to come, the Antichrist
and his empire. are the seven heads. These comprise
again a list of ancient kingdoms. Seems everybody
else is following their lead on this, which may or
may not lead to truth on this issue.
(5) Revelation
17, which says "And
there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is,
and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh,
he must continue a short space.",
has a present tense verb for the "one is",
suggesting that at the time of John, there was one
of those 7 kings present in his day. This is
a common understanding of this text, but it is misleading
because the context, if properly understood, would
tell the reader that this "one is" is actually
a future reference. Still, there are those who
read this and conclude that the heads must be ancient
kingdoms, even if they predate the beast they are
on, and that one of those kingdoms was present in
the time of John, which means Rome. This same
reasoning is often applied to the dragon, so will
be considered here.
Explanation
of Reason #1:
First,
let us deal with the idea that the devil has worked
through the heads down through the ages. We
have to ask ourselves this question: has the devil
worked through various visible earthly powers down
through the ages? The obvious answer to that
question is a crystal clear "yes". He
certainly has. But does that mean this is the
right way to interpret the heads of the dragon? No,
and here is why.
The
ancient kingdoms hypothesis for the heads is an attempt
to create an explanation for the dragon's heads and
horns that fails to consider the full information
the bible has to give the reader on this. Revelation
12, 13, and 17 gives sufficient information to give
the correct interpretation to those heads without
the need of creating another explanation. Go
read the explanation of the dragons heads and horns
in the section above on this web page for an understanding
of the heads and horns of the dragon. Once you
have read that section, you should be able to see
that the ancient kingdoms hypothesis is not correctly
based on the bible and history. It is as if
they have a bible based explanation, but maybe because
they don't fully understand it, or just maybe they
don't like the one found in the bible, they
ignore it and create their own. Some, of course,
have never come to understand that there is an explanation
for this in the bible since the explanation presented
there is somewhat subtle, so naturally they don't
appear to have a choice but to create an explanation. Many
do not understand the full set of interpretation rules
availab