CHAPTER XV
JUDGMENT UPON THE DRAGON
But we have not finished with the Great Red Dragon. We read in Revelation that this terrifying impersonation of evil stood before the woman to devour her offspring as soon as it should be born. Obviously this means, spiritually, the effort of those in the false belief to extinguish the doctrine of the need to repent and to overcome by the power of Jesus.
But the Dragon was determined to destroy the man-child the doctrine which Jesus taught, which indeed the whole Bible teaches, of one God in Jesus and becoming at one with Him by repentance and living the changed life. And so we are told the woman's offspring was caught up unto God and His throne to protect it from the assaults of the Dragon— who is "the Devil and Satan, the Old Serpent," "who deceiveth the whole world."
The world was not ready for it when this new doctrine was first proclaimed in this New Age through Emanuel Swedenborg, and God had to keep it out of sight of men. Swedenborg wrote the Apocalypse Revealed in 1766, quite a long while ago, but the Lord permitted it to be largely out of the sight of men. It, and his other works, have been relatively unknown, even though today his books are being circulated by thousands every year. Thus the male-child, the doctrine of true religion, was kept away from those who would have profaned and destroyed it.
And then we are told that the woman fled into the wilderness—the woman being the love of the Lord and His truth—"where she hath a place prepared by God." There she was to remain until the fury of the Dragon should abate and cease to have power to destroy.
But, "there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and they prevailed not, and their place was not found any more in heaven; and the great
