Great Red Dragon and the Man Child in the Book of Revelation


Below is the 22nd of multiple excerpts of commentary on the Book of Revelation from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell:

[The Great Red Dragon; The Man Child] "2. The great Red Dragon. "CHAP. xii. 3, 4 [Rev. 12:3-4].---‘And there appeared another wonder in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth [land, Greek: ten gen]: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.’ "There is no possibility of doubt respecting the identity of this symbol. The dragon is ‘that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,’ [Rev. 12:9]---the ancient and inveterate foe of God and of His people. He is represented as possessing vast authority and power; ‘having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads;’ for he is ‘the god of this world,’ [2 Corin. 4:4] ‘the prince of the power of the air;’ [Eph. 2:2] ‘the accuser of the brethren;’ [Rev. 12:10] ‘the deceiver of the whole world.’ [Rev. 12:9] This malignant enemy of the cause of Christ stands ready to devour the child of which the woman is about to be delivered. "3. The Man Child. "CHAP. xii. 5 [Rev. 12:5].---‘And she brought forth a man child, who shall soon rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.’ "...It seems indeed natural at first sight to assume that Christ must be intended, but further consideration will show that it cannot be so. [Russell has previously explained why the Woman Clothed with the Sun cannot be the Virgin Mary, but is rather the Hebrew-Christian church of the 1st century.] The church is never said to be the mother of Christ, nor Christ to be the Son of the church. The church is the bride, the wife, the body, the house of Christ, but never the mother. Christ is the King, the Head, the Husband of the church, but never the Son or Child [of the church]. He is the Son of God, and the Son of man; but never the Son of the church. There would be an incongruity and impropriety in such a figure from which the sense of fitness revolts. "We believe the key to this symbol is to be found in the sixty-sixth chapter of Isaiah, which is the original source from which the figures are derived. Jerusalem is there represented as a woman in travail, who is delivered of a man child (vers. 7, 8) [Isaiah 66:7-8]: ‘Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.’ It is impossible to believe that the resemblance between these passages [in Isaiah 66 and Revelation 12] is merely casual; and we are therefore greatly assisted in the interpretation of the vision [of John] by the analogous representations in the prophecy [of Isaiah 66]. As the man child, or the children of Zion, in the prophecy [of Isaiah 66], signify the faithful in the land, or in Jerusalem, so the man child born of the persecuted woman in the Apocalypse [Rev. 12] denotes the faithful disciples of Christ in Judea, or even in Jerusalem itself. This explanation harmonises the seeming incongruities of the passage, and gives an intelligible and reasonable sense to the whole representation. The Hebrew-Christian church is personified as the persecuted parent of a persecuted offspring; she gives birth to a man child, but a man child that is also a nation, according to the words of the prophet [Isaiah]. This man child is destined ‘to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and is caught up unto God, and to his throne.’ [Rev. 12:5] These are statements which seem to many only applicable to the Son of God Himself; but they are in truth affirmed in the Apocalypse [Revelation] to be the privilege and reward of every faithful disciple: ‘To him that overcometh will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron’ (chap. ii. 26, 27) [Rev. 2:26-27]; ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne’ (chap. iii. 21) [Rev. 3:21]. It is therefore not unwarrantable to apply these expressions, lofty as they are, to the faithful disciples of Christ. "The safety of her offspring being thus secured, provision for the persecuted mother is made by God."

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