The Woman and the Red Dragon

In light of the heavenly sign which appeared in the sky on 23 Sep 2017 which may be a fulfillment of the prophecy in the Revelation 12:1-2, I felt inspired to explore the various elements of the prophecy in this essay. The second sign of the Great Red Dragon has not yet been seen in the heavens. Some items of this prophecy are complex and even contradictory. I don’t pretend to know exactly which way to read it, but I will share my research and you can decide.

The first mention of the Woman and the Red Dragon together is found in Revelation 12 where a sign in the heavens is predicted as part of the events of the “Last Days.”

The First Sign: A Woman in Labor

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” Rev 12:1-2

The JST version of this sign in the heavens is slightly different:

“And there appeared a great sign in heaven, in the likeness of things on the earth; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And the woman being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and his throne.” JST Rev 12:1-3

The Second Sign: The Great Red Dragon

“And there appeared another sign in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was delivered, ready to devour her child after it was born.

“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore years. And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought against Michael; And the dragon prevailed not against Michael, neither the child, nor the woman which was the church of God, who had been delivered of her pains, and brought forth the kingdom of our God and his Christ.

“Neither was there place found in heaven for the great dragon, who was cast out; that old serpent called the devil, and also called Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth; and his angels were cast out with him.” JST Rev 12: 4-8 The woman flies into the wilderness again in vs 14. (Whether that is a second flight or a parallel of the first mention, is debatable)

You might have heard that the woman is the church and that she fled in the wilderness at the time of the great Apostasy after the early apostles were killed. You might have heard that the woman is the restored church and that she fled into the wilderness when the Saints left Nauvoo and moved West to the Rocky Mountains. You might not have heard that the woman is riding the dragon that is ready to devour her child.

The Woman Riding the Red Dragon

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Rev 17:3-6

What do We Know about the Woman?

John tells us that the woman is also the Whore and the waters in which she sits are as a group of many people, “multitudes, and nations and tongues.” (Rev 17:15) Interestingly, Nephi described her the same way in 2 Ne 10:15-16. “I must needs destroy the secret works of darkness, and of murders, and of abominations. Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.” Later he describes her as a “church” but I wonder if that group could be more of a political body than a church. “But behold, that great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, must tumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof. For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance,” (2 Ne 28:18-19) In the JST Rev 12:7, the woman is called the “church of God” which makes her an evil version of ourselves. A vote for political body comes from Jeremiah 50:9,41 where he says that “an assembly of great nations from the north country” comes up against Babylon, the Whore of all the Earth. The king of Babylon is vexed as a woman in the “pangs” of labor. (Jer 50:43) So that equates Babylon and the woman.

Woman, Where Is Thy Accuser?

Jesus defended a woman who was condemned as a whore. In John 8 we read that he said to her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?” Did that story have a deeper meaning? The book of revelation says that the woman/dragon/whore is fighting against the kingdom of God. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” JST Rev 12:9-10 The fact that the woman fled to the place in the wilderness prepared by God and was also an accuser of the Kingdom makes me think that the relationship between God and this woman is more than just a black and white polarity.

What Else Do We Know about the Dragon?

The relationship between the woman and the dragon is complex. The woman is riding the dragon but the dragon is attacking her child. The dragon is said to “hate” the woman. (Rev 17:16)

References to the Dragon/Serpent Elsewhere

Pharaoh is refered to as “the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers.” (Ezek 29:3)

Later in Ezekiel, Egypt is refered to with these words, “Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas…” (Ezek 32:2)

Isaiah promises punishment to the dragon, “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isa 27:1)

Is is possible that there was a sea dragon of sorts that inhabited the Red Sea and was killed by Moses or in conjunction with the drying up of the Red Sea. This is sung about in Psalms 74:12-15 and Isa 51:9-10 as if it were a well-known tale. The parallel to a last days dragon would be poetic.

Of course, the common interpretation is that Lucifer was cursed to become the snake in the Garden of Eden and dragons are just oversized serpents. This is corroborated by the passage in Rev 20:2-3 where it says, “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit (Hell), and shut him up…”

Ezekiel says that Egypt is cast down into the pit. (Ezek 32:18)

The Ten Horns

The dragon is said to have seven heads in Rev 12:3 and Rev 17:3,7.

In multiple places the dragon has ten horns. The ten horns are explained to John as “ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” (Rev 17:12)

In Daniel, the ten horns are superseded by one great horn with eyes that speaks great things. (Dan 7:20-21,25) The one horn continues the purpose of persecuting the Saints. Ezekiel sees the same thing or a variation of it in Daniel 8 only the one horn is little and it casts down stars, magnifying itself. This has been interpreted as the successive political leaderships from Alexander the Great, to the Romans and then the reign of terror against the saints of Diocletian the Emperor. If this were the only interpretation, the Book of Revelation has already been fulfilled, but maybe this prophecy has multiple parallel fulfillments. In any case, what Daniel saw, causes him to faint.

The Dragon’s Flood

JST Rev 12:13,15 it reads, “For when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child….Therefore the serpent casteth out of is mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.”

The idea of a great flood is picked up by multiple prophets. Daniel says that “with the arms of a flood,” the league shall be broken. (Dan 11:22-23)

Jeremiah says, “Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.” (Jer 46:7-8)

Isaiah says, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa 59:19)

Jeremiah describes the destruction of the Philistines as a flood, “Thus saith the Lord; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.” (Jer 47:2)

Considering the possibility that the flood described is not literally of water but of an invading army, we get a completely different scenario. Isaiah says that Assyria overflows it’s banks as an invading army. “Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. (Isa 8:7-8)

Jeremiah says that the dragon, Nebuchadrezzer, will swallow up Zion (not sure of the object referenced) but then spit her out so that no one wants to go to Babylon anymore and that her sea will dry up. (see Jer 51:34,36,44) No one else seems to think the dragon caught the woman or her child.

What Should I Do in Response to the Dragon?

Jeremiah suggests, “And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land…” we should remember that God will overthrow Babylon. “Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.” (Jer 51:46,53)

Isaiah says, “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” (Isa 40:28-29)

Joseph Smith suggests, “Go ye out from Babylon. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.…Go ye out from among the nations, even from Babylon, from the midst of wickedness, which is spiritual Babylon.” (D&C 133: 5,7,14) If the church is in bed with Babylon, then she needs to repent and get out!

Read the JST (Joseph Smith Translation) of Revelation 12 Here