Remy Wilkins recently proposed a thesis about serpents and dragons in the Bible. Is there a difference? Are the words interchangeable? And even if they aren’t, how are these animals–and the spiritual truths they were created to represent–related?

This post has been slain and resurrected for inclusion in my 2015 book of essays, Inquietude.

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The new atheists believe Christianity is a wet paper bag, and they are intent on punching their way out of it. They don’t understand that Christianity is the source of blessing, and that through their unbelief they are its bastard (or mutant) children. They are unlike the old atheists. Their moral outrages are not at all consistent with their nihilistic beliefs.

The truly evil are the ones who do understand the integrating, empowering, culture-building force of Christianity, and shamelessly steal it for their own ends. Satan knows the Scriptures. His policy isn’t scorched earth. His desire is a thorny crop of his own, and for that he must imitate Covenant hierarchy – a totus Diabolus. An authority structure has the potential for far more carnage than anarchy does, especially one with a dictatorial “Covenant succession” built-in.

It is a strange fact that many tinpot dictators, many terrorists, many proponents of promising but destructive modern philosophies, were products of a Western education. Or is it so strange? Counterfeiters invest a lot of time in studying the real tender before they manufacture their own currency, otherwise their plans will fail. The finished product is identical but for two things: the source of authority (Head); and the end result on the community (Body). Gary North writes:

“Satan needs a chain of command in order to exercise power. Thus, in order to create the greatest havoc for the church, Satan and his followers need to imitate the church. Like the child who needs to sit on his father’s lap in order to slap him, so does the rebel need a crude imitation of God’s dominion theology in order to exercise power. A child who rejects the idea of his father’s lap cannot seriously hope to slap him. The anti-Christian has officially adopted an “anti-lap” theory of existence. He admits no cause-and-effect relationship between lap and slap. To the extent that he acts consistently with this view, he becomes impotent to attack God’s people.

This means that with an increase in epistemological self-consciousness, the ethical aspects of the separation become more and more fundamental. Not logic but ethics is primary. Reprobation is by ethics, not logic. Thus, the increasing epistemological self-consciousness on the part of the power-seeking unbeliever does not lead him to apply Satan’s philosophy of ultimate meaninglessness and chaos; it leads, him instead to apply Satan’s counterfeit of dominion religion, the religion of power. He can achieve power only by refusing to become fully consistent with Satan’s religion of chaos. He needs organization and capital — God’s gifts of common grace — in order to produce maximum destruction. Like the Soviet Union, which has always had to import or steal the bulk of its technology from the West in order to build up an arsenal to destroy the West, so does the satanist have to import Christian intellectual and moral capital in order to wage an effective campaign against the church.

This is the key point in my argument against Van Til’s view of common grace. First, the Christian exercises dominion by becoming epistemologically self-conscious, meaning morally and logically consistent with the new man within him, and therefore by adhering ever more closely to God’s law. Biblical law is the covenant-keeper’s fully self-consistent tool of dominion.

Second, the covenant-breaker exercises power by becoming inconsistent with his ultimate philosophy of randomness. He can commit effective crimes only by stealing the worldview of Christians. The bigger the crimes he wishes to commit (the ethical impulse of evil), the more carefully he must plan (the epistemological impulse of righteousness: counting the costs [Luke 14:28-30]). The Christian can work to fulfill the dominion covenant through a life of’ consistent thought and action; the anti-Christian can achieve an offensive, destructive campaign against the Christians – as contrasted to a self-destructive life of drugs and debauchery – only by stealing the biblical worldview and twisting it to evil purposes.

In short, to become really evil you need to become pretty good.“

Gary North, Dominion and Common Grace: The Biblical Basis of Progress, p. 130-132

or Legs of Burning Bronze

So, we have noted that the New Jerusalem, the crystal city with walls and gates, is pictured by the water crossings of Israel.

It is interesting to note that the failure of the first generation to enter the Land due to cowardice messed up the pattern. In the greater chiasm, from Abraham in Canaan (Genesis) to Israel in Canaan (Judges), Egypt is the “testing” under beastly rulers at the centre. The Red Sea was to be the final Laver. So God began a new pattern, one with “testing” under more beastly rulers in the wilderness. And Israel finally crossed when the Jordan was flooding, a new Laver for the next generation.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to understand the final, short release of Satan. As we saw, the Totus Christus (Christ and the church as one body) stands spiritually upon the neck of the beast. The beast is under His heel. This corresponds to the pillar of fire which held Pharaoh back from attacking the Hebrews while they crossed the Sea. This is where we stand now. Satan is not entirely bound because God always uses him to test and purify his people, to bring them to a maturity of judgment between good and evil. But Satan is bound from doing some very specific things: from deceiving the nations (which is why the gospel has spread all over the world) and as the consequence of this withheld deception, his gathering of the nations against the church. [1] As with Job, a definite line was drawn that he cannot cross—until history gets to verse 7.

As in Eden, there is currently “flaming sword” at the gate. It is the stream of fire coming down from the throne in Daniel 7 that allows the firstfruits saints, and the rest of us, to approach the throne. But at the end of the millennium [2], the pillar of fire moves on. The burning bronze legs of Jesus (symbolised by the two pillars at the entry to Solomon’s Temple [3] and harking back to not only the two cherubim at the Garden gate but also the two trees at the centre of the Garden) will be lifted.

But only because they get in the way of DECAPITATING him. [4]

Satan will finally be able to stop the nations fighting amongst themselves and unite them as a “Totus Diabolus” against the church, symbolically known as the camp of the saints, the holy city, the New Jerusalem. As with Pharaoh, it will simply be a trap. Eve will deceive the serpent. For the lawless one, it will be an eye for an eye.

The last days of the firstfruits church (Armageddon [5]) were cut short for the sake of the saints. The first resurrection followed. The last days of the church age, this final battle, will also be cut short—”a little season.” The second resurrection will follow. And Jesus tells us that there would be no suffering ever again as great as that of the firstfruits saints. The last battle will be like the one in Esther.

“For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” Romans 9:28

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[1] See Greater Amalek.
[2] See For A Thousand Years.
[3] See Landing Gear.
[4] See There Can Be Only One.
[5] “In Hebrew, “Har” means “Mountain”, and “Maged” means “Festival Assembly”. The Battle of the Mountain of Festival Assembly is a battle at Mount Sinai, at Mount Zion, at the Church.” See James B. Jordan, The Vindication of Jesus Christ p. 69-71.

Adam, as Covenant head, also took on a “body.” A Divine Handful of flesh and bone, dead or dying by any human measure, organised into a being more palatial and lavish than any male eye is worthy to behold.

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The Lord “called” Adam as Day 1, giving him one law (light). He divided him as Day 2 and built Eve as a Holy Place, a firmament to be filled with stars (godly offspring). As Day 3 He made a new covenant and married them, the first nearbringing. Adam as the Bronze Altar (dust elevated from the Land) then became the first High Priest, the Table. In his obedience, together they prefigured totus Christus.

Day 4 follows. As Adam represented singular light, Eve was plural light. She was the holy fire on the altar, the glory of Adam. [1] Day 4 is the Lampstand. Day 4 is also the wilderness. If Eve was seduced, it was because Adam’s priesthood was corrupt. There was strange fire on the altar, the biblical theme of harlotry. In the garden, the strange fire was the false lightbearer who filled the “firmament” with darkness.

With that background, look at how this plays out in Daniel 7. It also supports James Jordan’s assertion that the fact that the beast’s body is “feminine” carries some importance. [2] The false church is the body of totus diabolus, the locust swarm gathered as a tabernacle by the fallen head. Daniel seven is the history of the first century church as the Woman in the wilderness. But the faithfulness of the new Adam brought an end to the priesthood of the sons of Aaron.

From Totus Christus:

Creation – Ark – Light – Sabbath
The Lord sends the four winds of His Spirit in His saints

Division – Veil – Firmament – Passover
The four winds of the breath of God divide the Sea…

Ascension – Table – Dry Land, Grain & Fruit – Firstfruits
…into Land beasts which carry the saints. Ancient of Days, our High Priest (Adam, the Man-table), ascends to His throne (as Sinai) and the book of judgment is opened

Testing – Lampstand – Lights – Pentecost
The Herodian beast makes war against the saints. This serpent/dragon is destroyed, and “her” body is burned [2]

Maturity – Incense – Birds & Fish – Trumpets
The triumphant firstfruits church is mustered and ascends before God as an army in a cloud of incense 

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the [Land] will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates [the place of judgment]. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  (Matthew 24:29-34)

Conquest – People & Priest – Land Animals & Man – Atonement
Greater Eve receives an everlasting dominion over the beasts…

Glorification – Rest – Booths
…and a kingdom that shall not be destroyed (as Zion)

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1. See Ish and Isha and Fighting over the Children. See also The Fall Guy.
2. “The fact that the Little Horn’s body is burned up is one more indication that the Little Horn represents the apostate Jewish/Herodian faction. The word “living creature” or “beast” is feminine, and so the “it” and “its” in Daniel 7 are really “she, her, hers”. So, translating completely literally, verse 11 would read, “she was slain, the beast; and he was destroyed, her body; and she was given into the burning of fire”. Whether or not it is legitimate to give much weight to the feminine pronouns, it is still interesting how the feminine pronoun links with the allusion to Leviticus 21:9. Since the Little Horn beast is a body of people, its death means the destruction of that body. The Horn is the head of the body, and it (she) is killed and burned. What almost happened to faithful Jews in Daniel 3 now does happen to faithless ones, who reject the one like a Son of God (Daniel 3:25).” James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 400-401. 

“If Satan was defeated at the cross, why was there so much Satanic activity before the destruction of the Temple?”

(*Satan was thrown out of the heavenly Temple but moved into the earthly one – seven worse demons – a false Lampstand. Judaism’s seven eyes were darkened. [Matt. 6:23])