From the Book of Revelation    169 

beginning of the Millennium of peace and holiness. This sign in the sky will 

mean that the great time of peace and holiness is about to begin. But the 

pains of delivery must occur before the joy of birth, and so this sign also 

means that there will be a time of great suffering for the Church before the 

time of great joy. The time of great suffering is the persecution of the Church 

during Antichrist's reign. The time of great joy is the Millennium of peace 

and holiness which will follow the Church's great suffering. 

The Dragon (Rev 12:3 17) 

     And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, 

with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.... And 

the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he 

might devour her child when she brought it forth ... but her child was caught 

up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where 

she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand 

two hundred and sixty days.  (Rev 12:3 6). 

    The dragon with seven heads and ten horns represents the kingdom of the 

ten kings at the time when this kingdom becomes the kingdom of Antichrist. 

It is a kingdom over which the devil has much control. Thus, the dragon 

also represents the devil. The dragon's attempt to devour the child means 

that the kingdom of Antichrist and the devil try to destroy the Church and 

put an end to Christianity. 

    The ten horns of the dragon represent ten kingships which will rule the 

world. Just before Antichrist comes to power, the world will be ruled by ten 

kings only, with each king ruling over their own area of the world. Then 

Antichrist will take over one of the kingships (the kingdom of the North, i.e. 

Europe), becoming one of the ten kings. He will then defeats three of the 

nine other kings and take control of those kingships (Dan 7:24; 11:25 27). 

First he defeats the Christian king of the South, then the kings of the 

Meridian (most of Africa) and the East (includes China). The remaining six 

other kings  then give their allegiance to Antichrist and pledge to reject all 

religion (other than worshiping him). As a result, at that time there will be 

only seven leaders who will rule over the ten areas  of the world (formerly 

ruled by ten kings). One of those seven leaders is Antichrist; he also rules 

over the other six leaders, so that he has power over nearly the whole world. 

That is why the dragon has ten horns, but only seven heads and seven 

diadems (symbols of authority), because there will be seven leaders who will 

rule over the ten kingships.