NOTES for Rev 12:7-17

In the picture of world history opened to John at the Throne, there is a certain nonlinearity in the description, that absence of chronological perspective which is so well conveyed by the absence of linear perspective in the traditions of Eastern iconography. The events of Gospel history, the earthly biography of the Savior, are intertwined here with events of the spiritual world that for most people remain hidden behind the veil of historical events. The flight of the Holy Family into Egypt is mentioned twice (vv. 6, 14-16), the first time in connection with the birth of the Messiah (vv. 4-5), and the second in the context of Satan's defeat and his being cast down to earth (vv. 9-13).

At first glance, the vision mixes episodes of two different spiritual events: the falling away and first defeat of the one who after the fall came to be called Satan (v. 4), and his second defeat, to which Jesus Himself testified during His earthly ministry (vv. 7-9; cf. Luke 10:18). As we can see, this second defeat already means the triumph of the Kingdom, which, however, is not yet complete: there is no place for the devil "in heaven," those who abide in the Kingdom are no longer under his power, but "on the earth and on the sea," in the world not yet touched by the transforming power of the Kingdom, he has a certain authority, which, of course, he uses, as they say, to the fullest (vv. 10-12).

Meanwhile, in a spiritual sense these two events are closely connected with each other. Indeed, the first defeat of Satan, which made possible the creation of the world as we know it today, would have been reduced to nothing if Christ had not come and had not won His victory over the powers of darkness. That first defeat of the devil, which made the creation of humanity possible, was only a battle won; the death on the cross and resurrection of the Savior meant a war won, and although until His return in glory and the final triumph of the Kingdom the war cannot yet be considered finished, its course has already been determined.

The last battle still lies ahead, but Satan has lost the decisive battle. As we can see, that is why both defeats of Satan are revealed to John as events connected with the birth of the Messiah, with His earthly ministry, death, and resurrection. World history turns out not only to be the history of a spiritual war; it turns out to be only part of a process that began long before its own beginning and that will by no means end with its conclusion.

The birth of Christ means the defeat of the devil: with Christ the Kingdom also entered the world, and the very fact of its entry into the world means the end of the power of Satan and the dark forces. But the end does not come in a single instant; it is a process stretched out in time. Its essence is shown to the apostle with complete clarity: it is the confrontation between the 'seed of the woman,' which is clearly identified with Christians, and the dragon, for whom Christians now become the chief enemies. This is the essence of all Christian history, the history of the age in which we have had to live.

It began with the coming of Christ and will end on the day of His return and the final triumph of the Kingdom. History after the coming of Christ has no other meaning. But if one looks from the point of view of eternity, it turns out that the devil has already been defeated. Indeed, the Kingdom is eternity; it is the fullness of all times and all spaces that exist in the world created by God, except for those that were torn from it by forces opposing God and by wills resisting Him.

And if the Kingdom has entered our world, this means that the world has already ceased to exist in its former quality, as something separate from the Kingdom, from God's great world. The only question is how strong the inertia of the former movement and former processes will prove to be, processes that prevent the Kingdom from entering the world to the end, and prevent the world, also to the end and in fullness, from becoming the Kingdom. The forces of darkness need this inertia; in it lies their only hope and support.

The struggle of the dragon with the 'seed of the woman' comes down to subjecting Christians to the inertia of the fallen world's movement, a movement directed not toward the Kingdom but away from it. Objectively, such movement means spiritual inversion. The whole world of God is His Kingdom, and movement in the opposite direction means falling into emptiness, into a kind of existential black hole, onto that underside of creation that in the New Testament books is called the outer darkness. Outer, of course, in relation to God's world, to the Kingdom. To make the underside become the front side: this is the devil's overriding task, which he tries with all his strength to solve.