90. The dragon means adamant supporters of the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us. To make me convinced and certain of this, I was given the opportunity to see thousands and thousands of such people gathered into an assembly. From a distance they looked like a dragon with a long tail, which was covered with spikes like a bramble bush; the spikes symbolize falsities.

On another occasion I saw a dragon that was even larger. With its back lifted up, it reached its tail toward heaven in an effort to drag the stars down. The stars in that world symbolize truths.

87. 20 Adamant devotees of the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us are depicted in the Book of Revelation as the dragon, its two beasts, and the locusts. This belief (when strongly held) is depicted there as the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two witnesses were killed, and as the pit of the abyss from which the locusts came forth.