Notes 64-69 - Brother Dong's Strange "Vision" of Revelation 12

A major theme in Dong Yu Lan's teaching the past few years has been his apocalyptic "vision" of Revelation, in which South America plays a central role as the wilderness. This teaching is not only fanciful and errant, it is also dangerous in that it shifts the emphasis of the interpretation of the prophecy concerning the universal woman and the man-child in Revelation from preparing for the Lord's return to a consideration that South America will be untouched by the coming tribulation.

⁶⁴Dong Yu Lan's Teaching That South America Will Be "the Wilderness" in Revelation 12

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Ministry of John, Week 6, Saturday:

More than twenty-five years ago brother Lee said that the eagle was folding its wings for perching. According to the world map, it will perch on South America. The wilderness will then be here. The wilderness, according to the biblical prophecy, is the refuge place for the woman during the three and a half years of the great tribulation. Although we have the hope to be an overcomer and be raptured before the great tribulation, South America is God's chosen place for the woman. We believe that God is blessing South America because of this vision.

There are many photos of Brother Dong's apocalyptic "vision of Revelation 12." The following are typical examples (see also note 65 and note 66):

		Maps of the world showing North America as an eagle, Europe and Asia as a dragon, Africa as a fetus, and South America a a cluster of grapes. Click on a map to enlarge.

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Ministry of John, Week 6, Saturday

There are several important symbols in Revelation 12, such as the woman, the dragon, the man-child, the great eagle and the wilderness. We read in verses 13 and 14, "And when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child. And to the woman there were given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent." In studying this portion, brother Lee began to say that North America is the wilderness and that the symbol of the United States is an eagle, the two wings of which are the two oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Besides this, if we look at a map of the world, we can draw an outline of a great dragon around the contour of Europe. Therefore, we can say that the eagle is North America and the dragon is Europe. About twenty-five years ago brother Lee said that the eagle was already folding in its wings to land, and we can say that, according to the world map, it will land in South America. Therefore, the wilderness is in South America. According to Biblical prophecy, the wilderness is the place for the universal woman to flee to during the three and a half years of the great tribulation. Although our desire is to be overcomers and to be raptured before the great tribulation, we may say that South America is the place God has given to the universal woman. We believe that God has really blessed South America because of this vision.

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: Practicing the Books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Week 20, Saturday:

The devil will go after the woman, who will flee to the wilderness where she will be nourished during the great tribulation (Rev. 12:14). It has been about twenty years since we received the vision of the eagle and the dragon that are fighting against one another. At the time of the life-study of Revelation, brother Lee said that the dragon referred to Europe and the two wings of the great eagle to the United States. A continuation of this vision is that the wilderness may be South America. This is why we have the burden to preach the gospel in all the cities on this continent, to prepare a place for the Christians who will not be raptured to flee during the great tribulation.

Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 6, 2008, Message 10:

We in South America —what is South America? South America is the wilderness, the place the Lord grants to the universal woman, the place God has given to the churches. So this is the place where God will keep the woman for three and a half years of the great tribulation.

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Pedro Dong, International Young People's Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, January 12, 2008, Message 6:

The Lord gave us that vision of Revelation 12, that here in South America is a land which is the wilderness of God's people, to receive God's people during the coming great tribulation. So, with this vision we assumed the burden to take this land for the Lord because He said in Revelation 12 that this land is of the woman.

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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference in Bolivia, Special Meeting in El Alto, November 3, 2008:

The Lord has shown us that South America will be a wilderness. It will be the place where the universal woman will be saved for three and a half years during the great tribulation. For three and a half years the church, this universal woman who will be kept here, will not suffer the effects of the great tribulation. South America is a place prepared by God for the universal woman. Thank the Lord!

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Ezra Ma, Message in Jundiai, Brazil, September 27, 2008:

The Americas are much protected, but do not be at ease with this. Do you know, whatever happens in the economy happens here also? So here will become a wilderness. Where is this wilderness? Some years ago we thought: Maybe the wilderness is the United States. So we will read here, to explain to you. When Satan, the dragon, starts to persecute the woman, then verse 14 says: "And to the woman there were given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place." Her place means the church's place, where she is nourished for "a time" (a time means one year), "times" (in plural means two years more), and "half a time" (that is, half a year). So one year, two more years, and half a year more—how much is that? Three and a half years, which is exactly one thousand two hundred and sixty days. So she is nourished during a time, times, and half a time away from the dragon's view.

God will set apart a place, or He is setting one apart, for the church to be kept, using the two wings of the great eagle. Who is the eagle? The eagle is God, and the eagle's wings represent God's ransoming power. God speaks about this in Deuteronomy. He says that He is this great eagle that carries people of Israel on His wings and takes them out of Egypt, takes them out to another place in order to protect them. So, God will be the eagle with the wings. But God uses countries. What is the country that has the eagle as a symbol? It is the United States. So did you see in the invitation, painted in the carousel there, the picture of an eagle and a dragon? The dragon is Europe and the eagle is the United States. So, the dragon represents the Antichrist, who is one with Satan, the dragon. The beast will act mainly in Europe. And God is the great eagle who will use his wings to ransom His people. It is very possible that God will use the United States to bring His people to the wilderness.

Many years ago we thought that this wilderness might be the United States, but today it is becoming more and more clear that this wilderness very possibly would be South America, mainly Brazil. Look at the financial crisis in the United Sates. The United States is now going downhill, and Brazil is ascending. Brazil is the only place where it is possible to produce food on such a large scale. The United States is already saturated. Brazil is the only place where it is possible to have more milk, more grain. It is the only place where there is fuel, and there are many things being discovered, and today Brazil has the leadership in biofuel. Brazil is ascending. God is preparing Brazil. God is preparing South America. So, we are here, and we need to prepare this place, but not to stay, brothers. To be raptured. And to leave it prepared for whoever would stay.

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⁶⁵Dong Yu Lan's Teaching That Europe and Asia Correspond to the Dragon in Revelation 12

Photos of Brother Dong and the world map showing Europe and Asia as the dragon and North America as the eagle. Click on an image to enlarge.

Brother Dong's interpretation that Europe with Asia corresponds to the dragon and North America to the eagle has been a part of Brother Dong's public teaching at least as early as 2000. In that year Brother Dong published a study guide containing his interpretation of Revelation 12 with the following map (Note: This early map does not depict Africa as the fetus/man-child or South America as a cluster of grapes as later maps do):

(Source: Estudo Diário de Apocalipse: O Filho Varão
[ Daily Study of Revelation: The Man-child], p. 22)

The accompanying text says:

In Revelation 12 the serpent was still angry (v. 12b) and cast water as a river out of his mouth in order to swallow the woman (v. 15), but the land swallowed the river (v. 16). The world map helps us understand the prophecy and how it happens: the dry portion arose out of the waters and, through geological movement, divided itself into what are today the different continents. From the point of view of the Bible, the geological separations occurred because of that universal woman, whose main break always was, historically, in the region of Palestine, by the Mediterranean. She suffers birth pangs and gives birth to the man-child, who is caught up to the throne in the heavens. The dragon, then, begins to persecute her, and to her are given the two wings of the big eagle to fly and flee to the wilderness, that, according to the drawing of the world map, should be South America, since North America resembles an eagle ready to land. Europe, on the other hand, including the part of Asia that encompasses China, resembles a dragon. The mouth of that animal, from which water as a river proceeded to try to drown the woman, can be seen near the strait of Gibraltar, in Spain, where there is a sea going in the direction of the big oceans. God prepared everything for the fulfillment that is recorded in Revelation 12. (Estudo Diário de Apocalipse: O Filho Varão [ Daily Study of Revelation: The Man-child], pp. 22-23)

Brother Dong and his co-workers attempt to deflect objections to his interpretation of Revelation 12 by claiming that is not a teaching. For example, in London, Canada, Brother Dong said:

This vision is something we have seen according to the map to encourage us to go on. The Lord didn't tell us that Europe is the dragon or Africa is the manchild, no, no, no. We just get the vision, a picture from the map to encourage us. We just get these pictures from a map for us to apply this vision so we could go on; it's not a clear revelation of the Bible that this is this, this is this, no, no, the Bible doesn't tell us in a very, very clear way these things. (Dong Yu Lan, Conference in London, Canada, October 14, 2007, Question & Answer Session)

When he met with some co-workers in February 2008 Brother Dong said:

In 1987, when door knocking began to be practiced in Taiwan, we went back to Brazil and began to practice this. Some say I take the matter of the dragon and the eagle as a teaching. This is not correct. Where did this vision come from? Brother Lee released messages on Revelation. He said that the wilderness is the United States. The symbol of America is the eagle with two wings. These two wings Brother Lee said are the two oceans on both the east and the west. Brother Lee spoke this based on the Bible. I went back and I studied his messages, and I also saw a vision. The eagle was landing. I looked at a world map and the appearance of America was that like an eagle. This eagle did not have its wings outstretched. The eagle is landing, not flying. It looks like the eagle lands on South America. Revelation says the universal woman will be taken to her own place to be nourished twelve-hundred-sixty days.

I showed the map to my daughter and told her what I had seen. She said, Dad, Europe looks like a dragon. Then we noticed that Africa looks like a child, or a fetus in a mother's womb. Brother Lee also spoke of the ten kings. I brought this map to show Brother Lee. I told him, I thought the eagle lands on South America and that South America is the wilderness. Brother Lee said, "Good, but don't speak anything now." For twenty years I did not speak concerning this, then as I studied Revelation, I began to speak this. Africa looks like a fetus with a big head, Italy looks like the tongue, waiting for the Man-child to be born, to devour it.

After the Man-child is born and the dragon is cast down to the earth water flows out of his mouth to flood the woman. The earth opens its mouth to swallow up the water. I interpreted this as a rising of the water in the Mediterranean sea and the opening of the straight of Gibraltar to let the water out. I shared also that we also need to raise up overcomers in Africa to join all the overcomers, the other overcomers to be raptured. I began to speak this in 2000. Then the brothers began to pick up the burden to go to Africa.

I speak this, but I do not teach this as a teaching. This is just an encouragement, a vision applied, not a teaching. (Dong Yu Lan, speaking in a meeting with co-workers in Cerritos, California, February 19, 2008)

Actually Brother Lee did not call Brother Dong's map "good." Rather, as Brother Ron Kangas recounted in the 2007 Thanksgiving Conference in Boston, Brother Lee said, "Do not show this to anyone" (Ministry Magazine, vol. 12, no. 3, March 2008, p. 163).

In Taiwan, Ezra Ma told a gathering of co-workers:

Perhaps somebody drew a picture and distributed it on the Internet, and we probably need to tell them not to do that. But it is not Brother Dong's teaching or a truth. (Ezra Ma, Fellowship with Co-workers in Taiwan, November 7, 2007)

Claims that Brother Dong's interpretation of Revelation 12 is not a teaching are untenable. Ezra told the co-workers in Taiwan, "Perhaps somebody drew a picture." Actually, long before Ezra's dissembling statement to the co-workers, Brother Dong himself published a map depicting his interpretation of Revelation 12 in a study guide purporting to help readers understand the book of Revelation. Ezra said, "Perhaps somebody ... distributed it on the Internet." However, Brother Dong himself used such maps in his International Conferences and elsewhere, and they have figured prominently in various parts of his work (see, for example, the CEAPE banner in note 64). Since 2000 Brother Dong and his co-workers have repeated his interpretation of Revelation 12 on many occasions, including in Young People's Conferences at Estância Árvore da Vida, as well as in Africa, Chicago, New England, and Peru, among many other places. Moreover, this teaching has been repeatedly put into print. In addition to Estudo Diário de Apocalipse: O Filho Varão, it has been printed in at least A Visão Celestial [ The Heavenly Vision ] and several editions of Daily Food, the main publication sold to the saints under his work. Neither in the speaking nor in Brother Dong's publications cited here are there any caveats saying that Brother Dong's interpretation is not a teaching. Rather, both in speaking and in print his bizarre interpretation based on his "vision" has been presented as the actual meaning of the prophecy in Revelation 12. Brother Dong incited the saints in South America to go to Africa based on this "vision," claiming he had "received this revelation directly from God" (see also notes 66 and 67). Thus, claims that Brother Dong's interpretation is not a teaching are not genuine, but are instead aimed at subduing concerns with his errant teaching in the hope that he and his co-workers can be free to propagate their own strange interpretations. This kind of pretence is unbecoming of ones claiming to be servants of the Lord.

(See also note 64 and note 66).

⁶⁶Dong Yu Lan's Teaching That Africa Resembles a Fetus and Is Related to the Man-child

Picture of fetus superimposed on map of Africa. Click on the map to enlarge.

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Ministry of John, Week 6, Saturday:

Moreover, by looking at the outline of Africa on the map, we noticed the form of a fetus. This gave us the burden to help in the birth of this "child" by preaching the gospel in the countries of Africa. When all the overcomers over the earth are ready, they will be raptured and we also will be raptured with them. We need to have this burden for Africa so that the man-child will be born as soon as possible and Christ formed in them.

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: Practicing the Book of 2 Corinthians, Week 24, Tuesday:

When we received the vision of preaching the gospel in Africa, we did not consult with flesh and blood. Some even thought, "Can anything come out of Africa? Are there overcomers in Africa? We don't need to go to Africa. But, praise the Lord, we did not consult with anyone. We received a revelation from the Lord and we went there. The work began and churches were raised up. Christ began to be formed among them that overcomers might rise up from among them. The overcomers from other regions of the earth need to expect that overcomes will rise up in Africa that we may be raptured together. We received this revelation directly from God. If we had gone to consult with others, perhaps we would have been dissuaded.

⁶⁷Dong Yu Lan Claims to Have a Burden for Africa Based on Its Alleged Resemblance to a Fetus

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Ministry of John, Week 6, Saturday:

Moreover, by looking at the outline of Africa on the map, we noticed the form of a fetus. This gave us the burden to help in the birth of this "child" by preaching the gospel in the countries of Africa. When all the overcomers over the earth are ready, they will be raptured and we also will be raptured with them. We need to have this burden for Africa so that the man-child will be born as soon as possible and Christ formed in them.

Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: Practicing the Book of 2 Corinthians, Week 24, Tuesday:

When we received the vision of preaching the gospel in Africa, we did not consult with flesh and blood. Some even thought, "Can anything come out of Africa? Are there overcomers in Africa? We don't need to go to Africa. But, praise the Lord, we did not consult with anyone. We received a revelation from the Lord and we went there. The work began and churches were raised up. Christ began to be formed among them that overcomers might rise up from among them. The overcomers from other regions of the earth need to expect that overcomers will rise up in Africa that we may be raptured together. We received this revelation directly from God. If we had gone to consult with others, perhaps we would have been dissuaded.

⁶⁸Examples of Maps Depicting South America as a Cluster of Grapes, the Symbol of Editora Árvore da Vida

⁶⁹Brother Dong's Continued Speaking of His "Vision" after Ron Kangas Pleaded for Him to Stop:

Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Lima, Peru, January 13, 2008, Message 3:

When we spoke concerning Revelation 12 in the year 2000, we saw the revelation of two things in this universe: the eagle and the dragon. The dragon, with its mouth open, was waiting for the eagle, which signifies the universal woman, to give birth to the man-child so that it could swallow him.

We saw that the shape of the child was like Africa. Africa looks like an infant being formed in his mother's womb. According to the map of the world by God's arrangement, there is a dragon on the top, opening its mouth and waiting. This is in accordance with what is said in the Bible: when the man-child was produced, the dragon would eat him up. The child was not fully formed like Christ, so he was not yet born. This is like an infant in the mother's womb: a big head and small limbs. This means that although he was rich in his thinking, he did not take any action. Many churches are like this. They pay too much attention to doctrines, so they are in the mind and their heads are big. They have very little action because their limbs are not developed. Only when their limbs are developed and begin to practice, can Christ be formed in the womb of the woman. Once the child is formed it is time for him to be born. When the man-child was born, before the dragon came to devour him, he was raptured to the heavens.

The Bible tells us that the dragon was mad at the universal woman and was therefore trying to put her to death. First, it caused the water in the Mediterranean Sea to overflow and flood the coastal region. Because of this, the woman, signifying the churches, died. Thank the Lord, the Bible also tells us that there was an opening. God made an opening at the Strait of Gibraltar so that the water was drained into the ocean. The Mediterranean Sea could never be filled, because there was the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar. When the dragon saw that the woman was not dead, it continued seeking to kill her.

Then a great eagle gave the woman its two wings. The eagle must signify the United States, because the eagle is the symbol of the United States. As such, the woman received help from the eagle. On the map, the entire United States looks like an eagle, not flying but resting. And it is resting on where we are, South America. This is why in the Bible God promised that the great tribulation would not come upon us in South America. God will nourish her for forty-two months—that is, three and a half years. This land, the wilderness, was given to the universal woman. Seeing this vision, that South America should belong to the universal woman—the church, we went into all the cities to preach the gospel...

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Brother Dong's "vision" of Revelation 12 is considered by his co-workers as "the vision of the age":

The vision of the age—The vision of Revelation 12. All the members, especially the one-talented ones, should be stirred up for the spreading. Africa was reached. The vision has given us the heart to do God's eternal will and to propagate the gospel of the kingdom. (E-mail from Cezar Menegucci to undisclosed recipient list, July 28, 2008)

In the Life-study of Revelation , Brother Lee mentioned his feeling that the wilderness in Revelation 12 might be the United States:

Some may wonder what the wilderness is. I cannot answer this question definitely, but I do have my own realization of what it might be. Although I do not wish to interpret this verse, I am willing to share with you my realization of what the wilderness is. Since its beginning, the United States has been a land to which people who desire a free conscience toward God might escape. We are all familiar with the story of the Mayflower. The pilgrims fled from persecution and escaped to this country. For more than three hundred years, America has been used by God as a refuge for His escapees. The symbol of this country is an eagle. When the persecution comes, many of God's people may escape to the United States by airplane. Hallelujah, there will be a wilderness on earth for God's escapees! Even today, the United States is still a refuge for escapees. ( Life-study of Revelation , p. 444)

Brother Lee's mention of this matter was incidental to his main burden, which was to show the need of God's people as the woman to receive the impartation of Christ that the man-child as the overcoming saints, the stronger part of the woman, might be produced for the defeat of God's enemy. He spent much more time on the way to become a part of the man-child than he did on the identity of the wilderness. Brother Dong, on the other hand, has made his interpretation of the wilderness as South America a centerpiece of his speaking for several years, while he has neglected the spiritual principles related to the testimony of Jesus exhibited in Revelation 12.