To “break” something creates an image that is different from “attacking,” “destroying,” or “shattering.” It is less emotional and violent in its intent; it is somewhat matter-of-fact. It is fitting, then, that “break” is used in the Bible primarily to illustrate the Lord’s destruction of evil desires and false ideas – something that must be done to preserve us from harm, but not something done with malice.

56. As for the fact that a religion of faith divorced from caring is meant and described in the Book of Revelation by the dragon and his two beasts, this is something I have not only been told by a heavenly source but have also been shown in the world of spirits that is below heaven. I have seen people devoted to faith alone gathered into a crowd that looked like a great dragon whose tail was stretched out toward heaven; and I have seen separate individuals of this type who looked like dragons. In that world we see things like this because of the way spiritual and earthly phenomena correspond to each other. That is also why heaven’s angels call these people dragons.

There are many kinds of these people, though—some who form the head of the dragon, some who form the body, and some who form the tail. The ones who form the tail are the ones who distort everything that is true in the Word, which is why in the Book of Revelation it says of the dragon that its tail drew down a third of the stars of heaven [Revelation 12:4]. “The stars of heaven” means knowledge concerning what is true, and “a third” means all.