Apocalypse Revealed # 501
501. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city. (11:8) This symbolically means that these two essential elements of the New Church have been utterly rejected by people inwardly caught up in the doctrinal falsities connected with justification by faith alone.
The bodies of the two witnesses symbolize the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, an acknowledgment of the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, and conjunction with Him by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments (nos. 490ff.). The street of the great city symbolizes doctrinal falsity connected with justification by faith alone - the street symbolizing falsity, as we shall see next, and the city symbolizing doctrine (no. 194). It is called a great city because the doctrine is the prevailing doctrine throughout the Protestant Reformed Christian world among the clergy, though not in the same way among the laity.
Streets in the Word have almost the same symbolic meaning as ways, because streets are a city's ways. Still, streets symbolize doctrinal truths or falsities, because a city symbolizes doctrine (no. 194), while ways symbolize a church's truths or falsities, because the earth symbolizes the church (no. 285).
[2] That streets symbolize doctrinal truths or falsities can be seen from the following passages:
Justice has been rejected, and righteousness stands afar off, for truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter. (Isaiah 59:14)
The chariots raced madly in the streets, they rushed in every direction in the town squares. (Nahum 2:4)
In the days of Jael, the ways were deserted... The town squares were deserted... in Israel... (Judges 5:6-7)
How the glorious city is forsaken...! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets... (Jeremiah 49:25-26, cf. 50:30)
Those who ate delicacies are devastated in the streets... Darker than black is the appearance (of the Nazirites); they go unrecognized in the streets... They wandered blind in the streets... They tracked our steps so that we could not go into our streets. (Lamentations 4:5, 8, 14, 18)
I will cut off nations, their corners will be devastated; I will make their streets desolate... (Zephaniah 3:6)
(After) sixty-two weeks, the street (of Jerusalem) shall be built again..., but in distressful times. (Daniel 9:25)
...the street of the city (New Jerusalem) was pure gold, like transparent glass. (Revelation 21:21)
In the middle of its street... on this side and that, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits... (Revelation 22:1-2)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 15:3; 24:10-11; 51:20.
As streets symbolize the church's doctrinal truths, therefore they taught in the streets (2 Samuel 1:20). And we are told,
We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets. (Luke 13:26)
For this reason also hypocrites prayed on street corners (Matthew 6:2, 5). And for this reason the master of the house in Luke 14:21 ordered his servants to go out into the streets and squares and bring people in.
For the same reason, too, anything false or falsified is called mire, filth and excrement in the streets (Isaiah 5:25; 10:6, Micah 7:10, Psalms 18:42).
Prophets who prophesied falsely were cast out into the streets of Jerusalem, and no one buried them (Jeremiah 14:16).
Revelation 21
1
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
2
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3
I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4
He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away."
5
He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." He said, "Write, for these words of God are faithful and true."
6
He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
7
He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
8
But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
9
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb's bride."
10
He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
11
having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as if it was a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12
having a great and high wall; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
13
On the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
14
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
15
He who spoke with me had for a measure, a golden reed, to measure the city, its gates, and its walls.
16
The city lies foursquare, and its length is as great as its breadth. He measured the city with the reed, Twelve thousand Twelve stadia. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
17
Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18
The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass.
19
The foundations of the city's wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
20
the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; and the twelfth, amethyst.
21
The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was made of one pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple.
23
The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moon, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24
The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
25
Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there),
26
and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it so that they may enter.
27
There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
