551. Which leads the whole world astray. This symbolically means that they pervert everything having to do with the church.

To lead astray means, symbolically, to pervert, and the world, like the earth, symbolizes the church (no. 285).

The world does not mean the physical world, but the church in it, in the following passages:

The earth will mourn and be turned upside down; the world will languish and be turned upside down. (Isaiah 24:4)

The lands will learn Your judgments, and the inhabitants of the world Your righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9)

The Maker of the earth by His power, who prepares the world by His wisdom... (Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15)

The foundations of the world were uncovered... at the blast of (Your) breath... (Psalms 18:15)

The earth is Jehovah's and its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. ...He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers. (Psalms 24:1-2)

The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and its fullness, You have founded them. (Psalms 89:11)

...He will make them inherit the throne of glory. For the foundations of the earth are Jehovah's, and He has set the world upon them. (1 Samuel 2:8)

(Babylon,) you have made the world as a wilderness... ...you have destroyed your land and slain your people. (Isaiah 14:17, 20)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 18:3; 26:18; 27:6; 34:1; Nahum 1:5; Psalms 9:8; 77:18; 98:9; Lamentations 4:12; Job 18:18; Matthew 24:14; Luke 21:26; Revelation 16:14.

It should be known, however, that when the world and the earth are mentioned together, the world symbolizes the church in relation to good, and the earth the church in relation to truth.