Apocalypse Revealed # 720
720. 17:2 "With whom the kings of the earth committed whoredom." This symbolically means that the Roman Catholic religion adulterated the church's goods and truths that it had from the Word.
To commit whoredom means, symbolically, to falsify and adulterate truths, as said just above in no. 719. The kings of the earth symbolize the church's truths that it has from the Word - kings symbolizing truths springing from goodness, and the earth symbolizing the church.
That kings symbolize people who possess truths springing from goodness from the Lord, and so in an abstract sense the truths themselves that spring from goodness, may be seen in nos. 20, 664 above. Here they symbolize those truths adulterated and profaned.
We are told that the kings of the earth committed whoredom with the great harlot, as though the church's truths from the Word did so, truths being symbolized by the kings of the earth. But this accords with the style of the Word in its literal sense, in which we find attributed to God and to the Divine things emanating from Him - which include the Word's truths - qualities and actions which nevertheless are those of mankind and its evils, as has often been shown above. Consequently the genuine meaning - namely the spiritual sense - is that the Roman Catholic religion adulterated, indeed profaned, the church's truths which it had from the Word.
Someone who is unacquainted with the Word's spiritual meaning may easily be deluded into believing that the kings of the earth mean earthly kings, when in fact it is not those kings that are meant, but truths springing from goodness, and in an opposite sense, falsities springing from evil.
[2] To make it still more apparent that kings of the earth mean nothing else than a church's truths or falsities, and that kings' whoredoms are the falsifications, adulterations and profanations of the church's truths that is has from the Lord, we will cite several passages from the book of Revelation and Daniel, from which anyone capable of reflecting may see that it is not kings that are meant. The passages are these:
...Jesus Christ... has made us kings and priests... (Revelation 1:5-6)
...you have made us kings and priests to our God, that we may reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10)
...you (shall) eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains..., the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them... (Revelation 19:18)
The seven heads (of the scarlet beast) are seven mountains... They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, and one is... And the beast... is... the eighth (king), and is of the seven... (Revelation 17:9-11)
The ten horns... are ten kings that have not yet received a kingdom... (Revelation 17:12)
We are also told later, as in the present verse, that the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with and taken delight in the harlot (Revelation 18:3, 9).
Who that is capable of reflecting does not see that kings here do not mean kings?
[3] Similar things are said in Daniel. For example, that the hairy male goat means a king, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king; and that when their transgressions have reached their height, a stern-faced king will arise who understands cunning schemes (Daniel 8:21, 23). That the four great beasts that arose out of the sea were four kings that would rise up from the earth, that the fourth beast's ten horns were ten kings, and that another would arise after them that would lay low the three kings (Daniel 7:17, 24). So, too, that the king of the south and the king of the north would fight against each other; that the king of the south would send his daughter to the king of the north; that the king of the north would exalt himself against God, and would acknowledge a foreign god; that people who acknowledged that god he would honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and desirable things, and cause them to rule over many, and would divide the land for a price; that he would plant the tents of his tabernacle between the seas, in the vicinity of the glorious holy mountain; but that he would come to his end - besides much else (Daniel 11).
[4] The king of the south symbolizes a kingdom or church consisting of people in possession of truths, and the king of the north symbolizes a kingdom or church consisting of people caught up in falsities. For the text is prophetic of churches to come, such as they would be in the beginning, and what they would be like after that.
People who possess truths springing from good from the Lord are called kings because they are called the Lord's children, and having been regenerated by the Lord, they are said to have been born of Him and to be His heirs, and the Lord is the King, and heaven and the church are His kingdom.
Daniel 11
1
"As for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.
2
Now will I show you the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and when he has grown strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.
3
A mighty king shall stand up, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.
4
When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of the sky, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides these.
5
The king of the south shall be strong, and [one] of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.
6
At the end of years they shall join themselves together; and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the strength of her arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; but she shall be given up, and those who brought her, and he who became the father of her, and he who strengthened her in those times.
7
But out of a shoot from her roots shall one stand up in his place, who shall come to the army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail.
8
Also their gods, with their molten images, [and] with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, shall he carry captive into Egypt; and he shall refrain some years from the king of the north.
9
He shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but he shall return into his own land.
10
His sons shall war, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall come on, and overflow, and pass through; and they shall return and war, even to his fortress.
11
The king of the south shall be moved with anger, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north; and he shall set forth a great multitude, and the multitude shall be given into his hand.
12
The multitude shall be lifted up, and his heart shall be exalted; and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.
13
The king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former; and he shall come on at the end of the times, [even of] years, with a great army and with much substance.
14
In those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the children of the violent among your people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall fall.
15
So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city: and the forces of the south shall not stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to stand.
16
But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him; and he shall stand in the glorious land, and in his hand shall be destruction.
17
He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him equitable conditions; and he shall perform them: and he shall give him the daughter of women, to corrupt her; but she shall not stand, neither be for him.
18
After this shall he turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: but a prince shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; yes, moreover, he shall cause his reproach to turn on him.
19
Then he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.
20
Then shall stand up in his place one who shall cause a tax collector to pass through the kingdom to maintain its glory; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.
21
In his place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security, and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
22
The overwhelming forces shall be overwhelmed from before him, and shall be broken; yes, also the prince of the covenant.
23
After the treaty made with him he shall work deceitfully; for he shall come up, and shall become strong, with a small people.
24
In time of security shall he come even on the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them prey, and spoil, and substance: yes, he shall devise his devices against the strongholds, even for a time.
25
He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall war in battle with an exceeding great and mighty army; but he shall not stand; for they shall devise devices against him.
26
Yes, they who eat of his dainties shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain.
27
As for both these kings, their hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table: but it shall not prosper; for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
28
Then shall he return into his land with great substance; and his heart [shall be] against the holy covenant; and he shall do [his pleasure], and return to his own land.
29
At the time appointed he shall return, and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter time as it was in the former.
30
For ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and shall return, and have indignation against the holy covenant, and shall do [his pleasure]: he shall even return, and have regard to those who forsake the holy covenant.
31
Forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual [burnt offering], and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.
32
Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits].
33
Those who are wise among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, [many] days.
34
Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves to them with flatteries.
35
Some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.
36
The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.
37
Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.
38
But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers didn't know shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39
He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whoever acknowledges [him] he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.
40
At the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.
41
He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.
42
He shall stretch forth his hand also on the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43
But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44
But news out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.
45
He shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
