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.

664. "For just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!" This symbolically means that everything that emanates from the Lord is just and true, because He is Divine goodness itself and Divine truth itself in heaven and in the church.

Ways symbolize truths that lead to good (no. 176). The title "king" in reference to the Lord symbolizes Divine truth, and "O King of saints" the Divine truth derived from Him in heaven and the church; for saints symbolize people who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord (nos. 173, 586). Consequently "just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!" means symbolically that everything emanating from the Lord is just and true, because He is Divine truth itself in heaven and in the church.

The Lord is called a king in reference to His Divine humanity, because this is the Messiah, the Anointed, the Christ, the Son of God. Messiah in Hebrew is Christ in Greek, and Messiah or Christ is the Son of God, as may be seen in no. 520 above. It is well known that Messiah in Hebrew means both king and anointed.

The Lord as king is the embodiment of Divine truth because that is the symbolic meaning of the title "king" (nos. 20, 483). Kings accordingly symbolize people who possess Divine truths from the Lord (Revelation 1:6; 5:10).

It is because of this that heaven and the church are called the Lord's kingdom, and that His advent into the world is called the gospel of the kingdom.

Heaven and the church are called the Lord's kingdom in Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14, 27; Luke 1:33; 4:43; 8:1, 10; 9:2, 11, 27; 10:11; 16:16; 19:11; 21:31; 22:18; 23:51. And His advent is called the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14. ¹

But more on this subject may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

[2] That the Lord is called a king is apparent from the following passages:

These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. (Revelation 17:14)

(He who sat on the white horse) is called the Word... And... His... name (is) Lord of lords and King of kings. (Revelation 19:13, 16, cf. Daniel 2:47)

Nathanael... said..., ."..You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" (John 1:49)

When the Son of Man comes in His glory..., ...He will sit on the throne of His glory... And the King will say to those on His right hand... (and) to those on the left hand... (Matthew 25:31, 34, 41)

...they cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel! " (John 12:13)

Pilate (asked the Lord:) "Are You a king...?" Jesus answered, ."..I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world...." (John 18:37)

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty... ...Jehovah our King, He will save us. (Isaiah 33:17 , 22)

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. (Isaiah 43:15)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last, and beside Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

Jehovah shall become King over all the earth. (Zechariah 14:9, cf. Psalms 47:2, 6-8)

Lift up your heads, O you gates..., that the King of glory may come in... Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory. (Psalms 24:7-10)

I will raise to David a righteous Branch, (who as) a king shall reign... and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. (Jeremiah 23:5, cf. 33:15)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 6:5; 52:7; Jeremiah 10:7, 10; 46:18; Ezekiel 37:22, 24; Zephaniah 3:15; Psalms 20:9; 45:11, 13-14; 68:24; 74:12.

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