Apocalypse Revealed # 749
749. 17:17 "For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose, and to be of one mind and give their kingdom to the beast." This symbolizes a judgment among Protestants from the Lord that they should utterly repudiate and renounce the Roman Catholic religion and expunge and eradicate it in themselves, and a unanimous judgment that they should acknowledge the Word and found the church on it.
Since the harlot symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, and the ten horns that will hate the harlot symbolize Protestants, as in nos. 746-748 above, it is apparent that carrying out God's purpose means symbolically that they judged and concluded that they should utterly repudiated and renounce the Roman Catholic religion and expunge and eradicate it in themselves, as in no. 748 above. And it is apparent as well that to be of one mind and give their kingdom to the beast means, symbolically, to unanimously judge and conclude that they should acknowledge the Word and found the church on it. The beast symbolizes the Word, as it has everywhere before (see no. 723), and their kingdom symbolizes the church and government over it, about which we will say more here below. That God put it into their hearts means symbolically that their judgments came from the Lord.
[2] That a kingdom symbolizes the church can be seen from the following passages:
The children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. (Matthew 8:12)
...the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom... (Matthew 13:38)
Someone who hears the Word of the kingdom, and does not heed it... (Matthew 13:19)
...the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. (Matthew 21:43)
No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
Jesus, John the Baptist, and the disciples preached that the kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 10:7, Luke 10:11; 16:16), and they preached also the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14, Luke 8:1).
If I cast out demons by the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come to you. (Luke 11:20)
And so on in many other passages where the kingdom of God is mentioned.
So, too, in the following:
...if you will... obey My voice and keep My covenant... you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests... (Exodus 19:5-6)
You, O tower of the flock, the ascent of the daughter of Zion, to you shall return... the former kingdom..., the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. (Micah 4:8)
The saints... shall (afterward) receive the kingdom, and establish the kingdom..., even forever... (Daniel 7:18, cf. 7:22)
The kingdom and dominion, and the majesty of the kingdoms under all the heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints...(whose) kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall worship and obey Him. (Daniel 7:27)
To (the Son of Man) was given... a kingdom (which shall not be destroyed), and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him. (Daniel 7:14)
And so on elsewhere.
A kingdom symbolizes the church because the Lord's kingdom exists in heaven and on earth, and His kingdom on earth is the church. That, too, is why the Lord is called King of kings.
Revelation 1
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Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to shew to his bondmen what must shortly take place; and he signified [it], sending by his angel, to his bondman John,
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who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw.
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Blessed [is] he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time [is] near.
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John to the seven assemblies which [are] in Asia: Grace to you and peace from [him] who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits which [are] before his throne;
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and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood,
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and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father: to him [be] the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.
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Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they which have pierced him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of him. Yea. Amen.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith [the] Lord God, he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
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I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.
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I became in [the] Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet,
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saying, What thou seest write in a book, and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
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And I turned back to see the voice which spoke with me; and having turned, I saw seven golden lamps,
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and in the midst of the [seven] lamps [one] like [the] Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle:
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his head and hair white like white wool, as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire;
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and his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters;
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and having in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and his countenance as the sun shines in its power.
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And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead; and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; *I* am the first and the last,
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and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades.
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Write therefore what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these.
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The mystery of the seven stars which thou hast seen on my right hand, and the seven golden lamps. -- The seven stars are angels of the seven assemblies; and the seven lamps are seven assemblies.
