Apocalypse Revealed # 719
719. Saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters." This symbolizes a revelation about that religion as regards its profanations and adulterations of the Word's truths.
Saying and showing symbolize a revelation. The judgment symbolizes the state of the Roman Catholic religion at its end. The great harlot symbolizes a profanation of the sanctities of the Word and the church, and an adulteration of their goodness and truth. Many waters symbolize the Word's truths adulterated. To sit upon the waters means, symbolically, to possess them and live caught up in them.
To play the harlot, to whore, to behave licentiously and to commit adultery mean, symbolically, to falsify and adulterate the Word, as may be seen in nos. 134, 620, 632 above; and waters symbolize its truths, nos. 50, 563, 614, 685, here those truths adulterated and profaned, because a harlot is said to be on them.
It is apparent from this that "saying to me, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters," symbolizes a revelation about the aforesaid religion as regards its profanations and adulterations of the Word's truths.
[2] Something similar is said about Babel in Jeremiah:
...Jehovah will... do what He spoke against the inhabitants of Babel. You who dwell upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is coming, the measure of your material gain. (Jeremiah 51:12-13)
We say that Roman Catholics adulterated and profaned the Word's truths, because they used the Word's truths to gain dominion over the sanctities of the church and over heaven and to claim for themselves the Lord's Divine power; and to use the Word's truths to gain dominion over the sanctities of the church and heaven is to adulterate them, and to use them to claim for oneself the Lord's Divine power is to profane them.
People know that they use the Word to defend their dogmas. But read those dogmas attentively and you will see that they have used everything that they have taken from the Word to gain dominion over people's souls and to acquire for themselves a power, authority and majesty that is Divine.
It is for this reason that Babylon is named the Mother of the Whoredoms and Abominations of the Earth in verse 5.
Daniel 7:15-28
15
As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.
16
I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
17
These great animals, which are four, are four kings, who shall arise out of the earth.
18
But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
19
Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth animal, which was diverse from all of them, exceedingly terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet;
20
and concerning the ten horns that were on its head, and the other [horn] which came up, and before which three fell, even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke great things, whose look was more stout than its fellows.
21
I saw, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
22
until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23
Thus he said, The fourth animal shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.
25
He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.
26
But the judgment shall be set, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end.
27
The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
28
Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my face was changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.
