Apocalypse Revealed # 748
748. "And eat her flesh and burn her with fire." This symbolically means that Protestants will with hatred condemn and destroy in themselves the evils and falsities inherent in the Roman Catholic religion, and will renounce the religion itself and expunge it in themselves.
This is said of Protestants, who will deal thus with the harlot, that is, with the Roman Catholic religion. To eat her flesh means, symbolically, with hatred to condemn and destroy in themselves the inherent characteristics of that religion, which are evils and falsities, about which we will say more below. And to burn her with fire means, symbolically, to renounce that religion as profane and expunge it in themselves.
This is what burning with fire means because the penalty for profaning something holy was burning. Therefore, according to Divine law, people who profaned the name of Jehovah by worshiping other gods were burned with fire - they and all their belongings (Deuteronomy 13:12-18). Therefore Moses burned with fire the golden calf that the children of Israel were profanely worshiping (Exodus 32:20, Deuteronomy 9:21). Moreover, because two of Aaron's sons profaned holy things, they were consumed by fire from heaven (Leviticus 10:1-6). Nor is anything else symbolized by the fire and pyre in Tophet but the fire of hell, which awaits those who profane holy things (Isaiah 30:33, Jeremiah 7:11, 31-32; 19:5-6, 2 Kings 23:10), for there the people worshiped Molech with a heinous sacrifice. 1
[2] Since the fourth beast in Daniel 7 symbolizes a religion that profanes the Word and consequently the sanctities of the church (no. 717), therefore we are told that it was burned with fire (Daniel 7:11).
Now, because it is profane worship to worship a person instead of the Lord, we are accordingly told here that they burnt the harlot with fire, which symbolically means that they renounced the religion itself and expunged it in themselves.
To eat her flesh means, symbolically, with hatred to condemn and destroy in themselves the inherent characteristics of that religion, which are evils and falsities, because that is the symbolic meaning of eating her flesh. For flesh symbolizes the inherent characteristics of a thing which relate to goods and truths, and in an opposite sense, to evils and falsities, and to eat means, symbolically, to consume, thus to destroy.
That flesh symbolizes a person's inherent character, which in itself is evil, is clear from the following passages:
It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. (John 6:63)
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)
As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be children of God...: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh... (John 1:12-13)
(God) remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. (Psalms 78:39)
The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. (Isaiah 31:3)
(Jerusalem) committed harlotry with the Egyptians..., great of flesh. (Ezekiel 16:26)
Jesus... said to (Peter), ."..flesh and blood has not revealed this to you...." (Matthew 16:17)
Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm... (Jeremiah 17:5)
[3] Because flesh symbolizes a person's inherent character, and people who hate others attack their personal character with the intention of destroying it, therefore to eat the flesh has also this symbolic meaning, as in the following passages:
Let the dying die, and the cut off be cut off. Those that are left eat each other's flesh. (Zechariah 11:9)
They shall devour Israel with the whole mouth... Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm - Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh. (Isaiah 9:12, 20-21)
I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh... (Isaiah 49:26)
...everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend... (Jeremiah 19:9)
To eat the flesh of sons and daughters (Jeremiah 19:9, Leviticus 26:29, Deuteronomy 28:53) means, symbolically, to destroy truths and goods in oneself, for sons symbolize truths, and daughters goods, as may be seen in nos. 139, 543, 545, 612[1-4] above.
Moreover, in the Word we find reference to "all flesh," and this symbolically means all mankind (Genesis 6:12-13, 17, 19).
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The heinous sacrifice consisted of "passing infants through the fire to Molech," by burning them alive on a sacrificial altar. Vestiges of this worship have been found elsewhere, as far as northern Africa. Tophet was a site in the valley of Hinnom at the foot of Mount Zion on the south side. Because of the nature of its worship, the valley of Hinnon (Ge' Hinnom = Gehenna) became synonymous with Hades or hell.
Deuteronomy 14
1
You are the children of Yahweh your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
2
For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
3
You shall not eat any abominable thing.
4
These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
5
the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the chamois.
6
Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, [and] chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat.
7
Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit; because they chew the cud but don't part the hoof, they are unclean to you.
8
The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn't chew the cud, is unclean to you: of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
9
These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat;
10
and whatever doesn't have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you.
11
Of all clean birds you may eat.
12
But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the vulture, and the osprey,
13
and the red kite, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind,
14
and every raven after its kind,
15
and the ostrich, and the owl, and the seagull, and the hawk after its kind,
16
the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl,
17
and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant,
18
and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.
19
All winged creeping things are unclean to you: they shall not be eaten.
20
Of all clean birds you may eat.
21
You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner: for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
22
You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes forth from the field year by year.
23
You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always.
24
If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Yahweh your God shall choose, to set his name there, when Yahweh your God shall bless you;
25
then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose:
26
and you shall bestow the money for whatever your soul desires, for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
27
The Levite who is within your gates, you shall not forsake him; for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
28
At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates:
29
and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
