Apocalypse Revealed # 586
586. 13:7 It was granted it to make war with the saints and overcome them. This symbolically means that they attacked the Word's Divine truths and overturned them.
War symbolizes spiritual war, which is a war of falsity against truth, and of truth against falsity (no. 500). To make war, therefore, symbolically means to attack. Saints mean people who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord through the Word, and thus, abstractly from persons, Divine truths themselves (no. 173). Consequently, to overcome the saints means, symbolically, to cause truths not to prevail, thus to overturn them.
The following declaration in Daniel has a similar symbolic meaning, that the fourth beast to come up from the sea, which had a mouth speaking great words, "made war with the saints and prevailed" (Daniel 7:7-8, 21). To be shown that the male goat means faith divorced from charity, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith, nos. 61-68.
The following has a similar meaning:
...a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands intrigues... He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people... He shall even rise against the Prince of princes... He shall cause deceit to prosper under his hand. (Daniel 8:23-25)
The king is the male goat, as said in verse 21.
Very similar is symbolism found in the statement that "the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against (the two witnesses), overcome them, and kill them" (Revelation 11:7, and no. 500). They will overcome them because the laity do not see through the clergy's sophistries, which they call mysteries, for the clergy wrap them up in appearances and fallacious reasonings. That is why the people said, "Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?" (verse 4, and nos. 579-581).
[2] That saints (or holy ones) mean people governed by truths from the Lord through the Word can be seen from the passages cited in no. 173 above, and also from the following:
(Jesus said, "Father,) sanctify them in Your truth. Your Word is truth... ...I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth... I in them, and You in Me. (John 17:17, 19, 23)
Jehovah came from Sinai..., He came from the ten thousands of the holy; from His right hand came a fiery law for them... All His saints are in Your hand...; each shall receive Your words. (Deuteronomy 33:2-3)
It is apparent from this that those people are called saints who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord through the Word. Moreover, those who live according to the commandments, that is, to the Word's truths, are called the saints or holy people of Jehovah (Leviticus 19:2, Deuteronomy 26:18-19). The Decalogue is the covenant they were to keep (see no. 529 above, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem60).
It was for this reason that the place in the Tabernacle where the Ark was, containing the Decalogue, was called the holy of holies or the most holy place (Exodus 26:33-34).
[3] Those people who live according to the Word's truths are called saints, not because they are holy, but because the truths in them are holy; and truths are holy when they come from the Lord in them, and they have the Lord in them when they have His truths in them (John 15:7).
Because of their truths from the Lord, angels are called holy (Matthew 25:31, Luke 9:26). So, too, are prophets, (Luke 1:70, Revelation 18:20; 22:6). And also apostles (Revelation 18:20).
It is because of this that the Temple is called a holy temple (Psalms 5:7; 65:4). That Zion is called a holy mountain (Isaiah 65:11, Jeremiah 31:23, Ezekiel 20:40, Psalms 2:6; 3:4; 15:1). That Jerusalem is called a holy city (Isaiah 48:2; 64:10, Revelation 21:2, 10, Matthew 27:53). That the church is called a holy people (Isaiah 62:12; 63:18, Psalms 149:1), and also a kingdom of saints (Daniel 7:18, 22, 27).
They are called saints because in an abstract sense angels symbolize Divine truths from the Lord; prophets symbolizes doctrinal truths; apostles symbolize the church's truths; and the Temple symbolizes heaven and the church in respect to Divine truth, as do also Zion, Jerusalem, the people, and the kingdom of God.
That no one is holy in himself, not even angels, may be seen in Job 15:14-16. But they are holy from the Lord, because the Lord alone is holy (Revelation 15:4, no.173).
Isaiah 48
1
"Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness
2
(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name):
3
I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.
4
Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
5
therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'
6
You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.
7
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'
8
Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
9
For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.
10
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11
For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.
12
"Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13
Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
14
"Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.
15
I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16
"Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.
17
Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
18
Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:
19
your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20
Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21
They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
