718. 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me. This symbolizes influx now and a revelation from the Lord from the inmost of heaven about the Roman Catholic religion.

Up to this point the subject has been the state of the Protestant Reformed church at its end. Now the subject is the state of the Roman Catholic religion at its end. This also follows in order, as mentioned in the introduction [no. 717].

We do not call it the Roman Catholic Church, but the Roman Catholic religion, because Roman Catholics do not turn to the Lord or read the Word, and because they invoke the dead, and yet it is the Lord and the Word that make the church a church, and its perfection depends on its acknowledgment of the Lord and on its understanding of the Word.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with John, because the seven angels who had the seven bowls symbolize an influx from the Lord from the inmost of the Christian heaven into the church in order to expose the evils and falsities in it (see nos. 672, 676, 677, 683, 690, 691, 699, 700 above). Therefore those seven angels here symbolize the Lord speaking from the inmost of heaven and revealing the state in which the Roman Catholic religion would be at its end.

That is also why one of the seven angels took John onto a high mountain and showed him the Lamb's wife, which is the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9-10).

745. 17:15 Then he said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes, nations and tongues." This symbolically means that under papal dominion, but caught up in various ways in that religion's adulterated and profaned truths of the Word, are peoples of a varying doctrine and discipline, and of a varying religion and confession of it.

The waters that John saw where the harlot sits are the waters mentioned in verse 1 of this chapter, where we are told, "I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters." The waters there symbolize the Word's truths adulterated and profaned, as may be seen in no. 719 above.

This verse says that the waters are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, because these symbolize all those peoples of various doctrines and disciplines, and of various religions and confessions, who are under papal dominion. For peoples symbolize people concerned with doctrine (no. 483); multitudes, people concerned with discipline; nations, people concerned with religion (no. 483); and tongues, people concerned with confession (nos. 282, 483).

These are now mentioned, because we are earlier told of the reception and understanding of the Word by people in the Roman Catholic religion itself (verses 8-11); and after that of the reception and understanding of the Word by the noble French nation (verses 12-14). Here then we are told about the reception and understanding of the Word among all the rest of the people under papal dominion. This is afterward followed by verses 16 and 17 regarding Protestants. Thus in due order is everything foretold.

That there are peoples under papal dominion of various doctrines and disciplines, and of various religions and confessions, is something people know; for that religion is not revered in the same way in the different kingdoms.