862. We have said that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people attempted to destroy everything connected with the New Church, both its truths and goods and its fundamental doctrine regarding the Lord and life, as stated in the preceding number. This is the symbolic meaning because the camp of the saints symbolizes all the truths and goods of the church which is the New Jerusalem.

That a camp in the spiritual sense symbolizes everything connected with the church with respect to its truths and goods can be seen from the following passages:

The sun and moon grew dark, and the stars diminished their brightness. Jehovah uttered His voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for numberless are those who obey His Word. (Joel 2:10-11)

I will encamp for My house some of the army... (Zechariah 9:8)

...God has scattered the bones of them who encamp against you..., because God has rejected them. (Psalms 53:5)

The angel of Jehovah encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. (Psalms 34:7)

(An angel of God met Jacob, and said to Jacob,) "This is God's camp." Therefore he called the name of that place Mahanaim (Two Camps). (Genesis 32:1-2)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 29:3, Ezekiel 1:24, Psalms 27:3.

That an army or host in the Word symbolizes the church's truths and goods, and also its falsities and evils, may be seen in nos. 447, 826, 833; and so, too, does a camp.

[2] Since the children of Israel and their twelve tribes symbolize the church in respect to all its truths and goods (nos. 349, 350), they were therefore called the armies or hosts of Jehovah (Exodus 7:4; 12:41, 51), and the places where they stopped and assembled were called camps, as in Leviticus 4:12; 8:17; 13:46; 14:8; 16:26, 28; 24:14, 23; Numbers 1; 2; 3; 4:5 ff., 5:2-4; 9:17-23; 10:1-10, 11-28; 11:31-32; 12:14-15; 21:10-15; 33:1-49; Deuteronomy 23:9-14; Amos 4:10.

It is apparent from this now that the nations' surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city means, symbolically, that these people tried to destroy all the truths and goods of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, and also its doctrine regarding the Lord and life.

The same symbolism is found in these verses in Luke:

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near... (At length) Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20, 24)

This is said in reference to the end of the age, which is the final period of the church. Jerusalem here also symbolizes the church.

That Gog and Magog, that is, people who engage in external worship divorced from any internal worship, will then invade the church and try to destroy it, is something we are told also in Ezekiel 38:8-9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 39:2, and that the New Church will then be established by the Lord, Ezekiel 39:17-29.

821. And He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and does combat. This symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word, as being Divine good itself and Divine truth itself, who exercises judgment in accordance with both and separates the good from the evil.

He who sat on it, that is, on the white horse, means the Lord in relation to the Word. That it is the Lord in relation to the Word is apparent from verse 13 below, where we are told that He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and that His name is called "The Word of God." "Faithful and true" symbolizes the Divine goodness and Divine truth - faithfulness symbolizing Divine goodness because Divine goodness is faithful. In reference to people, someone who is faithful is someone in the inmost or third heaven, thus someone prompted by celestial goodness, as may be seen in no. 744 above. Truth in reference to the Lord plainly symbolizes Divine truth.

That righteousness symbolizes both goodness and truth, and in reference to the Lord, Divine goodness and Divine truth, may be seen in no. 805 above. It follows, therefore, that to judge in righteousness symbolically means to exercise judgment in accordance with Divine goodness and Divine truth.

That every judgment by the Lord is given effect by means of the Word, and that it is accordingly the Word that judges everyone, may be seen in no. 233 above. To do combat in righteousness means, symbolically, to separate the good from the evil, because the Lord does not fight against anyone, but separates good people from evil ones, and when the good have been separated from the evil, the evil then cast themselves into hell.