603. And cause whoever does not worship the image of the beast to be killed. This symbolically means that the clergy pronounce damnation on people who do not acknowledge their doctrine of faith as a sacred doctrine of the church.

To worship the image of the beast means, symbolically, to acknowledge their doctrine of faith as sacred church doctrine; for to worship means, symbolically, to acknowledge as a sacred tenet of the church (nos. 579, 580, 588, 597), and the image of the beast symbolizes that doctrine. To be killed means, symbolically, to be spiritually killed, which is to be damned (no. 325 and elsewhere). And because to be killed means, symbolically, to be damned, it also means to be declared a heretic and to be excommunicated from the church. For in their eyes a heretic is regarded as damned.

This is the case with the learned of the clergy, who have been taught the mysteries of justification in schools and universities. Especially is it the case with those possessing a conceit in their erudition because of the mysteries they have learned. These condemn all who do not think as they do, and to the extent they dare, they fulminate against them.

[2] I can relate the following, that clergy who have learned those mysteries and possessed a conceit in their erudition on that account, in the spiritual world are so hostile to people who worship the Lord and do not accept faith alone as the only means of salvation, that they break out into a blaze of anger and wrath when they see them, and also when from a distance they sense the Divine atmosphere of the Lord and the atmosphere of charity surrounding them.

Since that is their character, therefore the dragon is described as a most hostile foe to such people. As for example, that it stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born; that it spewed water out of its mouth like a flood after the woman, to cause her to be carried away by the flood; and that enraged with the woman, it went off to make war with the rest of her offspring (Revelation 12:4, 15, 17). That three unclean spirits, like frogs, came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, to gather their followers to the battle of the great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:13-16, cf. 19:19-20; 20:8-10). And also that the beast ascending out of the bottomless pit killed the two witnesses and cast their bodies on the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, and would not allow their bodies to be put into tombs (Revelation 11:7-9). Not to permit their bodies to be put into tombs means, symbolically, to reject as damned (no. 506).