285. We are told they "will reign upon the earth" because the earth here and elsewhere means the Lord's church in heaven and on earth. The church in both worlds is the Lord's kingdom. Therefore, lest anyone suppose that people who are redeemed by the Lord all become kings and priests who will reign upon the earth, it is important that we demonstrate from the Word that the earth or land symbolizes the church. This can be seen from the following passages:

Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes (the earth) waste, and will overturn its surface... The land shall be entirely emptied... The (habitable) earth will mourn and... be turned upside down... The earth will be profaned under its inhabitants... Therefore a curse shall devour the earth... and... the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few men will be left... ...in the midst of the land... it shall be like the stripping of an olive tree... ...the cataracts on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is violently broken, the earth is utterly split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard... (Isaiah 24:1-23.)

[2] The lion has come up from his thicket... to make your land desolate... I beheld the earth (when) lo, it was empty and void... ...Jehovah has said, "The whole land shall be desolate... For this shall the earth mourn... (Jeremiah 4:7, 23-28)

How long will the land mourn...? The whole land is made desolate, because no one lays it to heart. (Jeremiah 12:4, 11-13)

The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and withered away. (Isaiah 33:9)

Its land shall become burning pitch...(and) it shall lie waste. (Isaiah 34:9-10)

...I have heard from the Lord... a destruction decreed upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:22)

Behold, the day of Jehovah comes... to lay the land desolate..., and the earth will be shaken out of its place... (Isaiah 13:9-13)

The earth shook and trembled, and the foundations of the mountains quaked... (Psalms 18:7)

...we will not fear when the earth is transformed... When He uttered His voice, the earth melted. (Psalms 46:2-3, 6, 8)

Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? (Isaiah 40:21)

O God, You have forsaken us... You have made the earth tremble...; heal its breaches, for it is shaken. (Psalms 60:1-2)

[3] The earth and all its inhabitants will melt away; I will firm up its pillars. (Psalms 75:3)

Woe to a land overshadowed by wings... Go, ...messengers, to... a nation... trodden down, whose land rivers have despoiled. (Isaiah 18:1-2)

By the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts the land is darkened... (Isaiah 9:19)

...you will be a delightful land... (Malachi 3:12)

...I have given You as a covenant of the people to restore the earth... Sing, O heavens! And exult, O earth! (Isaiah 49:8, 13)

I shall not see Yah... in the land of the living. (Isaiah 38:11)

...who caused terror in the land of the living. (Ezekiel 32:23-27)

I would not have believed I would see the goodness... in the land of life. (Psalms 27:13)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

I am Jehovah, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens alone, who spreads out the earth by Myself. (Isaiah 44,24, cf. Zechariah 12:1, Jeremiah 10:11-13; 51:15, Psalm. 136:6)

Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation... ...thus said Jehovah, who created the heavens..., who formed the earth... (Isaiah 45:8, 12, 18-19)

...behold, I create new heavens and a new earth... (Isaiah 65:17, cf. 66:22)

And in many other places as well, which, if I were to cite them, would fill a page.

[4] The earth or land symbolizes the church for the reason that it very often means the land of Canaan, which is where the church was. That is the heavenly Canaan. Moreover, when the earth or land is mentioned, angels, being spiritual, do not think of the earth or land, but of the human race dwelling upon it and its spiritual state; and its spiritual state is the state of the church.

The earth or land also has an opposite meaning, and in that sense it symbolizes damnation, since when the church is not present in a person, damnation is. The earth or land is mentioned in that sense in Isaiah 14:12; 21:9; 26:19, 21; 29:4; 47:1; 63:6, Lamentations 2:2, 10, Ezekiel 26:20; 32:24, Numbers 16:29-33; 26:10, and elsewhere.

498. And to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. This symbolically means that people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind, as often as, and in the measure that, they do so.

The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), and a plague symbolizes evil and falsity (no. 456). Thus to strike the earth with every plague means, symbolically, to ruin the church with evils and falsities of every kind.

Still, as in the case of earlier interpretations, this has to be understood, namely, that when people wish to strike these two essential elements of the New Church with plague, that is, when they wish to destroy them, which they are moved by evil to do by means of falsities, they propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind. Moreover, because the natural sense is turned around when it becomes spiritual, therefore this statement, too, "as often as they desire," is similarly changed into "as often as and in the measure that they do." The reason is that to the extent someone destroys these two essential elements, to the same extent he destroys the truths of the Word, and to the extent he destroys the truths of the Word, to the same extent he propels himself into evils and falsities. For these two essential elements are truths of the Word, as may be clearly seen from two books containing the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, one being The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, and the other titled The Doctrine of Life in Accordance With the Precepts of the Decalogue.

This statement, that the two witnesses have the power to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire, is similar to many others in the Word which attribute to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, His striking people with a plague, and its being His will to do so, even though it is to be understood that He does not strike anyone, and that it is not His will to do so. For example, in Zechariah:

This shall be the plague with which Jehovah will strike all the people who fight against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 14:12ff.)

And in Jeremiah:

...I have stricken you with the plague of an enemy, with the chastisement of a tyrant, for the multitude of your iniquities... (Jeremiah 30:14)

And so on in many places elsewhere. See also no. 494 above.