When 'islands' are contrasted to 'earth' or 'mountains,' they signify the truths of faith, because they are in the sea. They signify doctrinal things which are rituals. 'Islands' signify peoples who are more remote from the worship of God. People who are steeped in the internal sense of the Word, such as angels, do not know what islands are, because they no longer have any concept of such places. Instead they have a perception of more remote worship, like the gentiles outside the church.

'Islands,' in Ezekiel 27:6, signify people in the church in a natural, materially-oriented state but still rational.

(참조: Apocalypse Explained 406; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 49, 49:1)

403. And something like a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. This symbolizes the appearance of a hellish love in people concerned with the external elements of the church and caught up in faith alone.

The sea symbolizes the church in people concerned with its external elements and caught up in faith alone; and people concerned with its external elements are in common speech termed the laity, because those concerned with its internal elements are called the clergy (no. Apocalypse Revealed 398, 402). A mountain symbolizes love (no. 336), and a mountain burning with fire symbolizes hellish love (nos. 494, 599). That is how this love appears in the case of people who are the subject here, for the love appears to emanate from them in the presence of angels. That is because faith alone is faith divorced from charity (no. 388); and where there is no charity, that is, no love for the neighbor, which is a spiritual love, a hellish love exists. An intermediate love is not found except among the lukewarm, who are the subject in Revelation 3:15-16.