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)

88. BRIEF ANALYSIS

That seven chapters of the Revelation treat of the perverted state of the Church among the Reformed, and two chapters of the perverted state of the Church among the Roman Catholics, and that the states of both Churches as existing at the present day are condemned, has been shown in the exposition of this book in a work entitled THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED; and this, not by uncertain conjectures, but with full proofs. By the dragon, treated of in the twelfth chapter, are meant those in the Reformed Churches who make God into three and the Lord into two, and who separate charity from faith by making faith spiritual and saving, not charity; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 532-565, and the memorable experience adjoined,THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 566. They are further described by the two beasts, one rising out of the sea and the other out of the earth, as related in chapter xiii; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 567-610, and the memorable experience,THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 611. They are further described by the locusts which came forth out of the pit of the abyss, as mentioned in chapter 9; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 419-442. This same faith, when confirmed, is meant by the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two faithful witnesses were slain, as related in chapter 11; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 485-530, particularly THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 500-503, and the memorable experience,THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 531. They are also meant by the pit of the abyss out of which issued smoke as from a furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened, and then locusts came forth, as described in chapter 9; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 421-424.