เอเสเคียล 23:27
Many thanks to Philip Pope for the permission to use his 2003 translation of the English King James Version Bible into Thai. Here's a link to the mission's website: www.thaipope.org
Apocalypse Revealed #720
720. 17:2 "With whom the kings of the earth committed whoredom." This symbolically means that the Roman Catholic religion adulterated the church's goods and truths that it had from the Word.
To commit whoredom means, symbolically, to falsify and adulterate truths, as said just above in no. 719. The kings of the earth symbolize the church's truths that it has from the Word - kings symbolizing truths springing from goodness, and the earth symbolizing the church.
That kings symbolize people who possess truths springing from goodness from the Lord, and so in an abstract sense the truths themselves that spring from goodness, may be seen in nos. 20, 664 above. Here they symbolize those truths adulterated and profaned.
We are told that the kings of the earth committed whoredom with the great harlot, as though the church's truths from the Word did so, truths being symbolized by the kings of the earth. But this accords with the style of the Word in its literal sense, in which we find attributed to God and to the Divine things emanating from Him - which include the Word's truths - qualities and actions which nevertheless are those of mankind and its evils, as has often been shown above. Consequently the genuine meaning - namely the spiritual sense - is that the Roman Catholic religion adulterated, indeed profaned, the church's truths which it had from the Word.
Someone who is unacquainted with the Word's spiritual meaning may easily be deluded into believing that the kings of the earth mean earthly kings, when in fact it is not those kings that are meant, but truths springing from goodness, and in an opposite sense, falsities springing from evil.
[2] To make it still more apparent that kings of the earth mean nothing else than a church's truths or falsities, and that kings' whoredoms are the falsifications, adulterations and profanations of the church's truths that is has from the Lord, we will cite several passages from the book of Revelation and Daniel, from which anyone capable of reflecting may see that it is not kings that are meant. The passages are these:
...Jesus Christ... has made us kings and priests... (Revelation 1:5-6)
...you have made us kings and priests to our God, that we may reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10)
...you (shall) eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains..., the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them... (Revelation 19:18)
The seven heads (of the scarlet beast) are seven mountains... They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, and one is... And the beast... is... the eighth (king), and is of the seven... (Revelation 17:9-11)
The ten horns... are ten kings that have not yet received a kingdom... (Revelation 17:12)
We are also told later, as in the present verse, that the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with and taken delight in the harlot (Revelation 18:3, 9).
Who that is capable of reflecting does not see that kings here do not mean kings?
[3] Similar things are said in Daniel. For example, that the hairy male goat means a king, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king; and that when their transgressions have reached their height, a stern-faced king will arise who understands cunning schemes (Daniel 8:21, 23). That the four great beasts that arose out of the sea were four kings that would rise up from the earth, that the fourth beast's ten horns were ten kings, and that another would arise after them that would lay low the three kings (Daniel 7:17, 24). So, too, that the king of the south and the king of the north would fight against each other; that the king of the south would send his daughter to the king of the north; that the king of the north would exalt himself against God, and would acknowledge a foreign god; that people who acknowledged that god he would honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and desirable things, and cause them to rule over many, and would divide the land for a price; that he would plant the tents of his tabernacle between the seas, in the vicinity of the glorious holy mountain; but that he would come to his end - besides much else (Daniel 11).
[4] The king of the south symbolizes a kingdom or church consisting of people in possession of truths, and the king of the north symbolizes a kingdom or church consisting of people caught up in falsities. For the text is prophetic of churches to come, such as they would be in the beginning, and what they would be like after that.
People who possess truths springing from good from the Lord are called kings because they are called the Lord's children, and having been regenerated by the Lord, they are said to have been born of Him and to be His heirs, and the Lord is the King, and heaven and the church are His kingdom.
Revelation 17
1
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
2
with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality."
3
He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored animal, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
4
The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.
5
And on her forehead a name was written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
6
I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
7
The angel said to me, "Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
8
The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present.
9
Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.
10
They are seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must continue a little while.
11
The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction.
12
The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour.
13
These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
14
These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. They also will overcome who are with him, called and chosen and faithful."
15
He said to me, "The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
16
The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, and will make her desolate, and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.
17
For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.
18
The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth."
