718. 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me. This symbolizes influx now and a revelation from the Lord from the inmost of heaven about the Roman Catholic religion.

Up to this point the subject has been the state of the Protestant Reformed church at its end. Now the subject is the state of the Roman Catholic religion at its end. This also follows in order, as mentioned in the introduction [no. 717].

We do not call it the Roman Catholic Church, but the Roman Catholic religion, because Roman Catholics do not turn to the Lord or read the Word, and because they invoke the dead, and yet it is the Lord and the Word that make the church a church, and its perfection depends on its acknowledgment of the Lord and on its understanding of the Word.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with John, because the seven angels who had the seven bowls symbolize an influx from the Lord from the inmost of the Christian heaven into the church in order to expose the evils and falsities in it (see nos. 672, 676, 677, 683, 690, 691, 699, 700 above). Therefore those seven angels here symbolize the Lord speaking from the inmost of heaven and revealing the state in which the Roman Catholic religion would be at its end.

That is also why one of the seven angels took John onto a high mountain and showed him the Lamb's wife, which is the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9-10).

347. "Till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." This symbolically means, before those people were separated who were governed by truths springing from goodness from the Lord, thus who were inwardly good.

Sealing them on the foreheads does not mean to seal them there actually, but to distinguish and separate people who are impelled by the goodness of love from the Lord; for the forehead symbolizes the goodness of love. They are people who are governed by truths springing from goodness from the Lord, because these are the kind of people meant by servants of God (no. 3).

The forehead symbolizes the goodness of love because the face images a person's affections, and the forehead is the highest part of the face. Just underneath the forehead is the brain, from which originates everything connected with the person's life.

Because the forehead symbolizes love - a good love in the case of good people, and an evil love in the case of evil people - therefore to seal them on the foreheads means, symbolically, to distinguish and separate one from the other according to their love.

The like is symbolically meant in Ezekiel:

Go through... the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who groan... over... the abominations... (Ezekiel 9:4-6)

[2] Since the forehead symbolizes love, therefore regarding the plate on Aaron's turban which had "Holiness to Jehovah" engraved on it, we read that it was on the front of the turban, so as to be on Aaron's forehead, and to be always on Aaron's forehead, that the people might find favor before Jehovah (Exodus 28:36-38). And it was also commanded that the words, "You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul," be on the hand and on the forehead (Deuteronomy 6:5, 8; 11:18); that they have the name of the Father written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1), and the name of God and of the Lamb on their foreheads (Revelation 22:4).

It should be known that the Lord views angels by looking upon their foreheads, and they in turn view the Lord with their eyes. The reason is that the Lord regards all in accordance with the goodness of their love, and wills that they in turn regard Him in accordance with the truths of wisdom, so as to bring about a conjunction.

[3] In an opposite sense the forehead in the following instances symbolizes an evil love: people who have the mark of the beast on their foreheads (Revelation 13:16; 14:9; 20:4); and also people with the name of Babylon on their foreheads (Revelation 17:5). The forehead of a woman who is a harlot (Jeremiah 3:3). People having an obstinate forehead and a hard heart (Ezekiel 3:7-8).

...you were obstinate..., and your forehead was bronze... (Isaiah 48:4)