751. 17:18 "And the woman whom you saw is the great city which holds sway over the kings of the earth." This symbolically means that the Roman Catholic religion will reign as to doctrine in the Christian world, and to some extent still also among the Protestant Reformed, even though the latter are not under papal dominion.

These words symbolize all of this because they form a conclusion and so involve not only the declarations made about Roman Catholics, but also those made about the French nation and Protestants. Thus we are told that the woman, which is the great city, also holds sway over these.

But we must say how this is so. The Roman Catholic Church holds sway over Protestants, not to the degree that it does over those who are committed to its religion, but to the extent that Protestants in some measure have accepted its doctrines. The doctrines they have accepted are these, that they turn to God the Father and not the Lord; that they do not acknowledge the Lord's humanity as Divine; that His suffering of the cross constitutes an atonement, conciliation and satisfaction with God the Father; the imputation of the merit of Christ; some tenets regarding baptism, original sin, and free will; and, in the case of Lutherans, that they come close to accepting the doctrine of transubstantiation. ¹

These doctrines taken over from Roman Catholicism, and that in some part accord with it, are the reason we are told that the woman, which is the great city, holds sway over the kings of the earth.

The woman symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, as we have said. A city symbolizes doctrine (nos. 194, 501, 502, 712). A kingdom symbolizes the church (no. 749), and thus to hold sway symbolizes the governing of it. Kings of the earth symbolizes a church's truths or falsities (nos. 20, 483, 664, 704, 720, 737, 740), and so also its doctrines. The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285).

It is apparent from this that the declaration that the woman whom you saw is the great city which holds sway over the kings of the earth, symbolically means that the Roman Catholic religion will reign as to doctrine in the Christian world, and to some extent still also among the Protestant Reformed, even though the latter are not under papal dominion.

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