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).

744. "And those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." This symbolically means that people who turn to the Lord and worship Him alone are those who go to heaven, both those concerned with the external elements of the church and those concerned with its internal and inmost elements.

Those who are with Him symbolize people who turn to the Lord, for they are the people with Him. Those who are called, chosen, and faithful symbolize people who are concerned with the external, internal and inmost elements of the church, who, being in the Lord, go to heaven.

The called, indeed, mean all people, because all have been called, but the called who are with the Lord mean people who are in heaven with the Lord, as all those are called who are present at the wedding with the bridegroom. ¹ The chosen do not mean that some are chosen by predestination, but people who are with the Lord are so called. The faithful mean people who have faith in the Lord.

[2] These are people who are concerned with the external, internal, and inmost elements of the church, because the Lord's church is, like heaven, distinguished into three degrees. In the lowest degree are people concerned with its external elements; in the second degree are people concerned with its internal ones; and in the third degree are people concerned with its inmost ones. People with the Lord who are concerned with the external elements of the church are said to be called. Those who are concerned with its internal elements are said to be chosen. And those who are concerned with its inmost elements are said to be faithful. For that is how they are termed in the Word, in which Jacob is said to be called, and Israel chosen, since Jacob there means people concerned with the external elements of the church, and Israel people concerned with its internal ones.

Because it is preceded by the statement that they will do battle with the Lamb, but that the Lamb will overcome them, we are told here that "those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful," in order that people may know that those whom the Lord overcomes, that is to say, whom He convinces by means of the Word, are with Him in heaven - some in the lowest heaven, some in the second heaven, and some in the third heaven - each according to his reception.

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