Apocalypse Revealed#322
322. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill. This symbolizes the destruction of all good in the church.
Since death means the extinction of a person's spiritual life, and hell his damnation, it follows that to kill here means to destroy the life of a person's soul. The life of the soul is spiritual life.
A fourth of the earth means, symbolically, all good in the church. The earth is the church (no. 285).
That a fourth means all good can be known only by someone who knows what numbers in the Word symbolize. The numbers two and four are said in application to goods, and they symbolize those goods. And the numbers three and six are said in application to truths, and they symbolize those truths. Thus a fourth part, or simply a fourth, symbolizes all good, while a third part, or simply a third, symbolizes all truth. Therefore to kill a fourth of the earth here means, symbolically, to destroy all good in the church.
Clearly he who sat on the pale horse was not given the power to kill a fourth part of the habitable earth.
[2] In addition, the number four in the Word symbolizes the union of goodness and truth.
That the number four has these symbolic meanings can, indeed, be confirmed from the Word, as by the four living creatures or cherubim in Ezekiel 1,3, 10; by the four chariots between two mountains in Zechariah 6:1; by the four horns in Zechariah 1:18ff.; by the four horns of the altar in Exodus 27:1-8, and Revelation 9:13; and by the four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, in Revelation 7:1 (cf. Matthew 24:31). It can be confirmed, too, by the "visiting the iniquity to the third and fourth generation" in Numbers 14:18, and by the third and fourth generation mentioned elsewhere. By these passages in the Word and more, I say, one can confirm that the number four is said in application to goods, and that they symbolize those goods, and also the conjunction of goodness and truth. But because it would take a lengthy explanation of these passages to make this apparent, it is enough to briefly state that this is the meaning that the number four and a fourth part have in heaven.
Exodus第27章:1-8
1
"You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and its height shall be three cubits.
2
You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it; and you shall overlay it with brass.
3
You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.
4
You shall make a grating for it of network of brass: and on the net you shall make four bronze rings in its four corners.
5
You shall put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar.
6
You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass.
7
Its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, when carrying it.
8
You shall make it with hollow planks. They shall make it as it has been shown you on the mountain.
