88. Brief Analysis

Seven chapters in the Book of Revelation concern the corrupt state of the Protestant churches, and two chapters concern the corrupt state of the Roman Catholic churches. This and the now condemned condition of these churches has been shown in the explanation of the Book of Revelation titled Revelation Unveiled — and shown not with idle guesswork but with overwhelming evidence.

The dragon in Revelation 12 means Protestants who split God into three and the Lord into two and who separate goodwill from faith by saying that their faith is something spiritual and effective for our salvation but goodwill is not. See Revelation Unveiled 532– 565 and the memorable occurrence immediately following in §566.

The same people are also described as the two beasts, one of which rises up out of the sea and the other out of the land in Revelation 13. See Revelation Unveiled 567– 610 and the memorable occurrence immediately following in §611.

The same people are also described as the locusts that come out of the pit of the abyss in Revelation 9. See Revelation Unveiled 419– 442.

This belief (when adamantly clung to) is depicted in Revelation 11 as the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two faithful witnesses were killed. See Revelation Unveiled 485– 530, especially §§500– 503, and the memorable occurrence in §531.

This belief is also depicted, in Revelation 9, as the pit of the abyss, from which smoke came out like the smoke of a great furnace, darkening the sun and the air, and from which locusts then came forth. See Revelation Unveiled 421– 424.

76. Seven chapters in the Book of Revelation deal specifically with this affliction or attack by falsities against the truth. This attack is meant by the black horse and the pale horse that came forth from the scroll when the Lamb opened its seals (Revelation 6:5– 8). This attack is meant by the beast that rose up from the abyss and made war against the two witnesses and killed them (Revelation 11:7 and following). This attack is meant by the dragon that stood before the woman who was about to give birth, waiting to devour her child, and persecuted her in the desert; there it sent forth water like a river from its mouth to swallow her up (Revelation 12). This attack is also meant by the beast from the sea, who had a body like a leopard, feet like a bear, and a mouth like a lion (Revelation 13:2). This attack is also meant by the three spirits that were like frogs, which came out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (Revelation 16:13). Finally, this attack is what is meant by the fact that after the seven angels poured out their bowls full of the wrath of God, which were the seven last plagues, onto the ground, into the sea, into the rivers and springs, into the sun, onto the throne of the beast, into the Euphrates, and finally into the air, there was a great earthquake unlike any that had occurred since the creation of humankind on the earth (Revelation 16). The “earthquake” means that the church is turned upside down; this is brought about by people teaching what is false and falsifying the truth.

Similar things are meant by the following passage as well:

The angel put forth his sickle and harvested the vineyard of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled, and blood came out, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred stadia. (Revelation 14:19, 20)

“Blood” here means truth that has been falsified.

There are many other examples in those seven chapters; see, if you wish, the explanations of those chapters and the accounts of memorable occurrences that come after them.