603. 'And enact that everyone who does not adore the image of the beast may be slain' signifies that they pronounce damnation upon those who do not acknowledge the doctrine of their faith as a holy doctrine of the Church. By 'to adore the image of the beast' is signified to acknowledge the doctrine of their faith as a holy doctrine of the Church, for by 'to adore' is signified to acknowledge as a holy thing of the Church (n. 579, 580, 588, 597), and by 'the image of the beast is signified that doctrine (n. 601). By 'to be slain' is signified to be slain spiritually, which is to be damned (n. 325, and elsewhere); and because by 'to be slain' is signified to be damned, there is also signified to be declared a heretic and excluded from the communion of the Church, for in their eyes this is regarded as damnation. The learned among the clergy do this, who have absorbed the mysteries of justification in the schools and colleges, especially those who are in the pride of erudition on account of them. These damn all who do not think as they do, and so far as they dare they explode their wrath on them. [2] This I can state, that those who have absorbed those mysteries, and were continually in the pride of erudition [in this world], are in the spiritual world so enraged against those who adore the Only Lord, and who do not acknowledge faith alone as the one and only means of salvation, that they come into a glowing anger of wrath and fury while they see them, and this while from afar off they are sensible of the Divine sphere of the Lord, and of the sphere of charity around them. Since those [who adore the Only Lord] are such, 'the dragon' is therefore described as a most inveterate enemy against them, so that:-
He stood before the woman about to bring forth, that after she had brought forth he might devour her offspring; and he cast forth after the woman out of his mouth water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the river; and in a rage against the woman he went away to wage war with the remnant of her seed Rev. xii 4, 15, 17.
Out of the mouths of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet there came forth three unclean spirits like frogs to gather them to the war of the great day of Almighty God Rev. xvi 13-16; likewise xix 19, 20; xx 8-10.
Also that the beast coming up out of the deep killed the two witnesses, and cast their bodies upon the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, and did not allow them to be put into tombs Rev. xi 7-9
By 'not to allow to be put into tombs' is signified to reject as damned (n. 506).
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