Howtostudyrevelation_app
APPENDIX A
A GLOSSARY OF SYMBOLS
USED IN REVELATION
AN IMPORTANT PREFACE:
This glossary is only superficial although it can prove very helpful in decoding some of the hidden meanings of Revelation. The student should remember that many things not included in this glossary are of symbolic import. Among these are the meanings of proper names. It is also imperative to realize that Revelation uses some words in both a literal and a symbolic usage. Only the context can help determine whether or not a literal or symbolic usage is intended. Examples of such words are heaven, earth, death, angel, ten, etc.
A
AIR: powers of spiritual control; demons
ALTAR: the condition of full dedication to God
AMEN: used as a noun to represent Jesus
ANGELS: messengers (spirit, human, inanimate objects, events)
ARK: the new covenant arrangement under Christ and His Church
ARMAGEDDON: condition of ripeness for destruction (pictured by this ancient battleground of the forces
of good and evil)
ASIA: mud, boggy; condition of being earthbound
B
BABYLON: primarily the Roman Church- extends to "daughter" denominations
BARLEY: basic Christian character truths
BEAST: a group of men (institution or government) with unholy characteristics
BEASTS (FOUR): God's four attributes: wisdom, justice, love, and power. Should be translated "living ones."
BED: A place of affliction
BEHEADED: having given up personal will to do God's will
BELLY: effects of having taken in and assimilated information
BIRD (UNCLEAN): demon, selfish profiteer, or person pushing personal ideologies
BITTER: difficult and painful
BLACK: devoid of light (truth)
BLOOD: life or its value; can mean death, as in blood spilled
BOOK: a plan with its information, or a record. (See also "little book.")
BOOK OF LIFE: the record of those found worthy of life (in either Gospel or Messianic Ages)
BOTTOMLESS PIT: condition of powerlessness or dormancy
BRIDE: The church of Christ; the 144,000.
BRIDEGROOM: Jesus
BRIDLES: a controlling element
BRIMSTONE: deadly poison (added to symbol of fire to show no way of escape)
BURNED: disillusioned or destroyed in profession
C
CALF: justice (because the calf was the principal animal sacrificed to satisfy justice)
CAMP OF THE SAINTS: the Messianic Age's earthly government consisting of the faithful pre-Christ ancients
CANDLESTICKS: (7) churches (see also "two candlesticks")
CHAIN: connection of truths
CITY: government (religious or secular)
CLOTHING/CLOTHED: status; one's standing before God
CLOUDS: trouble or obscurity
COURT: the condition of justification
CROWN: authority (when from diadema), victory (when from stephanos)
CUP: experiences
D
DARKNESS: erroneous and superstitious teachings
DAY: a year; a period of time with certain characteristics
DAY AND NIGHT: in perpetuity
DEATH: loss of spiritual life; condition of being alive but not having received eternal life; loss of previous belief or condition; having sacrificed earthly life-rights
DENS: secret societies, hiding places, conditions of subterfuge
DEVIL: civil power or Rome (papal or pagan)
DEVOUR: see "eat"
DOGS: Gentiles; ultimately, anyone refusing to acknowledge Israel's place in God's plan
DOOR: opportunity; proximity
DRAGON: civil power or pagan Rome
DRAGON, SERPENT, DEVIL, SATAN (as 4-part name): civil power under control of personal devil
DUST: mouming
DWELL ON THE EARTH: having strong ties to earthly or worldly interests (i.e., the establishment)
E
EAGLE: wisdom; Bible
EARTH: society; the established way of doing things; the social order
EARTHQUAKE: revolution
EAT: absorb, appropriate, come into harmony with
EGYPT: type of Western, Christian world
ELDERS: Old Testament prophecies
EUPHRATES: people who support Babylon
EYES: foresight; wisdom
F
FACE: favor or displeasure
FALSE PROPHET: a confederation of Protestant denominations
FAMINE: lack of truth
FIG AND FIG TREE: Israel
FIRE: destruction or judgment
FIRSTFRUITS: products of the Gospel Age, i.e., the Church and great multitude
FLOOD: great amount of truths
FOREHEAD: the sum total of character
FORNICATION: a Christian dabbling in affairs of this earth, thus unfaithful to Jesus, the espoused bridegroom
FOUNTAINS: the Church (true or false) as a source of religious truths
FOUR: the component parts
FOWLS: discontents
FROGS: unclean and boastful
FURNACE: heated experiences for proving or judging
G
GARMENTS: justification
GIRDLE: representative of service or servitude
GLASS: purity; transparency; calmness
GOD: position of highest authority (including its counterfeits)
GOG & MAGOG: symbolism for a rebellious civil power at the end of both Gospel and Millennial Ages
GOLD(EN): of Divine things
GOSPEL: the totality of God's Word including its judgment message
GRAPES: evil fruitage
GRASS: humanity in general, or a specific segment of it; when green is specified, right-heartedness or justification is implied
GREAT MULTITUDE: Christians who will receive a heavenly reward but not be part of the 144,000 in the body of Christ
GREEN: alive in spirit (in the sense of having inclinations toward righteousness); justified
H
HAIL: hard truths
HAIR: wisdom, venerableness
HAND: works; cooperation; responsibility
HARP: harmonious set of doctrines
HARVEST: end period of the Gospel Age; beginning of the Messianic Age; results of prior activities
HEAD: place of ideas; forms of government
HEAT: adverse effects from enlightenment
HEAVEN: the religious world or its leadership
HELL: the condition of oblivion when men die, but from which there will be a release
HORNS: powers
HORSE: doctrine
HORSEMEN: followers or promoters of doctrines
HUNGER: lack of spiritual food
I
IMAGE: federated Protestantism
INCENSE: prayers, sacrifices
IRON: strength
ISLAND: small nation or republic
ISRAEL: the people of God (i.e., the true Church)
JERUSALEM: the Millennial Divine government by the Church
JEWS: Christians
JEZEBEL: the Roman Church
JOHN: Church in the flesh
K
KEYS: ability to control access
KILLED: discredited; having lost prior belief
KINGS OF THE EARTH: men of influence
KINGS OF THE EAST: probably the church who will shine as the sun
L
LAKE OF FIRE: the second death: i.e., perpetuat extinction
LAMB: Jesus
LEAVES: professions
LEFT: position of disfavor
LIFE: justification; spiritual vitality
LIGHTNING: bright flashes of truth which tend to confuse rather than enlighten
LINEN: the righteousness of saints (or its counterfeit)
LION: power; Jesus
LITTLE BOOK: Daniel
LIVING SOUL: Christian
LOCUSTS: devouring force as a plague to false Christianity
LORD'S DAY: Millennial Age
M
MAN (FACE OF): love
MANCHILD: man of sin; Papacy
MANNA (HIDDEN): immortality
MARK: indication of agreement or sympathy or cooperation
MARRIAGE: the uniting of Christ and His complete Church in the spirit realm
MEN: Christians, nominal or true
MERCHANTS: capitalists
MICHAEL: "One who as God" = Papacy
MILLSTONE: a place which prepared spiritual food
MONTH: 30 years (a day for a year)
MOON: Old Testament writings; Jewish Law
MORNING STAR: Jesus
MOUNTAIN: large kingdom
MOUTH: message
MURDERERS: character assassins
N
NAKED: without justification
NAME: sum of character; reputation
NATIONS, KINDREDS, PEOPLE(S), & TONGUES (4-name entity): the "sea" class; people without strong roots or commitments to the present order of things
NEW JERUSALEM: the spiritual government of the peaceable kingdom: Christ's Church glorified
NICOLAITANS: people who lord it over others
O
ODOURS: prayers
OIL: Holy spirit
OLIVE: Holy spirit
OLIVE TREES: see "two olive trees"
P
PALMS: symbol of salvation
PEARL: character developed through trials
PILLAR: stalwart
PIT: see "BOTTOMLESS"
PLACES: conditions
PLAGUES: truths to weaken false Christianity
PRIEST: a mediator between God and men
PRISON: death or restraint
PURPLE: royalty (real or assumed)
R
RAIMENT: justification or righteousness
RAIN: blessings of truth
RAINBOW: covenant
RED: sin
REED: standard of judgment
RIGHT: position of favor
RIVER(S): people who support something; source of refreshment
ROCKS: stable institutions
ROD: strong rule; a standard of measurement
S
SACKCLOTH: mourning or humiliation
SAILORS: workmen
SAND OF THE SEA: those ultimately of the earthly kingdom
SAT: controlled
SATAN: Papacyor civil government (each under the influence of the personal devil)
SCORPIONS: tormentings
SEA: restless humanity without strong ties to the social or religious order of things
SEA OF GLASS: pure water of God's truths for cleansing purposes
SEAL: events which reveal once they occur; guarantee
SEAT: center of power
SECOND DEATH: extinction from which there is no hope of return
SEVEN: a complete number with reference to spiritual things
SHIPMASTER: businessman
SHIPS: commerce
SICKLE: truths to do a separating work
SMOKE: remembrance, obscuration, or evidence
SODOM: type of Babylon
SONG: praise coming from harmonious truths
SORE: a perpetual, threatening problem
SOUL(S) (see "LIVING SOUL"): Saints who have died and await resurrection
SPIRITS: teachings
STARS: teachers (true or false)
STINGS: painful irritations due to unwanted truths
SUN: Gospel [improperly received, can bum: see 7:16; 16:8, 9]
SWORD: Bible; any cutting message
T
TABERNACLE: dwelling place, i.e., presence; God's plan pictured by a building
TAIL: last part; a lying prophet (Isaiah 9:15)
TALENT: sum total of the Gospel
TEARS: disappointment
TEMPLE: God's plan, including the church itself, The Most Holy room of the Tabernacle
TEN: a complete number in reference to earthly or civil things
THIEF: quietly secretive and unexpected
THIRST: craving for truth which leads to life
THRONE: office of rulership including judgment
THUNDER(INGS): results of lightning; i.e., resulting activities or philosophies or controversies
TIME: (chronos) 360 years; a period of certain characteristics
TORMENTED: vexed to the point of great discomfort
TREE: important individuals or small nations or institutions
TREE OF LIFE: promise of continued existence
TRIBES OF ISRAEL: divisions of the glorified Church
TRUMPET: important and timely message
TWO CANDLESTICKS: Old and New Testament writings-as GIVERS OF LIGHT
TWO OLIVE TREES: Old and New Testament writings-as functions of the HOLY SPIRIT
TWO PROPHETS: Old and New Testament writings-as TEACHERS
TWO WITNESSES: Old and New Testament writings-as TESTIFIERS (in advance) of God's purposes
V
VIALS: mechanisms to deliver plaguing truths
VINE OF THE EARTH: Babylon, the fruitage of Satan's planting
VIRGINS: true Church or great multitude; undefiled by illicit cooperation with the world and its ways
W
WAR: a struggle or persecution
WATER: truth
WATERS: people/truths
WHITE: pure or justified
WHORE: a church which has compromised itself with politics and worldly involvement
WILDERNESS: condition of separation (in mind and attitude) from accepted standards of doctrine and practice
WIND: war
WINDS: powers of demonic control
WINE: gospel (pure or polluted); doctrine; experiences coming out of teachings
WINEPRESS: the last trouble of the harvest which squeezes life out of false religion
WITNESSES: see "TWO WITNESSES"
WOMAN: Church (true or false); covenant
WORMWOOD: Arius, as poisonous and bitter to the apostacy
Y
YEAR: 360 years (a day for a year)
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