AR 447-448 (portions) - The Sixth Angel Sounded (part 3) - The Horsemen

AR 447 [1, 3]

Now the number of the army of the horsemen
was two hundred million.
(Revelation 9:16)

Armies symbolize goods and truths,
and in an opposite sense, evils and falsities -
here falsities accompanying evil,
as we will see presently.
Horsemen symbolize reasonings
concerning faith alone,
because a horse symbolizes
an understanding of the Word
and also a destroyed understanding of the Word.
Horsemen consequently symbolize reasonings
based on a destroyed understanding of the Word -
here reasonings concerning faith alone,
because the subject is
people caught up in that faith.
Two hundred million
does not mean two hundred million,
but an abundance.
The number two is used
because two is said in application to goodness,
and in an opposite sense, to evil;
and a hundred million,
or ten thousand times ten thousand,
is said in application to truths,
and in an opposite sense, to falsities.

It can be seen from this
that the number of the army of horsemen
being two hundred million
symbolizes reasonings concerning faith alone,
with which these people had filled
the interiors of their minds,
springing from nothing
but an abundance of falsities accompanying evil.

Since the hosts of heaven
symbolize the goods and truths
of heaven and the church,
therefore the Lord is called Jehovah Zebaoth,
or Jehovah of Hosts.
And therefore the ministry of the Levites
was called military service
(Numbers 4:3. 23. 30, 39).

AR 448

And I heard the number of them.
(Revelation 9:16)

To hear means, symbolically, to perceive.
A number symbolizes
the character of a thing or a state.
It is the character of these people's state
as described hereafter
because that is what is now described
in the following verses,
which is why it begins, "And thus I saw."