1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

the rule in interpreting types and symbolsis their exact fitness to their antitypesand their perfect harmony withevery principle and statement of the inspiredwriters. If our interpretation ofany type or symbol jars in the least withany other statement of the word, we haveno right to use it. We may be sure weare not correct.Take, for instance, the symbols earth,sea, mountain, hill. We know that theyare used in a symbolic sense when theyhave a fitness as symbols, and when, ifunderstood literally, they would be outof harmony with the context, or withother portions of Scripture. Thus, inRev. 21:1, "I saw a new heaven and anew earth, for the first heaven and thefirst earth were passed away." If thiswere literal it would be a contradictionof Eccl. 1:4 "The earth abideth forever."But being elsewhere informedthat society, as at present organizedunder civil and so-called religious restraint,but really held in slavery underSatan, the prince of this world, is to bedissolved, and that the elements oftyranny, ignorance and superstition,which heretofore bound them are tomelt away (2 Pet. 3:10-12; John 12:31)we see that the expression, "the firstearth passed away," would be a fittingsymbol of such an event, and that thenew earth would strikingly symbolizethe new organization of society under"The Prince of Peace." And we findthat this application fits, in every instance,where earth is used as a symbol.While earth thus represents organizedand settled society, sea, in contrast withit, fittingly represents the more unrestrainedand ungovernable masses ofmen easily stirred and influenced by thestorm, hence the fitness of the statementthat under the new heavens there shallbe no more SEA.As mountains and hills tower above