Friday, September 13, 2019

Reasoning Through Revelation. Day 81, The New Jerusalem, Part One

We are studying a passage today and tomorrow that involves a beautiful eternal city called the "New Jerusalem". I'll tell you right off the bat that I am not certain exactly what the "New Jerusalem" is. This passage is apparently difficult for a lot of Bible scholars and theologians and evangelists to understand as well, because when I was doing my research on it I found a variety of theories. One thing most of them seem to agree on is that this holy city will be a heaven on earth. We've already seen the earth turning into a paradise now that Satan is banished forever and now that sin is no more. The New Jerusalem is going to be the capitol city of the perfect paradise that this world will be when Christ reigns over it eternally.

Here is what John says about this city: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." (Revelation 21:9-10)

Up until now only the church has been called the bride of Christ, so we know that the New Jerusalem is very closely connected to the church---so closely connected to her that the term "bride" can be used interchangeably for both the church and for this new city. Most of the mainstream scholars whose commentaries I consulted agree that this city is identified with the bride of Christ because it is the city in which Christ's bride will dwell with Him forever. The Lord Jesus is going to reign over the world from this city, and since husbands and wives live together in the same home, the Lord Jesus and His bride the church are doing to live together here. Any man who loves his bride wants her to be with him, and the Lord loves His bride with an everlasting faithful love. Any man who loves his bride wants to provide her with a nice home, and the Lord is providing His bride with the most beautiful home any woman has ever lived in.

John describes the beauty of this city. "It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (Revelation 21:11-14) The culmination of everything contained in the Old and New Testaments is symbolized here. Both the nation of Israel and the church are symbolized because all believers are of the same family. "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) There once was a great chasm between Jews and Gentiles because most Gentiles were idolatrous heathens before the advent of Christ. The two groups did not associate with each other. But after the advent of Christ, untold numbers of Gentiles came to believe in the one true God. In this way the Bible tells us that Christ "made the two groups one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility"/ (Ephesians 2:14) The church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who have placed their trust in Christ.

Now John tells us the size of the city. "The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and as high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick." (Revelation 21:15-17) I didn't know the size of a stadia or a cubit so I needed some help figuring out how large this city is. According to several sources on the internet, 12,000 stadia would be just under 1,400 miles. So the New Jerusalem is a square city that is 1,400 miles wide and 1,400 miles long. For comparison, the United States measures about 1,582 miles from top to bottom and about 2,680 miles from side to side. (Please note I am not saying that the New Jerusalem will be in America. I do not think it will be. It makes sense that it would be located in the area of the world where Jerusalem is now, although some scholars have made other interesting suggestions that we'll look at tomorrow.) I am using the United States as an example because we are all familiar with what the map of the United States looks like. If we drew a square in the middle of the United States that is 1,400 miles in length and 1,400 miles width, it would almost completely cover the map of the United States vertically and over half of the map horizontally. This is an enormous amount of land mass! This is going to be the largest city ever to exist. One commentary stated that the dimensions of the New Jerusalem are comparable to the size of the moon. Imagine how many people could live on the moon if it had the same atmosphere and vegetation as the earth! This is how many people are going to be able to live in the New Jerusalem!

We are going to look at the remainder of John's description of the city, along with various theories about it, in tomorrow's study time because it is too much material to cover today. So join us tomorrow as we take a look at the city in which we--- the church---will live with our Redeemer forever.

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