“And I saw the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among men, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:2-3).
The holy city, Jerusalem, is the place where only the brides of the Lamb live and can enter. Only the royal family will live in the palace, the New Jerusalem.
In Revelation 21:9-11, “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ Then he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
Here, the holy city, New Jerusalem, is described as the bride of the Lamb, the wife of the Lamb. In Revelation 21:2, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” When we synthesize Revelation 21:9-11 and verse 2, the holy city, New Jerusalem, is described as the bride of the Lamb. Therefore, this holy city, New Jerusalem, is the place where only the brides of the Lamb reside, and only these brides can enter and leave. “Neither the sun nor the moon shines on the city, and its lamp is the Lamb. “And the nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Revelation 21:23-24).
In Revelation 22:5, it says, “There will be no more night. They will need neither lamp nor sunlight, for the Lord God gives them light. And they will reign forever and ever.” The “they” here are the “bride of the Lamb,” meaning that they will rule over the billions of spirits who survived the millennium kingdom, and also that they will rule over the entire universe. The bride of the Lamb here refers to the chosen sons of God, who kept their faith until the end under the oppression of Satan, as planned by God before the ages.
The New Jerusalem signifies the community of saved saints and also their new dwelling place in the kingdom of God. This New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, and in John 14:2-3 it says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you also may be.’ This place is the New Jerusalem, the place prepared by Christ the Bridegroom to dwell with his spiritual bride, the saints, in a new sanctuary.
This city is the church community of the saved saints, the bride of Christ, and at the same time the central place in heaven where we will dwell. This city is both the saints themselves (verse 2) and the foundation upon which the saints can enjoy a blessed life.
- The Shape and Size of the Holy City, New Jerusalem
The Holy City, New Jerusalem, has a large and high wall made of jasper and twelve gates made of pearls, and on these gates are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve tribes of Israel represent the spiritual descendants of Israel, that is, all the chosen saints, and each of these twelve gates is guarded by angels. It is said that there are three gates in the east, west, south, and north of the city. There are twelve foundation stones in the wall, and the names of the twelve apostles are written on them. The fact that the names of the twelve apostles are engraved on each foundation stone of the wall and the names of the twelve tribes are engraved on the twelve gates shows that the Old Testament and New Testament churches are one unified church community of God. And each foundation stone is made of various kinds of precious stones. And the city is made of pure gold, like clear glass. Jasper is a beautiful, shining blue jade. The city is a square, regular cube, with a length, width, and height of 2,220 km, and the thickness of the city walls is 65.6 m.
2. Life in the Holy City, New Jerusalem
Things that the Holy City, Jerusalem, does not have
- The city has no temple. Since there is no sin in heaven, there is no need for a temple in the Old Testament concept of a place to atone for sin. Also, the reason a temple was needed on earth was to meet God, but in heaven, everyone lives face to face with God, so there is no need for a temple in that concept. This is because God Himself is the temple (Revelation 21:22).
- The city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it. In heaven, God, who is the light itself, shines brightly with his glory, and Jesus Christ is the lamp (Revelation 21:23).
- There is no sin there.
- There is no night in the city. In heaven, there is no pain or sorrow symbolized by darkness, and since life itself is rest, there is no need for night to relieve fatigue (Revelation 21:25). In the eternal world, a change has occurred in the solar system in the universe. Perhaps the solar system has been dismantled. God created the solar system for the earth, and this was for the humans living on the earth. Now, the earth does not need to receive light from the sun because there is the glory of God who is on the throne of God on the earth.
- There are no tears (Revelation 21:4). Tears symbolize pain, sorrow, death, and misfortune, but in the kingdom of God, God wipes away tears, so there is no pain, death, sorrow, or misfortune.
6. There is no death in that city (Revelation 21:4). There is no death, mourning, crying, or disease that cause tears.
7. There is no toilet in that city. Our current body is imperfect. We get sick and die because of our sinful nature. Therefore, we cannot completely decompose food, so we have to excrete after eating. Also, when Adam sinned, the ground was cursed. In Genesis 3:17-19, “To Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. ’” Because of Adam’s sin, the ground was cursed, and as a result, Adam was told that he would have to toil to eat the produce of the ground.
In verse 18, “Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Since the ground was cursed, you had to fight against thistles and thorns and farm, so you had to sweat and work hard. Since the plants farmed in this way came from the cursed ground, the food was also imperfect and could not be completely digested, so you could only expel waste. However, since the body becomes a spiritual body and the earth is freed from the curse, it is completely digested by excreting perfect plants, so there is no discharge, so no matter how much you eat, there is no stomachache and no need to worry about gaining weight.
8. The most important fact is that there is no Satan. There are no devils or ghosts. Since there is no Satan who invaded the Garden of Eden, those with spiritual bodies will not be approached by Satan and will live forever without being tested, tempted, or deceived by Satan.
There are plants, flowers, birds, animals on the ground, and fish in the River of Life. This is because the holy city of Jerusalem came down from heaven to the earth where we live, and God’s throne is on earth. There was water in the Garden of Eden in Genesis, and there were animals and plants. Since God told them to rule over all the birds of the sky, the beasts of the mountains and fields, the livestock, and the insects, as well as the fish in the sea and water, there were all kinds of animals in the Garden of Eden, and there were also many kinds of trees in the Garden of Eden. There were also many kinds of pretty flowers. But in Revelation 22:1-2, there is a tree of life in the Garden of Eden and a river of water of life, so wouldn’t there also be various animals that lived in the Garden of Eden? Then these creatures will not die and will live forever, because there is no death at all in heaven. And the tree of life bears twelve fruits every month. Its leaves are healing herbs.
In Revelation 21:24, it says, “The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” This means that God is the only king in heaven. The kings here seem to refer to the martyred saints who reigned with Christ during the millennial kingdom. The territory in the eternal world is the entire universe. They will live scattered throughout the entire universe. The earth is the capital of the entire universe. The New Jerusalem on earth is the royal capital of the eternal world. Only the royal family will live in this city. The royal family refers to the sons of God.
And in verse 26, it says, “They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.” The glory and honor of the nations means that each person will have their own glory when they go to the kingdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 15:41, it says that the glory of each of the resurrected saints is different: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So will be the resurrection of the dead…”
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