New Jerusalem Tour

[oikonomia]

Revelation 21 and 22 are devoted to the sign of New Jerusalem. She is the final destiny of all the saved and the climax of God's work.
It is for New Jerusalem that everything God planned and did in the Bible and in the universe.
She is something all believers should see so we may know what God is after and why we were created. In factevery one should know.
And it should not be some esoteric hidden knowledge of a few.

This is the climax and the culmination of the sixty-six books of the Bible.
This is the conclusion and finale of all of God's work.

First, John was carried up to agreat and high mountain. We have to go higher. We cannot remain on a low plain.
To see the climax we have to be carried to a high point spiritually, to see our ultimate destination.
We start to see this ultimate sign by being brought higher.

"And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, Come here;
I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem,coming down out of heaven from God." (Rev. 21:9,10)

He had to go up and go high in spirit to see the sign. On a low plain no one can see well what the eterenal purpose of God is.
It is hard to see if all a Christian cares about is not being sinful and glad that they individually are saved.
As Moses went up to the top of Mt. Pisgah get a panaramic view of the Good Land so we must come to the "high peak" of God's revelation to see New Jerusalem.

 

[oikonomia]

Revelation 21:1 first shows the environment within which New Jerualem is the capital and center. Then it shows the capital.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more." (21:1)

We must realize that the newness of the universe starts not with the newness of material outside of man.
Rather the newness in the man regenerated by God SPEARHEADS the universe into newness. The new heaven and new earth is the outward universe "catching up" so to speak with the newness of the people of God.

They have been made fully new by the working of God's life and nature into them. And because the sons of God are manifested the creation is freed into newness. (Romans 8:19)

"For the anxious watching of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God."

We who have received Christ are the real environmentalists in that our being renewed thoroughly in God's life and nature will usher in the new heavens and the new earth.

"For the creation was made subject to vanity, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, In hope that the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glory of the children of God.

For we know taht the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now, And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body." (vs. 20-23)

So God is currently building Himself into His saved people with a ultimate view that their total newness in the divine nature will also usher in eventually the new heaven and the new earth free from the curse of the fall of man.

No more sea means no more death.
And God and man are mingled together as His living organic dwelling place - New Jerusalem.

I wrote a song about being carried away to see New Jerusalem.

 

[oikonomia]

New Jerusalem is not so much as a place to which we are going.
But she is what we are being transformed into.

The going to New Jerusalem is a going by the salvation of the Triune God growing in the saved.
The church life of the assembling believers should foretaste the matters of the full taste of New Jerusalem.

In seed form the essence of New Jerusalem must be the daily walk of Christians.
We'll see more of this hopefully in the details of the city / bride.

It is not a physical 1,500 high mountain hovering over the planet.
The book of Revelation is a book making known things to us by signs.
And probably the greatest sign in whole Bible is that of Revelation 21,22 - New Jerusalem.

We come into her by salvation, regeneration, transformation, conformation, sanctification, resurrection, glorification.

I wrote a song on God His life into us for this comng glory.

 

[parousia70]

Indeed, we're already there.
Hebrews 12:22
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

 

[oikonomia]

Indeed, we're already there.
Hebrews 12:22
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

Yes. This is very important.

Enjoy another simple song to this verse.
For you have come unto Mt.Zion, the heaven Jerusalem.

 

[oikonomia]

The angel that showed John New Jerusalem seemed to call him away from the scene of utter destruction TO the positive side, God's fulfilled eternal purpose. Naturally we may also be prone to linger gazing at the scene of judfgment.

The angel said in essence "Come away from there and let us show you something really wondeful - the Bride and Wife of Christ."

21:2 - "And I saw the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

The source of the city out of God. It is not out of the world but out of heaven from God.
Like the second man is out of heaven.
"The first man is out of the earth. earthly; the second man is out of heaven." (1 Cor. 15:47)

As Eve came out of Adam, the counterpart Wife of Christ comes OUT of Christ. And Christ is God-man.
Only what came out of Adam could be builded into a woman to be his wife.

"And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs
and closed up the flesh in its place. And Jehovah God BUILT the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man."(Gen.2:21,22 Recovery Version)

The New Jerusalem is built with that which comes out of Christ. Nothing but comes out of Christ can constitute the bride of Christ.
As all the animals were paraded before Adam and he was not satisfied that any could match him, so is the New Jerusalem to the Triune God.

When what came OUT of Adam was builded by God into a woman then Adam rejoiced and said:

"This time this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
This one shall be called Woman because out of Man this one was taken." (Gen 2:23,24)

The bulding of Eve out of the rib that came from Adam is a window into the eternal purpose of God.
The church is then completely glorified and enlarged to include all the regenerated people of God.
Only what came out of Christ can be brought back to Christ to be His everlasting romantic partner - His wife.

 

[oikonomia]

God seeks a corporate entity which comes out of Christ and matches Christ.

Hebrews 2:11 says "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which
cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers."

That the city comes down out of heaven from God reveals that not only the destiny of God's saved is important, but the ORIGIN of His people is also His concern. The future of the church is important. But the ORIGIN of the church is critical - out of heaven from God - taken out of Christ.

New Jerusalem is from heaven and not from earth. Though we have a history of sin amd were later saved from sin, we possess a portion in us as Christians which is out of God. And the spreading, saturating, permeating of the divine nature produces the Wife of Christ.

This is something God planned in His heart before sin was even ever an issue. He chose sons to be holy from before the foundation of the world.

"Even as He chose us in HIm before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love,
Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself. according to the good pleasure of His will." (Eph. 1:4,5)

Actually, because this was in God's heart "before the foundation of the world" this strongly implies that God created the world because of this plan. First He had this plan to have sons. And then based upon this heart's desire and pre-set destination, He then created the universe - He laid the foundation of the world.

All this matter of eternal origin of the church and the New Jerusalem is indicated in John seeing her descend down out of God out of heaven.

"And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." (21:2)

Compare:

" . . . and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven fro My God, and My new name." (Rev. 3:12b)

 

[oikonomia]

We should know that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city, though there is a physical aspect of billions of people who
are sons of God.

But since church is the wife in Ephesians, New Jerusalem is the church. Or else Christ has changed His mind and decided to marry a 1,500 mile high mountain of gold. You see? New Jerusalem has to be the enlargement, expansion, and culmination of that church in Ephesians.

 

[oikonomia]

Other aspects of New Jerusalem:

God on the throne has the appearance of a jasper stone in Rev. 4:
The New Jerusalem also appears as jasper.
This mean God's life and nature is wrought into man in the city.

Jasper means the communicable glory of God.
Therefore the city is God seen.

I believe the japser color is in this case a rich dark green like vegetation on earth.
Japser may mean the richness of life. God is the rich eternal life.
New Jerusalem is God mingled with man so the whole city manifests the richness of divine life.

Here is the jasper colored God:

"And He who was sitting was like in appearance to a jasper stone . . . " (Revelation 4:3a)

Here is the jasper colored city of God:

" . . . the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
Her light was like a most precious stone, as a japer stone, clear as crystal." (Rev. 21:10b,11)

No wonder she is said to be "having the glory of God."

 

[Erik Nelson]

quick sketch of the idea

New Jerusalem is three dimensional.

"Stones" symbolize believers who, collectively, represent the "Spiritual Temple" of New Jerusalem. The main corner stones and foundation stones represent the Apostles, and (so) the rest of the foundation layer represents the Disciples and other first century Saints.

The city stretches a thousand miles (or so) east-west and north-south. That coincides in size to the eastern Mediterranean, suggesting something like the Byzantine empire and/or some rectangular region like Rome (St. Peter) to Constantinople (St. Andrew) to Alexandria (St. Mark) and Jerusalem or Antioch (St. James, St. Matthew).

The third dimension represents time. As time progresses, new believer, symbolized as gem stones, are progressively layered atop the earlier foundation layers. The fact that New Jerusalem is about a thousand miles tall resembles the Millennium.

New Jerusalem also resembles a Vimana, which may reflect some Middle Eastern and/or Asian mythology.