I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)
John was given quite a vision. He saw Heaven. He the future of the Earth. He saw Judgment Day. All of it was either exciting or terrifying. It was something from which he could not look away. But few things in the vision of the Book of Revelation match the arrival of the New Jerusalem. It is toward the top of the “Wow!” list. Like, “Wow, what is it?”
First let me tell you what it is not. It is not some metaphor for the Church. Many commentators on Revelation say that Revelation 21 is somehow about the church because the word “bride” is used in the passage above, and God’s people, the Church, are collectively described as the bride of Christ elsewhere is scripture. But this passage doesn’t say that the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ. It says it is beautiful, like a bride. So what John is witnessing is the future arrival of the New Jerusalem on the New Earth.
Why does it have walls? Cities of the past had walls for defensive purposes. Now that modern weaponry have rendered walls useless, why build them? The New Jerusalem will not need to be defended from attack. All enemies are securely and permanently stuck in Hell by this point. These walls are part of the packaging. This city moves.
So it this a spaceship of some sort? Yes, Star Wars fans. The New Jerusalem could very well be God’s throne room, described in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, now moving to its new location on mankind’s new home base, the New Earth. It’s big (essentially a cube 1400 miles on a side), it’s stunningly beautiful, and it constructed with the kind of symbolic symmetry that God loves to use.
Will we live inside of it? No. No doubt being in the New Jerusalem will be an exciting part of our lives, but our new living space will be far more than that. If the structure of the New Earth is a spinning globe, then it would have to be massively larger that the current planet to accommodate the New Jerusalem. We can’t assume it will be a spinning globe, however. Revelation announces that the old order of things has passed away, so who knows if a globe that spins is part of the new order. The sun doesn’t seem to be a part of the equation, so spinning might not be necessary. (Revelation 21:23,25)
The lighting of at least the New Jerusalem seems to be unique. Without the sun and moon, the city is still aglow, day and night. This isn’t artificial lighting. This is the glory (shekinah) of God and we are in the midst of it.
What will there be to see in 2.7 billion cubic miles of the New Jerusalem? Much more than the Bible has to tell us. But there are more details that we will go over in my next blog entry (September 25).
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