The Living Stones of New Jerusalem

Heb. 12:22-24 ”“
But you HAVE COME to Mount Zion and TO THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD, THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

COMMENT:
We are the living stones of New Jerusalem!
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the great Corner Stone.

SCRIPTURE:

1 Peter 2:4-6 ”“
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, YOU ALSO, AS LIVING STONES, are being BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: "Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone……”

Eph. 2:19-22 ”“
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been BUILT ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS, CHRIST JESUS HIMSELF BEING THE CORNER STONE, IN WHOM THE WHOLE BUILDING, BEING FITTED TOGETHER, IS GROWING INTO A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD, IN WHOM YOU ALSO ARE BEING BUILT TOGETHER INTO A DWELLING OF GOD IN THE SPIRIT.

Rev. 3:11-12 ”“
He who overcomes, I will make him a PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE OF MY GOD, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, AND THE NAME OF THE CITY OF MY GOD, THE NEW JERUSALEM, WHICH COMES DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN FROM MY GOD, and My new name.

Rev. 19:6-9 ”“
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB has come and HIS BRIDE has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Rev. 21 ”“
Then I saw a NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, COMING DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN FROM GOD, made ready as A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the THE TABERNACLE OF GOD is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…………
Then 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 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……………And the wall of the city had TWELVE FOUNDATION STONES, and on them were THE TWELVE NAMES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE LAMB.

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NOTE: All CAPS are just for highlighting scripture for consideration.
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I for one agree 100%.

The idea of taking a 1500 mile cubic structure as literal just seems silly to me and scripturally unwarranted for reasons you lay out.

ADD: For reference, 1500 miles is Washington DC to Denver or Jerusalem to Vienna.

Thanks, Todd

Also, just think of its height.

(I am more familiar with metric measurements.)

It is 2,220 kilometres or 2,220,000 metres high.

Mt Everest is just 8,849 metres high.

It rises far above the Karman Line, the conventional boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, which is 100 kilometres above Earth’s surface. That is, it extends 2,120 kilometres out into outer space.

Blessings

Top floor please!

Haha.

Only genetically modified humans need apply.

I was inwardly modified and changed into something I had never been by the new birth. Do I qualify?

Hi docs,

Doctrinally, you would qualify to be part of the New Jerusalem that is the Body of Christ.

Blessings

THE LAMB AND HIS BRIDE CONSTITUTE THE NEW JERUSALEM

COMMENT:
The Bride is married to the Lamb and is joined to the Lamb and is ONE with the Lamb. They cannot be separated. The Lamb and the Bride together and as ONE is the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, the Temple and Tabernacle of God.

SCRIPTURE:

John 14:20 ”“
In that day (comment: the Day of Pentecost) you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

John 17:11,22-23 ”“
I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are…………that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity………

Eph. 5:30-32 (KJV) ”“
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Rev. 19:7 ”“
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

Rev. 21:1-3 ”“
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them

Rev. 21:9-10 ”“
…………… "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And 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.

Rev. 21:22-23 ”“
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

2 Cor. 6:16 (KJV) ”“
…………for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Comment:
God’s Temple is the Church or the Body of Christ which is indwelt by God in Christ by the Holy Spirit

Jade you commented ; God’s Temple is the Church or the Body of Christ which is indwelt by God in Christ by the Holy Spirit

This is very much what what I’ve found through mining the Word, yet I could not quite see it till He opened it to me.
My faith could reach and grasp after it, yet I could not lay hold of it until I asked Him for it, and it required me to let go of anything/everything else, even and especially what I had "learned” and had formed opinions on. That itself didn’t occur until I got desperate, so overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the fruit of my efforts that, like a child, I cried out to Him in anguish over the lack of life in it. He alone is the life and light thereof and in His mercy, He spoke a (very) hard word to me… yet His word is life, where else could I go?
Once I ate it, He (His word/flesh) created such a hunger in me that I could not but seek Him for more and (so far) each successive portion has been sweeter and more satisfying (life giving) 🙏🏻
Yesterday while searching out a thing, He led me to 1 Corinthians 15 where I discovered Paul gave a "table of contents” as it were regarding this very thing.
Knowing now, that I have nothing of worth to offer Him ,or anyone, other than that which He Himself has given, I offer this to you -
In this chapter (1Cor15) Paul abridges the whole of it (including Christs reign)
And it is absolutely pregnant with Gods glory ✝️
verses 25-50 are especially so tho the whole of this chapter is quite helpful in illuminating Gods plan of redemption of man.
I hope you find it as edifying as it was for me that we may all grow in the knowledge of God to the fullness of Christ 😇

Thank you, Fletcher.

After I submitted my post, it crossed my mind that what I wrote may be too theoretical to some.

I am therefore glad to read your reply.

It is not wrong to mine God’s written Word. This is a starting place. For how can we believe if we have not heard?

But the written Word we study must ultimately become the Word of Life IN us.

And only the Holy Spirit can give this life and the Holy Spirit will only work in believers who deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Christ. We cannot do this by any "method” but only by the simple and complete faith "of a little child”, to be nothing so that God can be all in us.

To me, to understand that we are the temple/house of God is where we must begin. It is only as the temple/house of God that we can have God’s own eternal life in us, the life that Adam lost and Christ has regained for us.

For life is received by faith in the name of Jesus:

John 20:31 --
but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

And God puts His Name in the house He builds:

2 Sam. 7:12-13 ”“
When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

We are that house (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-6).

Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

Because Christ lives in us, His life is in us (1 John 5:11-12).

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You mentioned 1 Cor. 15.

Can you outline this "table of contents” you wrote about?

Blessings

Joseph lived in a land of giant pyramids, Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel, but when John saw a giant cube I guess it was too much for some of us to take at face value.

I regard New Jerusalem as the dwelling place of the redeemed in Christ, collectively known as "the Bride." Why? Abraham "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Paul wrote in Galatians 4:26, "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." These verses refer to locations. Even Revelation 21:17 describes a wall of only 144 cubits (216 feet) tall surrounding New Jerusalem. It is the measure of the city as 12,000 furlongs (stadion or stadia in Greek) which makes some stagger and others to balk. Regardless of the city's measurements, the walls have gates, and "the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day..." (Rev. 21:24b-25a). This clearly speaks of entry and exiting. How could that be if New Jerusalem were merely symbolic of redeemed saints?

Chuck Smith, in his verse by verse notes on Revelation (via blueletterbible.org) opined that this 1400 mile cube (I thought it was 1500) will float around the earth, being the size of the moon. Sounds a bit sci-fi to me. :)

In the end, scale does not throw me. After all, our God is infinitely larger than His creation.

(For me) the "measurements” in Rev are accurate tho the writings are allegorical…. Again Genesis was written to be taken literally, Rev was written to be taken allegorically, which is to say a specific language was employed to symbolically articulate a series of progressive steps towards and ultimately to, unification of God the Father dwelling on (new) earth with His people in His Kingdom, ie; the body of Christ.

If you would like another biblical reference for this,…
Consider the angel with the reed of measurement, we find the same in Ezekiel 47 (1st portion) with the literal division of land (inheritance of Israel , see also Rom 11) .

Again the angel tells John in Rev, that which you saw as ____ is actually _____
Jesus isn’t literally going to marry a single individual (bride), likewise the two witnesses in Rev 11 aren’t actually olive trees or even persons with literal swords or fires shooting out of their mouths slaying people….

It’s inconsistent, at best, to take Rev literally when it wasn’t intended to be, while we aren't taking Genesis literally which was 🤷🏽”â™‚️

Edit to add: the earth according to Genesis has a literal firmament (fixed and firm) yet the "pillars” spoken of by Job and Samuel are metaphorical for foundation or core material with the connotation of position. In all cases it (creation) is presented exclusively and literally as "geo centric” again with actual, literal, historic events testifying to this fact -

Yes Amen 🙏🏻

Now to your petition… Paul does quite a good bit of work to abridge the plan, doing so by contrasting one with the other all while providing an order, or sequence of events culminating in vs 50-58.

Perhaps taking the "overview” of the events in Rev as the "ways”, with 1Cor15
being the condensed or abridged version of the "means”….
Starting with vs 20 and with 25 referring to millennial reign and continuing from there until the end should help to provide context.
(note; Paul as he often does, uses contrast to illustrate what is sought of by God vs what man seeks after when he is not seeking the Kingdom)

The book of Revelation is by definition a revelation.
Something that was hidden will be revealed.

There are things we can only understand as the Spirit reveals them as the time draws near.

There are things to be taken literally and others allegorical. Applying only one interpretation to the exclusion of the other does not help.

Revelation is obtained not by mere study, but by prayer, intimacy and obedience to the known commandments in scripture.
The scribes in Jesus day searched the scripture with rigour but alway got it wrong.
The prophesies about Christ birth were always there, but the could not decipher them.
On the other hand, Simon and Hannah went into the temple by revelation.
We should look at them as a patters for what it takes to receive revelation.
They were humble, faithful in observing the law. They had received a promise many years ago and hung on to it.
God observed their obedience and integrety over many decades . They proved themselves faithful in small things.
They practised fasting and kept themselves undefiled.

We are living in the last of the last days, I believe we are seeing the scene for the unfolding of the events in Revelation being set.
Only those who follow the footsteps of Moses, Daniel, Simon, Hannah will receive revelation. Those following Christ from afar will be overwhelmed and confused.

Thank you for some good, balanced responses, JFW and Narrowpath. Once more, on the matter of location, Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:2,3: "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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

I think that being with Christ in New Jerusalem will be awe inspiring, to say the least. Marvellous beyond words.

Hello,

I won't pretend to know (or understand) the full breadth of this passage in the Revelation. Is it literal? It is symbolism? Is it both literal and symbol? I cannot state with absolute certainty.

However, I will say that I each time that I've read through the entirety of the Book of the Revelation, I've always taken this particular passage as literal (although fully aware that it might be some sort of symbolism).

I think that it is important to remember the first verse (i.e., Revelation 21:1). It reads: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more" (ESV).

This verse clearly states that the first "heaven" and the first "earth" had (past tense) passed away by the time John saw "a new heaven and a new earth."

This "heaven" ("ouranos" in Greek) is used to refer to a physical "heaven" (i.e., physical realm/universe) or "sky" (e.g., Matthew 3:16 "the HEAVENS were opened," Matthew 6:26 "fowls of the AIR,") as well as a spiritual heaven (e.g., Matthew 5:12 "great is your reward in heaven," Matthew 5:48 "your father who is in HEAVEN," etc.).

So, the measurement for this new Jerusalem occurs in this new heaven and earth. Whereas everything that happens from Genesis 1 until Revelation 21 occurred in our current universal realm, the events of Revelation 21 occur in our new realm.

It is conceivable (and obviously not outside the ability of God) to create a new heaven and a new earth where 1400 mile high city is unfathomable to our earthly minds yet completely within the power of God in any new eternal realm that He creates.

Later in the chapter, John implies that there is no longer a Sun or Moon -- because the light comes from God (possibly like it was in the days of creation before the creation of the Sun and Moon.

I'm not discounting the possibility of a symbolic basis for this passage (or the notion that it is both symbolic AND physical). I just feel that the measuring rod is something just as tangible as the tongs of the altar used by the seraphim to atone for Isaiah's unclean lips in Isaiah chapter 6.

The book of Revelation is by definition a revelation.
Something that was hidden will be revealed.

Comment:

The Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1).

The Church is the Body of Christ and therefore the Revelation of Christ would also include His Body.

The scribes in Jesus day searched the scripture with rigour but alway got it wrong.

Comment:

It is because they would not see Jesus in the scripture and would not accept that the scriptures testify about Him

Thanks, Fletcher, for the explanation.

//It is conceivable (and obviously not outside the ability of God) to create a new heaven and a new earth where 1400 mile high city is unfathomable to our earthly minds yet completely within the power of God in any new eternal realm that He creates.//

Of course God could do it. But doesn’t a cubic city seem kind of "blah” not to say impractical? Just doesn’t seem like something God would literally do as a dwelling place for all eternity. Because if it’s a literal cube then people must literally live in it. Nah, it has to be symbolic of the perfection of the bride of Christ, as Jade has laid out. There is also description of streets of gold etc which does not make sense in the context of a cubic city.

If God mentiones measurements, then it cannot be an abstract thing.

If you struggle with the literal heavenly Jerusalem as described in Rev 21, how about the other wonders of God like creation, the flood, the 10 plagues, the passing through the red sea, Christ's crucifixion, the ressurection of the dead and Christs visible return to the whole earth for all men to see?

The heroes in Hebrews 11 endured all their trouble because they longed to enter this city you call "impractical" and even "blah". I would be very afraid to say such a thing.